OK, so I admit it... I purchased an iPhone 18 months ago. A 16GB 3G to be precise.
Now I hear you all cringing, and just to pre-empt the haters out there, I will say this:

I've never been into the greatest phones. I'm 30 years old, so I was around when mobile phones went into the mainstream. Shit, I was around when you had to "book" the company cell phone that was the size of a military walkie-talkie and take it out to lunch to look important.
You have to respect the fact that for me, I've seen the change from analogue phones to digital. I went from a startrak flip phone to a nokia that had snake! I've been there and done all that. New shit comes out all the time...

So when I called my carrier, and said I wanted to cancel my contract (specifically to get a deal), and they said I could have a iPhone for £18.50 a month, and I knew my friends had that phone so it couldn't be that bad (insert sheep bhaaa here), and their website was selling it at £45 a month, plus it basically included all the talk time, texts and internet surfing that I need for free, I said sure!

I mean, I know that most iPhones are behind the curve even on launch day, but I've been around long enough to know that there's always new cool shit being released. Look at PC hardware... What's aweome 1 year, it next years old DirectX reject crap.

Having said that, I have come to enjoy certain features on my phone, which are:

Paying only £18.50 a month
Internet browsing with multi-tabs (but without wifi it's often slow)
Watching movies (but I have to convert them from avi first, which is annoying)
Taking photo's and video's (but the quality isn't great)
Playing mp3's (but this is pretty standard)

The things I do not like:
The fact the screen just died after 18 months
The battery life, and that the battery is not replaceable
No flash support!
That it only plays mpeg4and I have to convert my movies first
It lags
Not really worried about external memory to be honest.
I can't save files to my phone from email, or the internet, or use it as a portable storage device.
You have to jailbreak it to use it as a wireless router, and I cant jailbreak it because I use an app for my work email that will only work on "normal" phones.
The screen could be bigger.


I'm pretty sure I want an android phone, but given the above, which phone do I want?

Well, the only help I can provide is which phone not to get, and that is the Motorola Droid. I had mine for about 2 months before it started falling apart (Power button broke, couldn't turn it on/off unless you wanted to take out the battery and then plug the USB in. Thankfully it auto-boots when the USB is connected. The volume rocker broke, I was forced to keep my phone on vibrate at all times to prevent any awkward oh-shit-I-forgot-to-change-setting-and-now-phone-is-blairing-at-work/in class. Also, after pulling my phone out of my pocket one evening, I noticed there was a not-so-stylish crack going straight across the display.) Keep in mind I take extreme care of my belongings, I wasn't rough on it by any means.

That's just the hardware issues I had.

OS is also a POS, constantly glitching and lagging. The camera was good quality, however it was veeery buggy. After about 6 months I noticed that when you turned on the flash, it would flash about a half second too soon, rendering it useless. It also LOVED crashing after taking a video (even as short as 10 seconds). There were several problems with it, but those are the main ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Anyways, hope this helps you decide a little.

This post has been edited by akhero47: Dec 31 2011, 01:07 PM

Im not sure which Motorola Droid you are talking about because Motorola has released a good amount of phones who's name starts with "Motorola Droid" but i picked up a Motorola Droid Razr about a month ago and am very happy. The only problem i have found with it is the battery life but according to my research this is a rather common problem on smartphones these days.

Model: A855

haha true that, I got an HTC Desire S a while back and I was used to being able to leave my phone without a charge for days or even a week but with the HTC it needs charged every night >_> it can bee at 100% batter, I go on youtube to watch a short video and come off and its at 90% lol its crazy

haha I still remember that time


btt:
For a really good display you want to get a Samsung phone. They even sell their displays to quite some other manufacturers, because they know how shit their displays would be. Ofc Samsung keeps the best ones for their own phones, so you might want to take this fact into account when choosing a new phone.
I also agree to stay away from motorola. They have a few good releases, but the majority of their stock sucks when it comes to lifetime, battery and software.

You could try getting what I have: Samsung Galaxy SII. Have it since May and so far don't regret getting it. as I've had no problems. It's fast and it has a very good 8MP camera WITH flash. The battery life is an issue with all smartphones, I have to charge it each day aswell unless I'm not playing around with apps. Also disabling GPS and Wifi almost halves the battery power drain. After a while it can start lagging if lots of apps are installed but a restart always fixes that. No need to jailbreak it either in order to use almost all of the functions and it can be used as a storage device. Using custom ROMs is also way easier than jailbreaking an iPhone and it makes you be able to do anything with the OS, legally too (In most cases you do lose your warranty though; I think only HTC allows usage of custom ROMs while keeping the warranty, I'm not sure).

Well basically Android is better than iOS in my opinion but I've heard lots of people say the opposite. But speaking about hardware the Galaxy SII is really a very nice phone.

If you want to buy the iPhone and save money i would suggest the iPhone 4.
The big difference between the 4 & 4s is just a dual-core processor and a upgraded camera.

For the most people who use the phone mainly for email, calls, txt mess, whatsapp and some basic apps (games) the upgraded version of the 4 is unnecessary and will cost you more.

i Personally do not like Apple stuff cause your stuck with their software... Now i hear some of you say:
But you can jail-break it, and then i will tell you...
if You do so, you will lose your complete warranty if you encounter any problems with the software and it's necessary that it needs to be fixed and sent away for repair.
We had cases that people didn't recieve their iPhone back cause of the 3th party software, so BE AWARE !!

if You like to give your phone it's own personal and visual look then i suggest that you go for a Android device such as the Samsung Galaxy S II (GT-i9100). Since i am a user of this phone i can really suggest you to take this phone because it can do more/better things then a iPhone can do.

IF you decide to go for an Android device i would recommend you to wait till March this year for the new:
Samsung Galaxy S III (3).
With this phone you will be the owner of a really powerful and smart, high-end device.

*for stats and other info use your friend: Google

This was my opinion and i suggest you wait a little unless you need one right now.

Greetings,

Scope
Assistant Shop manager
Car phone warehouse (Netherlands)
(The Phone House for the Dutchies)

Heh we have the same phone Scope . Btw. I didn't know Galaxy SIII is coming so soon thx for the info gonna check it out ^^.

Looks like I'm getting a Samsung Galaxy, then. :-)

I probably wont be able to wait without a phone for the sIII, plus the price will be too high for me on launch.

Thanks for all the help and advice, guys.

Np, GSII is really good. Also after two of my colleagues at work noticed I have it and asked me how good it is they also got it themselves lol. Certainly better than an iPhone.