Everyone should take note of the fact that each company is desperate for your business and offers 30-day no risk trials (typically with a nominal restocking fee that they inform you of in their pitch) so you can sample from the various carriers and their offerings before settling. Here’s the most straightforward chart o’ pros and cons that resulted in my ultimate decision.
Verizon Motorola Droid 2
|
AT&T iPhone 4
|
NEW MESSAGE INDICATORS
|
| + Instantly visible flashing green light for new texts, voicemails &/or emails |
+ Preview who texts or voicemails are from (or the entire text contents depending on options set) on receipt or turn on to check at a glance later |
FILE MANAGEMENT / SYNCING
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| + Drag and drop file transfer (like a flash drive), either connected by cable or Bluetooth, a definite plus! |
+ Use physical cord to connect & sync music, contacts, apps via iTunes. |
| + Both phones easily sync with Google contacts |
INTERFACE
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| + Widgets can be incorporated to display useful information or just for aesthetics on your home screen. No clicking to open it, it’s right there.
- Apps listing is cumbersome and requires endless scrolling & hunting through one enormous rolling list of everything you’ve downloaded onto your phone |
+ Neatly arranged pages, can group apps together under one custom-labeled button to organize
+ Search function lets you type a few letters to effortlessly find things |
KEYBOARDS / SPELLCHECK
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| + Tangible Keyboard as well as touchscreen keyboard
+ I also like how the onscreen keyboard letters are capital or lowercase, depending on the CAPS mode selected.
- I didn’t use or enjoy the physical keyboard as much as I’d expected. I found myself using the on-screen keyboard more often because it was more accessible, though not as intuitive as Apple’s onscreen keyboard and spellcheck/auto-correct. |
+ Onscreen keyboard and spellcheck are more intuitive.
- However, I’d love to be able to edit the dictionary. I seldom reference a “tome” instead of “time”… I wish it’d adapt. |
APPS & APP STORE
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| + Far more apps, multiple sources & for FREE. Google doesn’t police it like Apple does.
- This also means you see far more copyright infringing, low quality unauthorized apps in the Android store. |
+ Quality Control. The apps here are held to Apple’s standards and typically are not infringing upon any copyrights. |
FLASH
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| + Flash-capable. There’s something to be said for this many sites use flash. |
- Flash-incapable, though they’ve consented to allow some Flash-based apps to be distributed via their store. |
CAMERAS
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| + Yes, it has one, for video and stills. Has a very bright flash. |
+ iPhone has two cameras, one on the front, one on the back. Makes it far easier to take self portraits without guessing |
The winner?
AT&T iPhone 4.
The iPhone is far more intuitive, innovative and better executed. I’d really love a led light indicating new messages to eliminate compulsive phone checking. I don’t even miss Flash. From an SEO standpoint, Flash is a foolish choice in site navigation and contents, eliminating a large portion of your audience, including Google search results. Plus, it sounds like HTML5 will have similar, more compatible, capabilities of animation and interaction.
The Droid 2 had its merits. I liked the moon phase widget I could have showing on my home screen, showing a lovely moon in the current phase. I found the physical keyboard to be unnecessary, because it wasn’t as helpful as I’d anticipated. I couldn’t use the physical keyboard by touch without looking because it was too small and the buttons were too close together.
NOTE/DISCLAIMER: This is an October 2010 post I just finished editing today, but still relevant and helpful in smartphone selection.
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