Saturday, September 07, 2013

IPhone4 vs. Galaxy4

Ok, so you know by now I made the leap after YEARS of being an iPhone addict, of crossing the picket line and changing to the Galaxy4. This is my honest attempt at sharing my thoughts on the G4 coming from someone as a true Apple iPhone lover. My love for Apple remains strong, though this certainly has diminished it some, along with Apple's continued failure to give us what we want, which is MORE.

Before I get started: Now, I know the iPhone 5 is about to come out, but knowing Apple, it won't be the big jump up all of us Apple people hope for - as we do each and every time they tease us with the next one.

So let me keep it simple and break it down. Some of you after reading this will likely want to jump over as I did, others should probably stay where you are.

* No doubt the G4 using the Android is VERY much like an iPhone in many ways.
* The galaxy does take some tweaking of screens, settings and apps to get it to mimic what you are used to with an iPhone but it can be done. Took me about 5 days and then I felt like I had a bigger, better iPhone in my hands.
* The iPhone remains the more simpler of the two - the G4 is like having a small computer in your hands.
* G4 is hard to get used to because it is so much bigger. But in this case bigger is WAY better once you adapt. It almost feels like a tablet with phone capacities.
* G4 uses a few "return" and "more options" type buttons on the bottom portion of the home screen, on either side of the home button and with big fingers it takes a while to adapt to hitting them correctly. This is my only decent gripe.
* G4 allows for an SD card! Need I say more????
* G4 allows for folders and files to be managed much like in Windows. Very cool.
* G4 is much faster in everything - from uploads, downloads, connecting, etc. Big time improvement.
* G4 is more complex, but it also offers more options and control. From emails, to files, to photos, you have options much like you do on a computer - file, print, edit, etc. Way more than the iPhone.
* If you LOVE iTunes, you will not like the Galaxy. I personally am sick of Apple and iTunes controlling my life and making things complicated like they have with the new version of iTunes.
* Android uses Google and Google will also try and take over your life (much like Cloud can) when you first set up the phone. My suggestion is when setting it up the first time to pay attention and disallow most of the Google options or you will spend hours undoing things you might not have wanted. If you are a ALL THINGS GOOGLE lover this will be perfect for you. Personally, I use Google to search and that's about it. I made my the G4 comply with that.
* G4has a weaker battery - BUT, it charges very fast and, most importantly, you can have a backup battery for about $30! Huge bonus for those on it all day like me. I already bought mine in it's own charging case. No more sitting by a wall with it plugged in.
* G4 camera is 10x the iPhone camera. I mean BIG TIME difference. And way more options built into the normal camera app.
* One thing I love is I now can be free of iTunes and buy my music however and wherever I want - including iTunes on my PC. I simply load the files up on the phone and use an app much like iTunes to organize it all. Love this.
* G4 has widgets that are pretty cool and make those phone more fun and more like a tablet.
* the keyboard screen is not very good, but downloading SwiftKey solves that problem and makes it about 95% like the iPhone keyboard, but with more options such as what I call "swipe typing" which is very fast!
* Android has very cool app feature - much simpler to me and lots of great options. At this point Android pretty much has 99% of all apps you would use on iPhone. Only missing one for me so far and it was no big deal.
* G4 is very thin and very light. Much lighter in fact.
* Clarify of screen is unreal.
* No more connecting to a computer to update or backup things. All done automatically all the time.

Draw backs -
- more complicated, takes a while to get used to
- larger, same as above
- screen is more sensitive than iPhone - you touch it something happens
- the phone app/screen (making calls) is more involved than IOS and that is something I am still not quite used to. You have more options with G4/Android but some of the way it handles calls are annoying. The iPhone is a little more intuitive for sure. But then again, Android allows you to BLOCK calls instantly which is another feature I love.

Overall, for business people, or those that use their phone all the time for a variety of apps and tasks, no doubt I am glad I made the leap. If you just use the phone to update Facebook and make calls, you might wanna hang tight.

If Apple ever gets with it I could come back. But for now, after a week of frustratingly getting used to it, I can say I love it.