7 ms·

IPhone to Droid X: Impressions of a Data Pig

57 points by cschanck 16y ago

dlsspy 16y ago
The Mail reader that ships with Froyo is actually useful. k9 never seemed much better than the useless junk that took up space in 1.5/1.6. With the exception of not being able to move a message to a different folder, it's actually a useful piece of software.
- AndrewDucker 16y ago
  The built-in one doesn't support IMAP Push (IDLE). K9 does.
sahaj 16y ago
i just recently went from iPhone 2G to Samsung Captivate and i can not stress enough just how easy navigating around android is. the back button, the search button, and the notification bar are the killer features. this author fails to find use of the search button, but for me this is an essential item. you can be in any app (contacts, im, mail, etc.) and hitting search will search that currently open app. if you hit the search button again, you can search the whole phone. i don't think i could ever go to a device that did not have this functionality.
- sandipc 16y ago
  holding the home button for a second pulls up a sort of task switcher of open/recent apps - once I discovered this a few weeks ago on my Droid Incredible, I've been using it nonstop
mirkules 16y ago
I just switched from iPhone 3GS to Android (Galaxy S). My first impression is that it's not as polished as the iPhone, but the overall gain in functionality is worth the switch. IMO the biggest pros (that iPhone lacks): - Micro SD card storage - Mount the phone as a USB drive or as a modem (hallelujah, why did it take so long for phones to get this?!) - Swype (reminds me of T9 on non-smart phones, sweet, although useless in foreign languages) - Task management, like the OP said - Sweet AMOLED screen - Widgets, surprisingly useful - Mail client allows multiple attachments (why the iPhone doesn't have this is beyond me), that aren't just pictures or videos - Access to filesystem (yay!) Some cons (as compared to iPhone): - Apps and the OS sometimes appear to hang when loading or when pressing buttons (it would be nice to add "loading..." screens) - CRAPWARE - why can't I remove useless AT&T apps I will never use? This is where Apple has a definite edge. Plus they all get loaded during boot, which is a major PITA - Lack of decent headphones (Samsung Galaxy S specific, I think). - Power button on the side (just a minor annoyance) - Android Market not as organized as the App Store.
- coderdude 16y ago
  It sounds like some of your issues are specific to your Android device and carrier (power button on the side and AT&T apps). Verizon + Droid has been an amazing experience for me.
- felideon 16y ago
  You _can_ remove the AT&T apps if you root the phone. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712546 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712546 http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/3319-stock-apps-that-can-be-deleted-post-root/ http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/3319-stock-apps-that-can-... http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/1950-galaxy-s-has-been-rooted-modacos-released-first-custom-rom/ http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/1950-galaxy-s-has-been-ro... I'm very close to switching from an iPhone 3G to the Galaxy S (captivate), so I'm glad to see someone confirming what I thought would be my impression: not so smooth but more functionality. Not sure if I should wait a few months though for an Android 3.0 lineup.
  - mirkules 16y ago
    Rooting your phone just to remove ads is like removing an engine from your car just to get rid of hubcaps -- they should just snap right off. But seriously, a new iPhone costs $199 with 2 year contract. My Galaxy S (Captivate) cost $229 with 2 year contract. You would think that for a higher price than the iPhone -- which is heralded as the end-all-be-all of smartphones, and which doesn't have ANY bloatware whatsoever -- Samsung could afford to not preload an otherwise awesome phone with so much crap.
    - felideon 16y ago
      I agree, I don't like the AT&T pre-installing crapware either, and it should be easy to uninstall. Your gripe on that point is caused by AT&T, not Samsung though (as coderdude mentioned). I think on Verizon the Galaxy S doesn't have as much bloatware. By the way, if you buy online from AT&T the Captivate costs $150 instead.
      - 16y ago
tocomment 16y ago
Somewhat related, any advice on whether I should get an HTC Incredible, or a Droid X? (or something else?)
- sandipc 16y ago
  I have an Incredible and have used an Evo in person - I haven't seen the X yet. I would say go check out the size of the Evo/X in person and see if that size of a phone is too big... it was for me. The pixel density of the Evo screen was also lacking a bit, and I understand the Droid X is similar in resolution and screen size. I hear the X has the best battery life of the three though.
Terretta 16y ago
Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call. This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine. It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle". "So where is that?" "Let me hang up, check, and call you back."
- htsh 16y ago
  I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's just me, but people don't call me for directions that much. I do agree that the author's word choice of "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology.
  - nfg 16y ago
    > "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology. Could you expand on this? I can't find anything other than it dating to the 1500/1600s, probably from Norwegian "Nigla" (to be penurious) or cognate with "Niggardly". As with "niggardly" I don't think there's any racial connotation to the term other than its sound?
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - htsh 16y ago
      The word "niggardly" and it's cognates are not preferred language not just due to their phonetic similarity to a word which unfortunately has awful connotation, but also because sophomoric racists have unfortunately appropriated these terms to have this sort of racial meaning. I should have said "recent etymology" above. For this reason, magazines and newspapers avoid the term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%22niggardly%22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%2... (see the bottom) I might be dating myself here, but "niggardly" and "niggle" used to be used quite often to imply racial meaning even if none technically exists. Perhaps we shouldn't avoid the term just b/c some ignorant folks used them in racist ways, but in this case I don't see the harm in avoiding it considering there are so many other ways to say the same thing. Unfortunately, once racists use these words to mean something other than their dictionary definitions, you run the risk of raising eyebrows amongst people who may have experienced these terms in these secondary contexts. In England, this is likely a different story. And would you really use "niggardly" to describe something in America in 2010? Really?
noodle 16y ago
related question for those who have experience: what do you think is the best phone and carrier combo on the market right now (or that will be on the market soon)? i'm about to be a free agent and i want to get myself into the best of whatever is out there.

57 points by cschanck 16y ago

The Mail reader that ships with Froyo is actually useful. k9 never seemed much better than the useless junk that took up space in 1.5/1.6. With the exception of not being able to move a message to a different folder, it's actually a useful piece of software.

AndrewDucker 16y ago
The built-in one doesn't support IMAP Push (IDLE). K9 does.

sahaj 16y ago

i just recently went from iPhone 2G to Samsung Captivate and i can not stress enough just how easy navigating around android is. the back button, the search button, and the notification bar are the killer features. this author fails to find use of the search button, but for me this is an essential item. you can be in any app (contacts, im, mail, etc.) and hitting search will search that currently open app. if you hit the search button again, you can search the whole phone. i don't think i could ever go to a device that did not have this functionality.

sandipc 16y ago
holding the home button for a second pulls up a sort of task switcher of open/recent apps - once I discovered this a few weeks ago on my Droid Incredible, I've been using it nonstop

mirkules 16y ago

I just switched from iPhone 3GS to Android (Galaxy S). My first impression is that it's not as polished as the iPhone, but the overall gain in functionality is worth the switch. IMO the biggest pros (that iPhone lacks): - Micro SD card storage - Mount the phone as a USB drive or as a modem (hallelujah, why did it take so long for phones to get this?!) - Swype (reminds me of T9 on non-smart phones, sweet, although useless in foreign languages) - Task management, like the OP said - Sweet AMOLED screen - Widgets, surprisingly useful - Mail client allows multiple attachments (why the iPhone doesn't have this is beyond me), that aren't just pictures or videos - Access to filesystem (yay!) Some cons (as compared to iPhone): - Apps and the OS sometimes appear to hang when loading or when pressing buttons (it would be nice to add "loading..." screens) - CRAPWARE - why can't I remove useless AT&T apps I will never use? This is where Apple has a definite edge. Plus they all get loaded during boot, which is a major PITA - Lack of decent headphones (Samsung Galaxy S specific, I think). - Power button on the side (just a minor annoyance) - Android Market not as organized as the App Store.

coderdude 16y ago
It sounds like some of your issues are specific to your Android device and carrier (power button on the side and AT&T apps). Verizon + Droid has been an amazing experience for me.
felideon 16y ago
You _can_ remove the AT&T apps if you root the phone. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712546 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712546 http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/3319-stock-apps-that-can-be-deleted-post-root/ http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/3319-stock-apps-that-can-... http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/1950-galaxy-s-has-been-rooted-modacos-released-first-custom-rom/ http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/1950-galaxy-s-has-been-ro... I'm very close to switching from an iPhone 3G to the Galaxy S (captivate), so I'm glad to see someone confirming what I thought would be my impression: not so smooth but more functionality. Not sure if I should wait a few months though for an Android 3.0 lineup.
- mirkules 16y ago
  Rooting your phone just to remove ads is like removing an engine from your car just to get rid of hubcaps -- they should just snap right off. But seriously, a new iPhone costs $199 with 2 year contract. My Galaxy S (Captivate) cost $229 with 2 year contract. You would think that for a higher price than the iPhone -- which is heralded as the end-all-be-all of smartphones, and which doesn't have ANY bloatware whatsoever -- Samsung could afford to not preload an otherwise awesome phone with so much crap.
  - felideon 16y ago
    I agree, I don't like the AT&T pre-installing crapware either, and it should be easy to uninstall. Your gripe on that point is caused by AT&T, not Samsung though (as coderdude mentioned). I think on Verizon the Galaxy S doesn't have as much bloatware. By the way, if you buy online from AT&T the Captivate costs $150 instead.
    - 16y ago

tocomment 16y ago

Somewhat related, any advice on whether I should get an HTC Incredible, or a Droid X? (or something else?)

sandipc 16y ago
I have an Incredible and have used an Evo in person - I haven't seen the X yet. I would say go check out the size of the Evo/X in person and see if that size of a phone is too big... it was for me. The pixel density of the Evo screen was also lacking a bit, and I understand the Droid X is similar in resolution and screen size. I hear the X has the best battery life of the three though.

Terretta 16y ago

Despite all the furor about iOS needing multitasking, this detail is glossed over: on Verizon you can't look up something requiring data while you're on a call. This isn't an Android vs iPhone issue: on AT&T my HTC Aria can handle a call while checking for directions on Google Maps just fine. It's interesting how total failure to support the most common smartphone multitasking scenario is glossed over as a "niggle". "So where is that?" "Let me hang up, check, and call you back."

htsh 16y ago
I'm not sure if it's the most common smartphone multitasking scenario. Considerably more common than that,I want to leave an application and come back to it without navigating from the beginning. For example, if I'm in twitter and I go to a link in the browser, I can come back to where I was in twitter. And I can do this with the back button. Do you really check for directions while on phone calls often? Perhaps it's just me, but people don't call me for directions that much. I do agree that the author's word choice of "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology.
- nfg 16y ago
  > "niggle" is troubling and slightly outdated, especially if you look up it's etymology. Could you expand on this? I can't find anything other than it dating to the 1500/1600s, probably from Norwegian "Nigla" (to be penurious) or cognate with "Niggardly". As with "niggardly" I don't think there's any racial connotation to the term other than its sound?
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - htsh 16y ago
    The word "niggardly" and it's cognates are not preferred language not just due to their phonetic similarity to a word which unfortunately has awful connotation, but also because sophomoric racists have unfortunately appropriated these terms to have this sort of racial meaning. I should have said "recent etymology" above. For this reason, magazines and newspapers avoid the term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%22niggardly%22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%2... (see the bottom) I might be dating myself here, but "niggardly" and "niggle" used to be used quite often to imply racial meaning even if none technically exists. Perhaps we shouldn't avoid the term just b/c some ignorant folks used them in racist ways, but in this case I don't see the harm in avoiding it considering there are so many other ways to say the same thing. Unfortunately, once racists use these words to mean something other than their dictionary definitions, you run the risk of raising eyebrows amongst people who may have experienced these terms in these secondary contexts. In England, this is likely a different story. And would you really use "niggardly" to describe something in America in 2010? Really?

noodle 16y ago

related question for those who have experience: what do you think is the best phone and carrier combo on the market right now (or that will be on the market soon)? i'm about to be a free agent and i want to get myself into the best of whatever is out there.