Why I no longer like the iPhone and why I love Android (+ an experiment)
I've been in my phone geek mode for a bit the last days. Yesterday I suddenly wondered if I could get @ms_powder , an iPhone addict, to use an Android phone for a while. Why? Well, I've been very annoyed by the iPhone lately . I've also heard @ms_powder curse her own iPhone several times these last weeks. Since I'm the one who convinced her to buy the phone a year ago I came up with this little experiment. Can she make the switch to an Android phone? Is she geeky enough or are Android phones non geek proof?
A little background info
When the iPhone just came out I imported one from the US and spent the next two years jailbreaking it. I lost a lot of sleep over it, but I absolutely loved my iPhone. I couldn't imagine ever wanting another phone. But then the iPhone 3G was introduced in Belgium and I was puzzled. Sure, I would love a new iPhone but the high price and few improvements just weren't worth the hassle of trying to buy one (wasn't easy!). Even the 3Gs didn't impress me. On top of that, Mobistar's launch of the 3G and 3Gs in Belgium was everything but smooth. I'd also been having my doubts for a while about the iPhone OS and the attitude of Apple towards jailbreaking, developers and locking the phone. So one day I decided I'd had enough of it.
My first Android
I went out and bought my first Android phone in june 2009. It was the HTC Magic and even though I absolutely loved it the first months, I did start missing the smooth interface of the iPhone. However, I had finally seen how much the iPhone lacked: decent phone notifications, multitasking, easily share content without opening several applications, play music in the background on Last.fm, install apps that aren't approved without jailbreaking and so on and on and on...
My second Android
There was no way I wanted to go back to the closed iPhone platform. So I chose to try out the HTC Hero. The HTC Sense interface is fantastic and has made me completely forget about the iPhone. When I use @ms_powder's iPhone for a bit, or my own iPod Touch, I get really annoyed by the simple icons, the lack of multitasking, the battery (it just drains and drains and drains!), the settings screen outside of the apps, the very few customization options, ... Basically, the only things I still like about the iPhone are the larger screen and the keyboard. That's it. It really feels like a phone for dummies to me! (sorry guys ;)
The Magic experiment
So I got my old HTC Magic out of the box (I was going to sell it but never got around to it) and configured everything so that @ms_powder would have all the things she loves so much on her iPhone. Sadly, HTC sucks at updating software for existing phones (apparently) and even fails to provide updating software for Macs! I had to root the Magic to install a custom ROM with HTC Sense since I didn't have a Windows computer to install the official ROM with. (Come on, don't make it so hard to be your customer HTC!)
So, let's see...
To conclude my geeky rant: I, myself, LOVE Android but I'm still waiting for the first Android phone that is 'out of your mind cool' AND was manufactured by a company that knows how to treat their customers. For now, I'm more than content with my HTC Hero (rooted and with custom ROM MoDaCo)! Let's see what @ms_powder thinks of her rooted HTC Magic with custom ROM MyHero (with HTC Sense) once she gets over missing the iPhone keyboard! I wonder if she thinks it's 'too complicated' after using the iPhone or will she grow fond of Android's options? Looking forward to her tweets and blog posts about her experience!
Oh, and since iPhone lovers tend to defend the iPhone like it is a matter of life or death...Bring it on ;)
EDIT 21/02/10 My girlfriend blogged about her experiences with the HTC Magic and Android so make sure to check out that post :-)
Related posts:
Follow @Amon_RA, he develops custom Android ROM’s. And @eMich is a good source for all Android stuff.
I hear the Nexus One (by Google itself) is pretty good.
I’ll wait for June 2010 and see what’s on the market (either a next-gen iPhone or a decent Android). But it’s almost certain 2010 will be the year I stop using Blackberry.
Ah I saw you cursing your Blackberry a lot on Twitter lately. Why are you making the switch? I’m always tempted to look at Blackberry but when I do the UI and apps just seems like …very old school compared to the other devices that are available
Skipped the iPhone hype altogether and am slowly losing my Mac fanboism traits – I also don’t see much in a low-end user aimed iPad.
Moved to Linux over a year ago and never looked back. Next phone will definitely be Android, most likely HTC.
Yeah, the iPad isn’t on my ‘want’ list either. I think I’d rather have a Google tablet if I decide to even go for one. I just don’t see myself traveling with a tablet. I have a Kindle for ebooks and a tablet’s screen would be bad for my eyes.
I’m not so fond of the HTC hardware and especially frustrated with their slow updates. Even though the Hero is amazing, you’re going to have to wait a long time for an update to the latest Android firmware. Maybe things will be better for the Nexus One which has HTC hardware but since it’s an official Google phone things might move faster :)
I tried Ubuntu several times and love it :) But I really need my Mac for radio editing etc.