Phone conundrums again

[seventhe]

I am actually pretty sure that my Blackberry is starting to send me signals of impending doom and death. Seeing as it is a tool I use religiously, every day, for what probably adds up to be an embarrassing number of hours every day (just emailing you fuckers), AND that it is a tool I carry around in my pants (can't be good for either of us), I am, pretty legitimately seriously, starting to think about my next phone.

I am not an "everybody needs a smartphone" type but for my own personal uses I am looking at smartphones only, mainly because work Internet use is so frowned upon (I can't even get my own email) (and without email I would pass away).

I am stuck back in the realm of Blackberry vs Other. The new iPhone looks very nice, but a) I don't like the thought of losing my keyboard SECURITY BLANKET and b) I still feel like iPhones are too trendy for my dumb ass. I adore the new Blackberry but still feel like I'm not getting as much for my money when compared to iPhone or Android. And I really am not feeling Androids right now, although I cannot pinpoint why (as I certainly haven't ever used one myself).

So if you're an Android user, or an iPhone user, please tell me things you like or don't like about your phone. And hey, if you like Blackberry, tell me why I shouldn't drop it just yet. MAKE THIS DECISION FOR ME KTHX

Comments

[shanaqui]

As an owner of an Android and a iPod Touch, I much prefer the iPod Touch, which is very like an iPhone in interface, I think. There's something cleaner and more intuitive about it, to me.

[shanaqui]

(On the other hand, my Android is a Motorola Defy, and it is INDESTRUCTIBLE. Water, scratching, dropping, nothing harms it.)

[traxits]

Disclaimer: I promise, I am not a walking advertisement for any particular company, and of course, this comment only reflects my personal experience with Android OS and iOS. This is just my opinion, and I by no means am trying to speak for anyone else here. (Except maybe my mother because her opinions have been frequently and loudly voiced for me and I feel relatively safe repeating them.)

That being said...

My mother and I used iPhones for a little over a year and believe me, we loved the things to pieces. (Literally.) Since then, I have been downgraded to a non-smartphone (in an attempt to reduce the phone bill), but my mother, who, for work purposes, uses her smartphone all over rural northern Louisiana and needs access to her e-mail pretty much all the time, switched from the iPhone to an Android based phone (the Aria HTC; again, this was for phone bill purposes. The iPhone requires a $30 a month unlimited data package and for what she uses the internet for, we could use the 2gb package instead).

Neither she nor I (acting as her technical support most of the time) have liked the change. The Android OS is simply ... clunky, for lack of a better word, especially after having used an iPhone. The iPhone's OS is intuitive and far easier to use than you would expect (I had never used a Mac anything when I got my iPhone), and believe me, I would go back to my old iPhone in a heartbeat. And hey, my old iPhone didn't even have multi-tasking yet like the new ones do.

[owlmoose]

Disclaimer: I am an Apple fangirl -- I love their product design and find their user interfaces intuitive. So your mileage may vary, but I love my iPhone.

I started with a 3Gs two years ago, concerned about its larger size (in comparison to the Palm Pre, which was my other smartphone option at the time; I was shopping just before the Android was announced), the lack of a real keyboard, and AT&T. The first two worries quickly disappeared as I used it -- it fits into a pocket more easily than I had expected, and the screen keyboard was easy to get used to -- and over time the coverage has gotten better, to the point that I stayed on AT&T rather than running back to the comforting arms of Verizon when my contract ran out and I upgraded to the 4s a couple of weeks ago.

I loooooove the high-resolution screen on the 4s. So much easier to read fic email and text messages. It almost makes me wish that I had shelled out the bucks for the iPhone 4 when it first came out.

[renay]

I am totally unhelpful here because I have never used Android. Plus, like KJ, I am a Apple fangirl because I love their designs and UIs. I used my Blackberry for a year and a half, but I never used it like I used my iPhone, if that makes sense? I never became "A Phone Person" until my iPhone. Restaurant menu? Number of hotel? GPS location of bar? Fanfic during class? Recording a voice memo because my recorder's batteries died in the middle of a lecture? Let me get out my iPhone. My only regret when switching was losing access to the Blackberry messaging system and having to pay for more texting.

I had the same keyboard concerns. TACTILE RESPONSE. In the end, I practiced a lot with the sound on (so hitting the keys made a sound) and eventually it became second nature. :D

(KJ is not joking about resolution differences. I have a 3GS and Zach has a 4. On first glance it's hard to tell, but after using them both for a bit you start to go "oh.")

I've never had any problems with my phone itself, just some hard restarts. My biggest problem, of course, was with AT&T's staff, when I went to add Zach to my plan and some brand new worker created an entirely new account that started charging me for months and AT&T started to threaten to send me to collections for not paying even though I had been paying the bill on the only account I thought I had! O.o But they EVENTUALLY credited me and got rid of the problem. So I watch my bills pretty closely these days. I went with them before we had another carrier here, so if you have that option, definitely compare!

[feywood]

I am the anti-apple, so... yeah
Never used an iphone, personally, other than five minutes for work (support for our app) and I don't see where the omg intuitive thing comes from, I don't get it.
I went from a brick of a nokia to an HTC Wildfire, I had no trouble getting used to the interface, no clunkyness or anything. I really, really love this phone. It is the cheaper model so it lacks a few features like the camera on the front or the better screen that the Desire or Legend (and now the Wildfire S, I think) have, but seriously, still worth it.
My main arguments for android tend to be price since anything apple sells is too expensive/overpriced, staying away from trendy stuff since I am generally wary and last but not least I disagree very strongly with the way apple censors apps, devs and doesn't allow you full use of your phone without having to illegally jailbreak it.

[ambersweet]

I'll jump into the party here: I love my iPhone. I had a 3G, upgraded to the 3GS. I was getting to the point where I was planning on upgrading again to the 4 as soon as I had enough money, because my 16g phone was totally full and getting kind of slow, but when iOS 5 was released, my phone suddenly became FASTER AND MORE USEFUL. When was the last time an OS upgrade IMPROVED the performance of older hardware? I have to second everybody's comments about it being incredibly intuitive and easy to use, and the "there's an app for that" experience is AMAZING. No matter what I've wanted to do, I've always been able to find three or four apps that do that thing, and usually one of them is free. App quality is always very high, as well.

The other thing I will rave about wrt the iPhone is Apple customer service. Drop the $90 or whatever for AppleCare+; it's absolutely worth it. The face of the iPhone is actually glass, and I tripped badly a few weeks before we moved and came down heavily on both my hands - one of which was holding my iPhone. The face shattered. It otherwise seemed to be fine, but I remembered dropping my iPod Classic about four feet onto concrete several years before, and how it was fine for about twenty minutes and then failed. I was devastated, but I brought it down to the Apple store the next morning, expecting to be told that it was damaged beyond repair, or that it wouldn't be covered because it was accidental damage. The tech was much more concerned about how badly I had been hurt than any damage to my phone, and he was able to swap the screen out and hand me a perfectly functional phone in about fifteen minutes.

This experience, and one involving repairing a liquid spill on my MacBook that should've been outside warranty but they covered ANYWAY, has made me an Apple user for life. Technology is fairly interchangeable, but this kind of customer service is special.

CLEARLY YOU NEED MY OPINION TOO

[radish]

I have an iPod touch and a low-end smart Android smart phone. Or it ought to be smart -- it's just doesn't quite apply itself. However, I much prefer Android over iOS precisely because Android gives you more options, and those options are important to me.

The main selling point for me? Like you, I prefer a physical keyboard. And my phone (a sluggish Samsung Intercept, but I know there are similar phones with more memory) has both a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard. Best of both worlds. I loves it.

And there's the apps. Because my particular model of phone is so sluggish, I tend to use apps more on my iPod, but I much prefer the Android Market over the App store. The walls aren't so high for Android developers, so there's more variety. And yes, more crap, but I can't download SNES emulation programs & ROMS to my iPod without needing to jailbreak it first.

So if you like options & a tad bit more freedom, go with Android. If you like nearly fail-safe apps and consistent design, go with iOS.

Re: CLEARLY YOU NEED MY OPINION TOO

[radish]

And fwiw, I am happily typing this on my MacBook and do love their UI, design and have been happy with their customer service thus far. But I'm not willing to give up my keyboard, NES roms & low price point for that kind of shiny.

[lassarina]

Things I like about my Moto Droid: Physical keyboard, syncs up lovely with Gmail and GCal by design, autocorrect is the fucking best I've ever encountered.

Things I really don't like about my Droid: I'm currently 3 OS version behind, because the carriers control all updates, and my phone is less than two years old. I have no security updates. I can't *get* them without rooting my phone. This pisses me off like you wouldn't even believe.

Also, the Droid app market is balls; malware apps are everywhere, and if you should need to replace your phone you have to re-buy your apps for EACH DEVICE, and oh by the way there's a significantly larger than zero chance that any given app you install will brick your phone, rendering it unusable, because Google doesn't quality-check anything and due to carriers wanking all over skinning the UI every which way, no two Droid phone models work the same.

(I'm really bitter and frustrated about Android right now, especially after the experience of using iOS recently.)

As a non-phone iOS user, things I hate: omfg fuck your autocorrect, it is balls forever (not having it is worse, but only barely.) I hate the keyboard requiring me to go to a whole different set of keys for any kind of punctuation.

Things I love: apps are vetted and they Will Work, buy an app once and it works on your iPad, your iPod, and your iPhone all from that one purchase (and now that there is iCloud, you can sync data between your apps on all those devices wirelessly/invisibly, so your save game in Ash on your iPad can propagate to your iPhone the next time you play it there.) Apple is really hardcore about backwards compatibility, such that four iPhone versions ago hardware can still update to the newest OS. Upon hearing that some owners of the new 4S were having serious battery drain problems, senior Apple engineers started contacting those people asking them to install diagnostics in order to figure out the problem. Bonus: Music everywhere! (And FF games! Which are now sold in the app store!)

I liked my Droid for the first year or so I had it, but I am finding it progressively more frustrating compared to my iPad (which isn't even 3G.)

[novel_machinist]

My Storm II is the bane of my life and I hate it.

Eric adores his droid II

[shahrizai.livejournal.com]

Do you ever use BBM? If not, then there's nothing another smartphone can't get you.

I would recommend seeking out an Android phone with a physical keyboard. Android isn't as polished as the iPhone (sort of like Macs vs. PCs) but since you have basic computer knowledge, you can make it do what you want it to.

I would pass on the Samsung models as well. I know the Droid is very popular in the US, but it's basically unheard of in Canada so I can't speak there. A friend has an HTC model and he's happy with it.

[rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

well we don't have a smartphone yet but there is one reason to get the iphone, which Chris will be doing soon

it's called facetime

free video conferencing with anyone who has an iSomething

it's like, free live pantyshots on request, even at work

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

..................THIS IS IMPORTANT TO MY LIFE

[safety-caesars.livejournal.com]

PHONUNDRUMS

[rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

HELL YEAH

more seriously, this is the way my family and I keep in touch on a weekly basis to see alexina, even though they're overseas. Whether or not the rest of the iPhone is any good is up to your personal preference, but if you have long distance family it is an excellent investment. It's like parentally foolproof scype. if they can check their email they can video conference.