About a month ago I decided I was fed up with carrying a work mobile and personal mobile around with me, especially as they were both smart phones.
My iPhone (3GS) is worn and getting on a bit, my HTC Desire HD Android phone was new and shiny. After sporadically using my Android phone for work related calls, a bit of testing, texting and checking out all of its widgets and apps I thought “you know what, Android is for me”.
So I took the plunge I updated my Facebook and Twitter statuses to announce my move to Android, I texted all my friends and family from my HTC – encountering my first problem, I could only text 20 people at a time. Maybe I should have stopped there, but I didn’t. I carried on for the next 25 minutes texting in 20 person batches.
Then I did it, something I haven’t done in a long time, I turned off my iPhone and put it on the coffee table, it looked lifeless and sad. Not being the sentimental type I sat back on my sofa, with my shiny HTC Desire HD in my hand wondering why I hadn’t done this sooner.
Sat on the sofa, with the TV on in the background I started to do what I usually do, check my emails and jump onto Twitter.
Here are how the events (and my slow realisation) unfolded.
19:30
Twitter app for Android is great, scrolling through my tweets was an absolute joy, soon enough I came across a link I wanted to bookmark. I use Instapaper for that, hang on a minute, I can’t do that – oh pants, that’s a bit of a blow! Nevermind, I’ll email them to myself at some point, I shouldn’t be on my phone anyway, I’ll talk to my wife instead. Actually, let me just check Facebook – aha one of my friends has done something silly, must comment on that, ok I’ll write something that will wind them up (my usual style) – blimey this keyboard is a bit of a nightmare to type more than a short SMS on… oh well how often do I type on a phone anyway?
19:40
Ok, they are sure to come straight back with something facetious, trying to outmatch my comment. “Bing”… email… yes this will be it, bit strange I didn’t have a push notification for that, oh well, let’s have a look – that’s irritating, my email is all big and I can’t resize it – nevermind I’ll drag left to see the rest of it. Oh yes, very funny [my friend’s reply on facebook] if not slightly offensive, not as funny as my comment though so not worth replying to that.
19:41
Right, jump onto the Internet to find out why push notifications aren’t working. This browser is really hard to use, pinch zoom is a bit clunky and the text rendering is a bit naff, anyway I’m getting distracted, push notifications. Oh… Android has no push notifications. Right. Um. Ok. Well that’s fine I don’t need to know about things instantly on Facebook, emails will do and I’ll set up my phone to text me for Twitter (that’s free).
20:08
Ok, I think I’m just about there now with a near iOS experience. I’ll just change my wallpaper to a nice photo of my son. What! He’s gone all squishy, pretty sure he wasn’t that squishy when I put him to bed tonight, confirm with wife, no definitely wrong, let me just adjust the aspect ratio, I can’t. Right.
20:11
Well that’s enough faffing around for one evening, I’ll now enjoy the rest of the evening.
20:13
Ah, a text saying someone has mentioned me on Twitter, I can’t click on the message to view in it’s entirety, just need to quit SMS, go to Twitter app, wait for it to load latest tweets, go to @ and then click on the tweet to reply. Wow that’s long winded.
20:14
Replied.
20:15
I’m not sure that Android is that good actually. I’m switching back.
20:16
Set up call forwarding from HTC to iPhone.
20:28 (The next day)
In order to not look too silly and to show that I hadn’t made one snap decision after another, I waited 24 hours to text all my friends with the following message (from my iPhone) along with a suitable update for Twitter and Facebook.
No offence Android, but you’re not for me.
I think we all go through that “try something else” stage. I’ve thus far managed to resist temptation although I nearly weakened with the latest phone. Glad I didn’t (apart from dropping it twice and some dimwit at Apple decided to make the whole thing from glass!).
What version of Android were you using, because 2.2, 2.3 and 3.1 (only ones I have experience with) all have push notifications.
Twitter and Facebook both work really well on the latest versions, and everything is dandy :)
I agree with the keyboard comment, its simply awful and I hit full stop instead of space at least twice per sentence.
I’m using Gingerbread, latest build for HTC on Vodafone UK. I will have to have another look (don’t have it with me today as it’s awaiting a new back cover after a replacement one was sent to me – battery draining issues!).
hmmmm, Gingerbread is 2.3 which is what I run on my Galaxy S and really enjoy the whole experience.
There are a few things I miss from my iPhone, and I do feel the iPhone offers a better user experience in terms of core functionality (texting and phone). But for apps, widgets, email, google services etc the Android is leaps and bounds ahead.
Widgets are amazing, Apple need to include them in iOS as it is starting to look dated. Especially on tablet devices, Honeycomb is so much better suited for them than iOS!
Ah, well that may well be where the problem resides… HTC’s interpretation of the OS. I know people criticise Apple for a closed environment but at least that allows for consistency across devices. Not too keen on the widgets either, they were constantly resetting and slowing down my phone :( Each to their own though – and that’s what makes the world so great!
Must be HTC’s implementation of Android then, as I don’t have any slow down (and I am on Galaxy S original not the new one).
I do find it ironic how web designers and developers who push for an open web, sharing and collaboration love Apple so much!
I may snip for the iPhone 5 when it comes out though, closet fan boy.
So you’re reason for picking the iphone over an android is because you don’t know how to use an android?
True, some apps like those made by twitter and facebook are not as good as the ones on iphone. That is because in a time long ago iphones were the most popular app using smart phones so some companies only focused on their iphone apps and other phones got the hand me downs. Sadly today companies like Facebook and Twitter are very behind the times and don’t realize that iphones are becoming a thing of the past and thus are still neglecting the now more widely used phone OS. I’m sure they will get a clue soon as androids continues to dominate over the iphone in numbers at a continuously increasing dramatic rate. Several tech magazines predict that the iphone has only 3 more years to live at this rate. But long story short, you shouldn’t use Twitter’s app for Twitter (there are much better apps out there on android) and you should just use your browser for facebook. The Dolphin browser being the browser of choice.
As for the keyboard, if you don’t like the default HTC keyboard you are using then simply use a different one. Androids give you the freedom to choose from a wide assortment of keyboards to fit the needs of the individual. I personally use SwiftKey but most people like Swype.
Sure, an iphone has less of a learning curve because it has far less options to learn. But if you are the type who wants your phone to fit your personal needs, instead of being dictated what your personal needs are, then an android is worth the time it takes to learn. I like my Android given freedom.
Thanks for your comments. I’ve had a fair play with my Android and I know how to use it. I prefer the iPhone because it is simpler to use. I will try out the apps you’ve mentioned though to see if it improves my experience with my HTC as soon as I get it back from Vodafone (it malfunctioned and I asked for a replacement).
My Google Nexus S definitely has push notifications. TweetDeck (free and very cool) provides the sending of links to other apps such as InstaFetch, Evernote, Gmail and many others. The Facebook app works well as far as I can see (not a big FB fan). SwiftKey makes the keyboard awesome (I’m convinced it’s using black magic). Your experience of Android seems odd and abnormal to be honest, almost like the phone is faulty. I’ve never had any problems with widgets at all, for example. Push notifications have always worked. Things all seem nicely integrated. Perhaps because I’ve never used an iPhone for more than 10 minutes my expectations were different, but in all I’ve been very impressed with my Nexus S. I’ve got several friends with Android phones and they’ve had similar experiences. Maybe give Android another try?
Thanks Charlie, I’ll check all those out. I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s HTC’s implementation of Android? Which in itself is a problem, an operating system that can give a great or poor experience dependent on the vendors implementation will harm Android. I’ll look into this in more detail though and thank you for commenting.
And for the very same reasons you’re listing, I switched from iPhone 3GS to Android and won’t ever look back.
I find iOS so outdated, boring and closed. I need a phone that can do what I want it to do, the way I want it to do, and that I can customize to my needs. As another commenter said, I cannot allow a company to dictate my needs.