Smartphone Wars

[GaryMayo]

I have had one iPhone model after another for many years. First with AT&T and their spotty coverage in my region and later Verizon with great coverage. All in all, happy with my iPhone 4s.

My contract ends in October which means I am free to look around at other phones and even carriers if I wanted to switch.

A couple days ago, a customer came in my store and her cellphone was also a tablet. It was smaller than my iPad, but big for a phone. It was a LG Intuitive. 5" screen. wOw!

Yesterday I went to Verizon and played with it. First test, it fits nicely in my shirt pocket. I wear scrubs and a perfect fit!

My question is this: is there life outside the iPhone? Will I like the added features ( lots more flexible it appears) or will I hate the android base phone? I think I will like the larger size. I am an artist and I assume the art apps I use now are also available on an android phone.

Any android users here that used to be iPhone users?

BTW, I looked at the iPhone 5 at the phone store. Same phone one icon taller. Speed seemed about the same. No great epiphany holding one.

This post was done on the iPhone app made by this web site. I assume there is an android app as well, possibly with more features.

I will be signing a two year contract with $200 up front and a $350 buy out if I hate it and want to go back to an iPhone. Don't let me screw that much money away if iPhone users end up hating androids.

What phone do you use and what pains did you go through making the switch?

[Maine Sail]

A friend just recently got one of those hybrid tablet/phones (can't recall which one but it was white). He kept it about 20 days then realized he disliked it due to the nature of slipping into a pocket and its size. Too big & bulky. He loved the screen but the sheer size did not work for an everyday phone for him. Verizon took it back, under the 30 day policy, and he swapped it for a smaller Android phone.

My wife is iPad/iPhone, I use the iPad a lot and am on it now. I am Android and did not even consider an iPhone when I just re-upped my contract in June. I chose the newish RazrMaxx because it has the longest battery life of any smart phone I have yet to own, and a very comfortable sized screen almost bordering on too big.

Lots of phones to choose from but having had Blackberry, Moto-Q's and a whole host of other supposed "smart phones" & platforms the Android software phones I have been completely happy with. I have owned an HTC Incredible (perhaps the most reliable & trouble free phone I have ever owned) and now the RazrMaxx which has also performed as I had hoped.

Some love the iPhone and some don't you just have to find a phone that works for you. What works for you won't necessarily work for me or others. Bigger may be better but even my RazrMaxx gets a little large at times, when pocket stuffing, but when browsing I love it.. My wife picks up her new iPhone 5 on Friday and is all giddy about it. We live in the same house and that phone does nothing for me.. Go figure....

[Doodles]

I've always used the iPhone and have no plans to switch. Just look at the numbers on the new iPhone 5 ... it will probably be the biggest seller ever. And the apps available crush the competition. I see no reason to even consider changing.

[Sandero]

This all is about how you use the device and what you use it for. I now have a Atrix with stinky ATT and will tether it to a laptop if I want to do anything more than read email or find the weather or some other basic app.. like metric conversions or the train schedule. The traffic feature is handy in NYC but like routes in navigation I don't need a device to guide me to where I want to go.

I find ALL the devices too small for input of text and I marvel at how many have adapted to text(ing) on them. I'm too old to learn and don't bother trying.

I don't like to drag my laptop around but do so when going to biz meetings or to the boat where the phone acts as a mobile hotspot.

I hated iTunes and that was reason enough to leave the platform. I am also not vacuuming the world for music... and listen mostly to my old "classics" which are on a ipod and it is permanently installed on the boat. My car has a slot for an SD card and so it to has the music I like and that's that.

The atrix came with a dock which can work on the car or the boat and I recently installed Navionics so I can have a small plotter in the cockpit to see where I am chart wise without going below to play with the fixed mount. Small cockpit plotter is fine...

Wife has an iPhone and seems to like it... but she is not a power user by any stretch of the imagination.

Smart phones are a curse and a blessing.

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by Doodles

I've always used the iPhone and have no plans to switch. Just look at the numbers on the new iPhone 5 ... it will probably be the biggest seller ever. And the apps available crush the competition. I see no reason to even consider changing.

I have over 400 apps I tinker with. Love apps! I think the competition is finally catching up in that department.

One thing about apple apps, they have to be tested and approved by apple. That limits what can be purchased by the consumer. That has a good side, as none of the apps released by apple will in theory harm your phone.

In an android phone, it is up to the user to research the app before you try it. Apps have been known to lock up phones to the point the phone company wipes your phone clean and you start over.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by GaryMayo

I have over 400 apps I tinker with. Love apps! I think the competition is finally catching up in that department.

One thing about apple apps, they have to be tested and approved by apple. That limits what can be purchased by the consumer. That has a good side, as none of the apps released by apple will in theory harm your phone.

In an android phone, it is up to the user to research the app before you try it. Apps have been known to lock up phones to the point the phone company wipes your phone clean and you start over.

Approved and work are often in two different camps. I downloaded an app onto the iPad for sizing marine wire loads and found some serious mistakes in it. I emailed the developer and he supposedly fixed them.

All Apple looked at was the "safety" for the phone not will it burn my boat down or do accurately what it says it does....

[GaryMayo]

My first was a VHF UHF ? Radio you could call out on only. Incoming calls went to a voice pager and I called them back.

Then the bag phone, $1,300. The brick phone was $3,500 and out of my budget.

I figured out how to place a cordless house phone in my wiring of the bag phone. I was the first guy in town with a small flip phone in my shirt pocket, when it worked. Could not park very far away! Lol. Cell One saw what I did and made a request to the FCC to sell that service. They were turned down. The FCC did not want home phones running all over causing interference.

My first smart phone was a blackberry storm. Awful phone.

[Snowpetrel]

I have switched from an IPhone to a Samsung G2. I love the big screen and being free of Itunes. But I miss the way the iphone feels and works. I will seriously look at the iphone 5 when this contract is up. Ice Cream sandwich really screwed up this phone.

[Cormorant]

Gary, just wanted to mention that LG has plans to release the successor to the Intuition -- the LG Optimus Vu II. It's out now in Asia, I believe, and will probably be available here in the US soon. Double the RAM, faster processor, same big screen, etc. I've been keeping an eye on that, as I really like having a large phone screen, for chartplotter applications (MX Mariner), without springing for a whole separate tablet,.

I currently own a Droid 3, which I like for its hard keyboard. With Android you can root (jailbreak) the phone easily, freeze or delete a lot of the phone company bloatware, and flash custom ROMs (which I have not done, yet. . . )

I don't have any experience with IPhone, so can't compare. . . . Though I did spend a lot of time helping my kids deal with Itunes on their IPod Touches -- a weirdly restrictive environment.

[GaryMayo]

iTunes on my PC is the only part of iTunes I hate.


I feel really stupid every time I work with it.

I think the interface is made to work that way so you will go out and buy a Mac. Lol

[monstads]

My wife wanted an iPhone, since she already had an iPod, but really, really hated iTunes. We spent some time playing with various phones in the stores, and ended up getting Samsung Galaxy phones. She now has the newer Galaxy S3, and her friends with iPhones are all jealous of it's bigger screen, and some of the nicer features.

Only drawback, which is getting less and less everyday, is that not all the iPhone apps are available. Almost always there's alternatives (usually cheaper, or free) but occasionally there's an app some friend has that she can't find. Since you had some specific apps you use, I would research availability, as well as alternatives.

[ReMetau]

We have an I-Pod for all of our music, and hate I-Tunes so much we have considered replacing our 80 Gig I-Pod with something else.

Just because of the crap of I-Tunes, I won't be purchasing an I-Phone anytime soon.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by ReMetau

Just because of the crap of I-Tunes, I won't be purchasing an I-Phone anytime soon.

We were unaware of the need to have and Itunes account before purchasing Iphones. I was so pissed when we got home that in order to make the phone function as a phone I needed to give apple a credit card number and open an account with Itunes that the pair of phones almost went back. Now nine months later I have a cracked screen!!!!

I hate this whole smart phone thing.....when this phone is dead I'm going back to the simple flip phone. If I really need to surf the net I'll get a tablet of some sort.

I have 4 apps on the phone, one is cruisers forum, the others are all wind and weather related. I don't use Itunes, I don't have a twitter or facebook account.....I read email for work on the stupid thing.....I can do that on a flip phone too.

end of rant

[Factor]

I actually dont find Itunes all that bad? Is it crappier on a Gates system (windows etc) or ?? You dont need to connect to Itunes anymore anyway I think. Need to check that - most of my gear is a few years old now. I like how I can put PDF files in Itunes and see them on the phone, eg Boat docco like insurance certificate that marinas want to see. Rego and Licence scans as pdfs , manuals and help files etc.

You can probably do that in other systems but I find it very easy with Itunes.

[svHannabel]

If you've been happy with the 4s and the ios ecosystem, why switch to Android? It sounds like screen size may be a factor, but as you know the iphone 5 gives slightly more screen real estate. You may also consider adding an iPad or the rumored "iPad mini" (~8" screen) as a companion device to run nav apps, etc.

I've personally converted fully to the Apple ecosystem (Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad) and love the connectivity and compatability between the devices. The two operating systems (ios and Mac OS) are both simple and straight foward. True, Android/Windows may offer a bit more flexibility, but with that flexibility can come complications.