In this post I will briefly present all the mobile phones I owned and will point out pros/cons of iPhone 4S. I believe Android phones provide best user experience and features combined with great hardware.
My phone history:
- Ericsson GA-628 (Mobi Reglja) (1999-2000) My first phone I got from my parents. It got stolen in school.
- Sagem RC-815 (Mobi Čuk) (2000-2004) Second phone, cheap to use (I believe the price was about 17.000SIT < 100EUR).
- Siemens CX-65 (2004 – Summer 2006) Nice phone that had a camera. It shot pictures at 640×480 resolution. It also featured IR sensor I used to transfer data. At the end I bought a USB cable and refactored it to fill the battery over it. The phone was then attached to a computer using Si.Mobil’s Blackberry package to provide internet to other computers in the house (max speed was up to 250kbit/s) – see some first posts in this blog about this.
- Motorola E1070 (Summer 2006 – Summer 2009) I bought this phone in my first year at college. I featured UMTS connectivity, mini USB connection with charging, micro SD card slot (I used 1GB), 1.3 Mpix camera and manual SyncML sync to Google. It was great phone with small outside screen.
- Nokia N95-8GB (Summer 2009 – Summer 2010) I bought this phone for 220EUR and sold it a year later for 160EUR. It was my first smartphone and featured all functions I still need: call recording, auto profiles, auto mail, calendar & contacts sync, 5Mpix camera with DVD quality recording, nokia maps navigation (one of the greatest navigation systems!!). I sold it because the navigation needed to be paid -> It was free on newer phones.
- HTC Wildfire (Summer 2010) I bought this phone mainly to try Android and start some development projects – MobiFoto. The phone did not impress me, but was cheap.
- Nokia 5230 (Summer 2010-May 2011) I bought this phone to compete at NokiaAppForum and to have free navigation. It featured free maps and resistive touch screen. I gave this phone to my mom and she still uses it.
- Nokia E7 (May 2011-July 2011) I got this phone for free as a Developer Gift from Nokia. It was great phone, had all the features I needed. The only downside for me was no auto-focus and a very enthusiastic Android community.
- HTC Desire (July 2011-10.6.2012) I decided to exchange Nokia E7 for this phone. At first I regret it a little, but after I discovered all posibillities of rooted Android and MIUI ROM, it was more than enough for me – online with everything I neede for 2 days. Some applications I used (RadioAlarm, CallRecorder, Tasker, EasyMoney, Foldersync, …). After I bought next phone, I gave it to my dad.
- iPhone 4S 16GB (10.6.2012-17.6.2012) Some friends of mine (maybe it is important to say that no one has used Android before) had been even more enthusiastic about iPhone than Android users. As I wanted to buy it few times before, had no annex at Si.Mobil and had birthday, decided to give it a try. It sure is nice phone but lacks some features Android phones can provide. (of course I also jailbreaked it 😉
- HTC One X (17.6. 2012 -*) As I was not happy enought with my iPhone, I put an ad to bolha.com and exchange it for this phone in a day ;). (from the expense point of view, I made 59EUR profit as HTC One X costs 60EUR with the same package I needed to have to buy iPhone)
- TBD (expected in 2014-2016)
So, why did I go back to Android. I will list just some advantages and disadvantages over HTC Desire about iPhone 4S that I have in mind:
Advantages:
- All sounds (navigation guidance) are forwarded to bluetooth when connected in car. Also music is faded out when other sound is played.
- Siri understands a lot of commands
- It is easy to jailbreak it and a lot cracked apps can be tried using Installous.
- TuneIn application really works and speakers are great.
- It has sleek design.
- All apps look very similar to each other and very smooth.
Disadvantages:
- There is no auto profiles (Tasker) – (main reason for change – I love auto silenced phone on meetings, near wifis,….. The iOS app AutoSilent I bought did not work as it should), call recording app. (for iOS 5.1.1)
- The phone is not silenced on put off.
- It has really small screen.
- It does not have standard microUSB connectivity.
- No “normal” disk drive connection.
- No widgets.