iPhone or droid

[Bryan Morgan]

It really depends on what you are expecting out of a phone. What do you want it to do? I get to play with these things all the time at work. I've had my hands on a lot of different models lately as we go through a massive email migration.

Personally, I wouldn't give Apple any of my money. Thats just me. I will say that the iPhones (3/4) connect flawlessly and very easily to our Exchange server. The Android phones are hit and miss. Depends on what app you are using to sync.

[Peter Elliott]

lot of iphone reports.. so I'll chime in on Moto Droid phone.

It's funny how hard a cell phone choice has become.. and to be honest, I don't think there is a clear winner.

I was 100% certain when iphone came to verizon I was going to buy one. Lot's of friends have the iphone and i have an itouch (mp3 player with apps).

But when Android hit verizon I jumped on that. I had the original Droid with the slide out keyboard. I figured I would still want the keyboard after having one on previous phones. NOPE! I really liked the virtual keyboard, took a week to get it down. So the slide out became a pain and I returned it for a HTC brand droid phone.. Supposed to be faster, blah blah blaah.. It was and I liked but the screen was a bit small and I didn't care for the way contacts were stored in the phone.
I really liked the way Motorola set up the android phones. Just because it says Android, doesn't mean they are all set up the same.

Then a buddy had the new Moto Droid X, I tried it, played with it and then bought one. Never looked back since. I got the extended battery (not the huge one but one step up) and I can run this for 2 days straight. I needed this since I am a gone for 2 days for the most part and can't always charge up my phone.. The other phones all died in 1 day.

The screen is great for viewing online web stuff. It's good size, etc and I tend to use it when I am shopping, doing a compare, read reviews, etc.. I use a barcode scanner app and get price info first hand while standing in the store.

It's fairly tough, I got a zag screen protector from best buy. It's very good, I wouldn't go a day without one. Just a basic case.

I'm a firefighter and we break everything (not always by choice) and I carry my phone in my front pocket. Never liked the holsters, etc.. So from cold to hot, it's been good. I dropped it a few times and only the case has come off. Very rare has it had a cpu issue like locking it up. I'm sure the 2x it did, it was my fault.

So now the Iphone hit verizon, I remember what I said a year ago and now I'm having a hard time convincing myself to get and Iphone in the future. The droid x is by far an awesome phone. Not the droid 2 or the droid pro.. the droid x is what I am using.

One big note.. the android phones have a real hard time sync MS Outlook. So if you use MS outlook as a business, I would not move away from a blackberry. I don't know about iphone and ms outlook.. We went through a bunch of android phones for my wife who wanted a new phone but has to use Ms Outlook.. ended up going back to blackberry. we tried everything, every app , every back door way to sync and after talking to many techs.. it doesn't work well at all.. it has a lot to do with market share in the cellphone biz, not for a lack of actually writing a software.

-Peter

[Matt Meiser]

Exchange works OK with my Evo except that if I edit a calendar event from the phone I get a copy. I'm pretty sure that it has to do with the fact our Exchange server is in a different time zone than I am. I forgot to try while at the office last week to see if the problem went away. But email and contacts -- no problems at all.

[Jerome Stanek]

I guess I just don't get it. Why are there so many people getting their 3rd or 4th phones. If there that great why do you need to get a new one.

[Brian W Evans]

I'll add a vote for an Android phone. I have Verizon's Droid 2. It works great for web surfing (I downloaded the Opera browser instead of the built-in browser), in-car navigation (just like my dad's Garmin GPS), online radio streaming, email, calendar, to-do lists, etc. I've never had a problem with it and the battery life is way beyond my expectations. If I had it to do over again, I'd get one of the bigger screen models without the slide out keyboard - it's just too easy to type on the screen or dictate a message using voice recognition.

[Matt Meiser]

Jerome, the new phones are advancing that much every cycle. My 2nd smart phone was way ahead of my 1st and my Evo is way ahead of the 2nd.

I'm on my 3rd (technically 4th) phone because I started down the smart phone path with an inexpensive used Palm device that I had for about 1-1/2 years. Then I got a new HTC Windows Mobile device that was junk--the hardware, not the OS. The first one 1/2 the screen went black, which Sprint tried to blame on me--they said I hit the screen, but funny how the edges of the "damaged" area were perfectly square and there wasn't a mark on the plastic. There were also other things going wrong with the phone at the same time. So after haggling, threats to buy out my contract and dispute the charges with Amex they decided to replace it as a "courtesy" to me. Then 6 months later the new one started some of the same problems other than the screen. Again I threatened to buy out my contract and leave so they reset my and my wife's eligibility and told us to get new phones now to make up for our problems and that's when I went to the Evo.

[Jerome Stanek]

I don't need a smart phone I guess. I just need one to talk on and then not to much. I have had a cell phone for longer than most people and have gone through 4 different companies and I have never changed my plan. I still have the same phone number as when I got mine back in 88.

[Peter Elliott]

Jerome, I too have had a phone for a long time... my 1st was the pocket book case style.. it was huge. I have all the carriers except Tmobile... Verizon in the Metro DC area has been the best!

The phones are not phones at all.. they are mini PC's and I can do a lot with these little gems.. The only reason to upgrade is some features are worth it to upgrade. Some are needs, some are wants. I went through a 3 phones in 2yrs... 2 being in the last six months... I finally have what works for me..

Matt - Exchange isn't the entire issue.. email works fine, etc.. It's when you have to sync contacts and calendar (mainly calendar) is the issue.

[Jim Becker]

Peter, my employer uses ActiveSync for mobile device support and my email, calendar and contacts have been nearly "perfect" since they started offering the service for iPhone and other smartphone users. They actually discourage Blackberry at this point, wanting to eliminate the Blackberry infrastructure.

[Joel Goodman]

If you have a Mac for your personal computer then the iPhone (or iPad) has some advantages in that they work together seamlessly. I like having a BU of everything on my phone on my computer -- including important documents (via Docs to Go) which can sync both ways as does the calender, email, iTunes etc.. Got used to it with the Treo and to me it's a good feature. The Android phone sync up in the cloud w gmail and various Google cloud computing stuff. I think if you are on Windows the iPhone advantages are less. That being said it's not the best phone for just phoning! The iPad and regular cell phone is not a worthless option to consider.

[Steve Costa]

I have neither & don't want one. I have $40 Verizon phone which is programmed to block texts & photos. The key issue is with network coverage. If you live in an area which has EXCELLENT AT&T, Verizon or Sprint coverage, pick your poison. Where I live in So West Colorado we have great Verizon coverage. If you want to use your AT&T phone of any kind its a 12 mile drive to town.

I spent 35 years in the IT business running large projects and have no interest in "keeping up to date"!!!!

[Brian Elfert]

I would kinda like to have a smart phone, but two things hold me back. One is my employer pays for my phone and they won't pay for a smart phone. Second is the additional cost for the data package if I did pay for my own phone. I use Verizon and wouldn't use anyone else for a personal phone due to the excellent coverage. My employer thought about going to T-Mobile, but T-Mobile gave us test phones and the coverage was really bad. I told the rep I was going to take a test phone to a certain area and he said don't bother as there was no coverage there.

[Randy Klein]

This may have already been stated, but there is an android alt to ipad. That is the samsung galaxy. Food for thought. Btw, this was typed on a droid2 using swype, which is awesome.

[Matt Meiser]

The Galaxy Tab is allegedly an iPad competitor, but it is a lot smaller. I'd love to see a real iPad competitor but I don't think the Tab is it.

[Leigh Betsch]

When Lee Valley starts to sell cell phones then we'll have a phone that we can trust to work as advertised!