Hi Everyone,
It's not my intent to threadjack, but my situation is exactly the same Crookedsoul and I figure it makes sense for me to piggyback on this discussion, instead of creating a duplicate thread.
No worries.
Welcome to the forums!
I have also been using the iPhone since its introduction but am now considering jumping to Android. I first started to think about making the change after Leo Laporte switched from iphone to android. I respect his opinion, as he's a down to earth, objective person. But I was waiting to see what the next thing from Apple after the iPhone 4 would be, in order to choose a direction. While I think the 4S is a good update, there are some key reasons that I am looking elsewhere: I want the fastest device possible, 4G / LTE service, a bigger screen, expandable storage, wi-fi hotspot, plus flexibility to configure and customize the device as I like.
I really appreciate Novox77's posting, which has the kind of objective information I'm looking for, in order to decide if I am ready for this change. But if others have more to add to the discussion, I'd love to hear it, because I haven't yet made up my mind.
There are two popular (and often fun) debates in the Android world:
- What is the best processor (often called by their proper class name, SoC (for system on (a) chip))
- What is the best UI for Android
On the first, the top dogs are the TI OMAP, Samsung Exynos, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 types, and NVIDIA Tegra. While their various fans will at times insist that one is a Porche and the others are Ford Pintos, it's really more like a comparison of Mercedes, BWM and Audi. In fact, depending where you live or what carrier you choose (if in the US), you'll find the Samsung Galaxy S II is a family of phones with variations that uses three of four top dogs, but all go by the name Samsung Galaxy S II - so despite performance variations with pros and cons in specific areas, this isn't necessarily the top detail to worry about in a phone. Matters are confounded for consumers because phone info-blogs love to post meaningless benchmark results in an effort to make themselves seem relevant and informative when most (not all) of the published benchmark methods are simply baloney sausage. (Remember, info-blogs are in it for the advertising click-thru revenue and may say anything to get web hits.)
On the user interface (UI), this is not like the iPhone at all, this is Android and our battle cry (if we have one) is that Android is all about choice. If you like effective eye candy (I way do), then you want to demo the HTC phones to check out their UI called HTC Sense. The Samsungs will come with a UI that's called TouchWiz and many say that it's a bit more iPhone-like in its overall presentation than others. While many Android detractors will tell you that iPhones have gpu hardware acceleration where Android does not, that's not strictly true, as both Sense and the new TouchWiz 4 (found on the SGS2) feature hardware acceleration. For the Motorola phones, they have a UI added on called Blur, not hardware accelerated, so far as I know.
Almost finally, we have the stock Android experience that we colloquially call vanilla Android. This UI is what comes on Google Nexus phones (Nexus models are specified by Google and completely controlled by Google for the user experience, regardless of who makes them). Vanilla Android is very popular with Android purists and can be added by a software change to any Android phone through the rooting process (our name for jailbreaking, same concept - sorta). Also, vanilla Android is known to run faster because it has less UI bloat. (This is especially true of Sense, but those of us who like it, don't care.)
Finally, this is Android where choice is good, so you can simply change out your UI and choose from a nice aftermarket selection without rooting your phone.
This is why it's important to test drive a few in stores once you've narrowed down your choices - the printed page and video samples of how phones work can go only so far. You may find a UI that really just clicks for you.
If you're wondering how you can separate the UI from the operating system (OS) then it's helpful if you were around when Apple first explained OS X as the Unix OS with Aqua UI overlaid on top of it - it's like that.
In fact, it's more like that than the iPhone is. The Android operating system is Linux (preemptive unix multitasking, 100% exactly like OS X) with a virtual machine called Dalvik that your apps run within. iOS multitasks, but it uses cooperative multitasking. So while iOS very much gives an OS X feel in many areas, under the hood it's much more like Windows 95 than OS X.
That's not a commercial, it will impact upcoming answers.
Personally, I am looking at the Droid Bionic on Verizon and I spent about 45 minutes checking it out at the store. I am happy with the functions that I was able to try out on a device that wasn't configured with a google account (and I have to say I was surprised by how much wouldn't work without an account configured -- not that this is a big deal, just an observation).
There's a lot attached to that Google account working in your favor. You can add an extension to your Firefox or Chrome browser on your laptop and send web links directly to your phone, you can re-acquire your paid apps for free without any hassle, and your apps are logged by Google, so if you erase your phone apps or need to replace your phone, you can re-access your apps quickly and easily.
Here are my remaining concerns and questions:
Is the 'droid web browser highly compatible? Do you encounter many sites that don't' like it?
The basis for most all Android browsers is a code base called WebKit - the same one used in Safari. Further, you can set your browser to identify itself as an iPhone, Android or a desktop browser. (In fact, using the stock browser on developer websites that auto-detect what people have, they welcome me as a Safari user with unix, therefore likely using a Mac - cracks me up every time.)
One minor area where there is an issue is when you get those pesky web log-ins as found in some institutions before you can access their wifi. Where the iPhone Safari never fails, the stock Android browser will on occasion not like a service using less than the latest security protocols. No worries, check with us here and we'll recommend the latest add-on browser if you ever have that problem.
In fact - one of the first things you're liable to do with your Android is venture out and try different email clients and web browsers. You're likely to develop a favorite other than what comes with your phone, and they're free to try and keep.
Did I mention Android is all about choice?
Does 'droid include voice dialing (without paying mobile carrier for it)?
Yep.
Should virtually all bluetooth devices on the market work with a 'droid phone, or are there limitations? What about the typical "iphone" wired headset with 3 buttons? Do those work as expected (and adjust volume, play / pause, answer call / hangup etc.)?
Tricky - if you mean to include Bluetooth car units in that, then the answer will be that it will depend on the phone model and the answer may be yes or no. Everyone designs to the iPhone it seems, but many/most/all Bluetooth functions may or may work with Android.
Bluetooth headsets, no problem.
As for wired headsets with extra controls - no. Because of the variety of hardware, not all wired sets with those features work with all variations of hardware. Murphy's Law has dictated that my current-favorite wired headset has never had working controls with my current-favorite Android phone.
The virtual keyboard font seems very light / thin to me and the letters aren't obvious at a glance. Can this font or its boldness / thickness be changed?
Choice is good, change keyboards.
If you like the iPhone keyboard font and appearance, add the Flex T9 keyboard, it will appear very similar (if not identical) to what you're used to. In addition to normal typing, you can slide your fingers from key to key in a gesture called swiping to form words (fans of that will insist it's faster on a glass keyboard), or you can switch modes to actually use your finger like a crayon and draw letters and it includes the same Dragon engine as found on Macs for voice to text. It's a paid app but it's inexpensive.
I am a Mac user and I'd like to hear from other Mac users, who own 'droid phones. Especially with regard to any limitations when using iPhoto for pictures and iTunes for music and podcasts.
No limitations, you'll simply select how to transfer things, wirelessly or via the USB cable, drag and drop or add a free app to your Android so that the Mac sees it as just another Apple shared storage point (DavDrive).
Following the industry standard, all of your photos are in a subdirectory on your SD card called DCIM (digital camera image). Once upon a time, you could plug your Android into your Mac via USB and iPhoto would immediate recognize it as a valid but unknown digital camera and everything Just Worked. In an infuriating move, during one of the Leopard updates, Apple "fixed" iPhoto so that this no longer works directly, specifically to limit competition. If you ask about this on an Apple website, you'll hear it's because Android is inferior, but that's all a corporate lie. So, in iPhoto, you have to go to File->Import and point to your Android to get the job done (an extra step), but the job does get done.
It looks like iSyncr will make a 'droid phone work with itunes just like an iphone. Which I was very happy to discover. Is it reliable and effective?
Yeah, it's ok, lots of people like that and also DoubleTwist. I prefer drag and drop as described earlier. Frankly, iTunes syncing is another thing they've broken over the lifetime of iTunes. If you've used iTunes throughout its entire history (as I have), you'll note that iTunes has incrementally taken sync/transfer features away while somehow advertising that they improved things. Go figure.
How is the split between the internal memory and the microSD card handled by the OS? Does each storage segment appear to the computer separately? Separately? Or just the SD card?
Can itunes using isyncr take advantage of both internal and SD storage, or just SD?
This is an important question, more than you anticipated.
I want to digress and point out that whole multitasking thing because it's important for you as the end-user here.
iPhones have more internal memory (typically) and come with a choice of it where Androids (typically) do not because iPhones REQUIRE more memory. iPhone apps are fast, sleek, cool - and they're huge. Android apps are compact and efficient because they make use of the underlying unix services that are always available to every app - each iPhone app has to redundantly include that stuff. So - iPhone app=memory hog, Android app=slim and trim.
Now, on to your question. Apps will store some data in the internal memory area, but most data for most apps (and specifically, ALL media files) will go strictly to your SD card.
When you find an Android with more than 4GB of internal memory (popular on Verizon phones and on Samsung phones to have more like that) then a portion of that is tagged as SD card memory (even though it's on the motherboard).
So, in those cases, your user guide will direct you to "internal SD card" (user area on motherboard memory) and "external SD card" (um - actual SD card, ok?
).
The rest of us just have _the_ SD card.
Can i play audiobooks and podcasts at 2x playback speed? I'm subscribed to a lot of podcasts and this is how I listen to most of them, because I can get fit more shows into my day. I would not be able to do without this capability, so it's truly a deal-breaker feature, if it's not included.
I don't do that, so I have no idea. However - media/podcast players are free, and if it's possible on Android, somebuddy's probably made a free app for it.
Have we mentioned that most Android apps are free and many functions are simply built-in to Android, right out of the box, that you're used to paying for on an iPhone?
How does a Mac user backup the device? The iphone gets backed up by itunes automatically. Anything similar for 'droid?
Your contacts and calendar are automagically backed up to the Google cloud, you do nothing. (By the way, it's easy to integrate your Mac Address Book and Calendar on your laptop with that.) Your apps get registered on the Market.
For a low price (I think it's like 5 bucks) you can go with something like MyBackup Pro, that's a nice, user-friendly backup. If you root your phone, you can make an image backup (perfect image of your phone) for free.
Do you think Verizon will provide an Android OS version 4 update for the Droid Bionic?
Me personally, yes, I think there would be an insurrection if Verizon doesn't support that update.
The Bionic seems to be a great device and there's not much reason to wait for something else. But since the Samsung Droid Prime is right around the corner (I read November), should I wait for that?
Trust your gut instincts, but many are saying that the new Prime is the most exciting thing coming down the pike since Santa Claus - it's poised to be quite the beast.
Sorry to go on for so long, but I don't really want to buy the device and then find out that it's not what I want or need. I appreciate your input.
Long post? Who notices such things?
