thinking about a new phone

Iphone 5 or high end android based, is the iphone worth the added expense? What makes one preferable over the other?

Re: thinking about a new phone

Depends on what you are comparing the iPhone to.

Wife got the Samsung Note, which was more expensive, (ATT prices) than the Iphone 5. it's also a physically bigger phone, which i really did not want.

Other than that, not sure what else is more expensive for the Iphone.

I'm happy with it (my second iphone), with the exception, that it will not run flash video.

Re: thinking about a new phone

Iphones are for people that need to be told what to do and when to do it. If you walk around in a $500 pair of skinny jeans, then you probably want one. Otherwise, an Android phone is what you want to get things done. Iphones are limited by Apple to do things only they think it should do or you should be able to have. The Apple software market is highly regulated by them, if they don't like a particular piece of software, you can't have it. The hardware is also very particular - there is no microSD slot and you can't remove the battery like every other phone on the planet. This is because apple doesn't want you to buy the cheaper phone and then simply install an SD card when you run out of space - you have to buy the more expensive Iphone from apple.

The Iphone 5 is the same price or significantly more than the Galaxy Note from AT&T. The most expensive (with a contract) Android phone you can get is the Note II for $299, the Iphone is $200-$400 depending on the memory. (remember you can't just slide in an sd card later) If you don't want something with such a big screen there are a bunch of android phones to choose from for much much less than an Iphone. And they do more...

Re: thinking about a new phone

i have a crack-berry z-10 and love it .wouldnt touch a 10th class iphone for the world.samsung is also coming out with a new superphone in a month i think.looks real promising.

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The Google Nexus 4 is a great priced phone for a unlocked phone and then you can go with net10 or Straight talk plans which are way cheaper than ATT and Verizon plans. Personally, I still have an iPhone and have jailbreaked it in the past to get around DirtyOldBoats arguments.

My iphone 4 is 2 1/2 years old and the battery life is very similar to when it was new so not sure its that much of a drawback that I can't replace the battery.

I have an Android Tablet and an iPhone. As much as people complain about iTunes, it still beats the pants off what is available for Android.

The memory argument is interesting. I know dozens of people that have android phones and iPhones. None of the Android people have ever used an SD card so a lot depends on how you use the phone if its necessary. I have a 32GB iPhone and have never used more than 16Gb of its capacity. Its basically all music on my iPhone.

What cracks me up about DirtyOldBoats comments about price is that the price of the phone is insignificant when you get down to the amount of money people spend on their phone service over its contract. Get the best phone and get an aftermarket service like Net10 or Straight talk and you will be thousands of dollars ahead after a few years.

If you own a Blackberry, you are SOL getting onto Net10 or StraighTalk.

Re: thinking about a new phone

WAtch out for the religious opinions on this topic as you will get it from both the apple and non-apple side. I have experience with both the Apple ecosystem (Itunes, Iphone, IPad, Appletv, etc) and my kids and wife have the Samsung SGII phones. If I could have gotten an Iphone for my wife on T-mobile at the time i did it, I would have. She really doesn't care about the proprietary world of Apple and frankly the Apple devices are elegantly designed. ANd they just work. The Samsungs have been fine and no complaints there, but since I am the household tech support I am more interested that she can just use it and figure problems out by herself.

On the other hand, the non-apple phones have some features that Apple devices do not. For one, they are not in constant prop - non=prop content licensing struggles , Such as the Flash issue and the ongoing wierdness with google products. Additionally, Apple has not bought into things like NFC (near field communication) or the inductive charging. The Samsung SGIII has both of those built in.

So it boils down into what you want from the phone.

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At my company, they used to issue only Blackberrys and and now only issue iPhones. Too many security issues with Android phones because of the wide open way you can install apps form unknown sources. One of the reasons I don't use any online banking with my Android Tablet.

Re: thinking about a new phone

bruceb58 said:

Personally, I still have an iPhone and have jailbreaked it in the past to get around DirtyOldBoats arguments.

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Jailbreaking does not change the hardware...and there is still significantly less software available than an Android device.

bruceb58 said:

My iphone 4 is 2 1/2 years old and the battery life is very similar to when it was new so not sure its that much of a drawback that I can't replace the battery.

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You're lucky. Batteries go bad all the time. In addition to that, battery life sucks on every smartphone. I can just pop in a new battery with my Samsung and keep going. I have three. They are peanuts on ebay.

bruceb58 said:

The memory argument is interesting. I know dozens of people that have android phones and iPhones. None of the Android people have ever used an SD card so a lot depends on how you use the phone if its necessary. I have a 32GB iPhone and have never used more than 16Gb of its capacity. Its basically all music on my iPhone.

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Lots of people use memory cards. It's not just the expansion ability that's nice, you can use an SD card like a floppy disk to transfer files from one place to another. 16GB is not a lot of space for music and it's a tiny amount of space if you watch any high definition videos. I have more than 12gb of Apps alone installed on my phone.

My phone is also my camera. HD video and big megapixel pictures take up tons of space. Would you buy a camera without a memory card slot?

bruceb58 said:

What cracks me up about DirtyOldBoats comments about price is that the price of the phone is insignificant when you get down to the amount of money people spend on their phone service over its contract. Get the best phone and get an aftermarket service like Net10 or Straight talk and you will be thousands of dollars ahead after a few years..

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If you want to spend a boat load of money up front. Plans like net10 are not really comparable to the big carriers like AT&T if you actually use your internet connection. It's fine if all you do is talk.

Re: thinking about a new phone

DirtyOldBoat said:

Jailbreaking does not change the hardware...and there is still significantly less software available than an Android device.

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Actually not true. Typically, major apps are always written for the iPhone before the Android. I know a few app developers and they say the same thing. I had a Dishpointer app I needed for installing DirecTv antennas. Took a year before the Android app was available after the iPhone app came out.

I have an Android Tablet as well as the iPhone so I know both systems. Its becoming personal preference at this point.

Putting HD quality movies on a smartphone is pretty pointless. You can reduce the quality and file size a lot for a smartphone and not see the difference. I never watch movies on a phone anymore now that I have a tablet.

Re: thinking about a new phone

DirtyOldBoat said:

Iphones are for people that need to be told what to do and when to do it. If you walk around in a $500 pair of skinny jeans, then you probably want one.

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So...have you ever owned an iphone or ipad and used the Apple IOS system?

DirtyOldBoat said:

Plans like net10 are not really comparable to the big carriers like AT&T if you actually use your internet connection. It's fine if all you do is talk.

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You do realize that Net10 and StraighTalk are just resellers and use the ATT or T-mobile system right?

Re: thinking about a new phone

bruceb58 said:

Typically, major apps are always written for the iPhone before the Android.

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Not really. Android has around 75% of the market. Why would a developer make an app for the other 25% first? Apple had more apps a few years ago when Android first came out, I'll give you that. Things have changed.

bruceb58 said:

Putting HD quality movies on a smartphone is pretty pointless. You can reduce the quality and file size a lot for a smartphone and not see the difference. I never watch movies on a phone anymore now that I have a tablet.

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Not true at all. That's why each new smartphone and tablet that comes out has more and more pixels on the screen. Better video.

bruceb58 said:

So...have you ever owned an iphone or ipad and used the Apple IOS system?

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I don't pay extra for inferior products that have fancy plastic cases. Do I know people that have iphones and always want me to fix it for them? Yes.

bruceb58 said:

You do realize that Net10 and StraighTalk are just resellers and use the ATT or T-mobile system right?

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Just because they use the same towers doesn't mean their plans or service are even remotely similar. The cheap plans cut you off after just 1 or 2 GB of internet usage, even though they claim "unlimited". After you hit the limit, they "throttle" your data by lowering the speed so low that it's unusable. Like I said, if you only talk and don't use data, then they're great. You'll also have to fork out around $700-1000 for a phone. I'm not sure why you'd want a smartphone if you don't use any data...

Re: thinking about a new phone

DirtyOldBoat said:

I don't pay extra for inferior products that have fancy plastic cases

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For someone who know iphones so well, you would think you would know they don't have plastic cases.

Android has a little over 50% of the US market. Apple has around 40%.

Google Nexus 4 is $299. Probably my next phone.

Unlocked iPhone5 is $649 for 16Gb.

The current Galaxy S2 has 480x800 pixels to 640x1136 of the iPhone. Trust me...keeping videos in an HD format to view on your phone is a waste of memory.

I still use a separate camera from my phone. The quality of the lens is the limiting factor for its use as a camera. More pixels won't make up for a bad lens. Now, the pixel wars for the phone cameras is just a marketing gimmick. Same holds true for cameras except for higher end ones.

DirtyOldBoat said:

Just because they use the same towers doesn't mean their plans or service are even remotely similar. The cheap plans cut you off after just 1 or 2 GB of internet usage, even though they claim "unlimited". After you hit the limit, they "throttle" your data by lowering the speed so low that it's unusable. Like I said, if you only talk and don't use data, then they're great. You'll also have to fork out around $700-1000 for a phone. I'm not sure why you'd want a smartphone if you don't use any data...

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Curious what you do with your smart phone that requires 2GB of data. Do you stream video a lot? For me, my main use for my smartphone is for email for my job and my side businesses, both are very low data intensive. Keeping all my appointments. Doing stock transactions. Programming my Directv. Checking sports. Programming my thermostat. Some facebook. Checking weather. GPS for the car. Yelp. Tracking packages with FedEx and UPS...I think my most usage to date is 500Mb.

Most people don't use more then 2Gb of data unless you are streaming video a lot.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/speci...-data-use-across-tier-1-wireless-carriers-thr

I guess saving $700/year is worth more to me compared to having over 2Gb of download...but maybe that's just me. Maybe you make so much money that its not an issue.

Re: thinking about a new phone

And to think I just bought another new flip phone. :facepalm: Yes, they still make them......:lol:

Re: thinking about a new phone

I'll stay outta' the rest of the fray except to say - iPad & iPhone are mainstays in the industry I work in. It's amazing what's being done with them. Yes, I'm a Mac guy - no skinny jeans, don't particularly care for Starbucks, wool socks are okay and rarely need to be told what to do.

FWIW - here's what I did about 8 months ago: I opted not to renew my wireless contract and buy a Straight Talk plan. Since it was unlimited data, I got a smart phone. I opted for iPhone (it works well with Apple's native productivity apps which I like quite a bit), but decided against shelling out $500+ for a shiny new one. I went with a couple of refurbished iPhone 3GS. Got 'em cheap enough, and they'll still run the latest OS (minus a few bells and whistles). The camera is marginal, but that's not a big deal to me.

And get this WIMUSKY - it's actually cheaper than the flip phone I just got rid of!

Re: thinking about a new phone

bruceb58 said:

The current Galaxy S2 has 480x800 pixels to 640x1136 of the iPhone. Trust me...keeping videos in an HD format to view on your phone is a waste of memory.

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My Galaxy Note and tablet are both 1280x800. (More than the 15" computer monitor I'm using now!) Every 3 weeks or so when they come out with a new version it usually has more pixels than the last. Android phones definitely have Apple beat for displays.

bruceb58 said:

I still use a separate camera from my phone.

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I need to get a new camera too, but the phone is the thing that is always in my pocket. I'd be really pissed if I couldn't take a video because my memory is full. An empty 32gb card only holds about 5 hours of HD video. Obviously much less if I've already got other stuff on the card.

bruceb58 said:

Curious what you do with your smart phone that requires 2GB of data.

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I can eat 2gb with video in less than an hour. Get bored and hit youtube...or make a video call and it adds up really quick. I probably listen to Pandora a couple hundred hours a month. Plus I have it set to automatically upload every pic I take to my dropbox account, that's 2-3mb each. (I take a lot of pics) I also use it as a hotspot for my tablet...it seems like the bigger the screen, the faster you use data...

Re: thinking about a new phone

One more thing about the battery - I bought an ipod nano when they first came out. (8 years ago?) The built in battery only worked for about 6 months so I sent it back to Apple under warranty. They refused to fix it, never really gave me a good reason. (other than "it's not broken") And even back then, the lack of expansion slots was a glaring error...

Re: thinking about a new phone

Biggest difference between the iphone 5 and all others is it is the only phone that transmits data securely. All other phones transmit in the open meaning anyone with the right equipment can "see" your bank account numbers and passwords as you use them. If you never transmit sensitive data using your phone than get whichever one floats your boat... no pun intended.

Re: thinking about a new phone

DirtyOldBoat said:

I can eat 2gb with video in less than an hour. Get bored and hit youtube...or make a video call and it adds up really quick.

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I guess I would rather be bored and save the $700/year.

Re: thinking about a new phone

WIMUSKY said:

And to think I just bought another new flip phone. :facepalm: Yes, they still make them......:lol:

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My thoughts too. I have had the same phone for at least 7 years complete with clear packing tape over the front display to keep the cracked glass from falling out. A drop of about 15' onto concrete but outside of the glass it still works. I had my carrier lock out my ability to send or receive texts because soon after I got it someone kept trying to message and kept getting my number.

What really gets me when the kids are all home for a holiday dinner and they keep answering their texts and returning them all day. At least that is the most annoying thing they do and none of them has ever asked me to co-sign anything for them.

Re: thinking about a new phone

My wife and I both use the same phone technology. We used to have Blackberry phones, the wife switched to the iphone and I followed. It just makes it easier to have one technology in the house.

The iphones still do everything we need and we are satisfied.

Do not get wrapped up in all the hype........ get something YOU are comfortable with.

So far over the past few years since we switched from the blackberry to the iphone....... we have had significantly less problems.

Now...... we also have different cell carriers and both work fine. The biggest difference is in the 3G and 4G service...... the wife has a newer model and the 4G seems to be 3X faster.

Many cell companies have great deals on the iphone 4 since the 5 is out.