iPhone vs Droid - pls give your opinions

Let me start by saying that I'm not into phones.

My wife wants an iPhone (xmis maybe? ), and ppl at work have one as their work phone...so it would be nice if i had one.

That said, the droid seems to have my attention over the iPhone.

We are cancelling our housephone and are going only cellular. I want a cost friendly plan that wont kill us on minutes or texts...cause the wife is a texter, and i might start following some tweaters.

From what I'm finding, I can get a 3G phone for 100 bucks, compared to the droid's 200. The AT&T plans seem to be the same in price to the Droid. Anyone have any insight onto which they like...or like better if you've used both?

My problem is that this is going to be one expensive ass xmis prestent...given that it will cost us (family plan) a helluva lot of money. Part of me wants to wait a year, part of me wants to go ahead and get them.

As an aside, does anyone have experience with teh ipod touch? I've seen that it has access to the app store...does have access to all teh apps that the iphone does? I almost just want to get one of these and leave our cheapie cellphones alone cause it's going to cost about $1500/yr to have 2 cellphones if i get these for us.

My experience with the iphone is very limited...i've updated a few of them for co-workers...and i use itunes on my laptop, but thats it. I wonder if the droid would behave as an mp3 player in teh same manner as teh iphone?

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DirectorC

iPhone is just so frikkin popular, there's so much for it. It's like the Win/PC of phones.

worldmac1

I'm not a phone guy either, but last fall, with the help of my wife pushing me to get one, I purchased the iPhone. I have enjoyed it thoroughly, and have not had any trouble at all. I use the GPS function,2 email accounts,fantasy football apps, and the Directv "Football Ticket" streams to it when I have to travel from the house. There are some really cool apps, and a lot of iPhone forums with info and helpful advice. You definitely would not be at a loss by purchasing one...However with that said, I'm like you regarding the Droid, as it has peaked my interest a bit also.

Whatever you decide to get stay away from Blackberry, and Sprint...IMHO They both could use improvement in design, functionality, and customer service.

Bl8ckr0uter

worldmac1 wrote: »

I'm not a phone guy either, but last fall, with the help of my wife pushing me to get one, I purchased the iPhone. I have enjoyed it thoroughly, and have not had any trouble at all. I use the GPS function,2 email accounts,fantasy football apps, and the Directv "Football Ticket" streams to it when I have to travel from the house. There are some really cool apps, and a lot of iPhone forums with info and helpful advice. You definitely would not be at a loss by purchasing one...However with that said, I'm like you regarding the Droid, as it has peaked my interest a bit also.

Whatever you decide to get stay away from Blackberry, and Sprint...IMHO They both could use improvement in design, functionality, and customer service.

Dude I have a Sprint Blackberry Pearl...and I concur. They suck. I will end up with an HTC hero soon. I am against Apple/Iphone and ATT.

unclerico

brad- wrote: »

Let me start by saying that I'm not into phones.

My wife wants an iPhone (xmis maybe? ), and ppl at work have one as their work phone...so it would be nice if i had one.

That said, the droid seems to have my attention over the iPhone.

We are cancelling our housephone and are going only cellular. I want a cost friendly plan that wont kill us on minutes or texts...cause the wife is a texter, and i might start following some tweaters.

From what I'm finding, I can get a 3G phone for 100 bucks, compared to the droid's 200. The AT&T plans seem to be the same in price to the Droid. Anyone have any insight onto which they like...or like better if you've used both?

My problem is that this is going to be one expensive ass xmis prestent...given that it will cost us (family plan) a helluva lot of money. Part of me wants to wait a year, part of me wants to go ahead and get them.

As an aside, does anyone have experience with teh ipod touch? I've seen that it has access to the app store...does have access to all teh apps that the iphone does? I almost just want to get one of these and leave our cheapie cellphones alone cause it's going to cost about $1500/yr to have 2 cellphones if i get these for us.

My experience with the iphone is very limited...i've updated a few of them for co-workers...and i use itunes on my laptop, but thats it. I wonder if the droid would behave as an mp3 player in teh same manner as teh iphone?

The iPhone is cool no doubt and as someone said it has a huge number of "apps for that". Two weeks ago I asked for and received a shiny new Droid. Unfortunately it doesn't support Exchange policies so you can't really remotely administrate the device. I am very security conscious and couldn't in good conscience let that device on my network so I made the bold decision to return it and upgrade my current device (BB Storm) to the Storm 2. I only had that purrdy little Droid for a few hours but it was enough for me to cry like a little baby when I gave it back to Verizon. If I needed a personal phone the Droid would be my first choice without hesitation.

brad-

unclerico wrote: »

Unfortunately it doesn't support Exchange policies so you can't really remotely administrate the device.

I read that it can receive exchange email...but what exactly is it that it cant do that you want it to?

unclerico wrote: »

I only had that purrdy little Droid for a few hours but it was enough for me to cry like a little baby when I gave it back to Verizon. If I needed a personal phone the Droid would be my first choice without hesitation.

Im leaning towards the droid, because the verizon plans are much better.
What did you like so much about the droid?

dynamik

If you're going to get an iPhone, I'd encourage you to go with the 3GS, not just the 3G. I'm using mine more than I ever imaged, and the functionality just keeps getting better. The only downside is really only that you're limited to AT&T. One of my coworkers has the Droid, and it looks pretty slick as well.

I have a 32GB iPod Touch (one generation back -- it's in mint condition and coincidentally for sale), and you can use a lot of the same apps. I believe the only limitations are apps that make use of iPhone features.

Claymoore

brad- wrote: »

I read that it can receive exchange email...but what exactly is it that it cant do that you want it to?

Im leaning towards the droid, because the verizon plans are much better.
What did you like so much about the droid?

The Droid does not support some of the activesync policies such as remote wipe and requiring encryption on the device. Other than that it will synchronize your mailbox, calendar and contacts just fine. As a comparison, only the iPhone 3Gs supports enforcing encryption through policy - the earlier models do not. If you require strict central control of your mobile devices you should still look at Windows Mobile devices or Blackberries.

Work provides me with a Blackberry Pearl 8130 but I bought a Droid for personal use. Email is so much easier to read on the Droid than the little blackberry screen. Web browsing is also orders of magnitude better than browsing on the blackberry. I never had much of a need for web browsing on a phone until a couple of times this summer, and now that I can easily do it on my Droid I don't want to be without it.

The Google maps and navigation feature means I can skip either buying a map update for my old Garmin or buying a new Garmin altogether. The Droid will play DRM-free music from iTunes as well as MP3s, so I may not buy a new iPod to replace my old classic iPod. Thats a lot of savings and functionality for $150.

I can also replace the battery myself. It really bothers me that I am not allowed to replace a battery in the imPretentious devices. I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but why am I not allowed to replace the battery? I have been swapping batteries since I was old enough to have toys that require them. I can keep the positive and negative straight and I learned long ago that it is way more entertaining to have your little brother test the strength of the 9-volt battery than it is to do it yourself. I have to go to a store and have a 'genius' replace the battery for me? Why? What makes them so smart? Is it the black t-shirts and spacers in their ears? How are they more qualified to replace a battery than I am? I'm a f**king engineer with an IQ above genius level so why can't I swap in a fully charged battery and go on about my day instead of fighting over the two outlets in the gate area to make sure I have enough charge to listen to music instead of crying babies while trapped on an airplane? If the phone were sealed because it were waterproof that would be something, but it's not. Next time, Steve, spend a little less time designing something cute and a little more time making it functional. Is one little door and a removable battery too much to ask?

ULWiz

Iphone 3GS user myself and would never trade it for any other phone out there.

msteinhilber

When I read up a bunch of various reviews leading up to the release of the Droid, I noticed a lot of them seemed to like the features of the Droid but one point always brought up between the iPhone vs Droid debate was usability out of the box. Maybe it's due to prior experiences with other android based phones (most of these review sites have put many phones up against each other) but the common theme seemed to be that the iPhone was great right of the box while the Droid was more for someone who would tweak the device more. It almost seemed like some of them were leading you to believe the Droid needed tweaking and additional applications to really function well.

I was pretty much sold on it and I bought one and it's been great. While I haven't owned an iPhone, I do own an iPod Touch an am familiar with it's usability and I have worked with dozens of iPhones from setting up users e-mail to troubleshooting devices and doing training on them. To me the Droid wins due to the ability to do mostly anything you want to the device. The Apple boat is too locked up for my liking, they are all about keeping their devices fairly locked down and that works well it seems for a lot of the Apple crowd, but it's just not something I really care for. Admittedly the iPhone does most if not all that I would want my mobile device to do, but the concept of the code being under such tight wraps and lacking some modification ability if I desired it not something that I favor.

The other huge reason for choosing the Droid for me was the network. I am a Verizon loyalist, and have been for several years. I support enough end users on every flavor of carrier in my state that I know Verizon is the best network for where I travel. They have the best 3g coverage in my area, and they have roaming agreements with enough carriers that there is practically no limit to where I am not able to at the least get a signal for a voice call without worrying about roaming charges since I go with a nationwide plan with no roaming. The 3g coverage of AT&T would leave me off of their network in a lot of regions that I travel.

shodown

msteinhilber wrote: »

When I read up a bunch of various reviews leading up to the release of the Droid, I noticed a lot of them seemed to like the features of the Droid but one point always brought up between the iPhone vs Droid debate was usability out of the box. Maybe it's due to prior experiences with other android based phones (most of these review sites have put many phones up against each other) but the common theme seemed to be that the iPhone was great right of the box while the Droid was more for someone who would tweak the device more. It almost seemed like some of them were leading you to believe the Droid needed tweaking and additional applications to really function well.

I was pretty much sold on it and I bought one and it's been great. While I haven't owned an iPhone, I do own an iPod Touch an am familiar with it's usability and I have worked with dozens of iPhones from setting up users e-mail to troubleshooting devices and doing training on them. To me the Droid wins due to the ability to do mostly anything you want to the device. The Apple boat is too locked up for my liking, they are all about keeping their devices fairly locked down and that works well it seems for a lot of the Apple crowd, but it's just not something I really care for. Admittedly the iPhone does most if not all that I would want my mobile device to do, but the concept of the code being under such tight wraps and lacking some modification ability if I desired it not something that I favor.

The other huge reason for choosing the Droid for me was the network. I am a Verizon loyalist, and have been for several years. I support enough end users on every flavor of carrier in my state that I know Verizon is the best network for where I travel. They have the best 3g coverage in my area, and they have roaming agreements with enough carriers that there is practically no limit to where I am not able to at the least get a signal for a voice call without worrying about roaming charges since I go with a nationwide plan with no roaming. The 3g coverage of AT&T would leave me off of their network in a lot of regions that I travel.

This was somethign I was worried about and when I got my IPHONE I was able to do everything I needed to do with it and had no problems. Now that I have moved to Washington DC. I drop calls all of the time. This is starting to be so much of a issue that I"m thinking about leaving At&t and going back to verizon. I do side IT on the side and having phone calls drop is unacceptable for me.

miller811

Claymoore wrote: »

I can also replace the battery myself. It really bothers me that I am not allowed to replace a battery in the imPretentious devices. I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but why am I not allowed to replace the battery? I have been swapping batteries since I was old enough to have toys that require them. I can keep the positive and negative straight and I learned long ago that it is way more entertaining to have your little brother test the strength of the 9-volt battery than it is to do it yourself. I have to go to a store and have a 'genius' replace the battery for me? Why? What makes them so smart? Is it the black t-shirts and spacers in their ears? How are they more qualified to replace a battery than I am? I'm a f**king engineer with an IQ above genius level so why can't I swap in a fully charged battery and go on about my day instead of fighting over the two outlets in the gate area to make sure I have enough charge to listen to music instead of crying babies while trapped on an airplane? If the phone were sealed because it were waterproof that would be something, but it's not. Next time, Steve, spend a little less time designing something cute and a little more time making it functional. Is one little door and a removable battery too much to ask?

Too funny.....

msteinhilber

Claymoore wrote: »

Next time, Steve, spend a little less time designing something cute and a little more time making it functional. Is one little door and a removable battery too much to ask?

And cute is just the cover story for more profit down the road when batteries start to fail. But a lot of Apple loyalists will hear nothing of that and stand by Mr. Jobs decisions with some sort of flawed logic to back up their stance.

The best part is (at least I assume this is the case with iPhones too) is when I picked up my new unibody MacBook Pro 13", the Best Buy team member who I had to speak to so they could get the MacBook out of lockup had his pitch all lined up. The new MacBooks also do not feature a user removable battery. The Best Buy employee used that to his advantage to give hopefully less-smart individuals a spiel about how the battery will fail in 3 years and it's not user replaceable, BUT our most wonderful extended warranty includes one battery replacement which would pay for the $349 warranty by time you pay for the battery and labor to replace. Oh yea, they also knocked the power adapter as they tend to fail near the that the magsafe adapter is at - warranty replaces one of those as well.

Hyper-Me

Sprint is fine and you get a lot more bang for your buck than you do with the oversold and overpriced AT&T network. I also dont apprecaite how AT&T obliges the governments illegal wiretapping.

My Palm Pre has much more useable functionality than an Iphone 3GS, but of course not as many apps. (there are a good amount of apps now, though)

The ONLY drawback with the Pre is the hardware quality leaves somethign to be desired. But they now have the candybar Palm Pixi, as well.

brad-

Update:

Our phones were done through Alltell, which has been bought out by verizon. Verizon says that since they arent 'verizon' contracts, we would STILL have to ******* pay the $200 cacellation fee PER LINE, pay extra for an early upgrade, and here's the shot in the ass - pay the full retail $559 per phone.

Its like they said "we dont want to let you pay for a huge upgrade and increased monthly payment, we want you to go **** yourself". I'll stay with what i have and get an ipod touch and they can go pound sand until the contract is over and i'll get us iphones when it does. Im curious to see whats in the plans for the 5G.