So former iPhone owners, what do you miss?

zero.

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- LastApp, minimized my keystrokes and saved time. multiple clicks & swipes on the android.
- biteSMS, the quickreply notification with the pulldown viewer saved so much time. must goto SMS app and hit back to view mssgs full page.
- scroll to top with a statusbar tap. saved time.
- consistent connection, my android has no connection to data about 1 out of every 2 or 3 times and makes you wait for it to time out. on g-search, browser, and market.
- cheap apps. why are android apps 2 or 3 times more expensive?
- user-defined source control at the market.
- pinch gesture to remove all bg apps and clear mem.
- pull to refresh.

i can go on. if anyone has any suggestions of how to improve my experience here, please suggest. i'm about to dump this new phone. constant headaches and not at all usable like my 3GS, which i find really crazy since i have this SGS2 flying, but it just doesn't return my investment (all the work on setting up the system). specs below. thanks.

SGS2 I777
overclocked to 1.6 & gpu lock 267
Android 2.3.6
Baseband UCKK6
Kernal 2.6.35.7 (Entropy's latest)
UnNamed 2.2.1
Quadrant 4293
AnTuTu 6458
 

Morjesta

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i went from BlackBerry Bold Touch to iPhone 4S then i got a Samsung Galaxy S II... Well i wont say that my past phones were bad, all of them has them good pros/cons.

But if i had to choose a phone that i would keep. That would be the Galaxy S II. It has way more options, customization and ease of use.

I know that not all iOS apps are available for the Android Market. But in my case i cant find of any app that i would miss and that i couldnt live without. (Instagram?, CloudApp?, etc.)

I can openly recommend to get a Galaxy S II, the battery duration, is way better than the iPhone's. Besides you can swap the battery if you run out. better to swap battery instead of having a bulky case with external battery (iPhone).

Siri? Well, i had a hard time making her understand me. "Call Magda" -"Calling Marla iPhone"... :mad:
:-\

I could keep talking but i dont want to bore all. :p
 

niannello

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I had a new iphone each year since 3g and last year i went with att gs2.

1. i miss the iphone "retina display", gs2 screen is nice but not as sharp for sure. but i love the gs2 screen size.
2. i miss the app store, there are several apps that i used daily that i dont have anymore. HD games on gs2 still look like crap.
3. the iph4 camera/video is much better than gs2
4. accessories are limited for gs2 still, after about a year on the market
5. there are too many android devices, its sometimes hard to get answers or even software for YOUR device.

anyways, i love my gs2, and prolly wont go back.
 

surf1

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I had a new iphone each year since 3g and last year i went with att gs2.

1. i miss the iphone "retina display", gs2 screen is nice but not as sharp for sure. but i love the gs2 screen size.
2. i miss the app store, there are several apps that i used daily that i dont have anymore. HD games on gs2 still look like crap.
3. the iph4 camera/video is much better than gs2
4. accessories are limited for gs2 still, after about a year on the market
5. there are too many android devices, its sometimes hard to get answers or even software for YOUR device.

anyways, i love my gs2, and prolly wont go back.
weird, have 3gs/4/4s

1) only time I see any slight difference in screen sharpness is zoomed all the way in on Retina, but that's useless to read at that level lol
2) I have some HD games and they look incredible vs the iphone or similar games on iphone, some I even like more like Gun Bros and Brothers In Arms 2. Just downloaded GT free HD, pretty damn cool racing game for being free.

Which apps were you using that your missing? There's usually same or similar versions on the market, if you post what you were using some may be able to point you in the right direction.

3) 4S cam is slightly better in dimmer situations, day time about the same. But both (4S and GSII) are a lot better than the 4, both in video and way crisper more detailed pics vs the overexposure and saturation of the 4. But then even on the Apple forums there are some who think the 4 cam looks better then the 4S... so guess it depends lol?

4) Accessories may be a bit limited, but haven't had any issue finding anything I needed. Last thing I bought was a car dock that has a flexible cradle (for using in various vehicles) and charges and streams music to the radio. I did have a hard time finding a nice thin case for it, ended up getting a rubber TPU case that was recommended on here but don't care for it, glossy and shows smudges and not that grippy. Need to find a nice black thin silicon/soft case like I've had for iPhones that was super grippy (some I found had a two tone color which looked kinda dumb to me lol).

5) Not really, you have this board and androidforums with it's i777 GSII board, but the best one is the AT&T I777 section on XDA-Dev, sh!tload of info and help for the i777 and the best backing of the models for ROM's and support.

Yeh def love this phone, even with having the new 4S I jailbroke for the girlfriend other day.
 
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niannello

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weird, have 3gs/4/4s

1) only time I see any slight difference in screen sharpness is zoomed all the way in on Retina, but that's useless to read at that level lol
2) I have some HD games and they look incredible vs the iphone or similar games on iphone, some I even like more like Gun Bros and Brothers In Arms 2. Just downloaded GT free HD, pretty damn cool racing game for being free.

Which apps were you using that your missing? There's usually same or similar versions on the market, if you post what you were using some may be able to point you in the right direction.

3) 4S cam is slightly better in dimmer situations, day time about the same. But both (4S and GSII) are a lot better than the 4, both in video and way crisper more detailed pics vs the overexposure and saturation of the 4. But then even on the Apple forums there are some who think the 4 cam looks better then the 4S... so guess it depends lol?

4) Accessories may be a bit limited, but haven't had any issue finding anything I needed. Last thing I bought was a car dock that has a flexible cradle (for using in various vehicles) and charges and streams music to the radio. I did have a hard time finding a nice thin case for it, ended up getting a rubber TPU case that was recommended on here but don't care for it, glossy and shows smudges and not that grippy. Need to find a nice black thin silicon/soft case like I've had for iPhones that was super grippy (some I found had a two tone color which looked kinda dumb to me lol).

5) Not really, you have this board and androidforums with it's i777 GSII board, but the best one is the AT&T I777 section on XDA-Dev, sh!tload of info and help for the i777 and the best backing of the models for ROM's and support.

Yeh def love this phone, even with having the new 4S I jailbroke for the girlfriend other day.

As far as photos go, I have taken several shots of the same thing my wife shoots and her ip4 always come out better, 1080p video too.

Your right some games look good, but like PvZ looks better for ip, and little things like icons, wallpapers, the ui in general doesn't look as good as ip.

some apps that i used a lot were nike+ (there are some on market but i have a log of all my runs on nike), LexiComp complete (grabbed it free after jailbreak)

The accessories i want would be a ihome for android with the same docking ability, nike+, mini usb input in my car. i haven't looked for this stuff in a while, might be out now

As for information, I mean stuff like maybe there's a cool new rom out, but its always for a newer phone or an older phone. there are soo many types of android phones and people make things for whatever phone they have, not always for other phones. unlike ip where everyone has the newest one and thats really the only phone they make tweaks/theme whatever for.

anyways, like i said, i love the gs2. more things i like than i dont like. thanks for the reply!
 

surf1

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As far as photos go, I have taken several shots of the same thing my wife shoots and her ip4 always come out better, 1080p video too. Hmmm you may have a faulty GS2, some were shipped with faulty cameras. B/c the GS2 and 4S cams are a lot better then the 4, I still have my 4 and it was good for it's time but it's pictures aren't near as detailed and overexposed, and no 1080p since it only records in 720 so not sure what you meant there? Even people on the Mac boards put pic comparisons up showing how much nicer the GS2 and 4s cameras are over the 4. Instead of tapping the screen, did you try holding the cam button and then release to snap a pic as it will autofocus and adjust the cam settings? But you may want to check into replacement if the 4 is taking better pics since there were faulty cams that were shipped in some units

Your right some games look good, but like PvZ looks better for ip, and little things like icons, wallpapers, the ui in general doesn't look as good as ip. I'm running Go Launcher EX with custom icons from various themes, icons are sharp as hell looking now plus you get a nice scrolling dock. I'm using a mix of icons from different themes (Windows 7, Blue neon, Blue Planet, Honeycomb. Plenty of HD wallpapers too, ones I have are just as sharp as on the retina. I used Picspeed and Best HD wallpapers and a few others from online. I actually love the UI, on iPhone all the UI is is switch left or right but not sure what you meant but looks there as there's nothing to do but flip left or right or click on the iphone. I love the app drawer on the GS2, so that way you don't have icons all over the place like on iOS and can choose what you want on the home screens. I love not having that ugly P for Pandora like on Android or iOS lol, though trying to find one for Youmail as I don't like that stock one either
SC20120211-124237.png



some apps that i used a lot were nike+ (there are some on market but i have a log of all my runs on nike), LexiComp complete (grabbed it free after jailbreak)Yeh I run a lot and the gym, but never used nike+ or anything like that. Found this though, hope it helps Nike+ GPS Alternatives for Android - AlternativeTo.net

The accessories i want would be a ihome for android with the same docking ability, nike+, mini usb input in my car. i haven't looked for this stuff in a while, might be out nowYeh docking abilities are definitely in favor of iPhones Especially in stores. But there's still a lot, we get a lot of stuff on Amazon cheap anyway with our Prime account, and they have a bunch of docking stuff, have the Phillips one and really like it, have the iHome as well. Here's a quiick search on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=android+dock&x=0&y=0 . There's a thing called dockboss I think that connects Androids to the iHome dock. Mini USB input adapters on Amazon as well

As for information, I mean stuff like maybe there's a cool new rom out, but its always for a newer phone or an older phone. there are soo many types of android phones and people make things for whatever phone they have, not always for other phones. unlike ip where everyone has the newest one and thats really the only phone they make tweaks/theme whatever for. You need to go to I777 section on XDA AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777 - xda-developers , pry the best source of info for the i777 version, and the phone has about the best backing for support and ROM's right now from dev's. .

anyways, like i said, i love the gs2. more things i like than i dont like. thanks for the reply!
replies in red, hope it helps :D
 
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TxAndroidGuy

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I miss only a few things from my iPhone 4 but they aren't deal breakers for Android.

1. The battery life of the iPhone4. I could surf the net, play games, check email, etc all day and have 20-30% left at the end of the day. I just have a few charge cables with me at work and home to keep my SGS2 going.
2. The accessories. Being able to go into any store and find cases that fit the phone(and a wide variety too), cables, screen protectors, etc.
3. Minor issue but being able to plug my phone into my car stereo through the USB cable. I could listen to music and charge the phone from one port. It's no big deal but now I plug into the aux port and charge the phone with a separate cable. Does anyone know of a way to play music from the USB port on our phones(hello ICS.... update option?)?

Ohter than that, I love the Gmail app, the widgets, how much i can customize the phone and make it MINE and not have the same screen layout as every other phone. It will take a larger bulletproof screen, open source system, removable battery back(another feature I LOVE after having two iPhone batteries croak) and a lot more for me to go back to iPhone.
 

Martavious

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- biteSMS, the quickreply notification with the pulldown viewer saved so much time. must goto SMS app and hit back to view mssgs full page.
- scroll to top with a statusbar tap. saved time.

These are 2 I loved on my 3GS that I dearly miss. Noticed that there is chompSMS on the Market but lots of recent comments about it having malware??? Anyone confirm/deny that?
 

anon(692098)

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Several minor things all combined together that make the SGS2 a lesser experience to my iPhone 4 and why I returned the SGS2.

First let me say that the phone itself was great, the screen size was awesome, it was fast and did everything I need a phone to do. All the apps I use regularly were available and the customization and ability to change almost anything without the need to root/jailbreak is great. I really like the phone and Android, however Apple with it's closed ecosystem and standardization really does work in the case of the iPhone.

Also let me say I didn't just jump blind into the SGS2 I spend about 2 weeks researching phones and then I even took a Xoom tablet (yes not a phone but Android) and made sure my apps were there and that I wasn't making a huge mistake switching. Lastly I spend hours googling and trying to find ways to improve the experience so I didn't just give up I tried to make it work.

Here is just a random list of issues that when taken all together made the experience less than that of the iPhone. I wasn't willing to have to compromise this much to make things work, the experience had to be at least that of the iPhone or better to justify staying with the SGS2.

  • Headphone issues, or specifically the lack of inline controls. Sure very minor but once your used to being able to control your music and specifically volume without having to take the device out of your pocket you get spoiled.
  • Screen resolution. Big is great, big is amazing, but resolution is also important. I didn't think it would bother me as much as it did but it really did.
  • Battery life. The SGS2 is supposed to have great battery life and it still was awful compared to the iP4, I was down to 40% after a day of work and 20% by the time I went to bed. The iP4 would be at 50-60% before going to bed.
  • True Silent Mode. Yep, the little hardware switch enabling system mute with the exception of alarms on the iP4 is a must. Enabling "silent mode" on the SGS2 silences rings and announcements but it dosent silence games or anything else.
  • Bluetooth audio. I have an Alpine car stereo, SGS2 synced up better than the iP4 actually but... Playing music all it would show was "BT Audio Paused" when it was clearly playing music.
  • Navigation. First I understand it's in beta but I use my iP4 for GPS regularly, I bought the Navigon app for this due to having downloaded maps. Ok saying that I tired Google turn by turn navigation, it took 5 minutes to load the map, then it was slow to respond and the voice was crap. Secondly with music streaming and TbT Nav going, once I reached my destination and stopped TbT the music started to studder, badly, and wouldn't stop until I killed the music player.

The last use case did it for me. I figured that I would have to buy the Navigon app for Android at a minimum and decided that why put up with all these little issues when I could simply return the SGS2 and have everything work as I was used to having everything work OOTB without having to tweak anything?

Oh and I've had AT&T since before it was AT&T the second time so I've been around a while. AT&T is HORRIBLE with updates and while ICS my solve many or all of the problems I was having I'm unwilling to wait a millenia for AT&T to decide to roll out the update. Sure I could have rooted and upgraded to ICS but again, why go to all the trouble to make the experience potentially as good or maybe only partially as good as the iP4 when I already know how good it can be?

Let me finish by saying that if I had gone from my Blackjack 1 to an Android device and never experienced an iPhone I would not have any complaints because Android is amazing, it's just not as polished and perfected of a user experience as iOS yet. I will however be royally pissed if the iP5 doesn't have a much larger screen, that is an absolute must at this point and one of the major downsides to the iPhone today.
 

surf1

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[*]Navigation. First I understand it's in beta but I use my iP4 for GPS regularly, I bought the Navigon app for this due to having downloaded maps. Ok saying that I tired Google turn by turn navigation, it took 5 minutes to load the map, then it was slow to respond and the voice was crap. Secondly with music streaming and TbT Nav going, once I reached my destination and stopped TbT the music started to studder, badly, and wouldn't stop until I killed the music player.
Odd, I've never had that problem on my GS2 and I travel a lot so I'm always using it in rental cars in different areas for GPS, always loads and locks fast, much better then our 4 or 4S gps. And I have Navigon on the 4 too. 4 is still better in terms of battery life, but GS2 last a bit longer then our 4S.
 

gdbjr

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Apps. And not that fact that the same apps that are in the App store aren't in the Market, as they usually are. But that fact that the S2 doesn't support them. Stupid android fragmentation.

All I really wanna do is play Order & Chaos on my phone.
 

BHMadison21

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I am not sure why everyone is saying battery life is bad? I have primarily used Android over the past year or so. I did decide about 6 months ago to pick up an Iphone 4 just to see what all the fuss was about. The battery life on my SGS2 is just as good if not better than it was on the Iphone 4. If actively using the Iphone throughout the day, there is no way its still at 60 percent when you are going to sleep(Providing your day is a normal 6am-10pm type deal). I can definitely see the appeal of the Iphone it "just works". If you arent particular with how things look or having little to no control over your device than the Iphone is great. But to me it was like stepping back in time.
 

fldude99

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I just posted about battery life in another thread..but in a short: the battery life is excellent on the S2. It definitely outperforms my wife's 4S..not even close
 

G.murph

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Looking for some advice. I recently ditched the Captivate for an iPhone 4S. I have mixed feelings about it so far. I love the screen (I have really small hands to the 3.5" doesn't bother me at all), the battery life is excellent so far (15 hours, light texting, facebook/twitter, and 1-2 calls, still at 75%), and it seems to just work *knock on wood. And this thing is FAST. If I keep it, I'll invest in AppleCare so hardware and software issues are covered through my whole contract period.

I do, however, really miss the Android notification system (I barely use Apple's notification center - you can't even tell you have a notification waiting unless you saw the banner pop up) and customization. I am debating returning this for the GS2, but only if it is running 2.3.4. On my Captivate, I seemed to have one random bug, a software updated would fix that, but create another one somewhere else. I got fed up with it so switched (I'm not into rooting or anything). But everyone here seems to love the GS2 as long as it's not running the 2.3.6 update. But I'm also hesitant because of the weird transition Android is in now between GB and ICS. I think I'd rather wait for newer phones running ICS out of the box.

Am I crazy for giving up power and customizability for assurance that if I have a problem, I can just bring it in a store and they'll fix it? Thanks for any advice.
 

fldude99

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I would agree that any android device not running ICS out of the box should avoid an upgrade to ICS at all costs. I hope ICS isn't the start of a major downfall with the Android OS in general, but something is going on with it that is inherently a a bad thing. I will keep 2.3.4 on my S2...works fine & I see no reason to introduce an aggravation
 

aknbad23

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What do I miss?

-Tap top of screen to scroll up.
-Consistently being able to use Bluetooth with truck.
-A physical button for silent mode(silences notifications also).
-App store
-STABILITY (so tired of random reboots and locking up on GS2)

I also like a lot about the GS2. I may go back to iPhone5 if they increase the screen size(4.3in) and iOS6 has some major improvements. Widgets and live wallpapers would be nice.
 

bxborn31

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What do I miss?

I also like a lot about the GS2. I may go back to iPhone5 if they increase the screen size(4.3in) and iOS6 has some major improvements. Widgets and live wallpapers would be nice.

Don't hold your breath. I would go back to iPhone if they did all the things above also but I don't see it happening. Can't see apple changing to be more like android soooooo I'm prepared to buy the next nexus phone lol.

Sent from my GS2.
 

werds

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Am I crazy for giving up power and customizability for assurance that if I have a problem, I can just bring it in a store and they'll fix it? Thanks for any advice.

Nope. It is all about personal preference. I am keeping my SGS2 because there is no way I could see myself going back to lack of customizing and rawpower

On the flipside, my wife was just having fits about her android based phone - she is of the crowd that feels a phone is an appliance and should act like one. No need or desire to customize and that it should always work and never lock up on anything ever, so I moved her back to an Iphone 4 and she is perfectly happy, while with her android phone hated it other than the look. It is all about expectations and preference IMO. Having owned every iphone since the original release I cannot see myself going back to an apple phone unless there are some major overhauls that I do not see happening.
 
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