My 11 month Android Experience

[macdragonfl]

I just got my iPhone 4 last week. I had a 3gs for 2 weeks that I returned. My last phone was a HTC Hero on Sprint. The Android system has a lot of great things about it one being HTC's Sense interface. But the carriers control your updates not Google/HTC. Different phones have different versions and your carrier can choose what you get. They can also discontinue updates for your phone as they did for the Hero less than year old. They did this knowing Google/HTC made a update for the Hero to 2.2. The original os 1.5 did a decent job. The 2.1 update made the phone laggy taking 30-45 seconds to pull up the dialer. The touch was slow and unresponsive. Battery life between both versions was horrible charging the phone at a half day most days. Syncing music, photos all manual and cumbersome. Google does allow great sync between contacts and calendars with Macs. That that is the only Mac friendly part of Android. On Sprints everything plan you can upgrade an the new subscriber price each year, if you sign a new contract extension. I believe that they are discontinuing support to force you in a new phone and a contract extension. My 3gs was light years ahead of the Hero better in every way. Syncing was fast, update came no problems. I did realize I needed more music storage so I returned for the 4, even faster,better camera, amazing screen. Glad to be in the fold!!!!!! I know a lot of people complain about Apple but believe me they are still the best of the lot.

 

[kenypowa]

I just got my iPhone 4 last week. I had a 3gs for 2 weeks that I returned. My last phone was a HTC Hero on Sprint. The Android system has a lot of great things about it one being HTC's Sense interface. But the carriers control your updates not Google/HTC. Different phones have different versions and your carrier can choose what you get. They can also discontinue updates for your phone as they did for the Hero less than year old. They did this knowing Google/HTC made a update for the Hero to 2.2. The original os 1.5 did a decent job. The 2.1 update made the phone laggy taking 30-45 seconds to pull up the dialer. The touch was slow and unresponsive. Battery life between both versions was horrible charging the phone at a half day most days. Syncing music, photos all manual and cumbersome. Google does allow great sync between contacts and calendars with Macs. That that is the only Mac friendly part of Android. On Sprints everything plan you can upgrade an the new subscriber price each year, if you sign a new contract extension. I believe that they are discontinuing support to force you in a new phone and a contract extension. My 3gs was light years ahead of the Hero better in every way. Syncing was fast, update came no problems. I did realize I needed more music storage so I returned for the 4, even faster,better camera, amazing screen. Glad to be in the fold!!!!!! I know a lot of people complain about Apple but believe me they are still the best of the lot.

So you are comparing a generation one Android devices to the latest iPhone4? Why don't you compare the original iPhone to the latest HTC Desire HD as well?

 

[someguy]

So you are comparing a generation one Android devices to the latest iPhone4? Why don't you compare the original iPhone to the latest HTC Desire HD as well?

Let it go. There are enough of these threads already. We don't need another..



macdragonfl, glad to hear you're enjoying your new phone.

 

[macdragonfl]

So you are comparing a generation one Android devices to the latest iPhone4? Why don't you compare the original iPhone to the latest HTC Desire HD as well?

My beef is the is the carrier control of the updates and support and the fragmentation between manufactures and their custom versions. There are great pieces of Android hardware out now. Your Nexus is one of them. My friend has a Incredible it is wonderful. I am not convinced there support will be dumped just as early as the next big phone comes out. I know I will have updates for two years if I need it and Apple is the only one involved.

 

[itsmemuffins]

So you are comparing a generation one Android devices to the latest iPhone4? Why don't you compare the original iPhone to the latest HTC Desire HD as well?

The hero came out around the same time the 3GS. It had outdated software at launch and has been long discontinued before the 3GS.

That is the Android way.

 

[Savor]

My beef is the is the carrier control of the updates and support and the fragmentation between manufactures and their custom versions. There are great pieces of Android hardware out now. Your Nexus is one of them. My friend has a Incredible it is wonderful. I am not convinced there support will be dumped just as early as the next big phone comes out. I know I will have updates for two years if I need it and Apple is the only one involved.

Gingerbread should solve some of fragmentations and should split between high-end vs middle/low-end. Custom UI could be long gone.

My first Android phone will likely be unlocked. Don't want to deal with the carrier bloatware and their tight grip for updates. After 8 months and a number of top Android phones being released, the Nexus One is still one of the better ones out there. You get it untouched and always get the updates first.