Forums >Gears and Wears>choosing a new smartphone
not bad for mile 25
One thing: The DROID is supposed to have a great battery life, but it seems to drain quickly, as with Stevie Ray and Ken. I have until Sunday to return it.
My Droid battery life was about a half day for the first two or three charge cycles. Now it lasts two days of light use, one day of heavy use. I've had it almost a year now. I think my Droid X is too big to run with, though.
Fight The Future
Just got my 1st iPhone about a month ago (thanks to Sprint's ability to sell them). Much better than my previous HTC phone (HERO). iPhone 4s Battery life: excellent Ease of use: excellent To run, I use a SpyBelt, and put the iPhone in the spy belt.I wear a bluetooth PlanTronic Backbeat 903+ for music, and it works great for receiving calls while running and switching between listening and phone use. (I love the fact that I don't have wires going from my ears to my phone. I feel free) I've had the bluetooth headset for about 3 or 4 months, and I'm hoping it holds up with all of the re-charging necessary and the sweat. (Time will tell). MTA: added bonus... the bluetooth headset can be worn and I'm still able to hear the traffic and talk to people. I've never had another headset where I didn't have to take out the earplugs in order to listen and be attentive to my surroundings. So far, they get an A+ grade from me. Best wishes.
Just got my 1st iPhone about a month ago (thanks to Sprint's ability to sell them).
Much better than my previous HTC phone (HERO).
iPhone 4s
Battery life: excellent
Ease of use: excellent
To run, I use a SpyBelt, and put the iPhone in the spy belt.I wear a bluetooth PlanTronic Backbeat 903+ for music, and it works great for receiving calls while running and switching between listening and phone use. (I love the fact that I don't have wires going from my ears to my phone. I feel free)
I've had the bluetooth headset for about 3 or 4 months, and I'm hoping it holds up with all of the re-charging necessary and the sweat. (Time will tell).
MTA: added bonus... the bluetooth headset can be worn and I'm still able to hear the traffic and talk to people. I've never had another headset where I didn't have to take out the earplugs in order to listen and be attentive to my surroundings. So far, they get an A+ grade from me.
Best wishes.
Another vote for SpyBelt (although I thought it was spelled SpiBelt). I carry my iphone when I have to, and it is not too obtrusive. I turn it so the phone is in front of me, rather than bouncing on my backside the whole way.
I have the Motorola Droid (the first one with the keyboard), and I can go well over 15 hours on the battery at this point, and have gone close to 24 hours. However, I do not twit or faceyspace or any of that. I use basic calendar, email, text, and phone, and I use a time clock application during work.
HTC is known to have battery life issues. And anything that uses 4G is going to have a reduced battery life as well (that super-fast speed comes at a price).
My experience is that Motorola tends to have decent battery life compared to other Android phones (like HTC).
Prince of Fatness
Wow. I just have a plain old cheapo cell phone. Am I that out of touch?
Not at it at all.
Stone age man sighting.
Ditto, mine has no camera, or touch screen. Can text and make and receive calls...usually from the wife....if I've been out too long
“Attitude is the Difference Between an Ordeal and an Adventure”
Goals 2016
Do stuff
Feeling the growl again
I miss my week+ of Razr battery life, vs the <2 days with my Android.
My Razr never cost me $15 by draining its battery in under 6 hours downloading 80+ MB of mysterious data I could not identify and never asked it to, either.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
The shirtless wonder
When I was growing up I churned my own butter and I liked it.
run.therowes.net
Personal preference, way too many variables. You'll get as many different answers as there are responses. I would think of it like this:
Step 1, chose the platform: Apple iOS, Android, or Blackberry. If you want a blindingly simple user experience but a closed system, and/or you are a big user of other Apple applications like iTunes etc, go iPhone. If you prefer a more open system and your choice of hardware and/or you are big user of Google applications like Gmail, Calendar, Apps, buy your music from Amazon and other sources, go Android. If email is the most important thing in your life and/or you have previous Blackberry experience and can't live without some of their apps, go Blackberry--although they are a distant 3rd and losing share.
Step 2, chose the hardware (unless your answer in question 1 is Apple, then you just get an iPhone). If you go Android you will have the widest choice of hardware but that creates its own set of problems--choose the wrong hardware for your needs and you will be disappointed with the whole experience.
Step 3, look at speeds/fees/size/battery life/display, etc.
I have an HTC Incredible 2 running Android 2.3.4 and I'm very happy with it
I chose that particular phone 6 months ago for the following reasons:
1. Previous experience with HTC and Android and I already have most of my life in the GOOG,
2. The form factor was good for me, not too big not to small
3. Battery life is pretty good
4. I valued battery life over 4G since 4G access is still so limited, I rarely feel that 3G is not fast enough for what I'm doing and I'm on Wifi most of the time anyway.
5. Some other stuff.
Your experience will almost surely vary.
Runners run
rectumdamnnearkilledem
You're fortunate, Mikey...'cause my experience with HTC has pretty much put a nail in that coffin. Hubby's Eris has been OK (even better since he rooted it), but my Incredible has been nothing but trouble for the past couple of months (widespread device-specific bugs) and I am not alone. 90 minutes ago it attempted to install build # 4.08.605.2...for the 2nd time in a week. It has been "rebooting" ever since, even though this process should have only taken 10 minutes. When I hit the "cancel install" button it does nothing, so I restarted it...back to 4.06.... From everything I'm reading this is pretty much an HTC specific problem. They first tried to roll out Gingerbread back in August and it was FUBAR, then. They had all these months to get it right and still fucked it up and bricked a lot of phones in the process. I won't be buying any HTC phones in the future.
As soon as there is a way to root this phone we will (right now I'd have to downgrade back to Froyo to do it), which will void any ability to have Verizon service the device.
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Incredible ≠ Incredible 2. And yeah nobody's ever bricked an iPhone before.
I didn't say iPhones were trouble-free, but when they are problematic Apple is good about providing support--every iPhone owner I know has been very pleased at the way various issues have been handled by Apple. HTC isn't taking responsibility or providing a fix (good luck to you if/when your Incredible 2 misbehaves). Calls to HTC are being directed to contact Verizon and Verizon has washed their hands of the mess.
I've been using this. App support isn't so great but it always gets good coverage.
There's no doubt Apple has superior customer service and provides a good experience to it's customers for a premium price. They've been hugely successful with that business model. They also have a closed system where their software runs only on their hardware and they control the distribution. It works for them. People who value those things should absolutely get an iPhone and now in the US you're no longer limited to the shitty AT&T network, which is what pushed a lot of people to Android in the first place.
But I've been on Android for 3 years now and I don't see myself moving from that platform anytime soon, even taking into account the separate software, hardware, distribution model and the risks that it creates.
As I said, your experience will almost surely vary.
People who like Android but would prefer a more tightly coupled hardware/software model may have that option in the not-too-distant future with Google acquiring Motorola Mobility. But for now that's what the iPhone is for.
People who value those things should absolutely get an iPhone and now in the US you're no longer limited to the shitty AT&T network, which is what pushed a lot of people to Android in the first place.
Yup. The iPhone arrived ~2 weeks after I got my Droid. At the time I considered seeing about an upgrade, but cost and the iPhone's larger form factor made me decide to stick with the smaller, cheaper phone (plus I have the $15/month 150mb data plan, which is generally adequate for my needs and wouldn't have been an option with the iPhone). But had price and phone size not been deciding factors, then I'm almost certain I would have jumped at the iPhone from the get-go. I don't think I'll even look at an Android on the next go. There's too much room for problems when there are 3 components (device, OS, network) that have to work together, rather than 2 (device/OS, network). I feel for the folks who have truly non-working phones and cannot get support from their wireless provider or the mfg. of their device. Yet they are still under contract to pay for their paperweights.