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iPhone or Android? (Canada)
Rear Admiral Choco
I wanna be an owl, Jerry!Owl York CityRegistered User regular
I wanna be an owl, Jerry!Owl York CityRegistered User regular
So my dad's been looking at getting an iPhone for me since my current phone's contract is about to end, and he's able to get a good deal through work.
On the other hand, I've been looking at Android phones and the Galaxy Nexus seems pretty appealing.
Problem is, I basically have no idea what I'm doing with current smartphones. I have a Blackberry Curve that was outdated at the time I'd gotten it with no data plan. I've tried dinking around with the iPhones my sister and dad have been using, and they're really pretty rad, but at the same time I'd really like to try out an Android based phone. The most experience I've had with one is just trying out the touch interface on a friend's Sony Xperia phone, though, and honestly I don't have that much more with the iPhones other than helping hook them up on our wifi and punching in some numbers for them into their address book.
Mostly I guess I'm looking for a comparison on the iPhone 4S vs. the Galaxy Nexus. What do they offer that the other doesn't? Obvious things to consider are probably the apps, I guess? But I have almost no frame of reference for this stuff since this'll be basically the first smart phone I get with a data plan.
Knowing a good provider in east end Toronto probably helps too, but ultimately my biggest consideration is to be wary of everyone except for Wind, but then their network barely touches Scarborough and is spotty more or less everywhere.
On the other hand, I've been looking at Android phones and the Galaxy Nexus seems pretty appealing.
Problem is, I basically have no idea what I'm doing with current smartphones. I have a Blackberry Curve that was outdated at the time I'd gotten it with no data plan. I've tried dinking around with the iPhones my sister and dad have been using, and they're really pretty rad, but at the same time I'd really like to try out an Android based phone. The most experience I've had with one is just trying out the touch interface on a friend's Sony Xperia phone, though, and honestly I don't have that much more with the iPhones other than helping hook them up on our wifi and punching in some numbers for them into their address book.
Mostly I guess I'm looking for a comparison on the iPhone 4S vs. the Galaxy Nexus. What do they offer that the other doesn't? Obvious things to consider are probably the apps, I guess? But I have almost no frame of reference for this stuff since this'll be basically the first smart phone I get with a data plan.
Knowing a good provider in east end Toronto probably helps too, but ultimately my biggest consideration is to be wary of everyone except for Wind, but then their network barely touches Scarborough and is spotty more or less everywhere.
Rear Admiral Choco on
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iPhone has all the most popular apps and games, a better music playing system, and everyone thinks you're cool.
I'm currently in the same boat as you, only in the US. I really don't want to give up my free turn-by-turn navigation with audio, or my "emergency internet trick," free tethering without jailbreaking, but everything else about the iPhone is better, and all my friends are taunting me by playing hero academy without me and talking about it ALL THE GODDAM TIME. I get it. It's incredibly fun. Argh.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
Nerd blog at culturalgeekgirl.com
/thread.
Now consider the following:
- Your initial smartphone experience will probably be a lot more enjoyable and seamless if you start with an iPhone 4S right out of the gate. It really is a wonderful phone for helping to shape those critical first impressions and for maintaining interest in smartphones.
- At some point over the course of owning that iPhone, you might start to find that the experience or the hardware leaves something to be desired. Maybe you like to go a long time without having to recharge your phone, and the iPhone's regrettably short battery life really isn't doing it for you. Or maybe you lead an active lifestyle, and grow to dislike the idea that dropping or banging your phone on something just once can leave you out $500 CDN in resale value?
- That's where Android devices come into play. Whereas the iPhone is just one generalized tool, a handset designed to work OK for the greatest number of people, Apple still just offers the one phone. You're stuck with that hardware, for better or for worse. With the Android stuff, you can buy a device more specifically tailored to your needs. Just as a for instance, (and these aren't suggestions for new devices here by any means), one of my old phones was an LG Optimus P-500, which I would use for its legendary battery life. 5 days without a recharge! Using it constantly! With Wi-fi on at all times! Then, as I learned that I was the type to abuse my phones, I gravitated to a Motorola Defy, which has rubber gaskets over the ports to make it water resistant.
- But see, you're not going to definitively know if you need X feature in a phone or Y feature in a phone until you own a smartphone first. And that's something that the iPhone will help you discover. Owning one will help create that baseline for you.
- Lastly, if you ignore this advice and go with an Android device first (and you really shouldn't!), I should point out as a matter of due diligence that the battery life on the Galaxy Nexus is evidently pretty bad, so much so that Samsung has started to package an extended battery with the phone. Lastly--for reasons that will be evident to you later--make sure that if you get an Android phone, that it is on this list. You will thank me later.
Good luck with your purchase!
I actually have a Galaxy Nexus and I love it. It's really fast, has a great screen and ties in seamlessly with my Google account. As phones go it is the best I've ever used. It's been out for a while now though so you might want to think about waiting for the soon to be released Samsung S3. Also I have no issues with my battery as per the post above, there are plenty of free apps that optimise battery usage and some paid for ones that do it even better.
Looking at my friends, there are two driving forces that get you to buy android.
1) you for some reason are locked in an eternal struggle against the corporate giant that is apple computers.
2) it was cheaper.
If you want a phone that is trying new things and is pushing mobile OS's forward get a WP7, be aware though, it's app store is practically non existent. If you want a current gen phone I'd say buy an iPhone.
Satans..... hints.....
Pros: Fast, beautiful display, so far does everything I've thought of ("I wonder if there's an app that ____", these is), tethering is easy and works great in urban areas
Cons: Not at all tough. They advertise the Kevlar backing and Gorilla Glass front, but these are just bullshit sales tactics. I had mine for less than two weeks before I dropped it from my pocket while tying my shoe (~24 inches to the floor from the crouched position I was in) and the screen is now shattered, luckily it's only the top layer so it's still pretty clear and the touch features all work. I recommend an Otterbox case. Tethering doesn't work as well when I'm in the rural areas that are less than 3G, but it's still mostly functional.
Another bit I'm looking for, and this might be obscure enough that neither will help, but whichever OS might have applications that serve as good role-playing aids, mainly note-taking and such (I'd rather actually roll some real dice) would edge out. I suppose a good game selection doesn't hurt, either. Thinking as far as pure utility, I'm sure either is a good choice, but if there's one that does particularly well as far as entertainment goes that would be good, as well.
Part of the reason the Galaxy Nexus phone was so appealing was that I'd like to make use of the Google apps, but at the same time I don't really have a sense of whether it'd really be that much better.
WP7 is seriously good. Easy to pick up (has the user manual built into the phone as an app), just plain feels nice and is very different from the app-based Android/iOS system, has the 5-10 apps you'd want to download seamlessly integrated into the base OS, has free 25GB cloud storage, has the best app interactivity of any platform, and most of the phones have excellent hardware for the price. There is nothing bad about it. Half a million apps vs. 70,000? You're missing out on like 400,000 shitty apps, woohoo. Stuff that feels like an afterthought in iOS (multitasking) or Android (app interconnectivity) is designed into the OS from the ground up on WP7. It's loaded with cool shit and has next to no bloatware (and, on AT&T at least, you can just uninstall the bloatware with zero fuss).
And if you're a Mac person, Windows Phone Connector for Mac does everything for your WP that iTunes does for your iPhone. Except you didn't spend $200 extra for the Apple logo and worse hardware.
I turn in my phone every 3-4 months for a new one and the Windows Phone I had convinced me it's the next one I'm spending real money on, even though it wasn't a fantastic phone on paper (Samsung Focus). The OS is really that good.
Edit:
If Android/iOS are really your only options due to apps, your choice is going to vary wildly based on your carrier options. The Galaxy Nexus is nice, but ICS is coming to all of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones (S2, Skyrocket, and Note) in the very near future so that expands your options. You can get better hardware on other phones, and if your carrier doesn't offer LTE you can get far better battery life on other devices. HTC is also offering ICS upgrades on some devices as well as Beats audio, which I think is stupid but some people like.
Quite frankly right now there is no compelling reason to pick an Apple device unless you're dead set on having iCloud sync up your pictures between devices. Whenever Apple announces the iPhone 5 (and if it happens before 2013 everyone who got a 4S since October is going to be pissed) they'll be back in the game but Android and WP7 devices have leapt way ahead of the 4S in terms of what they can do.
I personally have a Galaxy Nexus and love it. But in the end it comes down to personal preference.
Granted the GPS stuff in it is great but the battery life is so crappy that it doesn't really matter. I find it takes forever to download emails. It hates connecting to wifi networks. Apps take forever to load as compared to my iphone. When I blutooth link it to my car the phone continues to play whatever music I had playing when I get out of the car - making me look like a massive douche with a mini boombox when I quickly hop out of my car.
Seriously, it's like the worst thing ever.
That said, the Galaxy Nexus is pretty much the best Android phone around. Android 4.0, the display, and from the reviews I've heard, the battery life is actually pretty good. Were I out of contract, I would be buying that phone.
iPhone
+Bigger app market
+Slightly more intuitive interface(although the gap here is shrinking rapidly)
-Walled garden. You really have to jump through hoops if you want functionality that Apple doesn't allow. Stuff like when they removed the Siri app from the app store when they launched it built in to the 4s to try and force people to buy new phones to use it comes to mind here
Android
+You can pretty much do whatever you want with it, flash your own roms, install free tethering, whatever
+The hardware specs tend to be better
-Fragmented platform, new phones don't always come with the newest version of the OS
-Poor battery life on some devices
I personally went with Android as I like the customization and I get into rom flashing and all that crap, and I like having a big screen. As for WinMo, I had a 6.5 phone and it was the worst mobile O.S. I'd ever used. They have made massive improvements since then from what I hear, but I can't bring myself to go back and try it.
Want it to work out of the box really, really well? iPhone
Want to have more control over your phone and the ability to make major changes to suit your tastes at the cost of time and research investment? Android
And others have echoed battery life issues, which is also true. Even more so if you get a 4G phone.
Android (phones I've owned: HTC Hero, HTC Evo 4G, Samsung Epic (Galaxy S)
Pros:
* Super customization friendly. Don't like your desktop launcher? Change it.
* Easy to jailbreak and install completely custom kernels and ROM's
* Very active OS development, open source
* Tons of hand sets. Lots of choice in terms of form factor, screen size, etc.
* Great app development environment, as Java >>>>> Objective-C (if you care about this)
* Google Maps GPS is free, good GPS on iOS costs money
Cons:
* Very active OS development (yes this is a pro/con). The OS can seem unstable at times.
* Every handset maker loves to bundle their crap-ware with the phone, leaving you with a couple of hours of clean-up after the unbox.
* Tons of hand sets (hey, another pro/con). The handset market for android is fractured as fuck, and every handset maker loves to take the OS and massage it their way, with varying levels of success.
* In comparison to iOS, the app store is a barren waste land. It's not Blackberry, but it's certainly not Apple.
iPhone (phones I've owned: iPhone 4, iPhone 4S)
Pros:
* Super stable. Open box, turn on, profit. Most features work exactly like you think they should in most cases, without having to touch any settings.
* Does most tasks, for most users, perfectly fine.
* Very stable, consistent OS updates.
* Well designed handset, sexy as fuck, just looks nice in your hand (if you care about this)
* Stupidly well stocked App store. Games, apps, you name it.
* Great media interop with iTunes for music and videos
* Display is down right gorgeous, even if it's slightly smaller than most Android phones
Cons:
* Closed system. Apple is the Alpha and the Omega. Some care about this more than others.
* Terrible development environment, requiring a Mac and the need to use a pretty crap language (Objective-C).
* No built in GPS app. There are several very very good ones for cheap though (I use MotionX Drive, it's 99cents plus 10 bucks for a voice nav subscription).
* No choice at all in handset form factor. If you don't like the feel of the iPhone, you're stuck.
* Battery life can be an issue, but really this should be a con for both platforms as ALL smart phones have battery issues.
My current phone is the iPhone 4S. In the end, I found "just works" to be a huge draw for me, even as someone who is a software engineer and works with technology all day. I loved my Android phones, but I haven't looked back since going iPhone. As a first time smartphone user, I think the iPhone really is the obvious choice. If you feel held down by the less open platform in a year or two, go Android.
I think Windows Phone 7 is a cool platform, and I've played with some of the phones...but if you want to talk about a barren wasteland app store, there you have it. I just don't think the eco system is there to support WP7 at the level iPhone and Android are supported. Smart phones are about way more than just the OS and the handset, they are about an eco system if apps and services. Without that extended eco system, it becomes much harder to recommend a phone platform.
e: In the interest of full disclosure, my initial switch from Android -> iPhone was about device consolidation. I had been carrying an iPod Touch and a phone for about two years, and was tired of it. I own around $2000 USD in music on iTunes, and the thought of converting all that music to MP3 was daunting...and illegal. So my only real choice was to go to an iPhone, which I haven't really regretted since.
Quoted for ditto.
Having a geek/coder "elite" phone is more bullshit of an image than the one people bitch about the iPhone for.
I want my phone to serve my needs, not use it to show how much smarter I am over the iPhone crowd blah blah blah.
The iOS App Store has a much wider selection of games. All of the unique games come out for iOS first, then maybe Android later.
Source: iPad and Android Phone ownership.
if not get a 'good' Android phone -- don't get an Android, get a good phone. Really, there's almost no reason NOT to get a Galaxy Nexus unless you happen to like another phone a bit more. Go to the store and try em out.
The included software syncs my Motorola Razr Droid music library with my iTunes playlists.
Content, purchased on iTunes, playing on my Droid Razr, right now.
MOTOCAST™: INFINITE ACCESS TO LIMITLESS LIBRARIES
The free MotoCast app from Motorola lets DROID RAZR stream your pictures, documents and music (including your iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists) from your home or work computers — virtually anytime, anywhere — so your content is always within reach. No uploading to a third party means no wasted time, and everything stays protected, right on your computer.
Right, but the songs you get from iTunes are more than just Apple Lossless, they are encrypted and locked to your Apple ID. It's why I can't give my wife songs from my Apple ID to her iPhone, unless I authorize her iPhone to use things from my Apple ID. It's why you even have to do the authorize BS with iTunes.
For the longest time, Android was worse than iPhone simply because it was poorly designed, even though it allowed for more freedom (courtesy of widgets).
With Android 4.0, however, that problem is alleviated. ICS is just as polished as iOS (if not more, I'd argue). I have a Galaxy Nexus and it's just fun to use.
You don't need to be some tech genius also tinkering with your phone to justify an Android. The GN is just as slick as the iPhone.
Plus, I find that more apps on Android are free. I've only bought two apps since I've had this phone, and they were little stupid games.
I also find that the larger screen on the GN makes for a much better experience. So yeah, in the end, I'd recommend getting the GN. Apple used to be so slick and cool to use. Now it's just excessively boring because the OS has remained largely the same since its inception (visually). Android allows more customization, has a better looking interface, and, in the case of the GN, comes with a superior screen (both in terms of size and technology used).
I also question just how "exciting" my phone home screen needs to be, or how much more exciting anyone can make tiled icon interfaces (which ICS still has)...but hey, everyone looks for different stuff in their phone.
I literally got 2.3 this morning.
That said, because of the ease of jailbreaking Android phones there are ways around it. I am positive you could fund a custom ICS ROM for your phone model adamb, if you're willing to do some jailbreaking, which is very easy with Android (generally only requiring your phone's USB drivers, the Android dev kit, and a provided root exploit).
Well, widgets are a big deal for me. Being able to quickly check my email/see the weather/read news headlines is fantastic.
Being a UX professional who designs for mobile I've followed the studies comparing the "user friendly" iPhone with Gingerbread-ICS. People chose IOS over Android on app to app preference tests but were far more successful achieving given tasks on Android. The easier to use phone was Android.
That said, I traded my iPhone for a Droid and my Droid for WP7 because WP7 has all the apps I need baked in and beautifully integrated.
Source?
I would avoid WP7 for the time being. MS will be rolling out a whole new ecosystem later this year and there will probably be new phones optimized for WP8.
Jail breaking is ridiculously nowadays.
Satans..... hints.....
That's usually true, but not always. Depends on the popularity of the older Android phone. Some of them are harder to mess with, and so the community mostly ignores them and goes for other phones. My old Devour was a phone that never even got a good root kit, because it came out at the same time as one of the Droids, which drew all the attention.