Moving to Android.

Chuck_Norris

Evening all.

So as the title suggests, probably going to ditch the iPhone, and move to Android. Several reasons, primarily being slightly underwhelmed by the iPhone 6, and being very impressed by the Xperia Z3 that's in the way.

Main reason for the post is looking for advice from anyone who has switched recently, and any Pros and Cons they have experienced. Anything you really miss from iOS/ iPhone etc.

Not trying to ignite and iOS/ Android fanboi debate. Just looking for real life experience in switching.

advertsfox

Chuck_Norris wrote: »

Evening all.

So as the title suggests, probably going to ditch the iPhone, and move to Android. Several reasons, primarily being slightly underwhelmed by the iPhone 6, and being very impressed by the Xperia Z3 that's in the way.

Main reason for the post is looking for advice from anyone who has switched recently, and any Pros and Cons they have experienced. Anything you really miss from iOS/ iPhone etc.

Not trying to ignite and iOS/ Android fanboi debate. Just looking for real life experience in switching.

Why not tell us your main needs for your phone, any preferences about hardware or apps etc? I can talk to you for days about the benefits

Chuck_Norris

advertsfox wrote: »

Why not tell us your main needs for your phone, any preferences about hardware or apps etc? I can talk to you for days about the benefits

I suppose the main draws for me withthe Xperia are the screen and camera. I'll be moving from a 4S, so pretty much any phone is going to have a bigger screen. Watching tv/ movies on the 4S aren't an option really.

And the freely expandable memory is another major positive.

Edit: and the massively increased battery life.

Sonics2k

Chuck_Norris wrote: »

I suppose the main draws for me withthe Xperia are the screen and camera. I'll be moving from a 4S, so pretty much any phone is going to have a bigger screen. Watching tv/ movies on the 4S aren't an option really.

And the freely expandable memory is another major positive.

Edit: and the massively increased battery life.

I have a Z2 at the moment and it is phenomenal.

The camera is just astounding, it makes me wonder why people rip on Android cameras. I'm no photographer, but my mother was a professional one for 15 years and even she loves the quality of photos I get.

Screen quality is gorgeous when watching movies, and the battery is great. I'd easily get two days on mine, and that's with about 2 hours of YouTube/Netflix in lunches and dealing with work mails and texts.

My only dislike is that the sound could be louder on Netflix, but its not a big deal.

As for Android in general. Well being honest the aesthetic difference is not huge, different icons for the same apps. Music comes mostly from Google Play, which also does apps, movies, TV shows and news.

Chuck_Norris

Sonics2k wrote: »

I have a Z2 at the moment and it is phenomenal.

The camera is just astounding, it makes me wonder why people rip on Android cameras. I'm no photographer, but my mother was a professional one for 15 years and even she loves the quality of photos I get.

Screen quality is gorgeous when watching movies, and the battery is great. I'd easily get two days on mine, and that's with about 2 hours of YouTube/Netflix in lunches and dealing with work mails and texts.

My only dislike is that the sound could be louder on Netflix, but its not a big deal.

As for Android in general. Well being honest the aesthetic difference is not huge, different icons for the same apps. Music comes mostly from Google Play, which also does apps, movies, TV shows and news.

Thanks for that Sonics.

I'll be honest, I've loved using the iPhones for the past 5 odd years. But I think it's a bit past time for a change.

Samsung never did it for me, they just feel a bit cheap. And a couple of the lads in work have the Z2, and are loving them.

Dudda

I used to have an iPhone 4S and upgraded to the Nexus 5. Now before I made the switch I had gmail as my email and dropbox backing up my photos so I wasn't really attached to Apple or iCloud for anything. I didn't own a Mac or iPad so wasn't as locked into Apple's ecosystem.

To be truthful I did miss iMessage and Facetime. More people are on it than Hangouts and it just works. Your not going to Facebook or Snapchat a message to your boss but if he has an iPhone he'll get the iMessage as if it was a text. Hangouts while improving isn't integrated as well.

There were one or two nice apps I used at the time which weren't on Android when I switched but they are now (eg Sunrise Calandar and Clear) so check what apps you use and if they are on Android. You'll find alternatives no problem but may not like them as much.
I also found some apps such as Sky didn't update or get new features as fast as Android. Not sure if that's still the case.

They were the only cons. I was updating to a newer faster phone but everything and I mean everything else I found better. Below are a some of the many things I liked:
You can make a browser or another calendar or video player, etc the default app. Safari is the default which you can't change.
You get real widgits that work
It doesn't cost a fortune to replace a lost or broken charger.
You can sideload apps without having to jailbreak or root your phone opening up a world of amazing apps I can't talk about here.
It's easier to switch apps
You can modify almost anything and personalise it so much.
They are far more but they are the ones I like the most initially.

KilOit

Moved from ios a week ago and loving the freedom of it.
Not familiar with android but i'm using a version of android called CyanogenMod, so don't know what normal android is like or main differences between them are.
have a much bigger screen and my phone feels like a complete multimedia device, never got that experience from ios.
I can't see myself ever going back to it, i'm a big pc user and everthing about the pc seems to fit in with android much more smoothly if that makes any sense :pac:

Chuck_Norris

Dudda wrote: »

I used to have an iPhone 4S and upgraded to the Nexus 5. Now before I made the switch I had gmail as my email and dropbox backing up my photos so I wasn't really attached to Apple or iCloud for anything. I didn't own a Mac or iPad so wasn't as locked into Apple's ecosystem.

To be truthful I did miss iMessage and Facetime. More people are on it than Hangouts and it just works. Your not going to Facebook or Snapchat a message to your boss but if he has an iPhone he'll get the iMessage as if it was a text. Hangouts while improving isn't integrated as well.

There were one or two nice apps I used at the time which weren't on Android when I switched but they are now (eg Sunrise Calandar and Clear) so check what apps you use and if they are on Android. You'll find alternatives no problem but may not like them as much.
I also found some apps such as Sky didn't update or get new features as fast as Android. Not sure if that's still the case.

They were the only cons. I was updating to a newer faster phone but everything and I mean everything else I found better. Below are a some of the many things I liked:
You can make a browser or another calendar or video player, etc the default app. Safari is the default which you can't change.
You get real widgits that work
It doesn't cost a fortune to replace a lost or broken charger.
You can sideload apps without having to jailbreak or root your phone opening up a world of amazing apps I can't talk about here.
It's easier to switch apps
You can modify almost anything and personalise it so much.
They are far more but they are the ones I like the most initially.

Thanks for that Dudda. Appreciate you being so comprehensive.

There certainly appear to be a hell of a lot more Pros than Cons.

One thing about the Sky updates taking longer for Android, that's changing, but I can't say any more here.

Chuck_Norris

KilOit wrote: »

Moved from ios a week ago and loving the freedom of it.
Not familiar with android but i'm using a version of android called CyanogenMod, so don't know what normal android is like or main differences between them are.
have a much bigger screen and my phone feels like a complete multimedia device, never got that experience from ios.
I can't see myself ever going back to it, i'm a big pc user and everthing about the pc seems to fit in with android much more smoothly if that makes any sense :pac:

Thanks for that. That's kinda what I'm looking for alright. To be slightly more of a multi-media/ streaming device.

KilOit

When i connect my phone to the pc it sorta feels like an extension to my pc and adding and messing with it like it was an ssd card plugged into my motherboard, no stupid ios errors and delays, that horse**** isn't here. scrolling through apps on google play with the pc and instant adding them to the phone without any lag and errors.
Itunes drove me nuts when i wanted to add media files with unusual extensions, all those stupid errors and syncing problems ugh! i'm done with it!

daytob

never came from the dark side, but I know loads who have. These would have people who swore blind that apple were the better phones and 1 week with an android phone and they were converted. Sure you have people who will never change and I really do feel for those, but this isnt one of those posts.
Explaining to people who switch sides everything even when they see what you can do, they couldnt understand how easy everything is.

As said widgets work, you dont need to root to get the best of the phone, its pretty much easy to work, if you get stuck there are loads who can help you. I would suggest you get the amazon app, its not available on the play store but its worth getting just because some of the premium apps on the play store might go free on the amazon app store.

Google music is amazing, you can store 20,000 songs on the cloud, you can start putting them on it now if you have a google account. I think it is easier to use than itunes.

Would you be getting the phone on upgrade or buying out right? Is the camera a major factor? The reason I am asking is because I have the oneplus and that is amazing, sim free for €352 and using perfectly clear app I can take pretty awesome pictures, battery life is amazing and even though it is big, it doesnt feel it.
There are so many variables when it comes to android though.

Chuck_Norris

daytob wrote: »

never came from the dark side, but I know loads who have. These would have people who swore blind that apple were the better phones and 1 week with an android phone and they were converted. Sure you have people who will never change and I really do feel for those, but this isnt one of those posts.
Explaining to people who switch sides everything even when they see what you can do, they couldnt understand how easy everything is.

As said widgets work, you dont need to root to get the best of the phone, its pretty much easy to work, if you get stuck there are loads who can help you. I would suggest you get the amazon app, its not available on the play store but its worth getting just because some of the premium apps on the play store might go free on the amazon app store.

Google music is amazing, you can store 20,000 songs on the cloud, you can start putting them on it now if you have a google account. I think it is easier to use than itunes.

Would you be getting the phone on upgrade or buying out right? Is the camera a major factor? The reason I am asking is because I have the oneplus and that is amazing, sim free for €352 and using perfectly clear app I can take pretty awesome pictures, battery life is amazing and even though it is big, it doesnt feel it.
There are so many variables when it comes to android though.

Thanks for that daytob.

I have to say, it's mainly the oneplus that started my looking moreso into Android.

I would probably betting the phone as an upgrade, but the Z3 isn't being released for another couple of weeks. So it gives me a bit more time to think about getting the oneplus outright.

From what I gather, the invite only purchase is being dropped in October?

daytob

stick up a request for an invite on the oneplus invite thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057251489
at the moment its just under a month waiting as you can see by the list. afaik the invite process might be going but it might be going to pre-order. At least if you have put in for an invite and you can purchase it then you get a class phone, sim free- something that will probably hold its value after a year and go to the next one.

follow the steps in the first post of that thread and when the invites come in and you get one its usually a week from order to phone.

I got my invite from that thread as well and I have my phone around a month or so, its a beautiful piece of kit, the screen is wonderful, although cm11 isnt fully stock android its pretty close * dont worry about that if it sounds like jargon its not meant to be. if you are around dublin or what I can arrange to meet up provided you are close enough and show you how great it is. The yellow tint issue was seemingly fixed after the 2nd batch released but it can be fixed with just 5 mins in sunlight apparently. but I dont know anyone who got it in the latest batches and I certainly didnt

I bought the find7 because I never thought I would get an invite, so ended up giving the find7 to the oh. its capable of stitching 10 pix together to make a 50mp photo, but using perfectly clear my photos look the same.
If you have an amazon account start getting the free app of the day, you never know when you might want them or need them and they store them in the cloud until you get your phone.

advertsfox

KilOit wrote: »

Moved from ios a week ago and loving the freedom of it.
Not familiar with android but i'm using a version of android called CyanogenMod, so don't know what normal android is like or main differences between them are.
have a much bigger screen and my phone feels like a complete multimedia device, never got that experience from ios.
I can't see myself ever going back to it, i'm a big pc user and everthing about the pc seems to fit in with android much more smoothly if that makes any sense :pac:

Great move for your first ROM choice, its available for every mainstream Android phone. CyanogenMod is stock Android, uses the most up to date AOSP code and adds a few extra settings / tweaks / organisation to the OS. I've been using it since the HTC G1 and will always been my main OS.