Yakkstr

My first impressions of an Android phone

I got a Droid X2 after years with an iphone. Here are my initial thoughts compared to my experiences on the IPhone.

The immediately obvious CON

IOS and IPhone are more polished by a mile. It's hard to spell out why I feel this way without writing a long winded rant about many small details that alone seem insignificant, but in aggregate are the difference between my grandmother being able to use the phone vs being totally bewildered. She would be unable to use android as it is now. Outside of usability IOS is also more polished in aesthetics like transitions, animations, etc. IOS feels better, like a luxury car.

The immediately obvious PRO

It's more flexible and customizable. To some degree this is the other side of the same coin as the CON. It's more customizable therefore it's more complicated. For a nerd like me this is a plus. My nerd-sense tingles when I look at the Task Manager and I can see how much RAM apps and widgets are using. Widgets that suck in RSS feeds and give me an instant view of my internet world are like an IV of crack straight into my veins.

Some more PROs

Syncing with my google accounts. This is a huge win for me, I use google to manage most of my personal information and my day job uses google apps for mail and calendars. This just works out of the box and it's great. It's also one of the few areas where Apple has truly dropped the ball. Come on Apple, hire or empower some people that understand the cloud.

The voice features are very nice. "Navigate to starbucks". Good stuff!!!

I'm a nerd in the sense that I am a programmer, and what do programmers like to do? Write programs for themselves and friends. On IOS I can't easily write a program and share it with my friends because everything has to go through the app store. That is probably the right thing for normal people, but I'm a programmer. I can now write programs for myself, put them on my phone, and share them with my nerd friends. I already have some ideas brewing in my head :)

Some more CONs

There are a number of apps for the IPhone that I really miss. Chess with friends is one. Man that one hurts. IPhone wins by a mile when it comes to apps.

Also, the different customizations from the various phone manufacturers are confusing. My Droid has some kind of dock thing at the bottom with 4 apps and I can't figure out how to replace them with other apps I'd prefer on the dock. Is this dock standard android? I don't think so, I think it's Motorola's skin. Either way I have no idea how to change the apps on the dock.

The crapware is the worst. It's been years since I bought a PC and I've forgotten what it's like to buy hardware and have it come with a bunch of shit third party software pre-installed. I really appreciate Apple on this front.

The fine print tricks. Yeah yeah, this isn't about android specifically, but it is reflective of the culture around android. I thought I was going to pay $199 for my phone. Nope, I paid $249 and have to do a mail in rebate. This is an insult to the people buying your products, and I again really appreciate Apple because they've never pulled this shit on me.

More to come

These are my first impressions. I'll probably come back and update this after I've used the phone for more than a day :)

report |
d6fer said 8 months ago ...

I have no experience with the iphone, but I know every time my friend and I get together (he has iphone), I show him something new I've got on my EVO, and he's green with envy.

I love the litany of apps available.....I think of something that would be neat....I search the market...and whamo! there it is!

I'm not sure about the dock you are referring to....if you mean the "home screen", mine is totally customizable.

I found out that if you go to radio shack, you can get the same phone...same price, but without the mail in rebate!

I love the voice command thing too, but I have been having problems with it for the past few weeks, ever since the last software "upgrade"

I can take credit cards with it.

I can deposit a check in my bank account with it.

Frickin awesome!

Join our friendly Yakkstr community in 1 Easy Step
  • Meet Like Minded People
  • Share your thoughts with others who share your interests
  • No assholes to deal with, we keep them out
Join Now by writing your first comment below


Related Posts
First Day of Training
Just a little rundown of my day and an update on me regarding my previous post
2 comments
last by simplyconfused over 1 year ago
My first day of school... Ugh...
KILL ME NOW!
5 comments
last by hegemone over 1 year ago
How I Spent The First Day of 2011
Recovery day ... and 2011's first round of drama ... brought to us by, my in laws (who else?).
4 comments
last by hegemone about 1 year ago
First College Class Is Today
Its gonna be good.
7 comments
last by woman 9 months ago
the beginning of an adventure...
i sat on a doughnut, some asshole scammed me, met a celebrity and i haven't even set foot on the plane yet!
14 comments
last by queenparanoia about 1 year ago

Remember me

New? Sign up here.
ddonnell commented 3 months ago on
Why I don't use the JVM
amen linbsd read the rest
ddonnell commented 3 months ago on
Why I don't use the JVM
@jasonspak, I tried to do that, and I can't get it to use under 100MB. Permgen alone was close to read the rest
ddonnell commented 3 months ago on
Why I don't use the JVM
Hi anonymous. I should have reserved that username ;) PHP, Ruby, Python .... yeah, use one of these for web apps. It also bugs me that the JVM isn't as unix friendly as I would read the rest
ddonnell commented 10 months ago on
Get a deal a day
haha, thanks read the rest
ddonnell commented 10 months ago on
MIT Skip Lists Lecture
you can always ask here for read the rest
ddonnell commented 10 months ago on
MIT Skip Lists Lecture
It's entry level assuming some foundation. I forget the specifics, but I was required to take a certain amount of math before taking it, so if you go to college for it you'll be forced to take enough math before getting to these classes. Btw, I think the read the rest
ddonnell commented about 1 year ago on
OLPC: these are so cool
gr, youtube changed their embed code and it doesn't work on yakkstr. There is supposed to be a video there. [Here's the video read the rest
ddonnell commented about 1 year ago on
url-normalizer
hehe, it won't. It's for programmers to use. I might use it on this site for some far off ideas I have. I need to get the private posts working read the rest
ddonnell commented over 1 year ago on
James Toney vs. Randy Couture
here we go, fight about to read the rest
ddonnell commented over 1 year ago on
James Toney vs. Randy Couture
I don't see this fight being that great either way. There are only two possible options I see, toney catches randy and it's a short fight. Randy controls toney and finishes him quick. But, I'm really excited about the edgar v penn rematch, and the read the rest