Wanting to make the jump from iPhone...Should I?

[mikelriggs24]

I am currently on the iPhone and want to make the jump. I am just afraid to. Please convince me.

[New2u]

For all purposes, If your coming from the iphone, there will be many things that you love, but there most likely will be many things you don't like. If i were you, i would really wait until when they release the patch for phones, which is december 11th. It will fix quite a few things, esp fix (hopefully) auto focus on the camera. I know everyone right now is like. droid droid droid, but I would if i were you wait until then, and then do it.

[cereal killer]

I will catch you...come on!!.....Do it!! I'm here!! Don't worry I won't let you go!!....JUMP!!!!! HURRY!!!


New what problems are you having? The camera thing bothering you a lot?

[txskeets]

Personally, I would make the jump. Verizon simply has a better network then AT&T. Keep in mind though, this is not an IPhone. This is a great phone and probably the closest thing to an IPhone competitor thats out there!

[sir]

My own personal story:

I was an iPhone (3G) user up until Saturday. I enjoyed the iPhone but a lot of the time I jailbroke it just to get what i considered standard functionality. Here's some of the stuff I started not to enjoy:

- More manageable contact lists
- ways to sync data across several apps (facebook, google, etc)
- customizable interface
- no widgets (i always hated having to wait for an app to open and sync to display quick info as opposed to having it right away)
- not being able to run multiple apps at once
- being able to kill apps that were draining my battery (*cough*Mail*cough*)
- no notifications in the statusbar for things like new Mail
- a pretty sub-par camera (even for mobile phones - granted I didn't have the 3GS)
- having to charge my phone every night, and always have a charger on me just in case I happened to stay the night somewhere else
- the case cracking on its own (i never once dropped that phone and it had cracks in the case from heating issues...well documented on the Internet from all of the people who had that problem)
- the lack of quality apps in the app store (there might be 100,000 - but 99,500 of them are worthless)
- horrible sound quality (not an iPhone issue, but a carrier issue)
- no terminal (you can pay for one though... ) and no ssh
- couldn't use the iPhone on my desktop (64-bit windows was not supported. luckily I had a mac laptop)
- having to use iTunes (i can't stand that application)
- no flash

The list goes on. So I decided to make the switch on Saturday. I'm happy to say that I'm in love with this phone. It has such a great set of features (i'll try and run through the above list to compare the pain-points):

- Contact list can be managed through GMail and is synced almost instantly. Facebook also pulls in facebook info into the contact list so you get updated pictures of the contact. Can also click on the person's picture in the contact list and get a bubble-list of ways to contact them
- I like that there's 3 pages for apps/widgets, but also a quick pullup to get to the not-too-oftenly used apps. Makes it easy to get to both quickly instead of having 9 screens to scroll through one by one.
- Has widgets!
- can run multiple apps (best feature: it installs apps in the background, so i don't have to go back into the app store if i want to continue browsing)
- there's free and pay-for apps that can show you a list of running processes and kill them
- notifications in the statusbar, and can also pull down the notification bar and quickly see what updates you have, read a summary (or launch the app) and clear all notifications
- pretty decent camera - although they are updating it due to some auto-focus issues i believe (but some auto-focus is better than none!)
- battery thus far has been great - i am using it all day since it's new and i want to play with it so the low battery is to be expected
- sturdy construction
- a lot of the stuff i needed to jailbreak my iPhone to get are readily available (and free) in the Android Market
- the sound quality on Verizon is night-and-day compared to AT&T
- terminal and SSH are available in the Market
- don't need to plug my Droid into any specific computer to manage it (it's all wireless), but if I want to put any data (ANY data - music, files, ssh keys, etc.) I can turn it to usb mode and mount it and away I go
- optional slide-out keyboard (which has turned out to be extremely useful with it's menu-key and joystick)
- adobe flash 10.1 mobile is slated for beta come next year, which will be awesome since Apple is refusing to use Flash.

So yea, I'm stupid happy right now.

On that note - I was using the 450 minute unlimited data 1500 txt plan from AT&T which was costing me around 100$ after tax. The 450 minute unlimited data unlimited text for Verizon I'm expecting around 110-115$ (i get txt alerts for work, so it's a necessity). So expect a slightly higher bill, but well worth it in my mind for the benefits of the phone.

The only two things I've had a problem with so far:

- the cable is 3ft so it's tough to get from an outlet to my nightstand to charge it (solved by spending a few $$ to get a 6' cable - there's a thread on here linking to a bunch of sites where you can get micro usb cables)
- the VPN doesn't support Cisco VPN group names and group passwords which are a requirement to connect, so I can't use VPN (neither can most people). I made a thread on that which links to the bug that you can vote on to get done quicker.

Hope all this information helps!

[castalia]

I would say making the switch greatly depends on what you need out of your phone. Almost all of my friends are iPhone users and I could not in good faith tell them to make the jump to droid if it means breaking your contract.

In my opinion, if you are the type of person who needs to be able to VPN, use Exchange, SSH, or simply have a terminal, then there is no way the droid is not for you.

However if you simply want a slick smart phone with a good interface that will sync with damn near any computer then the iPhone might be great for you.

Now I will back up sir with his love for the google contacts and facebook integration. That is the best thing since sliced bread. I went to the store, setup my google account and instantly had my calendar and all of my contacts.

One other nice little bonus on Android phones. Google Voice. I have set mine to take over my phone. If you do this, you essentially spend Zero minutes and Zero Text messages (provided you get a Google Voice number). This has been a god send. There are of course a few issues with Google Voice since it is still in beta, but I have been very very happy with it.

So, to sum up. If you consider yourself a power user, I can't imagine a better phone for you then the Droid.

hope that helps.

[Sesso]

I just made the switch from a 3gs and I dont regret it.The apps are great and the video quality is amazing.

[Jokool_7777]

I had an iPhone. Not the latest version but I prefer the Droid simply because of the open development. I hate Apple and their proprietory ways and Verizon has better coverage (which accounts for the higher priced plans) anyway. I would suggest you making the switch. Pretty soon the Iphone is going to be that piece of hardware that only hardcore apple users are going to be using. Right now....75% of the iPhone users are in denial. They'll come around sooner or later.

[hackthedroid]

As a fellow iPhone user (and long time iPhone hacker) I'd ask you what is it that makes you want to switch? What are you afraid of losing by switching? What is your current phone lacking? Or is it that the AT&T service is just that horrible?

[Randomocity]

I just switched from a Blackberry bold, and previously an iPhone 3G and I have to say, I couldn't be happier with my decision. Sure, its not quite as intuitive as the iPhone, but it sure as hell beats the Blackberry in that regard. The droid basically combines everything I loved about both phones, with only small remnants of what I hated. I get the mass marketplace that the iPhone had, with a phyiscal keyboard and massive amounts of customization.

This is not a phone that you can pick up out of the box and have everything you could have ever wanted working, but spend an hour with it and you'll be in love.