Do I keep the Verizon iPhone 4?

[liebo11]

Aright...I've been really contemplating a lot these past 2 days that I've had the iPhone 4...I'm coming from a Droid so here are what I really miss from the Droid and what I really like from the iPhone.

Droid
Gmail gets pushed automatically/instantly
Gchat stays on at all times
Google Navigation for free
Removable Memory

iPhone
I feel like the app store is cleaner/apps are better
Phone feels smoother overall and display is insane
Camera Quality amazing (makes me wish I didn't get my HD pocket cam)
Battery Life is much improved over my Droid
iPod integration (however because I have ios tiger on my macbook I can't even use it with my main computer which makes me really mad/upset)

So...I don't know really...I keep looking at the HTC Thunderbolt and Samsung Galaxy S2 coming out for Verizon and can't stop thinking about sending my iPhone back and waiting to use my upgrade for one of those or even the iPhone 5 coming out in July??? What should I do...I'm so confused/lost

 

[geoff5093]

I'm in a similar boat, I think a lot of people who are coming from the Droid (such as myself) are finding that some of the things they didn't think was that big of a deal, are turning out to be deal breakers. I had an iPhone 3G last year so I am already pretty familiar with iPhone's, and I pretty much agree with everything you said.

Personally, I think the Android phones are nice for a couple months, then they are slowly forgotten about, get laggy as new updates for the OS and apps come out. Now the iPhone stays popular for the whole year until a new version comes out. I've only had my Droid since last summer and I'm already tired of it, after a couple months the "WOW" factor wore off, but I enjoyed my iPhone for quite a while.

I believe the Thunderbolt isn't going to be anything special, I saw a video of it at CES and it's basically the same exact thing that has been out for the past year, it runs 2.2 so it looks and functions the same, better hardware specs only goes so far. IMO slightly better hardware isn't what makes a good phone, it's the experience. I'm waiting for the iPhone 5, or whatever next major release Android will put out.

 

[jkhonea]

Big question is if you have rooted and if you intend to jailbreak. One of my moderators on the Incredible forum dug into his iPhone immediately and really went to work doing JB. He said he found settings for tweaking and customizing that he didn't even see in the Droids. Apparently doing a JB really opens things up a lot.

I haven't JB mine yet, but sure I will in time. I did see that there is a new update coming out via Cydia to add turn by turn to the navigation, so that will be one less difference if you're willing to go into the phone. Also, I'm almost positive you can set GMail up to push to the iPhone, just within your settings. I believe you set it up as an Exchange account to do it. I'll look and see what I can find.

 

[mwhartman]

Hard decision. Here are two links that may help:

http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/iphone-4-news-7/native-turn-turn-voice-navigation-coming-ios-8188/

How-To: Set Up Push GMail On Your iPhone/iPod Touch | Cult of Mac

Let us know what you decide.

Mike

 

[DreamSTi]

So when you setup your gmail on the iPhone it isn't push unless you set it up through Microsoft Exchange? Like I setup my wifes iPhone last night and I just selected "gmail" in the list of email providers, the setting is set to "push". What am I missing here...

 

[jtstretch]

keep it and give it a chance!!! i love it. ya i do miss a couple things you talked about but im sure ill get over that soon!!!

 

[dwagner88]

So when you setup your gmail on the iPhone it isn't push unless you set it up through Microsoft Exchange? Like I setup my wifes iPhone last night and I just selected "gmail" in the list of email providers, the setting is set to "push". What am I missing here...

Yeah. I don't know why it says push, but it won't. You'll start to notice that you only get new mail when you click on the mail icon. I got fed up with that and set it to fetch every 15 minutes. That's been working out great. It isn't as good as push gmail on Android, but it works.

I don't want to set mine up as an exchange account, because you lose the ability to archive your messages. I'm a big fan of archiving, and I've never actually deleted an email from my gmail accounts.

 

[DreamSTi]

So when you setup your gmail on the iPhone it isn't push unless you set it up through Microsoft Exchange? Like I setup my wifes iPhone last night and I just selected "gmail" in the list of email providers, the setting is set to "push". What am I missing here...

Yeah. I don't know why it says push, but it won't. You'll start to notice that you only get new mail when you click on the mail icon. I got fed up with that and set it to fetch every 15 minutes. That's been working out great. It isn't as good as push gmail on Android, but it works.

I don't want to set mine up as an exchange account, because you lose the ability to archive your messages. I'm a big fan of archiving, and I've never actually deleted an email from my gmail accounts.

Got it, thanks!

 

[wildrage]

At first I was really upset at losting Google Maps - until I found that many, many, many free (and cheap) turn by turn GPS apps out there!

Waze, Skobbler, GPS Drive MotionX, and Mapquest to name a few....

 

[DreamSTi]

At first I was really upset at losting Google Maps - until I found that many, many, many free (and cheap) turn by turn GPS apps out there!

Waze, Skobbler, GPS Drive MotionX, and Mapquest to name a few....

I've been testing all of these out and none of them compare to Google maps IMO, but its a nice alternative.

 

[xRITE AIDEx]

Love this phone, I just love that it works no more lagging anymore even on an overclocked OG droid it still lagged and this just works.

I'm happy with my purchase, I'm not interested in 4g at all not only cause I wouldn't have coverage plus I'm not willing to pay more than 30 a month for 4g I can always wait on 4g and not the iphone.

Only thing I really miss is the notification bar but I can get used to how things work now, not a deal breaker at all

 

[liebo11]

so i think i decided i'm gonna keep the iphone...while i don't love every feature including the not so great battery life but a lot better then my droids, i still think the iphone is crispier and just overall a much more solid product. I figure if the iphone 5 comes out in the summer i'll just dump this one give it to someone and get that one somehow...i am confused though do programs actually run in the background of the iphone 4? like when i press the home button twice are those just the most recent programs or are those taking up battery life by running in the background? Also...i actually jailbroke my iphone last night at like 3am and then it just didn't feel as smooth and the cydia app closed a few times by itself so i went right back to restoring it to the original factory settings...something about the jailbreak just feels like i'm cheapening the phone i don't know what it is i'm sure its all mental...aright well theres my update for now let me know what you guys think