Confused about which phone OS to use

[RavinRivie]

Foreword, I really need advice on this soon - because I'm not sure what to go with and need to decide relatively quickly! Any unbiased honest help is immensely appreciated!!

I have been using an iPhone since '08 and been pretty happy with it. At the time I remember there not being much else that did quite all the things I wanted and having been carrying an iPod Touch and a phone it seemed a logical next step. I have upgraded since that original iPhone and am now using a 32 GB 3GS. However I have never been an Apple person, in fact I'm quite against Apple when it comes to home computers and am not a fan of things like the iPad or most other iDevices - I bought the iPhone first on availability of similar features from a competitor at the time, and the second time because I got a good deal on it and due to familiarity.

I would personally like to be rid of the big Holy Apple which has all its crazy fanatics (I know there are the same from Android, but for me personally I have big quelms with people who think Apple made everything first and made it better - which they generally do not IMO). I have a guy who is willing to trade my iPhone 32 GB 3GS for his Samsung Galaxy SII + $200 cash from me - this seems like a fairly good deal for that phone which I know is the top of the line Android phone right now. However I'm concerned because of all the things I saw people complaining about Android having glitches and problems, viruses and whatnot. Much of the Android features I would love to have (Speech-to-text, high levels of Google integration, customization, etc), but I am curious to know if problems on Android have been overhyped by others or due to user error and not the phone itself (I know of this problem in many areas and they blame the device/OS for causing it when they're the cause of the problem).

Are viruses really a problem on the Android? Or are people who get them ones who download stupid goofy apps all the time - because I personally don't download too many apps on my iPhone and I've never bought any of them, I just use the free/trial/lite versions and they're generally of big well known things. I don't think I'd need to download too many apps for the phone to do everything I want. Also are the issues with glitches and bugs that prevalent, or are they more prominent on lower end Android phones? I'm a little worried about buying the Galaxy SII and its value greatly decreasing when new Android phones coming out, meaning I'll eat the depreciation cost. Also wondering about if it will come to the US or any issues relating around the fact it's from Europe - and if it does if we'll necessarily get a GSM version. Lastly I'm concerned about the lawsuit by Apple against HTC - as that would largely hurt Android if not destroy much of its market if it came to pass.

I've heard from many that Blackberry is in decline and dwindling from their once large market share. I'm also quite interested in the Windows Phone 7 OS, though it seems like they lack a truly nice top of the line phone to compete with offerings from other phones. The HTC HD7 does seem nice though, but I've heard some complaints of washed out colors which I would be unwilling to deal with for paying that much on a phone. There are basically a few things that are very important to me on my phone: Email (I use Gmail and want to get this easily), Phone call quality and reception (I've had hardly any dropped calls on my iPhone, don't want any that have that problem), Internet (How well it surfs, having flash support would be extremely nice since iOS doesn't have it), Camera/Video (I always have my phone so respectable video/photo quality would make it immensely handy to me), and music playback (I listen to music on my iPhone a lot so this is something I will do). I do not want a low end or just average phone, I am pretty sure a high end one is what I'm looking for - though I will not be using a data plan (Never have) so features like 4G are not that beneficial to me.

Can anyone help me? I was reading on Phone Arena about the Android issues, but I've heard them disparragingly referred to as iPhone Arena so I'm not sure how much biased views are trashing Android and how much are honest - or how much Android fanatics are lying about problems with their OS. My iPhone does most of what I like, other than just personally not making me happy to own an Apple product. Again, honest unbiased help would be appreciated - I'm really at a loss about what to do right now as I've never used an Android phone to know how they are other than I've seen several reviews on highly rated Android phones. Btw, I am GSM so all phones must be T-Mobile or unlockable.

 

[jaguarskx]

I bought the original Motorola Droid back in Jan 2010 and I am using Verizon; at least for now. Overall, I am pretty happy with my Android phone. It's somewhat slow compared to more current smartphones; it's CPU runs @ 800MHz.

I have never has an issue with a virus on my Droid; I use a free anti-virus app called Lookout. Then again, I am not one of those people who install endless number of apps on their phones. I think I have less than 20 apps I installed on my own. It would be nice to uninstall some of the Google bloatware, but that's not possible unless I root my phone.

I think my biggest gripe about Android phones is that you really cannot manage your e-mails with the phone, at least with the default e-mail app. The problem I have is that when I delete e-mails, they seem to be deleted, but if I were to refresh my e-mail those e-mails that I deleted (1 minute ago, 1 day ago, 1 week ago, etc) comes back. I would need to log into my G-mail account through a browser to effectively delete those e-mails. Same thing for my Yahoo e-mails.

The voice-to-text feature is nice, but it can be a bit glitchy. I find that it is best to speak clearly and slowly (not too slow or the phone stops recording). Also if you are going to say a long sentence, do not say it all at once. Speak part of the sentence and let Android convert to text, then continue on. It takes a little bit of practice and a good deal of patience especially if you are used to speaking quickly.

One feature you may miss if you switch over to an Android phone is the ability to have a phone conversation and use the phone at the same time (like surfing).

If you plan on getting an Android phone and not have a data plan. Then you may be in for a rude awakening as service contracts change from time to time. In order to purchase my Motorola Droid, I had to buy the unlimited data plan for $30 (Verizon has or will change their data plans soon, specifically no more unlimited data) on top of the $40 for my minutes and $5 for 250 text messages. Since I wanted the data plan anyway I did not gripe about the price since I already knew that ahead of time. It may be possible to use a smartphone without the data plan, but that would require you to purchase the phone without any discount. If they even allow that. Let's say you were to get the Samsung Galaxy SII through Verizon with a 2 year contract, the phone would cost you $200. If you were allowed to buy an Android Phone with a 2 year voice only contract (opt out of data plan), then you may pay $600 for the Galaxy SII. Unfortunately, I have never used T-Mobile so I am not aware of what they will or will not allow you to do with a smartphone contract.

At this time, I plan on switching over to Virgin Mobile when my current Verizon contract ends next year. If it were not for my corporate discount I would be paying something like $91 - $93 per month rather than a "thrifty" $72 per month. Virgin run on the Sprint network which I am fine with. But I like the fact that text messaging and unlimited data is part of the monthly prepaid plan for 1200 minutes which I think is currently $45. Since it's a prepaid plan there are no taxes involved. But I would have to buy the phone.

Regarding Blackberrys, I think RIM (Research In Motion, ticker symbol RIMM) is in trouble and is reflected in their current stock price. Their user base (mostly corporate clients) is not really growing. In fact, it seems the user base is starting or will start shrinking a bit as IT Departments allow manager and executives to use the iPhone as a corporate mobile phone. I friend of mine who works at Morgan Stanley said a lot of people were excited about the possibility (not sure it the initiative has gone through) of using their iPhones as a corporate cell phone instead of having a separate Blackberry. The company would pay for part of the phone bill. However, there are security issues to be worked out and probably some legal ramifications as well since all data on your iPhone can fall under the jurisdiction of Morgan Stanley's internal security policies.

RIM's Playbook tablet has not exactly garnered many favorable reviews. Their in the tablet game, but they don't have much to offer in terms of apps right now. The iPad and all the Android based tablets can use apps that are either designed for their respective phones (not particularly pretty since the graphics are stretched) or specifically designed for the iPod / Android tablet. RIM (and it's community) needs create apps that specifically works with RIM's OS and they are basically starting from near zero.

 

[sniffedmary]

My first suggestion to you you is to summarize your story it's too long. Not have as much time to read your whole story. Then I don't no why you hate the name of Apple its your right to raise the point if you have some problems in your Apple product If you like android its good for you and the deal you are making is not right you are giving your Iphone + 200 against samsung is a huge loss of you.

What I recommend is to keep your Iphone and buy New Android tablet pc with wifi in 130$ from dealaboo(dot)com because of this you have a option to switch back to your Iphone if you don't like Android .

Hope this will help you.