<p>I have the Samsung Fascinate (Android) I got last fall. My husband has the iphone4 he got a few months ago. I thought I would have phone envy over the iphone but honestly, having used both, I prefer the Fascinate. The screen is much bigger and it has a swype keyboard that I find easier to use. I’ve been able to find all the apps I need for Android. The iphone battery life is equal to or less than the Fascinate. When it comes time for me to upgrade phones I don’t see myself automatically getting an iphone. Though the iphone has a much better camera than the Fascinate.</p>
<p>Also, I have no problems with .pdfs, Word documents or flash on the fascinate. I haven’t tried those on the iphone. Go into the store, hold them and play around with them. The good thing is Verizon will allow you 30 days to return a phone (for a $30 restocking fee) but be careful, they won’t let you return accessories like extra chargers and cases. I originally got an Incredible but was unhappy with the battery life and returned it to swap for the Fascinate. Don’t know about AT&T’s return policy.</p>
<p>I think iPhone is clearly “best of class”. I have used several Androids and my H has one, but there is simply no comparison as far as availability of apps. People say they don’t care, but it sure is nice to have. Half the time I mention or use an app and my H goes looking for it for Droid, he can’t get it. Blackberry would be worst in class- only plus is ease of typing on the “real” keyboard. Horrible for web surfing, though. I will be getting a work 'Droid and have a personal iPhone. Will ditch work Blackberry.</p>
<p>Android will give you more choices among different phone manufacturers. There are 150,000 apps. Android is growing market share significantly and will continue. It runs flash which means you can view more webpages without a problem than the iphone.
iPhone is second best. You are stuck with whatever Apple gives you. Sometimes that’s great and sometimes you have to put a bumper guard on your phone to get a signal and it is really annoying. Sure apple has 350000 apps but if you can’t find what you want in the android market, it would amaze me. In a few years android will overtake iphone in apps.<br>
Blackberry has the most secured email system. If you want emails that may contain trade secrets, its for you. Otherwise, blackberry is a dog and it is losing market share for a reason. It’s old news.</p>
<p>I don’t get AT & T reception at my house and still had more time on my contract, so I chose an Android based phone, a Samsung Epic.</p>
<p>Had it a few weeks - some initial glitches. Huge battery hog. Can’t trade out batteries with an Iphone. You can with an Android. Found a couple of cheap supplemental batteries on Ebay and a battery charger, which has made it much more enjoyable. The extra cost to buy these two batteries and charger - about $13. I now get three full days of backup power which gives me peace of mind. </p>
<p>Turned off some apps I didn’t need that took a lot of power. It’s a little bigger than I would have liked, but I am digging the bigger screen - easier on the middle aged eyes!</p>
<p>Love the apps. Have found a ton of free ones and a few paid ones that were very useful. </p>
<p>I do prefer the tactile aspects of emailing and texting on the Blackberries, but the screen has to be less than half the size of the Samsung screen. </p>
<p>We love Apple for our personal computers and the IPad.
My girls seem to prefer the IPhone to the Droid, but I think that is because they are infatuated with certain apps, and their fingers are much more nimble on the touch screen than mine! I will stick with Droids with a keyboard…We are a Verizon family so that put us on Droid first…
I think you need to try typing on each model you are looking at, look at battery life, signal quality for both phone and 3G or 4G in your area, and check out the apps you like, as well as the important options you are wanting! It is pretty personal.
Have fun shopping!</p>
<p>My son has the Droid X but personally, I’m waiting for Verizon to release the Motorola Droid Bionic, hopefully late summer/early fall. Why? One simple reason… it will have a front-facing camera (as well as the Android operating system, an 8mp camera… and many other desirable features). </p>
<p>So when my son upgrades his phone next spring (at his renewal time), we can have face-to-face phone conversations while he’s away at college. Yes, we can use Skype but having that ability through my phone (which is always with me) just makes it simpler. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s just a ‘Mom thing’ but I want to see his face! :)</p>
<p>I have had a Droid Incredible for a year now and I am very happy with it. I am not a heavy app user. I, too, love the talk to text feature. I love the google maps for the GPS.</p>
<p>I have the Incredible and am still learning all it can do. A friend has the Thunderbolt and while it is impressive - it’s just too big and bulky for me.</p>
<p>We were about to get an iPhone for our son. His campus has wifi everywhere, so we wanted to see if we could get the phone but without a data plan. No dice. The data plan is about $30 bucks a month. That means, for a two-year contract, you are paying nearly a thousand bucks over the cost of a normal phone in order to have web access in places without wifi. We told him he could buy a small netbook with wifi if he wanted. He got a regular phone.</p>
<p>Another option in that situation (campus-wide wifi) would be to buy an Android smart phone on someplace like ebay, and use a prepaid carrier, like PagePlus. You can activate smart phones on PagePlus, and you are not required to have a data plan.</p>
<p>Another option is to have an iPod touch and a regular cell phone. That is what DS uses. (His college also has campus-wide wifi.) He thought about getting an Android smart phone, but the two apps that he uses the most – Rhapsody (subscription music) and NetFlix (to stream Watch Instantly movies) – work better on an iPod touch. (Actually, Netflix may work fine on an Android phone, but at the moment it is available on only five models.)</p>
<p>My D used her ipod touch & wifi to watch netflix movies when her computer was in the shop.</p>
<p>I have never had good luck buying phones on ebay. The chargers haven’t worked, the battery even though it looks legit can’t be charged or something else was wrong with the phone. Not saying that everyone would have those issues, but I have bought 3 phones on ebay and haven’t been able to use any of them more than a few months.</p>
<p>My H also wants an iphone without data plan to consolidate his phone & ipod- he was disappointed.</p>
<p>I recently upgraded to an iphone from a blackberry ( already had a touch & apps).
It’s so nice, the blackberry OS had a lot of problems & the iphone is much faster.</p>
<p>Why Thunderbolt for work:
Fastest speed amazingly so with the snapdragon. I love having four buttons not one on the phone face. tops of the list this swype keyboard. I can speak write trace or tap!
Kickstand Makes desk notifications great view.
Weakness There was not a seamless flow from appLe mail… the verizon folks worked it out.</p>