I am close to buying a new smart phone and a debate has started to take place in my head, Iphone or an Android phone. My previous phone, a Samsung Omnia HD or I8910 features the Symbian OS. Now that I know this OS I want to try something new. I have been reading a lot about Iphone and Android and I am currently leaning against Android and especially the HTC Desire.
The positive things about Android seems to be that you have a lot more options regarding most thing in the mobile, whereas Apple controls almost everything. The things you are allowed to do works very well on the Iphone but at the same time you are very limited to what you can do. I like the 7 start screens of HTC and their Sense that lies on top of the Android 2.2 OS. On these 7 start screens you can put different Widgets that update dynamically. For example your Facebook, Twitter and other social networks can update on your start screen and you can even post there so you do not need to launch a browser window. Apple doesn’t feature this and at most you get a number that shows you have a new post/mail.
The downside with Android seems to be that their appstore is a jungle and without any approval system like Apple has you do not always know what you are going to get. Android market has around 230.000 apps and Apple has 400.000, but Android is closing in fast. Previously good games where sparse on Android but now more and more high profile games find their way to the Android market, like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.
Apple and their Iphone has a very streamlined experience and the markets best UI. The downside is that it starts to be somewhat old fashioned. For example unsent SMS that for some reason does not get sent you have to manually send them, whereas other phones do that automatically. Apple now has multi tasking,but again Apple controls what programs can multi task so it is not real multi tasking, only steaming apps like Spootify are allowed to multi task.
What finally made up my mind is the freedom Android gives me. I do not need to rely on Itunes for syncing the phone, I can tailor my OS and get social network updates on my start screens. So what do you people think, Apple IOS 4 or Android based mobiles?
