Why Android is better than iPhone.

[GayManLoveIsOK]

these "top five" comparison lists at the end of the day don't really help a whole lot...i use blackberry and i'm on rogers...i hate my blackberry, and dislike the direction they are going in, but it's bay street and my job, as an IT nerd, to make it work for the end user, and make it work smoothly...i hate rogers too, but would get the same headaches from bell and telus at the end of the day...i've setup android and iphones for clients and end users...they each fit their purpose well, and i could argue the case for blackberry too...so the guy at CNET has a hard on for android, don't blame him, it's an awesome device to play with...the iphone has it's simplicity and i love that too, one program to load EVERYTHING on it, one simple interface to flick through, it works...meh...

[Qualdoth]

Android is great, if you love dealing with OS fragmentation and a less than polished UI. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of open source but all this nonsense with 80 billion versions of Android on a multitude of handsets, some that can be upgraded, some that cannot, etc is a pain. I have several friends who have been developing mobile apps for a while and they have all abandoned writing apps for the Android platform.

Not to mention, after all these years the UI on an Android is nowhere near as polished and smooth to use as an iPhone. The ui on the windows 7 phones seems a bit more polished. Haven't played with those phones yet to see what they're like.

[twinn]

From a user perspecpective, the Iphone has the best GUI of them all. I currently have an iphone 3G.

Although my next phone will be either a blackberry or android based.

In terms of Apple, they are the one phone company that sort of "got it" and I would say that HTC is a close second while Samsung with the Galaxy is a close 3rd.

For a phone to sell it has to be:
cool or trendy
user friendly
be able to surf the web

RIM and there blackberry's are great for work but just plain suck surfing the web compared to the iphone.

[AdRath]

Android is great, if you love dealing with OS fragmentation and a less than polished UI. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of open source but all this nonsense with 80 billion versions of Android on a multitude of handsets, some that can be upgraded, some that cannot, etc is a pain. I have several friends who have been developing mobile apps for a while and they have all abandoned writing apps for the Android platform.

Not to mention, after all these years the UI on an Android is nowhere near as polished and smooth to use as an iPhone. The ui on the windows 7 phones seems a bit more polished. Haven't played with those phones yet to see what they're like.

I was going to post on the fragmentation issue earlier. Glad someone with more knowledge got to it.

The WP7 UI seems to be very slick and its more like IOS than Andoid (the walled garden model Andoid fans talk about with Apple). The WP7 issue seems to be their handsets which seem to be a step behind the Android ones and reports of issues upgrading the micro sd cards which voids your warranty. I can't understand why Microsoft didn't just put locked down fast storage like Apple or go all multi card slot like Android. They straddled both worlds and ended up leaving something to be desired. I also can't understand in 2010 how they launched WP7 without simple things like copy/paste.

[Mikey-D]

This is an issue with the handset companies and not with the OS. Companies like Samsung and HTC need to find a way to differentiate themselves. Since Android is open-source, it's easy for them to go and add extra features that are exclusive to their phones. And that's exactly what it is: extra features. They run on the same base OS, however.

[gqelements]

...something to consider is that RIM's new OS is coming out early 2011....

Unlike previous patch jobs, this is a ground-up build (debuting on the PlayBook first) and actually supposed to be good (it's based on software by an Ottawa co. they bought last year)...

To return to android vs apple - my vote is with Apple, even though I work for Samsung....

[Yorkee]

...something to consider is that RIM's new OS is coming out early 2011....

Unlike previous patch jobs, this is a ground-up build (debuting on the PlayBook first) and actually supposed to be good (it's based on software by an Ottawa co. they bought last year)...

To return to android vs apple - my vote is with Apple, even though I work for Samsung....

They really need to have something iphone / android / windows mobile equivalent in order to survive.

I throw my ballot to Android. I at one point I am carrying a iphone 3g, Motorola Droid, BB storm, BB bold, and a Droid X...(I work closely with smart phones) If I want to use a phone, Motorola Droid is always my first choice.

oh, I can't survive with only a touchscreen keyboard.

[bear22099]

A friend of mine is one of those dyed in the wool apple freaks. She stood in line to get the iPhone 4 when it came out, ran home with it and plugged it into her 2 year old iMac notebook only to find out that the version of iTunes she needed to run to access her iPhone would not work on her iMac unless she upgraded the operating system first at a cost of $149. Or, she could just bring her phone to me to plug it into an 8 year old notebook that I have here running XP (also more than 8 years old), it would allow her to sync her new phone. She actually went out and bought a new mac machine to fix this issue. I was also looking at changing my phone, and simpy due to that experience I vowed to never buy a mac product.

[FiReSTaRT]

iPhone spec wise is the best phone out there right now, they finally put a great camera on it and the HD video recording feature is badass. I shopped around a lot before I got the iPhone 4

How's the ugly rubber bumper? I heard that once you slip it on, your reception gets 10x better
http://www.phonearena.com/news/100-r...hone-4_id12212

Earlier today, we reported about a solution for the iPhone 4's connectivity problem that would cost you about $1 at the most. On the other end of the spectrum, you can head over to eBay and pay $99.99 for a genuine rubber Bumper for the iPhone 4. Looking at the completed sales for the item, quite a number have been sold at prices ranging from $30 to $40 and one was apparently purchased for $99.99. There are also some being offered on eBay for less than $3 with free shipping. So do your research before you go out and spend a lot of money for what is essentially a piece of plastic.

[AdRath]

How's the ugly rubber bumper? I heard that once you slip it on, your reception gets 10x better
http://www.phonearena.com/news/100-r...hone-4_id12212

Are you really taking a jab at the iPhone looks? Even with the bumper it has a better build quality and look than 99% of android handsets out there. Looks/build materials are the one aspect Apple has a lock on.

[FiReSTaRT]

Are you really taking a jab at the iPhone looks? Even with the bumper it has a better build quality and look than 99% of android handsets out there. Looks/build materials are the one aspect Apple has a lock on.

No. I'm taking a jab at the engineers who couldn't design a phone that works when you hold it in your hand Then they had to ghetto a solution and the highly intelligent first adopters were paying up to $100 for a 25c piece of rubber

[AdRath]

No. I'm taking a jab at the engineers who couldn't design a phone that works when you hold it in your hand Then they had to ghetto a solution and the highly intelligent first adopters were paying up to $100 for a 25c piece of rubber

$100? Source please. No phone case/bumper for the iPhone has been $100. It was given free shortly after the issue came to light.

I do agree it was a major lapse of judgment to realease the device as it was without an internal bumper to separate the bits causing the issue. With a bumper it is still an amazing phone and made better than most android handsets. What is their excuses for poor quality?

[fastar1]

What is their excuses for poor quality?

What poor quality? I think you mean fit and finish, which can be associated with poor quality but isn't necessarily.

Anyways, they're only phones to most people.

[Stephany]

Not wanting full touch screen, I got a blackberry curve, and my fiance got a BB Torch. The torch is pretty impressive, and I wish I had gotten that as well. I'm not a huge app fiend, so.... it's a cellular device with some social networking perks for me.

And I believe RIM's new Operating System has already been leaked.

[FiReSTaRT]

The Android platform caters to everybody. From people who want the latest and greatest hardware gadgets to those who don't wanna blow their life savings on a phone and anyone in between. The cheaper models will have fit and finish issues (not that they necessarily affect usability of the product), while the higher-end models can be pretty ritzy.
Apple caters to those willing to pay a heavy premium to say that they have the newest i-product and noone else.

[CruisnGrrl]

I am on my third htc, i will NOT be buying another when my contract is up with bell (nor will i stick with bell, they have the worst customer service of any company out there and i've dealt with many).

[AdRath]

The Android platform caters to everybody. From people who want the latest and greatest hardware gadgets to those who don't wanna blow their life savings on a phone and anyone in between. The cheaper models will have fit and finish issues (not that they necessarily affect usability of the product), while the higher-end models can be pretty ritzy.
Apple caters to those willing to pay a heavy premium to say that they have the newest i-product and noone else.

the iphone is more than comparable to any of the other high end handsets in both price and functions. It has nothing to do with the latest and greatest 'idevice' it has to do with getting a great handset with a fantastic OS right out of the box.

[Biggsy]

Having lived with and used many *many* devices. I'll say that the iPhone is a lousy phone period. Phone as in making calls and hearing people.
RIM (particularly with wired ear piece) are excellent - Canadian Audio engineers are amongst the best in the world. Using stereo jack output from blackberry to car audio it is impressive just how good the sound is. iPhone has a checkered past of signal and sound issues, no helped by last debacle on the iphone4 antannae issues. There are also apparently a large number of returns due to cracked screens.

Physical quality aside, iphone was late out the gate with features that are standard on your cheap-o phones. I was floored that it originally had a camera, and yet didn't support MMS (picture messaging).

Personally, I prefer hard qwerty keys (as opposed to gesture) mostly for speed. But that aside.

Comparing iPhone (presume iPhone4) to Android is hard to do, since it's is 1 phone to a whole range of devices (and even non-phones). There is strength in numbers and genetic diversity. iPhone would have to be better than ALL android implementations (LG, HTC, G1, G2, Motorolla).

The counter claim against androids diversity is that there are 10 bajillion apps for the iphone (although most are utter crap, looking at the top ones in the marketplace are games so that doesn't really interest me).
http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=i...s&FORM=SGEWEB#

tldr;
iphone is fashion accessory not really good as a phone. Android many phones, one of them will be good for you.

[optionfa]

How's the ugly rubber bumper? I heard that once you slip it on, your reception gets 10x better
http://www.phonearena.com/news/100-r...hone-4_id12212

I don't know.. tbh I never experienced any reception issues but then again I went out and bought http://www.otterbox.com/iPhone-4-Com...efault,pd.html right when I got the phone, I drop my phone a couple times a week so a rugged case is a no brainer for me for any phone. It's slightly rediculous that apple would oversee something like this, I know lot of people rock the phone no case, but for me it's a non issue and spec wise it's still the best phone out there..

[FiReSTaRT]

the iphone is more than comparable to any of the other high end handsets in both price and functions. It has nothing to do with the latest and greatest 'idevice' it has to do with getting a great handset with a fantastic OS right out of the box.

You're talkin' about a handset that doesn't function well as a phone in the first place.. Then the Almighty Jobs (blessed be His name) decided to do away with external storage and charge up the arse for storage tiers, in addition to making it a disposable device, since it doesn't have a replaceable battery and those do expire. That's why I think I'll just take a pass on the Kool Aid, thank you very much, but I see that you're really enjoying yours