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Alternatives to iPhone

S

step21

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
31
0
Hi, due to various reasons i decided if I get a new phone soon, it's not gonna be an iPhone (currently I still have the 2G IPhone, which I would likely keep to use with a 2nd sim card)
However, this is easier said then done with my requirements and most frequent use cases. So far, I'm targeting mainly the Samsung Galaxy, which can also be had without a contract here in Germany. I just tested it a bit in a store, and contrary to what other people have said it doesn't have keyboard lag and while sure the keyboard is different, I don't think it would be much of an issue.
So my main concerns are:
- Material the screen is made of, I never got a cover for my iphone, yet the nice crystal glass is still scratch free, despite falling down on hard surfaces (cobblestones, concrete, wood) many a time. Now the screen of the Galaxy is nice, but I'm not sure what material it is made of. Probably some kind of plastic?
- Inability to update the firmware with os x out of the box. Though I did find a tutorial to root the device and in that process you can also update the firmware via some shell commands I think.
- No accessories/car stereo compatibility. I used my parents car a lot lately and while it also has aux-in, the real kicker is the usb/ipod connector. Now it does also work with normal usb mass storage devices (like a usb stick drive) so does anyone know if the phone could just be connected as a mass storage device and thus be used for music playback?
- Does anyone have experience using doubletwist with phones, or know some hack to make other phones work with itunes? I have all my music/videos nicely organized there and I don't know any other program that is on par in terms of features.

So, what do you think about those points, and/or maybe you could recommend other phones? Should be available in Europe, and no winmo phones plz.
If requested I could go into more detail why I don't want an iphone as my next phone currently, though I'd like to avoid that such as to not start a pointless discussion about it.

Update: Just found a spec saying the screen of the Galaxy is made of "scratch resistent temoered glass" so seems to be good ... just felt so light (cause of the AMOLED maybe?) so I though it couldn't be glass ^^
 
The Samsung Galaxy is an Android phone.
So how well does your android phone (T-Mobile G1, G2, or HTC Hero maybe?) work with os x? Another point that would be interesting to know would be, how well does contact/calendar sync work?
 
Oops sorry I didn't remember that. I don't personally have an Android, but I have been interested in them, and might consider one in the future if the iPhone ever lets me down. I have heard nothing but positive things from people with android phones. Here is an easy way to sync your Address Book with Gmail, I did this yesterday. It will make the transition to android easier if all your stuff is google based.
 

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well, all my email is google based, though when say setting up itunes/adressbook to sync with gmail contacts, it syncs way too much (until maybe you remove it once, then maybe it doesn't sync it in the future) otherwise it also sync ever info@* or service email address that ever came across your gmail, which is kind of a pita. So just syncing with address book (where I removed most annoying non-contacts) would be better I think.
 
If you are not going to get an iPhone, why are you posting in the IPHONE area? So find the SAMSUNG forums and ask there. BTW, Samsung phones are junk.
 
Because I'm a mac user and I want it to work well with os x, but there is no general "mobile phones with os x" area or area about other phones. Because of that I'm posting in a mac forum and not on some other board. Also, feel free to argue I should get another iphone, if you have to.
Also, there are "IPhone vs. something" threads, so why not one like this?
 
I think personally that if you have the opportunity to get the HTC Hero I would definitely go for that. I absolutely wish I could get my hands on one here in the US. I hear it may come to sprint, but I avoid them like the plague, and if it hits verizon I may have to reconsider.

I'm stuck on AT&T for the foreseeable future with my iPhone and Blackberry
 
I used to have the G1, now I have the T-Mobile myTouch 3G (where is the US hero!?!?!). I can say that Android is a great platform.

As far as contacts, you can just export your address book from addressbook.app and inport it into gmail. Then your contacts will be synced automatically between the two. Unless you have some specific reason, there is really no need to worry about having it sync back with address book. You could always just import your google contacts back into address book once in a while if you wished.
 
Obsidian6 said:
I think personally that if you have the opportunity to get the HTC Hero I would definitely go for that. I absolutely wish I could get my hands on one here in the US. I hear it may come to sprint, but I avoid them like the plague, and if it hits verizon I may have to reconsider.

I'm stuck on AT&T for the foreseeable future with my iPhone and Blackberry
Click to expand...

The HTC hero blows... its slow, unresponsive, and bulky. After using the iPhone touchscreen you'll HATE every other touchscreen you try, there's just no comparison.
 
Simgar988 said:
The HTC hero blows... its slow, unresponsive, and bulky. After using the iPhone touchscreen you'll HATE every other touchscreen you try, there's just no comparison.
Click to expand...

Suprisngly, pretty much all HTC phones have the touchscreens to rival the iPhone.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! Yes I should be able to get a HTC Hero, though I was thinking more Samsung Galaxy so far, have yet to test the HTC Hero.
Address Book sync: Well, the point of that would be that if I'm offline I still have access to my contacts on my macbook. But I think that should be possible.
So that leaves mainly itunes sync (maybe with doubletwist, or wait till o2 Germany gets the Palm Pre?), Car Stereo/Accessories (anyone know if the phone working as a usb mass storage device can make its music files available?, and firmware updates (not sure about the HTC Hero, but at least the Samsung Galaxy doesn't have Over-the-Air Updates, and the Samsung software is windows only, though in a description to get root on the device I found a method that might work on mac/linux. ( http://www.receptorblog.com/wordpress/?p=61 )
 
I don't really think there are any "alternatives" to the iphone. If the iphone user experience is what your are looking for, then the iphone is what you need. If you get any other device going into it with the idea that it will be like the iphone you will be utterly disappointed.

I found this out the hard way;)
 
AbSoluTc said:
BTW, Samsung phones are junk.
Click to expand...

+1 Samsung has some real trash out there. Not only am I amazed how Samsung phone batteries are consistantly useless within 2 months of purchase, but the keypads leave a lot to be desired.

Who knows maybe this galaxy phone is different I just know their recent stuff has been horrid. (Looking at 2 samsung phones on his desk with bad batteries as we speak...)
 
Well I haven't had a Samsung phone before (Sony-Ericsson and Nokia before iPhone) and Nokia was o.k., wasn't too impressed with Sony-Ericsson.
So I don't know about Samsung and batteries, but at least it can't have a bad keypad cause it has only a software keyboard like the iphone, and while ofc the software is a little different, I found it surprisingly alike to typing on the iphone (asked a store clerk if I could try it). Mainly probably because the screen/touchscreen isn't some cheapo plastich but similiar to the glass from the iphone.
 
I'm like you in that I'll going to the Galaxy from an iPhon (once we get one here in the US)

The screen is glass.

And Android does have a mass storage mode on its USB

Doubletwist should work as advertised.
 
The Palm Pre with Missing Sync software is a combo I am going to try out as a second phone (backup to my iPhone)
 
I'm totally blown away by the number of "NON-iPhone" threads that seem to float around regurgitating the same non-iPhone crap.....

Alternative to WHICH iPhone?

I would recommend the Blackberry ANYTHING; the PalmPre; the Nokia 95/97 or ANYTHING that Nokia makes for that matter; and anything LG makes; take a strong look at all the Android phones; the list is long and non-distinguishable from the NEXT....:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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