Any converts from the iPhone?

[RedBob62]

I was recently in a debate on a linkedin forum over HTC Desire v iPhone. My view is the people who chose the android device do so because they like the better technology and hate the closed nature of the evil Apple empire. His view was that the only people who buy the android are kids who would really prefer an iPhone but cannot afford it!

I was therefore wondering if there are any desire users out there who have converted from iPhone and if so which device do they prefer.

 

[DesireMe]

There's a billion threads on this. Try searching some out. You could read them until you're grey.

 

[Baldilocks]

I have both. (shrug).

 

[Sophos]

I have both. (shrug).

I had both too...ended up returning the IP4 because of poor service at work (where i spend 90% of my time.....). I love them both for different reasons.

 

[JohnShepherd]

The affordability argument is hogwash! At least here in the UK, getting an iPhone is just as expensive as getting a Desire if you get a mobile contract. There's no difference in cost...it's not like Mac vs PC where Mac's are clearly more expensive and you have to pay a premium for Macbook Pro's compared to similarly spec'ed Dells.

Why didn't I get an iPhone?

I am left handed, and would block the antenna without a case. I refuse to pay for a phone that isn't designed properly when it comes to something as essential as reception. The iPhone 4's successor will come with 2 new "features": No more antenna problems, and 150mb more ram...REVOLUTIONARY. And all that for just $100 more than the old one

 

[widehead]

I am about to jump ship to an iPhone4. My Desire is great (with one major flaw outlined below) but but but I wish I had read more about the camera and battery life before I bought it.

Frankly, the battery life of the Desire ruins the device. I know that there are workarounds but come on - why am I having to work around something so fundamental as battery life?

There are people here who write things like "I watched 2 hours of HD video, played games all afternoon, listened to 6 hours of music, surfed the web for 2 hours, weather and gmail synching every 10 mins, wifi on the whole time and I still have 60% charge on my battery". No. No, you didn't. And no matter what ridiculous tech-rain-dances people perform (charge it, unplug it, recharge, unplug and repeat as often as unnecessary) the fact of the matter is this: no smartphone should be released with a battery that does not enable the user to use all the features without having to charge it every 12 hours (or so).

This reason alone is enough for me to move to the iPhone4. Add in the beautiful display image/video capture, the fact that it's slimmer and with 64GB of memory.... No contest.

Edit: I currently have 60% charge after 16 hours. 8 hours of this was taken up with me asleep (and the phone on stand by). Sync is on manual, wifi off the entire time, 3G disabled, screen brightness is at minimum, no web, no games, no music, no widgets, no calls. I have sent about 15 text messages and checked my calendar. Battery life is good. If you don't use your Desire as a smartphone.

 

[Baldilocks]

You aren't going to be any more satisfied with the iPhone 4. I get maybe 3 or 4 hours out of it with normal use and only 8 hour or so with minimal use.
My Desire performs better in the battery department.

 

[grainysand]

I know, right? I'm astounded when people tout any of the iPhones as devices with great battery life. No. Both the 3GS and 4 are absolute power blackholes that suck down batteries faster than you can shove in a spare. Except you can't shove in a spare.

 

[Phenomenological]

If I got a penny for every time someone complained about the battery life, I'd pick it up and throw it at them.

You bought a device that is essentially a handheld computer, and a very very small one at that. Handheld computer = Eats lots of battery. Small = Has a small battery. Conclusion: The battery isn't going to last a week. This thing does almost as much as a laptop can, and the battery lasts way longer.

Incidentally though, I do get through a full day (6AM-12PM) with normally about 20-30% remaining. That's using it about hourly as a calendar and task manager, playing an hour or so of games to while away time on the commute, spending an hour or so browsing the internet/reading the news, and maybe half an hour tinkering. Not to mention circa 100 texts a day. I'm not saying the battery life is perfect, but if you want a vast battery life, either buy a spare battery or get a dumbphone.

 

[widehead]

You aren't going to be any more satisfied with the iPhone 4. I get maybe 3 or 4 hours out of it with normal use and only 8 hour or so with minimal use.
My Desire performs better in the battery department.

Well, my first-hand experience with both phones and most of the reviews/comparisons on the web do not support your assertion. The iPhone4 outperforms the desire by a considerable margin in terms of battery life.

HTC Desire vs iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S | News | TechRadar UK

 

[brykins]

I had an iPhone 3g for six months as a work phone. I have a Desire as my personal phone. The reason I have the Desire is that it was the best Android phone I could get at the time within my budget. I'm on a plan totalling

 

[MDesire2010]

I had both too...ended up returning the IP4 because of poor service at work (where i spend 90% of my time.....). I love them both for different reasons.

Could it be you work for Sophos? haha

 

[MDesire2010]

I am about to jump ship to an iPhone4. My Desire is great (with one major flaw outlined below) but but but I wish I had read more about the camera and battery life before I bought it.

Frankly, the battery life of the Desire ruins the device. I know that there are workarounds but come on - why am I having to work around something so fundamental as battery life?

There are people here who write things like "I watched 2 hours of HD video, played games all afternoon, listened to 6 hours of music, surfed the web for 2 hours, weather and gmail synching every 10 mins, wifi on the whole time and I still have 60% charge on my battery". No. No, you didn't. And no matter what ridiculous tech-rain-dances people perform (charge it, unplug it, recharge, unplug and repeat as often as unnecessary) the fact of the matter is this: no smartphone should be released with a battery that does not enable the user to use all the features without having to charge it every 12 hours (or so).

This reason alone is enough for me to move to the iPhone4. Add in the beautiful display image/video capture, the fact that it's slimmer and with 64GB of memory.... No contest.

Edit: I currently have 60% charge after 16 hours. 8 hours of this was taken up with me asleep (and the phone on stand by). Sync is on manual, wifi off the entire time, 3G disabled, screen brightness is at minimum, no web, no games, no music, no widgets, no calls. I have sent about 15 text messages and checked my calendar. Battery life is good. If you don't use your Desire as a smartphone.

How long have you had the Desire for? I've noticed the Life increases Substantially after about a month. (I do agree about the "no smartphone should be released with a battery that does not enable the user to use all the features without having to charge it every 12 hours" Unfortunately, Battery technology is lagging behind everything else right now.

 

[_Jroid]

If I got a penny for every time someone complained about the battery life, I'd pick it up and throw it at them.

You bought a device that is essentially a handheld computer, and a very very small one at that. Handheld computer = Eats lots of battery. Small = Has a small battery. Conclusion: The battery isn't going to last a week. This thing does almost as much as a laptop can, and the battery lasts way longer.

Incidentally though, I do get through a full day (6AM-12PM) with normally about 20-30% remaining. That's using it about hourly as a calendar and task manager, playing an hour or so of games to while away time on the commute, spending an hour or so browsing the internet/reading the news, and maybe half an hour tinkering. Not to mention circa 100 texts a day. I'm not saying the battery life is perfect, but if you want a vast battery life, either buy a spare battery or get a dumbphone.

win!


I dont expect vast battery life out of my phone, (which is not a desire, its moto droid), but I like this phone. I think the main difference between android devices and iphone 4, is the service provider, and the crazy nice display/camera on the iphone. I went with android because iphone isnt on verizon, and I have an ipod.

 

[gabbyevs]

i have an iphone 3gs the battyery life isnt that great lasts for me though as i dont have wifi on much im still charging it once a day though with heavy use twice

 

[MajorProbes]

Was on the Iphone 3GS and changed to the desire and haven't looked back since. Personally I find the battery on the desire much better (but it goes down to how you use the phone, more than anything).

 

[master_yoda]

I do get through a full day (6AM-12PM) with normally about 20-30% remaining. That's using it about hourly as a calendar and task manager, playing an hour or so of games to while away time on the commute, spending an hour or so browsing the internet/reading the news, and maybe half an hour tinkering. Not to mention circa 100 texts a day. I'm not saying the battery life is perfect, but if you want a vast battery life, either buy a spare battery or get a dumbphone.

That sounds about right to me .. roughly how my battery performs on mine.

My friend has the iphone 4, and while I think its a sexy looking device .. I wouldnt swap my Desire for one. After having a good play around with it I wasnt that impressed overall.

Battery life on the iphone 4 seems slightly superior to the Desires though from what ive seen from my friends heavy daily usage, but I wouldnt say its loads better.

 

[widehead]

How long have you had the Desire for? I've noticed the Life increases Substantially after about a month. (I do agree about the "no smartphone should be released with a battery that does not enable the user to use all the features without having to charge it every 12 hours" Unfortunately, Battery technology is lagging behind everything else right now.

I've had my Desire for 4 weeks. The first week was so bad I almost returned it (I was getting 4 to 6 hours use between charges). Once I had basically turned everything off (sync, wifi, 3G, widgets, screen brightness) and stopped using the phone as a smartphone (no internet, games, multimedia) and just used it for texts the battery (unsurprisingly) lasted longer.
Despite what you may read here I have first hand experience with the iPhone4. It can last at least 2 full days on one charge with wifi, 3G and regular use (internet, image capture, navigation and more).
Let me be clear: I am not an apple fan boy by any means. I bought the Desire because I absolutely love google. I am fully tapped into the google cloud (and have been for a while) and the ability to integrate my phone was (and is to some extent) absolutely fantastic.
If the Desire could be used at full whack for 2 days without a charge I would ignore the unforgivably poor multimedia capture and have no problem whatsoever keeping it as my primary device. Currently 2 days isn't possible just using the phone to text and nothing else.

For those of us that want (or require) a truly mobile experience the exceptionally poor battery life kills the desire dead in its tracks. Sad but true.

 

[widehead]

Incidentally though, I do get through a full day (6AM-12PM) with normally about 20-30% remaining.

Six hours is not a full day. I take it you meant 6AM - 12AM?

 

[LECTER]

I, for one, think the Desire looks better than the iPhone!

 

[genedata2]

I've had my Desire for 4 weeks. The first week was so bad I almost returned it (I was getting 4 to 6 hours use between charges). Once I had basically turned everything off (sync, wifi, 3G, widgets, screen brightness) and stopped using the phone as a smartphone (no internet, games, multimedia) and just used it for texts the battery (unsurprisingly) lasted longer.
Despite what you may read here I have first hand experience with the iPhone4. It can last at least 2 full days on one charge with wifi, 3G and regular use (internet, image capture, navigation and more).
Let me be clear: I am not an apple fan boy by any means. I bought the Desire because I absolutely love google. I am fully tapped into the google cloud (and have been for a while) and the ability to integrate my phone was (and is to some extent) absolutely fantastic.
If the Desire could be used at full whack for 2 days without a charge I would ignore the unforgivably poor multimedia capture and have no problem whatsoever keeping it as my primary device. Currently 2 days isn't possible just using the phone to text and nothing else.

For those of us that want (or require) a truly mobile experience the exceptionally poor battery life kills the desire dead in its tracks. Sad but true.

I wouldn't call it EXCEPTIONALLY poor. My friend's iPhone 3Gs couldn't last a day and has to be charged in the office, another friend's Blackberry has to be charged overnight. Charging everyday is a norm for smartphones. I had an iPhone 2G and even with minimal use it had to be charged every 3 days. I doubt you can get 2 days out of iPhone 4.

 

[Griff_LI]

Before you jump to the iPhone widehead you might want to look around the net. There's an awful lot of complaints from iPhone4 owners about battery life (there's also a lot of people very happy who quote massive run-times but you get that here too).

Sample post I found sounds awfully familiar to me...

The fact is if you run a 1GHz processor at 100% from a small battery you won't get to run it for very long. The thing is, with Android being "open", if you get the problem on your Desire there's loads of tools to help you fix it (start with SpareParts and SystemPanel). I have no experience hands-on with an iPhone "in anger" so I've no idea if the same is true on iOS. I suspect not.

 

[ThEGr33k]

I dont quite understand how people can afford to just go out and get an iPhone 4, I mean I could afford it, but even if I was a full on Apple fanboi, I really would struggle to see the point.

Battery life when playing games can be pretty bad but thats like really playing games. Normal use its not that bad for me, yesterday for example my phone lasted from 7Am through to 1Am the next morning, that included about 3 hours of angry birds and a couple of hours of internet use.

It could be that some people just get duff batteries that havnt been broken in properly (Lion batteries do require a "proper" brake in to work at full power) or just not right. I'd advise before potentially wasting money on a iPhone 4 get a new battery for the desire, only

 

[GavChap]

The affordability argument is hogwash! At least here in the UK, getting an iPhone is just as expensive as getting a Desire if you get a mobile contract. There's no difference in cost...it's not like Mac vs PC where Mac's are clearly more expensive and you have to pay a premium for Macbook Pro's compared to similarly spec'ed Dells.

Double hogwash! The desire was 1/2 the price of the iPhone 4 when I upgraded recently.

 

[liquidmonkey]

love all this talk aboot battery life.
its simple people.
if you have your device 'connected' getting FB, gmail and whatever else updates all day, play games, watch movies, surf the net and talk endlessly then your battery life is gonna suck and THERE IS NO DEVICE OUT THERE THAT IS DIFFERENT.

i get 2 days without 3g on and using all the other stuff moderately.... with a live wallpaper.
i think most peoples expectations of these smart phones are totally unrealistic. sure, iphone 'might' be better but how much better? maybe a few hours and that is probably the trade off for a bigger screen.

look at the whole picture people and don't just say one is better without backing it up.
and most importantly, have reasonable expectations of your device.