Apple's WWDC 2010 (new iPhone)

Dissatisfied with AT&T's miserable service and itching to try something new, I jumped ship a month ago for the sweet, sweet coverage of Verizon and the OMGWTFBBQ Droid Incredible (which I had been patiently waiting on for 2 months now).

... And, this weekend, after 30 days with the phone, I returned the Incredible and went back to my 2G iPhone (now unlocked and on T-Mobile). I'm likely going to crawl back to AT&T, tail between my legs, and get the next iPhone.

Here's one man's take on the Incredible, Verizon, and Android (Sense 2.1), coming from 2 1/2 years of the iPhone (the FIRST one, mind you):

A. Phone quality was worse than my iPhone. Mobile to mobile connections were practically incoherent. My wife and I noticed a huge difference from day 1. I sounded like I was in a tunnel, and she sounded like the teacher from Peanuts. I tried everything I could do to make the sound quality better (tons of tips online), but nothing worked.

B. Verizon reception was surprisingly not so good. Up in the Woodlands, I got a few dropped calls, a couple "no service" notifications, and was kicked off 3G numerous times.

C. Battery life was horrible. Maybe it's just Sense. I don't know. If I have to run a task killer app and routinely turn off functionality (the whole purpose of a smartphone) to eek out a day of battery, then something is wrong. Fact is, I don't want to have to WORK at improving battery; I just want the damn phone to function without my involvement. (And no, the battery didn't improve much after a full week of use.)

D. The phone portion of Android was more difficult to use than the iPhone.
1) People's phone numbers came in as a straight-up 10-digit number: 1234567890. Really, Android? No number formatting? And why is the name of the caller so small?
2) There is nothing like "Favorites" on the iPhone. Sure, Sense has a pretty widget you can use, but you can't freaking have more than one number per contact. Yes, you can also add quick call contacts as a widget, but if I added both a contact's mobile and home phone number, they showed up with the same exact text. How am I supposed to know which number is which?!?
3) Stupid Verizon charges for visual voicemail, so I went the Google Voice voicemail route. Transcription was a joke, voicemail quality was sketchy at best, and I kept getting stopped during voicemail playback by some random Google dialogue box. Plus, it took people like 8 rings to get to my voicemail.

E. Media playback is not as good. No RW or FF in the Sense media player. Last digit of "Time remaining" text overflows to the next line if greater than 10 minutes. Cover artwork routinely borked. No equalizer. No letters running up the side of the list (like iPhone), so I can't quickly get to a certain letter of the alphabet (have to scroll the whole list to get to "Z"). No video playback in the music player.

F. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of iTunes sync, but I also didn't like mounting my phone, as creating folders and digging through a file system was irritating. Plus, my photos and music list routinely went haywire when I changed something. (Photos app kept "rebuilding" my photos and video list after each time I added photos, which took minutes to resolve.) iTunes may be bloated and a memory hog, but damn if it isn't easy to use.

G. No offense, but the Android Market sucks. The apps, assuming you can find them, are usually a pale imitation of the iPhone version. (Except for Google's apps, which are all FANTASTIC.) Before downloading any app, it is SOP to check to see if the app 1) works with your phone and 2) works with your version of Android. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Got annoying really fast to see a cool app, then notice in the comments "FC [force close] on Incredible". Sigh. Games on Android sucked compared to the iPhone, too.

H. Android browser was fast, and I loved how the text did a "word wrap" when zooming in, but the text was often hard to read. Rendering of graphics was fine, rendering of text was not. Flash Lite was unusable. Pop-up keyboard made text entry difficult. Hated having to press the phone's "Back" hardware key to go back (or hitting "Menu --> Back").

I. Sense/Android was just NOT as pretty as the iPhone. From the phone screen to media playback to subtle animations, iPhone was hands down better in the graphics department.

J. Keyboard typing and layout on the iPhone was better, IMO. Maybe Swype on Android would have made a difference. Not sure.

K. App drawer became a never-ending scroll fest when I had loads of apps installed. And one that I couldn't customize, either. iPhone's use of app pages is much better, IMO.

L. The Apple accessories ecosystem is much more robust, which works against Android. For instance, I want to buy an alarm clock with a phone dock, as well as a phone case. With the iPhone, I have a bunch of choices. The Incredible? Not so much. (Heck, the official Incredible dock isn't even available yet.)

I really, really wanted to like Android (I fight Apple for a living, for crying out loud), but all the little annoyances turned into a "death by a thousand paper cuts." There were a LOT of things Android did that I thought were better than the iPhone (social network integration, profile in the "cloud", OS speed, feature set, display, etc.), but at the end of day, it just wasn't good enough to top iPhone OS.

My experience with Android made me realize one thing: I LOVE tinkering with computers (which I sit at ALL day), but I do NOT like tinkering with my phone (which I only use a few times a day). When it comes to phone use, I just want to make some calls, open a few apps (including the occasional game), and play music and video. I want quick consumption, and I want my phone "to just work" (including all apps).

At this point, Android just doesn't fit the bill for me. I'll revisit this issue again in 2 years, and hopefully, by then, Android will everything I thought it would be. For now, though, Communist Apple and "2GB-of-data-is-all-you-really-need" AT&T have me.

 

And heres another opinion....
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/top-10-ways-the-htc-droid-incredible-killed-my-iphone-envy/33903

 

Here's my take on that article:

1) Verizon Wireless: Surprisingly had issues with Verizon's coverage and voice quality.

2) Tethering: Don't care too much about this.

3) Multi-tasking: Backgrounder on my jailbroken iPhone works just fine.

4) The Sense UI: Sure, it's a nice experience, but it's no iPhone. Plus, it eats battery like no other.

5) The Google Integration: Got me here. Google stuff rocks on Android.

6) Google Voice: I had issues with Google Voice.

7) Voice input: Got me again. Voice search is awesome on Android.

8) Facebook contacts: Don't get me wrong. Social integration is a plus for Android, but I personally say "meh," because most of my Facebook contacts are people I DON'T want as my phone contacts. I loved the Flickr integration in the Photos app, though.

9) Good apps: This is a joke, right?

10) Scenes vs. Folders: I customized one scene... and that was it. Once again, I don't want to WORK at using my phone. I ain't switching scenes during the weekend or at night. I already had a tough enough time trying to memorize where all my widgets were on 7 home screens in ONE scene.

 

That's interesting VesceyS, and exactly why I think fanboy/hater OS wars (like everything involving fanboys) are utterly stupid: everyone will have different experiences and when looking at it objectively you can find good and bad with everything.

Seeing someone who really spent time with both sides and had no dog in the fight was interesting. Nice write up.

 

I am indeed making that assumption. I think it's an obvious fact. Android will continue gaining market share at everyone's expense, iPhone included.

Piddly SanDisk is in no way comparable to Google's might.

I'm not saying the lack of Flash by itself is iPhone's Achilles Heel, but it's a part of the problem for Apple now that they have a legit and improving competitor.

AT&T's problems don't necessarily mean iPhone sales would be in decline at this point. Without a doubt they would be a lot higher if Verizon were involved. Jobs will be forced to reach terms with Verizon if he hasn't already.

Would take too long for me to comment on this. I'll pass.

I hate the term fanboy. Most people who call other people (supposedly pejorative or clearly pejorative) names on discussion forums are either jerks or they resort to name-calling because their debate points are weak.

 

BTW, those of you with an iphone on AT&T, if you are looking to know when you are eligible for upgrades you can call *639# and you'll get a text letting you know.

Supposedly some people are finding their dates have been moved up obviously in anticipation of the new phone.

 

Just called...my two years is up July 21st...but they said Im eligible right now. Thanks for the info.

 

what?

 

Its pretty self explanatory...you can only check your AT&T upgrade eligibility if you have a Verizon iPhone. Is that clear enough now?

Just kidding, have no clue what that was about...probably completely unrelated and unintentionally quoted you.

 

lol. Yeah, I wasn't sure what he was referring to.

Glad the info helped you out!

 

it is happening. Not necessarily just for verizon, because it helps people upgrade into new contracts, which is what ATT wants anyway.

In fact, they've done it for past iPhone upgrades.

 

Wow...is this legit?

 

Any chance the iPhone comes to T-Mobile? I read reports back in March that it was very possible by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011. I don't know if there were any updates to that.

 

nope it's a fake

 

just started...

 

Micro-Sim is just a trimmed sim