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Would you trade your iPhone for an Android?

AbSoluTc said:
So half the screen is wasted with weather?



What that SS does not show is how laggy Android is. How inconsistent the interface is and how bad it becomes after a few weeks/months of use. The integration between hardware/software is not nearly as refined as it is on the iPhone. The experience will never be the same.



That's not to say that they can't co-exist. You like Android, I like iOS. Unless Apple does something stupid, I would never switch. Google is just all over and they don't ever really "FINISH" anything. It's annoying.
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Weather takes up a portion of the home screen only if you want it too. You don't need that there if you don't want it. You can download an iOS theme and make it look like iOS if you want. Not many people do though.

Lag is all but gone IMO. Plus Android operates a bit differently. This used to be one of my major gripes but I haven't found that to be an issue since ICS. JB supposedly got even better but I didn't notice much/any difference.

What do you mean by not finishing anything though?
 
cynics said:
Weather takes up a portion of the home screen only if you want it too. You don't need that there if you don't want it. You can download an iOS theme and make it look like iOS if you want. Not many people do though.

Lag is all but gone IMO. Plus Android operates a bit differently. This used to be one of my major gripes but I haven't found that to be an issue since ICS. JB supposedly got even better but I didn't notice much/any difference.

What do you mean by not finishing anything though?
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Google Voice is a perfect example of them not finishing something.

Also, looking at the 2 screenshots, it looks like Google followed Apple again by trying to make their OS more colorful with updated icons and themes IMHO. Again, Apple has copied from Google as well so it's all a wash.

I see Android like its Windows. Tons of functionality to do everything OK but doesn't really doing anything FANTASTIC. You have to do a lot of work to maintain a Windows system otherwise it gets bloated, crashes, and slows down. Sounds frighteningly similar to the Android horror stories that we read in this thread with frequent crashes and random apps opening at random times. Some people like to tinker and troubleshoot. It satisfies their inner geek. Me? I value my time and prefer to have products designed with quality with the user experience being the priority not an afterthought. I don't want to troubleshoot or tinker with my gadgets after hours, I want them to just work.

I used to be a fan of Google back in the day and they even sent me a free Chromebook as well. I'm no longer a fan and don't have anymore accounts or services with them. Most companies don't give a damn about you or your privacy but Google takes it to the extreme. I don't want searches tied to my account. I don't want to be forced into a failed Social Network with all my personal services like GMail tied to it. I'm just done with that mess. I know others were migrating off of Google back in the day and I was like huh? Now I completely understand.
 
Wuiffi said:
3.x was for tablets only. In 2010 there was 2.2 Froyo
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Yes, it was this one. The experience was ok, but it just wasn't for me; nor, was the HTC (it was the Hero, I think) phone.

PS - I'm certainly open to trying it again. For me, I see nothing wrong with utilizing both Android and IOS. Matter of fact, I'm tempted to pick up the new Sony Xperia ZS1 to try it out.
 
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Black Magic said:
Google Voice is a perfect example of them not finishing something.

Also, looking at the 2 screenshots, it looks like Google followed Apple again by trying to make their OS more colorful with updated icons and themes IMHO. Again, Apple has copied from Google as well so it's all a wash.

I see Android like its Windows. Tons of functionality to do everything OK but doesn't really doing anything FANTASTIC. You have to do a lot of work to maintain a Windows system otherwise it gets bloated, crashes, and slows down. Sounds frighteningly similar to the Android horror stories that we read in this thread with frequent crashes and random apps opening at random times. Some people like to tinker and troubleshoot. It satisfies their inner geek. Me? I value my time and prefer to have products designed with quality with the user experience being the priority not an afterthought. I don't want to troubleshoot or tinker with my gadgets after hours, I want them to just work.

I used to be a fan of Google back in the day and they even sent me a free Chromebook as well. I'm no longer a fan and don't have anymore accounts or services with them. Most companies don't give a damn about you or your privacy but Google takes it to the extreme. I don't want searches tied to my account. I don't want to be forced into a failed Social Network with all my personal services like GMail tied to it. I'm just done with that mess. I know others were migrating off of Google back in the day and I was like huh? Now I completely understand.
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I get that you much prefer iOS over Android. I do as well, well maybe not to the extent you do but overall I still prefer Apple.

Theme looks like Honeycomb did years ago. Don't know how Android copied that before Apple did it. That's a new form of copying. Plus does it matter? You can (if you so desired) change Androids UI. Either with a different theme or even just changing the wallpaper and icons yourself. Or have no icons. I have a friend who has a picture of his office as his wallpaper. Click on the computer, Internet app folder opens, click on the TV and multimedia folder opens, click on the garbage can...etc etc.

I can understand stand not wanting to go through the trouble of setting that up. However you don't have to change a thing. I can't understand why people feel compelled to modify every little thing if they don't want too. People would rather be locked into something then given the option to do something it would seem.

As far as crashing and stability look back my stability post with all those pics. Since I can only compare my experience it's not much of a statistic but 108 days without a OS crash? In 5 iOS devices I've never had them go that long.

As far as the Google services. I pretty much agree, I still use some because of there quality. Like Google maps for POI, pretty much the best I've found. Google translate is very very good. Gmail, meh take it or leave it, I have a lot of accounts tied to it so I keep it. Chrome, I prefer over safari on my Mac. YouTube, good luck not using that. I still prefer their search engine too. Just too tough to avoid Google services IMO.
 
cynics said:
I get that you much prefer iOS over Android. I do as well, well maybe not to the extent you do but overall I still prefer Apple.

Theme looks like Honeycomb did years ago. Don't know how Android copied that before Apple did it. That's a new form of copying. Plus does it matter? You can (if you so desired) change Androids UI. Either with a different theme or even just changing the wallpaper and icons yourself. Or have no icons. I have a friend who has a picture of his office as his wallpaper. Click on the computer, Internet app folder opens, click on the TV and multimedia folder opens, click on the garbage can...etc etc.

I can understand stand not wanting to go through the trouble of setting that up. However you don't have to change a thing. I can't understand why people feel compelled to modify every little thing if they don't want too. People would rather be locked into something then given the option to do something it would seem.

As far as crashing and stability look back my stability post with all those pics. Since I can only compare my experience it's not much of a statistic but 108 days without a OS crash? In 5 iOS devices I've never had them go that long.

As far as the Google services. I pretty much agree, I still use some because of there quality. Like Google maps for POI, pretty much the best I've found. Google translate is very very good. Gmail, meh take it or leave it, I have a lot of accounts tied to it so I keep it. Chrome, I prefer over safari on my Mac. YouTube, good luck not using that. I still prefer their search engine too. Just too tough to avoid Google services IMO.
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Yea, I like a lot of Apple products and how they operate. Not to the extent that I grab an Apple magazine and head off to the bathroom, but you get the idea.

I still use Google Search from time to time but I bounce around the different providers a little more now. I stopped using Chrome and just use Safari on my personal stuff. GMail was the toughest but I exported my mail and now use iCloud and Outlook.com exclusively. Push email to the phone is great. I rarely use YouTube so I never really adopted it. Map wise, I use the Apple supplied one or the Garmen GPS one built into my car.
 
I had android since eclair. I tried iphone and love it more. I'm surprised at the speed. The screen everything. It beat out the s3 I had before iphone in games. Hell to me still beats the s4.

I still keep tablet as android (note 10.1 2014)

As I like to be diverse and not a fanboy of either side.
 
I had a note 2 and 3 before the 5s and it was not that bad. The note 3 wasn't as good as the note 2 imo. Kinda buggy in a few ways
 
I came from android and would never go back. Even to this day the UI of android is still not as refined as iOS, but it has gotten better over the years Ill admit that much. Android has a lot of bloatware which is annoying as well.
 
I had Android all last year (Nexus 4, HTC One, Moto X, Nexus 5) and have come back to iPhone, and probably permanently. I missed the ecosystem, and to be entirely honest, I missed iOS lol. I don't miss much from Android, especially after jailbreaking iOS 7. The only thing that would complete my switch would be a bigger screen, which will eventually happen, so I'm not too worried about that.

So if you were to ask me that question now, "Would I trade my iPhone for an Android phone?", my answer right now would be a really big NO. I love having an iPhone again.
 
cynics said:
I've actually had pretty good luck with stability in Android. This is a screen shot from my Xoom I use for work 5-7 days a week then use at home for work things.

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That's 108 days without a OS crash, reset, etc. None of my personal iOS devices have gone that long without at least requiring a reset for various reasons.

Reset counter is me forcefully resetting the phone because of some reason or another. iMessage not working, Bluetooth acting strange, etc.

Image

And although it's rare iOS (springboard) has crashed on me. This is from a little over a month ago.

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Although I don't have a good way to compare, iOS apps aren't by any means perfect.

Image

Image

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Now some of those apps are junky and you obviously can't blame Apple for their junky behavior. However some of those are Apple apps.

Now I'm not saying IOS is unstable just in my experience it wasn't noticeably more stable then my personal Android experience.
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I rarely have to restart my iOS devices. Months can go by and I haven't restarted it. My galaxy S4 was ok buy my galaxy tab needed a restart at least once a week, my nexus 7 needs a restart/switches itself off a few times a week and my second galaxy note got to the point where it was switching itself several times a day.
 
Gincoma said:
Android has a lot of bloatware which is annoying as well.
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When you buy a Dell, you can't blame Microsoft or Windows for the preloaded garbage: The carriers and phone manufacturers are to blame here, not Google. Stock Android on a Nexus or Google Play Edition device is really slick.
 
I'm happy with my 4S, next phone is likely to be a iPhone. I've no reason to switch. If someone comes along with an innovation I cannot do without then I might consider it.
 
From the iPhone 4 I wanted a bigger screen so I bought the Galaxy Note first gen. Just thought it would be better for viewing videos and reading pdf files since I was still in school.

Had it for 3 months and began to hate it. First, the OS was laggy, glitchy, jumpy. Unpleasant experience with setting up email, hated the text UI, most of all i hated google's internet browser. Including chrome (on the phone, not on a computer). Also didn't like the way it scrolled. Lastly email wouldn't fit horizontally even when I zoom out i had to scroll around to read the content.

Second, this has nothing to do with the OS because i began to hate the size. I had to stop every single time i wanted to reply to someone or text, send emails and such. Screen is so big that I had to drop what I was holding to the side and use the phone because of its size. So one handed usability was more important than content viewing for me. I learned the hard way.

I want to try a smaller android device tho, like a htc one or something in the 4.5-5 inch range. I hear good things about android and the improvements they made over the years.

To answer the OP question, no I wouldn't trade my iphone with an android phone. Yet. I still love my 5 and waiting for my 6 which is going to be awesome.
 
Nipommu said:
From the iPhone 4 I wanted a bigger screen so I bought the Galaxy Note first gen. Just thought it would be better for viewing videos and reading pdf files since I was still in school.

Had it for 3 months and began to hate it. First, the OS was laggy, glitchy, jumpy. Unpleasant experience with setting up email, hated the text UI, most of all i hated google's internet browser. Including chrome (on the phone, not on a computer). Also didn't like the way it scrolled. Lastly email wouldn't fit horizontally even when I zoom out i had to scroll around to read the content.

Second, this has nothing to do with the OS because i began to hate the size. I had to stop every single time i wanted to reply to someone or text, send emails and such. Screen is so big that I had to drop what I was holding to the side and use the phone because of its size. So one handed usability was more important than content viewing for me. I learned the hard way.

I want to try a smaller android device tho, like a htc one or something in the 4.5-5 inch range. I hear good things about android and the improvements they made over the years.

To answer the OP question, no I wouldn't trade my iphone with an android phone. Yet. I still love my 5 and waiting for my 6 which is going to be awesome.
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I had the iphone 4 and went to the note just like you did. I had the same experience. I wanted to give android one more try, so I got a galaxy S4 it was fine and had none of the stability issues that the original note did. It's a bit better to hold one handed but, if you have small hands like me it is still a challange. In the end I went back to the iphone 5S. The S4 was stable but the experience just wasn't the same as what I had enjoyed with ios.
 
One thing I will say that I miss about Android is Wi-Fi calling. It's a very useful feature in some of those older buildings where cellular signals have a hard time penetrating. Unfortunately it's not available on iPhones.
 
First, I am a developer. So I do use a lot a devices.

Now I hop between a Nexus 5 and an iPhone 5S. Both have their advantages, and disadvantages, but currently I am using the Nexus 5 a little more because I love its notification system and larger screen for my larger hands.

That said, Apple nailed it with Siri access, but Google tends to be more reliable in actual accuracy.

Now when it comes to tablets, iPad Air (and Mini Retina) hands down.
 
CEmajr said:
One thing I will say that I miss about Android is Wi-Fi calling. It's a very useful feature in some of those older buildings where cellular signals have a hard time penetrating. Unfortunately it's not available on iPhones.
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Audio only FaceTime call.
 
T5BRICK said:
Are you talking about aspect ratio? The iPhone 5 aspect ratio is 16:9, just like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3/S4, Nexus 4/5, and most other smartphones on the market now.

If they made it wider, then it'd just be a weird aspect ratio...unless you're just talking about making the screen larger, and then yes, I agree.
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Oh yes, larger. I just don't want them to make it taller like they did when they went from the 4/4s --> 5.
 
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