HTC Desire or I-phone, Help pls

[Totality]

I have the iphone at the moment but am off to look at the Desire at lunchtime. I've been keeping an eye on Android phones waiting for the browsing experience to get up to speed. Two things make me want the Desire over the Iphone:

1. No need to use itunes. I HATE it with a vengence having to convert all my videos to apple format and install that piece of software to sync music, only to have to do it all again if you reinstall your OS and it wipes the iphone.

2. Flash support. I use my iphone in bed most nights and the lack of flash annoys me as I use quite a few sites that use flash. I then have to view them on my laptop.

I've never used an Android phone so may hate it, but the techradar review seemed favourable.

 

[CliffyBiro]

It just works.

Gotta laugh everytime someone passes off Apple marketing as their opinion.

I'd love to know how it 'works' any better than any other phone.

 

[Yas786]

I have the iphone at the moment but am off to look at the Desire at lunchtime. I've been keeping an eye on Android phones waiting for the browsing experience to get up to speed. Two things make me want the Desire over the Iphone:

1. No need to use itunes. I HATE it with a vengence having to convert all my videos to apple format and install that piece of software to sync music, only to have to do it all again if you reinstall your OS and it wipes the iphone.

2. Flash support. I use my iphone in bed most nights and the lack of flash annoys me as I use quite a few sites that use flash. I then have to view them on my laptop.

I've never used an Android phone so may hate it, but the techradar review seemed favourable.

Look stop listening to the apple crap...the Android web browser is one the best ive used and ive used the iphone web browser extensively...even when i had my HTC Magic last yr i thought web browsing on it was brilliant..now that i have the Desire??...oh man is it even better with pinch to zoom etc and its just so fast at rendering web pages and loading them up...its about as fast as the iphone.

Oh and heres the killer part...iphone will never get flash....Android along with other mobile OS's will have flash by the end of this yr.

 

[Morfik]

I'm currently torn between a new iPhone and an Andrioid phone too. Personally I view it like this:

For the iPhone:
- Good iTunes integration, I use ratings and playcounts a lot for smart playlists. I'd miss these features.
- Better UI and multitouch, a lot of reviews report the Desire and Nexus One have inaccurate multitouch which is a pain for browsing. This is apparently fixed in the Incredible though.
- Better appstore. The publicity and popularity of the iPhone means most apps come here first and may never make it to Android.

For Android
- Cheaper!
- Widgets
- Full flash and DivX support on the Desire but these still aren't available
- Don't have to put up with Apples ridiculous restrictions
- Free Google Sat Nav

There's plus points for both. I think Android will be the better choice once the Market catches up with Apple but again that'll be some time away.

 

[Zaf]

- Better UI and multitouch, a lot of reviews report the Desire and Nexus One have inaccurate multitouch which is a pain for browsing. This is apparently fixed in the Incredible though.

the iPhone UI is awfull compared to SenseUI and I've had no problems at all with multi touch, 3 of my mates and my Bro all have iPhones and in the comparisons we did in the pub the Desire won hands down on the iPhone. wasn't anything that the iPhone did better and the web browser is far suppier

 

[bigredshark]

the iPhone UI is awfull compared to SenseUI and I've had no problems at all with multi touch, 3 of my mates and my Bro all have iPhones and in the comparisons we did in the pub the Desire won hands down on the iPhone. wasn't anything that the iPhone did better and the web browser is far suppier

In your OPINION, I think the UI is smoother and more refined and I've yet to see a better browser, does that make it so? No, it's my opinion, which happens to be different to yours.

 

["andy"]

would you buy another iphone now though ? when a new one is just a few months away ? desire/x10 all the way unless you want to wait

thats essentially what the thread is about

 

[Zaf]

I've yet to see a better browser

Fact: The Desire browser is faster at loading pages and smoother scrolling/pinch zoom.

I'm not just saying this as I have a Desire I'm saying it as I've tested it on both devices side by side.

I know the iPhone isn't sluggish but compared to the Desire using both at the same time it does show. Just scrolling through all the apps the Desire is much smoother.

This isn't OPINION but hands on experience!

 

[bigredshark]

would you buy another iphone now though ? when a new one is just a few months away ? desire/x10 all the way unless you want to wait

thats essentially what the thread is about

That pretty much sums it up, you'd be a little crazy to buy a 3GS today when there's going to be a new device towards the end of the summer. The desire is a good phone, for me the apps don't stack up and it doesn't integrate with the rest of my stuff as well as an iphone but if you're starting from scratch then it could be a good choice.

 

[Rimsy]

I'm notably missing eyetv (which streams from my PC to my phone so can catch the news while I have breakfast), Addison lee (which is just lazy I admit as I could call them but it's handy) and the Guardian app (a major miss for me as it occupies my train journey and is far better than trying to navigate the web site on a small screen). I would also say the natwest banking app but it's appallingly bad so I'd miss that less.

I was surprised when I looked that more stuff is now available though (the oyster balance check has made it over, as have ocado and evernote.) but some of what has made it is still not up to the iphone standard (last time I saw it the facebook app, like the blackberry one, wasn't as good and I still haven't seen a decent alternative to the national rail app in terms of both functionality and ease of use).

Dont wish to sound like I'm griefing you here but thats hardly half a dozen, and aside from the EyeTV thing (which i admit does sound pretty cool) they are not required to be Apps.
I mean really.. an app to call a taxi?
The Guardian has a mobile version of their site (which is pretty much all the app is)

Apple's genius advertising and marketing has fooled people into thinking they need an app to do anything on a mobile phone.

 

[CliffyBiro]

Fact: The Desire browser is faster at loading pages and smoother scrolling/pinch zoom.

I'm not just saying this as I have a Desire I'm saying it as I've tested it on both devices side by side.

I know the iPhone isn't sluggish but compared to the Desire using both at the same time it does show. Just scrolling through all the apps the Desire is much smoother.

This isn't OPINION but hands on experience!

And I'd expect nothing less with that 1Ghz Snapdragon processor.

 

[bigredshark]

This isn't OPINION but hands on experience!

Until you show me measured statistics for both then it's your opinion, you can't easily quantify 'smoothness'. I've used both, both are good, I'd take the iphone browser myself. You obviously disagree but you have no means of proving that one is better than the other. Therefore it's not fact.

 

[CliffyBiro]

 

[bigredshark]

Dont wish to sound like I'm griefing you here but thats hardly half a dozen, and aside from the EyeTV thing (which i admit does sound pretty cool) they are not required to be Apps.
I mean really.. an app to call a taxi?
The Guardian has a mobile version of their site (which is pretty much all the app is)

Apple's genius advertising and marketing has fooled people into thinking they need an app to do anything on a mobile phone.

Not at all I'd genuinely like to think Android could replace my iphone but my experience to this point is it isn't there yet. It's now better than windows mobile (not a high bar I know) and blackberry in my estimations but it's not the hassle free, nicely integrated smartphone experience I get from my iphone.

I've just listed the ones I can't find a direct equivalent for, there are a heap of others where I don't find the equivalent as good an app (National Rail for example).

I've already addressed the Guardian one, the app has decent search, favourite sections and authors and works offline. The mobile site has none of that.

Yeah, the taxi thing is lazy but it means I can idly click through it and book a taxi while we're chatting over breakfast, I prefer it having to stop what I'm doing and calling. Small things.

Personally I don't like mobile web, apps tend to me faster and have better navigation with more features (you've only got to look at the Guardian or Engadget apps to see that really).

I would like the desire (and could get one, may yet and sell it if it doesn't work out) if only because it's a fair bit quicker than my ageing iphone now...

 

[Rimsy]

Gotta laugh everytime someone passes off Apple marketing as their opinion.

I'd love to know how it 'works' any better than any other phone.

Apple tell them "it just works" and everything else is too hard for them to use so the (generally technically challanged and impressionable userbase) believe Apple products are the only things that work and everything else will require a phd and 7 months of reading manuals to achieve the same effect.

Basically Apple are calling their users stupid and their users are agreeing with them.
Absolute genius marketing I have to admit.

 

[bigredshark]

Not to start an argument but to me the desire pinch to zoom looks jerkier and less immediately responsive than the iphone?

 

[BF-Bert]

IIRC Apple are creating a notification system with 7 triggers which will be able to simulate multitasking by allowing apps to save their state and shut down (in a battery environment, good) and to register against one of the triggers so the app can be woken at appropriate times.

It'll probably quite well for most applications and not at all for a few.

In the meantime the iPhone has always had multitasking but all third party apps were denied access to it. Their decision but you can't expect people like me to buy one if it doesn't do what I want.

Yes most applications will go into a freeze state if not the foreground application but not all... music can still stream, sat nav will continue to give voice directions and tasks will be allowed to finish processing. Its actually not much differnet to how the majority of Android apps multitask. Apple uses API functions for multitasking Android creates seperate services but the majority of apps on both just go into a freeze state. You want true multi tasking go symbian or palm

 

[CliffyBiro]

Not to start an argument but to me the desire pinch to zoom looks jerkier and less immediately responsive than the iphone?

Yep, that's what I thought too, but the page loading is quicker.

 

[Rimsy]

Not at all I'd genuinely like to think Android could replace my iphone but my experience to this point is it isn't there yet. It's now better than windows mobile (not a high bar I know) and blackberry in my estimations but it's not the hassle free, nicely integrated smartphone experience I get from my iphone.

I've just listed the ones I can't find a direct equivalent for, there are a heap of others where I don't find the equivalent as good an app (National Rail for example).

I've already addressed the Guardian one, the app has decent search, favourite sections and authors and works offline. The mobile site has none of that.

Yeah, the taxi thing is lazy but it means I can idly click through it and book a taxi while we're chatting over breakfast, I prefer it having to stop what I'm doing and calling. Small things.

Personally I don't like mobile web, apps tend to me faster and have better navigation with more features (you've only got to look at the Guardian or Engadget apps to see that really).

I would like the desire (and could get one, may yet and sell it if it doesn't work out) if only because it's a fair bit quicker than my ageing iphone now...

Hmm I have to concede partial defeat here - just had a play with my workmates iphone Guardian app and it is indeed an improvement over using the mobile site, and the national rail app is likewise better than Traintimes UK android equivalent. Fair points!

 

[bigredshark]

Yep, that's what I thought too, but the page loading is quicker.

Yeah, it's maybe 25% faster or more. That's a fair enough point.