Trying To Decide What Phone To Get - iPhone, Android, or Windows 7?
50 replies, posted
HD7S it is. Thank you guys!
[QUOTE=Super_Nova;35015244]HD7S it is. Thank you guys![/QUOTE]
Be warned, WP7 gets VERY boring to look at after awhile.
I've had one since August - I've gotten very sick of the bland interface.
[QUOTE=Protocol7;35015472]Be warned, WP7 gets VERY boring to look at after awhile.
I've had one since August - I've gotten very sick of the bland interface.[/QUOTE]
Hmm, I've got it the other way around. I don't find rows of icons more exciting at all.
So I have a Samsung Focus, a Samsung Nexus S, and an iPhone 4.
After using each for half a year (at least), the winner in the end for me is the iPhone 4.
Here's why:
Samsung Focus - was really really nice. I loved the big screen and those really good blacks courtesy of the SAMOLED display. That PenTile matrix was an eyesore at times but otherwise it was a great little phone. Pretty reliable for the most part. Bad part is when it came to apps. It really reminds me of the iPhone's early days when apps were super limited and couldn't even play audio in the background. They can nowadays with Mango but there appears to be a shortage of apps compared to Android and iOS, but damn do the apps look great. Only reason I don't play around with it occasionally is because the battery crapped out, but I'm getting a new one in the mail woop woop.
Nexus S - Oh man I loved this phone. There didn't go a week without be flashing x ROM or y kernel and doing all kinds of tweaking like undervolting, over clocking, live OC, deep idle, etc etc etc. It's really fun because I happen to love tinkering with things. However, it being Android, the apps were kind of 'meh' compared to what I'd seen on WP7 and iOS. The Android Market, in my honest opinion, is more about quantity over quality. So is the App Store, but at least the apps are more optimized on the App Store (given the small number of hardware configurations, I suppose) and there's generally a higher number of golden apps in the App Store. Another problem with this phone was battery life. How could such a relatively large battery only provide 2 to 2 and a half hours of screen on usage? It's pathetic. I went traveling with it a few months back and depended on it for GPS, and it died by 12PM. Not even half a day on light, occasional GPS usage. Also, the 3G wasn't so reliable. I kept having to reload pages to get them to display properly sometimes. The tethering is slow as shit. Then I got really bored of dicking around with ROMs and kernels and shit and trying to find out which one crashes least. I settled on CM9 with the Matr1x kernel, for the record, on SIO/noop and Smartass V2. I missed the iPhone's stability.
iPhone 4 - yeah it's not so functional compared to Android when it comes to things like file managing and the feeling of independence from a computer, but it's just so much more reliable. Never has anything crashed, never has it stuttered or required me to reload pages, never have I had to deal with a bad radio or a bad kernel or blah blah. Shit just worked. As a bonus, it connected flawlessly with my iPad and iCloud and it makes things really easy. The iTunes/App Store ecosystem is really something else. There's so much golden content in there that it's hard not to fall in love with the stores. Bonus? I get 6 hours of screen-on usage. 6 hours. On maximum brightness. Bad side? That fucking antenna.
I still love all three operating systems. For the time being, I'm sticking with iPhone but who knows? Maybe Jelly Bean will rock my world.
However, seeing as you have to choose between a 3GS or a WP7 phone as good as the one you're looking at, yeah, get the HTC. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of WP7, and the app market is much more developed nowadays than it was a few months back when I left WP7. The 3GS is too old now, and like others said, will probably lose update support this year. I doubt iOS 6 will even support it. Not to mention that screen is terrible and it's operating on a 600MHz.
Also, when it comes to this little argument about Android stuttering... Android stutters. It's just the fact that it's basically a giant Java application, and Java has never been good for anything graphics-intensive, let alone an entire operating system. It's not a laggy shithole, but it's not iPhone/WP7 smooth either. The only way to get it smoother is to flash a custom ROM and kernel and dick around with governors and schedulers, and frankly not everybody has the time or patience for that. I played with a Nexus Galaxy and I just don't understand how the dual core powerhouse in that thing can lag so badly when scrolling across the app drawer, whereas meanwhile my Nexus S is relatively buttery smooth (for an Android phone, anyway). The answer? Yep, you gotta hack it to make it worth a shit. Going "oh my 1.8GHz phone doesn't stutter" is kind of pointless because you overclocked the shit out of it. Meanwhile an 800MHz iPhone 4 never lags either despite, frankly, shit hardware.
Anyway, OP, good luck with your new phone. I think you'll love it!
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35021472] "oh my 1.8GHz phone doesn't stutter" is kind of pointless because you overclocked the shit out of it. [/QUOTE]
Just saying, but mine is completely stock. Like literally nothing changed, it's not even rooted. None of my devices are.
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35021472]
Also, when it comes to this little argument about Android stuttering... Android stutters. It's just the fact that it's basically a giant Java application, and Java has never been good for anything graphics-intensive, let alone an entire operating system. It's not a laggy shithole, but it's not iPhone/WP7 smooth either. The only way to get it smoother is to flash a custom ROM and kernel and dick around with governors and schedulers, and frankly not everybody has the time or patience for that. I played with a Nexus Galaxy and I just don't understand how the dual core powerhouse in that thing can lag so badly when scrolling across the app drawer, whereas meanwhile my Nexus S is relatively buttery smooth (for an Android phone, anyway). The answer? Yep, you gotta hack it to make it worth a shit. Going "oh my 1.8GHz phone doesn't stutter" is kind of pointless because you overclocked the shit out of it. Meanwhile an 800MHz iPhone 4 never lags either despite, frankly, shit hardware.
[/QUOTE]
Great post, you've addressed basically what goes through my mind when I, as well, used those phones.
The stuttering on most phones are due to a hardware limitation as well. In most phones, software is a huge factor, but in the case of the Galaxy Nexus and (correct me if I'm wrong) most of TI/Qualcomm's SoCs, there is limited bandwidth allotted for the GPU. That's why the Galaxy S II is silky smooth even on Samsung's Touchwiz interface and any custom ROM you put on it no matter what.
Thinking of getting a Galaxy SII from T-Mobile in a couple weeks for $129 with a new contract. Plus student discount gives me no activation fee and 10% off my bill every month. My Optimus V is really old now. I don't know yet.
Has noone here tried the DroidRazr, I've had one since launch to replace my Iphone4 and am having a much better time with it.
To be fair, I almost always see even the 4S stuttering when swiping to the search screen.
Yeah the 4S does that, as does the iPad 2. Don't know why, but it only seems to happen the first time.
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35026188]Yeah the 4S does that, as does the iPad 2. Don't know why, but it only seems to happen the first time.[/QUOTE]
It's caching.
After all, it can't read your mind and predict what you're gonna do.
Makes sense, but it would make more sense for that caching to happen as apps are installed and as new entries are made in the phone.
[QUOTE=C0MMUNIZT;35025373]Has noone here tried the DroidRazr, I've had one since launch to replace my Iphone4 and am having a much better time with it.[/QUOTE]
I'm not a huge fan of Motorola phones any more. MotoBlur suck big time, and they never unlock the bootloaders as they have previously promised.
I've been on Android for some time now, and haven't noticed any major performance problems. The only time things aren't snappy and smooth for me are:
- The quarter-second between me pressing the icon for an app and that app loading. Only happens on first load.
- Third party apps, and even then it's the badly made, zero-effort iOS ports. Especially the ones that don't even implement functions for the back and menu keys.
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35026188]Yeah the 4S does that, as does the iPad 2. Don't know why, but it only seems to happen the first time.[/QUOTE]
The 4S was just an example, I've seen it with any model. On WP7, I notice that the search doesn't always come up in an instant, though it does it fluidly.
[QUOTE=garrynohome;35009071]So which magical device is this? I'd love to know because even the 1.3GHz quad core Asus Transformer Prime still has the stutter. There has never been an Android phone in our Bell store that hasn't had it. The Galaxy S II is the best I've seen, but go to the messaging or contacts apps and it'll show up. I'm also not the only one who knows this.
So which phone do you own?[/QUOTE]
This is legitimately the first time I've ever heard about this phenomenon.
Anyway, after using both Android and iOS for a year each (exclusive,) my thoughts are:
If you want a dead simple phone that works out of the box and will continue to work out of the box without any fancy bells and whistles, definitely get the iPhone.
If you're like me and enjoy fiddling with everything and endless customization and flashing new software and spending sleepless nights fixing things you broke, get the Android if you can get your hands on a decent phone.
I have no personal experience with WP7.
[editline]7th March 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35021472]
Also, when it comes to this little argument about Android stuttering... Android stutters. It's just the fact that it's basically a giant Java application, and Java has never been good for anything graphics-intensive, let alone an entire operating system. It's not a laggy shithole, but it's not iPhone/WP7 smooth either. The only way to get it smoother is to flash a custom ROM and kernel and dick around with governors and schedulers, and frankly not everybody has the time or patience for that. I played with a Nexus Galaxy and I just don't understand how the dual core powerhouse in that thing can lag so badly when scrolling across the app drawer, whereas meanwhile my Nexus S is relatively buttery smooth (for an Android phone, anyway). The answer? Yep, you gotta hack it to make it worth a shit. Going "oh my 1.8GHz phone doesn't stutter" is kind of pointless because you overclocked the shit out of it. Meanwhile an 800MHz iPhone 4 never lags either despite, frankly, shit hardware.[/QUOTE]
Interesting. How is it that I never noticed it?
I'm not trying to antagonize you or anything, it's just that I never noticed it. Maybe it's only noticeable when you're looking for it? Maybe it's just me, especially because I've accustomed myself to playing games at 30 (or less) FPS because I've only had a shittop for most of my life before upgrading to an actual gaming computer.
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;35034933]This is legitimately the first time I've ever heard about this phenomenon.
Anyway, after using both Android and iOS for a year each (exclusive,) my thoughts are:
If you want a dead simple phone that works out of the box and will continue to work out of the box without any fancy bells and whistles, definitely get the iPhone.
If you're like me and enjoy fiddling with everything and endless customization and flashing new software and spending sleepless nights fixing things you broke, get the Android if you can get your hands on a decent phone.
I have no personal experience with WP7.
[editline]7th March 2012[/editline]
Interesting. How is it that I never noticed it?
I'm not trying to antagonize you or anything, it's just that I never noticed it. Maybe it's only noticeable when you're looking for it? Maybe it's just me, especially because I've accustomed myself to playing games at 30 (or less) FPS because I've only had a shittop for most of my life before upgrading to an actual gaming computer.[/QUOTE]
Which phone/ROM/kernel do you have? I assume you have rooted it and flashed custom software. I was saying stock Android, pre-dozen-tweaks, is choppy. But yeah my Nexus S with CM9 and Matr1x never lagged. It did out of the box but only until I hacked it.
Nah, even when I used it vanilla it did that (though to be fair I only used it vanilla for only a week so I probably wouldn't remember.)
Right now I'm on a Galaxy S Fascinate with teamhacksung's ICS port running on the Icy Glitch V14 kernel.
I never bother with overclocking or anything because that's a very involved process that I frankly just don't have the patience for.
[editline]7th March 2012[/editline]
I'll have to keep that stuttering issue in mind the next time I make recommendations.
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;35036004]Nah, even when I used it vanilla it did that (though to be fair I only used it vanilla for only a week so I probably wouldn't remember.)
Right now I'm on a Galaxy S Fascinate with teamhacksung's ICS port running on the Icy Glitch V14 kernel.
I never bother with overclocking or anything because that's a very involved process that I frankly just don't have the patience for.
[editline]7th March 2012[/editline]
I'll have to keep that stuttering issue in mind the next time I make recommendations.[/QUOTE]
As I mentioned previously, Samsung's SoC doesn't have limited bandwidth for its GPU. Most of the older generation Samsung devices on Hummingbird/Exynos and what-have-you will run a helluva lot better with ICS than other devices without it.
[QUOTE=SA Spyder;35026963]Makes sense, but it would make more sense for that caching to happen as apps are installed and as new entries are made in the phone.[/QUOTE]
Not enough RAM, since I'm talking about RAM cache.
[QUOTE=Van-man;35039084]Not enough RAM, since I'm talking about RAM cache.[/QUOTE]
Ah, I did think that that was what you meant shortly after I posted. But yeah they could always start the caching process after the transition completes since it only takes 1/8th of a second anyway.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.