Stick with Android or shift to iOS?

[gino_76ph]

Hi.

Had Android phones for the past 3 years. My very recent one is a Galaxy S3 LTE. Never had an iPhone although i had an old 4th-gen iPod Touch, Ipad 2 & an iPad mini in the past.

I'm stuck with staying with Android or shifting to iOS.

I love listening to music. I love transferring files without those fiddly softwares to use (iTunes or Kies). I like creating playlist, editing a playlist and deleting songs on a playlist on-the-fly. A solid, crisp, loud, clear music is a must. Listened to an iPhone 5C at an Apple Retail store and was quite underwhelmed by the soft & tinny (read: not so loud audio output). Galaxy phones like the S4 seems ok but is too expensive.

Also, like taking photos on my phone. A very quick opening of the app, a quick shutter speed, a good low-light capability and a very quick burst mode is what i'm looking for.

So, now i'm stuck with choosing between an iPhone 5 or the Xperia SP. S4 is out because its expensive. Don't like the HTC One as the camera is rather underwhelming. The Xperia Z is just way too big. A Lumia WP8 is good but with lack of apps (and games) i must say no.

Any advice please?

 

[openwheel]

based on your preference in music consumption. Android is the way to go.

 

[gino_76ph]

But if we are to consider not just music consumption (i listen to both .mp3 & .flac files. Consumption is not an issue as there are loads of apps on both platforms that i can download anyway) but also music quality/sharpness/loudness and the speaker output as well...will it be the Xperia SP or the iPhone 5?

And how about the camera? Does many options on a camera on the SP outweigh that of the iPhone 5?

 

[gruven]

Honestly a Windows phone sounds like what you are wanting, but what apps are you missing? I have not experienced any apps missing that I wanted on the WP8, but everyone's app requirements are different.

Also, WP8 has a hefty amount of games available, including quite a few exclusives.

 

[gino_76ph]

Made my own research a few days ago on this and currently 6 out of 10 of my Android apps have a WP8 alternative.

Games is also essential. 3 out of 10 of my Android games are not there. And i only have around 3-5 games on my S3.

 

[s44]

Are you in the US?

I would sell the S3 and get a S4 off Swappa.

 

[gino_76ph]

I'm in the UK.

 

[gruven]

Made my own research a few days ago on this and currently 6 out of 10 of my Android apps have a WP8 alternative.

Games is also essential. 3 out of 10 of my Android games are not there. And i only have around 3-5 games on my S3.

Fair enough. I don't know much about the cameras on the Android phones, but in the time I had android and iPhones, I actually preferred the iPhones because they just worked, although I hated iTunes.

If it weren't for iTunes, I would say go with an iPhone, but it sounds like you should just stick with Android.

 

[sgrinavi]

Sounds like you answered your own question....

You went to the Apple store and didn't like the offerings
You looked at WP8 and decided that your "essential" (LOL) games aren't available.

So go get another Android phone and be happy.

 

[Crono]

I don't know what cameras you are comparing the HTC One to that you would find it underwhelming. It's competitive with the other Android phones and iPhones in daylight, and it's better than all of them in low-light. Only the Lumias can beat it in every category.

 

[mikegg]

Hi.

Had Android phones for the past 3 years. My very recent one is a Galaxy S3 LTE. Never had an iPhone although i had an old 4th-gen iPod Touch, Ipad 2 & an iPad mini in the past.

I'm stuck with staying with Android or shifting to iOS.

I love listening to music. I love transferring files without those fiddly softwares to use (iTunes or Kies). I like creating playlist, editing a playlist and deleting songs on a playlist on-the-fly. A solid, crisp, loud, clear music is a must. Listened to an iPhone 5C at an Apple Retail store and was quite underwhelmed by the soft & tinny (read: not so loud audio output). Galaxy phones like the S4 seems ok but is too expensive.

Also, like taking photos on my phone. A very quick opening of the app, a quick shutter speed, a good low-light capability and a very quick burst mode is what i'm looking for.

So, now i'm stuck with choosing between an iPhone 5 or the Xperia SP. S4 is out because its expensive. Don't like the HTC One as the camera is rather underwhelming. The Xperia Z is just way too big. A Lumia WP8 is good but with lack of apps (and games) i must say no.

Any advice please?

Why don't you go with an iPhone 5S? If you like taking pictures and want a good phone, then it's a no brainer.

 

[Rottie]

Stick with Android….iOS is not your best friend anymore.

 

[alkemyst]

What's your budget?

My iphone plays music and takes pics great.

I am giving a rooted Nook HD to my kid on his 11th birthday in October.

 

[gino_76ph]

Budget might be irrelevant in this thread but what i'll say is i have GBP400 to play around.

I can't afford an iPhone 5S (and because i'm not due for an upgrade) i have to say No. I know those Lumia WP8 phones are really all-rounder camera phones but the lack of apps are hindering my purchase. HTC One is also out of the question as they are only good in low-light conditions. And most of my photos are taken during daytime.

What i found about Sony is they seem to update their phones more often than the others even if its just some minor updates. I could be wrong though. Perhaps this is very region-dependent.

 

[WelshBloke]

... Galaxy phones like the S4 seems ok but is too expensive...

... S4 is out because its expensive.

... Budget might be irrelevant in this thread but what i'll say is i have GBP400 to play around.

You can get a new S4 on Amazon UK for about £400.

 

[gino_76ph]

I'll keep my money as i'm waiting for the blue version and a slightly improved/faster version of the S4.

 

[samowl]

The iOS is good. But since you are not satisfied with the music quality on it, after hearing it first hand, then maybe you should choose android. As you say, the WP8 is good. And it definitely does not have a collection of apps anywhere close to that of android. But it is slowly, but steadily building it's collection and if you like a lumia, it won't be all that bad to consider one. If you are not convinced, don't think too much and stick with an android.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

if you hate itunes, stick with android. i switched from ios to android and will never EVER go back to that POS software.

 

[redhotiron2004]

If xperia Z is big then why don't you consider xperia ZR?
It's much smaller with the same specifications as the Z. And is water proof. Something even the iphone don't have.
Windows phone is good! What....? Since when a widows phone had become good?
There were all kinds of stupid limitations concerning the bluetooth etc. The last time I checked it out. Nokia decided to support it and is now out of business. )

Android have opensourced much of it's codes. Which makes it extremely versatile. Samsung, lg, sony, htc etc-2 features have easily been ported to each other. It's a win-2 solution for the end users.

Windows on the other hand is solely developed my microsoft. It's exclusive and doesn't provide any versatility.
Same goes for iOS. Just that they are atleast innovative. But, falls short of providing android solutions almost for free.
Go for android anyay. Nothing beats it. Even if the apps for windows becomes the same still. Windows mobile is a far cry from the freedom and capability provided by android.

I am using beats audio from HTC on my 2011 sony ericsson xperia pro with the latest sound technology from 2013 sony lineup(clear phase, clear stereo, xloudetc). Can anyone here beat that kind of flexibility!

 

[gino_76ph]

If WP8 has the same amount of apps right now as that of Android then i will get a Lumia phone no questions asked. Why? Because i now get that flexibility and versality same with Android. But its not the reality today. My bank doesn't even have a WP8 app. Even a 3rd-party phone service (similar to Skype) is not on the Marketplace. That bald guy from MS said it himself that he should have forseen the explosion of mobile devices 3-5 years ago. Now look where are they now. And look where is Google now.

At the moment im geared towards Android with the Xperia SP. The Xperia ZR is not officially available yet in the UK and although its a 4G-ready phone i'm not even sure if my network (EE) would "support" it. Specs look awesome though.

If the iPhone 5/5C has at least a 4.5" screen and iTunes allows full drag n drop of files (and a bit more opneness in their software) then i'll get an iPhone. If Windows Marketplace has almost the same number (and quality of their) apps as with the Play or App store then i'll get a Lumia 925 or 1020 even.

In my opinion being innovative doesn't equal openness. Openess brings innovation.

 

[zaydq]

I don't quite get how the HTC one camera is underwhelming? I find the photos it produces are better than my iPhone 5.

 

[pakotlar]

I've owned one iPhone (3GS) and one Android device (Galaxy Note II), and have played a few other apple & google (OS; motorola droid og, x, 2, google nexus) products.

My next product will be apple, fwiw. Android devices imo cannot compete in several areas that are key to me, such as aesthetics (overall cohesivness), performance, app quality, stability. In particular the touch experience on android bothers me, way too much latency between touch & output for trivial tasks.

That's just my opinion though. In any case, with ~stock android 4.2 the experience isn't bad. I've done my best to take the (imo) bad experience that is Note II on touchwiz and turn it into a stock google experince. From what I can extrapolate stock Google experience is pretty good. Not as good as the apple experience in the metrics that are important to me, but good. I think a low-latency Nexus 5 compared compared to an iPhone 5s would be a tough choice. Easier choice if 5s was offered at 4.7inch + (maybe even 4.5).

My biggest takeaway that what carriers + manufacturers do with the Android os is a travesty. They really fuck it up, at least samsung does. I hate waiting a year for an incrememental update (where the hell is TW 4.2 or 4.3), and i'm guessing it gets worse with major releases. I hate the carrier bloat, uninstallable apps, redundant apps to compete with Google's better apps (Sasmung S-voice, S-calendar), it just feels like the consumer is dead last when it comes to experience.

 

[zaydq]

I've owned one iPhone (3GS) and one Android device (Galaxy Note II), and have played a few other apple & google (OS; motorola droid og, x, 2, google nexus) products.

My next product will be apple, fwiw. Android devices imo cannot compete in several areas that are key to me, such as aesthetics (overall cohesivness), performance, app quality, stability. In particular the touch experience on android bothers me, way too much latency between touch & output for trivial tasks.

That's just my opinion though. In any case, with ~stock android 4.2 the experience isn't bad. I've done my best to take the (imo) bad experience that is Note II on touchwiz and turn it into a stock google experince. From what I can extrapolate stock Google experience is pretty good. Not as good as the apple experience in the metrics that are important to me, but good. I think a low-latency Nexus 5 compared compared to an iPhone 5s would be a tough choice. Easier choice if 5s was offered at 4.7inch + (maybe even 4.5).

My biggest takeaway that what carriers + manufacturers do with the Android os is a travesty. They really fuck it up, at least samsung does. I hate waiting a year for an incrememental update (where the hell is TW 4.2 or 4.3), and i'm guessing it gets worse with major releases. I hate the carrier bloat, uninstallable apps, redundant apps to compete with Google's better apps (Sasmung S-voice, S-calendar), it just feels like the consumer is dead last when it comes to experience.

Really? Coming from an iPhone 5, I haven't had many qualms with Android's touch response. I think you more so have a problem with Touchwiz than Android itself. Bbesides, I actually find Android to help me keep better organized and have my phone suit my needs to the tee, unlike my iPhone. I had to jailbreak and spend hours on hours to get my iPhone customized to how I want it. With Android, I've been able to organize my needs a lot faster and its proven to me that it actually makes me more efficient with my organizational skills and productivity.

I loved my iPhone, and switching to Android made me nervous that all these latency issues, fragmentation, incompatibilities, would make me crawl back... But in reality, none of these supposed issues turned out to carry any merit and I can't see myself looking back to Apple.

Also, HTC made it super easy to port everything from my iiPhone to my HTC one, so that definitely helped.

 

[pakotlar]

Really? Coming from an iPhone 5, I haven't had many qualms with Android's touch response. I think you more so have a problem with Touchwiz than Android itself. Bbesides, I actually find Android to help me keep better organized and have my phone suit my needs to the tee, unlike my iPhone. I had to jailbreak and spend hours on hours to get my iPhone customized to how I want it. With Android, I've been able to organize my needs a lot faster and its proven to me that it actually makes me more efficient with my organizational skills and productivity.

I loved my iPhone, and switching to Android made me nervous that all these latency issues, fragmentation, incompatibilities, would make me crawl back... But in reality, none of these supposed issues turned out to carry any merit and I can't see myself looking back to Apple.

Also, HTC made it super easy to port everything from my iiPhone to my HTC one, so that definitely helped.

Hey,

Yeah, I actually was/am very bothered by the input lag. It feels to have improved when moving over to carbon rom with tweaked governor parameters, but is still not quite as good. I will say that in general I enjoy the fluidity of the device enough these days, but I spent quite a bit of time getting it to this place. Not as good as the iphone 5 (haven't tried s, wife has 5), but better. The funny thing is that the input latency makes the device feel less responsive than a 3GS at times, despite dropping far fewer frames.

The aesthetic complaint I can summarize as a lack of cohesiveness. Probably better on a stock google device, but a lot of details feel off (one example: handling of back button, sometimes the app action-hierarchy ends in last app-action, other times back to last app visited). This is on aosp. The stock Note 2 is just awful from that standpoint. Aosp is pretty good, although still not quite there.

From a productivity standpoint it is hard to say which ecosystem is better at this point (for me), but I certainly use calendar/tasks/keep stack quite effectively. I do like the freedom of file browsing / file handling in android. That's awesome.

The device has its high points: great screen mostly; lower DPI than I'd like, but not noticeably worse at the usual distance that I use than say the iphone 5. Much much better than the 3gs (~133). Contrast ratio is obviously off the charts, and colors are great (movie mode or master sequence via perseus/kernels that merged the code).

These are minor/first-world quibbles; I'd still say these are excellent devices compared to what was available last decade, and I'm not starving and have both arms, so everything is pretty awesome.

 

[redhotiron2004]

Samsung note 2 was a over hyped device. Which failed to fulfill it's customers expectation.
Don't generalize that samsung phone. I have xperia pro, zr, L. Of all these 3 I never have experienced a touch lag. These are very fast. Samsung S3 too had a good responsive screen.
The days when iphone used to define the standards for both software and hardware are long gone.
Now, android not only defines what new features should be added in iOS but it's hardware is on the cutting edge of innovation. There is a octacore for android when iphone have just introduced 5 with quadcore. Ram wise android have 3gb now. Look at the latest iphone specs which are paltry compared to that.