I feel like this is going to belong. Apologies. (feel free to skip to......)
When I turned 18 in '07, I purchased my first smartphone which happened to be the first generation iPhone on launch day. Since then, I've continued on this strange road with Apple products. That iPhone opened my eyes. It was my everything. Since then, I've had every iPhone (including my purchased & returned iPhone 5.) I am currently using a 4s and am unhappy with it. Well, not unhappy. I don't know the word. I'm just satisfied with it. Not happy, not enthusiastic about it. It's just... there.
My tenure with the iPhone hasn't always been grand. In 2009, my iPhone 3Gs took the biggest crap on me. I ended up replacing it 3 times. When it messed up for a 4th time, I decided that I'd switch to Blackberry. What was Android anyway? it was such a knockoff to my superior iPhone. I stayed with Blackberry for 10 months before going back to an iPhone. This time it was the iPhone 4. I loved it, until I didn't.
In 2011, I finally dumped my iPhone (for what appeared to be the last time) for my first Android phone, the Motorola Atrix. I did everything to hate that phone for the next three months... That was until I loved Android (with the help of this website and forum). Earlier that year, I started working a job at a cell phone retailer and began to learn Android in and out. I got to play with the coolest phones. We don't sell any Apple products, by the way, so it was all Android.
I thought I was done with Apple, that is until the 4s. I ditched my Atrix and newly acquired Droid X2 for the iPhone 4s. I felt bad as if I were regressing to a horrible drug after being sober for so long. Now a year has passed and I see that I've completely effed up.
(....here) I am currently in the market for a new phone. I've purchased the Nexus 4 and I'm waiting for the 5-to-6 weeks to pass until I get it. The thing is, that I'm so used to my iPhone that I'm afraid it will be a frustrating adjustment for me and this device will end up being a $400 (more like $383.93) paperweight. I've watched every unboxing and comparison video that I could find on YouTube and have read as many threads that my eyes could take on XDA.
I can spew out specs for days. Hell, I'm a salesman. I know the flagship phones in and out because I am setting them up all day and fixing issues for customers. It's always fun when they ask me what phone I'm using... Oops?
Are there any Nexus 4 users that switched from an iPhone? What features do you miss? Does the Nexus 4 adequately make the transition seamless?
I'm just looking for a bit of real life users and not a bunch of reviewers on YouTube and LG Reps at my job sounding extra robotic about the phone.
Thanks!
(Kudos if you read this whole thing. Seriously. K-U-D-O-S.)
Nexus is the closest thing to iphone you will ever find in the android world. Fast updates, excellent HW/SW integration, etc.
This year I've had a lot of phones, iphone 4 > sensation > GS2 > atrix > GS2 > GNex > GS3 > nokia e5 > Nexus 4, and a lot of iphones 4S, and no one gets close to a nexus.
Trust me, you could never go wrong with a Nexus
I don't fit in the criterion for responders, but hopefully you can appreciate my contribution.
It's very rare that you'll find an iOS feature that isn't implemented on Android. It's usually the other way around.
Anand Shimpi describes the two operating systems better than I can: iOS is an appliance and Android is an OS. With iOS, you have to work with what you're given and the phone is a tool, in the same way a toaster oven is really convenient for a lot of purposes. However, Android is the whole damn kitchen. It's a real OS and gives you the opportunities to do precisely what you want done.
On iOS, jailbreaking is a bit daunting due to the loss of Appstore access and security features. I've also heard that stability is notably worse. However, rooting on Android is a very common and standard process. It's akin to providing yourself an administrative account on Windows, as opposed to a kid's account with limited access and abilities.
In all likelihood, there's not a thing you'll miss about iOS that isn't identically fulfilled by system and third party apps. Except in the case of a few select games and apps (Hype Machine is one that comes to mind) Android equivalents are just that: the same app, but for a different platform.
Now for my bias: I think of iPhones as glorified dumb phones. Widgets are essential for me, and the modularity of the system allows you to actually use an OS fit to your liking. In don't see a functional difference between iPhones today and the Sony Ericsson phone I had on 2003. Both just run apps and give extremely limited access to the file system. I want a real file explorer, and apps that can utilize libs/APIs that significantly improve performance (the reason why iOS browsers not based on Safari suck). I want to install apps that replicate system functions, and do so in better ways. Sometimes, in illegal ways (WiFi sniffing and unpaid tethering), but it's my choice whether or not to do them.
I don't think you'll miss anything about the iPhone. At first, you may think Android is a little clunky, nonstandard, or even un-navigable. But just give it time and you'll come to appreciate the difference between the two OSes. One provides a great out-of-the-box experience that can't be tinkered with, but everything will be generally familiar. The other provides nearly complete freedom to change how you use the phone, at the cost of a dictatorial structure. I prefer the latter, as no phone OS is even close to what I want. Android let's me add, remove, and modify itself to let me get a little closer to having a desktop in my pocket.
raul90 said:
Nexus is the closest thing to iphone you will ever find in the android world. Fast updates, excellent HW/SW integration, etc.
This year I've had a lot of phones, iphone 4 > sensation > GS2 > atrix > GS2 > GNex > GS3 > nokia e5 > Nexus 4, and a lot of iphones 4S, and no one gets close to a nexus.
Trust me, you could never go wrong with a Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my job, I have an extensive in-store experience with all of those, except for the E5. There is a HUGE difference from setting someone's phone up, showing them a bit of cool features, and then having them sign a contract, as opposed to actually owning it and going home with the device to make it your own.
I love the ability to make drag and drop folders that ICS added. I'm hoping to get the same clean experience that I've gotten used to, but I just want more. iOS isn't cutting it anymore.
I will miss the keyboard, though.
Hung0702 said:
I don't fit in the criterion for responders, but hopefully you can appreciate my contribution.
It's very rare that you'll find an iOS feature that isn't implemented on Android. It's usually the other way around.
Anand Shimpi describes the two operating systems better than I can: iOS is an appliance and Android is an OS. With iOS, you have to work with what you're given and the phone is a tool, in the same way a toaster oven is really convenient for a lot of purposes. However, Android is the whole damn kitchen. It's a real OS and gives you the opportunities to do precisely what you want done.
On iOS, jailbreaking is a bit daunting due to the loss of Appstore access and security features. I've also heard that stability is notably worse. However, rooting on Android is a very common and standard process. It's akin to providing yourself an administrative account on Windows, as opposed to a kid's account with limited access and abilities.
In all likelihood, there's not a thing you'll miss about iOS that isn't identically fulfilled by system and third party apps. Except in the case of a few select games and apps (Hype Machine is one that comes to mind) Android equivalents are just that: the same app, but for a different platform.
Now for my bias: I think of iPhones as glorified dumb phones. Widgets are essential for me, and the modularity of the system allows you to actually use an OS fit to your liking. In don't see a functional difference between iPhones today and the Sony Ericsson phone I had on 2003. Both just run apps and give extremely limited access to the file system. I want a real file explorer, and apps that can utilize libs/APIs that significantly improve performance (the reason why iOS browsers not based on Safari suck). I want to install apps that replicate system functions, and do so in better ways. Sometimes, in illegal ways (WiFi sniffing and unpaid tethering), but it's my choice whether or not to do them.
I don't think you'll miss anything about the iPhone. At first, you may think Android is a little clunky, nonstandard, or even un-navigable. But just give it time and you'll come to appreciate the difference between the two OSes. One provides a great out-of-the-box experience that can't be tinkered with, but everything will be generally familiar. The other provides nearly complete freedom to change how you use the phone, at the cost of a dictatorial structure. I prefer the latter, as no phone OS is even close to what I want. Android let's me add, remove, and modify itself to let me get a little closer to having a desktop in my pocket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Glorified dumb phone" -- Couldn't have put it better.
Right now, I'm at the point where customizations are so limited with my iPhone. I want widgets and I want to be able to move my icons where I want them and not be locked to this stupid grid. I've also ALWAYS complained about downloading apps and being kicked out of the app store to my desktop to watch the damned thing download and install. Now that they've added the ability to stay in the app store, it seems like "too little, too late."
I haven't even bothered with jailbreaking my 4s, because I know it still won't do the things that I've seen Android OS phones do.
I feel like I've reached my peak with my iPhone experience and I'd prefer so much more. I just don't want it to feel like some huge trade off because of the little idiosyncratic things that iOS has done for me. It's been very intuitive. I only used Android 2.3 for 5 months before going back to an iPhone. I didn't do much with it other than complain for 2 and a half months! LOL!
From what I hear, 4.2 on the Nexus is the best Android experience yet. That's what made me purchase it without even having a handson experience with it yet.
I came over from iOS, after being with the operating system since my first smart phone, the iPhone 3GS. (I had the 4S just before).
I'm very enthralled by my tech gadgets, and the iPhone is no exception. I jailbroke it, tweaked it to my liking, and have been content with its functionality. However, when I saw the price of this phone--also it's factory unlocked--I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out Android. I was a bit apprehensive at first to switch over to something completely new, but for me, the transition has been seamless.
I actually avoid much of the cloud-based systems from Apple because I have been with Google to begin with, so the integration of contacts, email, and music were such a relief, and extremely useful. The widgets in Android are analogous to Dashboard X, if you are familiar, but so much better because of their native integration.
I received my Nexus 4 the week of release, and I haven't run into any problems since then. The customization is just as awesome--if you're into that--and it's actually much better on Android because of the limitations set by iOS.
Hopefully this is useful! I'll be happy to provide any more insight if you need.
Zaimojin said:
I came over from iOS, after being with the operating system since my first smart phone, the iPhone 3GS. (I had the 4S just before).
I'm very enthralled by my tech gadgets, and the iPhone is no exception. I jailbroke it, tweaked it to my liking, and have been content with its functionality. However, when I saw the price of this phone--also it's factory unlocked--I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out Android. I was a bit apprehensive at first to switch over to something completely new, but for me, the transition has been seamless.
I actually avoid much of the cloud-based systems from Apple because I have been with Google to begin with, so the integration of contacts, email, and music were such a relief, and extremely useful. The widgets in Android are analogous to Dashboard X, if you are familiar, but so much better because of their native integration.
I received my Nexus 4 the week of release, and I haven't run into any problems since then. The customization is just as awesome--if you're into that--and it's actually much better on Android because of the limitations set by iOS.
Hopefully this is useful! I'll be happy to provide any more insight if you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your train of thought seemed to be the same as mine. I saw the price-point and that it was unlocked and figured "what the heck?" This could be my only opportunity to try something new for such an awesome price. I spend that kind of money on my newest iPhone models plus a case to be locked into AT&T (snow Sprint... whew! Don't get me STARTED) to have the same features that I've already had.
The price point is enough trade off for me to buy out of my contract with Sprint and utilize one of the dealer-lines that I get for working where I do. They all require me to provide my own phone, so this is the perfect chance to do so.
As far as customizations, I haven't done anything since my 3Gs because I haven't jailbroken my 4 or 4s. I would LOVE to do more. It's just so hard to get anything done when your have the stock icons and a stock grid. Hell, my Mars Blackmon "theme" is all kinds of ruined (see the attachment). I'm anxious to get into a few more things.
Also, I, like you, have been using google since the days of the invite. So, I'm pretty sure that will be EASY AS EVER to get all of my contacts and stuff over. I'm excited about that. The thing is, I'm so deep into the Apple ecosystem. For example, my iPhone notes automatically update on my MacBook. The same goes for reminders and notifications. I like that. I feel like I'm going to miss that a lot.
Oh, and how's the music player? I'm really OCD when it comes to the organization of the music on my phone.
I don't mind not having expandable memory or LTE. Hell, I haven't had it for this long. LOL! HSPA+ will be a huge improvement over my 0.23mbps averaging Speed Tests on Sprint's network.
morejaylesswar said:
Your train of thought seemed to be the same as mine. I saw the price-point and that it was unlocked and figured "what the heck?" This could be my only opportunity to try something new for such an awesome price. I spend that kind of money on my newest iPhone models plus a case to be locked into AT&T (snow Sprint... whew! Don't get me STARTED) to have the same features that I've already had.
The price point is enough trade off for me to buy out of my contract with Sprint and utilize one of the dealer-lines that I get for working where I do. They all require me to provide my own phone, so this is the perfect chance to do so.
As far as customizations, I haven't done anything since my 3Gs because I haven't jailbroken my 4 or 4s. I would LOVE to do more. It's just so hard to get anything done when your have the stock icons and a stock grid. Hell, my Mars Blackmon "theme" is all kinds of ruined (see the attachment). I'm anxious to get into a few more things.
Also, I, like you, have been using google since the days of the invite. So, I'm pretty sure that will be EASY AS EVER to get all of my contacts and stuff over. I'm excited about that. The thing is, I'm so deep into the Apple ecosystem. For example, my iPhone notes automatically update on my MacBook. The same goes for reminders and notifications. I like that. I feel like I'm going to miss that a lot.
Oh, and how's the music player? I'm really OCD when it comes to the organization of the music on my phone.
I don't mind not having expandable memory or LTE. Hell, I haven't had it for this long. LOL! HSPA+ will be a huge improvement over my 0.23mbps averaging Speed Tests on Sprint's network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can empathize with you with syncing of notes/reminders/things Google doesn't handle because I have an iPad as well. It wasn't too huge of a loss for me because I use a Windows laptop, and my school email is integrated with gmail so the tasks work well. It definitely is something to consider though since you have a MacBook.
If I were in your shoes, it would be difficult to lose all those features because of convenient it makes everything. I'm guessing real world testing will be the only way for you to decide if you can be without it or not.
As far as the music player, I'm particularly OCD about the organization as well. It's not bad, nor is it exceptional; it does what it needs to. Since getting the Nexus, I've uploaded my music into Google Music and have been streaming it all since then--I have the grandfathered unlimited data plan from the 3GS--and it hasn't given me much issues.
The only thing I can say for certain that I sorely miss is music controls via the hardware volume buttons. I used them all the time to avoid taking my phone out of my pocket, or looking at my phone while driving. Fortunately, the feature should be brought back with ROMs in the near future, so there's not really much encouraging me to go back to my 4S.
I actually bought the 16 gb Nexus 4 because the 8 gb wasn't enough space, and I've sold the 8gb while waiting for the 16 gb to come in. I'm using my 4S again tentatively until the 16 gb comes in, and I can't believe how important screen real estate is. I really don't appreciate the 3.5 inch screen on the iPhone, nor the elongated 4 inch screen on the 5; the Nexus 4 really nice. The bigger screen size is much more useful for watching videos, and all around usage since you can see more.
morejaylesswar said:
"Glorified dumb phone" -- Couldn't have put it better.
Right now, I'm at the point where customizations are so limited with my iPhone. I want widgets and I want to be able to move my icons where I want them and not be locked to this stupid grid. I've also ALWAYS complained about downloading apps and being kicked out of the app store to my desktop to watch the damned thing download and install. Now that they've added the ability to stay in the app store, it seems like "too little, too late."
I haven't even bothered with jailbreaking my 4s, because I know it still won't do the things that I've seen Android OS phones do.
I feel like I've reached my peak with my iPhone experience and I'd prefer so much more. I just don't want it to feel like some huge trade off because of the little idiosyncratic things that iOS has done for me. It's been very intuitive. I only used Android 2.3 for 5 months before going back to an iPhone. I didn't do much with it other than complain for 2 and a half months! LOL!
From what I hear, 4.2 on the Nexus is the best Android experience yet. That's what made me purchase it without even having a handson experience with it yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got to ask yourself a few questions. Do I need any advanced functionality? Is it extremely beneficial to be able to glance at my phone and get a lot of information at once? Are there any platform-specific apps that I use?
My father is an older gentleman and only uses his phone to call, text, check email, and check his bank accounts. He occasionally takes pictures, but he's a photographer so he prefers to use his DSLR. I certainly recommend that users like this can use an iPhone and be more content than they would with Android. The iPhone dictates your usage, which can be useful if you don't really know what you have to do. The problem with Android is that the experience from one app to another can be very different. Further, you have so much freedom, it can be difficult to know what to do.
Also, here's a little album that has some of the customizations I made to my phone. Note the navigation bar colors, the widgets, the different dpi (text size) among different apps. I can really do what I want with the phone, however limited phone OSes may be at the moment.
I will put it simply. If you are considering a switch because iPhone feels too locked down, its because it is and you have been spoiled by Android. Android does all iOS does and much more and to a higher level of complexity. I was a former iPhone user and I love that now I am able to use MY phone however I want, not how Apple intended. I can use my phone as hotspot, create an FTP, share any file via NFC or Bluetooth, use whatever ringtone, download whatever typr file I want and being able to open it, sideload apks, pretty much anything I imagine. And no iTunes, either. Good old drag and drop, usable as a pen drive for that matter.
If you are not somebody who is satisfied by simplicity, but rather seeks customizability and expandability, then it's a no brainer. Especially at that price point.
I have come from a similar position as you morejaylesswar. (iPhone 3 -> 3GS -> 4 -> 4S) I'll give you my quick and dirty opinions after having my Nexus 4 for nearly 3 weeks now. Good and bad.
GOOD:
I love the freedom of android compared to IOS, you can just do so much more. Even more than a jailbroken iphone.
The screen size is great, at first i thought it was maybe a bit big for me but it didn't take long to get used to it, going back to my 4S which i still have seems way to small now in comparison.
Widget, widget, widgets!! i will say no more than that
NFC, i love using NFC tags for switching profiles e.t.c like switching bluetooth on, wifi off and launching the music player for when i get in my car.
EQ for the music player, this was one of my BIG issues with IOS. Why they never added just a simple 3 or 5 band EQ to the iphone i will never know.
BAD:
The camera on the nexus is poor compared to the 4S, outdoor shots in good light are ok but anything else is frustratingly bad, slow shutter speed, noisy images and a flash thats WAY too bright.
Music apps, this is obviously a personal one but if you like using music production apps (Korg e.t.c) you will be disappointed by the lack of apps on the play store, something to do with the lag thats inherent in the android os.
Battery life, my standby time is good but actually using the phone eats the battery like hell, of course this is to be expected with such a large screen but it is just a bit of a shock when first coming over from the 4S.
All in all the goods outweigh the bads for me by a long way, and i can only see me loving android (and my Nexus) more and more as i learn more about android and what i can do with it. I was bored with IOS, i didn't think it had evolved enough in the last few years and had become a bit stale.
morejaylesswar said:
Are there any Nexus 4 users that switched from an iPhone? What features do you miss? Does the Nexus 4 adequately make the transition seamless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Things I miss about my iPhone 4/5.
iMessages (medium issue)
In areas where I have wifi and no cell signal (ie: work), it was convenient for me to communicate with people who had iOS
Size (minor issue)
Some people will argue this, but my i5 was perfect for jogging, I could hold it in my hand, switch tunes, even text one handed.. a little trickier on the N4 but not impossible.
LTE (minor issue)
Yes I do miss it, it's not as big of an issue but I did love the fast speeds that were available in my city.
Screen (very minor issue)
Side by side the i5's screen (to me) is a tad bit better than the N4.
All in all though, I am very satisfied with the N4. I thought I'd be reaching for my iPhone 5 again (I have a nano converter so I can easily switch it back out) but I find myself just using the N4 exclusively now. As people have said the customization will keep you busy for a while, and just the sheer amount of things you can do vs iOS is just night and day.
Argenist said:
Things I miss about my iPhone 4/5.
iMessages (medium issue)
In areas where I have wifi and no cell signal (ie: work), it was convenient for me to communicate with people who had iOS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use Google Talk, it's an open platform that's not just locked to Apple users, you can type, voice call, or video call anyone. Be it Android, Apple, PC or whatever...
The reason I would never touch any Apple product is it's proprietary nature that use to lock users in (hardware connectors, quicktime format, iCloud/iMessage etc)
germanj said:
I will put it simply. If you are considering a switch because iPhone feels too locked down, its because it is and you have been spoiled by Android. Android does all iOS does and much more and to a higher level of complexity. I was a former iPhone user and I love that now I am able to use MY phone however I want, not how Apple intended. I can use my phone as hotspot, create an FTP, share any file via NFC or Bluetooth, use whatever ringtone, download whatever typr file I want and being able to open it, sideload apks, pretty much anything I imagine. And no iTunes, either. Good old drag and drop, usable as a pen drive for that matter.
If you are not somebody who is satisfied by simplicity, but rather seeks customizability and expandability, then it's a no brainer. Especially at that price point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being that I am a Mac user, iTunes (unfortunately) is a huge part of my life. I hate the time it takes to sync my iPhone. I mean, seriously, there is years worth of stuff in my iTunes. I'm a music hoarder. '
You're right, dealing with Android everyday, I'm a bit spoiled. In my down times at work, I'd rather browse on the Galaxy S III at my job than my own phone. I haven't gotten into messing around with it for more than what I do on my iPhone and that's just browsing, updating my social networks, and watching videos. It's just because I don't know WHAT to do. I know I can do more, but man, that's all I can do on my iPhone. LOL. I haven't downloaded an app in forever while I'm out because Sprint's network is PAINFULLY SLOW. I wish I would've stuck with AT&T.
Google boasts having over 700,000 apps. I'm looking forward to getting into that. I also haven't owned an Android device since it went to the "Play Store." The 'Market' was one of my big complaints when I used Android. It just wasn't my well known 'App Store.' Google Play has come a HECK OF A LONG WAY. Man, I'm impressed at how clean it looks and how user friendly it is.
Oh yes i forgot one more thing...
The search facility on the Nexus is nowhere near as good as the Spotlight search on IOS. You cannot for example type a name in and have it show all emails, texts, notes, calendar things related to that search. Also there is no option to search within any exchange email accounts you have setup.
To say that google is the king of search engines this is a little disappointing
keepittidy said:
I have come from a similar position as you morejaylesswar. (iPhone 3 -> 3GS -> 4 -> 4S) I'll give you my quick and dirty opinions after having my Nexus 4 for nearly 3 weeks now. Good and bad.
GOOD:
I love the freedom of android compared to IOS, you can just do so much more. Even more than a jailbroken iphone.
The screen size is great, at first i thought it was maybe a bit big for me but it didn't take long to get used to it, going back to my 4S which i still have seems way to small now in comparison.
Widget, widget, widgets!! i will say no more than that
NFC, i love using NFC tags for switching profiles e.t.c like switching bluetooth on, wifi off and launching the music player for when i get in my car.
EQ for the music player, this was one of my BIG issues with IOS. Why they never added just a simple 3 or 5 band EQ to the iphone i will never know.
BAD:
The camera on the nexus is poor compared to the 4S, outdoor shots in good light are ok but anything else is frustratingly bad, slow shutter speed, noisy images and a flash thats WAY too bright.
Music apps, this is obviously a personal one but if you like using music production apps (Korg e.t.c) you will be disappointed by the lack of apps on the play store, something to do with the lag thats inherent in the android os.
Battery life, my standby time is good but actually using the phone eats the battery like hell, of course this is to be expected with such a large screen but it is just a bit of a shock when first coming over from the 4S.
All in all the goods outweigh the bads for me by a long way, and i can only see me loving android (and my Nexus) more and more as i learn more about android and what i can do with it. I was bored with IOS, i didn't think it had evolved enough in the last few years and had become a bit stale.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The music apps is why I have to keep a mobile Apple product. I've already figured that it would be my iPad, since I use that the least. I'm a musician, songwriter, and recording and mix engineer. There are so many apps that make my life easy when it comes to that stuff. I have apps that control my recording consoles, actual mobile DAWs that allow me to sketch ideas out and export them into their full counterparts on my Mac.
I know that I will be having some tradeoff with the Nexus S speaker vs the iPhone speaker. When I'm at home, but not in my studio, I use my iPhone speaker to play the music that I am writing to at the time. I don't use headphones to write, because I need to hear myself as I go over the material.
Damn, another thing I will miss is the ability to control my iTunes if I have something playing there, but am pacing around my workspace while I'm writing. Unless there is an app that allows me to control those kinds of things wirelessly on Android. That'd be pretty dope.
I'm interested to see how the battery performs. Despite EVERYONE saying the 4s had horrible battery life... I've gotten 1.5 to 2 days out of it sometimes. But that's because I don't run many apps because of my network and all I do is read sports news on it right now. I feel so caged, lol.
keepittidy said:
Oh yes i forgot one more thing...
The search facility on the Nexus is nowhere near as good as the Spotlight search on IOS. You cannot for example type a name in and have it show all emails, texts, notes, calendar things related to that search. Also there is no option to search within any exchange email accounts you have setup.
To say that google is the king of search engines this is a little disappointing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google had that on the Galaxy Nexus until Apple sued them over it and made them change the search because "they had that idea patented." (BREAKING: They also have breathing through the nose, walking upright, and the opposable thumb patented, too.) The less informed customers that shop at my location were nervous that Apple would make them forfeit their device over those lawsuits. LOL. It was so strange.
Argenist said:
Things I miss about my iPhone 4/5.
iMessages (medium issue)
In areas where I have wifi and no cell signal (ie: work), it was convenient for me to communicate with people who had iOS
Size (minor issue)
Some people will argue this, but my i5 was perfect for jogging, I could hold it in my hand, switch tunes, even text one handed.. a little trickier on the N4 but not impossible.
LTE (minor issue)
Yes I do miss it, it's not as big of an issue but I did love the fast speeds that were available in my city.
Screen (very minor issue)
Side by side the i5's screen (to me) is a tad bit better than the N4.
All in all though, I am very satisfied with the N4. I thought I'd be reaching for my iPhone 5 again (I have a nano converter so I can easily switch it back out) but I find myself just using the N4 exclusively now. As people have said the customization will keep you busy for a while, and just the sheer amount of things you can do vs iOS is just night and day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iMessage has saved my life on more than one occasion. Most recently, my brother hadn't paid his half of the phone bill and our phone service was cut off. I had no idea until I was running late for work because of traffic and had to call into my job to let someone know. Long story short, I was able to turn on my hotspot (provided by my job) and iMessage someone to let them know of the situation.
As far as the screen size, most people laugh at me because of how small the iPhone looks in my hands. I'm 6'8" and can palm a basketball with ease. So, holding the Nexus 4 will probably be more natural to my hand than the iPhone is. I'm just used to it.
Zaimojin said:
I can empathize with you with syncing of notes/reminders/things Google doesn't handle because I have an iPad as well. It wasn't too huge of a loss for me because I use a Windows laptop, and my school email is integrated with gmail so the tasks work well. It definitely is something to consider though since you have a MacBook.
If I were in your shoes, it would be difficult to lose all those features because of convenient it makes everything. I'm guessing real world testing will be the only way for you to decide if you can be without it or not.
As far as the music player, I'm particularly OCD about the organization as well. It's not bad, nor is it exceptional; it does what it needs to. Since getting the Nexus, I've uploaded my music into Google Music and have been streaming it all since then--I have the grandfathered unlimited data plan from the 3GS--and it hasn't given me much issues.
The only thing I can say for certain that I sorely miss is music controls via the hardware volume buttons. I used them all the time to avoid taking my phone out of my pocket, or looking at my phone while driving. Fortunately, the feature should be brought back with ROMs in the near future, so there's not really much encouraging me to go back to my 4S.
I actually bought the 16 gb Nexus 4 because the 8 gb wasn't enough space, and I've sold the 8gb while waiting for the 16 gb to come in. I'm using my 4S again tentatively until the 16 gb comes in, and I can't believe how important screen real estate is. I really don't appreciate the 3.5 inch screen on the iPhone, nor the elongated 4 inch screen on the 5; the Nexus 4 really nice. The bigger screen size is much more useful for watching videos, and all around usage since you can see more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I definitely had to do the 16GB, because of how much music I have. I'm certain that my music will overtake this phone... So much so that I'm thinking about just getting an iPod for my car.
Unlimited data is precisely why I chose T-Mobile over AT&T. When I left AT&T last year, I obviously forfeited my unlimited. I don't use much data now (again, blame Sprint) but if I have to do a lot of cloud based things, I'd much rather be on T-Mobile. As well, in my area, when I speed test the T-Mobile phones at my store, I get about 15-20mbps on TMO HSPA+ 42 over AT&T's 3-5mbps on HSPA+ 14.1.
morejaylesswar said:
Being that I am a Mac user, iTunes (unfortunately) is a huge part of my life. I hate the time it takes to sync my iPhone. I mean, seriously, there is years worth of stuff in my iTunes. I'm a music hoarder. '
You're right, dealing with Android everyday, I'm a bit spoiled. In my down times at work, I'd rather browse on the Galaxy S III at my job than my own phone. I haven't gotten into messing around with it for more than what I do on my iPhone and that's just browsing, updating my social networks, and watching videos. It's just because I don't know WHAT to do. I know I can do more, but man, that's all I can do on my iPhone. LOL. I haven't downloaded an app in forever while I'm out because Sprint's network is PAINFULLY SLOW. I wish I would've stuck with AT&T.
Google boasts having over 700,000 apps. I'm looking forward to getting into that. I also haven't owned an Android device since it went to the "Play Store." The 'Market' was one of my big complaints when I used Android. It just wasn't my well known 'App Store.' Google Play has come a HECK OF A LONG WAY. Man, I'm impressed at how clean it looks and how user friendly it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are hundreds of apps that make your transition from iTunes a breeze. But for perspective, also note there are no apps of this nature in iOS. For example, Kies software from Samsung. A lot of free apps from the market, such as DoubleTwist, easysync, etc. But you don't even need an app for ios->android, once more thanks to the openness (?) of the OS. On iTunes preferences there is a box that let's it organize everything in their own folders (iTunes media folder, Michael Jackson, bad, for example). Its all organized, you would just need to drag and drop into the phone music folder and Google Music takes care of the rest. Not to mention the plethora of music apps.
Related
I am the proud owner of a HTC touch HD phone, and a very happy owner too. I got it just before Christmas, and it is currently running on Duttys rom, 2.6. All in all my best phone so far.
As many, I have always looked upon the iPhone as one of the absolute best phones ever made, in my opinion it more or less revolutionized how we look upon a phone’s capabilities. However, since I have never had an iPhone, I found it hard to argument for or against it. Therefore I have bought one (used), which will arrive by mail within the next few days. When I get it, I will use it for a month and keep posting here how it goes and how it performs compared to the touch HD. Why do I do this? Because I’m curious, and because I want to see what all the hype is about, and most of all, i hate the fact that everyone is *****ing about which product is the best, but only a few has actually had and used the two phones for a longer period of time.
So far I bought the phone (iPhone 3g), and I am waiting for it to arrive. I must say the wait is long I have downloaded iTunes, so all I’m waiting for right now, is the phone itself.
Besides the normal things you do with a phone (calling, sms), I daily use my touch HD for web browsing, email correspondence and video and music. All of which performs perfectly (thank you coreplayer ). So this is what I plan to use the iPhone for, since touch HD is a windows mobile phone, I rely upon activesync to take care of my outlook contacts and calendar notes, we’ll see how well iTunes does this.
I also like the fact that it is so easy to get what you want with windows mobile, mostly through you guys here at xda.
When the phone arrives I’ll post my first experiences.
Update: 15-4-2009
It'll arrive tomorrow. Thanks for all the replys
Update 17-4-2009
First impressions
So i’ve used the phone for all in all 5-6 hours so far, so I can only tell you about my first impressions. I had some problems getting my music from my pc to the phone, it turned out that you have to enable music synchronization in itunes, in order to get anything transferred to the phone. First thing I did was to transfer my music through explorer (drag and drop), more or less the exact same way as with touch hd, this isn’t allowed, so I had to go through itunes, convert all my music, find out how to get it from itunes to the phone, before I could listen to music. In all in all much more difficult than I had believed, but now I know how it works, so hopefully this won’t be an issue in the future. I can see the problem for those who has many more songs than I had on my laptop, it’s takes a long time to convert to the itunes format, so this would be a major drawback. Why can’t I just put my mp3’s directly on the phone?
This being said, I really like the flow on the phone, the framerate compared to touch hd, is better, giving a better feel. However, I’ve been a bit annoyed by the sensitivity of the screen; it probably takes some getting used to.
Finally, when I used the phone this morning in my way to work, I had some issues with the 3G connection. My touch hd has no problems what so ever when I am using to surf and check mails and so on, the iphone used 3G for 3 minutes, and then I found myself browsing using edge, which is in my opinion is not an option. This is something that will be an annoyance if it keeps up (I’m hoping it was a onetime only).
As for the browsing itself, iphone surpasses the touch hd. Opera is simply to slow compared to safari, but if I can’t get a proper connection, there really is no choice.
One thing that really impressed though was the app store. All though you have to put in your credit card information in order to create an account, it is really easy to browse through all the apps, find what you like and install it. And there really are many different and funny apps, which all in all lifts the overall user value.
I’ll return in next week with more views. Thanks for all the responses
04-05-2009
The first many days.
Hey, sorry for the delay. Been busy at work, but finally found some time to write some more. I have had and used the phone for quite some time by now, it performs as expected. All though I begin to see the small bugs, which most people forget to mention when recommending the iphone. I read somewhere that the iPhone simply “just works”. That is not entirely true, yes I have never had a smartphone that performs as well as the iPhone, it has the least amounts of crashes and so on. However, to say that it simply works, is wrong. When I browse the web, safari hangs on every load, so you have to wait for the entire page to load until you start navigating. Furthermore the video player used in safari has a tendency to hang a lot when you are viewing a longer video, and especially if wifi is turned on. But still, the browser is the best mobile browser so far. Opera hangs/stalls/dies a lot too, and of the two browsers, I prefer safari. There’s still a long way to go until web browsing on the mobile is perfect.
The phone itself has rebooted three times, one time in a game and the two other times it just stalled and went black. Odd… Again if I compare to touch hd, it is more or less the same. My touch hd also died a lot of times, and the one thing that annoyed me most on a windows mobile device, is the fact that the memory isn’t flushed correctly. To many times you have to do a hard reboot, in order to get the memory cleared and to get good performance again.
I mentioned the connection problems earlier, or the lack of connection… Well it hasn’t improved, when you are traveling, the phone looses connection so many times it’s a major problem. Sometimes safari stops working when the connection is lost. Damn, that annoys me… So why don’t you just use wifi? Because with wifi turned on, the battery is used up in no time at all. This brings me to the next issue: The battery. I have to charge the phone one time every day, even with wifi turned off. “Then you use the phone a lot” you might say, and the answer would be: “yes I do, but that’s what the iphone is all about…”. If you don’t use the iphone for all the things that are so nice on the phone, why use it at all. I listen to music, surf the web, check emails, and play games on it daily. And this results in a charge a day. So all in all, the battery performance is poor. Furthermore if you are playing a game, and receive a phonecall, the game is shut down, without save, stupid…
This brings me to the app store, this is the one thing that makes me praise the iPhone. Yes we have the same on windows mobile, but not so approachable and comprehensive. Installing a game or a program could be much much easier on winmo. There is only one big flaw in the app store, if you are connected through 3G, there is a max on 10 mb per download. So if you find a game that’s larger than 10 mb, you have to wait to download it. Why??? 10 mb on 3g shouldn’t be a problem… By the way, you gotta love the facebook app… All though you can’t connect a contact to its facebook profile, it’s still a nice app
The GPS is not entirely accurate, but still usable. I won’t say that much about the gps since I don’t use it allot. And google maps is more or less the same as on touch hd.
The last thing: I saw many movies on touch HD. I have ripped many of my dvd’s and converted them to divx. On touch hd you just transfer the movie to the phone and you can see it. On iphone I have to convert it to some stupid format in order to see it. I hate having movies in so many different formats, and hate to rely upon itunes.
I’ll write a new post in the near future, and as for the guy who commented on my description on to much sensitivity: Sorry, but that’s just my experience of the phone
Samoht2003 said:
I am the proud owner of a HTC touch HD phone, and a very happy owner too. I got it just before Christmas, and it is currently running on Duttys rom, 2.6. All in all my best phone so far.
As many, I have always looked upon the iPhone as one of the absolute best phones ever made, in my opinion it more or less revolutionized how we look upon a phone’s capabilities. However, since I have never had an iPhone, I found it hard to argument for or against it. Therefore I have bought one (used), which will arrive by mail within the next few days. When I get it, I will use it for a month and keep posting here how it goes and how it performs compared to the touch HD. Why do I do this? Because I’m curious, and because I want to see what all the hype is about, and most of all, i hate the fact that everyone is *****ing about which product is the best, but only a few has actually had and used the two phones for a longer period of time.
So far I bought the phone (iPhone 3g), and I am waiting for it to arrive. I must say the wait is long I have downloaded iTunes, so all I’m waiting for right now, is the phone itself.
Besides the normal things you do with a phone (calling, sms), I daily use my touch HD for web browsing, email correspondence and video and music. All of which performs perfectly (thank you coreplayer ). So this is what I plan to use the iPhone for, since touch HD is a windows mobile phone, I rely upon activesync to take care of my outlook contacts and calendar notes, we’ll see how well iTunes does this.
I also like the fact that it is so easy to get what you want with windows mobile, mostly through you guys here at xda.
When the phone arrives I’ll post my first experiences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to hear your experinces
Yep look forward to it!
Not sure it was revolutionary... the LG Prada was a full touch screen phone before the iPhone.. Apple just packaged it well... Steve jobs could box a turd and sell it. pretty much like Apples claim on the mouse! That was actually Xerox's baby!
Looking forward to your experience and an honest review / comparison between the 2!
I actually have both (HTC Touch HD and iPhone 3g), too
Yeah, waiting to see your comments...
We are talking about Apples & Oranges here!!! Arent we?
the real great things on the iphone are aps! they are realy cool, good looking, running smooth... but only one at a time with a verry bad cam and no mms... (yet )
if it had a better cam, MMS (soon) eand a real GPS (and GPS software) i would defintly forget my HD!
way to go pal, will be glad to read your reviews.
bouyaka said:
the real great things on the iphone are aps! they are realy cool, good looking, running smooth... but only one at a time with a verry bad cam and no mms... (yet )
if it had a better cam, MMS (soon) eand a real GPS (and GPS software) i would defintly forget my HD!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh my.
Jesus phone has a lot of shortcomings, but MMS? Who cares? It's the silliest thing since plastic toothpick. Why do you want to pay your operator for this surrogate email?
And do you really consider HD's camera usable?
daraj said:
We are talking about Apples & Oranges here!!! Arent we?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really.... I'll explain...
I've just sold my iPhone 3G and bought a HD. My reasons were...
1) I get bored and I had the iPhone since last July and fancied a change
2) I wanted expandable memory
3) I think the iPhone is looking dated now. Controversial I'm sure...
4) I now want stereo Bluetooth streaming for a new iO Play car kit I have had fitted
I used to change phones far too often and had 13 in a year once, but the iPhone is the longest serving handset I've had for a while. Despite not being bleeding edge when it comes to the specification, the way you interact with it, the simplicity, the fluidity and the Apple ecosystem all added up to make it a revolutionary phone. There is a reason why every new touch-screen phone is an iPhone killer.
The email client is superb, web browsing superb and media playback superb. And the text inputs auto-correction is very intelligent and doesn't just look out for spelling mistakes, but patterns in typing which it relates to possible words.
The App store is great, but getting full of rubbish making the genuinely useful stuff harder to find. Rumours are there will be a premier store soon. The O2 contracts are great, as the free data and free WiFi access are superbly implemented, switching between seamlessly. And once you've authenticated with the free WiFi once that's all you ever have to do. I could walk into a Starbucks, McDonalds, Costa, Hotel, Airport etc etc and it would connect to the WiFi before I even realised I was in a hotspot.
But it's not the Jesus phone everyone seems to think. And I hate, really, really hate the fan-boy love affair some people have with it... to the point I was embarrassed by it sometimes.
"No, I don't want to talk to you about your iPhone, stranger...."
The limitations in the iPhone are 75% software based, most of which will be corrected in version 3 of the software. Things like additional Bluetooth profiles, landscape text input in all apps, MMS, tethering etc will be welcome additions.
And that's one of the things that bothered me. These are simple things that really should be included as standard.
Things like the poor camera didn't bother me. I mean, Sony Ericsson have been putting rubbish cameras in phones they didn't market as imaging devices for years. If the camera is the main focus, there are much better options (like buying a camera).
The lack of expandable memory is a big deal for a multimedia phone though. I can understand the marketing / product reasons behind it, but even that seems to contradict the 'one device to do everything' approach Apple take with this.
Now to go back to my original point, Apples Vs Oranges, the HD and the iPhone aren't that different. Both have huge strengths, both have huge weaknesses, both have massive amounts in common. The thing that differs between them is down to the person buying it. What do you want from a phone....?
Out of the box usability and slickness? iPhone.
Endless tinkering, customisation and free reign of what you do with your phone? Touch HD
But both have the capability of matching the other in every single aspect. There is pretty much nothing that you can do with one that you can't with the other. Exactly the same can be said for Windows PC operating systems Vs Apple Mac OS X. Funnily enough, most of what I have said above can be applied in some way to that argument too.
So, the other downsides to the iPhone.... (some of this is entirely personal opinion).
Text input needs work in it's current form. The keys are just too small. This is made up by the excellent auto-correction, but it's still poor. And you can't add in new keyboards without jailbreaking, which brings me to..
Restrictive approach to third party applications. Apples closed-door approach has no benefits. I originally thought it would be good as it would ensure reliability and stability, but there are some terribly shaky applications in the App Store. I see no benefit in this for consumers and the only way around involves invalidating your warranty.
Hardware restrictions - No expandable memory, as above. Screen size Vs chassis size and screen resolution are falling behind the competition. Poor build quality is another factor that's not uncommon either.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys Windows Mobile, I predict you will get frustrated with the iPhones shortfalls and will be jailbreaking it within a day.
Robster83 said:
Not really.... I'll explain...
I've just sold my iPhone 3G and bought a HD. My reasons were...
1) I get bored and I had the iPhone since last July and fancied a change
2) I wanted expandable memory
3) I think the iPhone is looking dated now. Controversial I'm sure...
4) I now want stereo Bluetooth streaming for a new iO Play car kit I have had fitted
I used to change phones far too often and had 13 in a year once, but the iPhone is the longest serving handset I've had for a while. Despite not being bleeding edge when it comes to the specification, the way you interact with it, the simplicity, the fluidity and the Apple ecosystem all added up to make it a revolutionary phone. There is a reason why every new touch-screen phone is an iPhone killer.
The email client is superb, web browsing superb and media playback superb. And the text inputs auto-correction is very intelligent and doesn't just look out for spelling mistakes, but patterns in typing which it relates to possible words.
The App store is great, but getting full of rubbish making the genuinely useful stuff harder to find. Rumours are there will be a premier store soon. The O2 contracts are great, as the free data and free WiFi access are superbly implemented, switching between seamlessly. And once you've authenticated with the free WiFi once that's all you ever have to do. I could walk into a Starbucks, McDonalds, Costa, Hotel, Airport etc etc and it would connect to the WiFi before I even realised I was in a hotspot.
But it's not the Jesus phone everyone seems to think. And I hate, really, really hate the fan-boy love affair some people have with it... to the point I was embarrassed by it sometimes.
"No, I don't want to talk to you about your iPhone, stranger...."
The limitations in the iPhone are 75% software based, most of which will be corrected in version 3 of the software. Things like additional Bluetooth profiles, landscape text input in all apps, MMS, tethering etc will be welcome additions.
And that's one of the things that bothered me. These are simple things that really should be included as standard.
Things like the poor camera didn't bother me. I mean, Sony Ericsson have been putting rubbish cameras in phones they didn't market as imaging devices for years. If the camera is the main focus, there are much better options (like buying a camera).
The lack of expandable memory is a big deal for a multimedia phone though. I can understand the marketing / product reasons behind it, but even that seems to contradict the 'one device to do everything' approach Apple take with this.
Now to go back to my original point, Apples Vs Oranges, the HD and the iPhone aren't that different. Both have huge strengths, both have huge weaknesses, both have massive amounts in common. The thing that differs between them is down to the person buying it. What do you want from a phone....?
Out of the box usability and slickness? iPhone.
Endless tinkering, customisation and free reign of what you do with your phone? Touch HD
But both have the capability of matching the other in every single aspect. There is pretty much nothing that you can do with one that you can't with the other. Exactly the same can be said for Windows PC operating systems Vs Apple Mac OS X. Funnily enough, most of what I have said above can be applied in some way to that argument too.
So, the other downsides to the iPhone.... (some of this is entirely personal opinion).
Text input needs work in it's current form. The keys are just too small. This is made up by the excellent auto-correction, but it's still poor. And you can't add in new keyboards without jailbreaking, which brings me to..
Restrictive approach to third party applications. Apples closed-door approach has no benefits. I originally thought it would be good as it would ensure reliability and stability, but there are some terribly shaky applications in the App Store. I see no benefit in this for consumers and the only way around involves invalidating your warranty.
Hardware restrictions - No expandable memory, as above. Screen size Vs chassis size and screen resolution are falling behind the competition. Poor build quality is another factor that's not uncommon either.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys Windows Mobile, I predict you will get frustrated with the iPhones shortfalls and will be jailbreaking it within a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant by that is the fact the HD is highly customizable to the bones, heck you can even run an Android OS on it. Iphone is a very closed OS with very little tweaks allowed by Apple ( Not talking about Jailbreaking) From the usability to the screen to the memory to the GPS vs A-GPS.. from the camera to almost everything in both phones are different. I consider the Iphone a weekend phone While the HD is a very business oriented phone that gets the job done and good.
Not sure If I can really say they are very similar. Just my 2 cents
daraj said:
What I meant by that is the fact the HD is highly customizable to the bones, heck you can even run an Android OS on it. Iphone is a very closed OS with very little tweaks allowed by Apple ( Not talking about Jailbreaking) From the usability to the screen to the memory to the GPS vs A-GPS.. from the camera to almost everything in both phones are different. I consider the Iphone a weekend phone While the HD is a very business oriented phone that gets the job done and good.
Not sure If I can really say they are very similar. Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's fair enough. But when you sit the two side-by-side and ask them to do the same task, there isn't much difference. If you think about what you do with your phone, I'd bet the HD does things in a very similar way to the iPhone. There are only so many ways to construct a text message, make a call or browse the internet on a touch screen mobile
The one big thing I didn't mention that you have just reminded me of, is the touch screen. The capacitive screen on the iPhone is much more responsive in use.
Robster83 said:
That's fair enough. But when you sit the two side-by-side and ask them to do the same task, there isn't much difference. If you think about what you do with your phone, I'd bet the HD does things in a very similar way to the iPhone. There are only so many ways to construct a text message, make a call or browse the internet on a touch screen mobile
The one big thing I didn't mention that you have just reminded me of, is the touch screen. The capacitive screen on the iPhone is much more responsive in use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. WVGA on HD and VGA on Iphone ( Not sure if its even VGA)
pretty much it boils down to what you do with it. I have both devices. I use the HD and the iphone sits on the desk. I am an admin at my company and we are windows based the windows mobile device it the best phone for us. While I like the Iphone it is not praticle for me to use. I hav not found any thing that I do on the iphone that I gave not been able to find an app that works on the hd doing the same or better. I really like being able to change the rom on my phone and customise it. Can't really do that with the iphone. And I think the display on the HD is much better.
daraj said:
Yup. WVGA on HD and VGA on Iphone ( Not sure if its even VGA)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Capacitive Vs Resistive is a bigger aspect than the resolution which, I agree, the iPhone falls short of. It is HVGA (320x480).
You have to be crazy to think that the iphone hasnt changed the mobile industry. It is an amazingly capable, intuitive and beautiful device to boot compared to these piece of lard htc OS's (the stock ones).
I owned about 15 HTC/Winmo devices starting with the SPV c500 and culminating in the Diamond as soon as it came out and got an iphone 3g at around the same time. None of the roms could come close to the intrinsic slickness, speed and support for the iphone, I jailbroke it, and was blown away and it became my primary device. However the iphone is currently mediacentric and not a buisness/professional phone and I needed an OQO UMPC to carry around as well but it doesnt claim to be anything else in fairness.
I have been quite impressed by the cooked Win 6.5 roms and skyfire recently though, and I am going to buy the HTC Touch Pro2 when it comes out as I need to use programs like word with a built in keyboard and tv out facility and perhaps retire my UMPC/laptops. This forum is also a great feature in choosing a HTC phone for customisation.
And for people who say the iphone doesnt have microsd, poor camera etc... How many crippled HTC devices have we seen? The iphone has been in a class of its own untill recent catch up devices.
imperiallight said:
And for people who say the iphone doesnt have microsd, poor camera etc... How many crippled HTC devices have we seen? The iphone has been in a class of its own untill recent catch up devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Expandability is (in my opinion) essential for any electronic devices. I have an 8GB card in my HD now, and I plan on upgrading to a 32GB soon by simply inserting a memory card. iPhone...can't do that. You have to buy a new phone to do so. I also have a spare battery which I can swap out when I am on the road and can't charge my phone...like camping perhaps. Iphone...can't. I like to copy and paste text from one program to another (multitasking). iPhone...can't. The HD 5MP camera takes great pictures which can be geo tagged with great accuracy. iPhone (until v2.0 comes out)...can't. Sure, there are some HD's out there that are crippled or bricked. Why? Because people that have the mental capacity to appreciate a multitasking device/computer actually like to open the hood and tweak it. Sure, iPhone apps may seem to run smoother. But that's because of the lack of multitasking! My HD (or any other Windows Mobile device) runs processes and applications in the background so you can do more and be more productive.
Honestly, do a side by side comparison of the HD and the iPhone. And I am not talking software, I mean hardware. We can debate applications all day, but it's the hardware that defines the capabilities. If you want a list of HD hardware features then I will post them for you.
*double post*
DerrickD2,
You have misunderstood the thrust of my post, that the iphone was/is a trailblazing and revolutionary device in the mobile sector. It seems anywhere bar this 'nerdy spec-hugging' forum that its not too hard to accept. The Touch HD is a better device in my opinion too as like I already stated, other companies have played catch up. There is no need to tell me its hardware specs.
But to pick up on a few points:
* Upgradeable SD is important, it annoys me to only have 16gb but I can stream content off free iphone optimised filestores available, some providing 10gb a go. Not ideal but workable.
* Spare battery, well the iphones battery is pretty decent and lasts for many years. If you want to keep the battery charged you can do it on the fly by adding these 'double your battery' packs and their ilk/cases when you are running low and you dont even 'have to swap the battery':
http://us.kensington.com/html/15462.html
* You can cut and paste text in jailbroken phones within the app. You can mulitask too, to an extent on JB phones although I dont know if it's sytemwide cut and paste (prob. not)
* Megapixels aren't everything on a camera. Its about the lens too. The 2MP camera of the iphone image quality is known to be quite decent, better than most 3.2MP HTC offerings but I agree it should have a better camera.
* Like I said the iphone isn't productivity centred and its probably why they dont consider multitasking a crucial feature but from what I understand its processor is faster than any HTC phone. Jailbroken iphones can run background apps too but obviously native apps dont support this.
We can debate applications all day, but it's the hardware that defines the capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is so contentious! Hardware can define the capabilites and software/OS/User experience can define the capabilties! It depends on what the consumer needs. Horses for course's!
hello
im looking to buy a new phone in about a month and im deciding between the nexus one and the iphone. i currently have a HTC Touch Diamond and i have suffered quite a bit with this phone and im doubting the quality of the products that htc makes. i have read all the reviews and the specs and im still finding it hard to choose so i want to find out from u guys here if it is actually the perfect phone or it comes with glitches, and the occasional freezing.
dragonoflight said:
hello
im looking to buy a new phone in about a month and im deciding between the nexus one and the iphone. i currently have a HTC Touch Diamond and i have suffered quite a bit with this phone and im doubting the quality of the products that htc makes. i have read all the reviews and the specs and im still finding it hard to choose so i want to find out from u guys here if it is actually the perfect phone or it comes with glitches, and the occasional freezing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you do want a phone with 3G glitches, faulty software and occasional freezes / reboots then be sure to buy the iPhone. Ask my wife about her wonderful iPhone
Seriously though, just about every modern phone has some flaws and requires a restart every now and again ... its progress
iPhone simple and capable with loads of apps and support, sort of a "Tomy - My First Phone"
Android edgy and capable with loads of apps but not as many as iphone (most companies will release to the iPhone first due to the huge base of customers who will buy).
If you are happy having a simple interface with no options of customisation and are happy never being able to do anything your own way or take shortcuts then the iPhone is for you.
If you are happy to do a bit of tinkering and customise your phone then the Android is for you.
Both are amazing phones and look good and are easy to use. Specs wise Nexus one wins hands down.
If you love google and use Gmail, contacts, etc. And if you dont like iTunes and stuff then Nexus One is definetly the way to go.
But if you like all the crazy apps thats out on the iphone seems quite good for that, however Nexus One has got some really good apps aswell! A lot of people say iPhone is still easier to use. But I would say nexus one is just as easy and highly customizable which is cool.
All comes down to personal preference...
iPhone is obviously more stable seeing as OS 4 is going to come out whereas Android is 2.1, iPhone has less bugs and stuff im guessing..But Nexus one should be no trouble as your everyday phone and internet device!
I always fund iPhone really boring, with out jailbreak there isn't much in it.
Lots of apps and what else? I never had able to figur it out . If you coming from windos mobile i think you should get Nexus. You would love it.
I've been using WM since 1997 (PPC).
I've got my Nexus One yeasterday its my first Android device, i like it.
as far i saw iphone is mostly problem free and i want a phone with causes a little problems a possible but i have been with xda for more than 1 year and have gotten into the habit of customising so a phone with a little change in interface would be nice. the quality of the apps u get in the iphone is extremely good, u always get a nice colour full, smooth and simple interface. i personaly dont know about android apps but my experience of windows mobile apps is that they are ****. they come with 1980 style buttons and some times they don't even fit on ur screen cos thy were build with the developers looking at a different phone and the apps are expensive. so you see i don't want to go through that again.
I'm not sure there is anything such as the perfect phone since everyone has some different interpretation of what that is. I just received my Nexus One yesterday and I'm switching from the iphone, although I have extensive experience with winmo, palm and symbian. A few observations:
Build Quality: this is the best built phone I've seen in a long time. It has the exceptionally solid feel of the iphone, but still gives you the removable battery feature and expandable storage. In addition, it just feels great in the hand, nicely rounded with great build materials. Just overall top notch build and feel.
Software: I spent yesterday evening looking at the applications on my iphone and trying to find comparable ones on Android. I was successful for about 90% of what I use. The applications may look a little different, but the functionality is essentially the same and I haven't had any issues so far. There are a couple that I couldn't yet replace like the kindle app, cnn and the NY times, but I expect they'll be there eventually. A few others like ewallet have equivalent products on android such as splashid.
Useability: The iphone is dead simply which is both a strength and a weakness. I've always found it to be a little too easy and the lack of customization was frustrating as well as the lack of multitasking. I've always found the multitasking issue rather humorous since so much of the tech industry used to point this out as a weakness in the palm os and now the iphone has the same weakness years later and it's not an issue for the writers...go figure. The N1 is not quite as simple as the iphone and you'll probably spend a little more time getting used to it and setup the way you want, but you'll end up with a phone that meets your personal needs as opposed to someone else's view of your needs.
Overall I'm finding it to be a top notch phone that I expect will only get better as the OS continues to evolve. Google seems to be on a pretty regular update cycle and it continues to evolve. As the os attracts more users the applications will continue to grow as well.
One final word. I wouldn't equate the winmo htc experience with what you'll have with an android htc device. Winmo definitely contributes to issues with some of the htc phones. This device is in a whole different league.
here is few questions if you guys could answer it would be really helpful
does it freeze or have problems when running multiple apps?
do the apps have nice interface and are thy smooth?
does it lag alot?
and i herd mutitouch is coming to the google phone does anyone know when?
does it freeze or have problems when running multiple apps? - Nope for me its been pretty smooth, no stuttering at all, Apps open very quickly.
do the apps have nice interface and are thy smooth? - yes most do, there are one or two that do not scale well to the larger screen, these will be fixed with updates, just waiting on the devs to resolve.
does it lag alot? - no lag for me what so ever.
and i herd mutitouch is coming to the google phone does anyone know when?
- no one knows, its been demo'd on the European version of the Nexus One. However you can have multitouch browsing using either a custom ROM (soon to be released) or the Dolphin Browser (free download from the market place).
I know exactly what you're going through with your WinMo and HTC. I had multiple problems with the two just barely working at all. Android is so different but so much easier to find things in. I've played with iPhones and yeah they're fun for a bit but I have a friend with one that has had it for a couple months and is already starting to get bored with it. He says he's jealous of my Android and how much more I can do with it. It always looks different each time he looks at it.
I can tell youre trying to compare the Nexus One to your diamond because Ive used that phone and know what youre talking about with the lag and freezing and theres simply no comparison between the N1 and diamond, if you do get it you will be simply amazed.
I own a nexus, g1, iPhone 2g, and a touch pro 2. I can easily say in terms of speed, battery life, and overall enjoyment, the nexus is easily king. The keyboard is on par with the iPhone as far as usibility, which I could never say about the g1's onscreen. You can still sync your iTunes library with the correct software, it's the best mobile web browsing experiance I've had to date.
Simply put, nexus one ftw!
i think il wait to see how the muti touch on the nexus one turns out. thanks for all ur help!!!
bigger screen, higher resolution, brighter, prettier, easier to unlock and root... none of this cat and mouse crap with apple and the dev team...
I'm sure there are other things to compare..
oh yeah!!! the N! has bluetooth stereo stream and the iphone doesnt...
but, apple is gonna announce a new iphone this feb... so... up to you if you want to wait or not.
The N1 has a 1 Ghz proc, vs iPhone's 600 Mhz,
an 800x480 screen vs iphone's 480x320 (There are as many pixels shoved in the short side of the N1's screen as there are on the entire tall side of the iphone's screen, it's been widely cited as the best looking screen right now, with bright whites and colors and blacks like velvet. It can play full 720p HD video in this resolution.),
512 mb RAM vs. the iPhone's 256 mb, though of course you probably don't need it on the iPhone as you can't even run more than one app at a time (clearly, the iPhone is not a computer)
However, the nexus one doesn't have as many apps. The apps it does have are incredible, though, and you can emulate SNES, download torrents, Remote-desktop to your PC from anywhere with 3G/wifi, run a wireless tether without much trouble. Generally, the kind of stuff Apple would never let you get away with. While Apple has some cooler games, their utilities simply don't stack up.
I know EAXCTLY what you're talking about in terms of HTC and WinMo. I just upgraded from the HTC Touch to the Nexus One. There simply is no comparison, Android is an entirely different animal than WinMo.
As for iPhone vs the N1, the N1 beats it by far in terms of raw specs. In terms of OS vs OS the difference is that with the iPhone you're forced to play in Apple's little sandbox. Highly regulated app store, no "real" customization to speak of. This has the benefit of being an extremely stable and polished OS but if you're used to making things "your own" like I am, it's just not fun.
This is the first Android phone I've had, been using it for almost a week now and I will never look back. I LOVE it. Some of the apps aren't quite as good as they are on the iPhone in no small part due to the nature of Android itself. Developers have to worry about supporting multiple phone specifications and networks. It's very comparable to the Mac vs PC argument. PCs require a bit more maintenance and attention while giving you TONS of options while Macs give you stability and TONS of polish with a bit more limited options.
*Edit*
You mentioned multi-touch, the phone fully supports it at the hardware level. The only "problem" is that it's not supported natively in Google's own apps (everyone assumes this has to do with some legal concern of Google's). Developers can use the API in their apps to fully take advantage of this support and many already do. I use the Dolphin Browser over the one that comes pre-loaded and the multi-touch in it is FANTASTIC. Best part is that unlike the iPhone it auto re-scales things for you to keep them readable.
I hoping to get multi touch as soon as N1 Euro out via custom roms.
Nexus could be superior all around if our apps would mature a bit more. Yes we're growing in apps, but they lack polish. You can look at many of our apps and go "Yeah thats clearly made by an engineer". They work great, but one reason the IPhone sells is because it is pure sexy in just about all forms.
The iPhone and the Nexus One are two different beasts, multi touch is something you dont use that often as you think when you are on the iPhone. When I had the iPhone(1st gen) multi touch was on, the kb, the browser, the photo viewer, and later on gimmicky apps that just came out.
I think of the iPhone more like a PS3 whereas android phones are more like a computer
iphone or android?
its how tech savy you are, ad how much you want to learn ot use something.
the iphone is simple. you hit a button, it responds instantely and it does exactly what it said it was going to do.
andriod is more advanced. alot more ways to customize it but it comes with a learning curve. this curve isnt as bad as the winmo one but it does exsist.
so it comes down to power vs simplicity. id go for power
My simple comparisons between Atrix and iPhone
I came from the following devices before Atrix 4G:
iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Focus, and now the ATRIX 4G. I still have my Captivate, Focus, and 3GS with me. iPhone 4's Bluetooth was giving me absymal call quality that I couldn't keep the stupid iPhone 4. It does have the front facing camera, and very very good picture quality at the back. The IPS screen is no Super AMOLED, but IPS colors are very accurate. The Super AMOLED has burn-in issue after several months of usage especially if you are in a Skype or phone conversation, the screen NEVER turns off when using speaker phone or bluetooth headset...... I have to click the sleep button on my captivate.... sucka SUPERAMOLED best color but worse life-span than LCDs PERIOD! I personally do not like to simply read the reviews and forums and decide what not to buy, because my first hand experience is the most important.
1. GPS: Atrix and iPhone 4 are excellent and they lock extremely fast and instant regardless of Wifi, 3G cell tower triangulation, or none! Woo hoo. I have Navigon on iPhone so I love it way more than Android's Google Nav or Navigon there coz they are buggy and the vocie synthesizer is like a sound of Stephan Hawkins without emotion. Navigon's soothing woman voice provides the best GPS Navi experience so far. Unfortunately, I can't say the same with the Navigon for Android. It's too buggy and lacking some good features from the iOS. I do like Android's 3D map and voice search and most importantly it's FREE. BUT constantly streaming maps over the cell tower is not reliable. What happen when you go to area without cell coverage? Also what happen if the data plan has only 200MB/month?
2. Internet Browsing speed/ease:
I like Safari coz of double tapping to zoom, the pintch and zoom performance and the beauty of copy and paste has been doing very well and more responsive than the Atrix. On the Atrix browser, i CANNOT edit this forum while typing this response. It sometimes not allowing me to select and scroll through the text even Atrix is imitating Apple with the magnifying glass. Sometimes the magnifying glass never shows up!!! While flash is fun on my Atrix bit it slows down a lot just to display ads. Fortunately I can disable Flash if I want to.
Flash to me while is pretty much full web browsing experience, but it does slow down the entire web page performance. It's good to have the flash option in Android no doubt. iOS however, has forced Adobe to take mobile platform more seriously and look into mobile hardware acceleration to create smooth browsing experience.
3. Stability/Speed: Pretty stable so far and pretty snappy over all. Install Launcher Pro or Go Launch Ex and also use Titanium Backup to Freeze MotoBlur if you are thinking Blur is slowing the system down....But I personally like Blur's widget just not the app drawer. Go Launcher EX has the similar UI as the iOS in the app drawer which is a plus when you want to manage your apps such as hold to wiggle the apps and delete them by touching the Minus sign like iOS.
4. Call Quality/Least dropped calls
iPhone 4 call quality is not as good except ear piece. Bluetooth and Speaker phones are.... bad..... the noise cancellation technology on iPhone 4 is not really good... People had hard time hear my voice even I have tried Jawbone Icon, Plantronics, BlueAnt all these highest end bluetooth headsets! Only the earpiece and stupid corded headphone works okay on the iPhone 4
Atrix is also suffering from similar problem especially if there is wind blowing to the top of the microphone.... the wind noise cancellation of the Atrix is not great which Motorola is trying to improve. Fortunately, BLUETOOTH headset call quality is EXCELLENT and that's what I use the most and perfect!!! Speakerphone is pretty good most of the time.
5. Speaker Quality/Volume
iPhone 4 and Atrix both housing the very loud speakers. I love iPhone 4 and Atrix
6. IPS LCD vs Pentile LCD
iPhone 4's LCD color is way more accurate compare to the Pentile LCD used in Atrix. The Color in Atrix such as yellow is greenish lime...... check the demo unit to compare. Use color calibration tables to compare. iPhone 4 is very very very good.
7. OS: ease of use vs high customizable.
I've discovered that Android is like beta product to me. People are trying hard to customize the UI just to have fun and increase productivity. iOS right now so far has provided the best experience. While Android is a little inferior due to simple Copy and Paste, delete app without accessing Application manager, update all apps at ease (Android requires manually permit each app to update automatically. Update ALL does not work when you have a modified app such as Skype for 3G call in US which cannot be updated due to relocking WiFi only call function), webpage rendering performance such as pinch to zoom in iOS is still better than Atrix running Android for sure. Android is also missing a lot of popular Games from the iOS. Hopefully Sony can do some impact....
8. Multitouch
iPhone 4: 5 points
Atrix 4G: 2 fingers but hardware could support 5 but should we buy for the potention?
Apps that support more than 2 fingers are:
iOS: Cut the Rope, Garage Band, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Street Fighter, GTA, and more
Android: does not have enough because the hardware are inconsistent. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 can't even do multi-touch! Xperia X10 has problem when crossing X-Y axis with two fingers.
9: HDMI output
iPhone 4 or 5 can do 720P: SMOOOOOOOTH like butter but no specialized 720p interface, just mirroring your iPad2 or iPhone 4's screen to the HDTV. Good for games!!!
Atrix 720P Webtop OS is choppy It runs 720P video at lower than 15 fps....It can't truely mirror the image from the phone to the HDTV for games because for some reason the screen is forced to be a touch pad instead of a multitouch gesture or game pad control such as Samurai II.... you can only move the cursor to control the direction or the attack button but not both... VERY DISSAPOINTING!! Motorola's innovation is just old wine inside a new bottle. Webtop is more like a gimmick than a truly reliable feature.
10. VOIP: Skype, Tango, Qik, Fring, etc
iPhone 4: works all the way with Skype support video call on iOS!!!!! perfect!
Atrix 4G: Only Tango, Qik work so far recently. Skype is totally NOT working, people can't hear my voice from the mic due to high amplitude and frequencies noise. Something wrong with the codecs and non standard API that Motorola has used which is another Google's Fragmentation problem. How do you expect developers to change their source code just to suit a single device like Atrix? There is still no video call in Skype for Android!
11. Multilingual Support:
iPhone: Absolutely almost perfect. The iOS ,regardless of anywhere in the world, has the multilingual keyboard, voice recognition system, writing recognition system, system menu. It's a perfect multilingual OS that until today, there is no one in the computer industry is able to match Apple! Windows 7 still can't do that natively unless you purchase the Ultimate edition and still requires to install the language packs separately through the updates!
Atrix: Running Moto Blur is the cause for none North American languages being removed from the stock Android OS due to the limited storage space for system in the phone. Asian Language is not supported right out of the box. What's come worse is you can't even view or edit Asian language such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc in the Webtop environment! What a bummer to me! Motorola Rep told me they are interested about the application of it and willing to enable that feature. That doesn't mean they will enable the feature for North American market. It's a freaking world phone where people need to travel to conduct their business! What happen if people need to type Email in Chinese in the Webtop? It's NOT going to happen as of now and probably not unless you purchase an Asian version in the future.
12. Easy to Hack:
iPhone Jailbreaking requires careful maintanence even it's just a single-swipe or click to Jailbreak. The jailbroken device is highly unstable and usually requires a system restore which takes hours to sync back all the data if your device is fully loaded.
Atrix is easy to root (still definitely not for non tech savvy), convert your phone to webtop without buying the dock, and easy to enable Mobile Hotspot Tethering without paying. BUUUUT ENCRYPTED BOOTLOADER.... which Motorla is still deciding how to response to the developers... fortunately, there is the RSD5.0 that can flash Atrix to stock ROM now
13. BACKUP & RESTORE:
I demand not a simple cloud service backup for the contacts, email, sms, maps, search history but also for the apps and multimedia data! Motorola does provide the software to do it, but it's SLOW. The file manager transfer speed is as slow as 150 KB/sec via USB! I'm forced to use the Massive Storage Media to drag and drop contents. It's convenient in a way but it's definitely not the most efficient method. Syning data prevents wasting time to overwrite data that are up-to-date. Hopefully these can be resolved by the upcoming Gingerbread.
iOS: iTunes simple apps and data backup! It does have it's short coming such as cannot backup data of the deleted apps from the device. I repeat, data backup means not just contact, sms, over the cloud or computer but the data and settings that are stored in the apps and OS.
Atrix: Before the Gingerbread is baked for the Atrix, you must NEED to ROOT to use Titanium Backup and Rom manager (Which doesn't work coz of the locked down bootloader) and it doesn't sync to your computer or your cloud data storage centers. Why do we still use SD cards when there is Dropbox type of system? SD card backup is the not a modern solution. Morever, Titanium Backup is dangerous if you accidentally restore the incompatible data to the system file which may crash the device. The UI of Titanium is not intuitive and it's very complicated for first time users. Titanium Backup is again for geeks not your parents and definitely not your grandma! Android has completely failed in this category! Therefore it can't be a serious work phone without the right backup/restore feature. Finally Motorola's Portal is just slow.... 150KB/sec of USB transfer, it's forcing me to use as Massive Storage Device and that's 40x faster!
I do appreciate the Google cloud service to store all the search history, maps, contacts, email, etc. However, what about Apps data? I'm having a hard time to simply backup my apps data while they aren't stored somewhere in the globe.
14: Multimedia
Both iPhone and Atrix can sync with iTunes library since Apple has dominated the music market. Youtube experience is definitely a lot better in Android than iOS. Because you can rotate your Atrix in landscape mode to have full screen, while potrate mode to access related video and read/write comments while the video is playing! I would say iPhone and Atrix should be quite on par in multimedia.
Codecs that are supported by Atrix are still confusing. Some people say 720P mp4 aren't running correctly.
15. Notification System
iPhone: intrusive! Yup I don't like the bubble in the middle of the screen while I was watching movie, playing games, browsing website, VNC, and most importantly, video conferencing!
Android: non-intrusive notification system where the notifications are up on top to be slided down to review the history like a log. Perfect!
16. How data is being stored
iPhone iOS: single partition easy managemant. You don't need to keep track of where the apps are stored and whether if they can be installed to a larger sd card. This technique has been acknowledged by Microsoft's WP7 though Samsung Focus is an exception which still create confusion on which type of SD card has to be used safely. Atrix stores the data either in the internal memory or sd card which falls to the same issues as Windows Mobile installation --> confusion.
17: Email (3/14/2011)
iPhone iOS 4 now supports threaded emails which sorts out conversations with the latest at the very top even inside the conversation. So far I like it and very productive and convenient.
Atrix: The build in Email App from Motoblur does not do threaded emails. The Gmail app is even more pathetic! While the conversation feature is convenient, putting the oldest thread at the very top inside a conversation forces me to scroll all the way to the bottom just to read the latest email is just ridiculous! There is also bug for conversation list where it doesn't move to the next conversation even I've selected update automatically. The Gmail App is BROKEN in Android and people are complaining about that.
Atrix: Android's support of SD card is good but also bad when you have to keep track of where the applications are installed to and whether if they can be running efficiently when stored to the SD card. SD card does provide expandability but in reality, you are still limited by the maximum size that the device can handle which is 10GB internal usable storage + 32GB and you can't do a single partition to combine the internal storage with the SD card.
If you want a device to ease your life and improve work efficiency, get iOS. Android is more for geeks or developers. Get Atrix if you like to modify the device. The webtop is more like a gimmick rather than productivity unless you really use the Citrix Remote Desktop Control. It's an interesting idea, but in terms of daily basis, Android is still slightly behind iOS in terms of design. Market share does not reflect the re fineness of the product.
*Caution* if you have more important things to worry about rather than modifying system files, customizing the cosmetics of the UI, or simply just trying to eliminate the lags, avoid the Atrix.
Finally, I am still debating if I should keep the Atrix or wait for the iPhone 5, Galaxy S II or the Optimus 2x.
I think there are tons of people on this forum that would disagree with you. I for one was an iphone user for 4 years and I will not go back. Why would you come to this forum of all places to recommend the IOS? Most people who are on this forum have already made up their minds about what phone to get. I found the biggest thing about switching from an iphone to android is that it's like wiping your butt with the opposite hand. If you have been doing it one way for so long you are highly resistant to move to a different tech or adjust to the way that tech works. IOS is plain, boring, and locked down. It's not much different than it was 4 years ago and apple spoon feeds options to users that should be standard from the beginning.
"...update all apps at ease (Android requires manually select each app to update automatically)"
Try going into the market, then pressing the menu key and then My Apps. You should see a link to Update All at the top if more than one app needs updating.
catfarm said:
"...update all apps at ease (Android requires manually select each app to update automatically)"
Try going into the market, then pressing the menu key and then My Apps. You should see a link to Update All at the top if more than one app needs updating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to turn on that otherwise some of the apps have to be updated manually. Did that before.....
I'm not sure what you are talking about, but I myself am coming from an iphone 3gs, this is my first android, and as far as I can tell the two update their apps in almost an identical manner in terms of number of clicks to update all the apps that need updates. I haven't changed anything from default and have not had to manually change anything in each app to make it part of the update all functionality.
squassss said:
I think there are tons of people on this forum that would disagree with you. I for one was an iphone user for 4 years and I will not go back. Why would you come to this forum of all places to recommend the IOS? Most people who are on this forum have already made up their minds about what phone to get. I found the biggest thing about switching from an iphone to android is that it's like wiping your butt with the opposite hand. If you have been doing it one way for so long you are highly resistant to move to a different tech or adjust to the way that tech works. IOS is plain, boring, and locked down. It's not much different than it was 4 years ago and apple spoon feeds options to users that should be standard from the beginning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just comparing and responding to another user who is deciding between iPhone 4 and Atrix. That's the comment I provide.
Android is nice as the op stated however it's still not as refined as Apple's iOS is and apple is quickly improving their os and it's easily available when released thru iTunes or visiting a local apple store if you don't have a desktop or laptop and high speed Internet. I think google may need to start making huge changes if they want to have people be happy with android. Starting with requiring manufacturers to make updates available to each device as the updates are released.
galaxyjeff said:
I think google may need to start making huge changes if they want to have people be happy with android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll go ahead and forget for the moment that for all of the ways which make iOS just so much better, it is still being outsold by Android, with the gap growing every day.
tomit12 said:
We'll go ahead and forget for the moment that for all of the ways which make iOS just so much better, it is still being outsold by Android, with the gap growing every day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not the best comparison. Apple has 4 models sold so far.android had like 4 a week.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
galaxyjeff said:
Android is nice as the op stated however it's still not as refined as Apple's iOS is and apple is quickly improving their os and it's easily available when released thru iTunes or visiting a local apple store if you don't have a desktop or laptop and high speed Internet. I think google may need to start making huge changes if they want to have people be happy with android. Starting with requiring manufacturers to make updates available to each device as the updates are released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, Android's update cycle is so exciting and fast, it just takes manufacturers too long to roll out those updates. The Atrix was announced after gingerbread was released, but it came with Froyo.
But in all honesty Android is far better at content creation and not just content consumption. Apple users are such well trained monkeys that they will pay $1 for a flashlight app when a Dev with some decent skills and passion for the platform will release it for free.
My wife is nowhere near as tech savvy as I am, but she lives her Desire Z and finds it easier to use than her iPhone 3gs, but this could also be due to HTC Sense.
Sent from my MB860
galaxyjeff said:
Android is nice as the op stated however it's still not as refined as Apple's iOS is and apple is quickly improving their os and it's easily available when released thru iTunes or visiting a local apple store if you don't have a desktop or laptop and high speed Internet. I think google may need to start making huge changes if they want to have people be happy with android. Starting with requiring manufacturers to make updates available to each device as the updates are released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quickly? It's been 4 years and iOS has barely changed.
squarejp said:
You have to turn on that otherwise some of the apps have to be updated manually. Did that before.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To clarify, you can change each individual app to update automatically which means you will never have to do anything OR you can go into the Market and just select "Update All" at the top. I had an iphone and you either had to update on itunes and then sync your phone or you had to go to the app store in your phone and select "Update all" but with Android, if you take the 2 or 3 minutes to select the automatic feature, you won't have to do anything, so I think Android WINS that round, sheesh. Plus, that's just splitting hairs.
ikenley said:
Agree, Android's update cycle is so exciting and fast, it just takes manufacturers too long to roll out those updates. The Atrix was announced after gingerbread was released, but it came with Froyo.
But in all honesty Android is far better at content creation and not just content consumption. Apple users are such well trained monkeys that they will pay $1 for a flashlight app when a Dev with some decent skills and passion for the platform will release it for free.
My wife is nowhere near as tech savvy as I am, but she lives her Desire Z and finds it easier to use than her iPhone 3gs, but this could also be due to HTC Sense.
Sent from my MB860
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The part about the $1 flashlight app you say is total bologna. The best flashlight app in the app store is totally free and gets regular updates. Also android is a toy with a cute little green robot.
Go bite an Apple, OP. It's obvious you have no clue what you're even saying. If you did, you'd realize that you're sooooo wrong about nearly everything.
Also, I don't know if you're from a different country, but if you're going to make an Android bashing post, please do so without using google translate.
First point: You love Navigon on the iPhone, but you don't like Google Maps or Navigon on Android... alroghty then...
Second: I don't know why you feel like that. I'm using Dolphin browser, P&Z work fine, as well as copying and pasting. It kinda takes a little bit of getting used to to make the magnifying glass pop up.
Three, four, and five I can basically skip since you give Android some room to breathe.
Six: The green feels fine to me. I've used an iP4, and while the Retina Display is nice, I haven't seen any notable differences, and the color green seems fine to me.
Seven: Oh. My. God. Learn what a Beta is. Your definition of beta seems to be: "Too hard for me to use." It seems like my 10 year old sister knows how to use Android better than you. It's so simple to use copy and paste, but it seems you just can't figure out, and you condemn a whole OS because you can't seem to understand it. You also said that there's a launcher to hold and delete apps, so why even bring it up again?
Now for the updating... Are you mental? Is it really that hard to go into the Market, click settings, and then update all? As for the games, just wait. Android hasn't been mainstream as long as iOS.
Eight: So, you're going to use all 5 fingers all the time? I've never seen people use more than 3, and rarely use 3 at all.
Nine: You have to buy an extra accesory to use HDMI output on the iPhone... And that is webtop, not mirroring you're doing. Learn the difference.
Ten: Apps need to be updated. Device less than a month old. Blahdy blah.
Eleven: You skipped 11.
Twelve: High maintenance in time such as tethering? lolwut? Makes no sense at all. Rooting is so simple. All automated for you.
Thirteen: Almost everything is backed up for you! Contacts are auto-backed up to Google from the start. MotoBlur also helps with that. Download an app to backup SMS convo's to your SD card, and then just plug your phone in and transfer your pics. Then there's good, old Titanium.
You're comparing Apples to Robots, and it's just not working. Your basic understanding of the English language is horrible, and shouldn't be used to bash Android.
iOS is def more refined, and user freindly. and i had over all less little glitches with my iphone than ive had with my atrix.
but im still staying with anything android. android phones are more customizable even without root/rom than a jailbroken iphone is. (just talking about visual customization)
I don't understand why almost all "Atrix vs. iphone/android vs. iOS" speak only or mainly of points that are already handed to Apple. I'm sure that other Atrix users here like me, Bought the Atrix knowing in advanced it's does not win over iphones in all categories.
I'm thank the OP for his review but an example of I'm saying about those reviews is like the highlight on "updating all apps at once". I wonder how could this feature be more important compared how each OS handles installing the apps!!
I'm new to Android and it was a little blast I had when I found out how you install apps! click this, install that, back, click this, install, check download progress in notification bar, go back for more apps, they download and install while your still surfing the friggin' market!!
In iOS if you chose to install an app it exits itself to the home screen and you need to go find where you re-launch the store app!!
Now how can that not be spoken of when "updating all apps at once" is suddenly an edge over the other OS?
I have to admit English is not my first language and I was pretty frustrated about my Atrix!
I know some people may not agree with me but here is my refined response.
First point: You love Navigon on the iPhone, but you don't like Google Maps or Navigon on Android... alright then...
Second: I don't know why you feel like that. I'm using Dolphin browser, P&Z work fine, as well as copying and pasting. It kinda takes a little bit of getting used to to make the magnifying glass pop up.
Thanks for the tips on alternative browsers. Copy and Pasting is worse than iOS from my Atrix experience. Sometimes there is no magnifying glass when editing the text. It pops out a selection menu that covers up my whole screen asking me to SELECT TEXT, SELECT ALL, COPY, etc. Inside the browser, I MUST need to click the Menu button, select More, Select text and I've no way to accurately select the correct beginning and the end of the portion that I would like to copy.
Three, four, and five I can basically skip since you give Android some room to breathe.
Six: The green feels fine to me. I've used an iP4, and while the Retina Display is nice, I haven't seen any notable differences, and the color green seems fine to me.
Check with Color Calibration sheets to test LCD monitors then you will know how wrong the colors are especially yellow becomes yellowish green and lime and green contains yellow
Seven: Oh. My. God. Learn what a Beta is. Your definition of beta seems to be: "Too hard for me to use." It seems like my 10 year old sister knows how to use Android better than you. It's so simple to use copy and paste, but it seems you just can't figure out, and you condemn a whole OS because you can't seem to understand it. You also said that there's a launcher to hold and delete apps, so why even bring it up again?
I'm a tech geek who have used WP7, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm, and more in long period of time and I have the right to criticize Android base on my experience. The UI in Android is not refined and feels like Windows Mobile menus embedded within menus just bigger buttons and open source for developers but not really for consumers because the manufactures impose their lock-downs to the bootloaders.
Now for the updating... Are you mental? Is it really that hard to go into the Market, click settings, and then update all? As for the games, just wait. Android hasn't been mainstream as long as iOS.
Updates sucks because you can solely use the phone itself to update. I've a modified version of Skype which can't be updated using the UPDATE ALL menu. If I did that, my Skype can't be used in 3G network for calling. Moreover, Skype DOES NOT SUPPORT VIDEO CALL for Android yet while iOS are supported
Eight: So, you're going to use all 5 fingers all the time? I've never seen people use more than 3, and rarely use 3 at all.
Just because you never seen 3 fingers usage does not mean there is no such demand on the creativity. Take Cut the Rope, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Virtual DJ, Piano, and other creativity apps, they all use more than 3 fingers just to let you know.
Nine: You have to buy an extra accesory to use HDMI output on the iPhone... And that is webtop, not mirroring you're doing. Learn the difference.
Extra accessories also applies to the Atrix Officially. Webtop is running in Ubuntu which is Choppy and DOES NOT have an option to mirror the Android environment completely. When I want to play Samurai II on the HDTV, I CANNOT do that at all because the screen becomes a touch pad instead of normal multi-touch operation in the Android environment. I can't play Need for Speed on the HDTV because I can't touch the screen to play the game at all. iPhone, iPad, Optimus 2X and upcoming Xperia Arc are able to do that.
Ten: Apps need to be updated. Device less than a month old. Blahdy blah.
Truth to be told, Motorola is not using standard APIs. VOIP developers are having troubles to develop the right codecs to work in the Atrix. Do your own research
Eleven: You skipped 11.
Atrix has Limited Multilingual Support. The Webtop Cannot display Asian Characters nor allow users to input them either. Android does not come with decent Asian Characters inputs. Apple iOS is absolutely amazing in that area regardless where the iPhone is being released anywhere in the world, the language packs are the same. The only good side of Android's multilingual is customizable keyboard.. but so far none of the android keyboards have satisfied me due to choppiness, sluggish design, button too narrow, inaccurate writing recognition, and more.
Twelve: High maintenance in time such as tethering? lolwut? Makes no sense at all. Rooting is so simple. All automated for you.
I'm talking about keeping up the Jailbreaking trend against Apple's lockdown on the iPhone, not Android, read carefully! People who need to unlock their phones cannot update their iPhones easily. Feel free to jailbreak but you will suffer from system instability which usually requires full system restore. Re-syncing all apps usually take hours if your device is fully loaded.
Thirteen: Almost everything is backed up for you! Contacts are auto-backed up to Google from the start. MotoBlur also helps with that. Download an app to backup SMS convo's to your SD card, and then just plug your phone in and transfer your pics. Then there's good, old Titanium.
Did you read carefully what I was saying? I demand more than simple Contact, SMS, Email Cloud backup service. Titanium is dangerous to use for non technical people. They will overwrite or delete critical system data that would crash the device. Titanium also requires Root access in order to restore everything. I know how to use Titanium backup ever since I got my Captivate and got frustrated about lacking Google official data backup system. I repeat I'm very technical but Android is definitely not good for non technical people such as your grandma!
You're comparing Apples to Robots, and it's just not working. But I'm comparing different mobile OSs which is the same category
Your basic understanding of the English language is horrible, and shouldn't be used to bash Android.
Yet, Android is being used world wide and therefore should also be multilingual. You, who is an Android user, should able to tolerate people who are not English as their 1st language.
You're obviously not very tech-ish at all. You cannot say an OS is in beta because it lacks features you think should be in it. Your points are moot. So did you consider iOS 2, 3, and 4 to be betas as well?
And to your response to number 11, what?
I can tolerate people just fine. It's when you start rambling in broken English that I can't stand. It just starts looking like some sort of spam e-mail, and hard to read.
I agree with most of what you said squarejp.
Sad to see most people here will down the iP4 just because it is apple.
If they would actually get to use the phone for more than a day, im sure more would see what you mean.
P.S. I have both and iphone and a incredible running 2.2.
Dont kid yourself guys, IOS is much more refined than android.
Papi4baby said:
I agree with most of what you said squarejp.
Sad to see most people here will down the iP4 just because it is apple.
If they would actually get to use the phone for more than a day, im sure more would see what you mean.
P.S. I have both and iphone and a incredible running 2.2.
Dont kid yourself guys, IOS is much more refined than android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm knocking the Apple phone because I used 3 different versions of the iPhone. As well as own the ipad. Your opinions on what's refined or not =\= everyone elses
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I consider myself a heavy user of all iDevices (iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple TV), Blackberry phones and I could not resist myself the moment I saw the Galaxy Note. I ended up owning one and I really fell in love with that device the moment I held it my hands.
My experience with Note is just 1 week old and I wonder if there are any features that I am already / will be missing from iPhone/iPad world going forward. This is not a review and it is just my observation, opinion of what I feel
Here you go!
Hardware:
The galaxy note IMO is far more superior in the hardware specification than the iPhone 4s right the processor speed, performance, resolution, screen technology, feel.
OS:
Is it better than iOS? Well, can't say! iOS always had a clean interface. No cribs on Android either. Highly customizable, looks great and ICS looks promising (can't wait for it though)
Too many options are good
Battery
Note's battery lasts for nearly 16 hrs on moderate use and is definitely better than iPhone.
Display
One word! Gorgeous! Black is truly black and I believer that there are just too many posts complaining about patchy surface beneath the screen. I guess that is by design and I am not worried. The performance is flawless! Show stealer and all my friends who saw the demo could not close their mouth ;-)
Gestures:
I am not missing anything here! Supports all the gestures!
Apps:
I almost find all the apps in the Android market place that I used to use daily on my iPhone / iPad except a few (Love ArtRage on my iPad). I am sure the developers must be working on it. Only crib is that I need to buy them again. I wish there is a platform independent licensing mechanism.
iCloud
Yes, I am missing the iCloud backup / Restore across all my devices. But, at the end of the day I own only 1 Android phone and I believe the backup is happening here on either Google/Samsung. Experts?
Airplay
Yes, I miss it and I am not quite happy with AllShare (DLNA) as the videos don't play. This only plays Audio, Photos on DLNA certified systems and not what I watch on youtube etc.
In Apple world, the AirPlay is just awesome and helped us watch things directly on the TV using Apple TV.
PC Indepent
Truly it is. Till date iOS always depended on a machine and this dependency is removed only with iOS5. In the past one week, I have not connect my Note to any of my machines even once and fully operational within minutes of the purchase!
Audio / Call quality
Not missing anything here. Had too many confusions after reading user reviews and finally i wanted to give it a try and compromise even if the SQ is not that great. I am glad that I did it.
To my ears, the sound is equally good between iPhone and Note. But I found that the music quality is much better with the stock player than using 3rd party EQ/Amps. Somehow, the PowerAmp kills the quality. Not using it any more.
Missing iTunes? I don't think so. I copy my songs the microSD and job is done. Genius playlists? Never use them. No cribs!
iTunes Music Match? Wont work in my country!!
Oh, Did I say the FM quality is good?
Similarly no complaints on call quality either. crystal clear and I am using all default settings while placing the call. I am not disabling noise canceling as some users do.
Car friendliness:
Well, not too much happy as holding it on one hand is an issue while driving. Connects seamlessly with my Parrot BT hooked up to my Alpine and hence no major issues!
However, iPhone is equally bad and not superior. '
I guess it is more to do with lock screens and touch screens as I am more used to using my Blackberry Bold for business purposes to engage in conference calls (Dial a bridge and key in a 6-10 digit PIN code). Just imagine typing the PIN using one hand in Note. Really a struggle and it is too dangerous! On BB, I can feel the keys and type, while I watch the road.
Voice Recognition
Frankly I am not a big fan of this and hence not considering Siri too here. I don't think we can mimic US accent, how much ever we try and hence giving up on that!
Tamil eBooks
My tamil collection worked nicely on iBooks and on Note, I had to struggle a bit for Android. Finally I ended up Moon Reader and Cool Reader for tamil language support. I like Moon+Reader better than the Aldiko!
Timer control to make the phone sleep is missing in Note.
Mails / Messages
Both seamlessly connect to Exchange 2010 and IMO, Android uses advanced features (integrating the SMS) with Exchange better than iOS.
iPod Docking
In my car I am used to connecting my iPhone using the provided dock and connect to Parrot BT using bluetooth.
I know my Alpine suppers hard disks, USB disks etc. Need to buy the accessory to mount my phone so that I can play the songs! Will update once i get it!
Some of the above are just OS related and really not device related though!!
My 2 cents!
onlt thing i miss from iphone is android market is not selling items to my country so making tricks to get paid apps is not a good thing. iphone doesnt have this kşnd of issues.
I came from a IP3,3gs&4.
I miss bubble notifications, i know u can get them on launchers/themes but they don't cover a lot of apps like whatapp, work email etc.
Also on a jail broken ip4 the lock screen app vis on cydia is great. All my emails,SMS,whatapp / notifcations at the lockscreen. Didn't have to unlock to read first few lines of a notification.
So its just software hopefully ill get what i need when someone devs it
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
I will never sell my iphone
iphone apps>>>>>>>>>>>android
So the sole reason you're keeping your iDevices is apps? I know the i ones tend to be more polished UI wise but that will come in time on Android, and seriously, how many apps exist on the i ecosystem that you can't substitute with an Android app, or come close?
Just wondering...
Games apps etc are all better on iphone more fluid and look better
Tamil eBooks
My tamil collection worked nicely on iBooks and on Note, I had to struggle a bit for Android. Finally I ended up Moon Reader and Cool Reader for tamil language support. I like Moon+Reader better than the Aldiko!
If your files are epub try Go Books it looks nice I used to use Moon+reader but switched up
oh.... let's see.... I missed the fact that my thumb can reach edge to edge of the screen on any of the iPhones. I also missed the slow evolution of the iDevices but they made sure we didn't feel cheap about it by selling them at a higher price than similar devices.
Gosh... there are so many paid apps that are so polished that the Androids will never catch up to.....
iFanbois, please get a life.
darkmax1974 said:
oh.... let's see.... I missed the fact that my thumb can reach edge to edge of the screen on any of the iPhones. I also missed the slow evolution of the iDevices but they made sure we didn't feel cheap about it by selling them at a higher price than similar devices.
Gosh... there are so many paid apps that are so polished that the Androids will never catch up to.....
iFanbois, please get a life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The irony
In 2 weeks I miss the app store, the ease of use, the polished ios5 and most importantly the sync. Android sync is absolute garbage!
The rest of the stuff the note wins hands down, I'll bear with it till the iphone 5 comes out and see what that looks like, may even go back to windows if I dont ever manage to sync this thing properly
From 3GS to 4 to Note..
I miss activator from Cydia to features from status bar.
No yet enuf reading, is it activator or something similiar exist?
Like to activate/click on status bar from running app to return to home screen without clickinf on the physical button.(To minimize using of the button that frequently faulty.on my iphone)
TapaTalking on Note
vprabu said:
I consider myself a heavy user ,,,,,
iCloud
Yes, I am missing the iCloud backup / Restore across all my devices. But, at the end of the day I own only 1 Android phone and I believe the backup is happening here on either Google/Samsung. Experts?
.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you try Dropbox? 2GB Free. By the way, if you use this link: http://db.tt/bO7rycn we both will win + 250 Free MB
I would say the apps are better on iOS. More of them, and better quality.
I had that great periodic table app, not on Android. Also there many more star map apps on iOS. Google Sky sux.
Android is very popular, maybe not as much as Apple devices but for how popular Android is I am surprised that more of the polished apps haven't been ported.
The thing I DON'T miss is iTunes. God i hate that app and the fact that you MUST use it to do anything on iOS.
I miss how easy it was to copy and paste, going back to a letter in word for correcting mistakes, and tiny wings
I don't miss the small screen, no flash, and no custom ROMS
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
darkmax1974 said:
iFanbois, please get a life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We don't need those post's here. If you don't agree with him, discuss the topic, stay away from fanboy talk. The best way to let it die is to deny it exist's, lets keep it real.
I'm planning on buying a Note and keeping my iPhone 4(jailbroken) at first at least. I want to see where my needs are met or lost first. I'd like to be able to have the Note replace both my iPhone 4 and my HTC Flyer, but as it stands both devices are very nice singularly. I love my iPhone, and I love my Flyer. Both Android and iOS bring a lot to the table, Thanks for your incite on this thread!
From my personal experience
Hardware - android ++++++
Software - ios ++++++
I'm an android user but have been playing with several friends' iphones. I was always impressed with how polished the iOS in terms of smoothness and design. The sheer number of apps and how good some of them were also made me jealous. But in the end I can't imagine living a day-to-day life with a device so limited by one man's vision. These things are to be used the way somebody wants me to use them (including the way I grip the phone ;P). I'm aware that it really depends on personal preference but I'm a power user and being told how to use my device is simply an insult to me (and a painful limitation of course). On android I feel free.
Pere said:
Why don't you try Dropbox? 2GB Free. By the way, if you use this link: http://db.tt/bO7rycn we both will win + 250 Free MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do use Dropbox. But what I meant is that the devices synching our data (including apps) effortlessly.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
drgopoos said:
From my personal experience
Hardware - android ++++++
Software - ios ++++++
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I partly agree. To me softwares / apps are still 3rd party stuff and they still do a good job when they support both the platforms. However the developers who are not familiar with UI/UX and when they create apps only on android, the UI is a bit lousy.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
I miss the way Music Player in iOS creating playlist. I find it more convenient as I always like to create playlists each day going out.
And honestly, the way iOS manage apps is better, I dont have to worry if I leave anything running in the background that killing the phone battery.
Anyway, I'm in love with my Note now
Hey everyone, I do not mean to start a whole Android vs iOS flame thread, I simply wanted to put up my experiences as I have been a huge advocate of Android for years prior to switching to iPhone for work and being away for a few months prior to getting Nexus 6.
With the Nexus 6 there is so much to love. At first, when it was announced, I really wasn't going to buy it due to the screen size. At the time I had an iPhone 6 and didn't think I wanted a device that was bigger. I was considering buying N5 again, though I didn't want much older hardware. The reason I wanted an Android device again was due to Lollipop!
I hated iOS 6, it looked dated and didn't have anything I was looking for, other than app quality. With iOS7 I loved the design. From every little aspect that Apple added to it, everything felt as a whole and functioned amazing (I do web design for a living). The fact that it worked so well with my Macbook Pro, was also something I liked. With iOS8, my Macbook and my phone talked better than ever before. I could text straight from my computer, resume what I was doing on the go, and vice versa. Made usability testing a breeze, everything synced so well together. Not to mention the smoothness! Oh, and to this day Android does not have a thing that would match iPhone on backup out of the box.
I may sound like an Apple fan boy there, but I really do like both platforms. I missed certain features that Android had big time. The way platform was open sourced and allowed you to really do anything you wanted with it. From deciding on the browser, to the mail app. Granted, you could still do that with iOS, but integration is not even close to being up to par compared to the way apple apps are. Then the keyboard, I hate how you can't have a comma on iOS instead of that stupid voice key. And disabling SIRI only makes the space bar bigger, still no comma... Then the file manager, ability to literally put anything I would like on my device and actually open it without the need to sync with the computer or do anything else...
So, when my business switched to Verizon (ugh DO NOT get a Nexus on their network) we were forced to get the 6+ since 6 was on backorder. I ended up actually getting used to the size quick, and loved the display on it. That made me realize that Nexus 6 would not be too big, and I decided to get it... THERE IS SO MUCH TO LOVE!!! And yes, with Lollipop Android has made huge strides visually, almost to the point where it makes iOS seem dated... almost...
What I love:
Now, all of this is subjective as it is based on all of my experience and others may or may not care about this stuff...
-- Display: Now, iPhone 6+ does produce better whites and more natural colors. Nexus 6 has a very good display and everything is as sharp as it could be. But, it does have higher contrast that produces rich colors. While they may not look as natural, I actually think I prefer it to the Apple IPS. The fact that the phone is the same size but has a larger display makes a difference when watching videos, really makes it look premium.
-- Ambient Display: Genius! It works well. Most of the time I pick my device up, it literally lights it up so I could see my notifications without using much of the battery. Tapping on notification turns the colors on. The transition is so well done, sometimes I wish I have notifications so that I could see it in action .
-- Battery Life: This one is impressive! When I got iPhone 6+ I really thought it had pretty good battery life. I am a heavy user. I often stream Spotify or Pandora, watch videos, play World of Tanks while doing cardio at the gym. iPhone 6+ took ages to charge up, expected for such a large battery. I downloaded world of tanks beta app on the Nexus and while I couldn't really play as lag was too bad (10fps vs 60 on iPhone). So, with that, my usage changed some as I was not playing the game... But, it lasts a really long time. I could leave my device overnight and only lose 1%, very impressive. The stats that I see on Android also really help to determine what is draining and what is not. On iOS... total mess..
-- Charging Time: I didn't believe the hype... But, it is true. An hour and a half charges my phone to full pretty much. Considering how massive the battery is, crazy good! It also begins displaying how long it will take to charge to full, which is very helpful.
Google Music: If you buy your nexus from GPlay... 6 months free of Google Music! If not, 1 month! Either way, check it out. The redesigned app for Android 5.0 offers a ton of features to get it on par with Spotify. Except it now looks better and adds Youtube integration. I ended up canceling my Spotify for it.
-- Software: Now, this is kind of a mixed bag to be honest. Lollipop is very very nice. I did not expect to like material design quite this much, but I do. Everything flows together, there is animation for literally everything. I really like the dialer for example, same goes for contacts app and calendar. Multitasking view is nice and they are much better than what is offered on iOS. I could literally use 10 new apps and the first app I opened would still be where it was left, no need to reload. Now, there is sometimes delay between hitting something and device going to it, but it is not huge. I am not going to go in detail about Android 5.0 as I am sure everyone knows it very well. However, I will say that it is very much improve Android and made it a very good contender to what iOS was offering.
Dislike:
-- Camera: Yes, it is much improved and sounds great on paper. Reality, doesn't even compare to iPhone's camera. Double the shutter time, less focus, bad low light images. Yes, it is better than any other Nexus camera... That doesn't say much though.
-- iMessage: Hate Apple or love it, but there is no denying that iMessage is great! All you need is their phone number and the device will recognize if the user has iMessage or not. If they do, you can literally send HD videos, sound clips, full res images among other things. It also integrates amazing with OS X. I wish there was something like that on Android. Hangouts does not count. You need to use their email address vs phone number, nobody really uses it that much and you can't send the same type of files nor HD video.
-- App Quality: coming from iOS, same apps are either not available or are not as good as what they are on iOS. There are a few exceptions though. There is currently a huge issue with apps not being optimized for iPhone 6 and 6+ resolutions resulting in them looking as if yo are watching a 480p movie on 1080p tv. The Play Store is very sexy though .
-- Chrome: improved a ton since I've last used it. Loads as fast as Safari, but not as responsive. Often times I notice stutter when browsing websites where it is like butter on Safari.
Bottom line:
Android has come a long way since 4.4.4. I am really enjoying my Nexus 6 and I would really like to keep me from going back to iPhone 6+. Google would easily win my heart with something similar to iMessage as I really really miss it . While there are some drawbacks, the positives of Nexus 6 combined with Android 5.0 go such a long way that I can not recommend anyone using anything else. For the price, it is a steal. Comparable Apple product is $200 more. I know that iPhone 6+ is 750, but it doesn't count. iOS takes up way more space than Android leaving close to 11gb of free space on base model. Install couple of good games and have a few videos, and you are screwed... I never had issues with space on Android. And with the Nexus, 32gb base makes it even better!
Verizon:
DO NOT GET IT FOR VERIZON! Now, this may change in the future.. .but right now, do not. Yes, it works on Verizon 3g as well as LTE, but it really ruins your experience. Voice quality is OK at best as it isn't using VOLTE and Voice + Data doesn't work... If you are like me, this is a big deal. Also, if you are on the go and call a number, data obviously goes out. Problem with that is that Google Caller ID does not work at that point. I find that feature very useful. Voicemail is a nightmare. Not only is there no dedicated voicemail app, but you DO NOT get voicemail notifications.. you need to dial in order to get them. Google Voice? Forget it! I was testing it and noticed something odd... ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY. Began testing it... happens almost half of the time. Basically, phone rings... but instead of going to your voicemail it has a 10 second pause and all circuits are busy prompt happens.
air2k57 said:
Verizon:
DO NOT GET IT FOR VERIZON! Now, this may change in the future.. .but right now, do not. Yes, it works on Verizon 3g as well as LTE, but it really ruins your experience. Voice quality is OK at best as it isn't using VOLTE and Voice + Data doesn't work... If you are like me, this is a big deal. Also, if you are on the go and call a number, data obviously goes out. Problem with that is that Google Caller ID does not work at that point. I find that feature very useful. Voicemail is a nightmare. Not only is there no dedicated voicemail app, but you DO NOT get voicemail notifications.. you need to dial in order to get them. Google Voice? Forget it! I was testing it and noticed something odd... ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY. Began testing it... happens almost half of the time. Basically, phone rings... but instead of going to your voicemail it has a 10 second pause and all circuits are busy prompt happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re: VVM: They need to update their Nexus VVM app as it does not support 5.0. You will not get notifications if you had VVM before, as notifications for standard Voicemail use SMS. Those notifications are disabled if VVM is active on the account.
Google Voice issues have NOTHING to do with VZW.. works fine for me.
Also, missed iMessage for about a day after I got rid of my iPhone back in January. Don't see the point.
digitaloutsider said:
Re: VVM: They need to update their Nexus VVM app as it does not support 5.0. You will not get notifications if you had VVM before, as notifications for standard Voicemail use SMS. Those notifications are disabled if VVM is active on the account.
Google Voice issues have NOTHING to do with VZW.. works fine for me.
Also, missed iMessage for about a day after I got rid of my iPhone back in January. Don't see the point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I text quite a bit and we always share small videos, picutures, etc. It is nice to see when people are typing to you, to not have any limitations with file sized and video sizes.
I can't miss many calls and when almost half of my calls have issues due to that problem I can't take the chance.
It will be awhile before they allow VOLTE on the Nexus 6 or even update their app as they haven't even announced the device. Now, would the update work on Nexus 6 devices not purchased through VZW?
air2k57 said:
I hated iOS 6, it looked dated and didn't have anything I was looking for, other than app quality. With iOS7 I loved the design. From every little aspect that Apple added to it, everything felt as a whole and functioned amazing (I do web design for a living). The fact that it worked so well with my Macbook Pro, was also something I liked. With iOS8, my Macbook and my phone talked better than ever before. I could text straight from my computer, resume what I was doing on the go, and vice versa. Made usability testing a breeze, everything synced so well together. Not to mention the smoothness! Oh, and to this day Android does not have a thing that would match iPhone on backup out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want SMS and Calling from computer, and other things, there is Airdroid app for years. Apple solution is basically ''copy'' of these app.
I agree with many points you made. The biggest thing for me now is the width compared to the 6+ and iMessages. I love being able to send large files, videos and many photos. Hate I can't do that on android. I'm a big dude with big hands so I don't have a problem using phones this big, but some are more comfortable to hold. At this point, while I wait for development on N6, I fancy my jailbroken 6+ because it's not as wide and broken in with my setup. I prefer a jailbroken iPhone on most days to Android honestly. The ios integration with it's apps is just it. I know ios is simple to use and you can't do this and you can't do that, but with a jailbreak I can't think of one thing I need that I don't have on my phone. Two things I can't do on ios is flash ROMS and install apk files right from root explorer, which I love Android for. With a jailbreak there's some sort of tweak that makes every app "I" use better or more useful in some way on ios. I just always get bored and need to flash something so Android is my fix when I want to do my own tinkering with the phone and flash a couple ROMS.
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Great read....as i am on Verizon and waiting it out to see if they are really going to support the device!
Also Google Hangouts is essentially the same as iMessage...but for android. I use hangouts for sms and instant messaging and its integrated with my google voice #. It's much better imo!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Tsoflyyup said:
Great read....as i am on Verizon and waiting it out to see if they are really going to support the device!
Also Google Hangouts is essentially the same as iMessage...but for android. I use hangouts for sms and instant messaging and its integrated with my google voice #. It's much better imo!
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
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True, but it isn't as convenient. Most of my friends seem to have iMessage, I do not even need to ask anyone if they have an iPhone. I like how it defaults to it and the way it integrates. Hangouts I need to get friends to download it, tell me their email address and add them. Too much of a pain, most people on Android don't even seem to know what their Gmail is. And even then, video and message sharing isn't as good as it is on iMessage.
You know, I am not happy with Verizon. T-Mobile had amazing voice quality and while N6 isn't VOLTE enabled on T-Mobile yet, they said it will be in early 2015. Verizon... not a word. If you value Voice + Data as well as VVM... wait till they release it. I am sure that even if they do decide to update N6, it will only update Verizon variant.
Thing is, Verizon is all about pushing their branded phones with ton of bloat. I was shocked when the built in SMS app asked me to pay for their service on droid turbo. They never want to support something that isn't branded to all hell by them. I think it will be awhile before VOLTE is working on N6 on Verizon.