iPhone vs Droid
This post was published Saturday February 6, 2010 filled under gadgets.
iPhone vs Droid
After breaking my iPhone and losing my patients with AT&T’s service I decided that instead of replacing my iPhone at full retail price, I’d switch over to Verizon and try out the Motorola Droid which is currently Verizon’s best smart phone. It lasted about 2 weeks before I decided I missed my iPhone and really wanted it back. Not to mention I didn’t see much of different in 3G service between Verizon and A&T, I guess it’s safe to assume that living in Vegas (a big valley) I can’t expect great cell phone service through any network.
The Droid is actually a really decent phone, I enjoyed using it and I think the Android OS is also very good and well eventually become much more popular. The phone had some great features like a slide out keyboard, which was a nice change since I’ve been using iPhone touch screen to text and email for about 2 years now. The camera 5.0 MP camera was also very good but besides the fact of it having a Flash in dark settings the quality of pictures was not better then iPhone pictures. The touch screen on the Droid is decent but definitely falls short of the iPhone, there’s just something about the iPhone’s screen that makes everything so accurate and sensitive to touch and easy to use, it also supports multi-touch gestures while the Droid does not yet. My favorite feature on the Droid that the iPhone does not offer was the ability to tether via the 3G when my connected to my computer with a USB cable, this is more the network then the device but it was definitely nice to have internet access where ever I was (with no wi-fi). My only real problem with the phone was the overall size of the device. It was quite heavy ad just didn’t feel as nice as an iPhone does in my hand.
One thing I really missed was my Mobile Me service that synchronized all my iCal and Address Book data from my Macbook to my iPhone instantly and wirelessly. Mobile Me also has some other features that I just recently discovered; If you lose your iPhone you can log into your MM account and use the locate my iPhone tools which consist of a pulse that can be used to locate your phone if it’s hidden under your couch, a GPS location feature that brings up your iPhone exact location using Google Maps and also the ability to complete wipe your phone out and send a custom message to it, if it happens to fall into the wrong hands.
In the end I’m glad I was able to test out the Droid and Verizon for a couple weeks risk free but am definitely glad to have a new iPhone 3GS, which is actually an upgrade from my 3G. I can now take video and I notice the speed in UI transitions is a bit faster.