Whats the best alternative to an iPhone?

[Eric_Collins 11]

I have a Google G1 on contract with is has a large touchscreen , upto 32gb of SD Ram, a full QWERTY keyboard and is a satnav too.

 

The Applications are 99% free to download such as the SatNav software which is rather good and i have used a few times.

 

The man sized hands like me who hates the TEXT style typing by pressing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 etc.. loads of times to say hello or the use of a silly stylus is no longer heartache with the qwerty keyboard.

 

 

There is a couple of headaches with it however which i hope they address in the G2.

The stupid battery life, it's on charge more times then it's in your pockets. I get 2hrs talk time if that on a full charge.

 

the placement of the volume keys, cos when you open the phone you catch them which mutes it !

 

The charger port/Mini USB it could do with a jackplug to be honest for headphones, i plug my phone into the hifi and find having to stop listening to music to charge it. The headphones use a mini USB adapter you see.

[Grissom 10]

With any luck we could be getting FM radio application soon for the ipod touch and iphone

 

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/13/apple-developing-fm-radio-application-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch/

 

Sounds like a good idea

[owls4eva 10]

so can you listern to radio on iphone.im thinking of getting one ,but only if i can get radio.

[Phanerothyme 12]

This is so true.

 

Mobiles have had touch screens and browsers for years, but they were so badly designed and executed that they were unusable gimmicks. The iphone changed all that by offering an amazing easy to use screen and a fantastic browser.

 

This is why mobile internet usage by iphone users far exceeds that of any other mobile OS.

 

Apple knows that people have to not only want the product, but once they have it they want to USE it.

When I was browsing mobile internet for the first time, I used the included Opera mobile browser on my 6600 which is still excellent - that was 5 years ago ( I think I may have been the first forummer to post from their mobile!).

 

Having said that, I think the S60v3 interface is excellent, and the OS snappy (on a suitable phone). It lacks some of the polish and slickness of the iPhone OS, but makes up for that in clarity, speed, and the ability to use the phone with just your thumb.

 

I wouldn't have an iPhone simply because they're not robust enough. I hear that even a waist level drop onto concrete can render them inoperable.

 

I like my phone to be a little more hardwearing than that, and I've never come across a "standard" phone more resilient than the string of Nokias that I've owned. I can throw my old 6600 at the floor with force, and all that will happen is that the battery will fly out.The phone will be totally unaffected. Similarly my N95 - although the corners got scuffed and marked.

Edited October 14, 2009 by Phanerothyme

[Ghozer 112]

I wouldn't have an iPhone simply because they're not robust enough. I hear that even a waist level drop onto concrete can render them inoperable.

 

Where did you hear that? First, check out this video...

the guy has to drop it atleast 5 times from a height taller than himself for it to render it inoperable...

 

I believe they are one of the most robust phones you can get.... and that video is the 3G, the new 3Gs has a better scratch resistant coating, and is even more robust (so apple claims)

Edited October 14, 2009 by Ghozer

[DaFoot 10]

Why the love/hate thing?

 

To be fair, the iPhone has a nice interface. The screen is lovely.

But otherwise it's nothing special compared to other current generation of handsets.

 

I don't dislike it, I dislike people trying to persuade me it's so great by reeling off features the iPhone has recently been given that other phones have had for years.... I dislike people ranting about how it is sooo overrated (even if I might agree to a point ).

 

Until I find a missing feature on my current handset that the iPhone has I'll stick with it. By the time that happens I'll probably have changed handsets twice Either way, it's a handset, why do people get so animated about it?

 

Are they really trying to justify to themselves how much they spent on one?

Are the haters really jealous of the people able to blow that much cash on a toy?

[dmh79 10]

This is a post I put in a similar thread. I've just copied and pasted it as its pretty relevant.

 

I've currently got a Nokia 5800 and it is by far the worst phone I've ever used. It is slow, crashes if it has more than 2 things happening at once and randomly switches itself off. Also the touchscreen is awful. This is the first fully touchscreen phone that Nokia has made and that fact is blatantly obvious when you start using it. The software wasn't programmed for touchscreen originally, instead being adapted from the software that they use in non-touchscreen phones. This means that a lot of the menus are clunky and there is no continuity in the way they work. Also because it uses 'resistive' touchscreen technology (very old tech) the accuracy is not that great and they are prone to stop working or going wrong. My 5800's screen has gone wrong and only the top half of it works properly now, with the bottom half you have to aim about 1cm below where you want to hit. This is the second time this has happened.

I've been doing a lot of research into a suitable replacement for it and the T-Mobile/HTC android phones are great. They use 'capacitive' touchscreens (like the iPhone) which are much more accurate and less prone to faults. You should be able to pick up the T-Mobile G1 http://www.htc.com/www/product/g1/overview.html pretty cheap now. It has touchscreen, a trackball, and full qwerty keyboard.

 

The T-Mobile G1 is great and can be picked up for free on a pretty cheap contract. For a bit more you can get the new G2 which is slimmer and a bit quicker, but it lacks the qwerty keyboard.

[swarfendor437 14]

so can you listern to radio on iphone.im thinking of getting one ,but only if i can get radio.

 

The i-phone is unique but I could not justify the expense (unless I was single then that would be different!). The LG Viewty Lite on sale at CPW and Argos has FM Radio built in - you need your headphones plugged in to listen - the Viewty Lite does not come with these - as I was upgrading from my Chocolate - no problem - it works.

[Ghozer 112]

The i-phone is unique but I could not justify the expense (unless I was single then that would be different!). The LG Viewty Lite on sale at CPW and Argos has FM Radio built in - you need your headphones plugged in to listen - the Viewty Lite does not come with these - as I was upgrading from my Chocolate - no problem - it works.

 

I wouldn't touch the Viewty (lite) with a barge pole... I had 1 and it failed, started popping, sounded like it was blowing up (after it had been back for repair twice), my sister had one that did the same (after it had also been back for repair), my m8 had one that did the same... and I heared nothing but bad things about them, all similar issues...

 

lots of people here... http://www.mygreatphone.com/forum/problems-issues/7870-viewty-health-risk.html

[swarfendor437 14]

I have had mine for a month now (Viewty) and had no problems - I see the last post on the link you gave was Mar 2009 responding to a July 2008 posting so I assume this problem has been sorted - let's not forget that batteries of this type can be highly dangerous as can chargers re laptops - Toshiba Satellite Pro S6xxx series for instance!

And the i-phone still has this occasional (fire risk) problem even with the new ones (if the newspapers can be believed!)

[Ghozer 112]

I have had mine for a month now (Viewty) and had no problems - I see the last post on the link you gave was Mar 2009 responding to a July 2008 posting so I assume this problem has been sorted - let's not forget that batteries of this type can be highly dangerous as can chargers re laptops - Toshiba Satellite Pro S6xxx series for instance!

And the i-phone still has this occasional (fire risk) problem even with the new ones (if the newspapers can be believed!)

 

My sisters viewty did it only 2 weeks ago.... She had had it for about 3 months, then it went for repair, then it did it again about another 2 months later.

[Greengeek 10]

Without wanting to descend into the inevitable fanboy drivel (which all Apple product vs threads end up being)... Have a look at one of the Android offerings. HTC Hero, Tattoo and Pulse are the latest ones. Most of the good 3rd party apps are available for both iPhone and Android. The Android phones are better at multi-tasking so if you are using it as a navigiation tool, the Android will perform better.

 

It's also cheaper than the iPhone. There isn't anything wrong with the iPhone, except the price. If it was £100 cheaper, it would be ok.