Technology I cant decide between 2 phones, Droid Bionic or Iphone 4s-

[DrDreams]

Hello everyone,


Heres my situation, unfortunately verizon is making me sign a contract so i continue receiving my discount on the plan im on. Im still grandfathered into the unlimited data so thats a nice thing.

I had the iphone 4 but yesterday i traded it for the droid bionic. I have 13 days left if i want to go back to the iphone 4s

Here is my dilemma

The bionic-
-4g LTE down here is blazing fast
- the ability to save pdfs etc and remote access to my desktop (although i can do this with the iphone with team viewer, i cant tranfer files to the iphone)
- doesnt have iTalk- i use this app EVERYDAY to record all of my lectures, but i reference them may be 2-3 times a week. The bionic doesnt have a irecord feature, and if it does, the mic is crappy and it cant record.
- The battery life stinks vs iphone.
- no personal assistant like siri
- massive ugly pentile qhd display (but its massive) so typing is easier
- call quality is not as good as the iphone
- can do everything iphone can without jailbreak
- no macbook sync, like back up of text messages etc

The iphone 4s

- iTalk! Best app in the world records all my lectures
- Cheaper than the droid bionic by 30 unless i get the 32gb which i might.
- No 4G
- Better display
- smaller screen
-Syncs with my macbook


One should note, i do have an extrenal lecture recorder, but its very tiresome to keep updating the lecture onto the desktop then sync it to my phone because it is time consuming. The iphone was great in the sense all my lectures and everything were on one device.

Really i cant decide between the two, and some help would be greatly appreciated. Also, i am limited to verizon because its cheaper than sprint for me and sprint has bad reception down here.

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[CaliGirl14]

iphone 4s all the way man. droids are gross and a piece of sheet..

 

[FrkyBgStok]

This needs to be in the lounge as it has nothing to do with getting into med school. That being said, I liked my droid, but I just got an iPad and I wish I had an iPhone. Superior product.

 

[willen101383]

I have a thunderbolt (literally waited in line at 7am like a tool the day it came out )...and I love it. You are right the 4g is insane. Much faster down/upload speeds on speedtest.net vs verizon fios broadband I have at my house. I am not as much of an app user as you it seems, I pretty much just use the phone for browsing the web/fb/texting/and making calls...with a bit of camera use. I have 8MP/720p vid...and I know the bionic has 1080p if that really matters to you. I have recorded a lot of video and the 720 looks great on my macbook pro screen.

The only major downside to the phone is (like you mentioned) the battery life SUCKSSSSS. With the OEM battery I was getting something like 3 hours tops under heavy use. I recently purchased a 3500mAh seidio battery and I have no problem lasting TWO full days of use on one charge now..which is a shockingly awesome change. This battery isnt a problem for most guys who wear jeans with big pockets (the battery is a bit like a tumor on the back of the phone)..but I could see this pissing skinny jeans wearin' ladies off quite a bit. The phone as a whole is much larger...but I am a dude so who cares. I dont mind having a big ass phone riding in my pocket.

I have never owned an iphone so I cant give you a head to head review obviously...but I will say the screen on iphones does look nicer in a "smoothed" sort of way compared to the TB and Bionic (my close friend has one so ive extensively used his).

I would still go with the bionic personally. This is my 2nd droid now and I couldnt be happier. I have never been a huge apple guy (although I did jump ship on PC for a macbook pro that I LOVE).

 

[willen101383]

iphone 4s all the way man. droids are gross and a piece of sheet..

Bc you cant fit them in ur skinny jeans?

 

[DrDreams]

This needs to be in the lounge as it has nothing to do with getting into med school. That being said, I liked my droid, but I just got an iPad and I wish I had an iPhone. Superior product.

Sorry, i couldnt find the lounge.

I have a thunderbolt (literally waited in line at 7am like a tool the day it came out )...and I love it. You are right the 4g is insane. Much faster down/upload speeds on speedtest.net vs verizon fios broadband I have at my house. I am not as much of an app user as you it seems, I pretty much just use the phone for browsing the web/fb/texting/and making calls...with a bit of camera use. I have 8MP/720p vid...and I know the bionic has 1080p if that really matters to you. I have recorded a lot of video and the 720 looks great on my macbook pro screen.

The only major downside to the phone is (like you mentioned) the battery life SUCKSSSSS. With the OEM battery I was getting something like 3 hours tops under heavy use. I recently purchased a 3500mAh seidio battery and I have no problem lasting TWO full days of use on one charge now..which is a shockingly awesome change. This battery isnt a problem for most guys who wear jeans with big pockets (the battery is a bit like a tumor on the back of the phone)..but I could see this pissing skinny jeans wearin' ladies off quite a bit. The phone as a whole is much larger...but I am a dude so who cares. I dont mind having a big ass phone riding in my pocket.

I have never owned an iphone so I cant give you a head to head review obviously...but I will say the screen on iphones does look nicer in a "smoothed" sort of way compared to the TB and Bionic (my close friend has one so ive extensively used his).

I would still go with the bionic personally. This is my 2nd droid now and I couldnt be happier. I have never been a huge apple guy (although I did jump ship on PC for a macbook pro that I LOVE).

The thing is the camera on the bionic really SUCKS i take pictures more than video, and it is the worst camera ive had. That said, i am not a heavy app user, but frankly, there was 2 apps that saved my behind, this app called dy/dx for calculus, and iTalk. Those 2 apps really helped me out.

The downside of the iphone is, ( i have a newborn) i cant video chat at home and check and see my daughter, im usually never home and i can do that on 4g but cant do it on iphone because of its limitation to wifi.

Secondly, iphone has these crappy quality youtube vids unless you are on wifi, what is up with that? youtube is super useful in watchin instructional vids.

 

[DinoSaysRawr]

Bc you cant fit them in ur skinny jeans?

lmao

I have a Droid 3. The battery life does suck but other than that, I love the phone. I don't really want an all-touch screen phone. I like-uh my key pad ^_^

 

[DrDreams]

lmao

I have a Droid 3. The battery life does suck but other than that, I love the phone. I don't really want an all-touch screen phone. I like-uh my key pad ^_^

bionic is all touchscreen

 

[JonnyL]

Wait a while for the Nexus Prime. They were suppose to announce it today but they delayed the announcement to pay respects to Steve Job's death. It will come out later this month though and it's supposed to be a beast of a phone.

It will be the first android phone with Android 4.0 Ice Cream sandwich which combines tablets and phone operating systems. It's really neat.

I recommend waiting for the announcement of the prime and then decide from there whether to get it or the 4S.

Rumored features of the Prime:
-4.65 inch screen (The phone will not be as big as you think because they're getting rid of capacitative buttons--so the buttons will be on the screen itself which shortens the bezel of the phone and increases the screen size without increasing the size of the actual phone.
-Super Amoled Plus HD display
- 1.2 or 1.5gHz dual core processor
- Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
2 megapixel front facing camera and 8 megapixel back camera

 

[aSagacious]

Moving to the 'technology' sub-forum of the lounge.

 

[MrLahey]

do it for steve!

 

[DrDreams]

Oh lord, Data is SO SLOOOOOWWWW on the iphone.

 

[Groove]

I just upgraded from my iPhone 4 to the 4s. I would recommend that you do the same, especially if you already use a macbook. You're data will sync much more easily, especially with iCloud support on your phone and mac. It's a great phone, perhaps not as big a hardware upgrade as one would want, but Siri is quite impressive. Sure, I'm frustrated at times with the iPhone and some of the draconian limitations on the functionality and low level access but with iOS 5, it's really a wonderful evolution. I've used Android. I like it. It's less restrictive, perhaps more integrated, but I still prefer iOS. I think Android is still one or two steps behind iOS in many ways, but like all things, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, until you step over and realize that most of the green....are weeds.

But hey, if you enjoy the Android phone, stick with that. However, try to look at it objectively. Do you find the features the primary swaying factor, or are you just "tired of iOS and the iPhone interface". If it's the later, then you will likely become tired of Android after awhile and wish you had an iPhone again.

Some of the new features in iOS5 alone, regardless of the phone are wonderful and have taken many gripes that I had with the platform away.

Most people also don't realize that many of the complaints about restrictiveness in iOS can be solved very simply by jail breaking the phone and installing cydia. I mean hell... I had my last phone jailbroken and downloading torrents for me while I slept, then transferring them to my computer, ssh, there's all types of stuff you can do with a jailbroken iPhone if you need functionality beyond the tons of apps on the App store which after seeing both the Android store and Apple App store... Any reasonable person would have to agree that the quality of apps is much greater on the Apple App store. Again though, there's always Cydia...

 

[soniat2]

lock it iphone 4s..........

 

[fab4fan]

I love my iPhone 4S. In particular, "Siri." Since I've been sick, I have so many doctors' appts., and it's nice to get reminders from my phone. I also like the iCloud. If I miss the reminder on my phone, it pops up on my laptop.

 

[Slevin]

I love my iPhone 4S. In particular, "Siri." Since I've been sick, I have so many doctors' appts., and it's nice to get reminders from my phone. I also like the iCloud. If I miss the reminder on my phone, it pops up on my laptop.

Yeah, you drank the Koolaid a few years ago... hows life like on the apple side of the fence

 

[fab4fan]

Yeah, you drank the Koolaid a few years ago... hows life like on the apple side of the fence

I actually bought an iPad2 but I returned it. I didn't really like it that much, and having nothing but a touchscreen is a little difficult to manage with peripheral neuropathy.

I may need to address my laptop situation, as the hard drive is dying and so is the battery. Much as I like the MacBook Air, the salesperson at the apple store said the MacBook Pro would better suit me.

 

[theWUbear]

Enjoy waiting for your data to download (no 4G)
Enjoy the occasional running out of battery and not-so-occasional having to manage your power supply to avoid running out of battery (no removable battery, lolol)
Do not enjoy the ability to use your phone as a credit card using the change-the-world google wallet software (no NFC)
Do not enjoy tethering - the act of using your phone as a wireless hot spot for your laptop (still no jailbreak for iOS 5; but pure android gets rooted easily)
Do not enjoy the advanced data usage notification software of ICS
Do not enjoy Flash support for your web-browsing - limiting what you can see on the internet (inb4 an apple fanboi says flash uses more battery, see my battery note above)
Do not enjoy seemless integration with Google Videos (aka youtube) Google Books Google Music Google + (video calling with upwards of 10 people) Google Talk Google Maps Google Accounts (all your phone information is stored with your account allowing seamless transitioning between android phones)

The clear winner is the 4G Galaxy Nexus

 

[Phlame217]

Enjoy waiting for your data to download (no 4G)

95% of the day I use wifi, no 4g is negated. However, the 5% of the day I am on 3G, its not an issue. Even if the iPhone was 4G, I wouldn't have coverage yet unless I went verizon but since I get a 25% discount through ATT, its worth the savings to stick with them since my wife and I have unlimited data and 1500 minutes and all for <$100 a month.

Enjoy the occasional running out of battery and not-so-occasional having to manage your power supply to avoid running out of battery (no removable battery, lolol)

Never had this issue. I can do heavy use on a 12 hour day and still have 15% battery. Worse case scenario, I plug in and have full recharge in 1-1.5 hours.

Do not enjoy the ability to use your phone as a credit card using the change-the-world google wallet software (no NFC)

Not a big deal to me. Not widely used yet and would be one of those features such as the Evo 3D that is more of a gimmick at the moment than anything else.

Do not enjoy tethering - the act of using your phone as a wireless hot spot for your laptop (still no jailbreak for iOS 5; but pure android gets rooted easily)

There is no "public" jailbreak out. My 4s is jailbroken with tethering and hot spot.

Do not enjoy the advanced data usage notification software of ICS

Not really needed unless your tethering a lot.

Do not enjoy Flash support for your web-browsing - limiting what you can see on the internet (inb4 an apple fanboi says flash uses more battery, see my battery note above)

Adobe has already conceded that HTML5 is the way and iPhone safari already has support for it.

Do not enjoy seemless integration with Google Videos (aka youtube) Google Books Google Music Google + (video calling with upwards of 10 people) Google Talk Google Maps Google Accounts (all your phone information is stored with your account allowing seamless transitioning between android phones)

I hardly use any of this, however, with GMail I can seamlessly transfer my information and contacts between iPhones. Also, iCloud easily fills in any other gaps as I can sync my books, calendars, etc.

The clear winner is the 4G Galaxy Nexus

For a biassed person, yes.

However both are great phones and each has its niche.

 

[Slevin]

Oh and AT& does allow tethering, you just have to pay an additional charge for it.

Oh and why would I want to video call more than 10 people while using my phone? Video calling one person at a time is more than enough when the screen isn't as big as a laptop. Well unless I want everyone to look tiny..

 

[badasshairday]

Enjoy waiting for your data to download (no 4G)
Enjoy the occasional running out of battery and not-so-occasional having to manage your power supply to avoid running out of battery (no removable battery, lolol)
Do not enjoy the ability to use your phone as a credit card using the change-the-world google wallet software (no NFC)
Do not enjoy tethering - the act of using your phone as a wireless hot spot for your laptop (still no jailbreak for iOS 5; but pure android gets rooted easily)
Do not enjoy the advanced data usage notification software of ICS
Do not enjoy Flash support for your web-browsing - limiting what you can see on the internet (inb4 an apple fanboi says flash uses more battery, see my battery note above)
Do not enjoy seemless integration with Google Videos (aka youtube) Google Books Google Music Google + (video calling with upwards of 10 people) Google Talk Google Maps Google Accounts (all your phone information is stored with your account allowing seamless transitioning between android phones)

The clear winner is the 4G Galaxy Nexus

Exactly. I'd go for the Samsung Galaxy S2 or the Galaxy Nexus which should drop in a few weeks. It is so sad that the iPhone 4s has terrible battery life and no ability to have an external battery charger to have 2 batters that take exactly 5 seconds to pop out (no screws or screw drivers needed). I am never stuck to the wall with my Galaxy S2... EVER.

Navigation on the iPhone still uses the weak map, unlike the full navigation system on the androids.

The screen is unbelievably small still on the iPhone, you can't enjoy watching things on it such as a movie on a long flight. 3g.... still?

You have to convert everything to iTunes? So you can't even share files that your friend may have such as pictures or movies because you can't sync your iPhone to their computer since they already syced their iPhone to it... just way too much headaches. Also the no flash is really weak.

Apple iPhones are for the masses, and they rip you off. Price differentials in terms of the memory space, so you have to pay one price for the 16g, 32g, and 64g. If you get the 16g, you can't even expand the memory externally with a microSD.

It is funny how wide eyed the iPhone 4s folks get when they see me pull out my 4.54in AMOLED screen which is on a device that is significantly lighter, sturdier (see the iPhone 4s vs Galaxy S2 drop test), and more customizable.