Fight please - iPhone vs HTC Hero cyclists :)

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Fight please - iPhone vs HTC Hero cyclists :)

20 posts & 15 voices | Started 2 years ago by iamsporticus | Latest reply from sharkbait

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iamsporticus - Member

Hi

I cant decide between the above 2 phones
The iPhone seems the obvious choice but I just cant get away from the Hero being ££££ cheaper over the contract time

Id appreciate any input from users of the above, and especially comments about which phone would fit in with the life of a cyclist!

I suppose its all about the apps really and both have a fair selection
It would probably help if I list what I actually want the phone to do:

Make phone calls
Surf the web and maybe listen to 6 music online
Take half decent pics occasionally
GPS - to log my ride data like route,track and speeds (both seem to do this but how long do batteries last?)
(I dont need car nav and I dont need them to nav off road either)
Some kind of tracking so my GF can follow me from the laptop at home
Play decent quality music - maybe dock with my Bose ipod dock
Be intuitive to use
Have a calendar/diary which easily syncs with Google calendar
Display my location on an OS map on the spur of the moment
Do other cool stuff I cant think of at the moment
And not be a PITA to use day to day

Just to expand on the GPS side - I dont usually ride with my Garmin but always do with my phone
I dont necessarily need to replace my etrex, but I would like to be able to save my ride data like you can with the Garmin which i would use whenever I needed 'real' navigation anyway
Id also like the ability to get totally lost and whip out my phone and see where I am on an OS map without any preparation or preloaded software - not sure if this is possible on either but would be good if it was

Finally an iphone is going to cost over 900 quid for a 16 GB GS over 2 years even on PAYG
The Hero will weigh in at approx 500 - but I would have to add memory wouldnt I to match the iphone?

Its pretty tough ignoring the price difference
More to the point how do people afford these - they are everywhere??

Cheers - comments from users please

Posted 2 years ago #
sheldona - Member

I've an HTC as a work phone and an iPhone as my personal phone.

Iphone wins hands down everytime due to ease of use and it doesn't need to be reset when it throws a hissy fit everyday when you try to use it.

Posted 2 years ago #
HoratioHufnagel - Member

don't take your phone biking!

I used to do this all the time with my old PDA phone and it was fine even after flying down a hill when i crashed, but these new iphone-style ones are much much more fragile due to the large screen and glass cover. Doesn't take much at all to break it as i found out with my HTC touch HD.

Theres apps for most phones to log your data i believe. I've got several on my Windows Mobile phone.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenh - Member

Ayatolla - if you are comparing a Windows HTC phone to an iPhone, then your result is hardly surprising.
Or is it a Google Android one?

Posted 2 years ago #
sheldona - Member

Windows one.
Hora, I take my Iphone out most of the time on my bike, it sits in my camelbak and has never come to any harm, it does have a helitape cover stuck on the front though.

I have some gps apps but they eat battery life so don't bother with them.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenh - Member

Windows one.

Not really relevant to the OPs question then, since the Hero is an Android phone and roughly 1.7 million times better than a Windows one

Posted 2 years ago #
sheldona - Member

Fair enough I didn't know that! Just loked its the hero I have and its pish.

Posted 2 years ago #
Flash - Member

I have an iPhone for work and a HTC for me. The iPhone does have a nicer UI but not 500 times nicer. To be honest I don't use the apps from the istore I can get everything I need from the Android Store for free, including the tracking software.

The Hero isn't as straight forward as the iPhone to update, the os is still young, I do think that it won't be long before Apple are playing catch-up.

Posted 2 years ago #
rOcKeTdOg - Member

i've got a HTC android, no issues with the software, lots of apps, use it for muliple email accounts, camera not brill, but neither is apples effort and it isn't a iphone, that's reason enough for me

oh HTC comes with 2g SD card, i don't use it as an mp3 player though, i use creative for that

Posted 2 years ago #
WackoAK - Member

I had the same dilema but in the end went for the iphone. The iphone will do all of what you ask. There literally is "an app for that"...

Battery life while running GPS apps on mine is about 3 hours but you can get booster packs to double that. All smart phones suffer from poor battery life under intense use.

If the Android/HTC phones had been more established then I'd have probably went for it instead, my next phone will have Android.

Posted 2 years ago #
Telemaster18 - Member

I love my hero! It's awesome. The big difference is the iphone is noticably smoother than the hero. It's not because of the android OS its that HTC have slightly underspecced the phone. But it's by no means laggy and if you get an app to close running applications it runs smooth as. Apps wise....I had a couple of logging/tracking apps but never used them because I didn't want to take my phone out on the bike. Where the Hero wins is being so customizable; with it's 7 home screens that you can lay out how you want and have icons to do whatever you want.

Posted 2 years ago #
molgrips - Member

Consider Nokia 5800 - does everything an iPhone does, costs way the hell less and has a really nice user interface too. Much much much nicer than older Symbian phones. Plus you get sportstracker and stuff for biking purposes.

Mine was free on a £15/mo contract, but I am a loyal Orange customer £900 is a shocking amount of money for a few fancy UI gestures.

Oh and the tracking thing you get with Google Maps which I think is available for msot phones.

Posted 2 years ago #
john - Member

Can you get OS mapping on an iphone or android phone? The only OS mapping things I've seen have been for windows mobile. No point having a fantastic easy to use phone with GPS if you can't use a proper map with it. (for mountain bike use, at least)

Posted 2 years ago #
STATO - Member

GPS - to log my ride data like route,track and speeds (both seem to do this but how long do batteries last?)

I dont think there are any good apps for the iPhone that do this, as they all require the phone to be 'ON' to track so if you get a call or the phone goes into sleep mode then it turns off tracking.

Posted 2 years ago #
orena45 - Member

I have a Hero and would definately recommend it! Has all the apps you need: I use My Tracks for GPS ride logging on the bike, although not used it off-road, only for commuting. There is OS Map which shows OS maps (funnily enough) and shows where you are. Don't think you can plot or track routes on it though. I also have Grid Reference which simply shows the OS grid reference of your location - this came in handy last weekend when I wasn't quite sure where I was on Dartmoor, and it told me exactly where I was.

Web browsing is great (am using my PC a lot less now)...5mp camera is ok (although my Nokia N82 3mp was better)...GPS tracking can be done via Google Latitude...music player isn't bad, although no equalizer/sound adjustment - I also use BeyondPod which is great for downloading and listening to podcasts...calender easily and automatically syncs with Google Calendar - as does your phone book.

You can also import contacts (photos and birthdays) from Facebook and photos from Flikr. There is a decent Twitter application.

Other apps I have = Beebplayer (BBC Iplayer), Compass, Google Sky Map (tells you what stars and constellations are up there as you point at them), Last FM, PDF viewer, Quickoffice (for viewing Microsoft Office docs) and several others. Also bought Co-Pilot Live sat nav which is very good.

My phone was only slightly laggy when it first came out but HTC quickly brought out a firmware update and it's smooth as butter now.

Was contemplating the Iphone before I bought this, but so glad I didn't! Much cheaper, can multi-task, does the same things as the Iphone and software development is more open, plus plenty of free apps on Google Market.

Posted 2 years ago #
aP - Member

The biggest problem I've found with the iPhone is that if you're wearing gloves you have to take them off to use the touch screen. Oh, and the battery life can be a bit on the short side.

Posted 2 years ago #
Crell - Member

Are any of you using a bluetooth GPS device rather than the inbuilt one? I'm assuming this improves the battery life (bluetooth vs GPS power consumption). I'm tempted to get a hero and pack it more safely in the bag, with just the GPS receiver exposed.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenh - Member

Can you get OS mapping on an iphone or android phone?

You can on Android, and it's free!

Does require a data connection though (maps aren't stored on the device, unlike memory map/anquet).

Posted 2 years ago #
STATO - Member

You can on Android, and it's free!

Does require a data connection though (maps aren't stored on the device, unlike memory map/anquet).

You can on the iPhone too, the one i have is called 'iOSMaps1.1' and it was free but has to download maps like above. There is a paid for version which stores the maps on the phone, cant remember how much it was tho.

Posted 2 years ago #
sharkbait - Member

I got a reburbished iPhone 3g for free from O2 and I'm very very happy with it. Bear in mind that he iPhone tariff includes a decent amount of mins/texts, as much data as you can use plus free wifi from The Cloud and a couple of others so isn't particularly expensive. It's buying the phone that put me off until I could get a free one.
UI is great - it just works as you'd expect and it doesn't crash (I've had WM phones for the last 5 years).
I use a Garmin when I need a real GPS on the bike and the iPhone for everything else.

Posted 2 years ago #

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