Longtime iPhone user goes Android for 4 months. Result? Back to iPhone

[MrX8503]

I agree that it's not an apples to apples comparison. Just pointing out that Apple gets to their desired battery life one way or another.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Conclusion:

Pre-ordering 4s on Friday. Since I'm not up for the contract discount, it's going to cost me $449 for the 16GB. Ouch. Considering how much I use my phone and how unhappy I am with my current device (HTC Inspire), I'm just going to bend over and take it. Lesson learned.

I'm very nerdy with lots of different things, but phones are something that I don't really screw around with. I just want them to work. Stability is extremely important. Apple, IMO, does a very good job of providing the features I want in a small, stable, attractive package.

Also I'm extremely excited about Siri and the new camera.

Absence of 4g doesn't bother me at all, as 95% of the time I've got wireless hot spots all around.

 

[zinfamous]

Conclusion:

Pre-ordering 4s on Friday. Since I'm not up for the contract discount, it's going to cost me $449 for the 16GB. Ouch. Considering how much I use my phone and how unhappy I am with my current device (HTC Inspire), I'm just going to bend over and take it. Lesson learned.

I'm very nerdy with lots of different things, but phones are something that I don't really screw around with. I just want them to work. Stability is extremely important. Apple, IMO, does a very good job of providing the features I want in a small, stable, attractive package.

Also I'm extremely excited about Siri and the new camera.

Absence of 4g doesn't bother me at all, as 95% of the time I've got wireless hot spots all around.

you really should have compared with a worthwhile android phone, because all of those things are currently available, and work very, very well.
the only thing the 4S camera may have going for it is some sort of crazy impressive glass, but we'll have to wait to see some reviews. they claim f2.4, but who knows. everything else about that "new camera" exists on several current Android phones....at much cheaper prices.

 

[Rottie]

I love comments that spew crap without any real knowledge. How about battery doesn't last as long because most android phones have over 50% more screen to power? When the screen is off... oh look, other things do pretty damn good.

Android's pain /w battery usually comes from no control over what gets installed, larger screens and faster CPUs. Of course an iphone is going to have longer battery life /w no widgets updating data, 50% smaller screen area and a slower CPU. A blanket statement like yours is just well... stupid.

now I can show my roommate this chart...I am glad I didn't buy a Samsung Epic 4G - 4.28 hours????

 

[Anubis]

Which made it a 2010 phone, sold without subsidy so poorly that Google scraped that sales model. The Droid was a VZW only phone, I only consider widespread hardware for comparisons so 2009 Apple dominated. The mass arrival of phones with SoC that could compete wasn't until Q2 2010 which then got beaten by the A4.
.

the main reason the nexus sold so poorly had nothing to do with it as a phone and 100% to do with it not being available on every carrier - this also hurts just about every phone, the Samsung SGS2 should have come out in june/july in the US, it would have crapped all over everything on the market. but no the carriers have to dick with the phones and basically make them worse then what they should be and delay them for months.

i really wish the android handset makers could just say F U to the carrier bloat crap like apple can

also one of the major faults of android or the makers of android based phones is that none of them advertise for crap

 

[zinfamous]

now I can show my roommate this chart...I am glad I didn't buy a Samsung Epic 4G - 4.28 hours????

that is not the Galaxy s II "epic 4G" Sprint model that was released 2 weeks ago, if that's what you're thinking. that's 1.5 year-old phone.

 

[Fire&Blood]

the main reason the nexus sold so poorly had nothing to do with it as a phone and 100% to do with it not being available on every carrier

That's what I said, "sold without subsidy". Google sold it online only at first, they later dropped that and plain admitted it was a bad idea for the US subsidized mindset and reluctance to buy a phone without getting hands on. T-Mobile discounted for new contracts only, not for extensions, there was a bunch of T-Mobile folks who would have extended for it. I even know of a few T-mo guys who went through the trouble of starting new accounts and cancelling them just to get the phone and there was detailed set of instructions on how to get it for $380 out of pocket cost.

Looking back, Android wasn't as mature as iOS and the N1 had way less incentive to be bought out of contract. Nowadays, the platform is more mature, the hardware it's selling is top notch. HTC was the first fully committed to Android, it took a while to see true high end from LG and Samsung. Not only were high end Android phones rare in the beginning, they were even harder to get in combo with the preferred carrier.

Looking at all the "cheap" plans out there, and reconsidering the platform and phone value, swiping a Visa for the Prime may not be a bad idea, if your carrier doesn't subsidize it. Definitely more value than the N1 or Nexus S and the state of Android back then. On the other hand, while the Prime has it's ICS and future updates to show off, other high end phones, all with almost identical specs, will launch for the holiday season so there may be equally good, subsidized phones available to substitute the Prime.

the Samsung SGS2 should have come out in june/july in the US, it would have crapped all over everything on the market. but no the carriers have to dick with the phones and basically make them worse then what they should be and delay them for months.

Absolutely. Though OEM's seem to prefer domestic and European market for higher profit margins and more outgoing carriers. In such a fast aging industry, losing 6 months is unacceptable.

But: If I'm Samsung, I would rather sell for top dollar directly to out of contract customers and to carriers who don't give a f... about putting bloatware on and delaying your release dates and updates roadmap in the process of adding and making sure that the bloat is ready for the next patch. As icing on the cake, these carriers don't even care if you have a tethering add-on or not.

There is also the physical bloatware that besides making the phone ugly, it adds time and cost to the manufacturing, as if I wouldn't know that the phone is on a network without the ugly logo printed. As a matter of fact, the US HD2 version is 1mm taller than the Euro. After closely comparing phones, I concluded that the height added was done just to fit the T-Mobile logo on top.

Allow me to rage for a second here: I want to line up those responsible for: stupid carrier stamps front and back and the accompanying color motive, cheesy booting animations, 20 uninstallable apps and ask them WTF are doing. The logical path to all these things the bloatware does and it's purpose makes it obvious that carriers think that I'm retarded and they need to remind me that I am on their network constantly in case I, God forbid, forget. You called it nicely, they are dicking around with phones. I want to slap anyone who dares to claim that the bloatware serves the purpose that the carrier imbeciles set out to do.

i really wish the android handset makers could just say F U to the carrier bloat crap like apple can

Hoping for it. Nexus phones and future Galaxy S versions may bring that about since they launch on all carriers, a device hot enough could force the carriers to drop the nonsense. at least hoping for it here.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Which made it a 2010 phone, sold without subsidy so poorly that Google scraped that sales model. The Droid was a VZW only phone, I only consider widespread hardware for comparisons so 2009 Apple dominated. The mass arrival of phones with SoC that could compete wasn't until Q2 2010 which then got beaten by the A4.

Assuming they stay with the yearly refreshes, I expect Apple to deliver with each new SoC. I'm not discussing iphone's indisputable appeal or it's sales, I believe it will keep selling even after the iphone5 but I'm focused on SoC's, not on iphone sales.

I maintain that Apple's SoC's were dominant. Sure, comparable SoC's could have been had but no one even reached until recently. The emergence of Exynos, marks a shift, the era in which a an iphone SoC can remain unbeaten for a year is over.

You do realize that A4 is a underclocked hummingbird with vastly inferior GPu right? Therefore the iPhone 4 was outclassed within a month of it's launch by the Galaxy S, that doesn't sound very dominant to me. Plus there is always the Tegra 2 powered Atrix that launched back in February and completely wiped the floor with a4.

 

[Fire&Blood]

You do realize that A4 is a underclocked hummingbird with vastly inferior GPu right? Therefore the iPhone 4 was outclassed within a month of it's launch by the Galaxy S, that doesn't sound very dominant to me. Plus there is always the Tegra 2 powered Atrix that launched back in February and completely wiped the floor with a4.

Galaxy S was, to put it politely, a turd. And Tegra 2 did beat the i4 but it took some time after the Atrix for Tegra 2 to become widespread in subsidized phones.

On the other hand, Android was handicapped on the software side until 2.3, amplifying the difference. Apple is more efficient than Android in certain areas. One of the Infinity Blade 2 designers let slip that the 4S has 512MB of RAM. I find that very impressive, that's the major benefit of a uniform platform.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Galaxy S was, to put it politely, a turd. And Tegra 2 did beat the i4 but it took some time after the Atrix for Tegra 2 to become widespread in subsidized phones.

On the other hand, Android was handicapped on the software side until 2.3, amplifying the difference. Apple is more efficient than Android in certain areas. One of the Infinity Blade 2 designers let slip that the 4S has 512MB of RAM. I find that very impressive, that's the major benefit of a uniform platform.

The Galaxy S was just fine, I've owed one for a year now and once you dump the worthless stock rom it is a great phone. Besides your opinion of the phone has nothing to do with the SoC's specs, Hummingbird and A4 use the same cpu core except Hummingbird is clocked higher and has vastly superior gpu performance. Saying that A4 was a dominant SoC couldn't further from the truth unless you ignore Hummingbird and Tegra 2.

How is it impressive that the iPhone 4s has 512mb of ram, I would call cutting corners.

 

[Tom]

This thread isn't going to end well. . .

Everyone knows that Android is an excellent OS, but has such variation between handsets that saying Android is inferior because you used one single device makes you look like an idiot. iPhones are the same, if you've used an iPhone, you've used an iPhone. If you've used an HTC Sense device, you've used a VERY different device than a Motorola with Blur or a Samsung with TouchWiz, or a vanilla device, even though they all run Android 2.2.x or 2.3.x

Most of the problems people complain about with Android phones are entirely related to the manufacturer UIs and carrier bloat, not the OS.

most people buy one phone, they don't need to buy 12 different iphones to finally get a good one..

 

[Tom]

The Galaxy S was just fine, I've owed one for a year now and once you dump the worthless stock rom it is a great phone. Besides your opinion of the phone has nothing to do with the SoC's specs, Hummingbird and A4 use the same cpu core except Hummingbird is clocked higher and has vastly superior gpu performance. Saying that A4 was a dominant SoC couldn't further from the truth unless you ignore Hummingbird and Tegra 2.

How is it impressive that the iPhone 4s has 512mb of ram, I would call cutting corners.

it's impressive because it doesn't need more than that to be the best smartphone.

 

[zinfamous]

it's impressive because it doesn't need more than that to be the best smartphone.

is it the best smartphone? You say that as if it actually exists and testing, real-world use has confirmed such. lulz.

I love this OP, though:

--Hrm, my quad-core powermac running gazelle (or whatthefuckever the latest service pack OS X is called) is on the fritz, I'll go try a windows PC in the meantime, maybe I'll like it!

1 week later:

--Boo! this Pentium II running Windows 98 is crap compared to Apple! fuck this, all Windows PC is garbage and useless!

 

[Tom]

is it the best smartphone? You say that as if it actually exists and testing, real-world use has confirmed such. lulz.

I love this OP, though:

--Hrm, my quad-core powermac running gazelle (or whatthefuckever the latest service pack OS X is called) is on the fritz, I'll go try a windows PC in the meantime, maybe I'll like it!

1 week later:

--Boo! this Pentium II running Windows 98 is crap compared to Apple! fuck this, all Windows PC is garbage and useless!

Best in that more people buy it, more people want it, and more people love them, than any other phone.

 

[Red Storm]

Best in that more people buy it, more people want it, and more people love them, than any other phone.

Please, enough with the fanboy talk. You sound like an advert.

Best smartphone is an opinion. One I disagree with, but that's just my opinion.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Best in that more people buy it, more people want it, and more people love them, than any other phone.

How can you say any of that about a phone that isn't for sale yet?

(The post you quoted was talking about the iPhone 4S)

 

[WelshBloke]

Best in that more people buy it, more people want it, and more people love them, than any other phone.

So android is the best mobile operating system and Windows is the best desktop operating system?
:sneaky:

 

[Binky]

So android is the best mobile operating system and Windows is the best desktop operating system?
:sneaky:

D'oh!

 

[cheezy321]

So android is the best mobile operating system and Windows is the best desktop operating system?
:sneaky:

Android is the most popular mobile operating system
Windows is the most popular desktop OS
iPhone is the most popular smartphone.

/\ this is true, best is subjective

 

[WelshBloke]

Android is the most popular mobile operating system
Windows is the most popular desktop OS
iPhone is the most popular smartphone.

/\ this is true, best is subjective

Yep, thats the point I wanted to make.

I know you got that from my post but I just wanted to reiterate it.

There is no "best" phone or OS its what suits your specific needs.

 

[zinfamous]

Best in that more people buy it, more people want it, and more people love them, than any other phone.

um.

OK.

 

[zinfamous]

Android is the most popular mobile operating system
Windows is the most popular desktop OS
iPhone is the most popular smartphone.

/\ this is true, best is subjective

:thumbsup:

 

[Tom]

Please, enough with the fanboy talk. You sound like an advert.

Best smartphone is an opinion. One I disagree with, but that's just my opinion.

I'm not a fanboy, do you dispute the three things I said ? You can dispute those are reasons to call it the best smartphone, but which of the three things I posted aren't facts ?

Of course it's an opinion, didnt think I had to state the obvious. It isnt the phone I have, or even the one I want.

but it is a helluva phone, a person would have to be completely biased not to agree that's true.

 

[Tom]

all you peeps wanting giant cell phones makes this old guy think of this..

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/372678895/hands_free_big_number_telephone_for/showimage.html

 

[wheresmybacon]

you really should have compared with a worthwhile android phone, because all of those things are currently available, and work very, very well.
the only thing the 4S camera may have going for it is some sort of crazy impressive glass, but we'll have to wait to see some reviews. they claim f2.4, but who knows. everything else about that "new camera" exists on several current Android phones....at much cheaper prices.

I don't doubt Android could have fit the bill had I done more research and spent more money when my contract was up. I was just a bit rushed and enamored with huge screens and a price tag of only $49.

Strangely enough, I feel a bit like my Dad with regard to technology in general when it comes to phones: "don't give a shit, just want em to work." It's unlike my attitude toward other computer hardware in every way, but there comes a point where I have to draw the line with regard to how much I allow myself to care about performance and numbers and analyses otherwise. I just know I was very happy with the iPhone for 4 years, and I'm willing to pay a premium to go back. And the effort and time required to find that Android I'd be happy with...yeah it's just easier to go back and get what I know works for me.