[Closed] Iphone vs the rest

Plenty of topics on Android phones - the search button is your friend 🙂

FWIW I have an HTC Desire which is awesome - does everything an Iphone does, is more customisable and cheaper.

i am due to upgrade my phone and would like an iphone.

Get one, then.

Android is a competitor to the Apple platform. Android is a more open system, but can be a little more quirky as a result.

You don't really say [i]why [/i]you want an iPhone so it's hard to recommend further.

One thing to note if you're looking at SIM-only contracts is that to get the most out of either iPhone or Android, you'll need to have a decent data connection. Outside of a phone deal, you normally pay extra for this (eg, on O2 it's a fiver a month).

You hear of very few people who've had an iphone that don't like them/give them up* is all I'd say.

*if you have, can you explain why, without any anti-apple comments? Would really appreciate any honest answer to this...

With the exception of the Dictionary and having to use iTunes once a month, I can't really find a fault with my iPhone, compared to Android phones i've seen it feels like a much higher quality product. Another thing to consider is, say for example a company your using says "you can even download our app", you can almost guarantee that they'll support iOS where it's a bit of a chance they'll do an Android app. The iPhone is way more fun too, the games run rings around Androids, again mostly because it's been backed for a while now.

I'm sure that'll change, but for me, it was an easy choice to make.

I like/liked my iphone, but it died recently, so this week a bought a cheapy android phone (£99) - the orange san fransico (what a dire name) and followed some links on another thread on STW to de-orange it and stick a clean OS on it. Despite feeling cheaper than the iphone, and the user interface being a fraction more clunkier, it seems to run faster, is smaller, and has a longer battery life.
But it's not as nice to stroke.
So I guess it's really how much money you want to spend on strokeability 🙂

I've just got an iPhone 4 and is excellent, apart from the phone, which I find v poor (echo, crackly, muffled). As the phone bit is key for me, I'm a tad disappointed

I have an iPhone for play and a Blackberry for work, if I swapped them round they would be not as much fun and there would be definite battery issues.

I love my iPhone for weekends, arsing around and social networking, the blackberry does all of that too but not as well although has superior battery life.

The only Android I have experienced was on Red Dwarf 🙄

I have an iPhone4, my wife has an HTC desire.
she wants an iPhone.
I don't want an HTC Desire.

the iPhone is better and more intuitive to use, and there are times when I've used it to do certain tasks, and thought, that is brilliant.

Android is a bit like linux - you have to faff a lot to get it doing what you want.

IMHO of course.

*if you have, can you explain why, without any anti-apple comments? Would really appreciate any honest answer to this...

I've got a 3GS coming to the end of its contract. I'm certainly not discounting another iPhone (5 when it comes out probably) but I think that Androids have caught up enough that the difference in price makes them a good alternative now. I still find them a bit hit and miss compared to iPhones but I'm techy enough that that's not a problem.

Also IME the build quality on iPhones isn't great considering the cost. My first broke after 9 months and my second is starting to show some quirks (mute switch not working properly, casing cracked) which I've never had happen on any other phone.

You hear of very few people who've had an iphone that don't like them/give them up* is all I'd say.

*if you have, can you explain why, without any anti-apple comments? Would really appreciate any honest answer to this...

It's not without its drawbacks, but it's a good product. Much like most other Apple devices. It does a number of things very well.

People who drop several hundred pounds on a [i]phone [/i]tend to either do their research properly to make sure it's what they want, or go "oooh shiny" and not care anyway. If you're the sort of person to impulse-buy an iPhone and then not like it, I'd hazard that you're also the sort of person who'd want to keep very quiet about that sort of mistake.

I have an iPhone4, my wife has an HTC desire.
she wants an iPhone.
I don't want an HTC Desire.

For balance,

I have a HTC Desire, OH has an iPhone. Neither of us would swap.

I've got an HTC Desire.
I've got friend's with iPhones. They both have their good points and bad points. I wouldn't swap my Desire for an iphone and they probably wouldn't swap their iphones for a Desire.

Two of my mate's with iPhone's are becoming a real pain to talk to. You can guarantee that calls will just end for no good reason several times. They then call you back....2 mins later, their phone just cuts the call again.
One of them has spent a lot of time trying to resolve it but has given up. He's getting rid of his as soon as his contract is up & reckons he'll be getting an Android phone.

This video made me chuckle.

I have an iPhone4, my wife has an HTC desire.
she wants an iPhone.
I don't want an HTC Desire.

This.
None of my friends have gone from an Iphone to an Android. Several have gone from Android to iphone, and never looked back.
Everyone I know who still has an Android phone wants an Iphone. No-one with an Iphone wants an Android phone.

I have an HTC Desire which is awesome...

How can a telephone inspire awe?

Samsung Galaxy S. Best multimedia smartphone out there fact.

What Hi Fi has a review of the latest phones this month. Get to whsmiths and give it a read.

My Iphone 3 is up for renwal and I really like it so I automatically thought Iphone 4, although I have had a quick play on a Desire HD and was very impressed, it seemed faster than the 3, but I'm not sure how it compares to a 4.

Have a look at deals, Three are doing an amazing offer on the Iphone 4 which is what I am going to go for, if there was a cheaper deal on the Desire HD I would probably go for that.

With HTC being a major road cycling sponsor does anyone know if they have any associated apps for cycling/training etc, or is it just a name on the jersey job?

This.
None of my friends have gone from an Iphone to an Android. Several have gone from Android to iphone, and never looked back.
Everyone I know who still has an Android phone wants an Iphone. No-one with an Iphone wants an Android phone

I had an iphone. Hated it.
Bought a google nexus one - v. happy. Much better as far as I am concerned in many ways.

Horses for courses. Try both and see what you like.

You hear of very few people who've had an iphone that don't like them/give them up* is all I'd say.

*if you have, can you explain why, without any anti-apple comments? Would really appreciate any honest answer to this...

I got rid of my iPhone. I had a 3G on a really good tariff (£15p/m for the £40 o2 iPhone tariff). Didn't want to 'upgrade' to iPhone 4 as that would have put me back on stupid tie in, and wasn't bothered about paying £500 for it.

Then actually when I started looking pretty much most of the use of the apps was at home instead of getting the laptop out. The apps that I did use I could get on pretty much every other platform.

That swayed it for me to get an iPad as a phone/laptop replacement around the house.

Phone wise I plumped for a new windows phone. I'd had some windows mobile phones before and being a developer I had written apps for WM. Curiosity got the better of me in how dev is be on the new phones. Didn't fancy Android, have though it about it but it just seems still too raw at the moment.

I was actually getting a bit bored of the iPhone as well. I don't like how there's in integration between apps, feels disjointed. Just time for a change.

You hear of very few people who've had an iphone that don't like them/give them up* is all I'd say.

*if you have, can you explain why, without any anti-apple comments? Would really appreciate any honest answer to this...

I have an iPhone - not sure which model, but it's a 3 from a couple of years ago
If it wasn't a works phone, I'd bin it and move back to my trusty Nokia 6020 - in fact that's what I do when the iPhone starts dropping calls, it seems to do it all day some days & not at all others.
I only use it as a phone with the occasional look at an email if I have to.
So yes, I'd gladly get rid of it

EDIT: I actually have 2 iPhones, the 2nd was a birthday present from my daughter, so can't really get rid

I've had both and iPhone and Desire and they both have their pro and cons.
Both will crash for no reason
Iphone updates can render them useless.
Apple support revolves around upgrading your product.
Navigating an HTC phone is no where near as easy as an Iphone.
HTC speed make the Apples offering seem old.
HTC will play flash and Apple won't.
Apple feels better built but despite dropping the desire numerous times it still works without looking bashed.
Iphones have loads of accessories, HTC don't.
HTC will play any music, Iphone only plays what Apple wants.

Given the choice I still prefer my HTC.

flash flash flash

Just got an iphone thru work - it's decent enough but for work stuff it's bad at syncing with stuff on my PC (exchange etc), it struggles with some wifi connections and the closed nature of it (can't set custom text alert tones, no bluetooth sync, fixed keyboard style etc) doesn't fit well with how I like things to bend to my will! It's the 1st computer thing I've owned that (unless you jailbreak it - which as mine is a work item i can't) you basically have to do what Apple want.

(see [url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/28/charlie-brooker-pfroblem-with-macs ]I don't hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling[/url] for a funnier view)

My wife's got a samsung smartphone (not sure which one) and it's faster, smaller & fully customisable.

However if i wanted to use app's, social network etc (i don't) then the iphone would probably win.

If it wasn't a works phone, I'd bin it and move back to my trusty Nokia 6020

I had a 3G on a really good tariff (£15p/m for the £40 o2 iPhone tariff). Didn't want to 'upgrade' to iPhone 4 as that would have put me back on stupid tie in, and wasn't bothered about paying £500 for it.

As someone who's not had a Windows PC since about 2003, is it true that I'll have to buy a new Win7/OSX machine just to run itunes to enable the iphone and transfer MP3 etc. files? or does it properly do USB mass storage now?

itunes runs fine on my 7 year old computer (or at least it runs no slower than anything else on it but it certainly 'works'). itunes is absolutely fine on my 5 year old XP media center PC.

Depends what is important to you I guess

iphone owners have more sex

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/want-to-have-sex-with-more-people-buy-an-iphone-and-stay-away-from-android-2050327.html

I find android owners very whingy - I know many & its like if you own an android you have to constantly whine about apple, they are always dissing iphones and finding problems with them, while I find iphone owners happier with their choice and not really worrying what the other phone OS's do and don't.

when i was looking back in october i seriously considered the iphone 4, despite my slight antipathy towards apple as a brand, and would have looked a lot more closely, except that over a contract period of 18months ( which included buying the iphone outright, and getting a sim for it, because this was the cheapest method ), it was still going to cost half as much again as an htc desire. that's a fair chunk of cash that i just couldn't justify.
if i didn't have to pay for my own phone i'd probably look a lot more closely, but i'm a happy android user. don't know why people think the android OS is 'clunky'? pretty much just worked, straight out of the box for me. maybe i'm just not being ambitious enough with the things i try to do?

Ive said it before and I'll say it again.

Samsung Galaxy S

FWIW I have an HTC Desire which is awesome - does everything an Iphone does

No it doesn't.

Some Android phones do certain things better than the iPhone and vice versa.

I'd agree that Android (particularly with HTC's Sense) makes a better "phone", but IMO the App Store pisses over the Android Market. Then again, it depends what you want/need it for. Maybe most people are happy with the apps in which case fair enough. But for me, the added scope/slickness/functionality of the former makes the whole experience much improved.

My sister had the Iphone 3gs. She had it 3 months and became bored of it, she sold it on and bought a Blackberry....
I believe HTC All the way. I preffer Windows Mobile though. So customisable and easy to install apps to. Updating the rom to something slightly newer is so easy though.

One thing I really don't like about iPhones is, though....

[b]APPS KEEP ****ING CRASHING - THE BBC ONE AND THE SKY SPORTS ONES ESPECIALLY. CLICK.... HAAA-AANG.... CRASH.

ARGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!![/b]

5+ inch screen, openly (ie not tied to manufacturer) updateable OS - THEN I'm in*

*(will this be never? 😥 )

Mine did the whole crashing apps thing for a while then stopped on its own. Strange.

one thing that does annoy me about people with I-Phones is, when some one rings them they will say my I-Phones ringing. Its a phone, you dont have to make it obvious that its an I-Phone.

People who announce that their phone is ringing are just odd anyway - I assume that is an inherent personality trait rather than anything to do with the phone as such.

They are the same sort of people that announce to the whole room that they need to 'go for a wee wee'.

I had an Iphone the screen broke and I never replaced it.

Have a nokia 72 which is a much better phone (better signal, better sound, better battery more reliable) but not as good a computer. I use my phone for business and so it is a better option for me.

Also you can tether the Nokia and not the Iphone which I often do when on site elsewhere.

otherwise Iphones are lovely things I'm sure, all shiny and that...

Android is exceedingly customisable, but the trade off is it can be a bit of a faff. Although isn't that why we have smart-phones in the first place? Battery life isn't as good as iPhones either, but the flip-side is you can get spare batteries.

iPhone is exceedingly easy to use, but the trade off is you're stuck with it doing only what Apple will allow it to do. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, if all you want is to phone, text, email, facebook, listen to music, etc. and don't want to worry about [i]how[/i] you're going to do any of that.

I went from iPhone 3GS to Android, and I can't see myself switching back any time soon. Android battery life complaints can be easily overcome by using battery manager apps. My X10 now gets a good 3-4 days on standby, and under normal use will last from one morning to the next evening on a single charge.

Which battery app do you use Flying Ox?

Samsung Galaxy S. Best multimedia smartphone out there fact.

It might be fact in a universe where HTC doesn't make phones. Or Google. And where the Motorola Atrix wasn't iminent.

Ive said it before and I'll say it again.

Samsung Galaxy S

You've said it before in this very thread, you were wrong then as well. It's a nice phone (I nearly bought one), but it was broken out of the box and Samsung's support is class-action-law-suit level.

Had a 3gs and wondered about android so sold it and bought a Desire. It was a nice enough phone and the OS was ok but not a patch on the iPhone. The apps were pretty shite to by comparisson too.

Now got an iPhone 4 and it is streets ahead of the desire. My only complaint is that I wish it had a 4.3in screen.

I also agree the point that I know quite a few people who have gone from android to iphone but none have gone the other way.

A lot of people will not buy apple products because they dislike apple rather than because other products are better. Apple can be perceived as arrogant, but they can afford to be because their prodicts tend to be better and therefore more desirable.

Ox ^^ about sums up my take on the whole Android vs Apple thing. I firmly believe that they're designed to appeal different people. With apologise for mixing my metaphors, arguing that one is better than the other is like arguing that apples are better than oranges.

iphone owners have more sex

Conversely, Android owners have more sex with someone else.

FWIW I have an HTC Desire which is awesome - does everything an Iphone does, [b]is more customisable[/b] and cheaper.

I've just got an iPhone 4 and is excellent, apart from the phone, which I find v poor [b](echo, crackly, muffled)[/b]. As the phone bit is key for me, I'm a tad disappointed

One thing I really don't like about iPhones is, though....
APPS KEEP ****ING CRASHING - THE BBC ONE AND THE SKY SPORTS ONES ESPECIALLY. CLICK.... HAAA-AANG.... CRASH.

ARGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing to note if you're looking at SIM-only contracts is that to get the most out of either iPhone or Android, you'll need to have a decent data connection. Outside of a phone deal, you normally pay extra for this (eg, on O2 it's a fiver a month).

If you are looking at PAYG (and you are in a good area for 3 reception) then this is worth taking a look at:

[url= http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/three-launches-unlimited-payg-data-934013 ]Three launches unlimited PAYG data[/url]

Genuinely unlimited data for £15 per 30 days!

I have the same thing happen with my computer. iPhones are computers with a telephone app. Checking memory usage and using a memory management app helps. Is it a v3? They have less RAM and do crash, my 4 can hang or crash if I've been using a lot of memory hungry apps. Closing down unused apps helps, and often a particular app can suffer crash issues.

And whilst I agree with your statement that it is a computer and stuff crashes, the salient point for me is that it is very much a closed system, apps have to be approved before release and they are built using a pre-existing framework for development. So I don't see WHY some apps should be unstable.

It is an iPhone 4 and I regularly switch it off completely to ensure I don't have too many apps running.

Just double-click the Home button and kill them from there.

the salient point for me is that it is very much a closed system, apps have to be approved before release and they are built using a pre-existing framework for development. So I don't see WHY some apps should be unstable.

It is essentially impossible to [i]prove[/i] that any reasonably complex piece of software will not crash. (Trust me, I work on critical medical software - we try!).
There are 400,000 apps on the app store. Some will have some bugs!

On the bright side, Apple's scrutiny seems to have avoided any malicious malware apps so far - like the 50 recently found on the Android Marketplace:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/02/android_malware/

"you can even download our app", you can almost guarantee that they'll support iOS where i

Only if Apple allow it. And this is the problem with Apple.

Iphone home screen / desktop just shows a load of icons or folders. Unless this has changed?

Android let's you display news headlines, calendar appoinments, facebook updates, weather forecast, etc which seems far better to me.

The downside of all this goodness is bad battery life but I hear iPhone battery ain't great either,

Time for a less popular option...

But one that will save you some money and work even if you try to destroy it doing sports

Motorola Defy

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorola-Defy-Motoblur-Android-Smartphone/dp/B00485CGHS

*yes its android 2.1 but it will be upgraded to 2.2 soon

I had a 3G (not3Gs) for 2.5 years, upgraded to the 4 In December & sold my 3G for £220, having that kind of second hand value makes it pretty damned good, I have never sold an old phone before, they just get thrown in a drawer coz no one wants them.
Battery life is no big deal, I have always put my phone on charge every night, that way you never get caught out.
I love the iphone, it impressed me so much I bought an imac & I am a total convert to apple products now.

I have a mate who had a iphone 3, sold it when his contract was up, moved to an android phone, kept it less than a month & moved to an iphone 4.

Which battery app do you use Flying Ox?

After trying a few, I've settled on Juice Defender Ultimate. Apparently it has increased my battery life by x2.72. No idea how that's calculated though, or even how the program works. Certainly miles and miles better than it was. For example, I can do a 6-hour GPS-tracked bike ride and only use about 40% of the battery. This would have killed it before.

I think some of my better battery life is down to having rooted the phone and installed a bog standard non-bloated version of Android 2.2, so there are no crappy Sony-Ericsson or O2 apps constantly running in the background. Android 2.2 automagically closes non-useful programs and processes as well, so no need for a Process Killer app.

On the bright side, Apple's scrutiny seems to have avoided any malicious malware apps so far - like the 50 recently found on the Android Marketplace:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/02/android_malware/
br />

I wouldn't want to bet on it, maybe not "malware" but I'd be very surprised if some didn't show up sooner or later...

http://www.eidac.de/?p=109

I'm a 'smart phone' sceptic but my ancient 'dumb phone' gave up the ghost and I saw a very good deal on a Motorola defy (18 months @ £17/600 mins/600 texts/no limit data) so thought yeah, I'll join the club.

I was mainly interested in the durability factor (waterproof, gorilla glass, torx bolted case) than the techspec but have so far been 'awsomefied' by the performance. Battery last well over a day even running gps/wifi/music for 4-6 hours/day, screen is (as much as I dare test) scrtachproof and phone is totally waterproof.

Don't give a hoot about games so am only running BikeHub route planner, My Tracks, Google earth & sky plus the usual Youtoob, Facebarf, webmail stuff.

Phone geeks at work are genuinely impressed and iPhone users mostly seem to go a bit quiet and shuffle their feet.

But heyho, it's a phone with a few toys, it is pretty much unbreakable, half decent camara & music player all for less than the cost of a cup of tea/day 😀

i've got an iphone4 but i was impressed with a friends Desire HD. think i'd have got that if it was available.

The thing that most annoys me about the iphone is copying stuff onto it. It MUST go through itunes. On HTC you can use it as a flash drive and copy your CV on/off their from any computer for instance. That would have been quite useful when i was job hunting. Had to do it via gmail in the end.

In the end it comes down to minor details like that as to which one is best.

All the apps i use are available on both phones i think.

Iphone home screen / desktop just shows a load of icons or folders. Unless this has changed?

no, but its part of the appeal to a lot of people. Remember its being sold to "non techies" who don't want to spend ages customising their phone and fiddling with options to make sure the battery life doesn't drain.

None of my friends have gone from an Iphone to an Android. Several have gone from Android to iphone, and never looked back.
Everyone I know who still has an Android phone wants an Iphone. No-one with an Iphone wants an Android phone.

Just to add to those who have indeed gone from an iphone to Android and liked it, my son did exactly that after having 3 iphones over the years. He got fed up with poor call quality, Apple's One True Way of doing everything, and, with the last one, wifi issues. He now has an HTC Desire HD, and he's delighted with it.
I have a Desire and my wife has just got a Samsung Galaxy S - the newer version. IMO the Galaxy S is the nicest of them all.

Colin

3 of my mates got their iPhones nicked at a gig we went to. They have since replaced them with Blackberries or HTCs and don't miss the iPhones at all..

The HTC HD7 is a really nice phone and has xbox live on it so the games are great. It's the only touch screen I've used that compares to the iPhone's sensitivity.

This could go on and on. Again. As always. Ad nauseum.

At the end of the day, there are those that like X, those that like Y and even some that like Z (but they ARE daft).

And everyone sits there furiously typing away, trying to argue why their choice of handset is the bestestest. Surely we all have more interesting and important things to do?

And everyone sits there furiously typing away, trying to argue why their choice of handset is the bestestest. Surely we all have more interesting and important things to do?

This is moderately interesting in comparison to most of the stuff on here. Its all relative of course, and only matters if you care.

Colin

Surely we all have more interesting and important things to do?

Hopefully, that is just a rhetorical question.

My point being is that it has been done to death on here and every time people dive in saying my 'Brand X' handset is best because...

To be fair, despite my comments earlier I am tempted to stray from the iphone path... I have an old iphone 3g, in need of an upgrade and am curious to try something different. Trouble is I'd have to buy all my apps again, and my missus has the iphone4, and it is really lovely.

That and my friends experiences of going from android to iphone mean I'll proabably end up with another iphone.

Trouble is I'd have to buy all my apps again

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