Moving from iPhone to Android..Pros and Cons?

4wheelingaaron said:

Well, I have had an jailbroken iPhone for some time now, but just sick of not having enough features and it being such a stricley no modify boring phone. I want to get the Samsung Galaxy S2. It seems to be a nice phone, on the AT&t network. I just know absolute NOTHING about Android, so I was curious as to the pros and cons of it? What do yall think is better, iOS or Androad?

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1. The ability to skin/theme android to look like whatever you want. Don't like the color of the notification bar at the top of the screen? Skin it. Don't like the look of the icons? Change them. Don't like the way the launcher dock behaves? Install a new one. Don't like the look of the buttons in the phone app? You can change those too.

Android is easy to skin/theme, especially with sites like the Ultimate Online Theme Kitchen.

Let's face it, you have to stare at your phone while using it, why not theme it to your liking?

2. As phones go EOL (End Of Life), the manufacturer stops providing updates. This is where the ROM development community comes in. Most Android phones can be rooted and then you can flash a 3rd party ROM to suit your needs. I have an Evo 4G that goes EOL this month, but I've been flashing various ROMs on it since I bought the phone. My phone doesn't go EOL until I say it goes EOL

3. I got into android app development because I wanted an app that wasn't provided through the android market. I downloaded the free android SDK and learned to write my own apps, which was pathetically easy. Most android phones have the ability to install apps from almost any source so you're not limited by the content of the android market.

Also, I have friends who don't own desktop computers, they can buy and use android phones without the need for a computer.

I've hit the top pro's in my opinion, though there are other pro's. I hope this is of some help.

4wheelingaaron said:

Oh whoa! That's really cool. I'm liking it more and more then..So a couple more questions then..
A couple main reasons I like my jailbroken iPhone some is the fact I tether it with PDA Net and it pretty much hides i'm using that feature. Is there a way to do that on android? I really need this feature without having to pay so much more!

Also, I use BiteSMS, is it pretty easy to text on android? Or do you have to go specifically to the text app?

Thanks!

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Lots of android users connect other devices to their phones, and PDAnet is in the android market. Wifi tethering is an option, but I chose the Mobile AP route, it turns my phone into a mobile router that I can connect my netbook and tablet to - that's how I'm connected at the moment. It sure is nice to be able to use my netbook while traveling on the public bus

Since the extra device is using your phone's internet connection, the carrier can't tell if you're tethering or not. That is unless you're streaming gigabytes if data in a week, then they know something is up.

As far as SMS goes, there are lots of SMS apps in the android market, last I heard ChompSMS was quite popular.

Are you using it as a tether or as a hotspot? If you want to use it as a hotspot you can simply root the phone and freeze "tethering manager app" as stated in this xda thread:

How to get frer tethering? - xda-developers

If you get the phone I can walk you through it, so far it works like a charm.

Also I have been using Handcent as a SMS app for a few years and it hasn't let me down. You can customize it a thousand ways to suit your needs.

It's always tough to jump platforms but you should find this forum very easy to post on and get answers, there are a ton of people on here that go out of there way to help people.

4wheelingaaron said:

Oh whoa! That's really cool. I'm liking it more and more then..So a couple more questions then..
A couple main reasons I like my jailbroken iPhone some is the fact I tether it with PDA Net and it pretty much hides i'm using that feature. Is there a way to do that on android? I really need this feature without having to pay so much more!

Also, I use BiteSMS, is it pretty easy to text on android? Or do you have to go specifically to the text app?

Thanks!

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Personally, even though I have had my GS2 for a couple of weeks, I haven't completely grown accustomed to the default android keyboard. You can get keyboard replacements, but I like the look of the stock one.

Overall, I am extremely happy with Android.

DjentleGiant said:

Personally, even though I have had my GS2 for a couple of weeks, I haven't completely grown accustomed to the default android keyboard. You can get keyboard replacements, but I like the look of the stock one.

Overall, I am extremely happy with Android.

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I am using Swift on mine and it works really well with the SGS2.

You should check out the SGS2 root subforum and the SGS2 XDA section, too. You'll see a plethora of ROMs (basically custom builds of Android) and mods and themes.

And it's not all that hard to do, especially if the developer made a flashable zip.

Well I will do something no one else will probably do here, give you a list of cons for Android. I have had 5 Android phones on 2 carriers, so I should know a little.

First would be sub par hardware from companies trying to make a buck with a cheap product. When the HTC Evo 4G shipped it suffered from glass falling off the front of the phone, light leakage, grounding issue where the screen wouldn't register any touches while laying down flat, wifi and GPS issues. Took months to get it fixed, I had one that sucked and tons were returned.

The Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint is another POS device, just do a search for all the problems it has including dropping wifi signal sitting 2 feet from a router and going into roaming in areas with towers all around.

The HTC Sensation on T Mobile has a "death grip" just like the iPhone 4 had antenna problems. It drops wifi signal if you hold it anywhere near the top of the phone. Then you have all the force closes on your apps to deal with and having to kill poorly written 3rd party apps that will kill your battery in hours. Now comes the news that since anyone with coding knowledge can create an app and stick it in the market, malware type apps are starting to pop up that access your contacts, emails, texts and if you do mobile banking on your phone, it can easily get that info too. Now you see why Apple is so protective over what apps go in the app store, only makes sense.

Then you have the fragmentation of the OS. Carriers and phone makers are notorious for skipping Android updates. You either have to wait many months for the new OS or worse yet, you are told your phone is no longer supported and have to buy a new one at full retail price to upgrade. Many times the phone is not even a year old. So when ICS comes out, unless you have a Nexus Prime, have fun sitting around on an old, outdated OS till next year while others enjoy ICS. Having said all this, after 5 phones, 2 carriers and 3 years on Android, I have grown tired of it all and I am making the switch to Apple when the iPhone 4S is released tomorrow.

4wheelingaaron said:

@jerofld so even if the phone become outdated, people will build custom ROMs of the latest software and i'll just be able to upgrade it that way then?

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Yep. There was a big fuss a few months ago when HTC announced that the Desire wouldn't be getting the Gingerbread update. Desire owners went ballistic and HTC changed their mind.

I don't know if that the update has come through yet but thankfully none of that affects me. I had already rooted and got hold of of a Gingerbread based custom ROM so as ardchoille says, "My phone doesn't go EOL until I say it goes EOL"

My favorite aspect of the Android is you can have a keyboard.

indybail said:

My favorite aspect of the Android is you can have a keyboard.

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A seldom mentioned aspect.

4wheelingaaron said:

@jerofld so even if the phone become outdated, people will build custom ROMs of the latest software and i'll just be able to upgrade it that way then?

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Depends on the ROM, really. If your device is supported by Cyanogen or other AOSP ROMs, then you could very likely get updates to higher Android versions (like Eclair > Froyo > Gingerbread > Ice Cream Sandwich) even if the OEM doesn't make the update. But ROMs based off of the OEM's software won't likely get updated to the higher version unless the OEM also does it.

4wheelingaaron said:

Yes, i'm using it as a hotspot. Very interesting! Thank you, I really appreciate! Ya'll area lot more helpful than the iphone forums.

@jerofld so even if the phone become outdated, people will build custom ROMs of the latest software and i'll just be able to upgrade it that way then?

@psychotron you'll prob enjoy iPhone for several months, then you'll get tired of it. Not nearly as fun as the android devices ive played with nor customizable. And you will HATE iTunes. I went ahead and wiped my jailbreak on iOS 4.0(something) and tried iOS 5 for the heck of it just to try it since I'm getting android, but it's still pretty unstable. It tends to crash real often. I'm running it on a the 3Gs 32 GB and it just not that great. The notification system is cool, but still a fail, and it highly represents Android's notification system. I don't know how they got away with that. Hopefully an untethered jailbreak comes out soon for it though.

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No problem, welcome aboard.