good advice, so if I had to get a phone now, what would you choose. iPhone 4S or SG3. Or something else? I'm on verizon.
I'm in Canada so, my phone choices are different from yours. I went from and HTC Desire Z to an SGS3. I don't have much experience with iPhones other than a limited one for work and helping out my in-laws and wife. I'm used to Android phone, so I personally wanted to stick with an Android phone. After using my SGS3 for a few weeks, I find that I like the HTC Android skin more so than the Samsung one. My personal preference. Although the SGS3 does pretty much what I needed to do, I find I probably would have liked the HTC One X more. My carrier only has the One S which has some limitations like internal storage that I cannot live with.
With regard to screen size, I am finding the large 4.8" screen of the SGS3 to be unwieldy with one hand. I basically have to use both hands for most of what I want to do. On my old Desire Z with a 3.7" screen is just way easier to use one handed.
I use a lot of widgets, so I will not be satisfied with the very simplistic launcher of the iPhone. That is something that will likely keep me away from iOS. Widgets just let me do rather repetitive things much more easily than on an iPhone. For instance, I have a widget that changes the sound profile with a simple touch. When I go to bed, my sound profile has all notifications at 0 volume while other things are at a lower volume. When awake indoors, I have a normal sound profile. When outdoors, my sound profile has the various volumes at max and turns vibrate on. My widget auto toggles between these three without needed to go into settings. I also have a widget that toggles the auto-rotate. I have a bunch of other widgets as well like a sports score ticker.
Since you are currently using a BlackBerry, either an iPhone or Android phone will be a big change for your. If you are used to a physical keyboard and want something similar, there will be some Android models that do have a portrait or landscape hardware keyboard. You will find none on the iPhone. Also, changing from one physical keyboard to another or an on screen one is going to take some getting used to. I switched from a Nokia with a landscape keyboard to an Android phone with a landscape keyboard and it took me weeks to really get used to it. I'm adjusting to using the on screen keyboard on my SGS3 now. I find that with my BlackBerry at work, I'm using it two-handed often. If you are like that as well, then perhaps the bigger screen of an SGS3 or other high end Android may be fine as you will get a larger screen. If you prefer to be able to use your phone more easily one handed, then the iPhone or a smaller Android phone will be more to your liking.
One thing I find about iPhones and iOS devices is that you have to pretty much do everything Apple's way. I find it rather frustrating when on my Android, I can simply just copy files to my phone and have things work. With iOS, it seems you have to do everything through iTunes or iCloud and on top of that, may need some conversion if your documents and media are not already in the Apple format. Apple's iOS devices don't have a file system that you can use like your file system on your PC. If you have other things already with Apple like a Mac, then an iPhone will work more seamlessly.
I also find that Android phones tend to have more features in general than iPhones. The past couple of announcements about the next version of iOS seem to talk about a number of features that are already in Android for years.
I think that any mid-range to high end Android or an iPhone will be a significant upgrade over your old BlackBerry. Unless you are really wanting a physical keyboard, you will probably be happy with either. My post here will tend to highlight Android more due to my personal preference to Android over iOS. I'm sure either will allow you to do what you currently do on your BlackBerry and much, much more.
