1. iPhone 5 is LTE...am I missing something here?
2. Understandable, but how many cables does one person need? The phone comes with one and personally just bought one more for the car. iPhone 5 battery lasts all day even with heavy usage.
3. Google Now is alright. I used it twice with the Nexus 4. It gave me traffic updates and was hardly that useful. I actually shut it on the Nexus 4 because battery life was meh to begin with. Every user will have opinions about Google Now.
4. Understandable, but that's on contract price. I take it you were looking into the 64GB iP5. Again, this is all personal preference, but devices these days don't need high storage with most data and documents in Cloud services.
5. Much more cases and accessories for the iP5 and the Lifeproof case is definitely a solid choice if you need protection like that.
6. Google even said the Google Maps is more polished and has more features on iOS devices right now. Plus, Apple Maps (well for me) here in Florida has been rock solid and hasn't failed me once. It is nice to have Google Maps though as an alternative choice.
7. Personal preference. I really enjoyed Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4, but some of the UI was a little blah. Both iOS and Jelly Bean has pros and cons in this department.
8. Yes Android wins here. You can't even place app icons where you want STILL in iOS. Plus it's been 73 degrees on my iPhone Weather app for 5 years. Boring yes, but after a little bit of customizing and placing widgets on the Nexus 4, I found myself changing things around more than actually using device sometimes. It is very nice to have these options though regardless. iOS NEEDS to add toggles to there Notifications.
In summary, I see where your coming from. Looking for something more open and a fresh change. I tried it with vanilla Android and the Nexus 4, which is supposedly a Top 3 Android device, but it the end it fell short.
I would keep your 4S just in case you don't like the SG3
1. Way to read my post... iPhone 5 doesn't have a JB yet, so it might as well not exist.
2. Dresser (charging), computer for sync, car, work, and travel, i.e. portable battery pack.
4. I can just barely fit my stuff on a 64GB iPhone 4S. If the 16GB iPhone had a MicroSD slot, then I would be fine. The SGS III does.
5. It's coming out for the SGS III.
6. Apple maps is a disaster. I can't even get Google Maps right now, kind of kicking myself for not upgrading to 5.1.1 while the opportunity was still there, I'm stuck on 5.0.1 with no escape in sight (i.e. untethered iOS 6 JB). Google Maps has a lot more features on Android, there are numerous layers that are missing on iOS, as well as offline caching and other features. I like the TomTom app on the iPhone, but it's interface for programming is just horrendous.
7. I can place app icons where I want them.
🙂 But it's missing a lot of other things.
I am going to keep the iPhone around just in case the SGS III doesn't live up to what I think it will be. It would kind of suck to go back to a year-old device with stagnant software (until someone comes up with an iOS 6 JB) with no upgrades in sight, but if I really hate the form factor of the SGS III...
The problem is that I see no future for the iPhone for the tech savvy like me (admittedly we are probably 1% of their market). The Jailbreaks are taking longer and longer to come out, there's the whole Lightning thing, Google is turning the screws down on Apple with dumping Exchange, which I use for Mail and Contacts. I blame Apple for the Jailbreak situation, as they could have left the old exploits from the OG iPhone in just to let the JB'ers have their customized devices. I'm stuck with no LTE, no Google Maps, disintegrating Mail and Contacts support, poor Google Calendar support...