iPhone 4 vs. the Droid

[eric81]

I have been doing a lot of research lately, and I will be picking up a new phone sometime between the 1st and the 5th. I am leaning towards the iPhone, but the Droid is supposed to be awesome as well. Can anyone tell me what they do AND don't like about each? I could really use some help here. The phone is going to replace my home phone, internet, and TV, so it needs to have/provide WiFi access and cruise the internet very smoothly. It also needs to be a connector for both my Toshiba laptob and my MacBook (Apple). I am leaning towards the iPhone, since they only need to update once a year, but the Droid seems to have more apps. Then again, I have seen a lot of broken Droids out there, and the iPhone is claiming one of the toughest phones to ever hit the market. Any and all input is welcomed.

[eTiMaGo]

iPhone - sleek, smooth, awesome screen, awesome camera, wide range of games. In other words, a multimedia powerhouse in your pocket (an I'm not even an apple fanboy)

Droid - best way to describe it would be jack of all trades, master of none. In other words, more versatile and downright productive (especially with the hardware keyboard), but it won't be as pretty and sleek. Also, the android OS is FAR more customizable, with widgets, live wallpapers, etc...

in the end, it's more or less like Mac vs PC. On one hand, a smooth, unified experience but with its own idiosyncrasies, on the other hand, a tinker-friendly format that you can do more or less anything with, but often have to deal with the headaches caused by that :D

[MadMax]

tomato had a long thread on the current smart phones that you may want to look for, it might answer a lot of your questions...

[tomato]

Your first concern, I think, is to determine which carrier will give you the best coverage, because if the network is no good, then you have a brick in your pocket :(

Right now iPhone is only on AT&T so you need to find out if that is gonna work for you. In California (San Francisco , LA especially) the network is completely saturated, so that results in dropped calls, sluggish Internet .... I would start with the coverage first if I were you. Ask your friends what they use and if they're happy with their service.

[why?]

Originally Posted by tomato

Your first concern, I think, is to determine which carrier will give you the best coverage, because if the network is no good, then you have a brick in your pocket :(

Right now iPhone is only on AT&T so you need to find out if that is gonna work for you. In California (San Francisco , LA especially) the network is completely saturated, so that results in dropped calls, sluggish Internet .... I would start with the coverage first if I were you. Ask your friends what they use and if they're happy with their service.

the iphone is probably a bad idea until apple finally gets one on verizon. I mean when Steve Jobs has to tell everyone in a crowd to turn off their phones so he can demo the brand new one, yea, something stinks with the network.

Saying that, i love my ipod touch. Everything is so simple and easy. And I love itunes, it is the best music app i have found, and i've been looking for decades.

But man, those prices for the service on these phones is insane. And phone internet just can't compare to cable internet speeds.

[DevilGirl]

As an owner of an iPhone 4, let me say this:

I have not had any problems with my phone, coverage has been great (except for going from underground to above ground, or vice versa, on the subway in Philly), love the simplicity of how it operates, love the fact that I can customize quite a few things.

There are plenty of apps out there that do everything I want them too, and that's just the free apps. Very rarely do I actually pay for an app.

[BailOut]

IMHO iTunes is the worst software to hit the Windows world since AOL 5.5. The minute you install it your system will bog down some and it never, ever lets up. Messed up file associations, slow running, huge resource footprint, poor disk layout, etc. all combine to make it a nightmare to work with, especially when something goes wrong, and let's face it - in the Windows world something *always* goes wrong.

So, I feel that the argument that the iPhone is a sleeker experience only pertains to the phone itself. Any time you have to sync or restore it (which you will have to do sooner or later) that changes. I agree that Android phones take more work than a vanilla iPhone but that work is limited to the phone itself; there's no resource intensive, craptastic software on the back end to contend with.

With all that said I am an iPhone user, but only because it came out before the Android phones did and once jailbroken allows me to perform my job remotely, and because my employer pays for it. I got a G1 for my wife a while back and it is a wonderful device, though T-Mobile totally left it hanging with no Android OS updates and she won't let me hack it to update it.

My job is drawing to a close and my employer will either ask for this phone back or will terminate my service soon. If I still can't unlock the 4.1 iOS at that time (it's not possible today unless you captured some firmware objects from a previous version, which I failed to do) then I'll be in the Android world. I would love to get a true Linux phone from Nokia but none are available from them today due to their jacked up, often delayed and midstream switch from the Maemo to MeeGo operating systems.


P.S. As you can glean from this post the smart phone world is an absolute mess today. You have iTunes, often spotty AT&T service, poorly implemented multitasking and antenna issues to deal with in the iPhone world, wildly disparate interfaces, user experiences and OS updates from Android vendors, the Linux models floating in limbo, Blackberry frantically playing catch up and finding itself trapped in its own hard-to-develop-for world and cheap, limited-functionality knockoffs all over the place. No matter which phone or service you choose the honeymoon will soon be over, and unless you often utilize the ability to have the Internet and GPS at your fingertips 24/7 you will soon find yourself in the unhappy place of paying way more for phone service than you should. If all you want is a keyboard for texting and a camera for on-the-fly shots there are plenty of non-smart phones out there that offer this functionality at much lower pricing. Food for thought.

[why?]

Originally Posted by BailOut

IMHO iTunes is the worst software to hit the Windows world since AOL 5.5. The minute you install it your system will bog down some and it never, ever lets up. Messed up file associations, slow running, huge resource footprint, poor disk layout, etc. all combine to make it a nightmare to work with, especially when something goes wrong, and let's face it - in the Windows world something *always* goes wrong.

So, I feel that the argument that the iPhone is a sleeker experience only pertains to the phone itself. Any time you have to sync or restore it (which you will have to do sooner or later) that changes. I agree that Android phones take more work than a vanilla iPhone but that work is limited to the phone itself; there's no resource intensive, craptastic software on the back end to contend with.

With all that said I am an iPhone user, but only because it came out before the Android phones did and once jailbroken allows me to perform my job remotely, and because my employer pays for it. I got a G1 for my wife a while back and it is a wonderful device, though T-Mobile totally left it hanging with no Android OS updates and she won't let me hack it to update it.

My job is drawing to a close and my employer will either ask for this phone back or will terminate my service soon. If I still can't unlock the 4.1 iOS at that time (it's not possible today unless you captured some firmware objects from a previous version, which I failed to do) then I'll be in the Android world. I would love to get a true Linux phone from Nokia but none are available from them today due to their jacked up, often delayed and midstream switch from the Maemo to MeeGo operating systems.


P.S. As you can glean from this post the smart phone world is an absolute mess today. You have iTunes, often spotty AT&T service, poorly implemented multitasking and antenna issues to deal with in the iPhone world, wildly disparate interfaces, user experiences and OS updates from Android vendors, the Linux models floating in limbo, Blackberry frantically playing catch up and finding itself trapped in its own hard-to-develop-for world and cheap, limited-functionality knockoffs all over the place. No matter which phone or service you choose the honeymoon will soon be over, and unless you often utilize the ability to have the Internet and GPS at your fingertips 24/7 you will soon find yourself in the unhappy place of paying way more for phone service than you should. If all you want is a keyboard for texting and a camera for on-the-fly shots there are plenty of non-smart phones out there that offer this functionality at much lower pricing. Food for thought.

i'll always disagree about itunes. It absolutely rocks. I've never had issues, i've been easily able to adapt it to different formats, syncing is incredibly simple, and I have never had it do anything really stupid.

All the other music players have issues. wma just stinks, realplayer can be ok, been then can decide it just isn't going to work, never mind they literally changed supported formats a while back, that is when i dumped it. itunes is the best by far.

If all you want is a keyboard for texting and a camera for on-the-fly shots there are plenty of non-smart phones out there that offer this functionality at much lower pricing. Food for thought.

This i agree with like a bajillion percent. Until these rates become reasonable smart phones are not worth it.

[fnkngrv]

Wait for a Windows Phone 7 device. MS has stringent hardware requirements and quite honestly I have always liked the Zune software for music. Have you considered that?

[eric81]

If anyone ever has an issue with an Apple product, it is simply because they don't understand how to use it. Apple made their software a certian way, and it is near impossible to screw it up. I absolutely LOVE Apple products. However, I have yet to meet a Windows program I didn't have an issue with. The simple fact that Windows is doing everything it can to look and work like Apple should say something. And as for iTunes... Apple created it, and made it useable not only on their platform, but also on Windows. When is the last time Windows came out with a world changing program and released it to Apple? Look at Microsoft Word for example... Works fine (most of the time) unless you try to save and send and open. Both computers have to have the same version, with the same updates. Apple has Microsoft Word, and on an Apple, it will open, read, and type anything. However, when I save and send to a Windows based computer, it never seems to open right. Which is funny, because any other Mac (new AND old) seems to open and read it just fine, then edit it, and send it back, and it still opens fine. I am also very weary at the fact there is a new serious update and upgrade for both Droid software and hardware every 2 to 3 months. Apple has one upgrade a year, and only minor updates once in a great while, if Windows went and screwed up something again. I am pretty sure I am going with AT&T and an iPhone 4. Thanks for the help everyone.

[why?]

Originally Posted by eric81

If anyone ever has an issue with an Apple product, it is simply because they don't understand how to use it. Apple made their software a certian way, and it is near impossible to screw it up. I absolutely LOVE Apple products. However, I have yet to meet a Windows program I didn't have an issue with. The simple fact that Windows is doing everything it can to look and work like Apple should say something. And as for iTunes... Apple created it, and made it useable not only on their platform, but also on Windows. When is the last time Windows came out with a world changing program and released it to Apple? Look at Microsoft Word for example... Works fine (most of the time) unless you try to save and send and open. Both computers have to have the same version, with the same updates. Apple has Microsoft Word, and on an Apple, it will open, read, and type anything. However, when I save and send to a Windows based computer, it never seems to open right. Which is funny, because any other Mac (new AND old) seems to open and read it just fine, then edit it, and send it back, and it still opens fine. I am also very weary at the fact there is a new serious update and upgrade for both Droid software and hardware every 2 to 3 months. Apple has one upgrade a year, and only minor updates once in a great while, if Windows went and screwed up something again. I am pretty sure I am going with AT&T and an iPhone 4. Thanks for the help everyone.

wow, you are quite a ton biased there. Apple products break, and they have defects. They are not perfect, and the sooner the fansnobs that do everything they can to promote them realize this, the better everyone will be.

[Shroomster]

Originally Posted by eric81

If anyone ever has an issue with an Apple product, it is simply because they don't understand how to use it.

Don't take this the wrong way, but "sheep mentality".

I stopped reading right there.

I shouldn't need to 'understand' how to 'use' an OS properly. There shouldn't be a learning curve or a hangup about me wanting to do more than one thing at once, or certain things only a certain way. I shouldn't have to hold a phone a certain way for it to work right, or have to be issued a condom for it to wear. For crying outloud 30 years ago none of this mattered and stuff was still efficient and people had 8-10 hr work days and carried on personal life w/o having to know what the Mceatery in Dover, Delaware is going to be serving three weeks from now. COME ON..../end Rant

on a side note, the new macbook air basic comes with two usb I/O.....seriously? My netbook has 3 and it's almost 2 years old.....

iDon't. I ANDROID.


To the OP.....if you're making the same mistake as most people do and are calling all phones 'droids then thank Motorola for being idiots.....

[tomato]

Eric , if you love Apple products , then it's a no brainer. Get an iPhone 4 and enjoy it :)

[severous01]

iphone sucks.....first off, come on--AT&T??? are you really willing to set up a contract with them for 2 years for an really expensive ipod? i wouldnt, the last time i did that they jacked up my bill, made me pay for their mistakes, and then went to a collection agency for $6.11 in interest fees because they didnt update their site that i was paying on when i paid with a credit card online.

second, i cant even get the ipod software off my computer much less iphone software. i delete the software, and restart my computer...and it's magically back. you know what that tells me?? it's a freakin virus. why not use mp3? if i want to save to a usb flash, install the music on another computer...or 10 other computers...i can. unlike ipod's where you can only have 5 devices per file list.

third...it's over-rated. the droid is so much more user-friendly. you have app's for everything, can get it on verizon, sprint, t-mobile, and they're even thinking aobut coming out with a walmart brand phone with android. boost mobile, is getting one soon, too.

[eTiMaGo]

Android: Think Different

ironic, isn't it? :D

[tomato]

why is it ironic ?

[eTiMaGo]

Think Different used to be Apple's motto for getting people to start using Macss... and now it could very well be applied to get people to consider something else than an iPhone...

[eTiMaGo]

BTW PK, just managed to get a Froyo ROM on my Milestone (dumb things finally got hacked properly )