Droid 2 vs. iPhone 4

from JoeUser Forums

I got my wife a Droid 2 to replace her aging enV phone from years ago.  We generally prefer Verizon because their network, frankly, is much much better than AT&T.  Nevertheless, I have an iPhone 4 on AT&T since keeping up on tech is pretty central to my job.

There’s a lot of passion involved in Android vs. iOS.  I’ll stick with just my personal opinion on the matter.  Having spent considerable time now with both, I far prefer the iPhone to the Droid 2.

The areas that matter to me (since I’m only speaking for myself) are:

  1. The apps on the iPhone tend to be a lot more polished and consistent. I think the Droid would be better served with losing the physical “back” button since different apps make use of that button differently and often inconsistently.
  2. The default polish on the iPhone is a lot better. The Droid 2 at least has some pretty terrible default sounds (“DROIID” as the default ring? as well as for other purposes).  You can hand someone an iPhone and it’ll work without adjusting the settings. For techies, changing the defaults is fine but it seems a little unpolished.
  3. The iPhone is a lot smoother to use. Things just flow a lot cleaner and slicker. It’s just a polish thing but still.
  4. The iPhone is a lot easier to deal with as a mobile device (for me). I don’t like having to go through steps to uninstall something, especially when there’s an awful lot of junk installed by default on the Droid 2.

Now, in terms of power and openness, the Droid has the advantage in many respects. But as a consumer, I just prefer the iPhone. For whatever it’s worth.

13,425 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hmm I was just considering buying Google Nexus One phone but I think I will hold back for a while. Or maybe look for the Iphone instead. There seems to be a lot more apps for the Iphone than for Android.

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

I have nothing against the iPhone - but I am a Verizon customer, so Droid it is for me.  From what you describe, it sounds like the Mac vs PC thing.  Once you get use to one, no matter how easy the other is, you stick with it.

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

Of course there are more apps for the Iphone, considering its been out for 3.5 years now, compared to the less than 2 for the android OS, and that for most of the comparative lifetime, it's been iOS devices with the lion's share of the market, making developing apps for them more profitable.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

I'm with Dr. Guy.  I rather deal with a little less polish and stay on Verizon.  I hate AT&T with a passion.  There are a few oddities on the Droid, but it sure beats anything else that Verizon has to offer.  When the iPhone comes to Verizon, I'll probably switch, though.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

I think it was Gartner who just recently released a prediction that in another 4 years, Droid will dominate the industry.

Well, they said it would dominate, but it looked like a good race.  The iPhone was at a healthy 18.x%, while RIm was going nowhere (I think down to about 15%) and Droid and Symbian with about 33% each.

A good healthy competition in my book!

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

Yeah, I had a Blackberry before my Droid.  The Droid is far superior to the Blackberry in many ways.

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

I really have no heartburn with AT&T except for the very infrequent failed call, but that may be because I'm in an area with good AT&T coverage.  And I'm planning to go ahead & upgrade to iPhone4 before the end of the month.  Contact/email syncing with MobileMe is working like a charm & I'm very happy with it.  Does the Droid have similar capability?

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

Daiwa, Droid can use all the Google features, so you can sync all your contacts to Google and have a universal contact list (for google, email, phone, etc.).  I'm not familiar at all with MobileMe, so I can't tell you how they differ.  Moving contacts to the Droid was nothing at all with Google, though.  Seamless.

Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top

Thanks for the info, Karma.  Do changes to contact info on one device automatically update/sync to your other devices?  I'm assuming so, but just for the record.

Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

Small story to tell.  Good a place as any.

Decided it was time to upgrade from my 3G to iPhone4, so went to the local AT&T store & picked up a new phone.  iOS 4.1 was pre-installed.  Set it up initially by restoring from my backup.  Immediately had all kinds of trouble with the  proximity sensor - constantly triggering touch tones (usually the '3') &/or switching to speaker spontaneously during calls, even though the phone was held firmly (same as always) against my cheek.  Not only that but the call quality was terrible - very choppy audio, at times unintelligible, on 75-80% of the calls.

Contacted AppleCare & was advised to Reset All Settings & see if that helped.  It didn't.

Contacted AppleCare a couple of days later & they had me go through the process of starting over & setting up the phone as a new device.  That didn't help either.  Call quality may have been a tad better, but that's it.

On the third call to AppleCare a couple of days later, they advised that there were no other maneuvers to try and they scheduled an appointment for me at my local Apple store to exchange it for a new phone.  Same day appointment, no less.

After checking in at the Apple store I explained my circumstances to the 'genius' (though I would have expected him to know the history since AppleCare scheduled my appointment).  He proceeded to test the phone's proximity sensor (which I had done numerous times during each step of the process above, each time 'testing' appropriately but without any change in in-call behavior) and pronounced it normal.  I explained that the in-call behavior was intermittent and unpredictable but frequent and that I'd done the same testing with the same results.  He insisted that the 4.1 software update had 'fixed the problem' and that replacing the phone would not help.  Nothing wrong with the phone.  Said, basically, that I wasn't having the problem that I had spent 9 days trying to resolve.

I gently explained that he was full of shit, thank you very much (in much more delicate and courteous language, of course), and offered that if that was the case I would need to return the phone & revert to my 3G, which had never had this issue in over 2 years, as it was very annoying and significantly interfering with routine calls, but that I would prefer to try another piece of hardware before giving up on iPhone4.  That if this was 'normal' for iPhone4 it had a serious design flaw.  He finally, reluctantly and somewhat condescendingly agreed to replace my phone, the reason for my appointment in the first place.

Got home & set up the phone as a new device.  Turns out, interestingly, that the second phone is older than the one AT&T gave me as it had iOS 4.0.1 pre-loaded, which iTunes upgraded to 4.1 during setup.

I've had zero problems with the proximity sensor on the new phone, none.  And as an added bonus, the call audio quality is dramatically better, crystal clear on virtually every call I've made.  So much for 'replacing the phone won't fix it'.

I'm now very happy with my iPhone4.  So if any of you encounter similar problems, defective hardware may be part or all of the problem and I would encourage you to be very persistent with Apple.

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

Contacted AppleCare & was advised to Reset All Settings & see if that helped. It didn't.

Contacted AppleCare a couple of days later & they had me go through the process of starting over & setting up the phone as a new device. That didn't help either. Call quality may have been a tad better, but that's it.

On the third call to AppleCare a couple of days later, they advised that there were no other maneuvers to try and they scheduled an appointment for me at my local Apple store to exchange it for a new phone. Same day appointment, no less.
End of quote

just a sidebar:  I have dealt with them before (my son's fist iPod).  I have found the Apple "Gemiuses" to be on par with Comcast tech support - i.e. not at all helpful or competent.

That is not a slam against Ipods or apple products (once the iPod was replaced, he was as happy as a pig in slop), just the "Geniuses" that apparently are a few donuts short of a dozen in that regard.