iphone or DROID?

dubbfoolio

dubbfoolio

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I'll be buying a smart phone in the next month or so, and the iphone is the front runner. Should me as a gamer even consider any other options? Mostly interested in apps and internet connectivity on the go.
 
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Anybody know of any websites where you can search your area/zip code and get ratings/comments on the different carriers? I'm really leaning towards going with the iPhone/ATT, but I'm not sure how the coverage is around here. Nobody I know has ATT.
 
[quote name='OuTrAgE']Anybody know of any websites where you can search your area/zip code and get ratings/comments on the different carriers? I'm really leaning towards going with the iPhone/ATT, but I'm not sure how the coverage is around here. Nobody I know has ATT.[/QUOTE]

They should have a coverage map on the ATT website. I did like the fact you have a 30 day return policy with ATT if you dont like the coverage.

You have to read the fine print about it though. You get your activation fee back if you return it within the first 3 days. After that, it's 30 day return policy if you decided to cancel and you dont get hit with an ETF. But you might get pro-rated for the services you used on the phone while you had it (I was able to get it refunded when talking to a rep).
 
I love my iPhone but the Droid reviews I have read here and online through tech sites rave on the its screen picture quality while stating it is slightly heavier than the iPhone. I believe the Droid is a great phone but that is only because it had the chance to use the iPhone as a benchmark to work against.

I also believe that next year or the following, Apple will match or exceed whatever model of smartphone is on the market. It just happens that the Droid is slightly better currently than the iPhone I had for almost two years. Comparing two year old technology (even the slight upgrade of the 3GS) to the new Droid is almost not fair.

My suggestion, go with the best network in your area. Focus on the service and then choose the phone.
 
[quote name='snookie_wookums']they will be charging an *additional* $60 per month for a 10GB "unlimited" plan if you're planning to tether. [/QUOTE]

It still amazes me how much we get raped over people in Europe for example.

[quote name='Snake2715']I still dont get the Sprint hate, or even the lack of discussion... its network is larger than AT&T and faster in most areas. Its up there with Verizons network.

Their networks are fast as well. Price is good and I have loved their customer service.[/QUOTE]

No hate for Sprint... well no less than any other network at least. THEY ALL SUCK and ALL RAPE YOU... well Sprint doesn't rape you as much I suppose. Anyway, Sprint uses Verizon's towers so that's probably why it's "up there with Verizon's Network" then again so does Virgin.

[quote name='wakeandbake']Palm Pre. Its a great phone and sprint has great deals on everything plans.[/QUOTE]

I'll agree, I suppose but fuck... Who thought the Batt life on these were acceptable? Christ.

[quote name='Snake2715']Alltel is dead, bought by verizon. [/QUOTE]

That's funny, either way doesn't effect me. They always advertised here, but never brought service to this area.
 
I can tell you after screaming at 5 different people over a $100+ billing dispute caused by confusion by one of their own reps, Verizon is no saint. They do have awesome phone coverage though. I'm with VIPfreak. I think they all suck ass.

@ seen. I want to get onto a plan with my girlfriend as soon as possible (in fact her plan ended Sunday). My current phone is terrible too. The battery shakes lose sometimes in my pocket which totally defeats the point of having awesome coverage and paying too much for it. I have to charge it everyday even if I don't use it. The phone got dropped into a toilet once! I put it in a bath of deionized water for a couple days. Then dried it out for a few more days. Worked like new in spite of being disgusting. The screen is cracked. The phone needs to be retired asap!
 
I just got a Droid over the weekend. AT&T isn't an option, there's no coverage in my area other than CDMA, so I can't compare it to an iPhone.

That being said I want to clear up a couple of misconceptions:

*The Verizon ETF isn't being raised until Nov. 15th, as I understand it. When I renewed on 11/7, ETF was still $175.

*It's true Android only allows the 256MB for apps, but only the main app uses this memory. The app can use the onboard storage (mSDHC) to store music, images, textures, etc. Most of the apps I've downloaded are around 1-2 MB or less. One game I've installed (Bonsai Blast, a Zuma clone) takes up 13.29 MB. You can always uninstall/reinstall as necessary.

The Android Market doesn't come close to the iPhone in terms of games, but as Android gets a bigger install base, the games will come. If reports are correct on Verizon selling 100k Droids over the weekend, I think it will be sooner than later.

I can't compare it to the iPhone, but the Droid is a pretty sick device. And it will have full Flash 10 in the browser in early 2010, which the iPhone won't have.
 
Why not buy someones backup (old phone) and go month to month, until the Passion is released?

Again, if you are after the "cool" factor of the iphone then go for it but ATT has horrid service(coverage and customer service), as I have heard from friends who work at Apple and personal experience.
 
[quote name='snookie_wookums']Oh it's so much worse than that, because not only are they going to handcuff you into a new phone, but they will be charging an *additional* $60 per month for a 10GB "unlimited" plan if you're planning to tether. If ever there was a reason to hate Verizon even more, the Droid might just be that reason. They have a phone that is aesthetically inferior in just about every way to an iPhone but they double the ETF AND they charge twice the amount for data as AT&T.

And before a Verizon troll comes here to say something like "At least the service works for that $60 per month", even Sprint is a better choice at this rate for much less money and comparable service in most spots. Sure Verizon has a slightly better network but it's not worth three times what a Sprint bill would cost for the same service.[/QUOTE]
There's an app for Android, PDAnet, that will allow you to tether on your current data plan. It's against Verizon's TOS though, but if you use it sparingly enough you probably wouldn't get caught.

And I believe the tethering is only $60 total ($30 data+$30 tethering) and not $60 extra on top of the data plan.
 
@seen I guess I don't see the point in waiting for the new hotness when there's always newer hotness around the corner. That's a self defeating game. There's so little information out about Passion that I don't see the point in waiting for it. I'm going to go to a Verizon store this afternoon and handle a droid myself. And it's not like I wouldn't be ecstatic to have either device.

@Lawyers It's good to know about the ETF increase not taking effect yet. I don't see any reason honestly that I would terminate the service in the immediate future since I have verizon now and the coverage is great. I'm still confused about the memory limit too. I'd be curious to know if you could ever have a game like Sims 3 or Myst or Tale of Monkey Island on an android phone, not just dinky popcap clones. The android market looks pretty bleak compared to the the app store. I know that's trending in the right direction though... but it's hard to get excited about the android market.

EDIT: Holy shit... never mind about the outdoor GPS! http://mytracks.appspot.com/?utm_ca...n_US-ha-na-us-bk-mm&utm_term=google my tracks
 
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I got the Droid the first day it came out... upgraded from an Env2 and I love it alot. The navigation feature alone has already saved my on a weekend trip.


Also in terms of gaming on the Droid, emulators are free downloads from the marketplace and they have NES, SNES, GBA, Genesis and more.

Already started a game of Pokemon Fire Red to relive my middle school days of Charizards and Zapdos haha.
 
Woah, didn't know that they were gonna raise the ETFs for Verizon. I guess I better cancel soon.

[quote name='OuTrAgE']Anybody know of any websites where you can search your area/zip code and get ratings/comments on the different carriers? I'm really leaning towards going with the iPhone/ATT, but I'm not sure how the coverage is around here. Nobody I know has ATT.[/QUOTE]

I found this site to be helpful before, but they are down since a lot of people went to the site recently it looks like. It shows dead zones from each carrier on a map. The accuracy is from people that send the info in. Might not be really reliable, but it is something

Sprint has the best plans as of right now. The only down sides are that their phones (the fancy ones) are really expensive. I guess you could look at it as a one time fee. I also heard there customer service was really bad should you have trouble with something.
 
Honestly, I'm looking forward to the n900. But I have T-mobile service and like it, which is apparently a minority opinion in the US.

Gaming wise, the n900 runs Maemo, which inherits quite a bit from Debian Linux. Porting emulators is already underway (I saw Marat in #maemo working on his GB emu) / complete. Gamewise, I know there's Wesnoth, and sgt-puzzles. But you have to really consider your use case. Are you bored in a doctor's office? Or looking for the next Final Fantasy? Because I don't think any phone platform has the paying audience that the DS or PSP has.

Control wise, it supports TV out and bluetooth connectivity with a wiimote. It has a touch screen and a keyboard. It has accelerometers and GPS (location based games?).
 
[quote name='ZerotypeX']Woah, didn't know that they were gonna raise the ETFs for Verizon. I guess I better cancel soon.[/QUOTE]

They can only change the ETFs for contracts signed (or renewed) after the 15th (or whenever they change), current contracts will not be changed. If they did change current contracts, it would be a material change in the agreement, and you could get out of your contract with no ETF at all.

You can bet other carriers will follow suit, if Verizon doesn't get much backlash from this change.
 
I have the HTC Hero and I don't recommend it. It's definitely the nicest phone I've ever had - and I waited years to update. I wanted to stay with Sprint because it has the best plans and has always given me good service... but in many ways I wish I had gone over to the dark side of AT&T to have the iPhone. The iPhone beats the others, hands down. I would wait, as it should be coming to Verizon soon.

I almost took the Hero back to swap for the Pre... I think the Pre is much more fun and much easier to use BUT I think the Hero is the better phone overall. Android has a LOT of little annoyances and the Android Market is horribly organized. If you think most of the apps in Apple's app store are crap - it pales in comparison to what's in the Android Market. Anyway, I'm hoping issues will be fixed soon with an update that HTC reports is forthcoming...
 
I didnt like the way the HTC phones handled the internet at all, seemed very slow and clunky. I dont thing I tried the hero at the time though.

2 months and I can upgrade again.. have to see whats hot then to decide.
 
I have an iPhone 3gs. I've had every iteration of the iPhone. And I lovd everyone of them. Hands down best phone on the market considering all aspects of a phone. That being said, I can't wait for the n900. Just kinda tired of seeing every dick
Harry and Tom with my phone....
 
[quote name='ZerotypeX']I found this site to be helpful before, but they are down since a lot of people went to the site recently it looks like. It shows dead zones from each carrier on a map. The accuracy is from people that send the info in. Might not be really reliable, but it is something

Sprint has the best plans as of right now. The only down sides are that their phones (the fancy ones) are really expensive. I guess you could look at it as a one time fee. I also heard there customer service was really bad should you have trouble with something.[/QUOTE]

What's the site?
 
Well in spite of everyone's best efforts I'm throwing mounds of money at AT&T. Sorry to those who have been violated by AT&T before. I'm a whore for tech, and I just didn't think the Android Market would satiate my app lust. I'll probably go that direction in a couple years after the Android OS has matured a little. I was a little worried about droid durability, as every other demo model I've seen is trashed after only a week. Thanks everyone for all the advice. I
 
[quote name='manthing']ATT sucks dick.

In spite of that, iPhone>>>>Android.

The problem with Android is that it only allows apps to be installed on the onbaord ROM. The Droid only has 256MB of ROM to install apps to.

Until Google removes that retarded restriction, stay WAY the fuck away from Android.

P.S. The Droid keyboard is AWFUL.

P.P.S. If you're looking to game on your phone, iPhone shoukd be your only consideration. Android has too many variants on too many phones for developers to consider making games for it.[/QUOTE]

If you flash the bios on the phone with the custom one on the web (very easy to do) you can install to your installed memory card as well.
 
[quote name='n25philly']If you flash the bios on the phone with the custom one on the web (very easy to do) you can install to your installed memory card as well.[/QUOTE]

Not the point.

The stubbornness of Google when coupled with the penny-pinching(or inability due lack of large chips due to iPhones according to some) of device makers are guaranteeing a user exerience that will be less than the iPhone's and could hurt Android in the long run.
 
[quote name='manthing']Not the point.

The stubbornness of Google when coupled with the penny-pinching(or inability due lack of large chips due to iPhones according to some) of device makers are guaranteeing a user exerience that will be less than the iPhone's and could hurt Android in the long run.[/QUOTE]

definitely agree with you there. It's good to mention though, especially for those of us that already have android phones.
 
ATT is great in the north east: connecticut, new york, philly, etc...

if you want apps/games, its iphone no question. I personally have a ipod touch because I'm in college and $30 data plan + texting every month is a joke, I like my regular phone just fine. Droid is a good choice if you want to stay on verizon though.

Would advise against t-mobile
 
I got a Droid on Tuesday.. i have been lovin it so far.. dont have another smartphone to compare it to because its my first one..

the verizon etf thing i really dont mind because i have been with them for over 10 years and dont plan on leaving anytime soon.. the only time i ever thought about leaving was when nextel came out with the chirp cuz all my friends had them..lol.. also the etf doesnt happen unless you cancel your account, not just downgrading from a data plan back to a dumbphone.
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']They can only change the ETFs for contracts signed (or renewed) after the 15th (or whenever they change), current contracts will not be changed. If they did change current contracts, it would be a material change in the agreement, and you could get out of your contract with no ETF at all.

You can bet other carriers will follow suit, if Verizon doesn't get much backlash from this change.[/QUOTE]

Oic, thanks for letting me know.

[quote name='OuTrAgE']What's the site?[/QUOTE]

Sorry about that, would have been helpful if I put a link in there, huh?

http://deadcellzones.com/

Yea, the site is still down. Here's a forumish version of checking if you have signal in your area.

http://www.cellreception.com/coverage/

Ratings around my area are not good with any carriers (they average around 2 out of 5), but I am guessing only people that don't have signal in the area are complaining.
 
[quote name='manthing']Not the point.

The stubbornness of Google when coupled with the penny-pinching(or inability due lack of large chips due to iPhones according to some) of device makers are guaranteeing a user exerience that will be less than the iPhone's and could hurt Android in the long run.[/QUOTE]

I agree that's a nice work around but obviously developers, especially game developers, make their apps with the 256 mb restriction in mind. So still limits app size... but at least not the number of apps.
 
[quote name='dubbfoolio']I agree that's a nice work around but obviously developers, especially game developers, make their apps with the 256 mb restriction in mind. So still limits app size... but at least not the number of apps.[/QUOTE]

That's right, they make their apps with the restriction in mind. However, that does not mean they'll make crappy little apps; that means they'll split their code and data which is good programming practice anyway. The code, which is very small, will live in the 256mb and the data will be installed to your SD card. This is besides the fact that there are already projects going on to allow installation of apps completely to the SD.

Also, when you decided that you hated the android apps, were you browsing through androlib.com? The official (android.com/market) site has a very limited selection.

I don't know if android will ever be as popular as the iPhone or if their apps will catch up, but I expect the number of apps to start growing very quickly now with all of the new android phones coming out. Android is much easier to develop for and get your apps published on.

Finally, comparing the droid to the problems previous androids had is tough. The droid's hardware is much faster, so everything runs much smoother. The droid is also the only phone with Android 2.0...

It's true that Android is definitely not as polished as the iPhone, and I don't know if it ever will be, but the Droid has its own advantages. It feels almost like a PC vs Mac comparison to me

Regarding tethering, it's just as easy/legal to tether on androidwithout paying extra as it is on iphone
 
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Get a new 16GB iPhone 3GS on eBay for $550, Blackra1n it, and voila. You can run on T-Mobile if you want, otherwise if you have ATT, use your own ATT contract that you have, just make sure it has a data plan :p
The iPhone 3GS is faster in every way compared to Droid. Droid is a dissapointment, talking tall that smack when it can't deliver. The only thing I think the iPhone is lacking is a different carrier or at least Adobe Flash.
 
[quote name='MicrosoftGuy']The iPhone 3GS is faster in every way compared to Droid.[/QUOTE]

The Droid and the 3GS run the same processor, and it's rumored that the Droid has a faster graphics chip in it, so this statement may be true in the software department, but definitely not on the hardware side.

But the iPhone OS is a heckuva lot more mature then Android is right now. Given time, performance software-wise will even out, probably within a few months.
 
VERIZON has some of the worst customer service I've ever had to deal with. Their agents tell you one thing... then you pay for their lies. On two separate occasions I was told that when I cancelled the month would be prorated. No regrets on leaving for AT&T!
 
@ dubbfoolio - you know the first thing I did when I got my new iPhone? I hopped on youtube and watched some Sifl & Olly. It was sooo crescent. :)

On-topic: my boss got a Droid and I was not really impressed with it. I'm sure the coverage is better than ATT, but almost everything he was trying to show me he could do on his Droid was not working at the time. Things were getting stuck and other things weren't loading. About the only thing that did work was his widget for moon phases. He's my boss, so I had to look impressed.
 
[quote name='dubbfoolio']VERIZON has some of the worst customer service I've ever had to deal with. Their agents tell you one thing... then you pay for their lies. On two separate occasions I was told that when I cancelled the month would be prorated. No regrets on leaving for AT&T![/QUOTE]
I could write the same thing and replace Verizon with ATT....

Trust me - all customer service reps are garbage!
 
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