Android vs. I-Phone...

[Frugal]

Which do you think is a better phone in terms of: value for the money; operational ability; features?

I have owned BOTH in the last year ! (long story), and would like to see what other people think of these two phones.

I preferred the I-Phone, but it is nice that the Droid has the Flash Player, so you can view more websites. However, my Droid crashes exactly once a day, and restarts and shuts down completely. Not fun, because it is usually when I urgently need to make a call. My i-Phone never once did this.

[cypher1]

I've used the older 2/3G models, being very impressed after jailbreaking them. Apple still has more applications available, and I still respect the 4G as being pretty slick. I currently use an HTC Inspire 4G for work and love the Droid os.
Flash player on Droid is huge thing for web surfing IMO, and I also like the little things added: LED indicator for any email/sms notification (same concept from a Blackberry), instead of turning on screen and unlock display. More buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Search) integrated on interface instead of just a Home button on Apple. Widget options are nice, instead of just using a shortcut on the homespaces. The Inspire has a 8MB camera (not sure if other models have smaller). But I will say 4G also has a front camera besides 5MB, so that is very handy too. Inspire can also easily replace battery instead of shipping in. I've never had issues of crashing OS so far. Little things I don't like, more towards the phone itself, crappy speaker phone, touch keyboard I've never been a fan of, for either iphone/droid, and AT&T is crap in my area now. Rooting the phone is my next phase, and very impressed with customizations and tweaks not just with software, but hardware. Both phones are great, but I could still live without.

[kobe008]

I just got a Droidx less than a month ago and I love it. It has never crashed on me. When I get home from work first things my kids ask for is to play on my phone. I have never used an iphone but i cant imagine it being any better than this.

[disneysteve]

I've never used a Droid - only an iPhone and I love that.

What, if anything, does a Droid do that an iPhone can't?
What, if anything, does an iPhone do that a Droid can't?

I think those are the questions you really need to answer. Once you know the differences, you can decide if they are issues that actually matter to you. For example, the lack of flash player on the iPhone has very, very rarely stopped me from viewing something that I wanted to view. And on those rare occasions, I just waited until I was at home or work to do so. I would not switch phones based on that alone.

[dfeucht]

This topic couldn't be better timed - I just aked this question of many friends. Currently have a BB Storm2 and am ready for a new phone (my emails from work is now compatible with the Good Messaging app so I have more flexibility than I had when I got the BB).

I am looking at the HTC Thunderbolt (Droid) and the iPhone. People seem to be very passionate about the phones they have so I figure I can't lose with either. Steve - thanks for the info on how often the flash issue gets in the way - it's hard for me to tell how often that is or would be an issue since I don't always know when it is being used.

I think I have gotten over that the iPhone doesn't have 4G, but that is one consideration for me as the speed difference on web surfing is very apparent.

I am leaning iPhone - but figure I now need to wait for the iPhone 5 to come out which seems to be rumored to be pushed back from a summer release to a fall or winter release.

All in all this probably doesn't help anyone on this forum, but thought I would share my current thoughts as someone who has had neither phone.

[BuckyBadger]

I have an HTC EVO that I adore. Never crashes. I didn't even know that was a thing to worry about. I love my android phone and wouldn't ever go to an iPhone. Maybe you just had the wrong android phone?

[Frugal]

I probably should replace my phone since it is under warranty for one year for replacement if it is defective, or malfunctions (?). We had to replace our previous two phones already under warranty with the DroidX and the Droid Incredible (I have one, my spouse has the other). I would only caution against the Droid vs iPhone for the following reasons:

1) We paid more for Droid than I-Phone,
2) Plan slightly more expensive for Droid
3) Spouse and I have had continued small-moderate problems with Droid. Their OS is HORRIBLE, in my opinion. In addition to crashing daily (my phone), the battery life is the WORST thing about the Droid. The reason we returned our first two phones was they would not charge in a reasonable amount of time or hold the charge.

You have to restrict the phone to the "Maximum Battery Saver" setting to get any real charge held throughout the day. If you work full-time, your phone might die frequently at work, even if it's charged at 6 am in the morning. This has been a problem for us. If you look at stuff online, they will also say the poor battery life is one disadvantage of the Droid.

The IPhone is simpler, yes, but I would take it anyday over this Droid.

Thinking I should trade mine in since it crashes every day at approx. the same time of day? And just from me picking it up and sliding the bar to turn on the screen from hibernating?...


p.s. One MAJOR thing I forgot to mention: Spouse and I have had a consistently hard time with CALL quality on our Droids. We can hardly hear each other sometimes. The biggest problem is, when I am calling a company from my Droid, EVERYONE says they have a very hard time understanding me. There were a couple of three-day periods there was no sound at all from the phone when I was trying to talk to someone. They could not hear me, but I could hear them.

Also, I found AT&T customer service was fresher, friendlier, and more helpful. Verizon acts like they are doing you a favor locally by deigning to "help you", after taking your name on a machine before they will let you even stand in line. They have been so rude to me in the past, I had to literally walk out of the store once. They do not respond as well to issues with the phone, and argued with my spouse rather than replacing the first clearly defective phone he bought from them. They will tell you one thing, and charge another on the bill. We have to dispute our bill nearly every month for overcharges on Verizon, and honestly, At and T wasn't really a problem...the bill was right on most every time. I know most cell phone companies are like this, but Verizon is my least favorite, and I used them for years...
Could vary from area to area, maybe this is a local thing...

[BuckyBadger]

Just remember -- Droids aren't the only Android phones, and you can get Android phones from lots of different carriers.

[james11]

I prefer android .Because for connection android browser usually loads pages faster than Safari, has Flash support, and simply does everything a browser should do.On the other way on i-phone cant do so .

[shanecurran]

I like the iphone. I think it is the best phone I have ever used. Regardless this youtube video that discusses the HTC VS iphone is hilarious. Don't click on this if you are offended by bad language. YouTube - iPhone4 vs HTC Evo

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by shanecurran

I like the iphone. I think it is the best phone I have ever used. Regardless this youtube video that discusses the HTC VS iphone is hilarious. Don't click on this if you are offended by bad language. YouTube - iPhone4 vs HTC Evo

I love that video.

[KTP]

What, no votes for Windows 7 phones? You guys are killing our stock options!

[steveaz67]

I have had both.... Droid has more bells and whistles..... iphone just works better.

[moneyclass]

gotta say the iphone....own the stock to which i love

[Simplicity-]

I have owned both, and always result back to the iPhone.

To whom said that Android phones load quicker than safari, maybe in an area with poor signal quality.

I put my iPhone4 against a friends Evo, him on 4g me on 3g, and he was loading a screen approx. 1 second quicker than me. That's terrible.

Also iPhones are smooth, consistent, easy, and safe. All I hear from friends is that their android apps crash, and they have to reboot them, or you have to be careful who you download from so your phone doesnt crap out.

^^^ That is why I have been a Apple/Mac fan for over 10 years now. You don't have those issues, because Steve Jobs loves you =).

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Simplicity-

Also iPhones are smooth, consistent, easy, and safe. All I hear from friends is that their android apps crash, and they have to reboot them

To be fair, iPhones are not immune to these problems. I have one particular app, actually a medical professional app, that crashes fairly often. I've actually had to uninstall and reinstall it twice since I got it because at some point it just stopped working completely and wouldn't even launch. A couple of other apps (games) sometimes won't launch on the first try.

One thing that definitely helps is powering off the phone and restarting it. The guy at the Apple store told me that you should turn your phone off regularly because it resets things and shuts down processes running in the background that can impact performance. So if you don't regularly power off your phone, start doing that at least once every couple of days. I can actually tell from the phone's performance when I need to do it.

[Simplicity-]

Steve, not just a normal power of cycle, but an actual hard reset cycle is mandatory for ALL phones once every 10-15 days. Nothing is erased or lost in this procedure.

To perform this on an iPhone you hold down the Lock button and Home button simultaniously. Keep holding the buttons through the "slide to power off" screen. The phone will then go black as it is shutdown, continue holding the 2 buttons together. Once the apple re-appears on the screen you can release the buttons. This is also a helpful hint, if you are having issues with your phone, and need to take it for warranty, perform this trick a few times and when they run their analysis it will show them how many hard resets the phone has had performed.

Steve, I used to have problems with my 3g iPhone when the new iOS 4.0.1 came out, it was just to advanced for the phone. Since going to my iPhone 4 not an issue with any apps.

Anothing thing I noticed to help the iPhone performance, if you have a 3gs or 4. Try to daily, or every few days clear out the multi-task window. I also locked my screen so it doesn't flip to landscape mode and this helps the phone run smoother as well.

Hope my hints help.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Simplicity-

Steve, not just a normal power of cycle, but an actual hard reset cycle is mandatory for ALL phones once every 10-15 days. Nothing is erased or lost in this procedure.

To perform this on an iPhone you hold down the Lock button and Home button simultaniously. Keep holding the buttons through the "slide to power off" screen. The phone will then go black as it is shutdown, continue holding the 2 buttons together. Once the apple re-appears on the screen you can release the buttons.

Yes, very good advice. I really wish they would tell you this when you get the phone. Soon after getting mine, I had some problem with it. I don't remember the details but I think it basically just died and wouldn't power on. I took it to the Apple store and before I even finished telling the story, the guy had done the reset and it was working fine.

[Simplicity-]

Yea, well I used to work for AT&T, and have owned every generation iPhone since day 1 of the original release.

Anothing thing people don't know alot about, but has saved me in a few instances, is the ability to take a screen shot. Go to whatever you want, a text, your home window, website, facebook, WHATEVER you want a screen shot of. Hold the Home button, and Lock button simultaneously, then release after 1 sec, your phone then takes a screen shot of WHATEVER is on the screen and saves it into your phones photos app.

[DRILLINDK]

Droid! iPhones are soooo 2000...