New phone time, iPhone 4 or ?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Paging our resident techno geeks..... Being that a phone is a two year commitment, this is a big decision! I know AT&T sucks, but for how my wife and I use our phones they are by far the most affordable (we don't need unlimited everything). So for a smartphone in the AT&T lineup, would you go with an iPhone 4 or alternate like the BB Torch or Samsung Captivate? Primary uses are phone calls, email and internet browsing, it needs to have built-in GPS, be thin enough to fit in my pocket, and the battery needs to last all day with moderate use. I currently have a Blackberry Bold that has seen better days. Suggestions?

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

... I know AT&T sucks...

Move to Canada and you will change your mind about AT&T...

I got an Iphone 4 and love it but (good thing that a co-worker Brother in Law work at Rogers or I would still be waiting for one (came out on the 30 of July);

The minimum plan here is $50

Same price for all the Providers Can you spell M O N O P O L Y with the blessing of the Government (they don't want to let American Company in)

Does not matter if you own the phone or go trough a 3 years commitment, same price plan

A price to pay for free Health Care

[jyl]

Don't know what the Samsung is like. It gets excellent reviews. I did read that ATT blocks you from installing 3rd party apps which I would have to check - seems nutty, why would anyone buy an Android Phone if they were limited to ATT's own apps?

Blackberry doesn't have a lot of interesting apps, as far as I know. I think the hardware is good though my last BB experience was a while ago.

I like the Palm Pre. It is the most phone-like of these, and the OS is good, has a physical keyboard too. I don't know if app availability has developed since Palm has not been able to get much market share.

The iPhone will do everything you describe.

However, what is "moderate use"? The battery on these phones will not last all day if you are browsing the web much of the time. Example: my iPhone is fully charged, I leave the office at 3pm and get on the light rail to the airport, 30 min ride and I'm browsing web the whole time. Check in, wait 1.5 hour for (delayed) flight, and browsing the whole time. Get on flight, listen to music for 1 hr. Take BART to hotel, 40 min ride, browsing. The phone has 48% charge by the time I get to the room. That's a bit less than 3 hours web surfing via 3G, 1 hour music, 1 ten-min call, and almost everything switched on (3G, wifi, gps, not Bluetooth) except for the flight. That's a typical real world battery experience for me.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I'd say that I spend probably 2 hrs per day answering emails, 30 min browsing, and 20 minutes on the phone. Many days I'm not at my desk, so I may spend 12 hrs or more without plugging in my phone.

[jyl]

You should be okay. You can throw an external battery (plug into the phone and it recharges the phone once or twice) into your briefcase if you are paranoid. About the size of a pack of gum.

The Torch sounds pretty nice if you want to stay w/ BB. If you do that much email, the physical kb is nice. I've gotten used to the onscreen kb but I'd still like a physical one.

[matthew-s]

I went from a Blackberry Bold (that had also seen better days) to an iPhone 4 a few months ago, and I am very happy. You'll miss a few "little things" that the blackberry does better, like allowing you to "snooze" calendar reminders, very quick access to the phone, etc - but on the balance I am far happier with the iPhone.

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

... Primary uses are phone calls, email and internet browsing, it needs to have built-in GPS, be thin enough to fit in my pocket, and the battery needs to last all day with moderate use...

Iphone 4 does all that and a lot more... As for the battery, should be no problem and can be charge from the wall and a USB outlet (computer) as delivered. I bought a car adapter on Amazon for next to nothing.

I'm just finishing a 100% charge so when I hit the 5% left warning (they start at 20%), I'll send you the Data usage detail (it keep track of that too)

[JavaBrewer]

I just sold my iPhone 3GS on Craigs list and got a Samsung Captivate. I think you will be much happier with the iPhone.

- Captivate GPS software is broken. Users are waiting for an update to fix which we're told will happen this month
- Captivate is running the older 2.1 Android OS. Update to 2.2 is coming through ATT this month
- Captivate WILL NOT connect to my PC - at all. I have had similar issue with the family phones which are Samsung Solstice phones. I downloaded drivers from Samsung and even their phone app - no dice. To get around this I installed a ftp server on my Captivate and now I can ftp into it when I want. This is for media files transfer only. All my contacts and calendar live on the Google web and they came over just fine...well sorta...next issue...
- Google contacts that are nicely packaged into one/more groups on the web come over as a big flat list on the phone. Sucks.
- ATT blocks certain apps but just like jailbreaking the iPhone you can root the Android phone and do what you want - including ditching the packaged ATT pay for service apps (bloat).

Good things - well it isn't Apple. That means I can configure the phone to my hearts content and develop apps for it on my Win box using Eclipse or NetBeans Android plug ins. The screen is big and beautiful, pics are great and HD video, and IMO the phone has a better form factor than the iPhone 4. Battery life seems on par with iPhone - I leave the home fully charged and by night it's almost done.

[Rot 911]

If you do go with the iPhone get one of these. I have one and it is way cool!

DEXIM DCA132 Foldable Power Dock For IPhone P-Flip Foldable Power Dock. P-Flip Foldable Power Dock is world's first foldable, portable, multi-functional and rechargeable power dock. This is a desktop holder with charging and sync, and is also a rechargeable back-up battery pack for Video/Game. Charge your iPhone/iPod Touch on the go. Extends up to 8 hours Talk,15 hours Video/Game or 80 hours Music. For iPhone 3GS/3G/iPod Touch 3G/2G/1G. Capacity: 2000mA Lithium Polymer Battery Power: Battery input power: 5V DC,1A; Output power: 5V DC,1A , Compatability: iPhone 3GS,iPhone3G, iPod touch 2G,iPod touch, What's in the box: 1x Foldable Power Dock,1x Mini 5 pin USB cable 1M



Amazon sells it for $30.00 Amazon.com: DEXIM DCA132 Foldable Power Dock For IPhone 3GS/3G/iPod Touch 3G/2G/1G: Electronics

[MarKoBrow]

iPhone is the way to go, I have the iPhone4 and the 3GS and I love them both, great for everything you inquired about. I am writing this (lite) review on my iPhone now.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

[QUOTE=onewhippedpuppy;5559623]Being that a phone is a two year commitment, this is a big decision![QUOTE]

I don't think you've ever owned a car for that long, have you?

Funny you should mention this - I actually just picked up a 32GB iPhone literally last night after much haranguing and internal conflict and debate. It was either that or the BB Torch which is a fine device in its own right. I just didn't like the touch screen functionality of the BB versus the IP.

iPhone pros:
- awesome display
- great applications
- it's "the standard" right now
- great design
- solid
- reliable

iPhone cons:
- no battery replacement
- battery life is kinda' lousy, needs recharging a lot
- you can "nickel/dimed" to death by Apple (AppleCare, cost of new apps, iTunes, etc.) something to watch out for
- Fragile (potentially) - don't put it in the pocket with your keys
- You just KNOW they'll be rolling out the 64GB version any day, which will piss me off

Order the free case upgrade from Apple right away to "fix" the antenna problem - the downside is it takes five weeks but Sep. 30 is the last day.

Overall very cool device but I haven't really played with it too much yet (busy). A little web browsing and some texting and a couple of calls. More later today perhaps. It's very user-friendly and intuitive.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Oh, another thing that surprised me was that the BB (which is the standard for e-mail) cannot support e-mail links/pushes from multiple Exchange servers. The iPhone can. Now admittedly not too many people have need for this but I just found that odd, given how big of a deal the e-mail functionality is with the BB...

The Torch is a damn cool device too though - very solid feeling. I don't particularly like the BB keyboards though.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

My wife opted for one of the Samsung devices - forget the exact model. VERY nice. I call it her "cute little iPhone knock-off" just to bug her, but it's a good device and only cost something like $50 after a rebate. Not too bad.

[JJ 911SC]

[QUOTE=Porsche-O-Phile;5559840]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Being
Order the free case upgrade from Apple right away to "fix" the antenna problem - the downside is it takes five weeks but Sep. 30 is the last day.

I start to believe Apple that the problem is/was with AT&T. I try to duplicated up here on Rogers 3.5g network and could not. Still order the band (we had a choice of about 5 different casing) and it got delivered in about 7 business day. Sept 30 is also our cut off date even thought the phone has been only available since the 30 of July... Yeah we are like RoW except for our Oil & Gas supply... but we are not bitter

The band is perfect if you go with Zagg Invisible Shield

[Steve Viegas]

I just got the Samsung Captivate last week. It is great and my AT&T coverage is not bad in the SF bay area.

One BIG problem is the GPS does not work. Samsung knows this and they have promised a solution by September's end.

[nineball]

iphone is the way to go. i picked up the 4 about a month ago and love everything about it with one little exception - the new design. the old iphone had a back that curved up on the sides and it felt much more ergonomic than the new square design. other than that i love it.

a major positive is the resale value. i had a 16g 3G that was almost 2 years old and i sold it for $255 (including shipping) on ebay 2 weeks ago and it practically covered the cost of my new 32g 4G ($299).

battery life is not as good as older cell phones we are all used to but it can do so much more the life was to be expected. i have no major problems as i can charge it at home, the office and in my car.

i am entering year 3 with an iphone now and to date i have only ever paid for one app and it was $0.99 (i bought a video recording app for my old 3g). everything else i run (all 6 pages of them) are free apps that work great. by far the best app in the world is google - voice recognition google search engine. we were on vacation in key west and decided to stay a few nights extra. we drove around in the rented convertible and i would speak the name of a hotel we saw (like "the costa in key west florida" for example) and it would return a search with address, phone, reviews and lionks to websites. it's amazing. similarly the mapquest app (also free) has turn by turn audio directions and is almost a suitable repalcement for my nuvi.

get the iphone4. you will be very happy. i am still trying to find someone else who has it to try the video calling feature...

[HardDrive]

I just got the iphone 4G last week. Upgraded from 3G. The camera is excellent, the new screen looks great. But I have to say, network performance is terrible. I sent a text to my wife the other day, and it took 2 hours to get to her. She was 2 blocks away?!?!? WTF?

I DO like the new phone, but I think its worth taking a good look at the Android phones.

[azasadny]

I love the iPhone, but hate the AT&T 3G (going, going, gone) network.

[masraum]

I'd stick with Android phones on HTC hardware. I'm not so sure about the other manuf (samsung, motorola...)

[porsche4life]

If I were to ditch my iPhone it would be for an HTC android phone... I think I am going to hold on to my 3GS for another year tho and get the latest greatest iPhone then...