What to look for in an Android Phone?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by bfun, Jul 1, 2012.

  1. It's true since there's a ton of devices in the low-mid end range. You'd have to rate it on each phone individually rather than android devices as a whole.

    But it goes to show how mainstream android is now along with the market penetration they have.. with Samsung doing the best. I think they announced something like 25 million galaxy s II's sold by June 2012.

    Yes, since different OEM's provide android devices, they have different ways to distribute them without many rules. You'll rarely see any price fixing involved and the devices will often drop in price pretty quick from when they launch. For example, in the US, the Galaxy S III just literally launched on some carriers, and retail outlets like Amazon and Radio Shack (you probably never heard of them) are selling it for $149.99 on contract (normally $199.99).

    Also there's a bunch of really cheap android phones on the prepaid carriers. Normally, you'd pay around $300 for a low-mid range android phone if you buy it on a postpaid carrier unsubsidized. On prepaid carriers, they start at $100.
     
  2. Is there anyway to gauge how well Android does in making money from its users versus Apple? I know they were far, far behind but didn't know if they were making headway.
     
  3. I have yet to see Google release those numbers themselves.. only some finance news outlets throwing around numbers. But I think it's safe to say they're still way behind Apple. If anything, I'd say Amazon's Kindle+Appstore might even be doing better than Google. Games may be the big money maker for Apple in the appstore. Since android is made for all sorts of devices (low-mid-high end devices), there's all sorts of issues that come into play. Games could perform really poorly and/or not even be compatible to the device to purchase. You really don't see any high end games like infinity blade coming to android even though it has the horsepower for such stuff now. I don't think this will change anytime in the near future either.
     
  4. Says the guy still running Vista in 2012.

    iPhones and iPads are for retards. Unfortunately a lot of people are tards.
     
  5. Re: Re: What to look for in an Android Phone?

    It's weird because the video we were subjected to had both singing parts in Korean. Only the agent guy was dubbed.
     
  6. Hell ya I realize that. That's why I'm keeping the Android option open.
     
  7. Thing is, I'm quite tempted to go with a Mac rather than a PC when I next upgrade. I do love my PC games and the versatility of a PC, especially combined with their relative cheapness. What I don't like is the user experience with PCs. My work PC and especially my home PC just piss me off a lot of the time and I really can't be assed to fuck about with them to get them to run better. When I was younger, fine, but nowadays I'd rather pay more for a better experience.
     
  8. A better experience if you're computer illiterate I suppose. As a power user, I find Apple's stuff painfully limited in functionality. I found switching from my iPhone 3GS to a Galaxy S very liberating. Suddenly I could wirelessly tether five devices to my phone at no additional cost, run flash videos, run emulators, watch pirated movies in any format, drag and drop songs on my phone without the need for itunes, use my phone to download torrents, stream songs from Google's cloud storage without the need to actually have them on my phone. Try doing any of those things with an iPhone.

    A good case in point would be when I had a friend over here from Belgium who had an iPhone and was having issues connecting to the internet. He was actually piggybacking off the internet connection on my Android phone.

    Windows PCs are very much the same way. They're functional while Macs are flashy, overpriced, and generally pretty useless. Macs can't play games. They have issues playing flash videos. You can't even make the argument that they're good for getting work done as Apple has more or less abandoned their Mac Pro desktop line (the hardware hasn't been updated in three years). Macs exist to look cool and that's about it. I have a feeling the kind of people whose computing needs are satisfied by a Mac or an iPhone never had much use for a computer or smartphone in the first place.

    Also, saying normal people don't care about Android doesn't really match up with reality. Android has more than double the market share of iOS, and in fact has more market share than all of its competitors combined. It's very quickly becoming the Windows of the mobile world.
     
  9. My phone allows tethering out the box

    And none of monkey's list actually requires rooting.
     
  10. Tethering: iPhone allows tethering and WiFi hot spots out of the box. Of course, it depends on your provider and your plan if you're not going to jail break.

    Flash: has basically been discontinued for development by Adobe for mobile. Most sites automatically switch to HTML streaming if your phone doesn't support Flash these days.

    Video: iPhone has apps that allow wireless streaming of any video or music codec you can think of. You can do it locally or on the road (if you want to be a "power user" and follow some step-by-step instructions on how to set your home computer up for it).

    Drag and Drop: works in iTunes. Works in other apps.

    Music streaming: iCloud can currently play the music as soon as you begin downloading to your device. iOS 6 includes iCloud streaming without download, and that includes iTunes Match.

    That basically leaves torrents and emulators, and of course, I already know what cmdrmonkey's opinions are on games on touch devices that weren't originally designed for touch: they suck! So basically it's running a torrent that makes you a "power user" on Android.
     
  11. When it comes to Android v Apple then you can compare on a few different metrics.

    If it's installed userbase then it's Android.

    If it's the amount of money spend on buying phones or buying software on those phones it's Apple.

    If it's the amount of profit being made by the company selling their phones it's Apple.

    Thing is, only 2 of those 3 really matter.

    Regarding those features you listed, there's nothing there I need. I can use my 4S as a wireless hotspot as it is. Pretty sure I can do some of the others too, but I have no call to do them.

    So where's the incentive to switch? Apple hardware is expensive but it's high quality with great support; there's a huge number of other devices and products that support it and there's a vast number of games and apps I can get.

    A big bonus is I don't have to concern myself with any if the shit I read in android threads (getting rid of bloatware at the start, creating frickin' memory partitions, have to remove the fucking battery if things go wrong). I mean, who wants to do that shit in this day and age? No-one NORMAL, that's for sure.
     
  12. I would suggest an iPhone only because Apple no longer charge a premium for it. An iPhone will typically run you the same price as the equivalent Android, with a much more stable OS.

    Being an Android poweruser comes with the tradeoff of having to do a battery pulls and dealing with app crashes and force closes.
     
  13. For $40 more a month on AT&T, to use an internet connection that you're already paying for. That's $480/year. It's the same on all other US carriers too. We aren't all made of airports.

    Most of the internet still uses Flash. HTML5 will be nice when it arrives, but other than Youtube and a few other sites, not much uses it yet. I've also encountered sites that require you to pay to use the mobile/HTML5 versions of their sites. This is not a problem on Android.

    And as far as Youtube goes, Android has a much better Youtube app.

    @Monsly

    There is no incentive for you to switch as you're probably one of those people I mentioned who have no real need for a smartphone in the first place. That's why you've never noticed the iPhone's horrible limitations. Other than games, the iPhone is a worthless shitbrick compared to Android. And even that's debatable as Android has emulators, and old Nintendo games are better than any mobile games.

    Besides, the iPhone is on its way out now that Jobs is gone. They haven't done anything innovative hardware-wise in two years now. The 4S was a seriously lame refresh and Siri was dead on arrival. The 4S is total joke compared to high-end Android phones like the Galaxy S3. The iPhone is going the exact same route as Apple's computers where it becomes a niche product for rich hipster douchebags. Maybe Apple makes a lot of money, but they do it by ripping people off for an inferior product, and I can't get behind that.
     
  14. Admit it: free tethering on Android isn't what it used to be, especially wireless tethering. Providers and Google have worked together (the horror!) to block many popular tethering apps within Android.

    As for Flash, you're simply ignoring previous discussions. The idea that it's simply YouTube "and a few other sites" that have HTML streaming options is laughable. For example, I seem to recall that you had a favorite porn site that you thought was Flash only, and it turned out to be both Flash/HTML. It's actually incredibly simple for Flash video sites to offer HTML capability, since Flash is only a wrapper around the codec that HTML also supports.
     
  15. Who needs an app when it's built into most of the ROMs?

    Also, the porn site I mentioned requires you to pay to use the HTML5 version. I'm not paying for something that's free on the desktop.
     
  16. @cmdrmonkey: no real need for a smartphone? What's a real need? I use mine all the time for keeping in touch with people, surfing and passing the time when I'm out. I can do my banking, keep in touch with work and other more practical things. The 4S does all of this. I'm sure an Android one would too, but the downsides I mentioned above coupled with no real positives means I see no sense in switching. I'd imagine that's the same for a lot of people.
     
  17. Exactly, you have no need for a smartphone.

    Seriously, LOL at this. And I speak from experience. I had a 3G and 3GS and my wife has a 4. Even with a case, the cheap plastic backing cracked on my 3GS. The battery was also dead within a year. My wife is looking at having to ditch her 4 because the home button stopped working and it's now out of warranty. My Galaxy S is the same age and has literally no problems with the hardware.

    I had a 4 myself initially, but the antenna issues were so bad, I had to return it. It sounded like I was talking in a hall of echoes and frequently dropped calls.

    I know several people including my mother who have dropped the 4 or 4S and had the screen shatter. Why did Apple use glass?

    iPhones are some of the most problematic phones I've encountered from a hardware standpoint. They aren't made to last.

    Also, every time I update an iPhone, I always end up having to go back and do a restore as the things flake the fuck out and all of the apps crash. This happens on every iOS device I've encountered actually. If the support is so great, why don't the updates ever go smoothly? I've had way less trouble updating Android stuff.
     
  18. I've quite clearly shown I need one. I'm hardly going to cart around a desktop pc in a shopping trolley everywhere I go.

    I've only known people who've had good experiences with the hardware and support apple offer. I've dropped my 3G and 4S and they've survived fine. Apple replaced my 3G when out of warranty when a wi-fi issue arose. Again, this offers no reason for me to swap to another device.
     
  19. That brings up another issue. Apple's support sucks ass. In my dealings with their support I found them rude and unhelpful. Their customer service people act snooty and like they're too good for you or something.

    If they even help you at all, they usually want you to pay out the ass for things that shouldn't be broken.

    Admittedly, they aren't as bad as Toshiba, who has the worst customer service I've encountered, but I wouldn't call them good either. Apple's service should be a lot better for the premium price you pay.
     
  20. iPhone vs Android Phone..

    Apps: Draw
    Everything is available for both platforms now

    Games : iPhone win
    The games on Android are poor compared to the selection on iOS

    Warranty: Android Win
    I think all Android smartphones now ship with 2 year warranties whereas iPhones only come with one. This is a massive plus for Android when you consider all carriers want to tie you in for 2 years now.

    Price: Android Win
    You can get phones much faster than the iPhone on much cheaper contracts for free whereas an iPhone usually costs you money and has an expensive contract.

    Ease of Use: Draw
    To be fair, both of them are easy to use. Yes iOS is a bit more restrictive but that isn't going to hinder your average user, my wife gets on fine with it for example.

    Battery: Android Win (depending on model)
    Most Android phones let you change the battery yourself (some do not I know) whereas Apple have to replace your iPhone battery.

    Battery Life: Draw
    Both iPhones and Android phones have shit battery life, expect to charge both every day.