Which of these 3 Smart Phones Would You Recommend?

[TalonStrike]

I still don't completely understand why people think that Android is superior to the iPhone. All I keep hearing is that they have bigger screens and are more open to development. Is that it?

 

[zerocool84]

I still don't completely understand why people think that Android is superior to the iPhone. All I keep hearing is that they have bigger screens and are more open to development. Is that it?

Both offer things that may suit you more. iPhone may be better for you than an Android phone, Android may be better for you as well, you just need to play with both platforms and see which suits you more. Hell, even Blackberry might suit you more. There is no best as both have too many negatives to clearly determine which is better.

 

[sgrinavi]

Both offer things that may suit you more. iPhone may be better for you than an Android phone, Android may be better for you as well, you just need to play with both platforms and see which suits you more. Hell, even Blackberry might suit you more. There is no best as both have too many negatives to clearly determine which is better.

Well said.

It's more than just customization & screen size issues - personally I like the way that Android is laid out better than iOS - seems more natural to me, but I do like the smoothness of iOS.

 

[shabby]

I still don't completely understand why people think that Android is superior to the iPhone. All I keep hearing is that they have bigger screens and are more open to development. Is that it?

The answer is choice, you got small/med/large phones, lte/cdma/gsm phones, slider phones, 3d phones, its very simple. With iphone you get no choice at all, its just one phone either love it or hate it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

well, Nexus will have shitty battery life (LTE)

and is far outclassed by the GPU in the Galaxy S2. Once SGS2 has ICS available, expect it to outclass Nexus in just about any performance category.

Nexus still has larger screen, higher resolution, and what seems to be the better camera, also NFC (only the ATT SGS2 has NFC potential).

So, with ICS on both devices, SGS2 will likely outclass the Nexus in battery life and gaming.

But don't listen to me, I'd probably still opt for the Nexus if I were choosing today

Any thorough testing done yet?

 

[zerocool84]

Any thorough testing done yet?

On the Engadget review they said the camera wasn't that great.

 

[zinfamous]

Any thorough testing done yet?

no, none yet--but those first two are qualitative and need no testing:

it does have the largest screen, and it does have a higher resolution.

how does it look? that's another thing.

The camera seems to perform really well--and from what I have read, claims faster f-stop than 4S (2.3 vs 2.5?), and the holy of holies--no shutter lag.

I'd definitely like to see the camera tests, but the difference between ~.5-1 seconds (4S, SGS2, et al) and 0 is huge. Anyone who is sold on 8MP over 5MP for a camera phone really shouldn't be worried about camera phones.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Any thorough testing done yet?

If you mean thorough as in the entire phone, then I'm sure you can find some floating around by Googling.

Here's one:
http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/17/2568348/galaxy-nexus-review

If you mean a deep analysis of the camera, I haven't seen one yet. GSMArena is most likely the place to watch out for such a thing. But if I have to garner a guess based on current reviews, the camera is meh.

Larger screen and better resolution is already a given, and I don't think anyone can dispute that point logically...

 

[Raduque]

Well, since you're on Verizon get the Galaxy Nexus.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'd definitely like to see the camera tests, but the difference between ~.5-1 seconds (4S, SGS2, et al) and 0 is huge. Anyone who is sold on 8MP over 5MP for a camera phone really shouldn't be worried about camera phones.

The 5MP vs 8MP isn't a huge factor. It doesn't mean the 5MP is better or 8MP is better. What really matters in the end is image quality. Like I said before, people are dismissing the non 8MP too fast. These 8MP shooters like the SGS2 and iPhone 4S are top of the line shooters. For a 5MP cameraphone to be better, it also needs to be a top of the line 5MP shooter.

For all I know an 8MP shooter could be better. The 8MP camera on the SGS2 is better than the SGS1's 5MP, and the SGS1 was pretty darn good already compared to other phones.

I think what I'm concerned with is that if they're not going to bump the resolution up, then the 5MP sensor better be DAMN good. From what I've read it's not back-illuminated or anything.

Additionally it may be 1/3 stop faster, but honestly, that's not huge. The Canon S90/S95 sold on its f/2.0 aperture, but that's because most consumer P&Ses shot at like f/3.2 or something like that. That's a huge step forward.

SGS2: f/2.65
iPhone 4: f/2.8
iPhone 4S: f/2.4
Nexus: f/2.75

I don't think those alone will determine your image quality. Moving from 2.8 to 2.6 won't make or break your photos. I'm pretty sure it has more to do with your lens elements and sensor size. Anyway, I'm just looking for hard data on photo comparison of the Nexus versus other phones, which is why I was asking if there are thorough tests done (kinda dpreview style) where people look at 100% crops to evaluate noise handling and sharpness.

 

[MrX8503]

Anyone who is sold on 8MP over 5MP for a camera phone really shouldn't be worried about camera phones.

No one is sold on 8MP being better than 5MP. The iPhone 4S and SGSII have the best cameras on a cell phone, it just so happens that they're also 8MP. The MP has nothing to do with their impressive image quality.

 

[dguy6789]

The Nexus won't have MotoBlur.
The Nexus won't have an encrypted bootloader.
The Nexus will be completely supported by Google for 2 years.

What did Motorola ever do to you?

Motoblur is not a bad thing, it's purely personal preference. It adds functionality that does not exist in stock Android. Several features added to ICS have already existed on Motorola phones for a year or more because of Motoblur.

Most of the popular Motorola phones with a locked bootloader have a very good selection of ROMs that include some that many people like more than Cyanogen.

Nexus One support is over already and it's not 2 years old. The original Motorola Droid just received a software update a few days ago.

The Galaxy Nexus' build quality is so shoddy that it's unacceptable. The back of the phone has very noticeable give.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

What did Motorola ever do to you?

Motoblur is not a bad thing, it's purely personal preference. It adds functionality that does not exist in stock Android. Several features added to ICS have already existed on Motorola phones for a year or more because of Motoblur.

Most of the popular Motorola phones with a locked bootloader have a very good selection of ROMs that include some that many people like more than Cyanogen.

Nexus One support is over already and it's not 2 years old. The original Motorola Droid just received a software update a few days ago.

The Galaxy Nexus' build quality is so shoddy that it's unacceptable. The back of the phone has very noticeable give.

Uhh sorry but how long did it take for custom ROMs to start floating around on a lot of Moto devices? A LONG TIME. It takes a while to get 2ndinit to work properly and whats more is with an encrypted bootloader and proprietary drivers it's incredibly hard to create ROMs. It's not saying it can't be done, but you can't have custom kernels or anything.

The point is Samsung, HTC phones are easily moddable and have a HUGE modding community. If you go check out the Droid 2/Milestone 2 modding section on XDA it's practically DEAD.

The reason the Droid 1 had huge support was because it was the only Android phone worth a damn to compete with the iPhone for a while. And the Milestone only got support because a lot of people flocked to it thinking it'd be a huge hit like the Droid 1... until they found that the bootloader was locked. As a result no one bought the Milestone 2, and look at what happened to the development section on XDA. Look at the Droid X2 section and look at how they're still trying to figure out CM7 and MIUI.

A lot of these phones ahve GREAT specs, but as a modder and a ROM flasher, I don't want to buy any of these phones and wait 6 months only to see that there are no good ROMs, and that even a shittier phone has overtaken my phone simply because it can run CM7 with ease.

Also, Motoblur sucked. They've improved it, but if anything Motorola is the worst offender in terms of upgrading software. They've only been marginal on phones like the OG Droid and Droid X2 but this is mainly because they're in bed with Verizon. If you look at how they've treated the world phones like the Milestone 2 and Milestone 1, you'd see how people would swear to never get Moto again. It may be because Moto sucks in general, but I'm thinking Motoblur makes things a lot harder to upgrade. And if anything it's the worst UI out there behind Sense and Touchwiz.