Possibly bored of the iphone..what's the alternative?

JJ_Egan

Stick to what you know. Why learn something new?

To a certain extent that is very true and i would not want to go learning how to use Win 7 mobile or Samsung Bada or IOS 4 .

But the key should be to buy a phone that does what you want it to do and at a price you are willing to pay . Apple and Android both have their positives and negatives .

jje .
Proud farther of a one hour old Samsung Galaxy S2 .

Greer_Hepworth

gadgeteer wrote: »

This is a subject close to my heart. As a self confessed geek, I really want to like Android. I want a phone I can customise the way I want to work rather than be forced to work the Apple way.

The problem is my experience of Android phones so far is that whilst on paper they tick all the right boxes, put everything together and I've yet to see one which comes close to the full Apple "experience".

What do I mean by this? Well firstly Android is being developed at such a speed that if you have an older phone (and by that I mean by a few months) then chances are you won't be on the latest version. Depending on the phone you may be able to root it and download your own custom ROM but seriously, how many of your average phone users will do that?

There's no desktop application which makes setting the phone up a pain. Try importing your music and setting up playlists on a 4" screen! Drove me potty!

Plus with such a fast speed of development and a light touch on their app store means programs often have bugs. The other week my GF upgraded her Facebook to v1.53 and the stupid thing force closed on virtually anything. Looking around we were far from the only ones having that problem. I've found many many other bugs where stuff just doesn't work or I have to delete/recreate to get it to work. Having so many different handsets & versions makes it impossible for people to test everything. Contrast that with Apple where your iphone is the same as everyone elses. You test one, you've tested them all.

Hardware-wise you gotta love Android. I mean dual core phones, SD slots, removable batteries. So much choice! But I've yet to find a phone as rounded and as sleek as the iphone. The Desire HD came close until my mate who is an android head warned me off as his battery life is shocking. That said, I am drooling over the Samsung Galaxy S II but will wait and see before handing over my iphone.

The thing with the iphone is it just works. No mess, no fuss. Sure its a bit ubiquitous now & everyone has one but that's because it's simple, it works and it looks gorgeous.

I am in a similar position. Bought a bargain new & sealed iphone 4 from ebay in order to have a play around and see what I thought, and I do love it, but my geek side sees the logic in dual core, easy to remove & replace battery, micro sd, and even the fm radio has an appeal for me. In addition to this, the absence of Flash support on iphone irks.

I've been an Apple user personally & professionally since the early 1990s, so in many ways it's logical that i might go for the iphone. However, i'm also a geek who wants to be able to customise my phone and, whilst acceptng that 'future-proofing' is a bit naiive, i'd like to at least be able to keep the hanset for a few years without difficulty. I'm not interested in a 'free' upgrade every five minutes.

Need to decide whether to keep going with iphone on giffgaff £10 a month, or accept o2's retention offer of an s2 for £169 on a 12 month, £26.20 tariff giving me 300 mins, 500 texts and 500mb data. The former = £500 all in for 12 months, the latter £487.80.

By the time I've finished thinking about it, i almost want to just keep my old sony k800i and stop it with all this mobile phone flirting.

Greer_Hepworth

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Stick to what you know. Why learn something new?

To a certain extent that is very true and i would not want to go learning how to use Win 7 mobile or Samsung Bada or IOS 4 .

But the key should be to buy a phone that does what you want it to do and at a price you are willing to pay . Apple and Android both have their positives and negatives .

jje .
Proud farther of a one hour old Samsung Galaxy S2 .

I'd be very interested in your first impressions of the S2, as someone who has been dilly dallying between the pros and cons of iphone and s2 for a bit too long now...

papi34

Your replies are appreciated.

As it happens, my 3G must of got wind of my wavering and has 'died' with the dreaded 'error 23'. It won't restore and if I put it in DFU mode it goes to the white screen.

So a decision has to be made.....probably stick with what I know!

shifty27

I have a iphone 4... just so people can say i'm biased when I answer your question.

Wait until June to make a decision as to whether to stay with iOS or move to Android.

June is when apple will preview the next generation iOS 5. If the software isn't a major improvement over iOS 4 (which I think it will be) then I will be moving to the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Either way though, your iphone 3g won't be able to get iOS 5 so wait until june to decide whether to get an iphone 4 or go on the Android platform.

Software is the most important aspect though, any phone company can make good hardware... it's software that makes the iphone so popular.

Hope this helps.

andymc29

I'm getting an S2 this week, will post opionions later on it.

slugger09

No one has mentioned Windows Phone 7, the entire thing is more polished the iOS, Zune software makes syncing music a breeze and has wireless sync, the Zune music player is as good if not better than the iPod app, Xbox live has better quality games than iTunes, integrated Facebook, Zune marketplace, the list could go on

JJ_Egan

slugger09 wrote: »

No one has mentioned Windows Phone 7, the entire thing is more polished the iOS, Zune software makes syncing music a breeze and has wireless sync, the Zune music player is as good if not better than the iPod app, Xbox live has better quality games than iTunes, integrated Facebook, Zune marketplace, the list could go on

My impression of using Win 7 for one day was promising could be top class on the next build . Comparison with three phones SGS1 IOS4 and HTC Win 7 really all at the same level personal preference would rule buyers choice and all now superseded by SGS2 and other dual cores due for release .

jje

Cullumpster

I work for one of the big 5 mobile companies so get the chance t try the phones out. me personally am not in the iphone fan club, however I do like the 3gs, the I phone 4 seems to have lots of problems. I have an android and not a new one the X10 xperia, and had the G1 before that, love android and wouldn't move!

MichaelCR

I've just ordered a new phone contract with t-mobile to go along side my current orange contract,

I didn't want to follow the crowd, And go for something everyone goes for (the iPhone 4), Instead i have chosen the Sony Ericsson Arc (After reading nothing but positive reviews), It actually looks better then the iPhone does.