I loved my iPhone. The EDGE device was the first smartphone I bought into. Before that, I was rocking flip phones and pumped about how KRZY thin they were getting. Apple dropped the bomb with their newest innovation and I took the plunge.
Then I snagged a 3G. Again, in love with the iPhone and iOS. This was around the same time that I started noticing Google’s Android.
Now, look, if you ever want to accuse me of being a fanboy for anything on this earth, do it for Google. You’d be absolutely, 100% correct. I love Google. I was in the first trial for Gmail way back when. I hopped onto the Google Docs train as soon as it launched. I even tried Orkut (hah!).
I’m the games writer for TB, it doesn’t matter that I would let Google invade my house and take my first born to raise as their own.
So, anyways, buying the iPhone 3G lined up, roughly, when I started to notice Android. Quite honestly, at first, I wasn’t impressed. I loved that it was something from Google, but I never actually considered making the switch after seeing the operating system in action. It just seemed, I don’t know, too unorganized.
The iPhone 4 came out and my wife wound up snagging it for me on my birthday. That was just over a year ago. I had my iPhone 4 and I loved it just like the two devices I owned before.
But then something happened. I started feeling confined, stuck, ordinary. The iOS and iPhones were everywhere. The operating system hadn’t changed all that much since the first iteration. I mean, seriously, the most exciting thing to drop during my ownership period was being able to have a wallpaper behind your main screen as well as your lock screen.
Really? It’s an operating system that advances on subtle changes, I get that. And a lot of them have been great, like the brilliant inbox changes that came a few versions ago. But my confined feeling remained.
My iPhone 4 broke. The audio out portion of the device, whether through charger/speaker dock or mini cable, sounded terrible. I took it to my nearest Apple store and, guess what, I’m 20 days out of warranty.
I use my phone for two main things beyond talking: Pandora while driving and GPS tracking with music while running. I do both of those things every single day. They became impossible. I needed a new phone.
I thought back on my feelings of ordinary confinement and restriction. I considered stepping back into that world by choice. But then I thought of the Android operating system. I hit Google (of course) and started searching for phone reviews. Guess whose popped up?
Jon.
I dug up OS tutorials, apps, rooting and ideas. The Android operating system is so insanely customizable that practically every video I watched showed off some user’s own personal configuration; and they were all entirely unique.
I wound up test driving the Samsung Infuse (Not Really) 4G. The network speed sucks, but the device itself is gorgeous. It’s humungous (I feel like a giant whenever I use my wife’s iPhone now). But it’s snappy, crisp, responsive and packs that level of customization that I was looking for.
But you know what I love most about the Android operating system so far? I’ve had this thing for a little under a month and I still get lost. That may seem like a knock to some of you folks, but I absolutely love that it’s taking me this long to learn all the ins and outs of the device. Within a day on iOS, I knew exactly what it was and wasn’t capable of. Android? No clue… but that gets my jazzed in a geeky way for what’s on the horizon.
I changed to Android because I wanted more out of my device. I’ll always love iOS for what it is, but what it isn’t will forever turn me off. Should I ever want to head back to a more simple interface and phone, I’ll probably get a new iPhone. But for now?
You know what, think of it like this: I went from automatic transmission to manual. Stick is more fun. Is it for everyone? No. But I love interacting with my phone in the same way you interact with a manual transmission. You’re there for everything it can do, not just pressing the gas and watching it ride.
Have any of you made the switch recently?
