Why Android?

B

belizegyal87

New member
New member here and I'm curious as to why I should choose an android based phone.

I'm not looking to flame anyone (or get flamed) and I've started searching this forum to get some more information on android based phones.

Here's my needs which may help foster the discussion
I need a decent imap email client
exchange ability - so I can get my work emails
Decent web browser
Play's music/movies
sync with OSX and/or Linux (fedora or ubunutu - I use all three)

I currently own an iPhone 3Gs and I'm happy with that but I'm feeling a bit constrained. I do enjoy using Linux at home so that's probably why I'm thinking of an Android based phone.

I'm not sure how a Nexus One or a droid stacks up against what the iPhone has to offer. I've read reviews of both and those reviews had some criticism on the OS to a small degree.

With Apple presumably prepping OS4 for the iPhone for a summer release, has there been any talk of the next version of Android - features and/or release dates?

Thanks
 
I'd recommend a Nexus One if you're going to buy an Android phone (makes my iPhone friends jealous, and has excellent noise canceling abilities). It's excellent hardware running the latest release of Android (and updates are released by Google as opposed to the carrier).

Here's how I feel about your list:

The default mail client in the next version will support Exchange (based on what I saw in the bug tracker). Anyway, email applications like Touchdown support exchange fully.

Android uses a webkit browser (Safari uses webkit), and with the Nexus One/Droid it has multi-touch pinch to zoom and all that jazz.

There's a few formats which are shaky, but for the most part it plays what I need it to. If you need more support, you can root you phone and put rom on there which supports more formats.

You hook up Android phones via USB, and it shows up as a drive. There are some apps which can do syncing, but I prefer drag/drop. It works flawlessly on all of my Linux boxes.
 
The N1 is what's drawing my towards android - Since I'm already under contract with ATT and Google now has an unlocked N1 for ATT, I'm seriously thinking of it.

I'm not sure when google will have a Nexus Two out, presumably not in the near future, but apple is, I'm sure, prepping their next version so jumping ship is giving me a bit of a pause.

I like the ability to root it, and install what I want, having more refined control over the phone is also a plus. Being a geek, I'll enjoy toying with it. I hadn't unlocked my iPhone mostly because of warranty issues. Most of my itunes music is drm free, so I would hope I'd be able to play it easily enough on the N1

Any ideas of what/when the next major release of android will be out - that's my other consideration given that the iPhone is due for a hardware/software refresh in 2 - 3 months.
 
Google has released major Android updates every 6 months (with a funny pastry name for each release, such as Flan, Donut, Cupcake, etc). They're trying to slow down the pace to focus on apps, but so far they've been really fast about releases (faster than carriers are able to handle them).

The cool thing is even if the releases slow down from Google directly, you can root and get the latest pre-beta version which is nicely bundled in a ROM for you by folks like Cyanogen. Then of course you can mod the phone more from there, put new UI's in, etc.

I develop apps for both the iPhone and Android, and I went with my own personal phone being an Android phone simply because the community was better, the apps are quick to write and quick to release (no approval period), and I'm tired of weird restrictions. Multi-tasking and customization was another huge plus for me. Also the Gmail client is top notch, since that's my primary inbox.

Anyway, I'd prefer my N1 over my old iPhone any day. It's just far more fun to use.
 
Here is a link to themost popular rooted rom rom, you can read up on it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623496
This one the most popular recovery console.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=611829
These are nice if you plan on rooting the phone.
 
In just about every head-to-head comparison, the N1 has beaten the iPhone. Apple fanboys point to this mythical 4.0 release as something that will crush the N1, but no one knows what is in it, and I'm sure a new Android phone will be around a few months later that will crush that as well.
 
First on the iPhone. There are people out there who simply love the phone. I have a friend who is an engineer who says he will never switch, mainly because the interface for iTunes is superior to almost all other music and media management systems. Double Twist Bridges the gap.

Here are the main reasons I chose an Android Phone over the iPhone.

1. It was not on AT&T. I have never been on AT&T but I know many people who are and very few are happy. Plus their 3g network is very expensive. I also like the fact that android is on several networks that allows me more freedom, (if I can avoid a contract) to move from one network to another (especially if i am dissatisfied with one company)

2. Android phones have removable batteries. If you want to spend the extra dough, you can simply buy a second battery and double your time away from a recharge. The iPHone's built in battery is severely limiting, although battery life is pretty good.

3. The open source nature, which allows any carrier or phone maker to develop android devices, has caused a veritable explosion in the distribution of android devices. T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, all have different types of smart phones running android. Furthermore this has led to more rapid development and improvement of devices than with the iphone, which because of Apple's model only releases hardware updates about once a year. just look in the last few months. You have the Nexus One and now the HTC EVO 4g (for Sprint) which both have specs that exceed the specs of the iPhone 3GS. Now it is entirely likely that the new iphone will have some killer specs and should (if Apple knows what they are doing) exceed the top of the line Android Phones. But i would be willing to bet some other manufacturer (HTC, Motorola) to put out a phone that beats the iphone from a specs standpoint within a few months of the iphone update. But the iphone is probably stuck with what they put out for a year.

4) Widets and Multitasking. I love the fact that i have a news/weather that was on the Droid running on one of my screens. I love the fact that I can run multiple apps at one time. I also love that i can, without even rooting my phone change and customize my home screens as I see fit.

5) Removable micro sd cards. I started out with the standard 4 gig micro sd in my mytouch and have now upgraded to a 16, with the ability to go up to a 32 gb micro sd card. Whats even better is that because they are removable, i can switch between cards i have have a bunch of movies on one, and music on another. it is just more flexible. With memory getting bigger and cheaper day by day, i could easily see 64 or 128 gb cards in the near future or, multiple card slots. iphone...hard wired.

Now a big advantage for the iphone is that the device memory includes all of the memory for storing apps or media, but I have yet to even come close to filling up my mytouch even though the memory for storing apps is fairly limited. The one place that phone makers need to consider is putting a larger amount of RAM memory for apps than are currently available in many of the android phones out right now.

6) The geek factor. I am a bit of a geek and so this phone appeals to me, although with Android 2.1 and Sense UI one can go totally ungeek as well.

These are just a few reasons I went with android.
 
Are these the same fanboys that all watched Steve Jobs in his keynote speech about the iPad, where he was very quick to point out all the flaws in existing tablets at the start and how crap they all are, never stated how the iPad addresses any of those flaws (because it doesn't), and left them all filled with wonder and joy at another amazing world dominating Apple gadget? Whereas, the rest of us watched the same speech, realised the iPad has all the same flaws that Steve highlighted himself about other tablets, realised the iPad doesn't address any of them, realised it adds a bunch of its own flaws (can't make calls, can't multitask, doesn't run OSX, etc), and costs twice as much as any other tablet with comparable specification, and wouldn't be seen dead with a gadget that has the nickname iTampon?



It's glass.
 
Thanks, I'm happy to see that its glass. One of the biggest turn offs of the Palm pre was its plastic touch screen and very cheap/plasticy feel

I'm hoping to hit a local t-mobile shop this weekend and perhaps they'll have some N1s I can play with.

To be perfectly honest, I'm still on the fence. I wouldn't call myself a mac fanboy - I've seen too many posts in various apple forums to disabuse me of that notion but apple does produce a highly polished product. That said, I find the closed system a bit constraining but is that a huge deal when it comes to phones?

I'm now trying to see how my needs line up with both the android's strengths/weaknesses and compare that against how the iPhone aligns itself with my needs.
 
T-Mobile doesn't sell the N1, it just works on their network and they sell plans for it. The only place you can buy one is from Google directly (google.com/phone). Tmo also doesn't show them in their stores, since they can't physically retail them.
 
Thanks for the heads up - you saved me a wasted trip to the mall.

Ok, so the trick is to do enough of my home work to gain a certain measure of peace of mind, since I'll be buying it sight unseen.
 
Yeah, which is why Google took a lot of heat for not putting them in stores.

Check if your friends have one. Most of the folks I've shown mine to love it. It's one thing to see it, it's another to actually use it for a bit. Hopefully Google eventually will sell them in retail stores.
 
Just do your research and weigh both options well. I now being an Android fanboy would go for the N1 and I actually plan on buying one soon. the iPhone isn't horrible, just doesn't spark my interest anymore now that I own an Android. In all honesty I would keep my old rooted G1 over any new version of the iPhone. Once you get the hang of it. Android is a game changer. Good luck in your decision.
 
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