iPhone user to Android User, my thoughts after a week

[QuantumPion]

On my Droid I have an option in my sound settings that let's me decide if I do or don't want the media volume to be muted whenever I put the phone on vibrate/silent. Might want to check there?



You said it was on wifi though, so no data would be using the poor cell signal. Even in a worse case scenario, 1 hour battery life tells you that something else is up.

It was 1 hour to go to low battery 30% warning. And that was 1 hour of playing games, web browsing, sending txt's, etc over wifi, while the phone signal was poor. The battery meter said 95% of the power usage was Android OS and Display. I'm not lying or exaggerating here. I'd love to demonstrate it again but I already returned the device.

 

[Red Storm]

It was 1 hour to go to low battery 30% warning. And that was 1 hour of playing games, web browsing, sending txt's, etc over wifi, while the phone signal was poor. The battery meter said 95% of the power usage was Android OS and Display. I'm not lying or exaggerating here. I'd love to demonstrate it again but I already returned the device.

I didn't say you were lying nor do I think you were. I just think there may have been actual problem with your phone's battery or something. 🙂

 

[snikt]

I didn't say you were lying nor do I think you were. I just think there may have been actual problem with your phone's battery or something. 🙂

I agree. Here's my stats on my intl. SGS2

With moderate use for me, I get approximately 24 hours on a single charge. When I initially got the phone and gave it a full charge, then afterwards started playing with the phone's settings, TW, some apps, etc., I probably got about 3-3.5 hours. It wasn't after until I cycled through a few discharges and charges that I started hitting 24 hours of battery life.

 

[gorcorps]

I agree. Here's my stats on my intl. SGS2

With moderate use for me, I get approximately 24 hours on a single charge. When I initially got the phone and gave it a full charge, then afterwards started playing with the phone's settings, TW, some apps, etc., I probably got about 3-3.5 hours. It wasn't after until I cycled through a few discharges and charges that I started hitting 24 hours of battery life.

Was the phone actually dying at 3-3.5 hours, or did you just see the low batt icon and start charging it? I say this because from my experience the battery stat is horrendously inaccurate at times, and has a "learning curve" before it's anywhere close. Even with a lot of cycles, sometimes my phone will say I'm at 30% by the afternoon and if I reboot the phone it'll jump to 60% and it'll be accurate from there. This is on an Atrix. If I don't reboot then the phone will just drain very slowly from 30 to 15% or lower... or at times just hold at a single number for a while. Just saying I wouldn't always trust that meter even though it's really the only thing telling you how much juice is left. I just don't find it reliable at all.

 

[NaOH]

I just wanted to throw my .02 in here.

As a 5-year Windows Mobile user that switched to iPhone in 2008, everything I hear about Android is just reminiscent of those dark, dark WinMo days. It's all 'load this custom ROM and if you don't like that, then just keep trying different ones until you find one that is the balance of speed and stability you need!'

No thank you. When I first started using WinMo phones I thought it was fun but eventually I just wanted something that worked, which is why I stuck with my Treo 700wx so long. My blanket ban on HTC devices comes from the WinMo days. HTC was always good at hardware, but terrible, terrible software coding.

But, to fast forward to more recent times, every time I use a Android device it just doesn't FEEL right. There's just something off. It's not as elegant. Not as fluid. It's hard to even explain in words. It's just so... off-putting. The thing is, I yearn for something different. I've been looking at the same screen of 4x4 icons for the last three years and I WANT something different.

If today were 2008 and there were Android and WP7 devices around then too, I don't know which direction I might have gone. Probably WP7. I reexamine my iOS loyalty every time I go to buy a new phone. I've decided to upgrade to a 4S when my eligibility hits in December. I want to go another direction, but neither alternate platform offers enough to make me walk away from 3 years of the App Store ecosystem. Maybe next year...

I feel ya man. There isn't enough time in the day for me to dick around with getting my phone to work to my liking. Especially when I need it for work. I did a lot of that rom flashing back in winmo days and it does feel like the same thing is happening now. But it's cool, people can tinker if they want, they just need to realize that not everyone who picks the easierto use phone is an idiot. I'd rather simplify this aspect of my life.

 

[Red Storm]

I feel ya man. There isn't enough time in the day for me to dick around with getting my phone to work to my liking. Especially when I need it for work. I did a lot of that rom flashing back in winmo days and it does feel like the same thing is happening now. But it's cool, people can tinker if they want, they just need to realize that not everyone who picks the easierto use phone is an idiot. I'd rather simplify this aspect of my life.

I use Android because it let's me simplify things even further, and I'm not rooted or running a custom ROM. Though I do get the appeal of a basic UI that's already setup and ready to go.

 

[hellfire88]

I get 2days+ of battery life on my Blackberry Torch 9810 with moderately heavy use (emails, texts, gchat, web browsing etc)....just saying 😛

 

[kyrax12]

Whatever you decide to do, please do not get a crappy Android phone like this OP did and base your views of Android on that.

iPhone5, Samsung Galaxy S II, and Nexus "whatever they will call it" should be the only thing on your radar.
Forget all other crappy Android phones.

What about the upcoming Motorola Atrix 2 and the Samsung Captivate slide?

I also heard the Samsung Galaxy SII has really bad battery life. Anyone want to provide more insight into this?

 

[Anubis]

What about the upcoming Motorola Atrix 2 and the Samsung Captivate slide?

I also heard the Samsung Galaxy SII has really bad battery life. Anyone want to provide more insight into this?

unless the US carriers fed something up the SGS2 gets good bat life

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/18

 

[Hadsus]

Everyone who owns an android already has an iPhone. We call it our app drawer. 🙂 Lest you think I'm an Android snob, I'm typing this from my iPad.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'll get to see first hand in about a week. Going from an EVO to a 4S. Changing from Sprint to VZW though so the comparison may not be completely fair.

To be honest, one of the first things I'm looking forward to is seeing what it's like to not have to worry about plugging my phone into the computer by lunch time.

 

[Hadsus]

Androids have a real desktop with active widgets....which is why is sucks up battery. And some phones are better than others. I have a droid X and it doesn't need a charge all day unless I'm playing with it all the time. And if you have to charge it up by lunch either you're on it all the time or you have GPS constantly on and/or a poor signal area. Lots of possible reasons but battery juice shouldn't be an issue. Not to mention, iOS asks so little of it's resources because it is at it's heart, an app launcher. And the interface gives you no processor/signal generated information (widgets for android vs. icons for iOS).

 

[Anubis]

Androids have a real desktop with active widgets....which is why is sucks up battery. And some phones are better than others. I have a droid X and it doesn't need a charge all day unless I'm playing with it all the time. And if you have to charge it up by lunch either you're on it all the time or you have GPS constantly on and/or a poor signal area. Lots of possible reasons but battery juice shouldn't be an issue. Not to mention, iOS asks so little of it's resources because it is at it's heart, an app launcher. And the interface gives you no processor/signal generated information (widgets for android vs. icons for iOS).

this is true, run your phone with only 1 home screen no widgets and just a bunch of icons and see what it does to your bat life

 

[Hadsus]

If you don't like widgets you're really better off with the iPhone. I slap the smack on Apple but their apps are outstanding. I'm a tower defense addict and there are ton to play on the iPad. The stock and financial apps are also great. But for gosh sake kiss and make up with Adobe because no flash is beyond ridiculous.

Sent from my DROIDX running SSM-602 V3 using Tapatalk

 

[cheezy321]

Androids have a real desktop with active widgets....which is why is sucks up battery. And some phones are better than others. I have a droid X and it doesn't need a charge all day unless I'm playing with it all the time. And if you have to charge it up by lunch either you're on it all the time or you have GPS constantly on and/or a poor signal area. Lots of possible reasons but battery juice shouldn't be an issue. Not to mention, iOS asks so little of it's resources because it is at it's heart, an app launcher. And the interface gives you no processor/signal generated information (widgets for android vs. icons for iOS).

The average consumer doesn't give a crap what drains their battery life. They only care when their phone is about to die after a day of moderate use. Either way, android has a lot of catching up to do in this area. You can't use the crutch of widgets forever.

 

[Oyeve]

this is true, run your phone with only 1 home screen no widgets and just a bunch of icons and see what it does to your bat life

I have no active widgets, just regular apps icons on my vibrant and the battery never lasts more than 18 hours before it bitches about needing a charge. Unless widget/icons on my android just suck juice.

 

[poofyhairguy]

--volume control. the SGS2 volume control is schizophrenic and a pain to manage. The silent mode doesn't really silent anything. If you bump a volume button then you are no longer in silent mode any more. Furthermore - and this is hugely lame - the silent mode doesn't silent "media", e.g. music or apps. Only alerts and rings. So even if the phone is in silent mode, if you start up an app it will blare out at whatever the previous volume level was out of the speaker. There's no way to reduce the volume or even know what it is at any time before the sound comes out - apparently you can only change the media volume while something is playing.

I had the same issue on my switch from a 3GS to a SGS2. I found a free app called "Mute" that fixed the problem for me.

 

[Hadsus]

The average consumer doesn't give a crap what drains their battery life. They only care when their phone is about to die after a day of moderate use. Either way, android has a lot of catching up to do in this area. You can't use the crutch of widgets forever.

I can check stocks, baseball scores, calendar events, my twitter feed, weather forecast and radar, all my recent emails for all accounts on one widgeted list in just a few seconds by scrolling through five home screens. And quite smoothly. You have to launch an app each time. That's not a crutch, that's simply pure goodness you can't experience on an iPhone.


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