Android Based Or Iphone

[Pazzo]

my contract ends in 3 months and have a blackberry. looking at either the new htc android 2.2 based android phone, or the iphone 4 or as the rumors have it the iphone5 in november. I know alot of members have the iphone , but anyone here use a android based phone. and what are the pro's and con's of each.

[sexual harrassment panda]

while this topic is here I'll hijack a bit with a couple questions as I'm noob at phones (mines a $29 nokia)

Windows 7 based phones, any good?

Samsung's equivelent of the phones in the above post, any good?

[ronburgundy]

Keenly awaiting responses as I am in IDENTICAL situation!

[senna_T]

I had the choice a couple of months ago, ended up going with HTC Desire HD with Android - works well, has plenty of good features and no issues so far.

On the surface everything is really easy to use, but when you dig into some of the deeper settings it can be a little tricky to get used to compared to say, a Nokia.

Most of the popular apps originally made for iPhone are now available for android, so you won't miss anything there. Also, just about everything is customisable - bluetooth media streaming and cool features like turn over for silent or loudspeaker are pretty trick.

I haven't owned an iPhone, but I've used mates ones and I think the only pro for it is the ease of use, aside from that? not much!

[Dagabond]

and not sold on the hype.

Only down side I have with an Android is the battery life sucks balls.

Lucky to get 10 hours on stand by without turning EVERYTHING off which defeats the purpose of having a smart phone. But is easily rectified by having a car charger and spare battery which you can swap unlike the iPhone.

[discostig]

I'm hanging for a Samsung Galaxy S 2 which shouldn't be too far away. Got lots of power under the hood so I've read, just like the original. Android based. I like the idea of more customisability and freedom that comes with android. It's cooler for geeks like me, haha.

Only wish that Nokia had kept up to par with smart phones. Not keen to wait for them now.

[bjc]

This is where majority go for rooting Android, need to register for downloads-

http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php

[dule]

I've got the original HTC Desire for about a year now, it's got Android 2.2 and it's great.

Battery life sucks but it's the same on any touch screen smart phone, iPhone and Windows phones are no better.

The only thing that I really like about the iphone is that you can put nice covers on them and they still look and feel good. Current android offering is all round designs and when you put a cover on it it makes it feel too bulky.

In saying that iPhones exposed glass edges make it almost mandatory to have a cover because if you drop it without and it lands on the edge the glass will probably break.

Android is a lot more customisable and this makes it a little harder to set up initially than the iPhone. But once set up the way you like it I think it's even easier to use than the iPhone.

Android also has those great widgets that can display all sorts of things on the home screen live, like weather, news, facebook, stocks...

I also like the HTC user interface a lot more than the Samsung, don't know why but for some reason I don't like the Galaxy S interface very much.

Dagabond, I had few battery issues in the past and noticed that some application were running in the background and preventing the phone from going in to sleep mode.

Some FaceBook versions were doing this as well as Skype and Ebay. HTC has the awake time which shows this but when I was trying to find problems on friends Galaxy it didn't have this.

sideways82 I had a bit of a play with windows 7 phones and I like them, it was fast, easy to use, clean design. All reports I've seen so far were positive too so if you like a particular phone and like the interface go for it.

And iPhone 5 will not get any significant updates, probably just a little better camera and things like that. Nothing significant.

EDIT: on tAndroid battery should last a day with regular use without any problems, so if you're getting 10 hours on stand by something must be wrong.

Edited 04/05/11 12:59 AM by dule

[Paulie2256]

I have iphone 4 because work gave me one. If I was buying one I would have done some research.

Iphone pros:

- Good camera

- Good battery life (bluetooth and wifi turned off)

- Very easy to use, sh*t just works

- Small compared to some other smart phones

- Touch screen has good input feel and the display is better than any other phone I have seen

- ipod and itunes

Iphone cons:

- Cant use bluetooth for transferring photos, music etc.

- Feels like it would break easily if dropped (I have a clear case which helps)

- Can only do things steve jobs says (unless jailbroken)

I cant think of any more cons. I like it but I have never had an android phone so this may be a bit biased.

[ubute]

The way I see it, if you want a phone that is simple to use and "just works" the the iPhone is for you. If you want something that does more than "just works", that you can customize and make it work the way you want it to (eg do something as simple as put your own custom message tone on it, not just the half dozen that Apple picked out for you) then look at Android. I guess this is mainly the case if you want to keep the phone stock and not jailbreak it. That's not meant to sound like an iPhone bagging, I think they're great at what they do. I've played with other iphones and iopd touches and they're pretty nifty to use, but I'd never give up my Android phone for one.

I think iTunes appstore is better than the Android Market, plus you can buy stuff with paypal on it, whereas the market is only googles crappy checkout thing which I've never bothered with. Personally I only really care about free apps as I'm a tigharse so no biggie for me. I like the free turn by turn voice navigation with Android too as it saved me buying a TomTom etc, not sure if iPhones have that? Another good thing about HTC for example (and most other brands other than apple) is you're not stuck with a proprietry connection for charging and data transfer!! You don't need to have the special iphone cable or special chargers that are excessively priced.

Battery life is much of a muchness, on the android you can do a lot of stuff to manage battery usage. You can turn 3G data on and off easily which is handy if roaming, while with iPhones I am under the impression this is not so easy?

Anyway, go to the shop and play with both types, or 3 types if you are open to Windows Mobile 7 which from the bit I played with seems very quick and smooth.