What to look for in an Android Phone?

ChangeWave released a customer satisfaction survey for mobile phones in early 2012. Apple had a 75% rating for "very satisfied" in the manufacturer category, while Samsung and HTC were tied for second at 45%. For OS, Apple again had a 75% rating for "very satisfied", while Android was in second at 47%.

At any rate, there are differences between the two platforms, but the "techie" and "power user" stuff for Android is blown waaaaaay out of proportion vs. reality.

 

Samsung has some of the best customer service I've ever encountered.

I was having issues with a TV that I bought as an open box. For no charge they sent out a team of guys to replace it with a better model and haul away the old TV.

It was probably cheaper for them to replace it than try to service the old one, but still, that's damn good service. They were also very nice on the phone.

The assholes at the Apple store should take note.

 

Well, if I'm not going to spend a gazzillion pounds on data, I can just copy my mkvs to my phone and watch em offline.

I use airdroid occasionally for file copying. Copy any file to or from my phone and type and send texts using my computer.

I can also send files to another phone via bluetooth! Should they want the custom mp3 I'm using as a ringtone or want a photo I've taken. None of that crappy bump nonsense where it actually uploads the file to their server then downloads it again on the other phone.

Oh, and it can also set any sound file on the phone as a ringtone, message tone or, shock horror, as an alarm tone. Although this has been available on phones for about 10 years now. Unless you're on an iphone.

I think the preconception of android being complicated to use stems from the fact that the iphone equivalent of something like bluetoothing photos or copying a video to the phone and playing it is needlessly complicated and requires daft workarounds.

 

Yes this is a nuisance on iOS. I now have my Dropbox account logged on to Mrs Grim's iPhone so that if I need to get her a picture from my phone I can put it there and she can download it, it seems the easiest way.

 

Re: Re: What to look for in an Android Phone?

there is no such problem in real world usage. bloatware is bloatware. it's there. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. It doesn't interfere with your regular usage at all. If the icon on the home screen really bothers you, just delete it.

Messing with apps to sd for data partitions doesn't exist anymore. The only reason you you ever needed to do that is if you had an old phone from 2009 or prior that had a very small amount of internal memory for apps.

Also, you do realize there are android phones with only internal batteries like the iphone?

Alot of the things you hear are old android issues from early devices that don't exist anymore. kind of like bringing up original iphone or iphone 3g issues in this day and age.

 

@chi: Most of that stuff seems pointless to me. I seldom watch my PC stuff on my phone but it has worked when I've tried it; not even sure if any of my PC stuff is MKV. Might be but it's not been a problem for the last 4 years though. The ringtone/alarm stuff is true, though I've got an app that can do that - more fiddly to be sure. Sharing files or mp3s? Never needed to.

And the perception of android comes from the stuff you hear about it - take this little beauty:

What right-minded person wants to fuck around like that to get decent performance out of the box? If that's for you, great. But I'd rather just have something work than arse about. I was reading some shit about issues with different phones and ICS issues today. Sounds like a fucking nightmare to me.

The fact of the matter is Android is more open and that has benefits and downsides. Vice versa for the iPhone. The beauty of the market place sees both have their place; the geeks and weirdos can fuck about all day long with different ROMs for some indiscernible reason. Maybe it gets them off, I don't know. Meanwhile, the mighty Apple master race simply gets on enjoying life.

 

@grim: if you want to send photos then why not use whatsapp or e-mail? Isn't that the simplest way?

 

@khaid: what I've heard is a number of apps need to be on the internal memory to work. Now I know there's more memory than there use to be but I've read plenty of recent bitching about this issue. Why does an issue like this arise in the first place? Seems like bad design to me. On my phone, I've got about 20GB of games and apps. That would be an issue with a lot of phones indeed.

 

Are you using the auto upload option? Springs you extra space plus all your photos are backup up.

 

I have 25GB of space on dropbox and didn't pay for any of it.

@monsly. Email is a slow way to do things, Bluetooth should have been an option but wasn't so we use dropbox as a trade off.

 

See, this is why your windows experience has been so shoddy, you're too simple to install a new OS and get a better experience for less money than buying a new computer.

I bet you're the sort who leaves a creaky, stiff gate and accept that you need to wedge your foot in a certain spot and then lift to open it instead of greasing the hinges and having a trouble free life.

@grim Y U has so much? I have... 8gb

 

I'd rather buy something that works without having to fuck about. Like 99% of the population.

 

Got 23GB for buying the HTC One S.

 

You sound like the type that requires that Vodafone yoda phone contact transfer service whenever you get a new phone.

@grim You what?

 

Re: Re: What to look for in an Android Phone?

My mum has been using android for more than 2 years, she finds it easy to use and has never had to 'fuck about'.

Sure she has done updates but you have to do those on iOS too. She is using an ICS Galaxy SII at the moment and loves it.

 

HTC give away 23GB of dropbox space when you buy one of their phones.

It says 25GB but that includes the free 2GB. Sent the phone back but kept the space.

 

@grim: indeed, I'm sure not all phones require the fucking about chi mentioned. The Samsung is a well specced phone, much like the iPhone. But the issue I see with Android is the fragmentation caused by the wide variety of phones it's on and the different ROMs they can use. That's a complete turn off to me. I still hear of issues with the better phones and I'd have no patience for that.

 

I think you're being ignorant on purpose now. You can't say this:

"I think the preconception of android being complicated to use stems from the fact that the iphone equivalent of something like bluetoothing photos or copying a video to the phone and playing it is needlessly complicated and requires daft workarounds."

After just recently giving advice regarding getting a android phone to run well that requires a level of complication much higher than you'd encounter with an iPhone.

 

I don't see fragmentation as an issue. If your phone can't run it then it doesn't appear on the store. An example is Sky Go, the app doesn't show up on the store for me but does for my mum.

Games are the same, I can't see the new proper 3D stuff but the One S I had could. The play store is pretty much tailored for the phone browsing it.

All of the higher end phones run anything.

You have to remember a lot of people here will want to mess around with a phone, root it or change settings. If you just want it to male calls, send texts, pick up work email or run Apps any Android phone will be fine and you wont get any issues.

 

It's pretty much what Khaid said. Most of the negative stuff you hear about Android is based on outdated information or comes from Apple fanbois and computer illiterate fucktards.