I'm jumping on board from apple ship, someone hold my hand please.

[Jupitersmoon]

I'm very technically literate, so please don't dumb anything down. I've had iPhones since they came out, but I'm one of these people who are not pregedis against other o.s's, on my main computer I have a trippleboot of OS x lion, backtrack Linux, and win 7. All of which I use for different jobs.
My iPhones were jailbroken, because I like tinkering under the hood. So please take that in to consideration when answering.

Anyway, the question to save me making any big mistakes:

In apple they have, iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G, 2g. What would you consider a good handset to get?
What is the mac daddy android phone out now. What is considered the next best, what is a good year old one, what's an adequate cheap one.

Please, when it comes down to it, I might be tempted to spend anywhere between

 

[chanchan05]

Currently the Droid against which all are measured up against is the Samsung Galaxy S2.

After that, it gets really hairy. You see there are a few hundred Android phones out there, each with something up its sleeve to make it "better" that the competition. There are Droids which rival the SGS2 and have no glasses 3D displays, There are phones with a hardware keyboard, there are those with larger screens, etc. Unlike the iPhone, there is no clear-cut best and next best phones for Android. The best phones from each manufacturer all go head to head against each other trying to claim "Best Droid" crown.

So there we have the HTC Evo 3D (or is the Thunderbolt their flagship?), The SamsungGalaxy S2, and whatever the new flagships from LG and Motorola as your 4 best Droids.

After those, there are the non flagship dual-cores, then the single cores (split between the >1Ghz models, and the lower clock rate models).

 

[Dragoro]

I'll put my Samsung Droid charge up against the iPhone any day.

 

[007shark]

The good thing about android is that it is not a one-size fits all. I personally have the Xperia Play which is not dual-core, but is very zippy with no lag. The mothership android will be the Motorola Droid Bionic (for at least a few months). It comes out within a few weeks, I believe.

 

[Martimus]

In the Apple world the hardware is tightly controlled so each phone "should" function like the next. In this model, the firmware becomes fairly consistent, aside from the introduction of new (model specific) functions, the firmware "should" run similarly from one model to the next. What you loose in terms of hardware variation is compensated for by the consistency of the firmware.

The Android world, however, is different. Hardware manufacturers are given the freedom to design the device that they want to design with few restrictions by Google. The device can be large, small, fast, slow, be rich with features, or basic and inexpensive (relatively speaking). The firmware then has to be married to the phone. Because of this, there is a lot more risk of bugs making their way to the public release.

When questions are asked like "what is the best Android phone", the answer is almost always subjective. Two of the phones already recommended to you come from a brand that I've had nothing but lackluster experiences with.

Do you already know what carrier you plan to use? Do they have good, consistent, reliable service in your area?

If I were coming into Android for the first time, I'd be:
1. Creating a comprehensive list of the phones supported by my chosen carrier(s).
2. Talking to the folks at the phone store about the phones. While I would take most of what they say with a grain of salt, they can certainly speak to which are the more popular phones, and which have the highest (or lowest) return rates.
3. While at the phone store, I'd be handling each phone to get a better idea of how the phone feels, how responsive it is, and how it operates in general.
4. Once I'm able to shorten the list of candidates, I'd be on forums like AF reading through every review, comment, and thread that I could find for each candidate phone.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is no "Mac Daddy of Android phones", at least not one that everyone will agree to. Android devices, in that regard, are like people. Each has a different personality and each provides a different overall experience. It's simply a matter of finding which provides you with the best possible experience based on your needs, wants, and preferences.

 

[cds0699]

In the Apple world the hardware is tightly controlled so each phone "should" function like the next. In this model, the firmware becomes fairly consistent, aside from the introduction of new (model specific) functions, the firmware "should" run similarly from one model to the next. What you loose in terms of hardware variation is compensated for by the consistency of the firmware.

The Android world, however, is different. Hardware manufacturers are given the freedom to design the device that they want to design with few restrictions by Google. The device can be large, small, fast, slow, be rich with features, or basic and inexpensive (relatively speaking). The firmware then has to be married to the phone. Because of this, there is a lot more risk of bugs making their way to the public release.

When questions are asked like "what is the best Android phone", the answer is almost always subjective. Two of the phones already recommended to you come from a brand that I've had nothing but lackluster experiences with.

Do you already know what carrier you plan to use? Do they have good, consistent, reliable service in your area?

If I were coming into Android for the first time, I'd be:
1. Creating a comprehensive list of the phones supported by my chosen carrier(s).
2. Talking to the folks at the phone store about the phones. While I would take most of what they say with a grain of salt, they can certainly speak to which are the more popular phones, and which have the highest (or lowest) return rates.
3. While at the phone store, I'd be handling each phone to get a better idea of how the phone feels, how responsive it is, and how it operates in general.
4. Once I'm able to shorten the list of candidates, I'd be on forums like AF reading through every review, comment, and thread that I could find for each candidate phone.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is no "Mac Daddy of Android phones", at least not one that everyone will agree to. Android devices, in that regard, are like people. Each has a different personality and each provides a different overall experience. It's simply a matter of finding which provides you with the best possible experience based on your needs, wants, and preferences.

Excellent post, this is probably the best advice to give you OP.

 

[Roze]

Please, when it comes down to it, I might be tempted to spend anywhere between

 

[dan330]

1 yr old... HTC Desire line of phones
current... Samsung GS2 or HTC EVO 3D/sensation

as you want to root and dive deep into customization.. you might want to look at the phones "root" sub-forum. See which has the most dev support. some are not that big.. while others will keep you busy trying new things out.

 

[Stuntman]

In apple they have, iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G, 2g. What would you consider a good handset to get?

You mean that with Apple, you have the iPhone 4. That's it if you want to get the high end Apple phone.

With Android, there is no one phone that is considered good. There are a variety of phones that are considered good. Then you have to decide on the details about what you want in a phone. With Apple, it doesn't matter what details you look for in a phone because there is simply no other choice.

I personally want a physical keyboard which is why I got an HTC Desire Z. A friend of mine got the HTC Thunderbolt because he wanted a large screen (4.3"). You are most likely different than either of us, so unless we really knwo what you want, the best we could do is tell you to go to a store and look at/try out the various phones or just simply suggest a fairly popular phone (Samsung Galaxy S II).

This is probably the first big change you have to deal with going from iOS to Android. Having to decide between multiple phone models instead of the one (although there are versons for different carriers and different amounts of storage).

 

[Jupitersmoon]

Thanks everyone for your unbiased answers, I'll probably go for the new galaxy, I used a nintendo 3ds a while back and it gave me a headache in minutes. I wouldn't like to risk that.
I'm gonna check out some reviews now.
I would say one thing for apple, they have amazing build quality devices, a fluid smooth os and a solid home brew following. I hope to find the same with samsung.

 

[novox77]

Thanks everyone for your unbiased answers, I'll probably go for the new galaxy, I used a nintendo 3ds a while back and it gave me a headache in minutes. I wouldn't like to risk that.
I'm gonna check out some reviews now.
I would say one thing for apple, they have amazing build quality devices, a fluid smooth os and a solid home brew following. I hope to find the same with samsung.

If you like to tinker, you don't want Samsung. You want HTC. Unrivaled rooting community by far. You'll have the most developers and therefore the most kernels and ROMs to play with.

You'll need to learn about rooting, which is similar to an iOS jailbreak but way better. Here's why:

1) When a new OS update is ready for your phone, you can get the update while retaining root status (by not accepting the over-the-air update and flashing the rooted version of the OTA update). Not possible to retain a jailbreak when you take the update

2) Kernel source code is made publicly available, which means developers can make modifications to it to get even more out of your hardware. iOS kernel is locked down. You can't replace it at will, even if jailbroken. You simply don't have access to the kernel source. The most popular feature of a custom kernel is the ability to overclock or underclock the CPU. For example, the Evo 3D (my phone) is configured to run at 1.2Ghz stock but has been proven stable at 1.8Ghz, and possibly stable even at 2.0ghz. Even at 1.5Ghz, it outperforms the Galaxy S2. Talk about getting the most out of your hardware.

3) as an extension to point #2 above, you'll be able to flash a custom OS (called ROMs in the Android world), again because the OS is open source, so anyone can modify it, add enhancements, custom utilities, apps, or whatever. If you like tinkering and customization, this is going to be heaven.

4) having superuser access to the filesystem is way more powerful than having superuser access to the iOS filesystem, because in Android, the OS files are laid out in a logical way; whereas everything in iOS is obfuscated. Apple has made sure that even if you have access to the filesystem, you won't be able to interact with anything under iOS's control. File names are scrambled and stored in hundreds of meaningless folders. Metadata for those files are stored elsewhere.

Now, there's an important consideration to make when you are deciding between manufacturers, and that is their bootloader security policy. Motorola is notorious for locking down the phone's file system via the bootloader's security system. A typical root exploit removes this bootloader security, which then allows you to mount all filesystems read/write. If you can't write to the filesystem, you can't replace the kernel. You can't flash custom ROMs.

Therefore, the manufacturer you choose may impact how rootable the phone is, and/or how long you have to wait for an exploit to be found. Samsung (and Sony) have been very pro-homebrew, even offering a way for users to remove bootloader security themselves. HTC started to go the direction of Motorola, but due to consumer backlash, they've done an about-face and now offer users a way to unlock themselves.

Just so you know that I'm not just talking up HTC's homebrew community simply because I own an HTC phone, take a look at the activity on these forums. You'll see that the HTC phones have way more activity than any other brand. Most of that activity comes from the "All things root" subforum. That's where your homebrew community is.

An iOS jailbreak is only a tease of the real freedom you have with a fully-rooted Android. If rooting is important to you, go with HTC.

 

[Roze]

^--- Professor Novoxx Root lesson 101

 

[cds0699]

If you like to tinker, you don't want Samsung. You want HTC. Unrivaled rooting community by far. You'll have the most developers and therefore the most kernels and ROMs to play with.

I kinda disagree with you on the bolded. Not to say anything against HTC, they make fine phones and clearly have a great developer base.

Also quality > quantity in my opinion, and I'd tend to wonder how many of those HTC ROM's are truly unique (I honestly don't know) and not just minor variations of other ROMs? Personally I'd rather have the choice of 2-3 great ROMs over 6-8 good ROMs.

In the end its all personal opinion, but I have experienced great developers for Samsung phones, and rooting has never been a problem. If I'm off base here, please feel free to correct me.

 

[ari-free]

HTC's homebrew community was around even before android. HTC used to make windows mobile phones and many in that community (xda-developers.com) switched to Android. XDA was the name of a brand of winmo phones used by HTC. Even though the OS changed, the hardware platform was very familiar on the newer HTC Android phones.

 

[ari-free]

I have more respect for Samsung. Seems they finally got it right with the SGS2. If it was available here and if it had the same keyboard as on the epic, I would probably get it over my 4G Slide. But I wasn't going to wait any longer for a new phone. Trust me, I have waited long enough.

 

[dan330]

I kinda disagree with you on the bolded. Not to say anything against HTC, they make fine phones and clearly have a great developer base.

Also quality > quantity in my opinion, and I'd tend to wonder how many of those HTC ROM's are truly unique (I honestly don't know) and not just minor variations of other ROMs? Personally I'd rather have the choice of 2-3 great ROMs over 6-8 good ROMs.

In the end its all personal opinion, but I have experienced great developers for Samsung phones, and rooting has never been a problem. If I'm off base here, please feel free to correct me.

i am going to say.. that HTC hero and the EVO... have a lot of great unique custom ROMs.. as well as many slight variations of them.

htc dev community are always one of the first to get most mods going...

 

[novox77]

I kinda disagree with you on the bolded. Not to say anything against HTC, they make fine phones and clearly have a great developer base.

Also quality > quantity in my opinion, and I'd tend to wonder how many of those HTC ROM's are truly unique (I honestly don't know) and not just minor variations of other ROMs? Personally I'd rather have the choice of 2-3 great ROMs over 6-8 good ROMs.

In the end its all personal opinion, but I have experienced great developers for Samsung phones, and rooting has never been a problem. If I'm off base here, please feel free to correct me.

If you "honestly don't know," you can't disagree with me.

And yet, I don't disagree with you. Samsung as a manufacturer has become very root friendly, and that's a great thing. They hired the creator of CyanogenMod, arguably the best custom ROM developer in the Android world. But rooting is also not just about custom ROMs. It's about wanting to do something with the phone that not many people have tried. And where are you likely going to find info on it? Where the community is largest.

Quantity also breeds more quality. This isn't an either-or situation. There are so many high-quality ROMs for HTC phones it's no longer practical (IMO) to try them all, though I'm sure the die-hard flashers do. Take a look at this Evo 4G thread. The community there actively maintains a central database of all worthy ROMs:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/284413-roms-kernels-download-page.html

And this is for a phone that's over a year old with a successor that is also fully rooted and now has huge development support. More reassurance that your phone won't become obsolete. The community is too established to let it just die out like that. We'll see an active homebrew community for the Droid Incredible and Evo 4G for years.

If you run into trouble with your phone and post a question, it gets answered within minutes, not days. That's the advantage of a large community that often gets overlooked. In my routine patrolling of the forums, I see firsthand the level of activity among the different phones and manufacturers. Nothing comes close to the HTC phone forums.

Anyhow, I don't want people getting the wrong idea with my posts. We're all Androiders here, and there is no single brand that fits all. If I believed that, I'd be sending you to the magical and revolutionary store. But when it comes to rooting community, it's not a subjective matter. HTC is where the party is at.

 

[cds0699]

If you "honestly don't know," you can't disagree with me.

And yet, I don't disagree with you. Samsung as a manufacturer has become very root friendly, and that's a great thing. They hired the creator of CyanogenMod, arguably the best custom ROM developer in the Android world. But rooting is also not just about custom ROMs. It's about wanting to do something with the phone that not many people have tried. And where are you likely going to find info on it? Where the community is largest.

Quantity also breeds more quality. This isn't an either-or situation. There are so many high-quality ROMs for HTC phones it's no longer practical (IMO) to try them all, though I'm sure the die-hard flashers do. Take a look at this Evo 4G thread. The community there actively maintains a central database of all worthy ROMs:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/284413-roms-kernels-download-page.html

And this is for a phone that's over a year old with a successor that is also fully rooted and now has huge development support. More reassurance that your phone won't become obsolete. The community is too established to let it just die out like that. We'll see an active homebrew community for the Droid Incredible and Evo 4G for years.

If you run into trouble with your phone and post a question, it gets answered within minutes, not days. That's the advantage of a large community that often gets overlooked. In my routine patrolling of the forums, I see firsthand the level of activity among the different phones and manufacturers. Nothing comes close to the HTC phone forums.

Anyhow, I don't want people getting the wrong idea with my posts. We're all Androiders here, and there is no single brand that fits all. If I believed that, I'd be sending you to the magical and revolutionary store. But when it comes to rooting community, it's not a subjective matter. HTC is where the party is at.

Fair enough, good post. You do make some good points about HTC.

And for the record, I only stated that I disagreed with the "If you like to tinker, you don't want Samsung.", which is the part I bolded.

 

[chanchan05]

Not to really argue, but AFAIK the SGS has pretty large root community for a single phone.