DROID vs. iPhone
 

I know the phone topic has been beat to death but here goes...

The wife wants a new phone, preferably an iPhone.

We are currently with Verizon, I prefer to stay there.

The phone will be used for calls, texting, pics, web browsing and music. Nothing overly complex.

Being user friendly is more important than being the most elite phone on the market.

No contract issues but I can buy the Droid for $99 vs. $199 for the iPhone.

So, which do I buy?



Edit: I meant to make a poll...

Look at some of the other HTC android OS phones. I am not a fan of motorola. AT&T hassle is not worth an iphone.

I agree with the AT&T part.

What's not to like about Motorola?

Thanks for the poll! :dthumb:

I am a phone dummy and don't care about what's better, I like easy. It simply doesn't get any easier than the iPhone. If she's ever used iTunes or even an iPod, she can figure it out within minutes.

But, I am not going to debate it, this is just my opinion.

Im a fan of Apple, I have a Touch and wanted an iPhone. However, I got a Droid and I love it. The Droid is definitely the most elite (IMO) phone out now BUT it is not quite as user friendly as the iPhone. The basic functions out of the box are easy enough but if you really want to make the most of it you have to put some effort into customizing it. There are a bunch of things it can do that the iPhone cant but its up to the user to find and install those applications.

Now when it comes to music the iPhone beats it hands down. Its easy to connect the Droid to any computer and drop music onto the device, there are also programs that will manually sync the Droids library with your iTunes library. But it nowhere near as easy as plugging your iPhone/iPod in and having it sync automatically with iTunes. Also the iPhone music player is much better when it comes to organizing songs and playlists.

AT&T sucks but im sure your wife would like the iPhone better.

Was recently in the same situation as you, and went with the Droid since we are already with Verizon. About a month in, and no problems thus far.

How do you find it for ease of use?

Based on the posts above, it look like the iPhone wins hands down.

Agreed.

Droid is for the person (usually a guy) who likes to spend time customizing shit, looking around for the newest & greatest apps, bragging about open source, etc.

Pretty simple as far as I am concerned, considering it was my first "smartphone".
I don't have a ton of experience with an Iphone, so I cant directly compare.

ETA* Verizon let me have a trial one for a week before I actually purchased it.

Also looking at the droid and I am a Verizon customer.

The only thing I really care about is wifi and decent browser (along with decent call quality). I'd like something where I can browse the internet WITHOUT needing a data plan. Also the abilty to just drag and drop videos and music would be great.

Wife has the iTouch and its ok from a UI standpoint but damn is that thing a POS sometimes. Pisses me off that I have to use iTunes just to load stuff on it. Way overated bloatware.

droid!

Having sampled an iPhone, and a Droid design, droid is hands down the winner in user friendliness. the iPhone I just walked away from in absolute disgust in like 30 seconds. the droid, well I played with it as long as I could.

droid just offers SO much more potential, and is just cooler.

I dont have a Droid or iPhone but I do have ATT and I hate them. I'm switching soon.

I am not a fan of their designs. Some of the user input and the design of the phone itself wasn't well thought out.

Keep in mind, droid is just the first to have Android 2.0. All the HTC phones on 1.6 are going to go to 2.0 eventually and there will be plenty of upcoming phones using Android 2.0. It's not like the iphone, the Android 2.0 OS will be on lots of different styled phones. I would wait a few months if that is an option to see what is out next in the 2.0 upgrades. That's what I am doing.

i have a droid and this thing is easy enough for me to use, and im pretty computertarded....
i love it, i almost never use my mac any more, only for word and ecel

EZ choice. If my neighbor (she's a true blonde) can use an iPhone, it's easy enough for any to use. Too bad AT&T service sucks moose cock, however...

Fuck em Both and Get a Blackberry :)

im the exact opposite. That monolithic boxy slider design is exactly what ive been waiting for. Just gotta stay paitient till i can afford one

The touchpad on the right of the keyboard is kinda annoying. It needed to be on the left.

you a leftie? Any other slider ive messed with had that stuff on the right.

I'm actually stuck with my current phone til june, so when its time to upgrade, odds are good I'm gonna have a LOT of options.

Tmobile offers a barcode scanner app for droid phones, as a freebie, something I learned browsing their catalog. they have some apps that really, are just pretty badass. iphones have a lot of apps, like a GIANT app store, but honestly I dont think their apps are as cool.

We're huge lovers of the iPhone, and we've literally never had a problem with AT & T... that said, I've tinkered with a couple of Droids, and been very impressed with them. Definitely a cool gadget... so if you can get it for half the price, and you're not a fan of AT & T, it sounds like it's the way to go for you.

Except when you came up here and had spotty service. :nee:

I was reading a tech review today that said a lot of AT&T problems that have been blamed on the company is actually Apple hardware issues. Poor radio code and them being new to cell programming/hardware has really put more of the bad service issues on apple vs AT&T. Also if a new verizon version for LTE comes out in 2010, it could bring similar issues to Verizon.

I dont have the iPhone and the ATT coverage is shitty around here.

I like AT&T's response to Verizon's 3G map ads. Verizon's 3G map ads are accurate. Verizon has that much more of EVDO than AT&T's 3G. AT&T's response to try to make you think there is more is false, because he only mentions large cities and the 3G map is really that limited. They do have service in a lot more places than the Verizon map shows, but it's not 3G.

NO one had service up there, not just AT & T customers. :nee:

(and we didn't have our iPhones then, so it wasn't the phone :shrug:)

Yeah...both are wrong. I know that based on coverage I have around my area with ATT and what coverage friends and fam have with Verizon.

There is a lot of that area that does have service for CDMA users. The Gap is different since it is surrounded by national park and they don't like cell towers being placed in those. It's a lot rarer to find areas for AT&T. Like where I work. I have EVDO, the AT&T users don't even have service.

So as long as you stay in cities, you may be fine, but if you want to venture out, service does become an issue a lot faster for an AT&T user. There really isn't a debate on this topic, it's service area each company has with their towers which is why people are praying for iphone to go Verizon.

Based on 3G or just service?

Just plain old voice service.

In my experience, ATT =

1) annoying delays between when you speak and when the other person hears it
2) voice mails that sometimes show up hours after the person actually left them :confused:
3) dropped calls

With that being said, iPhone is superior..... It's like a solid ingot. The Droid is just an ordinary flexible, squeaky slider phone that creaks & flexes & makes noise when you squeeze it.

Verizion>at&t
Droid>iphone
Just saying....

She's not really much of a phone-squeezer. :scratch:

The Verizon map commercials are solely based on 3G service, which is why AT&T sued them because it was confusing stupid people that don't understand 3G.

:lol:

Have you noticed that the boys are the ones who say the droid is user-friendly? :lol:

Unless she's a geek, I'd vote iPhone. I don't have any problems with AT&T that everyone is so afraid of. Hubby has the iPhone and has never dropped a call and unless you live in the boonies, I can't see you not having 3G coverage. :shrug:

Everyone is, they just don't think about it. I however do.......I am a design freak, which means I appreciate things that were made with good design that "feel good" in my hands. The Droid isn't special, it's just another cellphone loaded with too many buttons. And if you text so much that you want a keypad, then just dial the person and fucking speak to them instead. :lol:

Of course the iphone is much more robust in it's solidness, they are trying damn hard to make sure you can't get in there to do something crazy like replace the battery or upgrade your memory.

:shrug: Wasn't debating, merely stating we've not had problems (but then, other than the Gap, we're not in rural areas... um... well almost ever. :lol: )

:lol:

Guy, you gotta come to grips with the fact that people don't wanna speak to other people. Despite that, they still need to communicate with other humans. The full keyboard on the phone is here for the long haul.

I suggest you get a tall mug of beer and think about that.

I dont know why but I hate talking on the phone to people so I text mostly. Even at work, id rather walk to someones office and ask them a question face to face than call their extension.

I hate talking on the phone, period. So I text. Quite honestly, there are very few people I want to speak with face to face either.

Yep. texting just works better for me. I DESPISE talking on the phone. with a PASSION. some people I just wanna ignore completely.

if I had it my way, everything would translate to a text message, I hate phone convos THAT much.

Let me know when you get in on that, I'm interested.

Txt only phones? We may be on to something...

Our iphones were great when we went to Italy this summer. Didn't have to bring a laptop at all and could upload pictures directly to facebook for friends/family to see. Just have to disable roaming/data so you don't pay an obscene amount per KB.

I like having the pervasive App Store. 100,000 apps that do everything you can imagine.

I find it pretty humorous that taters whore of an ex wife is winning out over the Iphone.

love my moto droid, i have no problems very easy to use. get the droid

she must be an absolutely superior communication device then.

Side-kick... yea I know you can use it for a phone but who does? US Cellular sells a text only plan, btw. My old phone did "speech to text" which was nice, I guess you could get an air card and text from your net book...

1. How are you able to get the droid for $99? The cheapest I've seen is $150 on verizon online with existing customer.

2. Unless you live in a big city, these companies dont give a shit about your service. Luckily though my non-3G verizon phone can out beat a 3G iphone on internet usage. Suck it.


I've only heard from one person that he has "never" had problems with ATT billing. I've seen some ATT bills and it's like they have chimps with number refrigerator magnets and they just re-arrange them and that's your bill cost for the month.

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/reso...hooses_LTE.jpg

no keyboard, no expansion, no changing the battery when it inevitably fails. and how long did ya'll have to do without mms again?

So, in other words the iPhone is superior as long as you exclude the whole "phone" part.

I would say Android 2.0 vs Iphone OS is about equal with their pros and cons. The apps put iphone in front as far as smart phone though. Hundreds of thousands vs twenty thousand.

The thing with Android is there is no gatekeeper to the apps that will be available. This will give it an advantage in the long run because developers won't have to worry about pleasing Apple or AT&T when they make an app.

If you do get an iphone, make sure you buy my app, Zinger. Only $0.99. :D

ok, at the risk of sounding stupid and too lazy to google it can someone explain to me what 3G really is?

From what I know, 3G is a "network" that cellphone companies use. Suppose to be fast blah blah blah.


You can't count all the iphone apps. There are tons and tons of useless apps out there.

Something that is overhyped, doesn't deliver as promised, and will be outdated pretty soon anyway.

Sounds like most of you don't use a phone as a phone anyway :shrug:

A slower version of 4G. :lol

I actually use my phone as a phone. The extras are nice (iPhone) but at the minimum it has to be a good phone.

In this area, the droid offers what the iPhone cant. Decent phone service in addition to all the bells and whistles. Has nothing to do with whatever generalization you want to make.

WIFI + good browser + phone service that actually works + the rest of the toys and apps = win

In this area, iTouch > iPhone and thats because of the app library. As a pmp device (music and videos) there are better products out there than the itouch.

I think that the itouch\iphone are great products. I'm just not as much of fruity "tickle the grape"s kinda guy about it as you seem to be.

The 2-yr price is $299, online it is $199 after their instant rebate.

I am eligible for a $100 credit toward any phone because I am an existing customer and my contract is up.

3G is the "3rd generation" voice/data network. I think 1G was analog cellular, 2G was digital voice and slow data (wasnt really made for data), 3G is the current standard with fairly fast data and digital voice. 4G will start rolling out in 2010 with very fast data speeds.

Is there any actual proof of this? What, just because the Droid is made by a certain manufacturer, then it automatically has good reception & voice quality? I'd like to see actual test results of the specific model, instead of internet generalizations based on manufacturer.

And as for WiFi, I'd rather pay for an actual data plan rather than having to constrain my data usage to hotspots.

There is lots of proof droid service is better than iphone. With droid I can be doing what I am doing now. Sitting on the crapper at work posting via 3g. With an iphone there is no service whatsoever here. Att has a smaller network. if you stay in major cities than this won't apply to you.

I'm not sure how many times this has to be posted. It's been stated several times by several people. ATT sucks outside of cities. Period. I have ATT and will testify to this all fucking day long.

Lets recap

ATT SUCKS round here.
Even when you have a STRONG signal on the iPhone, it's not as good as other services.

As a phone it sucks in this area. Take a poll, ask around....shit even in this thread there are comments on how ATT sucks.

As a device, If half the people I know have had to return it because of some bullshit hardware issue like the home button taking a dump or it flaking out then guess what. I'm not going to put it on some pedestal.

As for the UI...its good.

Why the hell are you being so critical of the droid and people who want it?

as for you and a data plan....good for you. Shell out as much money as you want to be able to surf where ever you want.

I don't need that. I'm fine with hotspots and see no need to waste money on a data plan.

Fucking hipsters.
:lol

Well IMO the true "hipsters/bandwagoners" are the ones who slam Apple any chance they get.

Seems like one of the following:

1) inferiority complex
2) jealousy that Apple gets a lot of media attention
3) bragging about Droid's open source, regardless if they'll ever actually see an advantage from it
4) complaining about Apple's batteries, regardless if they keep phones long enough to experience a problem with their battery
5) proclaiming that Droid is easier to use when it's not :lol:
6) too fucking cheap to buy a data plan even though they prolly have a $4K TV and buy $500 worth of video games a year :lol:

1) inferiority complex
no, I would of probably tried out an iphone if it was available on verizon to see if it was ATT or the phone that has problems with dropping calls

2) jealousy that Apple gets a lot of media attention
really? Who gives a shit about the media? Sorry I don't get my gadget knowledge from them.

3) bragging about Droid's open source, regardless if they'll ever actually see an advantage from it
Open source is awesome. Why is this a bad thing to you?

4) complaining about Apple's batteries, regardless if they keep phones long enough to experience a problem with their battery
Not having a replaceable battery is a bad thing, especially when their battery life is among the shortest of any phone out there. Sometimes it's nice to be able to get a spare or a long life battery.

5) proclaiming that Droid is easier to use when it's not :lol:
no it's not, apple is known for making stuff so easy a fucking monkey could play with it. That's why dumbasses love it. They don't have to think for themselves to press buttons to operate it and get confused.

6) too fucking cheap to buy a data plan even though they prolly have a $4K TV and buy $500 worth of video games a year :lol:
I have a data plan...

iphone bashers are just as bad as iphone lovers. The phone definitely has a love/hate relationship with the world. There really is no grey area.

Well I'm not 25 anymore, so I don't have the patience to read an inch-thick owners manual, or sign up to a bunch of forums to find the latest tips, tricks, apps, UIs, and updates for it. Sometimes simple is better. To me it's just a tool, it's supposed to free your time not take your time. I don't want to have to join some l337 squad forum and search through a bunch of threads just to get advice on it.

There's always this claim that anyone who buys an Apple product only did it because it's hip. Maybe they are just an ordinary consumer who makes choices, like any other consumer? Part of those choices is simplicity & being nice to use. To some that is more important than other factors.

As for dropped calls & other issues, I'm betting most of that is ATT and not the iPhone. I already told you I've had issues with ATT with other phones.

Anyway...droid users..

How is it with videos and music?
Is it a drag and drop affair or do you have to worry about conversion?
I have over 200 movies in various formats (WMV, AVI) and my music library is mostly mp3 with a couple of flacs.....everything tagged.

Can you just copy em over usb and thats that?

Jeez, the droid is not that hard. If you have a shred of intelligence, you can work it without needing that stuff.

Well that is the stereotype associated with the company. You aren't going to change that. Apple has to change that and I doubt they will because that's their market. So you are screwed. Kinda like Suzuki and squids.

Actually there are several tech articles out there showing that it may be Apple's radio code and chips that are responsible for a lot of the problems. AT&T does have problems with their network beyond that though, because a lot of their customers complain about it that don't have iphones. That's why I want to see the iphone go to a different network to see if it is AT&T or the phone.

Yea AT&T is pretty bad. Unfortunately, T-Mobile just got worse because they lost their partnership with AT&T and with it their towers. On the upside, T-Mobile let me out of my contract and unlocked my phone. Now I have to decide where to go from here... the Droid is tempting but I'm not a fan of Verizon's rate plans. I have little interest in surfing the net... I'll probably get something like the Omnia II or a similar phone. I'm really going to miss that 8M camera on my phone though... We'll see, I bought a sim card and got a go phone plan to test AT&T out before I make a final decision.

If I were choosing between the I-Phone and the Droid and the network didn't matter, I'd go with the Droid because it has a better camera set-up, a real keyboard, unlocked wifi (wifi is faster than 3g I believe) for when you are in a hotspot or at home/work, better video, can be used as a BT modem, and the replaceable battery can be a big deal. It was on my GPS decision. $25 vs $80 to send in for replacement. Personally, I don't like Apple or Motorola. Almost everything I've ever purchased from Moto has been fucking junk!!! My reasons for my disdain of Apple has been covered in this thread already. What I want is a phone with a large touch screen, a slide out keyboard, an 8M+ camera with a fucking real flash, please, on a network with good coverage that will give me unlimited phone and text for under $60!!! I though I was there with T-Mobile...oh well.

Yes. Drag and drop (with mp3's anyway) haven't tried with video.

There should be a Samsung that has all that.

Apparently it's not going to happen.......at least not with Verizon. Too much investment necessary to make it compatible (and ATT is probably paying Apple off in some way)

What about Sprint, does anyone use them anymore?

I had them for my work phone and they suck. At 2 of my shops I couldn't get a signal, so I dropped the 2 way radio option and changed carriers to Verizon. Problem solved. (And no more shitty 2 way).

I use them for a laptop card, it's OK but don't ever try to call them......Their customer service is bottom-barrel.

I had them for years, won't be going back. I'm satisfied with ATT 3G coverage here in the metroplex. I tried an HTC Touch 2 that my Dad has and hated it. Took 3x as long to do everything on that as it does my iPhone, even just opening a photo.

The big debate always seems to be Verizon vs. ATT. Sprint doesn't seem as relevant now.

true.

Sprint sucks. Veizon sucked when I had them, the only reason they're worth a shit is they paid all that money for Alltels network. AT&T has better phones and plans, but they need to work on their coverage nationwide. Also, they should really put more priority on getting their 4G network up and running. The next generation of iPhone could be ready any tome but without a network to support it we're all getting screwed.

Hell they don't even put priority on 3G...

Total truth! Maybe, I'm naive but I'm still amazed that we don't a better cell coverage in this country yet.

Found out that I'm good for an upgrade. Looks like I'll be looking at the droid tomorrow.

Droid: Plug in your USB cable, click a button on your Droid to mount the device and it will show up as a USB storage device on your desktop. Then you can drag and drop whatever files you want.

AVI/MP4 play well, im sure it plays mpg but I havent tried it. I tried one WMV which it started to play but stopped, might have been the file. This is with the built in player.

I'm going to Sprint when I'm done with ATT.

I'm a drag/drop user. I have so many files, that syncing causes a cluster fuck.


Sprint sucks donkey dong here. My father has had to uses them for his business phone for years and they are just like ATT. If you're not in a major city than reception sucks. When you can't even make a call on a PHONE then that should tell you something.

Awesome.


Screw iPhone

Watching youtube vids and love the apple fan boy comments. Why do people get so scared when something else comes out that gives other a run for its money?

When I bought my tv, I didnt get all school girl pissy when they came out with 120hz.

Does best buy do upgrade renewals? Do they do the instant rebate so I dont have to mail it off?

Posting from Droid (say it in robot voice)

i actaully perfer the whole site on the droid over the mobile one

Wow. They tested 11 BIG ASS cities and declared a winner for NATION WIDE 3G coverage. Great, so I should get the same results here in my small city. Dumbasses.

http://gizmodo.com/5428343/our-2009-...yline=true&s=x

ATT has always been full of it. Their TV ads are now saying "the fastest network" :bs: and "the most apps" (no shit, but that's only if you shop iTunes)

Well, AT&T does have the fastest network, just not the best coverage. They have to come up with something to combat Verizon kicking their asses all over the place with 3G coverage advertisements.

And for those speculating on iPhone's performance as a phone, it's known industry-wide as a low performer when it comes to phone calls. If Apple hadn't given AT&T exclusivity, I doubt they would have accepted it as-is. AT&T's network is also known for a high number of dropped calls, so it's not JUST the phone.

I was talking with someone and he said the companies are trying to get everyone to txt more since it takes up hardly any bandwith unlike voice calls.

True/false?

True that it takes up less bandwidth (actually, none). SMS messages fit in defined "dead spots" between information packets passing through the network, making their load all but invisible. That is why each message is limited to a certain number of characters.

Whether or not carriers are pushing SMS over voice communications, I can't say I've heard either way.