Iphone to android

[texasotts]

First I know this is a sensitive subject but I need help. Years ago I had the g1 which was the first android phone but it was too new so I went over to iPhone. Many years later now I am trying the galaxy s3. While there are many great features im torn
I love the screen size and the ability to customize, not have to sync with iphone and get free music but im not understanding why some things are so far behind the iphone
The lack of a good quality app to group message properly with my imessage friends sucks
The camera and recording is no where up to par with apple and in order to text a video you have to record it with the mms option which makes it grainy. The ads that pop up while browsing the internet are annoying and I hate the way the stock gallery displays photos. With that being said iphone has flaws too- the lack of customization like font, background, the syncing, small screen, and the fact that they basically steal your money when making almost the exact same phone each time but each phone is almost exactly the same!
I have both iphone 5 and the galaxy s3 and im just torn. I use a phone for running my home business, texting friends and my main camera

Android text sucks along with the camera but the size is wonderful. Whats a girl to do?
I just dont understand why one of the most popular android phones on the market cant get up to speed? If they could correct a few things they could win all the apple fans over in a heartbeat
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[HOLLYWOODANT215]

Group me works fine for me and my friends

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[texasotts]

Is that an app that they have to install to use or just me?

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[zapfrog]

Regarding the camera; I had my sg3 first and my wife had the 4s and the sg3 camera smoked the 4s, zoom quality also. One of the many reasons my wife switched from the 4s to the sg3. Texting, well that seems to be preference and there are other keyboard apps out there plus Jelly Bean is supposed to come with a better keyboard.

 

[nagyg]

I had the 3G and later the 4, and since yesterday I am on the Galaxy S3. Totally agree with you: some things are so far behind on Android: the camera sucks; email is a huge disappointment; I miss AIRPLAY!!!!!. At this point I have to say kudos to Apple, they have built a great product!

Why did I switch? I have a 2nd home in Europe and cannot expect people there to call me at a US number. To get the iPhone carrier-unlocked so I could use a local SIM took 2 years (=expiration of contract). Of course I had my iPhone 4 jailbroken and unlocked, but that was always a hassle and never worked without problems. I was told that ATT would unlock the Galaxy S3 pretty much right away ...

And, I like the bigger screen, but the colors are horrible (on screen size Apple really missed the boat - huge mistake!). If Apple offered me a bigger screen and the possibility of more customization I would go back in a heart beat.

If Apple had increased the screen to Galaxy dimensions and kept the connector plug I would have not switched. This is a huge opportunity for Android (and SAMSUNG) - please don't screw this up!


I am retired and a geek, so I can put the countless hours in to switch, but I would not recommend this to anyone else. The learning curve is huge!!

 

[zapfrog]

Sure don't take it from me who compared the cameras side by side but there are are about 30 or more videos on YouTube showing camera comparisons. Oh and let's not forget the pro reviews and comparisons of the cameras that show the camera being on par or better than the iPhone. Either you two got bad phones that need to be replaced or a couple of iTrolls
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[Jude526]

Android is easy. What's so difficult? Love it. Not an apple fan by any means. I don't have the S3 but think its awesome. I am either getting it or the note 2.

sent from either my HTC Rezound or my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet

 

[Shanicenicolle]

Android isn't hard but it definitely isn't as simplistic as ios. I miss things from iphone but am giving android a fair shot. I can't go back to that small screen now anyway it feels odd when I pick it up to reference an app.

Apple is more polished overall Imo and that's what I miss most.

I'm curious what makes a camera "better" to the op tho? I find that the gs3 camera is on par with my iPhone one plus has a few extras that my 4S didn't.

Sent from my Red GS3

 

[texasotts]

I guess maybe its the retina display on an iPhone that makes photos more crisp or clear. The video sucks though. If I take a video of my baby with my husbands iPhone and send it in text to my mom it plays crystal clear, if I take a video with the s3 it has to be the mms option for texting and the playback is grainy. I am not an Utrillo or whatever the one poster said. I am giving android a shot because personally I'm tired of paying apple for the same phone over and over but it is a more polished system. Its not as buggy in some areas. Text on android is a nightmare and not nearly as polished as iPhone, I had to intstall a different apple for group messaging and a different smart keyboard. Just odd that with as long as android has been out they cannot get you to speed. And visual voicemail? I had to get att version because that is something I enjoy. I do really like the size and customization of android. Basically they each have their flaws but if android would Polish it up a bit I'd be sold for life

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[taojin]

I'm coming from a Galaxy S3 to a iPhone 5 and it was extremely frustrating about the video on the Galaxy when sending in mms. But there are certain things I do miss with Android. The iPhone isn't as super advanced as people said compared to Android. Media is way better on my Galaxy compared to the iPhone. I do love the simplicity of iOS and got frustrated that there was just too much customiztion with Android. But I think I will stick with iOS for awhile just to give it a fair shake.

 

[taojin]

Text on android is a nightmare and not nearly as polished as iPhone

I have to say it's taking some getting used to the iPhone keyboard. After using swiftkey 3 every other keyboard is obselete lol.

 

[zapfrog]

Swiftkey and GOKeyboard are the best keyboards for android IMO.
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[anon(153966)]

There is so much I could say here as a gadget guy who is constantly switching devices. Seriously, I switch between my S3 and iPhone 4s at least twice a week, and the S3 wins most times...

Anyway, to put it simply, if Apple made an iPhone the same size or even 'slightly' smaller than the S3, I'd remain with Apple\iOS for a LONG time. The End!

 

[carlosrey23]

A few things need to be said here.....

Let's start by describing iOS as a closed (boxed) system and Android as a fully customizable system. Any time when you deal with a closed system you are stuck with that option and you as the consumer learn to adapt to it, while in an open system (customizable) where you know that you have the option to improve people tend to look for that X that suits them better. It's like when Ford built the first mass produced Model T and said" you can have it any color as long as it's black". people learned to like that color and accepted that as the way it was...I'm sure that when other manufacturers started to offer options, some preferred the all black model T above all others too!.

I could continue with other examples of the closed vs opened systems (particularly in the ERP realm), but I think it's clear.

As for hardware, I have always thought that in terms of hardware iPhones have lead in many respects, in particular the screen over android devices, but here comes to play choice again....apple has produced about 8 different models in past 5 years, where as Andorid devices have seen that many devices in past 5 months (if not more). Some might call it fragmentation, other simply call it options...call it what you will in the Android environment you will find far more choice, be it in screen size, capability, color, customization, etc. than you will find on the iOS phones, therefore the polish.

There are certain things that iOS do relaly well such as Siri, and others where they fail miserably such Apple Maps. I think in any device be it iOS, Android, Blackberry, or Windows Phone one can always find one thing that the other device will do better that the other.

I played with the camera of an iphone 5 this weekend, and it was very good compared to my SG3, but I would not say better just different. Colors are much warmer, and the panoramic features are different, but I do have to say I like them. With that said, I would not trade the SG3 for and iphone....just the Note2 has the ability of stripping me of my SG3.

 

[anon(94115)]

I just wanted to say do not send the videos via mms. It isn't the video that is bad, it is the mms compression

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[mfriedman79]

I just wanted to say do not send the videos via mms. It isn't the video that is bad, it is the mms compression

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

This is correct. The OPS problem is not so much with the camera, but with the compression being used. It's possible the stock pp is using more aggressive compression since some carriers limit it more than others. Have your tried a 3rd party app like Handcent or GoSMS which allows for tweaking of the max MMS size? I believe AT&T allows up to 600KB per MMS and T-mobile may be 1MB.

Group messaging is also a valid pain point as far as text messaging, but complaining about iMessage is just silly since it is an Apple only service. Either way there are 3rd party alternatives to most things, but require all parties to install them. Personally I just use Gchat for most non-text message based communication.

As for internet ad's I am not sure what you are seeing. I suppose since Android supports fully functional browsers and not a stripped down version of safari that displays format only Apple allows it is possible some sites could render flash based ad's. Anything flash based should go away once JB rolls out to all since I don't believe Adobe is supporting flash past ICS.

In the end it comes down to personal preference. You either prefer the small screen, lack of customization and the walled garden that only allows what Apple wants, but get a consistent user experience; or you prefer the choice of screen sizes and types (color accuracy-LCD vs Better contrast-AMOLED) a more open ecosystem with replacement apps for just about every stock feature. The downside to the latter is that because there are so many options some OEM's don't put the effort into making the stock apps as polished or feature packed.

 

[zapfrog]

The compression part is correct and I just switched it to make photos not as compressed and better quality.

I love the customization! Yes there is a learning curve but I love learning and tweaking with all the settings.

Now with golauncher I have even more options to play with.

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[texasotts]

I do use handcent and the video is just grainy when sending it and watching the recepients. My babys features are blurry

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