Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Switching to Android

I've replaced my iPhone for a Galaxy Nexus. Mostly because I got bored with the iPhone and both my wife and I had to replace our phones because they stopped working correctly.

To summarize the experience: The Galaxy Nexus and Android have their flaws, but I don't miss the iPhone and I've no intention to return to it for now.

Here is my experience:
  • Love the bigger screen.
  • The back side of the phone gets hot when you use it for a while.
  • The built in speaker is too weak. The iPhone's speaker is much better.
  • Battery life is comparable to the the iPhone. Both need charging at the end of the day. For whatever reason my Nexus' batter life seems to have improved compared to when I first got it a few months ago.
  • Love the widgets.
  • Android Market region restrictions are stupid. I'm in the UAE and I can't even get some free Google stuff like Google Currents, have to search the net and find someone sharing the package file. Also am using the Amazon Appstore, but that's not an option for everyone since you need an US credit card.
  • I didn't come across any application from my iPhone past that I missed on my Android. And I don't miss the billions of apps on the Itunes Appstore, even if they cost just a few dollars it's a waste of money and time to keep searching for the next cool app or deal you might miss.
  • Like the ability to replace the keyboard. I installed SwiftX.
  • When you hold the phone upright (portait) you get at the bottom three touch buttons. The one in the middle (Home) is just under the keyboard. Quite often I'm typing away and touch it instead of the space bar and ooops you are out of the app you were running. Annoying, but I'm getting better at avoiding it. In landscape mode you don't have that issue. Easily avoidable if they make the home button slight less sensitive when the keyboard is out.
  • The autorotate is too slow for my taste, should be slightly faster.
  • Camera is OK, obviously nowhere close to the iPhone 4s.
  • Not sure how google is rolling out their updates, but I typically get an update two weeks after ppl in the US are already getting it (two updates so far).
I still have my iPad and I don't think I'll replace it.