iphone user has a question...

[TarHeelTalker]

hi,

for the next month, I will be using my 3g iphone. when my contract expires, I will be looking to switch to a smart phone that actually does what it is supposed to do 95+% of the time.

my 3g has had a bad habit of freezing/crashing over the past two months. I am considering an Android, but would like to hear about issues I might have with an Android.

Are the problems I am having with my iphone inherent with all smart phones?

thanks for your replies!

 

[Intervenient]

All smart phones crash. Having said that, my iPhone 4 has crashed way less than my 3G, and my Android running Samsung Captivate.

 

[Pryomancer]

Did you update your 3G to iOS4? There were reports that it messed them up, dunno if it's still true.

The intensive nature of some apps, and the fact that smartphones now are closer to being computers than phones of just 5 years ago, means they tend to act like computers and can crash in certain circumstances, but it is rare.

 

[ashykat]

If you did update your phone to iOS 4, you may want to roll back to 3.13 or 3.12. You can do that on the 3G, just search for iPhone firmware files (iclarified has them), download your appropriate version, then restore to it in iTunes by holding shift (option if you use a mac) and click the restore button, then select your downloaded ipsw. The restore should work just fine, and if you get stuck in a boot loop just use tinyumbrella to kick you out of it.

 

[marefin]

i had an iphone 3g before switching to android (captivate) and frankly i don't regret the decision one bit. i've played around with a friend's iphone 4 before getting the captivate. and there was honestly nothing truly amazing about it other than a nice looking screen. and it sort of just stopped there. the captivate has it's issues, but it was an easy fix with rooting.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I've heard horrible things about the 3G running 4.0. I upgrade an iTouch to 4.0. It sucked monkeyballs. I went back to 3.1.3 and was thrilled with it. I'd downgrade the 3G and consider moving to a 3GS or a 4 if you like the iOS experience otherwise.

 

[haddock]

I have had my HTC Desire for 6 months now and it has never crashed or had any other noteworthy problems. And I have messed around with it as much as possible short of rooting it. But whether Android and iOS crash just as much as each other I wouldn't know...

 

[takeshi]

Are the problems I am having with my iphone inherent with all smart phones?

1. I've never heard of this issue being inherent to the iPhone.
2. Any smartphone has the potential for crashing. It's the cause that matters and there isn't just one single cause out there that's shared by all smartphones.

 

[lunatic59]

Phones crash for the same reasons computers do. Smartphones are, after all specialized portable computers. I'd look for some sort of repetitive conditions. If it always crashes performing a certain function in a specific app, then it's most likely a poorly coded app. If a phone crashes under specific environmental conditions (like warm temperatures or being bumped, then it's most likely a hardware issue. If it's seemingly random you might have to run a diagnostic app that logs events to see if it is always the same fault.

Even though Apple claims to have addressed the iOS4 issues with legacy devices, I don't think I'd trust iOS4 on a 3gs given the negative reports. If you like your iPhone, other than the crashing, then you might want to stick with the iPhone4. Nothing wrong with that.

The Android choices become a little cloudier because each carrier has different offerings with different versions of their UI over Android versions ranging from 1.6 up to the latest FroYo (2.2.1). You didn't say if you were planning to stick with AT&T, but currently the only worthwhile iPhone alternative would be the Captivate. Stock it's not bad if you like the TouchWiz interface. My son got a Captivate coming from an older version of TouchWiz on a Samsung feature phone and likes his Captivate. I much prefer vanilla Android on my Nexus, but I am envious of some of the widgets in both TouchWiz and HTC's Sense. On either of them there really hasn't been an issue with regular crashing, although it does happen from time to time.