My 3 days with an iPhone 5

Feb 19, 2001
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I haven't really used an iPhone since the 3GS days. I do get to play with my friends' phones and frequently at the Apple store, but this is my first time back on an iPhone for myself.

So here's the background: My iPhone 5 is a work phone. I decided to get Verizon because people here love Verizon. I'm on AT&T for my personal phone because I love SIM flexibility. Plus, the VZW iPhone is globally unlocked so it's not like I can't go international either.

I rocked the SGS2 and iPhone 5 for the past 3 days. Well two really because on Sunday I left the iPhone at home (less bulk). So here goes my analysis:

1) Speed/fluidity: I'm on CM10 for my SGS2, and the hwcomposer is still broken, so I don't get Project Butter. However, CM10 is at least as smooth as CM9 if not a little better because the animations mask some of the lag. I honestly felt real good about my SGS2 on CM9 final. I felt better when they fixed the mem leak on CM10 and I hopped over. I told my iPhone friends they were stupid for being so overly amused by the iPhone 5 and that my SGS2 could do all those things and more (minus the awesome CPU/GPU).

But seriously when I picked up my iPhone, it was fast. Just fluid. 60 fps everywhere. I sold off my iPad like 7 months ago and it was just as fast. Now I remember how I felt last year with my iPad 2. Fluid, fast, no lag. Apps launch fast too thanks to the A6, but I've never been huge about app launching speed. Even if my SGS2 is a second slower, I dont realy mind. What gets me is fluidity. I think what was easily noticeable was Facebook. Android is slow as crap on that app. I seriously brainwashed myself and told myself that after the FB team finally upgraded the Android UI sometime early this year or late last year to have the same as the web UI and iOS UI that we finally had a relatively speedy app. I'd say the app was running 20fps or so tops on my SGS2. 60 fps probably on my iPhone. The difference was night and day.

I thought I was ok with my flipping through homescreens, but that's probably only 20-30fps tops on my SGS2. It's beautiful on the iPhone. Now I won't spend too much time bashing my SGS2 because you'll all say it's slow to begin with and I know the hwcomposer is broken. I don't have a GNex with butter so I can't comment. Maybe I'll expand on this section more once I get my LG Nexus 4.

But what I'd like to point out is the fluidity is awesome. For those who don't think it is, goign back and forth between these two devices is like night and day. I can overlook the fluidity issue, but it's not something you can outright ignore. It's always glaring, and it's whether you want to put up with it or not.

2) Apps/ecosystem: I wanted to say Android was there, and but there's still disparity. I thought the FB update a while back equalized things but the FB app is still better on iOS. There's a few features here and there that just make it better. Same with the Foursquare app. I mean what the hell. Come on.

I wouldn't say I'm at a huge disadvantage being on Android, but it does bug me Android apps are second rate. At the same time I do miss free apps on Android, so I couldn't play Angry Birds Star Wars, and I only had 1 game on my iPhone because I didn't want to pay. My other paid iOS apps are all iPad games :(

3) Customizability: This is where I LOVE my Android. I have my slider shortcuts to take me to the checkin screen of Foursquare in 1 step. In competing with friends and my gf, I can check in first. It's definitely harder on my iPhone.

I do have FB widget and Twitter timeline on my Android phone and a weather widget, a bookmarks widget, weather widget. These things are cool, but I honestly didn't find that I missed them TOO much on the iPhone. They'd be nice to have, and I think on my Android phone I keep more up to date with social media because I'm always a step away from seeing Facebook posts and Twitter posts all on one widget. I'm also able to FB/tweet with 1 click simultaneously.

But given how fast the FB and Twitter apps run on the iPhone I don't mind using it at all. In fact I like to use the iPhone sometimes just to kill time on the bus.

I actually wanted to add that customizability is a double edged sword. Yes you do get the benefit of controlling how YOU want your apps to be, but at the same time you go down that path of knowing that there is no perfection until you are able to tweak the hell out of everything. Problem is nothing is perfect.

Yeah I can get a custom keyboard on Android, but once I know I can switch a keyboard out I start commenting how A, B, C sucks about this keyboard or that keyboard. On iOS you have a good keyboard. Yes they could add Swype or whatever to make it better, but then you go down a nonstop path. I noticed that I haven't found a fully satisfying keyboard on Android, but if I were to compare the two keyboards I think SmartKeyboard Pro works pretty darn well, and in many ways I like typing it on it more than on my iOS keyboard. But can Smart Keyboard use more work even though I like it more than iOS? Yeah. So then I keep searching. But Swiftkey FORCES me to use things like space after picking a word and the stupid numpad instead of a row of numbers. I have zero choice in that. I did get a choice in keyboard, but I have no choice in how the app works. In choosing awesome prediction, I give up some customizability that I got in Smart Keyboard. In picking Swype, I lose a good tapping keyboard. There's tradeoffs.

With Apple, you learn to live with it. And the way I see it, as long as it doesn't totally suck, it's not that bad to compromise. Apple has blown it before though, so to compromise with no copy and paste is not acceptable, but thank goodness they fixed that. On the keyboard issue, to have one of the best tapping keyboards, but no ability to change it out is an ok compromise for me.

Back to Android though, because I'm able to customize, I feel that there's never perfection. First came Back Light Notifications on my SGS2. A kernel mod that lights up the backlights of the menu buttons if there's a notification. Cool. For a phone that had no notification lights, this is a huge upgrade. But I can't configure how I want my lights to behave. Now there's Lightflow. I can customize WHICH apps cause the BLN to activate, but I can't customize how they dismiss. I don't like how the lights are deactivated for Touchdown, or what I have to do to dismiss a BLN notification. Theoretically someone could code some notification that blinks only the back button or the menu button or whatever depending on the notification type. Then I'd have to deal with the bugs, the development cycle, etc. See it's a never ending path towards "perfection." I'm NEVER going to be satisfied. With iOS, I never have to worry about that.

4) Siri and Google Now: My experience is that for the tasks I wanted, Siri did it better.

When I got my iPhone on Friday, I decided to work from home. I was doing some chores and I wanted to see if it could tell me my next appointment. I asked "What's my next appointment?"

Siri: Let me check that, *takes a few seconds, searches* "Your next appointment is at blah blah at 3:30pm"
Me: Where is it?
Siri: Checking your events... your next appointment is at [insert location]
Me: Cool beans.

Meanwhile...

Google Now: *tries to create "apointment" at 4:30pm when I'm next available.
Me: Thanks idiot.

When I asked for the weather Saturday, Siri gave me the highs, the condition, and an hourly breakdown. Google Now gives you the same damn widget for any weather question. It shows you the forecast for the next few days. Great, but Siri gave me MORE information for the day. That's what I cared about. It was 10am and I wanted to know if a jacket was necessary given that I wouldn't realy be outdoors til 12pm. Maybe it'd warm up. Siri answered that nicely. And had I asked for the weather for the next few days Siri would give me that. Siri understands the question better and tailors her answers. Google Now is just an excellent Google tool.

Look I may have picked tasks that Google Now isn't good at, but I like that with Siri I can follow up with questions. I think both have a long way to go until they're truly indispensable tools, but to say Google Now trounces Siri is ridiculous.

Later on Saturday I wanted to find the Cal vs. Oregon score. Both phones failed. Ended up manually looking up ESPN.

So this is just talking about the voice search capabilities, but with Google Now I'm very happy with the cards. I find those cards very useful. It may be battery draining at times though, but it was nice to see my gf's flight pop up and tracking info for my package show up. I do question the battery use though because each data transaction is a wakelock.

5) Battery: On Saturday, I took both phones out. I checked in using my iPhone but I added the photo to my checkin using my SGS2. I also checked my iPhone more for surfing while riding the bus. I checked my SGS2 periodically for Whatsapp messages with my buddies to meet up though.

At 4pm my SGS2 was at 71% battery, and my iPhone was at 86%. I'd say I used both pretty equally. The SGS2 might've had more individual wakelock events, but I think the iPhone had longer on screen time. I played with my iPhone here and there but I believe I came back home with about 65% or so on Sat night after a heavy night of drinking. I left my phone at home the whole day at home with wifi on and I never entered my wifi pwd. So it was really on mobile data the whole time but maybe the wifi periodically scans. I found my phone Sunday night with 55% battery. Pretty darn good.

Today I was at work all day training. I spent the 15 min breaks surfing on my iPhone. I replied to an email on my iPhone. I chatted on whatsapp on my SGS2, though very sparingly. The iPhone definitely had more on screen time. Reception for both suck at work. I think its a building thing. At 5pm, SGS2: 32%, iPhone 64%. I think LTE vs 3G has a huge effect here. With bad reception, AT&T 3G is an issue and it's hard to complete tasks especially given Android PULLS data a lot. The iPhone uses less data and relies on push notifications purely.

iPhone is a winner on battery. I don't know how people can say otherwise. Maybe when you have both screen on and testing you might see Android close the gap, but when it comes to idle, which phones do a lot of, the iPhone is great. This is like how I can leave my iPad and check it every morning briefly, and use like 2% battery everyday only even while it's on wifi and fully receiving notifications. I don't think ANY Android tablet can do that.

6) Odds and ends: I noticed that my Android phone got emails faster than my iPhone on Exchange. Both were on mobile data the whole day. I felt them both vibrate in my pocket. The iPhone was up to 3 minutes slower, but at best it was 30 seconds faster. Most of the time the alerts came within 30 seconds of each other, but I found my SGS2 coming in first. Not sure why that is.

I hate Android's exchange capabilities but with Touchdown I'm able to set when quiet hours are and when to eliminate push and go to 6 hour pull. On the iPhone I get push notifications all day long, and even though I can silence alerts or whatever it's still wasting extra battery/data by having 24/7 push notifications. I don't need instant email after work. But it's not like you can even set that on Android unless you use a third party app.

I do miss the toggle widgets on my SGS2, but on my iPhone I found leaving wifi on or bluetooth even doesn't significantly impact battery, or at least not as much as on my SGS2. Apple probably uses conservative polling values.

7) Conclusion:

Overall I think I'm more surprised with the iPhone than I thought I would've been. It's a phone that I know is limited and you can easily find 300 more tasks Android phones can do, but at the end of the day do I need all that? I only need a few things here and there and apparently the iPhone does it all very well. It's not that big of a deal that it's missing customizability or rooting, or custom ROMs. The most important thing I learned about my iPhone is that it may be missing features here and there, but instead of worrying about how you can potentially gain a feature with a custom kernel, or rooting, or have a half broken feature with some custom ROM, you use what you have at your disposal and you use it to its full ability. The iOS devs are all busy making apps, not rooting or whatever. It's out of the box functionality that's great. With the SGS2 I find that I have to tweak so many things just to make it work well (BLN notifications, color curve, auto brightness curve, etc). In reality many of these tweaks may not be necessary, but since I'm so focused on them, I feel like my phone is always half finished and I'm dealing with a "beta product."

I'd say my SGS2 is probably a bit crippled because of the broken hwcomposer, and the fact that Exynos hasn't been the best developed platform. Maybe if I had a GNex I'd be in a better position to comment, but at the same time I do have a Nexus S running full butter CM10.

I probably can comment on things a lot more in the next few days if and when I do get my Nexus 4 to play around with.

Edit:

Another big point is screen. At 4" vs 4.3" it's not as big of a difference as it was before. I don't think the screen difference to me is that big of a deal with these two phones. I realize the iPhone is smaller, but I'm busy enjoying what it can do more than specs. I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much content because I don't get some large screen.

However, I will say the larger 4.3" in 840x480 aspect ratio (whatever that turns out to be) is great for the keyboard. While the iOS keyboard has great prediction and correction, it's much easier to tap the correct keys on my SGS2. I wish my SGS2's Smart Keyboard Pro had better correction and prediction, but it just has the right balance of customizability and being a good tapping keyboard that I'll stick with it.

I kind of do think whoever said the iPhone width is the perfect size is an idiot. I wish they went wider, to at least how wide the 4" Android screens were. Going 16:9 meant they should've tried 4.3" or something.

The SGS2 also has unfortunately been plagued with development issues. No screen color tuner exists. The Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S can be tuned to BEAUTIFUL colors. I say this because my Nexus S looks much nicer than my SGS2 in terms of colors, and even with Pentile, I'd take my Nexus S in terms of how the display looks. Now if the SGS2 were calibrated I think we'd have gorgeous colors. The iPhone 5's display is beautiful and is a great IPS panel. I can say it's miles better than my iPod Touch 4G which has a retina display, but lacks the IPS panel. I think the iPhone does a nice job with display brightness that even though its previous displays had horrible color saturation, you could still get nice pop with text and readable stuff. I feel like my SGS2's display is just so horribly tuned it's at a huge disadvantage.

So basically the bigger screen is nice but it isn't really a big deal which screen size I'm using. The IPS panel is beautiful, and I wish my SGS2 can be tuned to have better colors. A calibrated SGS2 would win hands down I think simply because human eyes tend to like oversaturation.
 
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zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
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I'm sure someone else is going to come in and say this so I'll say it, of course a brand new phone is going to be faster than a phone from over a year ago.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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I'm sure someone else is going to come in and say this so I'll say it, of course a brand new phone is going to be faster than a phone from over a year ago.
But do you think my review would totally change if I replaced the iPhone 5 with a 4S? Maybe the 4S does worse in battery life, but is it going to close the gap. Probably not.

Yeah app load times will be slower, but those aren't things I really pointed out on my SGS2. It's slower, but it's not a glaring thing. Smoothness is.

Anyway I pointed out my SGS2 is a bit crippled so it's not 100% fair, but I did note that this comparison will gain additional perspective once I get my hands on an LG Nexus 4.
 

Puddle Jumper

Platinum Member
Nov 4, 2009
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You do realize you could make all of the same comments about fluidity comparing the Nexus 4 or Note 2 to the Galaxy S2.

The fact that a significantly more powerful phone is faster is not terribly surprising.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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You do realize you could make all of the same comments about fluidity comparing the Nexus 4 or Note 2 to the Galaxy S2.

The fact that a significantly more powerful phone is faster is not terribly surprising.
Once again, if I compared against a slower phone like an iPhone 4S which is slower than my SGS2, what will change? The Galaxy S2 has a CPU 50% faster than the 4S. It's no slouch. I'm talking about MY experiences with Android and iPhone 5. I'm not a professional phone reviewer like Ananadtech, so no I'm not going to have all the latest gadgets on hand.

While if I had a LG Nexus 4, some things could change, I think other issues will still exist--such as siri vs google now.
 

Zink

Senior member
Sep 24, 2009
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Great comparison, the only complaint that the Nexus 4 will likely fix is fluidity and maybe some of the ROMing because it is a google phone.
For users buying phones on contract with overpriced monthly plans the iPhone is a great option. It's off contract with lower monthly rates that the 4S or iPhone 5 costs twice what a comparable Android phone does. Nexus 4 is $300 and GS2 is <$200 which is a huge savings, especially when upgrading phones every year.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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I agree with you like 90%, except that I could not learn to live with iTunes even after 2 years of "learning." (for instance, have you tried to connect to anything Apple from a Windows PC via Bluetooth.. ?) The disagreement has to lie with Siri v. Google Now. Starting with voice recognition, Siri simply wasn't a match for Google in my recent comparison.

But other than that, yes Apple has just about every advantage for now and it's reflected on the prices.
 
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Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
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Yeah you would have noticed the exact same in a 4S to GS2 comparison. Heck I moved from a 4S to a Nexus and notice it. iOS is smoother and in my experience more stable but like you said it's less customizable. The Nexus is good at certain things and the iPhone is good at others. But to be honest if Apple made a phone in the same size range as the Nexus I'd probably go back to iOS.
 

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,609
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So here's the question:
Would you switch from an Android device to an iPhone?

I'm guessing the answer is no, and its very likely the same reason I would say no to switching to Android. They're both perfectly capable operating systems but there's simply not enough to pull me from one OS to the other full-time. If you're already invested in an ecosystem, there's not enough day to day features that separate the two for most people to jump ship from one to the other. I enjoyed my time with a GNex, I really did, just not enough to ditch 4 years of the Apple ecosystem.
 

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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I agree with you like 90%, except that I could not learn to live with iTunes even after 2 years of "learning." (for instance, have you tried to connect to anything Apple from a Windows PC via Bluetooth.. ?)

Why do you need iTunes?

I've used my iPhone and iPad as a modem to a Dell with Bluetooth. What are you trying to do?
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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Well, if you could use your iPhone/iPad without touching iTunes.. You're blessed. I don't know how, but that's gotta be quite a feat.

Basically things boil down to the tired and old arguments of PC v. Mac, I guess. Oops, Nexus v. Apple.

But yeah I could definitely understand that you'd not want to switch over from a 4 year's worth of investment. Ironically for me, that's the reason for a switch that I am carrying out today, though. I'd like to get away from Apple ecosystem before I make any more investment.

P.S. You can stream MP3's with Bluetooth or use it as a remote for a PC, and you can use it as a poor-man's wifi (ad-hoc mode for file transfer, not personal hotspot, though it's capable of that as well). Haven't had any luck with iPhones/iPad personally for such functions.

It's just one example that came up to my mind at this moment. The bottom line is how much control I have over a hardware and software.
 
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saratoga172

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2009
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Thanks for the write-up. That takes time and effort. It still gives a nice comparison of one of the premier Android phones from a year ago compared to the new iPhone which is similar to the 4s with some enhancements.

I've got a 4s (work phone) on Sprint and a Galaxy Nexus (personal phone) on Verizon. Battery life is hands down better on the iPhone. It's not even fair to compare the 3g of Sprint to the 4g of Verizon so I'll leave it at that.

Between the phones, they are similar in terms of smoothness and responsiveness. My Nexus is running a custom rom and kernal with some minor tweaks. The 4s has only had OS updates (running 6.0.1) and nothing else. Completely stock.

With the Nexus I can run more and do more but it impacts the smoothness of the phone quite a bit. After about a week I notice I'll get a slowdown here and there. The iPhone is fairly smooth with almost no slow downs.

I do feel like I can do more with the Android and I've become accustomed to the interface but I love the simplicity of the iPhone. I just wish I could add in some toggles to the notification bar. It's really annoying going into the settings every time I need to toggle airplane mode (I travel a lot) or turning the wifi on or off.

Apps between the two are quite contrasting as well. It's hard to describe but the iOS apps just feel more polished. That's a really good word for it. They seem more well thought out and better developed/designed. Android apps feel more raw if you will. That's not to say they are bad.

I almost feel as if iOS is friendlier to apps than Android. And if that polished feeling is a benefit of the OS rather than the app being developed. As a whole they just feel a bit nicer. More of a slick interface.

The other big thing is the browser. The browser on the iPhone is light years ahead of Android. It's much smoother and renders pagers much more efficiently. Pages display much better in iOS than they do in Android.

Having said all that I'm not trying to praise/bash one or the other. Both are great in aspects over one another. These are just my experiences. I am fine with the browser on Android and use apps for most of my phone browsing. That negates my need for a 100% polished browser. If my GNex had better battery life it would last me much longer. I'm considering replacing it because I really need better battery life with things like Exchange mail syncing.

Looking at the Maxx HD or Razr M because I like Android. Or looking to go with Windows Phone 8 depending on battery life and integration with Windows 8. Still an outside look at the iPhone 5 but the price on them is so ridiculously high. And since I'm on Verizon it won't work with voice/data at the same time like mode Android phones. I use this fairly frequently.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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I agree with you like 90%, except that I could not learn to live with iTunes even after 2 years of "learning." (for instance, have you tried to connect to anything Apple from a Windows PC via Bluetooth.. ?) The disagreement has to lie with Siri v. Google Now. Starting with voice recognition, Siri simply wasn't a match for Google in my recent comparison.

But other than that, yes Apple has just about every advantage for now and it's reflected on the prices.
I think I'd feel very strongly against iTunes if I used my phone as a listening device. I do have an iPod Touch though but I wouldn't say it's really setup like my full MP3 library.

My Android phones have never had MP3s on them but that's mainly because Android's music player sucks. Furthermore, if I were to use an iPhone or Android phone exclusively, I don't see how I could listen to a good amount of music AND survive with battery. I'm not one to dock and undock my phone everytime I sit in my car too, so my iPod Touch stays hooked permanently. I think if we went back to phones that could last 3-4 days then sure I'd put MP3s back on. I had plenty of MP3s on my SE Walkman phones.

Yeah, iTunes does blow though, but for me to put a few nice playlists on it I'm ok with that. Plus, a lot of what I listen to are podcasts and electronica radio shows so it's not too hard to manage.

So here's the question:
Would you switch from an Android device to an iPhone?

I'm guessing the answer is no, and its very likely the same reason I would say no to switching to Android. They're both perfectly capable operating systems but there's simply not enough to pull me from one OS to the other full-time. If you're already invested in an ecosystem, there's not enough day to day features that separate the two for most people to jump ship from one to the other. I enjoyed my time with a GNex, I really did, just not enough to ditch 4 years of the Apple ecosystem.
Would I? I don't think so, as I'm buying a Nexus 4. But could I? I think I could. After the Nexus S came out and development for Android was a breeze I figured I could work with Android. When the SGS2 came out I became even more entrenched.

But at the end of the day what do I do with my phone? I chat with my friends via text, IM, whatsapp. I use social networking. I take photos and post them online. I check email both personal and work. I don't think anything I do is restricted to one platform. The unfortunate problem with Android is tweaking has NO LIMITS. It's taught me that I always want to tweak, and since there's no end, I always want the next phone.

I used Windows Phone 7 for over a month this past year. Did I survive? Yeah. I got all my texts, I was able to do social networking. I survived just fine. It's like would we all survive without smartphones? I think we'd do just fine too. But we've grown accustomed to things. I'm afraid of letting go of ROM flashing, but to be honest, it's not like I'll lose my job if I switch smartphone platforms because the iOS notification system sucks balls. Nor will I really lose out on much if I switched to a dumbphone.

It's really dumb but it's like my life was fine when I quit gaming. Everytime I pick it up I don't want to quit. Same with stupid online MMOs. I invest so much time and energy, and when I first start quitting it's sad, but a month later, who cares? I'm back to enjoying more of my free time, being able to go out.

That's why I said the customizability of Android is a double edged sword. I think it's made me waste a lot of time bitching on forums, working with devs, surfing XDA, testing custom software, etc. That's great and all, but I could also just enjoy my phone and never put up with customizing. I feel like all the time I waste with my phone could've gotten me a better job.

And that's the thing about iOS and WP7 users. I think they just focus on enjoying their device. So do Android users, but for tweakers like me, I think maybe it's an addiction I need to learn to let go of lol.
 
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bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,609
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Well, if you could use your iPhone/iPad without touching iTunes.. You're blessed. I don't know how, but that's gotta be quite a feat.

The thing that gets me is that I awalys hear how iTunes is such a negative when considering an iPhone, like it's some plague that's being forced upon you.. When I upgraded to an iPhone 4 in 2009, the only times I even used iTunes was for restoring my 3G backup, then upgrading to various iOS versions before iOS 5. I used it more with the 3G before iOS 3, but once iOS 3 hit, pretty much everything I needed to do I could do on my phone directly. I've not hooked up my iPhone 5 to a computer yet and I like it that way. In late 2008, I submitted feedback to Apple that the phone had to be more independent of a computer. I had just come off of Windows Mobile and I hadn't synced my Treo 700wx to a computer since I got it two years earlier. Same thing for most of my previous WM phones. The most time I spent with a phone hooked up was my PPC-6600 when I was really playing around with ROM's and such. I'm glad those days are behind me.

So I was just curious what you wanted to hook up to iTunes for. Odds are, there's a way around it you just haven't thought of.

Would I? I don't think so, as I'm buying a Nexus 4. But could I? I think I could.
Right. Of course you COULD. We could all switch to one platform or the other and get along just fine, most likely. I could live with a Nexus 4 just fine. Even now, the temptation to buy one today and switch to the $30 TMobile plan is REALLY strong.

The thing is, I just don't think there's enough in either OS to pull people who are entrenched from one side to the other. There needs to be a killer app or a killer feature that significantly seperates the platforms and encourgaes switching. I just don't think it's there for the vast majority of regualr people.

To that end, I think Apple and Google are competing more for people coming to smartphones from other outdated operating systems, or getting their first smart device.

So do Android users, but for tweakers like me, I think maybe it's an addiction I need to learn to let go of lol.

I feel ya. Thats how I felt when I transitioned off my HTC WinMo devices to the Treo. I just felt like I was done dealing with it. It required just so much effort for the phone to run properly day to day. I didn't get that feeling with the GNex, but I think I might with a different phone from Samsung or Moto. From my hands on with the RAZR M, it's a great phone, but the software is meh. Will have to reevaluate when the JB update finally filters through to my phone, as I'll have a good JB to JB comparison then.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,899
819
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Good review. I too have an iphone 5 from my job and have attempted to like it iver my personal SGS3 but I cannot. Maybe if I were to compare it to my 1.5 year old SGS2 I would like the iphone 5 more but when I compare my 2 phones the iphone 5 and IOS just feel and act way too dated. I have an iphone 3gs and an iphone 4 and I feel the iphone 5 is just more of the same. I blame IOS for not changing much it the last couple of years. I do listen to a ton of music so that leaves any iphone out for me as I just cant stomach the fact that after 10 years of ipods and iphones that you still dont have a real EQ in the player. That really puts me off. My SGS3 has 96GB of storage and most of it is music and movies which play just awesome on my S3. I use poweramp and the EQ plus bass and treble are just there. No going to settings at the homescreen. Why cant apple incorporate EQ or eve simple bass and treble into its music player? I want to love my iphone 5 but I just cant.

Ok, sorry to have semi-hijacked your OP! :) Your review is very well said.
 

MrX8503

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2005
4,529
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So far, I've been very satisfied with my iPhone. My biggest disappointment is how scratch prone it is. The iPhone 4 was incredibly scratch resistant and the 5 is the opposite of that.

I love the speed and battery life. The app library is also top notch. There's a lot of complaints about the OS, but it doesn't bother me. I'm willing to forgo functions if I can get a solid OS.
 
Jul 10, 2007
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Excellent and fair review.
In reading it, I learned how I'm not really using my smartphone to its fullest potential by not doing things like competing with my friends and gf to see who checks into social networking sites first.
I also feel very sad about my own life because I don't use apps like whatsapp to chat with friends, or go out on Saturday nights for heavy drinking.
I am now depressed.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,899
819
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Excellent and fair review.
In reading it, I learned how I'm not really using my smartphone to its fullest potential by not doing things like competing with my friends and gf to see who checks into social networking sites first.
I also feel very sad about my own life because I don't use apps like whatsapp to chat with friends, or go out on Saturday nights for heavy drinking.
I am now depressed.
I feel your pain brother!
 
Feb 19, 2001
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Excellent and fair review.
In reading it, I learned how I'm not really using my smartphone to its fullest potential by not doing things like competing with my friends and gf to see who checks into social networking sites first.
I also feel very sad about my own life because I don't use apps like whatsapp to chat with friends, or go out on Saturday nights for heavy drinking.
I am now depressed.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/blahblahyoutoo/loser.JPG
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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@Bearxor: Indeed, there are certain things I could do to do to protect my systems and networks. (Running iTunes in a sandboxed VM, for example) You see, iTunes comes with lots of other Apple stuff without explicit notice, and things like Bonjour service can mess up with a network setup. And updates after updates, it has become more difficult to separate the good from the bad (from my personal utility point of view)

I don't think there is too big of a gap among our opinions here. I largely agree with OP's excellent review as well as saratoga172's point about Apple being more polished overall.

But mobile (phone/tablet/ultra-portable) is now a very competitive market and it looks to stay that way for a while, and as a consumer I am glad to see such a fierce competition. And I do not expect the criteria that I make my decision on to be the same for others'.
 

Ne0

Golden Member
Nov 4, 1999
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So here's the question:
Would you switch from an Android device to an iPhone?

I'm guessing the answer is no, and its very likely the same reason I would say no to switching to Android** They're both perfectly capable operating systems but there's simply not enough to pull me from one OS to the other full-time** If you're already invested in an ecosystem, there's not enough day to day features that separate the two for most people to jump ship from one to the other** I enjoyed my time with a GNex, I really did, just not enough to ditch 4 years of the Apple ecosystem**

I have both the Note 2 & iPhone 5 (Business / Personal), i like both phones but if I was forced to choose just one, I would take the Note 2**