Let me preface this post by saying, I am not a fanboy of any platform. I have owned Android phones, including the Galaxy Nexus, iPhones, and Windows Phones. In my opinion, none of these platforms are perfect. They all have strengths and they all have weaknesses.
So why am I not selling my iPhone 5, with its admittedly somewhat stale operating system, and picking up a Nexus 4? It was a tough decision, but there are two things about the Nexus 4 that ultimately killed it for me. No, the lack of LTE was not the deal breaker, but had it been there, I might could have overlooked these two issues.
1) The exclusion of the stock AOSP browser. Chrome is a great browser, don't get me wrong, but there are some things about it that irk me. Smooth and responsive scrolling is extremely important to me, and in that respect, the AOSP browser is king. Even on the fastest devices, Chrome sometimes chokes when trying to scroll around complicated web pages, especially if they're still loading. The placement of the controls also bothers me. On large devices like the Nexus 4, it's extremely difficult to reach the address bar and tab button with one hand. The AOSP browser's quick controls allowed me to swipe in from the right edge of the screen with my thumb to access these controls, making single handed browsing a breeze. Lastly, the persistence of the address bar. Why, oh why, can't it disappear, at least in landscape mode? Even the iPhone's browser allows the full screen to display content in landscape mode.
I know what you're thinking, but just stop it. I used to love developing for my Android phones and flashing custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, but now that I have a full-time software engineering job and a fianc?e, I don't have the time or desire to flash ROMs and deal with all of the little issues that go along with it. I just want a phone that works the way I want it to out of the box.
2) The lack of proper group texting support. Both iOS and Windows Phone have the ability to keep replies to group texts in a single thread by using MMS, so why can't Android do this? When I send a group text to my friends, I want their replies to go to everyone involved in the group text and I want those replies to show up in a single thread on my phone. There's nothing worse than being involved in a group text conversation with a bunch of iOS and Windows Phone using friends and trying to piece together the conversation from a bunch of individual threads. If you have a lot of friends with iPhones and Windows Phones and they like to group text, you know how frustrating it is. There are a couple third party messaging apps, namely Go SMS and Handcent SMS, that support group texts, but quite frankly, they're terrible. They make the entire texting experience bad instead of just the group texting experience. There are other cross-platform apps designed specifically for group texting, but I can't expect all of my friends to use these apps just for my convenience.
For many of you, these issues are non-issues. I get that and I respect your opinions, but for me, they were the straws that broke the camel's back. I'll be watching when the next versions of Android and Chrome come about, but until then, may the Nexus be with you and not with me.
So why am I not selling my iPhone 5, with its admittedly somewhat stale operating system, and picking up a Nexus 4? It was a tough decision, but there are two things about the Nexus 4 that ultimately killed it for me. No, the lack of LTE was not the deal breaker, but had it been there, I might could have overlooked these two issues.
1) The exclusion of the stock AOSP browser. Chrome is a great browser, don't get me wrong, but there are some things about it that irk me. Smooth and responsive scrolling is extremely important to me, and in that respect, the AOSP browser is king. Even on the fastest devices, Chrome sometimes chokes when trying to scroll around complicated web pages, especially if they're still loading. The placement of the controls also bothers me. On large devices like the Nexus 4, it's extremely difficult to reach the address bar and tab button with one hand. The AOSP browser's quick controls allowed me to swipe in from the right edge of the screen with my thumb to access these controls, making single handed browsing a breeze. Lastly, the persistence of the address bar. Why, oh why, can't it disappear, at least in landscape mode? Even the iPhone's browser allows the full screen to display content in landscape mode.
I know what you're thinking, but just stop it. I used to love developing for my Android phones and flashing custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, but now that I have a full-time software engineering job and a fianc?e, I don't have the time or desire to flash ROMs and deal with all of the little issues that go along with it. I just want a phone that works the way I want it to out of the box.
2) The lack of proper group texting support. Both iOS and Windows Phone have the ability to keep replies to group texts in a single thread by using MMS, so why can't Android do this? When I send a group text to my friends, I want their replies to go to everyone involved in the group text and I want those replies to show up in a single thread on my phone. There's nothing worse than being involved in a group text conversation with a bunch of iOS and Windows Phone using friends and trying to piece together the conversation from a bunch of individual threads. If you have a lot of friends with iPhones and Windows Phones and they like to group text, you know how frustrating it is. There are a couple third party messaging apps, namely Go SMS and Handcent SMS, that support group texts, but quite frankly, they're terrible. They make the entire texting experience bad instead of just the group texting experience. There are other cross-platform apps designed specifically for group texting, but I can't expect all of my friends to use these apps just for my convenience.
For many of you, these issues are non-issues. I get that and I respect your opinions, but for me, they were the straws that broke the camel's back. I'll be watching when the next versions of Android and Chrome come about, but until then, may the Nexus be with you and not with me.
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