Free from the shackles of Apple!

[line6man]

I've owned three iPhones over the past six years. Long story short, they were the coolest thing since sliced bread, at one point, but I've grown tired of them. I used to really love the elegant simplicity of Apple's operating systems for smartphones, but the complete redesign, following the death of Steve Jobs was the last straw for me. My two year contract expired recently, and instead of buying a fourth iPhone, I decided to finally jump into Android-land!

Yesterday I went to the AT&T store to compare models. I was completely unaware that it happened to be the release date of the iPhone 6, so when I got there, an employee was blocking the door and making everyone join a queue to get inside. I put my name in and was told it would be an hour and a half, so I left. I decided to come back and tell the manager that I was only there to look at phones, and did not need any service. They let me in, but it only took a few minutes for my number to be up, so they were able to help me after all. I looked at the iPhone 6, and it pretty much looked like a lady's compact. (I was half-expecting Apple to announce a secret makeup compartment. :blob7 The Amazon Fire Phone looked very nice, and I was tempted by it, but I ended up going with what I had planned on buying. I got a Samsung Galaxy S5 in pearl white. The cashier that I dealt with was happy, because she had just sold 12 iPhones, but preferred the Galaxy, herself. She even let me look at her phone, because it was the one color that was not on display in the store. Oddly enough, for such a busy sales day, the customer service was amazing. The cashier was super nice about letting me take cases out of their packages and try them out, to find the one that looked and felt best.

So far this phone is amazing. I'm still getting used to a few things, but it's just as functional as my old iPhone, and has new things I never imagined to find on a phone. There is a screen mirroring feature that lets me put the screen's display on my TV, over WiFi. There is also a feature to shrink the display size, to make it easier to use the phone with one hand. I'm not sure if I will continue to use the fingerprint sensor, but I can unlock the phone with a thumb swipe. This is probably old news to many people, but it's new to me. I guess the real test will be how the phone holds up over time, but I am not too worried. My usual gripe with phones is that battery life declines, and I can't do anything about it. This phone has a user replaceable battery, however, so if it craps out, I can just get a new battery, without having to pay absurd amounts to get it done professionally. (Yes, people replace iPhone batteries themselves, but I didn't want to void my warranties.) The other worry will be the performance of the OS and hardware, but I'm really not that big on app use, so I won't be pushing any limits.

Who else is a happy Android and/or Galaxy S5 user? Is anyone buying an iPhone 6? Fire Phone?

 

[Cagey]

I'm a happy Android user as of about 4 months ago. Never could get into that whole Apple philosophy.

 

[bagman67]

I shed my iPhone 3 about 2.5 years ago, after having owned it for the preceding 1.5-2 years (don't recall precisely) and I don't miss it for a minute.  I replaced it with a Galaxy S2 I kept until the contract ran, and have just picked up the HTC One.  I will say this - the Galaxy battery life (for the S2, anyway) was not so great.  Stopped holding a charge after the first year and a half, and even when I replaced it with a brand new Samsung battery, it still sucked.  I am not an app-whore, so it's not like I had all kinds of stuff chewing CPU cycles.  I did get some better results when I turned off the phone while charging but often that's not an option.


In parallel, I run a Galaxy S3 for work, since I refuse to combine my business and personal stuff on a single device.  My day-job is in legal document discovery, and as soon as you start putting work and business stuff together, at least in the USA, all your personal crap is discoverable in a business lawsuit.



Anyway - congrats on shucking the Apple shackles.  Now you can get down to some more flexible phone-computerage.

 

[line6man]

I'm a happy Android user as of about 4 months ago. Never could get into that whole Apple philosophy.

Which device(s) are you using?

 

[Cagey]

It's nothing fancy - just an LG Optimus Dynamic II using Android 4.1. I use a cell phone so rarely I didn't want to go nuts on a something high-end.

 

[DavyDave53]

I've had a Google Nexus 5 for about 6 months now.  I bought the phone outright.  So, no contract for me and no stupid carrier software or restrictions either.

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_5_16GB_Black?id=nexus_5_black_16gb

I went from a Blackberry to this Android and is has been a huge upgrade.  I tend to avoid Apple products because of the price and the attitude.

 

[dmraco]

Everyone is asking what the new iPhone is like....I say I have had one for a year....Galaxy S5. 

THE ONLY feature I wish the android system had is the "FIND MY IPHONE" feature.  This is an awesome feature.  Does Andriod have a similar app??

Line6man...another cool feature is you can put in a SD card for added memory.  I put 64 GB in mine.
Tip...is you turn off the GPS you will really save battery life.  Turn it on only when needed

 

[line6man]

Everyone is asking what the new iPhone is like....I say I have had one for a year....Galaxy S5. 

THE ONLY feature I wish the android system had is the "FIND MY IPHONE" feature.  This is an awesome feature.  Does Andriod have a similar app??

Line6man...another cool feature is you can put in a SD card for added memory.  I put 64 GB in mine.
Tip...is you turn off the GPS you will really save battery life.  Turn it on only when needed

Mine came with this app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asurion.android.mobilerecovery.att&hl=en

 

[stubhead]

I'm a TRAC-FONE-o-head myself, user-changed battery, they're like 7 bucks or something delivered.

I refuse to combine my business and personal stuff on a single device.  My day-job is in legal document discovery, and as soon as you start putting work and business stuff together, at least in the USA, all your personal crap is discoverable in a business lawsuit.

I run into this doing legal writing, it's weird to know I have, like, multi-million-dollar business secrets behind a firewall - I don't even know what they are, which ones are the secret-like ones. Makes it hard to sell out, for sure.... My owners do a great job of keeping me updated, but I don't even bother with a laptop, much less a connecto-phone - if you're going to get it, you have to come here and steal it off the desk. Cue macho, "better-to-be-tried-by-12-etc." violent heavy metal. Some guy recently DID beat somebody to death with a Fender neck, a bass neck I believe - not sure on the fret size, fingerboard etc. You can drop-fill the teeth-dings with superglue! Cheaper than guns, and Obama's not a-comin' for 'em either. SHHHH....  YET....

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I got the new iPhone 6 at launch (not the 6+). It feels nice to hold, and I'm not 100% sure if it might be a little bit too big. And that's pretty much it. The biggest change from my last one (5S) really is that it's 128GB, when the last one was 32GB. I had started to have to "manage" things a bit on the last one, and wanted to stop worrying about that. Oh and my last one was white, and this one's black.

 

[dmraco]

Be careful with that 6.  Lots of cracked screens and bent 6 plus phones out there.  Its all over social media

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Its all over social media.

And they never over exaggerate anything.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[dmraco]

Its all over social media.

And they never over exaggerate anything.  :icon_jokercolor:

one of my co-workers cracked the glass after two days.  He had an iPhone since they were first introduced and it nave happened to him before. :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow:

Do not get me wrong, I like apple products.  my son's iPhone 5 has been flawless.  Standing up to the torture of an 18 year old.  Just too many issues with the new 6s so early.  I guess Steve Jobs would not have let this happen.  BTW....I love my new MAC....

 

[line6man]

Its all over social media.

And they never over exaggerate anything.  :icon_jokercolor:

I looked on YouTube, and a guy bent it with finger strength.

And someone told me they know a 95 pound woman who never puts her phone in her pocket, that just ended up with a bent iPhone.

 

[Slackjaw]

Oddly enough, I work in IT but I am an old-school die-hard. My only use for a phone is as a PHONE and also for texting... that's it. I despise "vitual" typing and prefer a real QWERTY keyboard.  I once had the perfect phone, it was a Samsung... same format and size as the old RAZR flip phone, but you could also flip it the OTHER way and have a full keyboard. The complicated bending mechanism must have been an issue b/c the ear speaker eventually started cutting out. Had to replace it with a POS LG that has a slide-out keyboard, but the measures you have to implement to keep it from butt-dialing are a PITA.

That the carriers force you into a data plan is quite the racket for them. They have everyone over a barrel, and I simply refuse! I spend all day at a computer, and also have my own corporate equivalent network at home, so I have no need for a damn computer in my pocket also. Not to mention, I am getting old and as big as these damn phones are, they are too small to see. And they are so damn big, they won't even fit in your pocket!!! I'll be damned if I need to carry around a man bag just for my phone...

 

[SustainerPlayer]

I looked on YouTube, and a guy bent it with finger strength.

Yeah - I've seen several iPhone bender videos. All applying excessive force to the phone. Who in their right mind would do that?

But whatever. It's the same shyte every time Apple launches anything. And in the end it all just adds up to more exposure for them.  :sign13:

 

[bagman67]

Yeah - I've seen several iPhone bender videos. All applying excessive force to the phone. Who in their right mind would do that?

Any normal person who put the phone in his or her pocket and then sat down.  See, e.g., girls whose snug jeans don't leave much room for a phone to move around to avoid such disasters.

 

[line6man]

Oddly enough, I work in IT but I am an old-school die-hard. My only use for a phone is as a PHONE and also for texting... that's it. I despise "vitual" typing and prefer a real QWERTY keyboard.  I once had the perfect phone, it was a Samsung... same format and size as the old RAZR flip phone, but you could also flip it the OTHER way and have a full keyboard. The complicated bending mechanism must have been an issue b/c the ear speaker eventually started cutting out. Had to replace it with a POS LG that has a slide-out keyboard, but the measures you have to implement to keep it from butt-dialing are a PITA.

That the carriers force you into a data plan is quite the racket for them. They have everyone over a barrel, and I simply refuse! I spend all day at a computer, and also have my own corporate equivalent network at home, so I have no need for a damn computer in my pocket also. Not to mention, I am getting old and as big as these damn phones are, they are too small to see. And they are so damn big, they won't even fit in your pocket!!! I'll be damned if I need to carry around a man bag just for my phone...

I've got the opposite need for a phone. I almost never make any calls or send text messages, but I need email, instant messaging, and internet access.  I'm with you about physical keyboards, and phone size, however.

I once had a Palm Treo 750.

I adored the keyboard, because it was so easy to type on, but I started to think I would like a phone with a keyboard like this, even better.

At the time, phones with slide out keyboards were popular, but touchscreens were catching on. I went to AT&T to take a look at the models they had to choose from, but by then, it was too late. They told me that physical keyboards were being phased out, and that touchscreens were the new thing. There were only one or two phones with physical keyboards to choose from, and they were the lower end models. I was pissed, because I hated the idea of typing on a touchscreen, and didn't have any other choice but to adapt. Fast forward to today, I still hate them, but I've gotten used to it. I hit the wrong keys all the time, but I'm quick to realize I've done so, and hit backspace. It's almost like the backspace key is part of certain words. For example, "Warmoth" would be spelled "W s backspace a r m i backspace o t h."

As far as size, I think the "phablet" craze is ridiculous. Tablets are meant to be a middle ground between having a computer and having a phone. I don't see any practical benefit to finding a middle ground between a tablet and a phone. You just end up with a phone that is too big to carry around in your pocket and hold in your hand, and too small to be worthwhile as a tablet.

I really liked the footprint that my iPhone 5 had, but I think my new Galaxy S5 is reasonable. It's a bit harder to hold, and I do miss the compactness of the iPhone, but I'm finding that it's a minor tradeoff for the luxury of having a bigger screen for things like Netflix and web browsing.

 

[Slackjaw]

I adored the keyboard, because it was so easy to type on, but I started to think I would like a phone with a keyboard like this, even better.

Yep... the Droid 4. I have one of those sitting in our scrap heap at work that was barely ever used. It was retired due to age and tech necessity.

If there ever comes a point where I can't get a decent replacement for my phone b/c no one cares about making "basic" phones any more and I am FORCED to go the route of the data plan... I'm breaking out that sucker for myself!

 

[dmraco]

The best....