After much thought, I have passed on Android and went for the iPhone 3gs instead. I’m much happier already. I can send email and the WordPress client actually works.
I did not have the “Droid” from Motorola/Verizon. It ships with Android 2.0 while the older Android devices have been left with Android 1.6 until the carriers finally release it. T-Mobile has been saying that Google hasn’t released it to *them* yet.
So much for everything being “open.” I’ve also been keeping an eye on the Google Android code page where developers collaborate on software bugs and stuff and since the Verizon Droid started shipping and people started reporting bugs like crazy. The email application is still horribly broken, the music player lacking in many features, and Bluetooth is still pretty crippled. Of course the native Google applications seem to work just fine. The Droid even has a better screen and much faster processor too.
So, I threw in the towel and signed the divorce papers. I picked up a beautiful new iPhone 3GS for me and one for my wife. The coverage has been excellent. I have full 3G signal strength at work and here at home. I drove all the way home with Pandora radio streaming and didn’t have one signal hiccup. To be fair, I think that T-Mobile has great coverage out here but their young 3G network does lack in a few places, like when I’m at work where I use my apps the most.
Time for some bullet points!
- Sure, not everything on the iPhone multitasks. On my Android phone, I could have multiple apps running. Guess what that does? It slows the phone down to the point where its unusable. Try getting a phone call when you have a few apps running. It kills whatever connections you had going. Android IRC would drop offline, and the Yahoo IM client would drop offline, losing your entire conversation history. (It does that at random anyway)
- The camera app is faster in Android 1.6, but it’s still so slow that it’s useless unless the subject is sitting absolutely still.
- Music player. Clearly the iPhone is a vastly superior product.
- WiFi. The Android phone had problems remembering my WPA2 password for my WiFi network. This is a problem, since the key is long. The iPhone had no problems.
- Ah, email. I consider email to be a very important function of any smartphone. Email on Android just plain sucks. It can’t handle folders right, doesn’t allow for multiple deletes, and you can’t even move an email from one folder to another. These are all valid issues, and bugs have been filed for them but as of Android 2.0 none have been fixed. They’re classified as “Enhancements.” There’s a third party app called k9mail which is much better than the built in client, but it’s still not what I need. Android still lacks the ability to properly handle certain SSL certificates, especially self signed SSL certificates.
- Battery life, at least on the MyTouch 3G, is worse than the iPhone 3GS. This is not much of a surprise since there are more apps sucking stuff down over the 3G network. But since Android lets you background applications, there’s even MORE stuff sucking up battery life. HTC has a proprietary USB plug to charge the MyTouch. It’s much easier finding a cable for the iPhone, since it uses the same plug that my first generation iPod Nano does. I can just plug it into my car stereo and it’ll play tunes while charging.
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I’m just much happier with the iPhone. My MyTouch is on Craigslist right now, and will be on eBay shortly.
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