Last week my girlfriend, Stef (who I often refer to as Poppy), and I celebrated being together for 4 years. Besides congratulating her on a will of steel and a heart of gold, one of the things we decided during such occasions is to chose something we both want and then get it. Whether it be tickets to a show, a new television or, in this case, new phones.
With our contract at the point of an upgrade we decided it was time to get new phones. My girlfriend on the other hand had decided before we hit the store on the iPhone 4s, leaving her Droid X behind. I was waffling a bit between the Droid Bionic, the soon to be available Droid 4, and the iPhone 4s. As you may be able to tell by the photo, I went iPhone 4s.
This may come as a shock to most of you considering I have been an ardent supporter of the Android platform. I was a proud and early adopter of the original Droid phone, I own an Amazon Kindle Fire that is the most successful Android tablet form to date, and use Google for most of my online tasks such as e-mail and keeping my calendar. Whenever someone talks about an iOS app, I’m usually the one asking where an Android version is.
So how did Apple woo me from the Droid Army into the iCult?
Simply put, performance.
For the last year I’ve noticed my Droid running considerably slower. Sure there were more apps that became more sophisticated, and it showed in the overall performance of the phone. The worst indicator of this was when Foursquare would freeze up while getting my morning coffee after the phone came off a full night of rest. Not only was it frustrating, but it endangered my mayorship.
Battery life was nowhere near where I needed it to be. Even with aggressive battery management I was plugging it in after maybe 1 hour of usage and 3 hours of standby. There were lots of times when the sync function would last for an hour or more, draining the battery even faster.
The absolute worst part was when I would run “Low On Memory“. I was unable to move memory hogs like Facebook and Google+ off the actual phone and onto the mounted SD card that still had plenty of space, so the only solution was to delete apps and lose one function to gain another.
In the end, Droid wasn’t what I was looking for. I needed something that would be responsive and perform throughout the life of the contract. Having the Droid was, for all intense purposes, the same as owning a PC. It was good for the first year but the hardware was quickly outpaced by the software and there really wasn’t much I could do about it.
Is the iPhone 4s the Droid I’m looking for? Even the all knowing and wise Siri isn’t sure. It’s too early to really tell, although thus far things are VERY promising.
I haven’t had a power management issue, I’m running apps quickly, there are no memory issues to worry about, and the phone hasn’t frozen yet. The worst part was losing all the contacts in the phone, but truth be told I’m okay with re-adding them and NOT syncing it to my Google contact list, which is significantly large to say the least.
The fact is in two years we’ll have an opportunity to change again. Whether I stay in the iCult for my phone will really depend on how the performance is over the next two years. Hopefully Apple delivers on the hype and I will be another mindless happy consumer.
Stay tuned…
What carrier did you go with?
Still with Verizon on the unlimited data plan. They will be prying that plan from my cold dead hands…
Aww, what a cute photo.
I absolutely love the iPhone, it feels like a member of the family. It seems to manage the apps better, and I enjoy its navigation. It’s like I can’t remember life before it, and we’ve only had them since Friday!
The apps are really pretty good. Most importantly… they work.
I am considering a switch back to the iphone. *sigh* I can't believe that came out of my mouth.
Is it because Droid didn't live up to your expectations, or because their life span is shorter than the iPhone? I think mine's the latter
Actually my battery life is great. I love my Galaxy s i9000 it is more that everything here in Sweden is geared to iphone. I can’t even buy covers here. I have to purchase them on amazon uk.
Welcome. You have been assimilated.
I’m not someone who has to upgrade my phone every single time a new version comes out; I usually skip a generation. I’m only on my second iPhone, so I can tell you that a couple of years in, you probably will still be happy with it.
That’s what I’m hoping for. I don’t need the latest and greatest, but I need something that works with the apps that are on the market today doing what I need to get done. I mean really… if the iPhone is that good… then in theory I shouldn’t need a new one until iOS7 which is probably 3+ years out.
I can deal with that… gladly!
Mindless? It actually sounds as though you’ve put a lot of thought into this, as do most consumers who are spending a good chunk of money.
Despite declaring myself an “Apple Whore,” I honestly am not tied to their products. If something better comes along, I’m going with something better. But I haven’t seen it yet. I am regularly getting the latest and greatest Android phones for product development, but never once have I been tempted to switch. Sure there are Android features I’d love to have (call blocking, redial, call reject, etc.)… but, in the end, it’s not worth giving up all the things I love about iPhone.
Well, I don’t know how much actual thought I put into it considering I wasn’t sure what I was going to do walking into the store, but I think it was the riskier decision considering my level of integration with Google products.
Funny thing about the phone… I don’t use it for phone calls, so I won’t necessarily miss those features. If I make a phone call a month on it I’d consider that alot. I’m still tied very heavily to my wonderful work issued Sprint Nextel.
I thought for sure, based on the introduction I could see on Facebook, that it was going to be so you could facetime with Poppy when you were working.
But I liked the review-ish explanation, too! I’m wanting to trade in my Blackberry for an iPhone4S in the near future and the fact that it has impressed you with the high standards you seem to have for, well, everything… has only confirmed it won’t be a waste of money on my part to upgrade. So thanks for that! =)
I admit I cracked up when I seen your title, re: icult. Classic!
Anyway, congratulations to you two on your four year anniversary!!! =)
A WIndows Phone is better than a Blackberry at this point, so yeah, ditch that thing!
I haven’t had any memory problems with my Droid X. I don’t know if having a task killer app has anything to do with that. I noticed right away about the battery life though, and got the extended battery which doesn’t give me problems. The thing that irritates me with my Droid X is that I am in contract for an upgrade as well, and the closer I come to that date, the more my phone starts acting up and restarting for no reason. Sometimes it just freezes on me, like you said happens to you, which also irritates me.
My cousin asked me which I preferred, and I pretty much told her that it was six of one, half a dozen of another as far as me figuring out how to use the phone, however, I do know I have a 2nd Generation iPod Touch, and I am still really happy with how it works though I barely use it anymore. My work doesn’t want to go to Droids because of security issues with the OS. And honestly, Apple seems to have better games. Even so, I would love to hear how you and Poppy like them compared to the Droid after a few months, because I’m not convinced about switching, even with how much family and friends seem to love them.
I also had the extended battery, but it’s also important to remember that I had the original Droid. By the time Droid X came out they had already made some huge improvements, but still lacked in other areas like the freezing up and memory issues that you’ll see more as apps begin to be developed for Ice Cream Sandwhich as opposed to Gingerbread or Honeycomb.
I don’t use it for my day job… it’s for my “hobby” work.