So I swapped the iPhone out for a Droid...

AsSiMiLaTeD

I finally decided to ditch Apple and their BS business practices and decided to go the Android route (really the only true competitor to the iPhone)

I could say Apple is evil and all that and this is my way of 'sticking it to the man', but that would be mostly BS, and really, Google is just as evil. No, for me it's really about functionality and the fact that Apple is so damn restrictive on what they will and will not allow (I don't give a good god damn about html 5 and how good it is, I want Flash support). Ultimately, I just wanted a more 'open' platform and decided to move to Android.

AT&T just released the Samsung Captivate, which is their first 'real' Android based phone. They've had a couple half-baked ideas like the Backflip and the Aria, but those are both crap. The Captivate is a phone that's designed to compete with the iPhone 4. I don't have the iPhone 4 (I've got the 3GS) so I'm not going to do a comparison between the two phones. Instead I'll share some of my general impressions in making the move, and a note or two specific to the Samsung Captivate.

Overall, I'd say I'm pleased with my switch, but I wouldn't call it 'giddy', and each device does have it's advantages. I'll say that the iPhone should appeal and be more easy to use for the majority of the population. You don't have to be a 'nerd' to be able to work the Android phone, but it's definitely designed to appeal to that crowd. I am a nerd, which is probably why I prefer the Droid phone.

Advantages of the iPhone
1 - The voicemail functionality is awesome. I had becomes so used to this that when I got the new phone I realized I'd forgotten how voicemail 'used' to work. You mean I have to dial a number and punch in my code and let the things read off to me the caller and time info? That seems so archaic now after the iPhone experience.
2 - Apps. That's right, for all the bitching I did about how Apple is so restrictive on their apps, I find that the apps on the iPhone are better than what I've found on the Droid, better as in there are more of them that i use, and better in that they tend to be better designed on the iPhone. I'll include a list later on that breaks it down a little.
3 - It just works, things like backup and restore and updates on the iPhone are much more untuitive than they are on the Droid. If I wanted to restore my Samsung to factory settings and ROM, there's not really an easy way to do that. It can be done, but is certainly much more involved than the Apple process.
4 - iTunes. The ability to purchase and have content (music and movies) downloaded right to your phone is nice and convenient
5 - iPod. The iPod system is superior to that on the Android phones for media playback. They both work, but the iPhone seems to have a better design and feel to it.

Advantages of the Droid
1 - Customization, as in the ability to customize your complete experience. This becomes even more apparent when you root the phone and as more ROMS become available, the Samsung is too new for that yet so I don't know much about it. But even out of the box it's much more customizable. For example, I want the ability to NOT have my screen rotate as I rotate my phone. To get that on the iPhone I had to jailbreak it and install rotation inhibitor. On the Android phone, it's an option in the settings menu. I won't go through each of these options, but will say overall the Android is much better.
2 - Live Wallpaper. It's kinda an extension of the above, but is cool enough to mention on it's own, right now I have a Globe that's spinning as the background
3 - Google Maps. Its MUCH better on the Android, I won't go into all the details why, but that info is available online, text to speech is the biggest thing for me though.
4 - Google Voice Search. The iPhone has it as well, but for some reason it works better on the Android phone, hands down
5 - Ringtones. You don't have to deal with a paid app or use specific songs you've bought through iTunes as your ringtone, there's a free app that lets you edit and make a ringtone out of any audio file the device can play
6 - Widgets are awesome, don't have those on the iPhone.
7 - Flash Support!!!. I've bitched endlessly about the lack of Flash support on the iPhone, now I finally can view all that content, awesome!
8 - The Allshare is a nice DLNA playback app. I had a similar app on the iPhone but it was a paid app, and didn't work as well
9 - Exchange Calendar sync. I work for a company stuck in the 20th century who doesn't have support where I can set up my Exchange account on iPhone or Android. However, with Google I can at least get my calendar linked. Google has a calendar sync app that runs on the PC and syncs your Outlook Exchange and Google Calendars, having calendar events on my phone without having to hook it up to the computer is very nice.

Other comparison notes
1 - The Screen is MUCH better on the Android phone than on the 3GS, but I hear the iPhone 4 has an improved screen design. Everything I'm reading says these two screens each excel in different areas, but ultimately it's a tie between the two depending on what you prefer. I think the AMOLED screen on the Samsung is beautiful and is nice and big at 4 inches.
2 - The camera on the Samsung is MUCH better than the one on the 3GS, but the camera on the iPhone 4 is apparently much improved and is better than the Samsung camera, mainly because it's got a flash and has the front camera.
3 - The biggest tie between the two for me was the browsing. It's great on both devices. I prefer Safari better right now because I'm not used to this new phone yet, but the Android does load pages faster, so that's nice. The one caveat there is that if its a page with a lot of Flash content, since the iPhone doesn't do Flash, it does load those pages faster, which is good, unless of course you're actually navigating to that page because you want to see something, in which case the iPhone just loads nothingness faster than the Android loads content.

Apps
The Samsung wins more categories and is my preferred device, but the iPhone does win a very important category, apps. I was gonna sit down and break out a list of all the appls, but I don't have the time now, so I'll just list a few notables:

1 - Redlaser, there is an Android app called barcode Scanner, but I prefer Redlaser because it's all integrated into a single interface and easier to use, plus the barcode recognition works better.
2 - Classics, it's an app that has a dozen or so popular books, doesn't exist on Android
3 - MyWi, app for my jailbroken iPhone that allws me to create a wife hotspot with the iphone and tether to it, there's one called android wifi tether, but does not yet work on my phone
4 - i.TV is great for checking out tv guide info, and lets me schedule shows to record on each of my TiVo boxes, nothing like this for the Android that I'm aware of
5 - No PGA Tour app for the Android, sucks
6 - iBlacklist is a great call screening app for the jailbroken iPhone, don't see anything like this for the Android.
7 - Games, I have several games and miscellaneous apps like a guitartoolkit on the iphone - some have alternatives on the android taht aren't as good, some don't have any alternatives at all

I'll learn to live with the Android market, and hopefully it will get better, but one thing I would tell anybody looking to make the switch is do your homeworks first, there may be those one or two apps on the iPhone that you will lose going to the dark side.

A couple more notes specific to the Samsung Captivate...
Of course the first thing I did when I got the phone is root it, this just gets you poast the AT&T restrictions and gives you 'full' android functionality, although honestly since I've rooted it I haven't done anything with it. Apparently there are different 'ROMS' you can install, which I assume these are different front-ends, but the Captivate is so new that they won't be out for a couple weeks yet, so for the time being I've rooted my phone for no apparent good reason other than to know how it's done.

The GPS reception on the Captivate is abysmal, it's the worst I've experienced since the first GPS phones. Apparently it's a big deal, and Samsung knows about it and is working on it. If that gets fixed I'll be okay, but I've got 30 days to return this phone, and if it's not fixed by then I'll have to send this back, it's truly THAT bad. Note - There is a temporary fix out there now for this issue, but it did little to help my performance.

mole'

i love my DROID!!!


nice write up

exalted512

For tethering on Android, I'd recommend PDAnet. Although I do have a friend with the nexus one on AT&T and he could not find it in Android's market. I put my sim card in it (i have t-mobile) and I found it and was able to download it to his phone.

My GPS works great, hopefully they'll fix that on the Samsung. Mine can tell if I'm on the sidewalk or walking on the road next to the curb...2' away from the sidewalk.

I dont understand why they wouldnt put a flash on the samsung, seems like thats a pretty standard feature now.

As far as apps, what I like in the android market is that most of the apps are free. The only one I've paid for is advanced task killer. They dont have as many as Apple, but apple's market has been around for several more years as well.

Might want to look into getting google voice as well. I like it a lot.
-Cody

mole'

exalted512 wrote: »

For tethering on Android, I'd recommend PDAnet. Although I do have a friend with the nexus one on AT&T and he could not find it in Android's market. I put my sim card in it (i have t-mobile) and I found it and was able to download it to his phone.

My GPS works great, hopefully they'll fix that on the Samsung. Mine can tell if I'm on the sidewalk or walking on the road next to the curb...2' away from the sidewalk.

I dont understand why they wouldnt put a flash on the samsung, seems like thats a pretty standard feature now.

As far as apps, what I like in the android market is that most of the apps are free. The only one I've paid for is advanced task killer. They dont have as many as Apple, but apple's market has been around for several more years as well.

Might want to look into getting google voice as well. I like it a lot.
-Cody

i have over 70 Apps and have yet to pay for one.

love it

AsSiMiLaTeD

I have paid for more og my iPhone apps, but I don't mind paying if it does what I need.

Yeah, PDANet is not available on the marketplace. I have my phone rooted, so if I could find it somewhere I could install it, but that's not likely ever going to happen unless I can find someone with a t mobile sim.

No flash on the camera isn't a big deal for me really, this phone has really good low light performance for not having a flash.

I have Google Voice I believe, need to look back into that and see how it al works.

exalted512

Def. look into google voice. As far as the flash goes, with androids new OS, you can use it as a flash light...and it is BRIGHT! Which is a nice feature in itself.

Be on the lookout for people you know with T-mobile and download PDAnet! It works flawlessly. Used it quite a bit this week while in Vegas. The Bellagio's in-room wifi is $15/night...along with the $115+ youre already paying for the room. While in SanFran at a hole in the wall $70/night hotel it was free...but thats another thread

-Cody

mdaudioguy

What I would really love on the iPhone would be a customizable home screen with a larger time and date display, upcoming calendar appointments, weather, messages, etc... My old Windows Mobile phones had this. When I pick up my phone in the morning, this is the stuff I want to see at a glance. I hate having to run an app to see what's on my calendar.

Sherardp

Nice read, I have a blackberry, Iphone 4, and a Samsung Moment using Google software. Some of the notes you made are spot on. However I'm more in favor of my new Iphone 4. The screen is crisp, the software is very good, and so on. I've had my Droid phone crash so many times on me. It could be just the phone, but to me there are too many bugs in the OS. Blackberry is my work phone, so I'm used to that. Not a million apps out there for it, but I just use it and be done with it. Again, nice read and comparison.

exalted512

Sherardp wrote: »

Nice read, I have a blackberry, Iphone 4, and a Samsung Moment using Google software. Some of the notes you made are spot on. However I'm more in favor of my new Iphone 4. The screen is crisp, the software is very good, and so on. I've had my Droid phone crash so many times on me. It could be just the phone, but to me there are too many bugs in the OS. Blackberry is my work phone, so I'm used to that. Not a million apps out there for it, but I just use it and be done with it. Again, nice read and comparison.

The moment is using an older version of android. I've had my phone freeze up once since I've had it...and that was before the update to their new OS as well.

I've had to force close applications before, but its not often by any means. I would say your experience is with your phone and/or the older OS.
-Cody

danger boy

i looked at the Samsung Captivate.. very impressive.. as i'm currently in the market for a new phone.. and this one just release is way cool. screen looks great.. the only thing that is turning me off from ALL smart phones is the freakin' huge device. i mean, they are easily three times bigger than my 6 yr old flip phone. i want small and compact.

Samsung is touting the fact that you can watch HD quality streaming movies on the Captivate.. which is cool and stuff.. but that's why i spend $$$ on a full HD home theater.. so I don't have to watch movies on a 4 inch screen. Maybe i'm just old fashioned and cant' hang with the times.. but if that's really what they are banking their future on is how good movies look on it.. then i'm totally turned off by these devices.

I need a basic phone that doesn't need to play music, movies, stream everything under the sun and i need it small.. SMALL, not big. seriously, smart phones are soon going to reach the size of an IPad. ???? i kid you not.. expect the next gen of phones to have a 5 or 6" screens on them. :mad::mad:

mole'

i have a T-mobile MyTouch (DROID Software) if anyone needs one up for grabs

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well Al, it sounds like the smart phones aren't for you. The screen is big, but honestly the phone doesn't feel big in your hands when you're using it as a phone, and yet looks big enough when you're using the other features.

The Captivate is very similar to the iPhone in size

danger boy

my friend who owns an Iphone 3gs says he thinks the Captivate is huge too.. when in reality it's only slightly 1/4" to 1/2" bigger than his Iphone.. go figure.

do they make a smaller screen size smart phone?

AsSiMiLaTeD

It's a little taller, but it's the same width and thickness. The phone being taller doesn't make it feel any bigger when you're holding it up to talk to someone, all it does is provide some extra space for the big screen.

Something like the Aria has a smaller screen, but its also neutered in terms of features and performance.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Wow, I just found a MicroSD slot in the back of this thing, which means I can ADD storage to the 16GB that it came with. I don't imagine microsd cards are cheap, but that's an awesome feature that I would have noted in the original post had I known it.

tcrossma

Does AT&T have something similar to Verizon's "visual voice mail"? I would guess that's similar to what you were used to on the iPhone for voicemail functionality?

exalted512

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Wow, I just found a MicroSD slot in the back of this thing, which means I can ADD storage to the 16GB that it came with. I don't imagine microsd cards are cheap, but that's an awesome feature that I would have noted in the original post had I known it.

and you can replace the battery!;)
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

One thing I did notice is that the forum here doesn't remember my account info like it did on the iPhone.

tcrossma

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

One thing I did notice is that the forum here doesn't remember my account info like it did on the iPhone.

My droid does

dorokusai

I don't have any cookie problems either.

exalted512

dorokusai wrote: »

I don't have any cookie problems either.

Could've fooled me. Jstas keeps telling me how your ****-less chaps are starting to have more and more hang out.
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

I have no problems here or on the iPhone, only on the Droid phone...

Ric5811

Should have got a Palm Pre..cheaper service, and does most what is important to you.

Sherardp

exalted512 wrote: »

The moment is using an older version of android. I've had my phone freeze up once since I've had it...and that was before the update to their new OS as well.

I've had to force close applications before, but its not often by any means. I would say your experience is with your phone and/or the older OS.
-Cody

I'll have to check into that Cody, you're probably right though bro.

mole'

you can put upto a 32gig microSD into the Droid.

dorokusai

Ric5811 wrote: »

Should have got a Palm Pre..cheaper service, and does most what is important to you.

I'm sure he's able to determine what's best for him.

exalted512

Ric5811 wrote: »

Should have got a Palm Pre..cheaper service, and does most what is important to you.

You're one of the few people who I've heard say anything good about Palm phones in the last 2 years.
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

Ric5811 wrote: »

Should have got a Palm Pre..cheaper service, and does most what is important to you.

I'm sorry, do we know each other? I'm assuming we do, otherwise how could you POSSIBLY know what's important to me?

AsSiMiLaTeD

dorokusai wrote: »

I don't have any cookie problems either.

tcrossma wrote: »

My droid does

Hmmm, well I think all my settings are good, but I'll tinker with it later on, I'm sure it's just something dumb that I'm missing

AsSiMiLaTeD

I made the switch over to Google Voice last night. I actually set up the account a while back, but then never played around with it. With Google Voice I actually now prefer the voicemail to that on the iPhone, which is not really a comparison between the phone since it'll install on either device.

Ric5811

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I'm sorry, do we know each other? I'm assuming we do, otherwise how could you POSSIBLY know what's important to me?

you're right, we don't. Forgive me from discerning from your review what you seem to like.

I will tread no further in your thread. * backs out slowly bowing*