Ok, it's the new Coke vs. Pepsi battle, we all know it. It seems humans love taking sides, whether it's in wars, politics, religion, or soda. Well now it's with those wonderful little miracles, cellphones. If you've read my blog, you know what side I'm on, but putting that aside, let's look at them both at a 30,000 foot view. Hold on tight, if you drop yours from here, it's a brick no matter who made it.
Let's start with Apple's iPhone. There's a reason people call unlocking it "jail breaking". If you love having your hardware managed and locked down so that everything on it is heavily tested and regimented, and you're only allowed to do things that the manufacturer has expected, then this is for you. The iPhone is much more restricted than android, limiting the ways you can use your phone rather severely, but the reason for this is because they've tested the ways that they do let you use it extensively. Troubleshooting involves "turn off, turn on, call Apple" but that's the goal here, a black box that does what it's supposed to and nothing more, and someone else fixes it when it breaks.
Now on to Android. Out of the box, it kinda sucks. The default app for mail is crap, the display is boring, and so on. This is where it shines, though. They let you replace just about everything. Android lets you customize nearly everything, from the email program and text message program all the way to changing launchers (that's the way your screens look, icon layout, etc). This means that if you compare two "power users" of android phones, they are going to look and operate entirely differently, even if they're both the same exact model. Android gives you all the rope you need to do just about anything you want, include hang yourself, so be careful.
The point of the story? Some people like Coke, some like Pepsi, and no matter what you say about how many kittens die every year because of coke-related drownings, coke drinkers are gonna keep drinking coke and cherry pepsi will still be the best. If you're undecided, then I hope this might have helped, and feel free to comment or ask questions for me to go into more detail in another post. If your heart is already set, then I hope you have a long betrayal-free relationship. Just ignore the phone stalking you from your closet.
So aside from "stability", what do you consider the pros of iPhone? Do they still have a better app store? Is the iPhone launcher better? What can you customize? Anything? What can't you do with an iPhone, that you think you should be able to to use the phone to the maximum? Or is it just an appearance based thing?
ReplyDeleteFor Android, why do you think it sucks out of the box? And why do you think Google would give you something that sucks out of the box? Is there functionality in the default launcher that you think is missing? That Mac has over Android out of the box? What about the manufacturer's custom launchers (Touchwiz, Sense, etc.)? Do they suck too? What don't you like about the default email app? And is iPhone's better?
How can you hang yourself with an Android? Where can you get help when you do? What are the differences between jail breaking either? Should I jail break my iPhone? My Android? What's the benefit? Will it put the phones on even ground?
I need answers, man!
Thanks for the questions. Remember, a lot of this is just my opinion, and based on my own experience. As far as stability, I think that applies to every aspect of iPhone's experience. The app store for iPhone is more limited, because Apple tests and re-tests every app that goes there, and declines a great many because of security or coding concerns.
DeleteThe iPhone's "launcher" is a series of icons, every one you've installed, and you can do very little to customize it. You can change your background, rings and alerts, lock screen, and change the order of the icons on your home screens. To me I consider that to be unreasonably limiting.
I'll answer the rest in a short bit.
The issue I had with the "out of the box" android is that there are so many different products that no one really seemed too concerned with the base apps. I have more than one email address, and for some reason I just didn't care for how "mail" handled them. I wanted to view them separately, and keep track of them the way I did on iPhone, as separate mailboxes. Mail didn't do that well, but the Gmail app did better than I had hoped.
DeleteThe default launcher gave you more control than iPhone's (widgets, optional icons, etc) but some other launchers, like Lightning Launcher or Nova Launcher give you features like screen locking or landscape/portrait shifts, gridless icons, rotating icons, widgets in folders, and more. Setting up a layout like that can take hours or more, but they let you define looks that the base launchers, or iPhone, just can not ever do. The majority of users out there aren't looking for a multi-hour process to play with look and feel though, so the default launchers in both phones are comparable, with a little more customizations available on Android. (I've only used Sense, considering the custom launchers, and it was stable and reliable for my first time using the phone, but I outgrew it, I feel).
I'll post about jailbreaking/rooting later today.