What's the current "iPhone Killer" Android?

[mmntech]

My contract is about to expire next month, so I need a new phone. I've had my iPhone 3G for ages. I love it, but I'm getting fed up with Apple's attitude. Especially the walled garden crap. Doesn't look like the iPhone 5 will be easy to jailbreak.

I've just started shopping around. So what's the best Android alternative right now? I'm hearing fantastic things about the Samsung Galaxy S II. Is there anything else coming down the pipeline?

 

[zerocool84]

It all depends on what you want. That's what I love about Android the most, if you don't like one phone, there are tons of alternatives to fit your needs instead of one-size fits all. There's no such thing as an iPhone killer because there doesn't need to be. What are you looking for or are you just looking for the latest phone? Wanting to move carriers since you're obviously on AT&T?

 

[mmntech]

It all depends on what you want. That's what I love about Android the most, if you don't like one phone, there are tons of alternatives to fit your needs instead of one-size fits all. There's no such thing as an iPhone killer because there doesn't need to be. What are you looking for or are you just looking for the latest phone? Wanting to move carriers since you're obviously on AT&T?

Nope, nope. No AT&T here. I'm on Rogers. It's really hard to narrow down what I'm looking for in a phone since I use mine like a Swiss Army Knife. Probably my most used features are texting, web, and GPS. Secondary would be gaming and media. I'm interested in good video capability too.

The problem with Canadian telecoms is the three year contracts, so I need something that will last a while.

 

[s44]

Nope, nope. No AT&T here. I'm on Rogers.

They're getting the SGS2 LTE. Get that.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

SGS2 is the iPhone killer. Well shrug. I think any reasonable single core 1ghz phone is an iPhone killer too like the Nexus S, Incredible S/2, Desire S, and SGS1 should work. The iPhone 4 is pretty darn outdated IMO, but the iPhone 5 should fight the SGS2 well hopefully.

 

[boomhower]

They're getting the SGS2 LTE. Get that.

Get's my vote as well. If any of the Canadian carriers are getting a version of the Prime Verizon is that would be worth a look as well.

 

[secretanchitman]

Get's my vote as well. If any of the Canadian carriers are getting a version of the Prime Verizon is that would be worth a look as well.

same. galaxy II LTE looks pretty awesome. it would probably be my next phone but it'll be a long time before LTE is widespread...

 

[finbarqs]

SGS2 is the iPhone killer. Well shrug. I think any reasonable single core 1ghz phone is an iPhone killer too like the Nexus S, Incredible S/2, Desire S, and SGS1 should work. The iPhone 4 is pretty darn outdated IMO, but the iPhone 5 should fight the SGS2 well hopefully.

If that's the case, why does it still run slower than iOS?

 

[alent1234]

Ios is.optimized for the hardware. My iPhone 3gs with 128mb ram ran faster than my work Droid pro does with 384mb RAM

Had a 3gs. Went to HTC inspire. Thinking about going back to iPhone. Android is buggier than the insect exhibit at the zoo

 

[Dulanic]

SGS2 currently (coming out this month) or by next month the Nexus Prime is looking pretty fucking nice next month in October, however, it will be Verizon only. I would love to go with the nexus prime due to it having ICS, but alas I will go SGS2 because I won't support the crazy pricing it would cost me to swap.

 

[gaidensensei]

Ios is.optimized for the hardware. My iPhone 3gs with 128mb ram ran faster than my work Droid pro does with 384mb RAM

Had a 3gs. Went to HTC inspire. Thinking about going back to iPhone. Android is buggier than the insect exhibit at the zoo

the droid pro is a no brainer. No cracked bootloader = no custom rom = terrible motorola phone bloated with motoblur and random junk apk's. Afraid that applies to a lot of the motorola line of androids, but good thing el goog is taking over.

Not sure what's wrong with your inspire. I have something older than that (DZ) and it works snappily, rarely ever FC'ing other than running non popular apps and apk's.

Might be the custom roms though. They've always made my droid devices much easier to work with. Not so much choice with my ios devices, I lose interest because I'm not able to customize them to my liking.

 

[Bateluer]

the droid pro is a no brainer. No cracked bootloader = no custom rom = terrible motorola phone bloated with motoblur and random junk apk's. Afraid that applies to a lot of the motorola line of androids, but good thing el goog is taking over.

Not sure what's wrong with your inspire. I have something older than that (DZ) and it works snappily, rarely ever FC'ing other than running non popular apps and apk's.

Might be the custom roms though. They've always made my droid devices much easier to work with. Not so much choice with my ios devices, I lose interest because I'm not able to customize them to my liking.

HTC Sense. Custom rom to remove it, phone doubles in speed and experiences a marked increase in battery life too.

FYI, most of the 'bugs' on Android come from manufacturer UI's, Blur, Sense, TouchWiz, etc. Vanilla Android is very polished.

 

[Aikouka]

Especially the walled garden crap. Doesn't look like the iPhone 5 will be easy to jailbreak.

Out of curiosity, what is it that you want to change about your phone that you cannot? I see the same point brought up in some anti-iOS arguments, but even as an iOS user, I can't find any wants/desires that are great enough to be a deal breaker.

Although, I am a bit annoyed at the lack of a new phone. I'm sitting on a 3GS as well. :\

 

[BenSkywalker]

Probably my most used features are texting, web, and GPS.

Texting- Anything(Samsung's new texting app may make it more appealing)

Web- Anything running Opera or Dolphin(both run on almost any Android device)

GPS- Anything but Samsung

Secondary would be gaming and media.

Gaming- XPeria Play or a Tegra 2 device

Media- Samsung

If that's the case, why does it still run slower than iOS?

Windows 98 runs a lot faster then Windows 7.

 

[s44]

Out of curiosity, what is it that you want to change about your phone that you cannot?

I don't even know if OP realizes it's an issue, but iP5 probably won't be LTE, so getting it on a 3 year contract would be pretty agonizing for the later years.

 

[Bateluer]

I don't even know if OP realizes it's an issue, but iP5 probably won't be LTE, so getting it on a 3 year contract would be pretty agonizing for the later years.

Course, that 3 year interval would allow for significant LTE build out, so when he does get an LTE device, there will be top notch coverage.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't even know if OP realizes it's an issue, but iP5 probably won't be LTE, so getting it on a 3 year contract would be pretty agonizing for the later years.

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to LTE. I think I might prefer to have it. The biggest problem that I have is that if I'm not at full 4-5 bars on AT&T, the connection usually isn't powerful enough to watch some multimedia. Most things such as YouTube are fine, but Blip.TV isn't. I wanted to listen in on a Q&A video at work the other day, but it was so choppy that I couldn't. I used Splashtop and turned it on using my computer at home. Even though the video was choppy through Splashtop, I could usually hear the audio fine.

The only negative would be if the battery life is so bad with LTE that it severely reduces my time between charges. Although... to be honest, 3G isn't that good with connections either. Using YouTube for half an hour can take 5-10% of the battery. :\

Given AT&T's paltry LTE implementation, I doubt we'll see it on the next iPhone. Verizon actually has LTE in my local area. I'm not sure about the situation in Canada though.

 

[s44]

The only negative would be if the battery life is so bad with LTE that it severely reduces my time between charges. Although... to be honest, 3G isn't that good with connections either. Using YouTube for half an hour can take 5-10% of the battery. :\

Well, at least with Android (or a jailbreak) you can always turn off LTE. It won't be as important on AT&T as on Verizon/Sprint because HSPA(+) is pretty damn fast on its own -- it's just oversaturated a lot of the time.

 

[Aikouka]

Well, at least with Android (or a jailbreak) you can always turn off LTE. It won't be as important on AT&T as on Verizon/Sprint because HSPA(+) is pretty damn fast on its own -- it's just oversaturated a lot of the time.

I would assume that whenever they implement a "4G solution" into the iPhone, there will be a method to disable it. Right now, you can disable 3G on the iPhone. That's actually how I'll typically re-enable it at times. Sometimes, my AT&T connection is so bad that I'll drop down to EDGE, and I either have to put the phone into airplane mode or re-enable 3G just to get it to reconnect at 3G speeds.

 

[Doboji]

If that's the case, why does it still run slower than iOS?

It doesn't....

 

[zinfamous]

SGS2 currently (coming out this month) or by next month the Nexus Prime is looking pretty fucking nice next month in October, however, it will be Verizon only. I would love to go with the nexus prime due to it having ICS, but alas I will go SGS2 because I won't support the crazy pricing it would cost me to swap.

How old is this ad?
http://googlenexus-4.com/

it suggests that all of the big 4 carriers will be getting it. Not sure how that helps the OP in Canada, though.

but yeah, my recent research is telling me that SGS2 or Nexus Prime are the Android phones to get this year, and should be quite nice for a few years to come.

 

[zinfamous]

by the way: what is so uber about LTE? Is it just for watching crazy media and such?

 

[Aikouka]

by the way: what is so uber about LTE? Is it just for watching crazy media and such?

I use AT&T, which has the fastest 3G connections, and even with 3 bars, some media isn't very lag-free. So, what I figure is that with a higher upper-bound, getting a reduced signal will not limit my capabilities nearly as much.

 

[gaidensensei]

by the way: what is so uber about LTE? Is it just for watching crazy media and such?

Next version of mobile broadband, faster, etc.
This should make it easier for you:

vanilla 3G hovers around 1.5mb/sec ish. EDGE/GPRS are around double digit kb's.

 

[alent1234]

the droid pro is a no brainer. No cracked bootloader = no custom rom = terrible motorola phone bloated with motoblur and random junk apk's. Afraid that applies to a lot of the motorola line of androids, but good thing el goog is taking over.

Not sure what's wrong with your inspire. I have something older than that (DZ) and it works snappily, rarely ever FC'ing other than running non popular apps and apk's.

Might be the custom roms though. They've always made my droid devices much easier to work with. Not so much choice with my ios devices, I lose interest because I'm not able to customize them to my liking.

this is off the top of my head

both my inspire and droid lose connection in google navigation. in maps it's Ok so it makes me think it's a google nav bug

flash is next to useless except to watch porn, and even then it's horrible because you have to send a desktop user agent string and you get all kinds of crap on the screen to make your phone slow

the mail apps are crap compared to iOS

took me a little while but for months i was downloading doubles of my gmail email. you set your phone up with your gmail. if you set it up with push gmail then you are downloading the same email twice unless you go into the original account and stop email sync.



depending on what's in the iphone 5 i might get the SGS 2 only because i'm due for an upgrade.