6 ms·

IPhone to Droid-X: Lots to Like

66 points by cschanck 16y ago

nubela 16y ago
Having just moved from the iPhone experience of 3 years to an android experience. YES, YES, and YES! The android is the true fully featured phone. With the iPhone, I felt the need to tether because surfing the web is so clunky. Now, even though I have the power to tether, I don't. Because its so much easier and fun on my Milestone! The annoyances that plague this guy, well, doesn't really affect me, apart from the distinct radio groups that doesn't integrate together well, yeah, with SipDroid, that does become an annoyance when I'm moving and using VoIP. Other than that... Wow. Android. I am now a 100% fuck-you Apple anti-fanboy. Just saying.
- rimantas 16y ago
  With the iPhone, I felt the need to tether because surfing the web is so clunky. Can you elaborate?
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    I have an iPhone and I think I know what the GP is saying (although I haven't tried Android). I have a 3G which is basically unusable for the web because it's so slow, and I haven't even put iOS 4 on it. Apart from that, however, Safari basically just has no features. The form filling is so broken that, when I type half my email address in and it offers to fill it out, I tap on it to dismiss it and it fills the box out twice, so my email looks like username@domusername@domain.commain.com. Apart from that, the screen is too small to navigate well, so it ends up being tedious. 99% of my complaints, however, are due to the slow speed. It's just unusable, period.
    - jsz0 16y ago
      There are many WebKit based browsers in the App Store. I use Atomic Web because it has ad blocking and full screen. Won't fix your performance issues but it's worth mentioning there are some choices on the feature/UI side.
    - rimantas 16y ago
      Interesting, I also have iPhone 3G (with 4.1 beta installed) and I do browse web a lot. Mobile Safari was the first useable browser on mobile device, imho, and multitouch + zoom on tap makes it even better. Android browser uses the same Webkit engine, hence my question, what's so different about browsing.
      - StavrosK 16y ago
        Oh, of course, I don't disagree with that. Before the iPhone and Safari, you could not browse the web at all. It's just that now, other phones have evolved.
    - Synaesthesia 16y ago
      I think an Android phone with similar specs will have the same speed (eg G1 or Magic), but modern iPhones & Android phones are much faster.
      - carpo 16y ago
        I had an HTC Magic for a year and found the web browsing to be great. Never used an iPhone to compare though. I loved that I could open multiple Windows, which I pretty much did every browsing session. I have an HTC desire now and its awesome. Really, really awesome.
        Synaesthesia 16y ago
        You can open multiple windows on an iPhone too. I found the Magic and the iPhone 2G/3G to be pretty much the same WRT to speed.
      - StavrosK 16y ago
        Hmm yeah, probably... My comment wasn't exclusive to the iPhone, then, so disregard that part...
    - albertzeyer 16y ago
      I have read somewhere else that iOS4 has improved the MobileSafari speed/performance. Maybe you should try it. Whereby I couldn't really tell the difference. I have an 3GS and it was fast with iOS3 and it is as fast in iOS4.
      - adbge 16y ago
        iOS4 makes the 3G nigh unusable because the phone is constantly forced to flush memory to swap causing the UI to hang while the OS waits to write to disk. So, no, do not upgrade a 3G to iOS4 for improved anything. (Well, the icons are a little prettier.)
        ChRoss 16y ago
        iOS4 is just horrible in my 3GS. I hit "App low memory" error during my first hour of use, and now I need to clean apps in App switch manager to free up some RAM when the phone feel sluggish. It gives me additional thing to do. I only like the folder feature.
        megablast 16y ago
        No, it does not. I have been running 4.0 for the 3 weeks, sure it is a bit slower, and there are things you can do to speed it up (you shouldn't have to, but you do). But it is not unstable at all. It never crashes. Is it worth upgrading if you have a 3G? No. You get some updates apps, better email, and folders.
        StavrosK 16y ago
        He said unusable, though, not unstable... Do you know if I can finally add different email addresses for outgoing mail? I have 10 email addresses that map to the same inbox, but I need to send mail from all of them. Right now iOS 3 doesn't let me do that at all... Does anyone know if this is easy on the Android?
        glhaynes 16y ago
        iOS doesn't use a swapfile.
    - nileshk 16y ago
      I just recently acquired a 3GS, after previously having used a 3G and a 2G. The 3GS is much faster, such that I don't feel like I experience lag in most operations. I had no idea that improving the speed could make such a difference in the entire usability of the device. I am now using my iPhone more than I had ever used previous versions. I think because the time to accomplish a task is so much shorter, I find more opportunities to use it. I'm using the browser more, because the speed is close to a regular computer (or at least feels like it is). Sure, the screen is small for browsing, but I'm finding myself using double-tap to quickly zoom in and out of parts of the page (whereas before I used a lot of pinch zooming), and panning around the page is quick and painless now (I think it holds more of the rendered page in memory and has to re-render less). I don't know if my next phone will be an iPhone or Android, but I do know one thing: it will be fast. Warning on the 3G and iOS4: Iif you upgrade to iOS 4 on your 3G, you may fall into the large subset of people who are experiencing extreme slowdowns. I was one of those people. I had never seen such terrible slowdowns on an iPhone. With a bit of hacking, you can downgrade back to 3.1.2 or 3.1.3, but it's not supported by Apple and requires some 3rd-party tools. There are supposed fixes for this (such as turning off spotlight), but I'd suggest waiting for this to get ironed out before moving to iOS 4. Maybe 4.1 will fix things. iOS 4 doesn't give the 3G much of value anyway.
      - StavrosK 16y ago
        I agree with you entirely. I might paraphrase and say that every second I have to wait for my phone to perform an operation cuts my usage of it in half... I guess I was only half on topic on the previous comment, since I was talking more about slow phones than the iPhone in particular (even though it is an iPhone and the slowness is a part of it). I have struggled to find a fast phone for ages now. The fastest phone I've had is a Nokia 6500, which just does most of what I want, and instantly. Unfortunately, as I find myself connected to my business more and more, I need a phone that can help me. I don't think you can hope that 4.1 will fix anything. Slowness on old devices is part of Apple's planned obsolescence. How else would they get you to buy a new iPhone?
        nileshk 16y ago
- loire280 16y ago
  I'm glad you like your phone, but of course your brand new Android phone surfs the web better than your old iPhone. It's got a faster CPU, more RAM, and a higher-resolution screen. Web surfing is very similar among similarly-specced phones across all of the major OSes (it's mostly the same browser, after all).
  - yoden 16y ago
    Not really that true, I have an 3rd gen touch and a Moto Droid, and I much prefer the android device. Better resolution, better browsers (parallel load of tabs, faster tab switching, capability to render more than one tab at a time, flash integration (skyfire), etc), better integration with other applications (youtube, quickoffice, music app, gallery app, etc).
  - bconway 16y ago
    Web surfing is very similar among similarly-specced phones across all of the major OSes Actually, not at all. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/07/android-22-demolishes-ios4-in-javascript-benchmarks.ars http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/07/android-22-demol...
    - loire280 16y ago
      Good point, I forgot about the gap in Javascript performance. We're currently in an arms race of Javascript interpreters, though, and there's nothing stopping Apple or Palm from using Android's interpreter in the next release.
- archgrove 16y ago
  You do realise that saying "I am now a 100% fuck-you Apple anti-fanboy" renders your entire post worthless? By the definition of fanboy you're saying your judgement is biased, your conclusions skewed, and your opinions suspect to the point that anyone who doesn't just want positive reenforcement of their existing ideas should ignore you.
Terretta 16y ago
> "Wifi Tethering. I don’t need to tether often, but when I do, I do. I rooted my phone quickly, just so I could use one of the many apps in the Marketplace to tether my laptop via Wifi. Worked flawlessly, no extra charge." That's tantamount to saying "I jail-broke my iPhone quickly, so I could use one of the many apps on Cydia to tether my laptop via WiFi" ... except you don't need an app for that because tethering is built into iOS. You need a different network provisioning file in the States, and elsewhere in the world tethering is enabled by default. I liked the form factor of the HTC Aria but found his following points to be deal breakers, so am back to iPhone for now: - every couple of days, you do need to reboot the phone - no cellular data while you are in a call - no cloud push in Android 2.1 - separate email apps for Gmail and everything else - IMAP email is very weak; really weak - the OS (and therefore the apps) are really clunky at switching between voice/data/wifi I was also put off by the extremely popular apps carrying name brand logos that disclaimed association with the brand while asking permission to make charge calls from my number.
- starnix17 16y ago
  I agree with your tethering comment, but FWIW there are a handful of tethering apps you can get without rooting Android that allow any user to tether for free.
  - elblanco 16y ago
    I pretty happily use PDANet for some basic stuff.
- martythemaniak 16y ago
  Tethering is also built into Froyo, which I've been happily using since May. Also, "no cellular data while you're in a call" is a CDMA vs GSM issue, not an Android/iOS/Blackberry issue.
  - bho 16y ago
    Unfortunately, the Droid X does not have Froyo yet, nor is the bootloader decrypted yet, so there's no way to get 2.2 on it as of right now. Hopefully it gets it soon, since the Droid 2 announced today does have it.
sspencer 16y ago
" Every couple of days, you do need to reboot the phone. " Love how this was tossed out there as an afterthought. Huge, obnoxious deal-breaker. I love losing state every 2 days! /sarcasm
- jokermatt999 16y ago
  It's odd, because that hasn't been my experience with Android at all. I've got a Droid (not X, not 2, just the original), and the only times I've never needed to shut it down. In fact, the only times it's been off have been from me forgetting to charge it. Last I checked, my uptime was 550+ hours with no sluggishness at all.
  - kyleslattery 16y ago
    With my Droid, I regularly have to reboot to get GPS to work, and I've had the issue on all 3 of the Droids I've had (replaced due to other issues).
    - jokermatt999 16y ago
      Have you tried just toggling the GPS settings? I occasionally have issues with it, but toggling the setting has always worked for me.
      - kyleslattery 16y ago
        Yes, that sometimes works, but there are a lot of times where I need to do a restart of the phone too.
  - jsz0 16y ago
    I get pretty bad lag (contacts, dial pad especially) on my Eris after a few days. Advanced Task Killer clears it up though. I feel like HTC Sense users get a lower quality experience in general. Poorer performance, cruddy built-in apps replacing the better stock apps, widget overload by default, too many bundled applications, etc.
  - 16y ago
bconway 16y ago
We recently moved from a family of iPhones to a Droid and Droid Incredible. I can't believe we didn't make the move sooner, although I suppose the Incredible isn't old enough to have made it much sooner. Regardless, for those not wanting as large of a phone, check out the Droid 2, due out imminently: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/see-what-droid-does-next-droid-2-by-motorola-pre-sale-starts-august-11-at-verizonwirelesscom-100338254.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/see-what-droid-does-...
- Qz 16y ago
  How is the Incredible? I'm about to get one on Friday when my $50 credit comes in.
  - bconway 16y ago
    It's fantastic, very fast and responsive, thin, and light. We bought ours through Amazon's wireless site and got a decent discount over Verizon's store. I'm not a big fan of the Sense UI, but it doesn't have any major flaws. At this time, I've rooted it using the Unrevoked method, but I'm waiting for a final release of the Android 2.2-based CyanogenMod 6 before trying anything more adventurous.
  - tocomment 16y ago
    I think it's great. My only complaints are that the camera is horrendous. Every picture is blurry no matter how still I hold the camera. Also the speaker sounds muffled and too quiet on regular phone calls. (Yes, the volume is all the way up.) Oh and the battery life is kind of bad. I had to read a couple of articles and turn off all kinds of things off to make it last through the day. I think the battery has some kind of breaking in period too as it's been doing much better lately.
    - cma 16y ago
      Sounds like your camera is seriously screwed; mine doesn't have this issue at all.
kyleslattery 16y ago
> The Back button, it is wonderful. I said this before, and after nearly a month I am even more convinced, the lowly back button is the most significant architectural advantage for Android. To me (a Droid user since day 1), the back button and the whole workflow of launching other apps from within an original app started off as something I liked, but it's kind of a strange concept. When it works well (open a browser from an app, press back, and you're back in the original app), it's really nice, but sometimes these nested apps get a bit confusing. For instance: open a link from a Twitter client, and it brings you to the browser. Hit home, and then open the browser. Personally, I would expect to go to the link the Twitter client sent you to. However, this is nowhere to be found, instead you're at the last page you used the browser directly for. I've become used to this, but it really isn't that intuitive for new users. I've handed my phone to my mom, and she's definitely had issues with where the back button is taking her. Also, I've noticed a few games that don't implement the back button, and pressing it, rather than doing what you'd expect (bringing you a pause screen, the game's menu, etc.), it dumps you on the home screen. Granted, this is the app developer's fault, but it's just another area where the back button does something strange.
- yoden 16y ago
  Home resets your state completely. Much more sane to do that than leave state hidden around. You want what you were just doing? Back. You want to do something different? Home. Simple.
keltex 16y ago
"I pine for a Mini-USB conenction, but Micro-USB is much better than some properietary connector. (I like Mini better than Micro because the slightly larger form factor seems far more durable. Time will tell.) " Actually the Micro USB was designed to be more durable than the Mini USB... up to 10,000 connect / disconnect cycles. Plus the wear parts in the Micro USB are in the cable rather than the device. Much cheaper to replace the cable.
- mirkules 16y ago
  I heard this from other people too, but somehow it just /feels/ less durable for me, especially when I am plugging it in. I feel some grinding of metal parts and often wonder if this thing will last. Actually, I feel the same thing with the iPod/iPhone connectors, but it's definitely more pronounced on the micro-USB connectors.
metamemetics 16y ago
It took me until this month to get a smart phone because I'm surrounded by computers all day at home and work so I never wanted my phone to be one. Was going to switch to Sprint Evo or Droid-X but ended up stuck with ATT for a while longer so iPhone4ed it. Despite all the web-tabloid tech-drama, my general disdain for iLifestyle marketing, and having never owned an Apple device... I actually couldn't be happier so far. I just use the digitally imported (http://www.di.fm http://www.di.fm) app for music so I've never had to mess with iTunes, maybe that's why? edit: going to get OSX to triple-boot with win7\ubuntu, maybe my mind will change once I give the SDK a whirl
jrockway 16y ago
IMAP email is very weak. Really weak. Even the third party clients are weak. How so? I am an IMAP power-user and K9 meets all of my needs. Flagging works, push works, folders work, SSL + auth works in both directions, and it supports my self-signed certificate. K9 is infinitely better than my work Blackberry, which is supposedly the "premier push email experience". I am really not sure what more an email client could do for you.
- gleb 16y ago
  K9 is good. Not up to the standards of 6 year old ChatterEmail on Palm just yet, but vastly better than the builtin client of iPhone's Mail. And it's an active Open Source project improving on original Android's source, a direct benefit of Android's openness: * http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/ http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/ * http://www.slideshare.net/obrajesse/k9 http://www.slideshare.net/obrajesse/k9 * http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/source/list http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/source/list * http://groups.google.com/group/k-9-mail/topics http://groups.google.com/group/k-9-mail/topics Incidentally Mark Blanc, author of ChatterEmail on Palm now works for Google on Android Email (among other things?). As best as one can tell he gave up on the idea of creating a killer email client for Android on his own or was acquired: * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Blank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Blank * http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/apps/Email.git;a=summary http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/apps/Emai... * http://forum.androidcentral.com/android-applications/22105-marc-blank-you-out-there.html http://forum.androidcentral.com/android-applications/22105-m...
- jsz0 16y ago
  K-9's UI is kind of terrible though it is fully functional.
  - gleb 16y ago
    Ugly it definitely is.
    - jrockway 16y ago
      The notification bar says how many new messages you have. You follow the notification and get a list of messages. You read them, then they go away. You can press the star to flag. You can click reply to reply. It's weird that you have to press menu and choose an option to send a message after you've composed it, but it's not really that bad of a UI choice.
tocomment 16y ago
Droid X Questions: Is it better than the incredible? Does Droid X have a hardware keyboard? I can't tell from the page. How does the HMDI thing work? Does it connect to a television somehow? Do I have to pay to do that?
- noodle 16y ago
  > Is it better than the incredible? it has better tech specs. the rest is subjective, imo. > Does Droid X have a hardware keyboard? no. > How does the HMDI thing work? Does it connect to a television somehow? Do I have to pay to do that? you plug it in with a type d connector (iirc). its free but only works for the gallery where you can play videos and view pictures.
batiudrami 16y ago
I always find the statement 'I am yet to drop a call' from Americans very strange. What the hell is wrong with your mobile networks?

66 points by cschanck 16y ago

Having just moved from the iPhone experience of 3 years to an android experience. YES, YES, and YES! The android is the true fully featured phone. With the iPhone, I felt the need to tether because surfing the web is so clunky. Now, even though I have the power to tether, I don't. Because its so much easier and fun on my Milestone! The annoyances that plague this guy, well, doesn't really affect me, apart from the distinct radio groups that doesn't integrate together well, yeah, with SipDroid, that does become an annoyance when I'm moving and using VoIP. Other than that... Wow. Android. I am now a 100% fuck-you Apple anti-fanboy. Just saying.

rimantas 16y ago
With the iPhone, I felt the need to tether because surfing the web is so clunky. Can you elaborate?
- StavrosK 16y ago
  I have an iPhone and I think I know what the GP is saying (although I haven't tried Android). I have a 3G which is basically unusable for the web because it's so slow, and I haven't even put iOS 4 on it. Apart from that, however, Safari basically just has no features. The form filling is so broken that, when I type half my email address in and it offers to fill it out, I tap on it to dismiss it and it fills the box out twice, so my email looks like username@domusername@domain.commain.com. Apart from that, the screen is too small to navigate well, so it ends up being tedious. 99% of my complaints, however, are due to the slow speed. It's just unusable, period.
  - jsz0 16y ago
    There are many WebKit based browsers in the App Store. I use Atomic Web because it has ad blocking and full screen. Won't fix your performance issues but it's worth mentioning there are some choices on the feature/UI side.
  - rimantas 16y ago
    Interesting, I also have iPhone 3G (with 4.1 beta installed) and I do browse web a lot. Mobile Safari was the first useable browser on mobile device, imho, and multitouch + zoom on tap makes it even better. Android browser uses the same Webkit engine, hence my question, what's so different about browsing.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      Oh, of course, I don't disagree with that. Before the iPhone and Safari, you could not browse the web at all. It's just that now, other phones have evolved.
  - Synaesthesia 16y ago
    I think an Android phone with similar specs will have the same speed (eg G1 or Magic), but modern iPhones & Android phones are much faster.
    - carpo 16y ago
      I had an HTC Magic for a year and found the web browsing to be great. Never used an iPhone to compare though. I loved that I could open multiple Windows, which I pretty much did every browsing session. I have an HTC desire now and its awesome. Really, really awesome.
      - Synaesthesia 16y ago
        You can open multiple windows on an iPhone too. I found the Magic and the iPhone 2G/3G to be pretty much the same WRT to speed.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      Hmm yeah, probably... My comment wasn't exclusive to the iPhone, then, so disregard that part...
  - albertzeyer 16y ago
    I have read somewhere else that iOS4 has improved the MobileSafari speed/performance. Maybe you should try it. Whereby I couldn't really tell the difference. I have an 3GS and it was fast with iOS3 and it is as fast in iOS4.
    - adbge 16y ago
      iOS4 makes the 3G nigh unusable because the phone is constantly forced to flush memory to swap causing the UI to hang while the OS waits to write to disk. So, no, do not upgrade a 3G to iOS4 for improved anything. (Well, the icons are a little prettier.)
      - ChRoss 16y ago
        iOS4 is just horrible in my 3GS. I hit "App low memory" error during my first hour of use, and now I need to clean apps in App switch manager to free up some RAM when the phone feel sluggish. It gives me additional thing to do. I only like the folder feature.
      - megablast 16y ago
        No, it does not. I have been running 4.0 for the 3 weeks, sure it is a bit slower, and there are things you can do to speed it up (you shouldn't have to, but you do). But it is not unstable at all. It never crashes. Is it worth upgrading if you have a 3G? No. You get some updates apps, better email, and folders.
        StavrosK 16y ago
        He said unusable, though, not unstable... Do you know if I can finally add different email addresses for outgoing mail? I have 10 email addresses that map to the same inbox, but I need to send mail from all of them. Right now iOS 3 doesn't let me do that at all... Does anyone know if this is easy on the Android?
      - glhaynes 16y ago
        iOS doesn't use a swapfile.
  - nileshk 16y ago
    I just recently acquired a 3GS, after previously having used a 3G and a 2G. The 3GS is much faster, such that I don't feel like I experience lag in most operations. I had no idea that improving the speed could make such a difference in the entire usability of the device. I am now using my iPhone more than I had ever used previous versions. I think because the time to accomplish a task is so much shorter, I find more opportunities to use it. I'm using the browser more, because the speed is close to a regular computer (or at least feels like it is). Sure, the screen is small for browsing, but I'm finding myself using double-tap to quickly zoom in and out of parts of the page (whereas before I used a lot of pinch zooming), and panning around the page is quick and painless now (I think it holds more of the rendered page in memory and has to re-render less). I don't know if my next phone will be an iPhone or Android, but I do know one thing: it will be fast. Warning on the 3G and iOS4: Iif you upgrade to iOS 4 on your 3G, you may fall into the large subset of people who are experiencing extreme slowdowns. I was one of those people. I had never seen such terrible slowdowns on an iPhone. With a bit of hacking, you can downgrade back to 3.1.2 or 3.1.3, but it's not supported by Apple and requires some 3rd-party tools. There are supposed fixes for this (such as turning off spotlight), but I'd suggest waiting for this to get ironed out before moving to iOS 4. Maybe 4.1 will fix things. iOS 4 doesn't give the 3G much of value anyway.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      I agree with you entirely. I might paraphrase and say that every second I have to wait for my phone to perform an operation cuts my usage of it in half... I guess I was only half on topic on the previous comment, since I was talking more about slow phones than the iPhone in particular (even though it is an iPhone and the slowness is a part of it). I have struggled to find a fast phone for ages now. The fastest phone I've had is a Nokia 6500, which just does most of what I want, and instantly. Unfortunately, as I find myself connected to my business more and more, I need a phone that can help me. I don't think you can hope that 4.1 will fix anything. Slowness on old devices is part of Apple's planned obsolescence. How else would they get you to buy a new iPhone?
      - nileshk 16y ago
loire280 16y ago
I'm glad you like your phone, but of course your brand new Android phone surfs the web better than your old iPhone. It's got a faster CPU, more RAM, and a higher-resolution screen. Web surfing is very similar among similarly-specced phones across all of the major OSes (it's mostly the same browser, after all).
- yoden 16y ago
  Not really that true, I have an 3rd gen touch and a Moto Droid, and I much prefer the android device. Better resolution, better browsers (parallel load of tabs, faster tab switching, capability to render more than one tab at a time, flash integration (skyfire), etc), better integration with other applications (youtube, quickoffice, music app, gallery app, etc).
- bconway 16y ago
  Web surfing is very similar among similarly-specced phones across all of the major OSes Actually, not at all. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/07/android-22-demolishes-ios4-in-javascript-benchmarks.ars http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/07/android-22-demol...
  - loire280 16y ago
    Good point, I forgot about the gap in Javascript performance. We're currently in an arms race of Javascript interpreters, though, and there's nothing stopping Apple or Palm from using Android's interpreter in the next release.
archgrove 16y ago
You do realise that saying "I am now a 100% fuck-you Apple anti-fanboy" renders your entire post worthless? By the definition of fanboy you're saying your judgement is biased, your conclusions skewed, and your opinions suspect to the point that anyone who doesn't just want positive reenforcement of their existing ideas should ignore you.

Terretta 16y ago

> "Wifi Tethering. I don’t need to tether often, but when I do, I do. I rooted my phone quickly, just so I could use one of the many apps in the Marketplace to tether my laptop via Wifi. Worked flawlessly, no extra charge." That's tantamount to saying "I jail-broke my iPhone quickly, so I could use one of the many apps on Cydia to tether my laptop via WiFi" ... except you don't need an app for that because tethering is built into iOS. You need a different network provisioning file in the States, and elsewhere in the world tethering is enabled by default. I liked the form factor of the HTC Aria but found his following points to be deal breakers, so am back to iPhone for now: - every couple of days, you do need to reboot the phone - no cellular data while you are in a call - no cloud push in Android 2.1 - separate email apps for Gmail and everything else - IMAP email is very weak; really weak - the OS (and therefore the apps) are really clunky at switching between voice/data/wifi I was also put off by the extremely popular apps carrying name brand logos that disclaimed association with the brand while asking permission to make charge calls from my number.

starnix17 16y ago
I agree with your tethering comment, but FWIW there are a handful of tethering apps you can get without rooting Android that allow any user to tether for free.
- elblanco 16y ago
  I pretty happily use PDANet for some basic stuff.
martythemaniak 16y ago
Tethering is also built into Froyo, which I've been happily using since May. Also, "no cellular data while you're in a call" is a CDMA vs GSM issue, not an Android/iOS/Blackberry issue.
- bho 16y ago
  Unfortunately, the Droid X does not have Froyo yet, nor is the bootloader decrypted yet, so there's no way to get 2.2 on it as of right now. Hopefully it gets it soon, since the Droid 2 announced today does have it.

sspencer 16y ago

" Every couple of days, you do need to reboot the phone. " Love how this was tossed out there as an afterthought. Huge, obnoxious deal-breaker. I love losing state every 2 days! /sarcasm

jokermatt999 16y ago
It's odd, because that hasn't been my experience with Android at all. I've got a Droid (not X, not 2, just the original), and the only times I've never needed to shut it down. In fact, the only times it's been off have been from me forgetting to charge it. Last I checked, my uptime was 550+ hours with no sluggishness at all.
- kyleslattery 16y ago
  With my Droid, I regularly have to reboot to get GPS to work, and I've had the issue on all 3 of the Droids I've had (replaced due to other issues).
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    Have you tried just toggling the GPS settings? I occasionally have issues with it, but toggling the setting has always worked for me.
    - kyleslattery 16y ago
      Yes, that sometimes works, but there are a lot of times where I need to do a restart of the phone too.
- jsz0 16y ago
  I get pretty bad lag (contacts, dial pad especially) on my Eris after a few days. Advanced Task Killer clears it up though. I feel like HTC Sense users get a lower quality experience in general. Poorer performance, cruddy built-in apps replacing the better stock apps, widget overload by default, too many bundled applications, etc.
- 16y ago

bconway 16y ago

We recently moved from a family of iPhones to a Droid and Droid Incredible. I can't believe we didn't make the move sooner, although I suppose the Incredible isn't old enough to have made it much sooner. Regardless, for those not wanting as large of a phone, check out the Droid 2, due out imminently: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/see-what-droid-does-next-droid-2-by-motorola-pre-sale-starts-august-11-at-verizonwirelesscom-100338254.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/see-what-droid-does-...

Qz 16y ago
How is the Incredible? I'm about to get one on Friday when my $50 credit comes in.
- bconway 16y ago
  It's fantastic, very fast and responsive, thin, and light. We bought ours through Amazon's wireless site and got a decent discount over Verizon's store. I'm not a big fan of the Sense UI, but it doesn't have any major flaws. At this time, I've rooted it using the Unrevoked method, but I'm waiting for a final release of the Android 2.2-based CyanogenMod 6 before trying anything more adventurous.
- tocomment 16y ago
  I think it's great. My only complaints are that the camera is horrendous. Every picture is blurry no matter how still I hold the camera. Also the speaker sounds muffled and too quiet on regular phone calls. (Yes, the volume is all the way up.) Oh and the battery life is kind of bad. I had to read a couple of articles and turn off all kinds of things off to make it last through the day. I think the battery has some kind of breaking in period too as it's been doing much better lately.
  - cma 16y ago
    Sounds like your camera is seriously screwed; mine doesn't have this issue at all.

kyleslattery 16y ago

> The Back button, it is wonderful. I said this before, and after nearly a month I am even more convinced, the lowly back button is the most significant architectural advantage for Android. To me (a Droid user since day 1), the back button and the whole workflow of launching other apps from within an original app started off as something I liked, but it's kind of a strange concept. When it works well (open a browser from an app, press back, and you're back in the original app), it's really nice, but sometimes these nested apps get a bit confusing. For instance: open a link from a Twitter client, and it brings you to the browser. Hit home, and then open the browser. Personally, I would expect to go to the link the Twitter client sent you to. However, this is nowhere to be found, instead you're at the last page you used the browser directly for. I've become used to this, but it really isn't that intuitive for new users. I've handed my phone to my mom, and she's definitely had issues with where the back button is taking her. Also, I've noticed a few games that don't implement the back button, and pressing it, rather than doing what you'd expect (bringing you a pause screen, the game's menu, etc.), it dumps you on the home screen. Granted, this is the app developer's fault, but it's just another area where the back button does something strange.

yoden 16y ago
Home resets your state completely. Much more sane to do that than leave state hidden around. You want what you were just doing? Back. You want to do something different? Home. Simple.

keltex 16y ago

"I pine for a Mini-USB conenction, but Micro-USB is much better than some properietary connector. (I like Mini better than Micro because the slightly larger form factor seems far more durable. Time will tell.) " Actually the Micro USB was designed to be more durable than the Mini USB... up to 10,000 connect / disconnect cycles. Plus the wear parts in the Micro USB are in the cable rather than the device. Much cheaper to replace the cable.

mirkules 16y ago
I heard this from other people too, but somehow it just /feels/ less durable for me, especially when I am plugging it in. I feel some grinding of metal parts and often wonder if this thing will last. Actually, I feel the same thing with the iPod/iPhone connectors, but it's definitely more pronounced on the micro-USB connectors.

metamemetics 16y ago

It took me until this month to get a smart phone because I'm surrounded by computers all day at home and work so I never wanted my phone to be one. Was going to switch to Sprint Evo or Droid-X but ended up stuck with ATT for a while longer so iPhone4ed it. Despite all the web-tabloid tech-drama, my general disdain for iLifestyle marketing, and having never owned an Apple device... I actually couldn't be happier so far. I just use the digitally imported (http://www.di.fm http://www.di.fm) app for music so I've never had to mess with iTunes, maybe that's why? edit: going to get OSX to triple-boot with win7\ubuntu, maybe my mind will change once I give the SDK a whirl

jrockway 16y ago

IMAP email is very weak. Really weak. Even the third party clients are weak. How so? I am an IMAP power-user and K9 meets all of my needs. Flagging works, push works, folders work, SSL + auth works in both directions, and it supports my self-signed certificate. K9 is infinitely better than my work Blackberry, which is supposedly the "premier push email experience". I am really not sure what more an email client could do for you.

gleb 16y ago
K9 is good. Not up to the standards of 6 year old ChatterEmail on Palm just yet, but vastly better than the builtin client of iPhone's Mail. And it's an active Open Source project improving on original Android's source, a direct benefit of Android's openness: * http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/ http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/ * http://www.slideshare.net/obrajesse/k9 http://www.slideshare.net/obrajesse/k9 * http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/source/list http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/source/list * http://groups.google.com/group/k-9-mail/topics http://groups.google.com/group/k-9-mail/topics Incidentally Mark Blanc, author of ChatterEmail on Palm now works for Google on Android Email (among other things?). As best as one can tell he gave up on the idea of creating a killer email client for Android on his own or was acquired: * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Blank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Blank * http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/apps/Email.git;a=summary http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/apps/Emai... * http://forum.androidcentral.com/android-applications/22105-marc-blank-you-out-there.html http://forum.androidcentral.com/android-applications/22105-m...
jsz0 16y ago
K-9's UI is kind of terrible though it is fully functional.
- gleb 16y ago
  Ugly it definitely is.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    The notification bar says how many new messages you have. You follow the notification and get a list of messages. You read them, then they go away. You can press the star to flag. You can click reply to reply. It's weird that you have to press menu and choose an option to send a message after you've composed it, but it's not really that bad of a UI choice.

tocomment 16y ago

Droid X Questions: Is it better than the incredible? Does Droid X have a hardware keyboard? I can't tell from the page. How does the HMDI thing work? Does it connect to a television somehow? Do I have to pay to do that?

noodle 16y ago
> Is it better than the incredible? it has better tech specs. the rest is subjective, imo. > Does Droid X have a hardware keyboard? no. > How does the HMDI thing work? Does it connect to a television somehow? Do I have to pay to do that? you plug it in with a type d connector (iirc). its free but only works for the gallery where you can play videos and view pictures.

batiudrami 16y ago

I always find the statement 'I am yet to drop a call' from Americans very strange. What the hell is wrong with your mobile networks?