• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Convince me to Switch!

W

werkkrew

Newbie
I have been a smartphone user for years, pretty much since there have been smartphones, I have had one. From Nokia's on Symbian, Palm's, Blackberries, and others.

I got an iPhone 3G when they came out, and now my contract is over, and to be honest I am quite upset with Apple at the moment. Setting all the minor flaws with the iPhone 4 aside, Steve Jobs' pompous responses to people about the issues it has had, have made me feel basically like he thinks anyone who enjoys apple products will eat up any shit he wants to feed them, and I am not one of those people.

As such, being free from a contract with AT&T, I am seriously considering making the switch to Android, the only smartphone platform I have never used. That being said, in terms of what is available right now, the iPhone 4 is still quite the attractive option.

I have two big issues.

One, there are too many Android based phones to choose from, and they come out so rapidly getting locked into a 2 year contract on a phone I know very little about is a bit scary, and choosing one has become damn near impossible.

Two, again on the subject of the 2 year contract, if I switch I will likely land on Verizon, and I will be stuck on Verizon with an Android phone for 2 years, and if I dont like it, or if the iPhone 5,6,7 comes out and I decide I want to go back there, I would have to switch carriers again.

So, basically, sell me on Android before I go buy another iPhone!
 
Wecome to Android Forums!

I've moved your thread to our Android Lounge so that you get the widest selection of opinions as possible.

Good luck, and enjoy your stay with us. :)
 
Is Verizon the only option? I ask this because Sprint has a 30 day return policy (unaware if Verizon does or not), and you could actually get an Android and try it for 30 days and experience it 1st hand. Then you'll be in a much better position to make a decision, if you don't like Sprint, but like Android, then you know to look for an Android phone on Verizon. If you don't like Andorid at all after the 30 days, then you can go back to the iPhone.
 
Sprint is an option, but I had them when I was on palm and I really didn't care for their coverage in my area. That being said, the Evo 4G is a pretty badass phone if I can find one in stock anywhere.
 
You should consider one of the Samsung galaxy S phones. There will be one for every carrier but the Sprint version will have a FFC for videochat over wifi/3G/4G.
 
I ditched my 3g and went to an Aria. Nicer, smaller, faster IMHO easier to get apps, ditched iTunes from my pc...
 
sounds like you should just get the Samsung Captivate (AT&Ts galaxy S) that way if you do decide you dont like android or to go back to the dark side (you wont because android is way better lol) you can just switch phones w/o having to switch carriers
 
i saw this as someone's sig and I thought it was very funny "no matter how I hold my Evo 4G it doesn't drop calls"
Anyway, I am getting the Aria because I am with AT&T. But if I could pick any phone from any of the carriers, I would probably pick the Evo 4G.
 
Hey PhD,

Yeah, I was going to suggest the Aria to you, but I like to use my phone for funny videos (YouTube, etc.) and felt that the Aria may be just a little too little for me. Wasn't sure what your primary needs were for your phone. But if you like a compact phone, it should be great. I am sure AT&T will expand their Android selection soon. I hear the Dell Streak is going to AT&T...

Which brings up my next point - buyer's remorse. I think, as Android users, we have to let that go. From everything I can see, Google is doing its best to advance the OS as fast as possible and is challenging HTC, Moto, Samsung and others to blast phones out super-quickly. I have a Droid Incredible, and I know that the phones coming out in December are going to make me wish I could upgrade.

But if we all wait for the perfect phone, we'll never get a phone we want. One thing Apple is really good at is update release. The wait just long enough so you'll spend the money on that one added feature that you want.

As Android users, I think we'll have to get used to the disappointment of missing an upgrade or two, but there will always be a great phone waiting for us when our contracts are up or a discounted upgrade becomes available.

Hope you have a great time with your Aria! Let us know about the pros and cons when you've had it a while ;)

~p
 
Stick with a Galaxy S phone. They should be future proof for a while and rooted. Not to mention since it's the same phone on all 4 carriers it's going to have a MASSIVE group of hackers trying to make this phone the best thing ever.
 
So, I have seen a multitude of answers and opinions around which particular piece of hardware to get, but that wasn't the point of the original post at all.

It was actually surrounding software.

What makes an Android phone better than an iPhone. What can I expect to love, or hate, when I switch.

What is different, what will I miss, and what will I gain?
 
Everything is more customizable out of the box. No more dumb icon grids repeated ad nauseum. If you don't like whatever skin on Android you've got on your phone, download a home replacement and voila. Slap on SweeterHome and build yourself a theme from the ground up. If you don't like the way icons look on your homescreen, grab Folder Organizer and change those. Hate the stock keyboard? Replace it with any of the dozens-something alternatives on the market, available paid and free. Same with the camera software, browser, gallery, media player, everything. And all this without doing any equivalent of jailbreaking. Your device is yours. You can use it the way you see fit, not the way some faceless greedy corporation thinks you should use it.

More intuitive. Yes, really. You want to turn on wi-fi, GPS, bluetooth, change the brightness? It's laid out there in easily accessible, simple widget. Want to change the wallpaper? No need to dick around in settings. Long press the homescreen, much like you'd right-click on a desktop, and there it is. I can't stress the joy of widgets enough. It's as close as you're ever going to get on a tiny screen to having multiple windows open on your PC. Put your music player here, youtube here, calendar there, RSS reader here, all quickly accessible one swipe or pinch away. It's great.

Flash. Opens you to a whole new world of web apps and games in your browser and eliminates some of the gap between app availability. iDevices will never, ever have this. On top of that, Android 2.2's browser is just faster and performs much, much better on Javascript tests and benchmarks.

You lose the App Store. That's it, and all it offers is a bigger gaming catalogue, the disparity of which is closing by the day. Besides, with the upcoming PSX and N64 emulators for Android, it's not like you will be missing much. Why play some stripped-down version when you can run Final Fantasy 7 and Silent Hill on your phone?
 
I've had iPhones from the beginning, and always jailbroken, but I don't think I'll be going back for a while.

One thing I will say, is choose wisely your phone. Your best bet at the moment is going to be some form of Galaxy S or the Desire/Incredible. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. If there's anything else I can help with, give me a shout, it'd be my honour.
 
Theres so many choices if you go Android so you can get a phone pretty much customized to suit your needs. Its hard to justify risking the iPhone, unless you are tied to iTunes or are used to iOS. But if your having problems with the 3G the iPhone 4 is pretty much just two spec bumps, the OS hasn't really changed.

Heres what I would recommend:

t-mobile: Samsung vibrant (Gaming/media phone, Great Super AMOLED screen), Nexus One (2.2) > HTC Desire (2.1)

Sprint: Wait for the EPIC 4G (Gaming, Super AMOLED, slide out keyboard)! Or get an EVO 4G now (4G Big Screen)... but the Epic 4G is a better phone.

AT&T: Samsung Captivate (Gaming, Super AMOLED) is your only choice

Verizon: Droid X (Big Screen, really fast) or Incredible(Small Screen) > Waiting months for the Samsung fascinate

Over all If you live in a 4G city, I'd wait for the Epic 4G. Otherwise I'd personally get the Droid X (No Custom Roms) on Verizon, or the Vibrant on T-Mobile. But it really depends what you like.
 
@grainysand: Thanks, one of the more helpful posts in this thread yet.

@versp: I wonder, why the Samsung?

I have been really tempted to go with one of the giant phones (Droid X or Evo) but I am not sure I even want a phone that large.

For some reason I am weary of Samsung as a phone manufacturer and it seems HTC is putting out the best hardware.
 
you wouldn't have to worry about being stuck with Verizon; they have the 30-day worry free guarantee.

but as far as convincing you to switch, i don't have much experience with either iOS or Android, as i've only messed around with each for a few minutes (still waiting on my Incredible to arrive in the mail...) all i can say is that because i'm anti-Jobs, i'd suggest you go with an Android phone :D

but i must add that the HTC Sense with Android on the Incredible felt very quick & smooth... that's what sold me on it.

my opinion is that the whole iphone phenomenon is getting rather old... i like to try new things & i don't want to have the same phone as everyone else (like the iphone), so i say go Droid!
 
Someone touched on this already but I think it's worth repeating. One of the biggest reasons I am making the switch to Android is the widgets. Having widgets on your screens gives you info you can use at a glance like weather, news headlines, email previews, calendar items/agendas. This is in stark contrast to the iOS grid of apps that give you minimal info until you open an app.

The biggest draw to Amdroid is Google Voice in my opinion. It is a killer app for me and it's fully iterated on an Android phone.
 
sakmaster said:
Theres so many choices if you go Android so you can get a phone pretty much customized to suit your needs. Its hard to justify risking the iPhone, unless you are tied to iTunes ...
Click to expand...


Sooner or later you will have to get out of that lock-in game they try to play.
 
I have a Samsung Spica. Its an "old" phone and one that Rogers (AT&T's Canadian counterpart) is taking forever to upgrade to 2.1.

Having said that, the user base for the Spica (aka. Lite/Portal) is crazy. There's a ton of customizations out there. There's even a whole board just for Samsung phones (and all the OSes). Contrary to what Rogers wanted, I upgraded my Spica to 2.1 (thanks to those boards) about three weeks after I got the phone (when I found out, thanks to here, that Rogers was continuing to waffle about when the update was coming). It works great.

Unfortunately, Samsung has said that they won't be updating my phone to 2.2. They're going to focus on the newer phones (the Galaxy S or whatever moniker they're using in the States). The good news though, is that one of the guys on the samdroid forums is working on a version of 2.2 for us anyways. He's already got a lot of it figured out and stable!

I've dropped my Spica a few times (because there's no official case for it up here...stupid I know) and other than a few dings on the case its been fine. I get the feeling that unless I threw it out the second story (or dropped it in six feet of snow) it'll stay working.

That's what you can get with Samsung. Pure awesome!

/end shameless plug for Samsung
 
I've heard good things about that phone. Sadly not available up here (apparently because we're Canadians we don't need the latest phones - maybe cuz we're all snowed in and wouldn't notice? :p)

I've got another couple years with my Sammy and that's okay. :) I'm happy enough since it is my first smartphone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom