smart phones...which one?

[Robinhood4x4]

I've finally been thinking about getting out of the dark ages and joining modern society with a smart phone. Right now, I don't even text.

So which one? I've always liked apple products, even back to the original macintosh box, so I am partial to the iphone, plus, I have a 1st gen ipod touch so I have some familiarity with it.

What I don't know about is the other options out there. What else is out there?

My friend at work has an Evo (I don't even know what that is), but I think it's a little too big for me and I'm happy with the size of my touch.

I'd be staying with verizon.

[paddlenbike]

The iPhone is a good phone (on the Verizon network, anyway). I wanted one but was not willing to go back to AT&T's lousy service to get it, then it hit the Verizon network. I went to buy one and discovered that they were in such high demand that there were no deals and Verizon wasn't even willing to apply my $100 in credits toward the phone. So the price was $199 for the iPhone or $50 for an HTC Incredible. I went across the street to Best Buy and picked up the HTC for $0.

I had my heart set on the iPhone but the price difference was too large to justify it. Android phones had a great reputation and my research revealed that people really liked the product. Now that I have one I know I made the right decision. Even disregarding the huge difference in price, it's a great product and I have no complaints. It just works.

I also didn't want a huge phone. Take a look at the replacement for mine, the HTC Incredible 2. It's iPhone sized and a great phone. Touch interface works great, fast performance, surprisingly good camera (8mp), plenty of apps and a good operating system that is very un-Windows like.

EDIT--I will add that HTC phones have software called "HTC Sense" that makes Android even more customizable, attractive and cuts down on your workflow when performing certain tasks. I highly recommend HTC no matter which model you get. I'd buy one just to have HTC Sense.

http://www.dreambloggers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/HTC-Incredible-Droid-2.jpg

[Seanz0rz]

i had an iphone 3g. i loved it.

until i got my HTC inspire 4g (ok, att, really, its NOT 4g, stop calling it that...) i stayed with ATT because 1, i get a student discount there, 2, they put a "4g" tower across the street in the church steeple so i get awesome reception at home, 3, i can pop out the sim and pop it in an older trash phone if i think i might be in a situation where i could destroy my smart phone, and 4, they provide the best coverage of where i like to go offroading and hiking and such. other than those things, ATT sucks and big red has much better customer service, cell service, phones, etc.

i love the android platform. its not as well polished as iOS, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for in usability and openness.

anything from HTC or motorola will serve you very well. i just bought alexus the older HTC tilt2 on ebay. it should be here today. it is a windows phone (hit and miss on whether they are good or not) but generally id try to stick with android (just for the awesome library of apps and it not being a M$ product)

so you have my vote. i would buy another android HTC in a heartbeat.

[4x4mike]

I've got the HTC Incredible 2 and like it a lot. It's thin, easy to use and does everything I need it to.

[L33T35T Tacoma]

iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. By far the largest "in-group", the most applications, and the largest online community should the rare chance something goes wrong. When a company goes to make a smart phone application, they make an iPhone application before an android or blackberry application. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my iPhone. I'd be lost without it.

[Robinhood4x4]

So it seems like there are 2, maybe 3 major OS's? iphone, android, and windows (with windows being a distant 3rd and I'm not even considering palm)?

Verizon has about 30 smart phones available and they all look the same to me.

The casio gzone looked cool until I figured out how big it is.

[DHC6twinotter]

I'm in the same boat, Steve. My phone is going on 4 years old, and I don't have anything extra other than a voice plan and pay-per-text.

I've been eyeing the iphone for years, but now that Sprint has the iphone with an unlimited data and text plan, I think it may be time to finally pull the trigger on it. That being said though, I've had good service from AT&T, and if I can get by with less than 2 gigs of usage on one of their iphones, I may just stick with them. Only thing I don't like about AT&T is that they don't have an unlimited data plan, and they don't have the text packages anymoore (250 texts for $5, etc). I'm not going to pay $20 for unlimited texts, but I don't want to continue on a pay-per-text bases either.

Anyways, just my $.02. I've heard good things about android phones, but my vote goes to the iphone.

[fenrisx]

I've also got a Droid Incredible 2, and I really like it. I'm running CyanogenMod 7 instead of the stock Android.. but it was a great phone even before.

If I were in the market for a new phone at this point I'd probably either get the Droid Bionic, or just wait for the Samsung Nexus phone that's coming to VZW next month [I think?]..

[troyboy162]

Can you wait till christmas? Both android and iphone are almost ready to unleash the next level in phones.

[Robinhood4x4]

What do you mean? Do you think apple is going to come out with the iphone 5 so soon?

Oh, and that's another thing, do phone go on sale near christmas?

[slosurfer]

April and I have the motorola atrix and really like it. My mom has an iphone and she's drooling over our phones. It has a dual core processor and is super fast.
Atrix (http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-ATRIX-US-EN)

[YotaFun]

I am currently on an iPhone and love it. HAve actually had some friends go from Droid operated phones to the iPhone.

I am on AT&T And while Dan mentioned they do not have an unlimited Data plan, however we looked into our usage as a family, and we all really do not get that close to the 2GB mark, and we all are using mail, pandora radio, and searching the web often.

However a friend of mine has a iPhone on the verizon network and always has more service then me (jealous).

I have played with a few android powered phones and I feel I could get use to it just as easily as I did my iPhone.

I think the only real way your going to know what you want is to go into the store and play with the phones and see what appeals to you most.

I love my iPhone and will probably stick with it.

[DHC6twinotter]

Also, check to see what kind of discounts the various provides offer. I was reading a recent article that said Sprint gives a 15% discount just for having an AOL account. I could have gotten a student discount on my phone too! Anyways, it sounds like they have discounts for a lot of things.

[Seanz0rz]

schools, places of employment, organizations, etc may offer discounts.

dont be afraid to haggle, especially if you have been a long time customer who has remained in good standing (no late bills, etc) and if you are after one of their less popular products (no haggling on anything iphone for example.) ive found that they are good at offering a free accessory if they dont have accessories in stock, or offering free activation if you ask them to wave it. never hurts to ask!

[Robinhood4x4]

For those of you with iphones, how is it living with no flash support? And how is battery life?

It looks like it's not too hard to replace the battery on a 4th gen iphone, but the phone still needs to be taken apart to do it. Much easier than the ipod touch battery I just replaced.

No flash might be a dealer killer for the iphone. It's kind of annoying with my ipod and if the android phones are just as good as iphone, then I might lean that way.

[YotaFun]

It hasn't bothered me really, I have never really had a time where I needed flash.
Battery life is good, though with the recent iOS update (which I anticipated this) my battery life has fell a decent amount, but I am sure there is a mini update coming for that, but if your getting an iPhone 4S you should be good.

It is cake to replace a 4th gen iPhone battery, I will actually be changing the front and rear faces too, doing red or lime green, and its actually a simple process and the Youtube video makes it so easy a baby could do it.

But if no flash is a deal breaker for you then you might want to go with the Android

[04 Rocko Taco]

I have an Droid X2 by Motorola. I really like the Android OS, and I think there are a lot of good possibilities out there for it, but to be honest my X2 is a little more glitchy than I think it should be. Maybe I just expect to much, but it needs to be restarted relatively often, far more than what I think it should, and occasionally will restart itself. Sometimes in the middle of doing something....

[Intrepidyota]

I have an HTC inspire running the stock rom (htc sense). I don't have extensive iphone usage to compare it to so I won't try to bash it, however, there are two things I don't like. First, I can't even TRY an iphone without downloading itunes and syncing my phone to my computer, and second, apple products have their own proprietary plugs. It seems like iphones and android phones do pretty much all the same things really, so its probably more about whether you like apple or try to avoid apple.

My phone works smoothly and does everything I want thus far. The only complaint I have or have heard from other android users is that battery life is weak. When I first got it and I was messing with all the apps and playing games non stop my battery life dropped way off. My phone lasts about 24 hours under normal use now. I use it as an mp3 player on both my commutes, as an e-reader while on lunch, and for all the normal stuff on and off all day, texting, calls, etc. One thing I quickly realized is exactly how much of my life I'm near a power outlet. I went to monoprice.com and bought a few usb to micro usb cables for just a couple bucks each and stuck one on my computer at work and one next to my computer at home, then put the charging cord my phone came with on my nightstand. If I need to, I can be plugged in 90% of the time, so battery life doesn't particularly bother me. Mostly I just plug in when I go to bed, but its available if I need it.

[slosurfer]

I got an app killer for my phone and that has helped my battery life quite a bit. Makes it super easy to kill all the apps that are still running in the background that you don't need. I think the one I have is called Advanced Task Killer Free

My atrix has a fingerprint recognition thing which is pretty cool and worked really well. I ended up turning it off though because I wear nitrile gloves at work, so it made it a pain to get into my phone. :laugh:

[04 Rocko Taco]

Just thought I would add that my battery life is easily about 30-36 hours on my droid X2 when using it as a phone and playing the occasional music and app. When I play games on it a lot though, it drops to around 10 hours.