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fearmeforiampinkI am in the market for a new smartphone.
My original assumption was that I'd just be getting myself the new iPhone 5, but I've decided to give all the Android aficionados a chance to persuade me to switch. So in order to give you that chance, I'll give you information on my tastes, what I want, what I like and don't like. One thing I will say first, is that frothing about how Apple sucks will not win me over (I'm looking at you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theweaselking), I want specific arguments based on the advantages of such.
So, what do I want? In brief, something easy and uncomplicated to use, that works with my particular interface wants, that works with the particular set of other things I want out of it, and which comes with useful doohickeys.
What do I use my phone for?
Firstly, it's worth noting that the answer is 'not really for calling people very often. Since I got my phone, I have apparently used just an hour under two days total call time (I'm assuming that's both sent and received). Perhaps more usefully, since August 1st, I've done about four and a half hours of calls. This is despite me lacking a working landline for most or all of that time (and includes a few long conversations with my brother or suchlike things as a result).
It's incredibly useful to be able to send or receive a quick call for co-ordination purposes, ditto texts. But heavy use it will not be. This will likely lead to me buying whatever phone I get SIM free, and then getting a cheap contract for it, or transferring my current one. (T Mobile/Everything Everywhere, 100 minutes, 100 texts (rarely all used) and 2 GB/unlimited internet (they throttle rather than cut off if you overuse, and never charge extra). Data-wise, I make reasonable use of such, but not a huge amount. Since August 1st I've sent about a quarter of a gig, and received 1.7. And a fair chunk of that is stuff I could've done on a wifi if there was a need to. Mostly I don't want to be paying by the day for internet, or being hit with big bills if my usage spikes slightly. If I can get the phone for a reduced price on a contract that fits my usage (and doesn't cost more over the contract length), that is a definite plus
Beyond that, I use it quite a lot for transport stuff; maps, and transport apps (mostly tube/bus stuff, but trains at times too). Email and social media also get used a fair amount. Finally, I do a certain amount of reading on it; news, other websites (like LJ) and PDFs (generally RPG books)
What do I need out of it?
Something that lasts. My current phone is an iPhone 3GS, bought when those came out in this country, summer 2009. It's battery is now fairly awful, it's noticeably slower than it once was, and it crashes rather more. But it has served me well.
Something simple to use. Yes, the locked down-ness of iPhones can be annoying at times. But they are easy and intuitive to use. I don't want to have to be poking around at my phone to make it work.
A half decent camera is needed, but it doesn't have to be great. A 'hard' (i.e. non-screen) keyboard is an instant disqualification; I find those much harder to use. One of the things that originally attracted me to the iphone was the fairly big screen with a keyboard that's good at figuring out what you meant to hit, or autocorrecting if you missed.
What do I want out of it
For it to be reasonably high spec, so if I get it doing harder stuff it can cope with it (plus, high spec now means remaining useful longer into the future). Long battery life is definitely nice.
'Cool stuff' - if it does things that are cool but also actually useful, then that's something of a plus. I know it's not a particularly big thing yet, but I was disappointed that the iPhone 5 didn't have NFC, so something that does have that scores extra - whilst it'll be a while 'till that gets big, I expect it to have done so *well* before I get a new phone.
My original assumption was that I'd just be getting myself the new iPhone 5, but I've decided to give all the Android aficionados a chance to persuade me to switch. So in order to give you that chance, I'll give you information on my tastes, what I want, what I like and don't like. One thing I will say first, is that frothing about how Apple sucks will not win me over (I'm looking at you,
theweaselking), I want specific arguments based on the advantages of such.So, what do I want? In brief, something easy and uncomplicated to use, that works with my particular interface wants, that works with the particular set of other things I want out of it, and which comes with useful doohickeys.
What do I use my phone for?
Firstly, it's worth noting that the answer is 'not really for calling people very often. Since I got my phone, I have apparently used just an hour under two days total call time (I'm assuming that's both sent and received). Perhaps more usefully, since August 1st, I've done about four and a half hours of calls. This is despite me lacking a working landline for most or all of that time (and includes a few long conversations with my brother or suchlike things as a result).
It's incredibly useful to be able to send or receive a quick call for co-ordination purposes, ditto texts. But heavy use it will not be. This will likely lead to me buying whatever phone I get SIM free, and then getting a cheap contract for it, or transferring my current one. (T Mobile/Everything Everywhere, 100 minutes, 100 texts (rarely all used) and 2 GB/unlimited internet (they throttle rather than cut off if you overuse, and never charge extra). Data-wise, I make reasonable use of such, but not a huge amount. Since August 1st I've sent about a quarter of a gig, and received 1.7. And a fair chunk of that is stuff I could've done on a wifi if there was a need to. Mostly I don't want to be paying by the day for internet, or being hit with big bills if my usage spikes slightly. If I can get the phone for a reduced price on a contract that fits my usage (and doesn't cost more over the contract length), that is a definite plus
Beyond that, I use it quite a lot for transport stuff; maps, and transport apps (mostly tube/bus stuff, but trains at times too). Email and social media also get used a fair amount. Finally, I do a certain amount of reading on it; news, other websites (like LJ) and PDFs (generally RPG books)
What do I need out of it?
Something that lasts. My current phone is an iPhone 3GS, bought when those came out in this country, summer 2009. It's battery is now fairly awful, it's noticeably slower than it once was, and it crashes rather more. But it has served me well.
Something simple to use. Yes, the locked down-ness of iPhones can be annoying at times. But they are easy and intuitive to use. I don't want to have to be poking around at my phone to make it work.
A half decent camera is needed, but it doesn't have to be great. A 'hard' (i.e. non-screen) keyboard is an instant disqualification; I find those much harder to use. One of the things that originally attracted me to the iphone was the fairly big screen with a keyboard that's good at figuring out what you meant to hit, or autocorrecting if you missed.
What do I want out of it
For it to be reasonably high spec, so if I get it doing harder stuff it can cope with it (plus, high spec now means remaining useful longer into the future). Long battery life is definitely nice.
'Cool stuff' - if it does things that are cool but also actually useful, then that's something of a plus. I know it's not a particularly big thing yet, but I was disappointed that the iPhone 5 didn't have NFC, so something that does have that scores extra - whilst it'll be a while 'till that gets big, I expect it to have done so *well* before I get a new phone.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-11 02:23 am (UTC)Google Play extremely convenient, letting you push apps to your phone from the web interface. The selection of apps is better, since competing apps are allowed to compete. You're able to side-load non-store apps if you want, or load different stores - you can load Amazon or Samsung's stores and get from them if you want. And you don't have to worry about an app disappearing from your machine just because it violates an alleged moral restriction at Apple. The ability to swap in features like new and different keyboards is huge - if you've never used Swype, you're missing out, and if you're one of the rare people who hate Swype, well, the stock Android 4.2 keyboard is actually really good. And the larger screen with the better resolution makes it much easier to read things, particularly things like gaming book PDFs that weren't made for a smaller screen.
Neat gadgets: Android 4's built-in Cards and search functions are damn near spooky. Like, pops up driving directions and times based on where you are where where you usually travel at this time, brings up flight details based on things you've searched for in the past, pulls of Places entries nearby, yanks your calendar for reminders based on travel time to the appointment, automatically converts currency while travelling - all kinds of cool stuff. All optional, of course.
Oh, and the iPhone 5 costs $650, unlocked and plan-independent.. The Nexus 4 costs $300.
The iPhone does have larger internal storage, which would be nice if I could think of a use for it. I keep a copy of Wikipedia on my phone simply because I can.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-11 03:35 am (UTC)Back buttons, and rapid app-switching with thumbnails and remembered position. Android does them both.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-11 08:01 am (UTC)