I'm changing my phone in a few weeks and it will be for an HTC desire or iphone 3gs (wont be able to get the latest iphone thats coming out as it'll cost too much i think)

I've had a quick go on an iphone but not the HTC desire. I know a few people have them so what makes it better than the iphone. I know it has better camera but what else?

I only really want it for email, browsing forums like this site and memory map. Oh and making calls!

cheers

I think the main reason people prefer the Desire is because they don't want to be seen to be following the herd by getting an iPhone.

Because everyone else has an iPhone?

Not sure if it's any better more on par with it. Both are very good smart phones, can't believe how much use I get out of my iPhone really is very good.

HTC is cheaper no? "Edgier"?

iPhones are so 2009…..

My reasons:

1) It's not an iphone
2) You can remove and replace the battery with a spare – essential when these phones have a short battery life.
3) The battery life is better (better battery)
4) It has a fairly decent camera
5) It's a bit smaller
6) Android has lots of free apps
7) I hate itunes – Desire will do most MP3s type formats
8) I prefer the OS
9) It's not an iphone

both the same price at the moment on orange for me (about £89 on the contract i want)

Niche

I really don't get the whole "It's not an iPhone" thing.

"Hey man, I'm not some fashion-whore that is defined by the phone I have, that's why I wanted this phone and not that other phone". Weird.

One word:

Android

It's brown.

3) The battery life is better (better battery)

Not convinced about this – the battery capacity is higher, true, but battery life is reduced by inefficient multitasking implementation.

"Hey man, I'm not some fashion-whore that is defined by the phone I have, that's why I wanted this phone and not that other phone". Weird.

Yeah – strange

You seem to struggle with basic human behaviour graham.

-desire has a better screen

One word:

Android

android-2-2-to-do-things-we-assumed-it-already-did

That article is clearly written by someone who hasn't actually used android, and half of it is factually incorrect.

2) You can remove and replace the battery with a spare – essential when these phones have a short battery life.

Useful, though there are plenty of external batteries available for the iPhone which are nearly as convenient and better in some ways (larger capacity, charge indicators, can be used to power other devices).

3) The battery life is better (better battery)

I think you missed out the word "slightly" from that 🙂

4) It has a fairly decent camera

Agreed. iPhone camera is "adequate" but definitely not great.
If you are after a decent camera then this is definitely a clincher.

5) It's a bit smaller

Erm.. by how many nanometres exactly??

iPhone 3Gs: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm (135g)
HTC Desire: 119.0 x 60.0 x 11.9 mm (135g)

6) Android has lots of free apps

Umm.. 200,000+ apps on the Apple App Store. Not sure what percentage of them are free, but it is a lot!

7) I hate itunes – Desire will do most MP3s type formats

Never had a problem loading mp3s onto an iPhone.

I prefer the OS

Probably the best reason! That and the screen is better.

You seem to struggle with basic human behaviour graham.

I'm a programmer.

how long does the battery last on these phones if you're using them for email / internet a bit in the day?

Is it a case of stick them on charge each night?

I guess as theres so many things you can download and use on them then you probably end up playing with them a lot more than a normal phone.

I guess as theres so many things you can download and use on them then you probably end up playing with them a lot more than a normal phone.

Yep that's the problem really. The batteries are bigger than "normal" phones, but if you're sitting surfing the web for a couple of hours over 3G, using the GPS, watching videos etc then you're hitting the battery pretty damn hard.

If you use it a lot you end up with charger everywhere: bedside charger, car charger, and USB lead at work to charge off the PC.

Yeah need to charge each night really, well mine does but I use it a lot during the day for checking emails and surfing. I don't see it as just a phone though really is passed that and more like a tiny netbook that makes phone calls and has a shit camera.

My nexus one lasts anywhere between:

5 days (on standby)
5 hours (continuous use, screen on, internet use etc)

iPhone 3Gs: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm (135g)
HTC Desire: 119.0 x 60.0 x 11.9 mm (135g)

Wow, they're so similar it's scary.

What I'd like, is for someone to find out it's just the same device in a different case running a different OS. The iphone lads could head for their laptop guys who could explain to them how it's not actually that difficult to put a generic PC in a apple case, stick a differnt OS on and charge twice the amount for it.

My wife charges her iPhone every night and it always lasts all day whislt she is out and about.

I do it the other way around as I am sat in the office all day so I charge all day and it lasts (very comfortably) till the next morning.

The whole iPhone / Android thing is a bit like comparing a Mac to Linux (not least because that's pretty much exactly what you are doing).

If you're of the school of thought that you want it to "just work" and don't want to hack about with it then the iPhone is the clear winner. The downside is that you're tied into the Apple way of doing things, iTunes and vetted apps and all that.

On the other hand, if you like tweaking and playing about with your gadgets and want a broad range of different options for your applications, at the expense of perhaps having to play about when something doesn't quite work perfectly, then Android's your man.

Personally I fall very heavily into the latter camp, but it's horses for courses.

I'd be waiting for the new iphone first – it may not be as expensive as you think, and will have a better camera etc

3gs prices may also come down at the same time

how long does the battery last on these phones if you're using them for email / internet a bit in the day?

Is it a case of stick them on charge each night?

Constant use kills my iPhone 3G in about 3-4 hours, but with a bit of browsing, email, iPod use, texts etc it easily lasts a day. Turn the data off and it lasts about 5 days (I tried this on holiday)

The 3gs is apparently better than mine

Cougar +1

he iphone lads could head for their laptop guys who could explain to them how it's not actually that difficult to put a generic PC in a apple case, stick a differnt OS on and charge twice the amount for it.

IS that still teh case with the macbooks, or are they doing their own proprietary stuff these days?

Coffeking they're Intel chipsets hence why you can use Hackintosh.

Cougar ±1 : I generally like tinkering about with stuff, but for phones I just want them to work.

I've used them both on work stuff.

I have a desire, because I write applications for my phone. If I had an iPhone, I'd need to buy a mac, then pay apple money, before I could even run applications I wrote myself on my own phone. Then if I wanted anyone else to be able to run them, I'd have to ask Apple nicely, and wait a couple of weeks before they could.

With the Android phones, I download the free development kit on any computer, write a program, then I can put it on my phone, or give it to other people to play with straight away.

Android is a lot more open in loads of other ways too – if you want to put music on it, you can use pretty much any piece of software, you're not locked to itunes, if you want to run a different web browser, a different sms application etc, you can choose to, whereas on Apple, you can only do what Apple let you do.

It'll be interesting to see how things pan out in the long term – in the usa, Android phones outsell iPhone currently, so potentially may end up with more applications also (especially given it is so much more developer friendly).

On practical stuff, the two are roughly comparable – both have only okay battery life, which is a pain. The gps in the desire is probably a bit better (it is very very good, the last iPhone I used a gps on was pretty inaccurate, that was only a 3g not a 3gs mind).

The android phones have widgets, where things like calendar, weather, Facebook updates, emails etc can be shown on your home screen, which apple don't let you do. They are currently a lot better for gps apps on the bike because iPhone doesn't support multitasking yet, meaning that if you get a phone call, the gps drops out.

From a usability point of view, both are pretty similar – decent web browsers, phone, email etc all easy to use. Much of a muchness really now.

They are both pretty similar, but as Cougar says, there are subtle differences. I went Android because I've never liked itunes, but I appreciate the seamlessness of the whole i-experience.

Phone I used a gps on was pretty inaccurate, that was only a 3g not a 3gs mind

I find it incredibly accurate can point you to a few feet, tested it out in the wilds near fence lines and it had us bang up matching the OS 1:25,000 map precisely.

Also, if you are looking at the desire, check out the tariffs on the three website – I got mine for free on a 17 quid a month tariff, and there are ones with lots of minutes for 25 – worth considering a switch, you typically get much better deals for switching networks than you do when getting an upgrade. It is pretty unlikely that you'd need to pay 80 quid for it if you shop around a little.

Joe

I don't understand why anyone can 'dislike' iTunes. What is there to dislike? It catalogues music and you play it.

iPhone doesn't support multitasking yet, meaning that if you get a phone call, the gps drops out.

Seriously? what a pain

can you do multiple audio on the iphone? On my X10 I was very impressed it could play spotify, last fm, mediascape, beebplayer & a voice recorder app all at the same time. Not a tuneful combination I grant you but impressed nonetheless I'm hoping someone will do a 4 track app

Agree with most of what joe said.

Though I've recently got into the whole contributing to OpenStreetMap thing and I've found the GPS on the iPhone 3Gs to generally be pretty accurate (I use the "MotionX GPS" app, which does do intelligent things like increasing the poll rate base on your speed and dead-reckoning when it loses signal).

I find it incredibly accurate can point you to a few feet, tested it out in the wilds near fence lines and it had us bang up matching the OS 1:25,000 map precisely.

ah, cool, I've only used the 3g gps, and that really sucked. the desire gps is pretty much the best consumer gps i've used – very quick to get a fix, and very accurate. I guess the 3gs has something similar.

Although, if you really want to know how good your gps is, try it in a city with high buildings and narrow streets – out in fields or hills is the ideal place for gps, and pretty much any modern unit will locate you to a few feet accuracy, it is in cities where they find it hardest.

wait 3 weeks until iphone 4 comes out?