iOS user - First Android Device - Impressions and & am I doing it wrong?

[hotsauce949]

Hey guys,

I've been using my new Nexus 7 exclusively the last 72 hours to get a feel of it and see if I am going to keep it and buy in, at least partially, to the Android ecosystem. I'm not an Apple fanboy (PC guy all my life) and pretty brand agnostic. I'm just a tech geek and enjoy gadgets regardless of the badge on it (fanboys annoy me to no end). I'm also one that enjoys customization and tinkering. But I've only owned iOS devices, 3 iPhones and 2 iPads in the past, all got the jailbreak treatment (my 5 is heavily mod'd). The new Nexus 7 was a good opportunity I thought to get a decently spec'd tablet with a plain vanilla experience. Here are my impressions and maybe a few helpful members can steer me in the right direction if I'm overlooking something..

1) Incompatibility - I understand that fragmentation is prevalent in the Android world with so many devices all running different OS versions. However I find it pretty irritating that I get the latest greatest from Google and some of the major apps and games are no compatible, yet. Something that I've never experienced with iOS. What I experienced with iOS was vice versa, old hardware not running the new apps. What is the usual time table for the bigger app devs to update? Generally a few days? Months? Never?

2) Crashes - App crashing rarely happened even on my JB'd idevice with JB'd apps. On my Nexus some apps just either fail to run at all or crash randomly and very unstable. It seems to be a crapshoot for me if i download an app from the Play store if it will run stable or not. Probably a silly question, but is there anything I can do to improve this? Granted it has only happened for 5 of the 20 apps I have installed, but still...

3) Malware - How prevalent? Should I be worried? So far the only repos I've installed are Amazon, F-Droid, and G-Jar which claim to be reliable. Worth getting an anti malware like AVG on there?

Other general impressions good and bad..

App selection - While not as good as iOS I do like having some of the apps I could only wish that were on iOS. Really liking the deep app integration and customization.

Watered down apps - Yeah you guys are probably already aware, but being my first Android device it was very apparent that some cross platform apps are a much deeper and improved experienced in iOS, at least on tablets. UI polish and even some big features are just not in the Android counterparts. Has this been improving?

Some lag and overall performance - For the most part it's generally smooth. But it does hiccup on occasion and there are a few apps that just run horribly bad. My younger daughter has a mini and we did some side by side real world comparisons, despite the 7 having on paper what looks to be vastly superior specs, the mini actually was smoother/snappier and loaded some apps quicker. I realize that iOS is extremely optimized and does a lot with less hardware, so my question is how has Android progressed in this area? From what I gather Android keeps getting better and better, especially the past year. With that said, I'm not disappointed at all with the 7's current performance.

The OS - iOS is bland and stale to me. If it were not for jailbreaking I'd probably ditch iOS all together. iOS 7 looks to be moving into the right direction but it's lacking innovation and seems to be just copying. I'm really enjoying the Android's OS and sheer customization.

Hot hot heat - I thought my iPad 3 was hot, but my 7 heats up a ton when running games like Real Racing, particularly in the top right corner of the device. I assume this is normal?

So far I'm enjoying my Android journey... The device's size and OS will probably keep it in my stable of devices. The iPad 3 will probably still be my go to content consumption device at home but the 7 will be my on the go unit due to the portability (slipping it in my pocket with ease is nice).

Thanks all

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hey guys,

I've been using my new Nexus 7 exclusively the last 72 hours to get a feel of it and see if I am going to keep it and buy in, at least partially, to the Android ecosystem. I'm not an Apple fanboy (PC guy all my life) and pretty brand agnostic. I'm just a tech geek and enjoy gadgets regardless of the badge on it (fanboys annoy me to no end). I'm also one that enjoys customization and tinkering. But I've only owned iOS devices, 3 iPhones and 2 iPads in the past, all got the jailbreak treatment (my 5 is heavily mod'd). The new Nexus 7 was a good opportunity I thought to get a decently spec'd tablet with a plain vanilla experience. Here are my impressions and maybe a few helpful members can steer me in the right direction if I'm overlooking something..

1) Incompatibility - I understand that fragmentation is prevalent in the Android world with so many devices all running different OS versions. However I find it pretty irritating that I get the latest greatest from Google and some of the major apps and games are no compatible, yet. Something that I've never experienced with iOS. What I experienced with iOS was vice versa, old hardware not running the new apps. What is the usual time table for the bigger app devs to update? Generally a few days? Months? Never?

2) Crashes - App crashing rarely happened even on my JB'd idevice with JB'd apps. On my Nexus some apps just either fail to run at all or crash randomly and very unstable. It seems to be a crapshoot for me if i download an app from the Play store if it will run stable or not. Probably a silly question, but is there anything I can do to improve this? Granted it has only happened for 5 of the 20 apps I have installed, but still...

3) Malware - How prevalent? Should I be worried? So far the only repos I've installed are Amazon, F-Droid, and G-Jar which claim to be reliable. Worth getting an anti malware like AVG on there?

Other general impressions good and bad..

App selection - While not as good as iOS I do like having some of the apps I could only wish that were on iOS. Really liking the deep app integration and customization.

Watered down apps - Yeah you guys are probably already aware, but being my first Android device it was very apparent that some cross platform apps are a much deeper and improved experienced in iOS, at least on tablets. UI polish and even some big features are just not in the Android counterparts. Has this been improving?

Some lag and overall performance - For the most part it's generally smooth. But it does hiccup on occasion and there are a few apps that just run horribly bad. My younger daughter has a mini and we did some side by side real world comparisons, despite the 7 having on paper what looks to be vastly superior specs, the mini actually was smoother/snappier and loaded some apps quicker. I realize that iOS is extremely optimized and does a lot with less hardware, so my question is how has Android progressed in this area? From what I gather Android keeps getting better and better, especially the past year. With that said, I'm not disappointed at all with the 7's current performance.

The OS - iOS is bland and stale to me. If it were not for jailbreaking I'd probably ditch iOS all together. iOS 7 looks to be moving into the right direction but it's lacking innovation and seems to be just copying. I'm really enjoying the Android's OS and sheer customization.

Hot hot heat - I thought my iPad 3 was hot, but my 7 heats up a ton when running games like Real Racing, particularly in the top right corner of the device. I assume this is normal?

So far I'm enjoying my Android journey... The device's size and OS will probably keep it in my stable of devices. The iPad 3 will probably still be my go to content consumption device at home but the 7 will be my on the go unit due to the portability (slipping it in my pocket with ease is nice).

Thanks all

Welcome to Android and the forums!

1. Apps. Not really Goggle's fault. That is more developers. Bigger ones typically fix within a few days, depending on how widespread the glitch is.
2. Apps. Again, not much you can do. That is more the developer. I have been tinkering with developing a simple app, and it makes a difference having the device versus not.
3. Malware. To be on the safe side, I would install something like AVG. An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure. Most malware is obtained via app sites that are not Google. Amazon does have a good track record, but there was a rumor of a virus going through them not long ago.

Other concerns:
My S3 runs kinda warm when running video intense games, so I am not really surprised to hear you say that. I keep that playing to a minimum. When the device gets really warm, I stop.
Lag: You can try Settings>Developer Options> and turning window, transition and animations down to .5; that sometimes helps. Limiting the background apps can help as well.

iOS and Android work differently when it comes to the UI. Imagine you control a platoon of soldiers. Apple views that when you give a command, all of them need to listen to you and drop what they are doing to execute that command. Android, following the same example, would have 2 or 3 men listen to you while the remaining do tasks that need to be done as well. Android will never overcome that because that is how the OS is set up. While it can lag, it is more of a multitasker than Apple.

If you really want to take custom to a whole new breed of awesome, download a different launcher from Play, like Nova or ADW. With Nova, you can change the animation scrolling and speed, color themes, label folders, change grid sizes in home screens and app drawer, change the dock icons, and more. That is just the free version.

Hope those helped. Have a good time cruising the forums!

 

[FitzAusTex]

Also give Apex Launcher a go. I've used Nova, adw, and Apex, and Apex is my favorite.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[YAYTech]

Watered down apps - Yeah you guys are probably already aware, but being my first Android device it was very apparent that some cross platform apps are a much deeper and improved experienced in iOS, at least on tablets. UI polish and even some big features are just not in the Android counterparts. Has this been improving?

It has been improving, and is likely to continue to improve, probably at a faster rate. Apple has had 3 big advantages in this area:

- market share
- control
- consistency

In past years, if a company wanted to develop an app, iOS was the "duh" place to start and focus, because they held the majority of the market. It would be silly for a business not to start out by tapping the largest market first. However, Android has overtaken iOS in market share, so it's no longer an assumption, though it may still be the default thinking for developers.

There is also the advantage iOS holds in that it more tightly controls, well, everything. This is a blessing and a curse of course - the same one that Apple has always had in comparing Macs to PCs. Quality is more controlled for iOS, which results in a better user experience for the average user, but limits freedoms for those that want to do whatever they want. In the PC world that resulted in more abundant (but sometimes crappy) software available. iOS had the advantage of getting market share first, so they've enjoyed both the tighter control and larger market of available apps, but that larger market advantage has disappeared, though there are still apps exclusive to iOS. But the point is that control = more consistent quality and generally better user experience at the cost of some freedom.

Finally, iOS has a HUGE advantage for programmers in its consistency of devices. Android has a gazillion devices across a huge span of performance levels, vastly different screen resolutions and aspect ratios, different sensors and features, etc. If you are programming for iOS, you are programming for a smaller number of devices, and they've held tight to some standards in things like resolution and aspect ratio, which vastly reduces the variables a programmer has to deal with. Result: it's easier to program for iOS and have it come out looking & working well across most or all devices on the OS.

Personally, I don't usually care one bit if an app is a scaled up phone app, has some unused space somewhere, etc. I just care about what it does, and if it does it well. Of course I could still have an improved user experience with a better interface in an app, but I'm very function over form.