A couple of months back, after a tremendously long wait, I got my iPhone 4 and fell in love with it in an instant. It was the most beautiful looking phone I have ever seen. Carrying it around felt like having the hottest date on prom night. Naturally, I spent on it. A lot, actually – the case, the accessories, the apps – but it was all worth it.
3 months into the relationship with my phone, that’s when I started realizing the iPhone’s shortcomings. To add to that, I got to test the HTC Desire Z, one of the high end Android smartphones so I couldn’t help but compare. I mean sure, the iPhone can do a lot of things but there were 3 main reasons why I feel like I just have to break up with it.
1. High maintenance
The iPhone 4 is a pretty expensive device, especially here in the Philippines. The sad part is your spending won’t end there. If you’re one of those who opt not to jailbreak your device, you’re gonna find yourself spending a lot more. Why? Because the App Store makes it easy to spend with a click of a button. If you could totally afford it, it’s actually pretty convenient, I just think it sucks to see that apps you pay for in iOS are free on Android.
2. Lack of customization
Having an iPhone is like having an overly insecure girlfriend/boyfriend who doesn’t even allow you to have friends. Where do I even start? Not being able to transfer your sim card to another phone because no other phone uses microsim, no home screen customizations, no wi-fi tethering (yet), no drag and drop of files… you get the picture. Compare that to the easy breezy experience Android gives – everything is just flexible and it works!
3. Android just keeps getting better.
Meanwhile, there’s this other awesome OS with an ugly duckling story. It may have started as an okay operating system that runs on mediocre devices but with constant updates on both the software and the hardware, it really came a long way. Not too long ago there was Froyo. Then a couple of months back, Gingerbread. Now were hearing about this new treat – Ice Cream. There’s just no stopping Android at the rate they’re going right now. And seeing how awesome Honeycomb looked, we can expect updates to be more than just a couple of big fixes here and there.
Now don’t get me wrong – the iPhone is a wonderful device for a lot of people. Sadly, it’s just not the right one for me. I guess I’m one you could call a geek, if you may. I love being in control of my device, customizing it to my every need. The beauty of the iPhone is in the simplicity and user-friendliness of the OS, and of course the hardware.
End of the day, if i wanted a media/gaming device, I could just get an iPod touch which I think is totally awesome. Even if it lacks 3G, you could always use your Android’s Wi-Fi tethering to go online on your iPod touch. But with all the cross-platform apps that are getting released for Android, I doubt that’s necessary.