Decisions ... Droid or IPhone?

[DaveP]

I'm nearing my contract end with Verizon and pretty much leaning toward replacing my Droid Eris after two years with an HTC Thunderbolt or what ever seems to be the best for the money. They are including a high MAH battery with the Thunderbolt for $149, since there have been complaints from heavy users about low battery life. I've also thought about the IPhone 4S but don't know much about its personality.

Tell me about your Droid or IPhone, especially if you have had both and now have the IPhone 4 or 4S. Costs, restrictions, apps (free and paid), battery life, aggravations, and usability are things I'd like to hear about.

Open discussion is encouraged about which you like and why. Be as specific as you want to be. I don't want to pay anymore than I have to and I'm leaning toward the $149 HTC Thunderbolt that is on sale at Verizon, but I'd go to $199 if the phone was worth it.

The IPhone has some serious steps in the pricing. It's $100 increments to go from 16G ($199) to 32G ($299) to 64G ($399). That seems ridiculous to me to add memory. Is 16GB enough for most people?

4G or 3G? I've been on 3G and find it to be fairly fast for browsing when I'm out, but that's not a big deal. The good part about 4G is that it is faster, by magnitudes. I can turn off 4G and it will find a 3G or whatever tower and use less battery power doing it. 4G is only around Atlanta at the moment. It might be a year or two before it spreads 90 miles south to me.

The main reason I never considered the IPhone was the carrier. AT&T in our area is low signal strength, dead zones, and dropped calls. Verizon is king in GA. Now that Verizon has the IPhone, I might consider it.

 

[stephen1979]

I have the Thunderbolt and think it is a nice phone. I would definitely get the extended battery for it as it doesn't last all that long especially if you are in an area the switches from 3G to 4G often. If you are in a 3G only area, turning off 4G does help get the standard battery to last most of the day.

 

[Pamdane]

My sister got a droid and had many issues with it. Its been replaced twice, the latest is the most current version. now it seems to have the bugs worked out.
I am an iPhone person all the way. I use the internet on it whenever I go out, and when I have to be away for weekends showing dogs. I have had all versions except 3. I waited for 3G. Now on 4. It beats all the competition- IF you like Apple. It does not get bugs or viruses. It does occasionally lock up, but usually because I dont reset it for ages. I never turn it off. I use the e-mail forwarding features at all times- actually, I seldom answer e-mails on the computer cause its easier from the phone. Apps are fantastic. I cant remember the last time I got an app I didnt like or didnt work. I've taken one swimming accidentally, dried it out in rice and it worked wonderfully. My sister lost one droid that way. But she likely didnt know to turn it off and drain it, then let it set to dry. It is more convenient to pull and replace batteries than to constantly have to charge. but thats something I'm willing to tolerate. Fortunately, I can charge it with the same battery pack 5000 mAh that I use on some of my e-cigs. I get the ones that have USB charging ports
The biggest drawback for me on an iPhone is that it does not yet recognize flash player. This limits its usefulness on a few websites I like.
I also like being able to switch from wifi to 3g etc when I want to. When house power goes out, I can still get web access without wifi.
Hope this helps.

 

[DaveP]

The Thunderbolt has flash player 10.2 and comes with the high capacity battery for free right now, at a substantial discount for the phone. I'll probably go with the Thunderbolt if I actually decide to trade up from my Droid Eris. Speed and the larger display will be the driving factor.

It kills me to have to pay $30 a month for internet access, when wi-fi is so available. At home, I have wireless internet and just about everywhere I go it's there. My average 3G internet access is less than 100mb a month. My wife wants to go to the Droid also. That will be $60 a month for internet access for the both of us and she will use much less bandwidth than I.

I don't see (other that profit) why carriers don't allow shared access on a family plan to one wireless plan. I'd be happy to pay $10 a GB for separate plans, but they want $1.99 a MB (yes, megabyte) with no internet plan. It's a ripoff.

 

[VTAK8K]

The Eris is possibly one of the worst Droids ever made. If you like it at all, you will LOVE the Thunderbolt. I have the EVO on Sprint, which is nearly the same as the TB. I have been thinking about the i Phone 4S though, it's supposed to have a really good camera on it, I just don't think I could deal with itunes.

 

[Lisa66]

I've got an HTC Desire (US Cellular) and I've been happy with it. I did get a replacement 9 months in because the flash quit working. Otherwise it's been solid. The phone sound quality is the best of any phone I've ever had, including on speaker phone. I like the Android platform because it's more flexible and customizable.

 

[pnc81498]

plus 1 htc evo love it but i do have 4g in my area....

 

[yo vapo]

If I knew then what I know now, I might have gotten the 16 Gb iPhone instead of the 32 Gb. I kind of have a lot of songs on my 32 Gb 3Gs, yet the free (wasted) space is cavernous. Unless you want your whole music collection and/or a LOT of apps on it, the 16 Gb should do fine. YMMV of course.

When I got mine, I didn't know it wasn't also a usb storage drive, so I got max memory to handle that. Live & learn.

 

[DaveP]

The Eris is possibly one of the worst Droids ever made. If you like it at all, you will LOVE the Thunderbolt. I have the EVO on Sprint, which is nearly the same as the TB. I have been thinking about the i Phone 4S though, it's supposed to have a really good camera on it, I just don't think I could deal with itunes.

I've had the Eris since a few months after it was launched. At that time it was a strong contender and was even a tad faster than the Motorola original Droid, even with a slightly slower clock speed. It has slowed down quite a bit with Android 2.1 and the browser started occasionally crashing on first use. You re-enter after the crash and it's solid, though.

Two years is a couple of lifetimes in the phone world. A few years from now, people will laugh at the new releases of today. Features we haven't thought of will be standard.

The only thing I like about the IPhone is the ability to multitask and use apps at the same time you are on a call. Other than that, I'm happy with the Droid and will probably get the Thunderbolt.

 

[mooreted]

I just got an HTC Incredible Droid and it's pretty darn smooth.

 

[Dougiestyle]

My fiancee's Droid2 from Verizon is comparable to my Tmobile G2. Keyboard, huge screen, 8gig microSD and touchscreen were all selling points to me. 4G speeds are nice, too! I shyed away from iPhone due to my dislike of typing on the screen.

 

[DaveP]

An interesting article about multitasking on the Iphone vs the Android family OS.
Apple iPhone vs. Android Multitasking: A Comparison - Page 2 | PCWorld

 

[flwrfrog]

I prefer Droid... but then I'm an official member of the iHate crew. LOL =P

 

[MegaBee]

I'm hanging in there and waiting for iphone5 lol I love my iphone4


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dotma]

I have the iphone 4S and i love it soooo much! I love the big screen, love all the apps, love how fast it goes. The camera is spectacular, and you can flip it around to take pics of yourself if you are so inclined lol. You can do facetime on it also. My favorite favorite thing about it is Siri. I dont like looking for stuff on the phone and you can tell her -- set my alarm to weekdays at 6 am -- and she will. You can tell her -- Im lost, and she will give you a map from where you are to your home. You can ask her what the weather is going to be and she will tell you. She also has a sense of humor. If you tell her "youre pretty" she will say various things like -- Oh stop -- Or -- i bet you say that to all the electronic personal assistants. I LOVE HER!

 

[MegaBee]

Haha! Siri sounds great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dotma]

oh man, i love it!

 

[10mmshooter]

I have a Droid Bionic. I love it. I gave up a T-bolt for the Bionic. The Tbolt is a great phone, but I had an early version that liked to reboot at random(fixed with update) than it started sending text messages to the wrong places. I would get random texts from a friend(who also had a tbolt) that were not meant for me. Then my phone started to do it. When I spoke to a Verizon rep, she told me it was a know problem so maybe it has been fixed.

I love the Android OS, and I am going to stick with the Bionic for a a long time.

 

[DaveP]

Siri sounds like a lit of fun. Google needs to implement something like that in the Android OS, and I'm sure they will. Voice recognition works well on the Droid for things like GPS Navigator. I have to start the app and select voice, then tell it where I want to go. Then, I get voice directions and a moving map with a tracking arrow that follows my route.