For Those Switching from iPhone

[gadgetmom88]

I've been looking forward to the Droid for months it seems, as it's the first smartphone that's been able to lure me away from the iPhone. For all of it's faults, the iPhone did what I needed it to do... except of course, make phone calls. So now that I've had the Droid in my hands for the last 3 days, I have to admit, I'm not feeling the love. I'm hoping other past iPhone owners will weigh in and persuade me, but here's my laundry list of things I'm sad about:

1. Form Factor - it feels like the phone is unbalanced in my hand. There's really no way to hold it in one hand and use it - unless you have really big hands. Bottom line, it just doesn't feel good to hold this phone. I'm not sure I can get over that.

2. The Market - lots of apps, but not so frutiful to search by keyword. I have yet to be able to locate OpenHome in the market, just lots of themes attached to it. I'm sure I can find it other ways, but frustrating to try and locate apps by type.

3. Browser - no easy way to go to the top of a webpage. I can't figure out how to get the search/URL box to show up without opening the keyboard, not so handy for 1 handed operation. The inability to zoom in on specific parts of the page is beyond frustrating - eg trying to browse this forum while on the Droid. I feel l ike I need a stylus, I've finally given up as I can never click the link or page number I'm trying to grab.

4. App management. I had a jailbroken iPhone and had Backgrounder installed on it. In order to multitask one had to be very purposeful about it, hold down the home button to close the app without shutting it down so that it will run in the background. Because of this, I rarely had apps left running that I wasn't aware of. On the Droid, I seem to find things running that make no sense at all. I don't like not having control of this function on the front end, versus having to look in the cue when my device slows down, or the battery drops.

There are some things I really love about the Droid - open platform, Google experience, it's not Apple, the notification method is top notch and so much more reliable than the iPhone, navigation, speakerphone (fantastic). However, the browsing experience and form factor are pushing off the Droid. I'm seriously considering the Touch Pro 2 just because it will do the basic things I want it to do without the hassle of Android. Weirdly, I'm hoping someone will talk me out of it and into loving the Droid. I have such high hopes for the platform. Please only respond if you've owned an iPhone. Thanks.

 

[Savio]

Form factor is all personal-preference. Personally, I like the way it feels in the hand, but I do have rather large hands.
To zoom in on the browser, double-tap on the area you want to zoom in on.
Can't really comment on your other issues just yet.

 

[MotoDroidHelpandInfo]

I've been looking forward to the Droid for months it seems, as it's the first smartphone that's been able to lure me away from the iPhone. For all of it's faults, the iPhone did what I needed it to do... except of course, make phone calls. So now that I've had the Droid in my hands for the last 3 days, I have to admit, I'm not feeling the love. I'm hoping other past iPhone owners will weigh in and persuade me, but here's my laundry list of things I'm sad about:

1. Form Factor - it feels like the phone is unbalanced in my hand. There's really no way to hold it in one hand and use it - unless you have really big hands. Bottom line, it just doesn't feel good to hold this phone. I'm not sure I can get over that.

2. The Market - lots of apps, but not so frutiful to search by keyword. I have yet to be able to locate OpenHome in the market, just lots of themes attached to it. I'm sure I can find it other ways, but frustrating to try and locate apps by type.

3. Browser - no easy way to go to the top of a webpage. I can't figure out how to get the search/URL box to show up without opening the keyboard, not so handy for 1 handed operation. The inability to zoom in on specific parts of the page is beyond frustrating - eg trying to browse this forum while on the Droid. I feel l ike I need a stylus, I've finally given up as I can never click the link or page number I'm trying to grab.

4. App management. I had a jailbroken iPhone and had Backgrounder installed on it. In order to multitask one had to be very purposeful about it, hold down the home button to close the app without shutting it down so that it will run in the background. Because of this, I rarely had apps left running that I wasn't aware of. On the Droid, I seem to find things running that make no sense at all. I don't like not having control of this function on the front end, versus having to look in the cue when my device slows down, or the battery drops.

There are some things I really love about the Droid - open platform, Google experience, it's not Apple, the notification method is top notch and so much more reliable than the iPhone, navigation, speakerphone (fantastic). However, the browsing experience and form factor are pushing off the Droid. I'm seriously considering the Touch Pro 2 just because it will do the basic things I want it to do without the hassle of Android. Weirdly, I'm hoping someone will talk me out of it and into loving the Droid. I have such high hopes for the platform. Please only respond if you've owned an iPhone. Thanks.

1. I guess that's a matter of opinion. Just gotta get used to it i guess, since i have no problem using 1 hand.

2.Try searching open home full.

3. The menu key will show the url bar. Double tapping on an area will zoom into that specific area.

4. Dl Taskiller.

5. Just a tip holding the magnifying glass will open up google voice search and double tapping will open a google search bar that searches the phone to.

 

[gadgetmom88]

Form factor is all personal-preference. Personally, I like the way it feels in the hand, but I do have rather large hands.
To zoom in on the browser, double-tap on the area you want to zoom in on.
Can't really comment on your other issues just yet.

I agree that form factor is definitely a matter of preference. I'm bummed that this bothers me.

One side note, Android users are way nicer than iPhone users. On iPhone forums, if someone posted something like this they would be barraged by users telling them how stupid they were for their comments and generally denigrated. I've not seen anything nasty like that on these Android forums and for that reason alone I want to support this platform.

 

[Savio]

I agree that form factor is definitely a matter of preference. I'm bummed that this bothers me.

One side note, Android users are way nicer than iPhone users. On iPhone forums, if someone posted something like this they would be barraged by users telling them how stupid they were for their comments and generally denigrated. I've not seen anything nasty like that on these Android forums and for that reason alone I want to support this platform.

I definitely agree with you on this. I'm part of a popular iPhone forum and this does happen quite a bit. While everyone does seem pretty nice here, IMO, it's not a great enough reason to keep a phone. If you're happy with the Droid and can live with it, awesome, if you can't, switch to something that makes you happier.
Since you've only had your phone for 3 days, if I were you I'd just try to get used to it for a little bit. If after say a week or two you were still uncomfortable with it, then I'd look at other options.
Anyways, good luck with your Droid! I hope you start liking that sucker more.

 

[Droidood]

I've been looking forward to the Droid for months it seems, as it's the first smartphone that's been able to lure me away from the iPhone. For all of it's faults, the iPhone did what I needed it to do... except of course, make phone calls. So now that I've had the Droid in my hands for the last 3 days, I have to admit, I'm not feeling the love.

...snip...

1. I like the Droid's look a lot and tend to prefer more weighty / metal form factors. I'm sure there probably aren't many females who like it though, and this is something I've heard Verizon also realized prior to release

2. Haven't tried the market too much, but I have been able to find what I needed so far. Weather / news / sports / etc. In the App store I'm usually overwhelmed by the number of results (not really a bad thing), but a little research on Google can narrow down your searches to the most popular apps. I expect the Android market to grow a lot in the very near future as it becomes more profitable to develop for...

3. Like someone said, you can just hit the Menu button to get the address bar at any time. Also, double-tapping on the location where you want to zoom has worked extremely well for me. I prefer it over multi-touch because pinching/pulling to zoom often leads to unwanted scrolling or clicking (although double-tap can easily cause the latter as well).

4. Again just reiterating what someone said, TasKiller will allow you to accomplish what you mentioned. Much easier than going through Settings -> Applications -> Running Services. Jailbreaking isn't really an option I'd consider because you're SOL if something goes wrong... but if you know a ton about computers / software I guess that shouldn't be a problem.

The Droid's screen blows the iPhones out of the water (much easier to read small print on), and having a flash on the camera means I never need to carry around a point-and-shoot again. Neither one produces professional quality images, but it's nice to at least consolidate things into one device. Also, free turn-by-turn GPS is a huge + in my book because I use it all the time.

I guess I'm lucky because I haven't experienced any of the sluggishness / freezing / battery issues people seem to be posting about a lot...

 

[Barbara]

I'm 5'1" and have the small hands to match and this phone feels great in my hand. I have the silicongel cover so it has a nice textured grip but the size is not the least bit uncomfortable. My last phone was a small flip but the larger size feels right to me.

 

[shadowdude777]

1) Yes, like the above poster, I prefer my devices feeling solid and metallic and I much prefer the angled look of the Droid to something "sleeker" with more curves.
2) Yeah, but hopefully they're gonna improve on this. It's a software issue that can be EASILY remedied.
3) Again, this can be remedied. Right now you can only double-click to zoom, but I'm sure once the Droid gets rooted someone will release a custom ROM that includes multi-touch. The Droid's hardware DOES support pinch zooming!
4) Download "Advanced Task Manager Free" from the app store. This will solve all of your problems.

 

[Durkan]

i am a former iphone user myself and i have to say i like the droid better. some of the apps on iphone are better no doubt, but i have found similar on android as well. its nice knowing i can buy extra batteries now and just swap them out instead of always being plugged in somewhere on my iphone. since im a heavy talker for work, it sucks being pluged in all day. i see long term potential with this phone. its so fast, then of course theres the network, even metro pcs has better network than att does. so nice being able to go a full day without a single dropped call. the speaker on this phone is nice and loud, the iphone speakerphone is terrible in comparison. for me its so many little things that overall make the difference for me.

 

[gadgetmom88]

I'm 5'1" and have the small hands to match and this phone feels great in my hand. I have the silicongel cover so it has a nice textured grip but the size is not the least bit uncomfortable. My last phone was a small flip but the larger size feels right to me.

Which gel cover are you using?

 

[z28fun]

I still have my iphone 3G as i wasn't sure how the droid would be. After playing with the droid for a night here are my thoughts.

1, size and weight is fine by me.

2, i love the app store from google! I'm able to select multiple apps to download at the same time

3, So far i've had no problems connecting to my work exchange server on the droid.

4, I miss being able to slid the pictures with my finger on the iphone.

5, i miss having multiple websites open that i can go back to. So far i have not seen that i'm able to do this on the droid.

6, i like the thought of being able to put in a larger memory card.

7, i like that i'm able to go down to buy another battery for the droid.

8, i'm hope the google app store develops into the itunes desktop store eventually. but I’ve found an app that will let me copy itune songs/videos to my droid

9, i like being able to make a call and not have to worry about it dropping.

10, internet browsing seems to be better...much better 3g coverage.

11, i love the turn by turn directions and not having to pay for it!

12, i miss the voice mail from the iphone. I know the driod has a free app from VZ but they are going to charge you $3 a month to use it. I just knew there had to be something VZ was going to want extra for, especially since they gave turn by turn to us for free. I guess the $90 a month i'm going to spend with them is not enough!

 

[kb1gra]

I sold my iPhone 3GS today and am keeping the Droid.

For a few reasons:

1. Real, physical keyboard. I HATED the iPhone's stupid keyboard and terrible autocorrection.

2. Display. When put side by side, the display on the droid makes my iPhone look like a toy in comparison. Movies look absolutely gorgeous on my Droid.

3. Expandable memory. I want to be able to pay for 16gb of storage now and if I decide I want more later, just buy some more on Newegg instead of having to buy a whole new phone or selectively sync my stuff.

4. Form factor on the droid is Meh. I felt the same way about the iPhone. Both are too big for my hands so, whatever. The fact that they fit the better display and an entire physical keyboard into roughly the same thickness of the iPhone says Apple needs to do better next time.

5. Removable battery. You never wish you had this until you REALLY wish you had this. I can spend $40, get a spare battery, and now make it through a 19 hour flight to Sydney without giving up on my media player.

6. Last but not least and only applicable to me, I can put the droid on my family plan that I already had and pay $40 a month for better service than I was getting with AT&T. Win.

 

[metric152]

1. I like the Droid's look a lot and tend to prefer more weighty / metal form factors. I'm sure there probably aren't many females who like it though, and this is something I've heard Verizon also realized prior to release

2. Haven't tried the market too much, but I have been able to find what I needed so far. Weather / news / sports / etc. In the App store I'm usually overwhelmed by the number of results (not really a bad thing), but a little research on Google can narrow down your searches to the most popular apps. I expect the Android market to grow a lot in the very near future as it becomes more profitable to develop for...

3. Like someone said, you can just hit the Menu button to get the address bar at any time. Also, double-tapping on the location where you want to zoom has worked extremely well for me. I prefer it over multi-touch because pinching/pulling to zoom often leads to unwanted scrolling or clicking (although double-tap can easily cause the latter as well).

4. Again just reiterating what someone said, TasKiller will allow you to accomplish what you mentioned. Much easier than going through Settings -> Applications -> Running Services. Jailbreaking isn't really an option I'd consider because you're SOL if something goes wrong... but if you know a ton about computers / software I guess that shouldn't be a problem.

The Droid's screen blows the iPhones out of the water (much easier to read small print on), and having a flash on the camera means I never need to carry around a point-and-shoot again. Neither one produces professional quality images, but it's nice to at least consolidate things into one device. Also, free turn-by-turn GPS is a huge + in my book because I use it all the time.

I guess I'm lucky because I haven't experienced any of the sluggishness / freezing / battery issues people seem to be posting about a lot...

4) You can use a shortcut to the settings section for this.
- Long press on the home screen
- Select Shortcuts
- Scroll down to Settings
- Select Running services

I just bought a Droid on friday so I'm still getting used to a lot of things on it.

 

[MarvinAndroid]

5, i miss having multiple websites open that i can go back to. So far i have not seen that i'm able to do this on the droid.

I can answer this one. When you are in the browswer just tap "+ New Window" and it will open a new blank browser window where you can enter a new address. Then you can tap the "menu" button again and click on "Windows". Then you will have a list of open browser windows you have at that time. Just select the one you want and you will go there.

You know what's strange though... on my G1 you could view the multiple browswer windows as visual snapshots and you selected that page and it would zoom into that page. Now it's a somewhat more mundane list of pages. It's a bit more functional this way.. a bit less flashy I guess.

 

[jer.lawrence]

5, i miss having multiple websites open that i can go back to. So far i have not seen that i'm able to do this on the droid.

I just wanted to comment on this (sorry, I didn't have an iPhone), but when you're in the browser, you can use the Menu key, and select "New Window." Then, whenever you want to swap back to a previous page you had open, you can select Menu >> Windows, and it shows you a listing of all the browser windows open.

Kind of like multiple tabs.

 

[z28fun]

I just wanted to comment on this (sorry, I didn't have an iPhone), but when you're in the browser, you can use the Menu key, and select "New Window." Then, whenever you want to swap back to a previous page you had open, you can select Menu >> Windows, and it shows you a listing of all the browser windows open.

Kind of like multiple tabs.

Thanks guys! That solved that problem. Now i just need to get my bookmarks in there without having to recreate them

 

[crudemoney]

I've had my Droid (#2 factory defect on the first) for a few days now and the only real difference i've noticed is that i can't type as fast on the virtual keyboard as i could on the iphone. If I try to type as fast it closes the native SMS app and i have to re-open it. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[virtus]

I chose the droid because out of the box it is an iphone competitor (not a killer). This is day 1. Official updates are rolling out in December and January. Community updates are already in the works. This phone will only get better. Judging from what the community has done with the G1, things will be a lot better.

It's also nice the have Google nav and Mileage Ledger running at the same (both using GPS btw...) while listening to music and pop out to check the weather or use Pandora - without closing anything.

 

[metric152]

I've had my Droid (#2 factory defect on the first) for a few days now and the only real difference i've noticed is that i can't type as fast on the virtual keyboard as i could on the iphone. If I try to type as fast it closes the native SMS app and i have to re-open it. Has anyone else had this problem?

I've noticed that too. The reason is because the keyboard isn't multitouch. The original version of the iPhone didn't support multitouch on the keyboard and you would have to be very careful when you typed. They fixed this later on and now it feels like a standard feature.

Android 2.0 suports a multitouch keyboard (Android 2.0 Platform Highlights | Android Developers
) but Verizon/Motorola decided not to use it for some reason. I hope it comes in a OTA update.

 

[gadgetmom88]

I think a lot of my gripes are more with Android than the phone. I had heard that you could do a lot more customization on Android than the iPhone, and was excited about that. However, after being on this platform for almost a week, I'm understanding that you can get things to work the way you want them, but you have to download apps to mod the operating system. It seems to me that adding all those modifications will eventually slow down the machine. I erroneously thought that those modifications were built into the OS. I can't see that the average user is going to go looking for modifications to make their machine more useable. I wonder how Android will ever gain the mass appeal of the iPhone without some simplification - or at least building the best modifications into the OS so you don't have to go looking for things. If I wasn't a member of these forums I wouldn't even know that the mods were available. My guess is that most consumers won't go looking. Makes me think that the Android platform has a ways to go before it can seriously compete at the level of the iPhone.

For my purposes, the Droid is going back to Verizon today. Very cool phone, it does a lot, but I'm not ready to make the investment into Android just yet. Right now I need a phone that just works on a basic level. I'll be keeping an eye on Android and hoping that they can pull things together into a more cohesive package - at which point I'll jump back in. Right now, I'm waiting for my HTC Touch Pro 2 to be delivered. Not real excited about it, but pretty sure it will meet my immediate needs. Thanks for all the responses.

 

[Monochrome]

12, i miss the voice mail from the iphone. I know the driod has a free app from VZ but they are going to charge you $3 a month to use it. I just knew there had to be something VZ was going to want extra for, especially since they gave turn by turn to us for free. I guess the $90 a month i'm going to spend with them is not enough!

Try this: Enhanced Visual Voicemail For Cell Phones | YouMail

It's free. And way better.

 

[scheng12]

I think a lot of my gripes are more with Android than the phone. I had heard that you could do a lot more customization on Android than the iPhone, and was excited about that. However, after being on this platform for almost a week, I'm understanding that you can get things to work the way you want them, but you have to download apps to mod the operating system. It seems to me that adding all those modifications will eventually slow down the machine. I erroneously thought that those modifications were built into the OS. I can't see that the average user is going to go looking for modifications to make their machine more useable. I wonder how Android will ever gain the mass appeal of the iPhone without some simplification - or at least building the best modifications into the OS so you don't have to go looking for things. If I wasn't a member of these forums I wouldn't even know that the mods were available. My guess is that most consumers won't go looking. Makes me think that the Android platform has a ways to go before it can seriously compete at the level of the iPhone.

For my purposes, the Droid is going back to Verizon today. Very cool phone, it does a lot, but I'm not ready to make the investment into Android just yet. Right now I need a phone that just works on a basic level. I'll be keeping an eye on Android and hoping that they can pull things together into a more cohesive package - at which point I'll jump back in. Right now, I'm waiting for my HTC Touch Pro 2 to be delivered. Not real excited about it, but pretty sure it will meet my immediate needs. Thanks for all the responses.

Apple and Android clearly target different audiences with their phones. However, Android is definitely improving on the simplicity aspect of their OS and the level of customizability is still staying the same. They know what people what, it's just hard to cater to everyone's needs and preferences. I don't believe the iPhone came with everything that a person needed, they needed to download apps for most things there too. I don't see how you expected modifications to be built in when the entire purpose was for you to find the ones that appealed to you so you could truly make it "your" phone

 

[metric152]

I think a lot of my gripes are more with Android than the phone. I had heard that you could do a lot more customization on Android than the iPhone, and was excited about that. However, after being on this platform for almost a week, I'm understanding that you can get things to work the way you want them, but you have to download apps to mod the operating system. It seems to me that adding all those modifications will eventually slow down the machine. I erroneously thought that those modifications were built into the OS. I can't see that the average user is going to go looking for modifications to make their machine more useable. I wonder how Android will ever gain the mass appeal of the iPhone without some simplification - or at least building the best modifications into the OS so you don't have to go looking for things. If I wasn't a member of these forums I wouldn't even know that the mods were available. My guess is that most consumers won't go looking. Makes me think that the Android platform has a ways to go before it can seriously compete at the level of the iPhone.

For my purposes, the Droid is going back to Verizon today. Very cool phone, it does a lot, but I'm not ready to make the investment into Android just yet. Right now I need a phone that just works on a basic level. I'll be keeping an eye on Android and hoping that they can pull things together into a more cohesive package - at which point I'll jump back in. Right now, I'm waiting for my HTC Touch Pro 2 to be delivered. Not real excited about it, but pretty sure it will meet my immediate needs. Thanks for all the responses.

So far I'm really enjoying the phone, but its a very buggy release. I'm finding things here and there that are ruining it for me. When I was stuck in traffic this morning I wanted to see if there was an accident ahead. I tried to add the Traffic layer to Maps, but it wouldn't load. I could turn on Satellite and Transit Route, but Traffic just didn't work.

In 6 months this phone will be in a much better state. The Droid will be my next phone, but right now it's not done. I won't say it was rushed to market because there are a lot of things that work great. The battery is AMAZING! The screen is beautiful and the network is fast. They need to get multitouch into the keyboard and pinch-zoom into the browser and maps. It's a feature all iPhone users expect in a mobile device.