A question

[cahn]

I may finally actually be entering the smartphone age, only years after everyone else!

So, the question that everyone else had to answer years ago: should I get an iPhone 5c or a Samsung Galaxy s4?

Major considerations: battery life, how well it acts as a phone, memory (Galaxy wins here!)

Medium considerations: app availability (I think Apple wins this one, plus both my parents and D's are hooked into Apple, plus I'm hooked in through my iPad), camera capability (it seems like the Galaxy has a better camera), size (Apple wins this one)

Completely minor considerations: iTunes (Android wins this one!), picking it up tomorrow vs. waiting for a week (...Galaxy wins here too!)

Anything I'm forgetting?

ETA 1-6 evening: Okay, we split the difference. I got a Galaxy S4, D (who didn't care either way) got the iPhone 5c. As far as I can tell from a couple of hours' worth of playing with them and tech support for my parents (who both got iPhone 5c's), this was absolutely the right choice on both parts, but we shall see.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

S4 or S5? If you have the option, I'd go for S5. (I've been happy with mine since my S3 died.)

Camera is definitely better on the S5 than an iPhone--I don't know about the S4 myself. And the battery is substantially better on the S5 than either darkforge's iPhone 6 or my old S3; I no longer charge my phone every single night. (Airplane mode while I sleep.)

App: depends really upon what you see yourself wanting and needing to use. Even if the iPhone has more stuff available, few people (who aren't developers/testers) use more than a handful of apps most weeks.

I find the S3 and S5 screens better for on-screen keyboard use than iPhone 3, 4, or 6, too, FWIW, whether swiped or tapped; usually I tap. (Double-jointedness makes me very fast, and I outdo Apple's predictive suggestions, which gives me a lot of garbled/transposed crap on an iPhone. S3/S5 slightly larger size helps there. YMMV!)

[cahn]

Ahhhhh, this was super helpful!

That was a good point about the apps; I really don't use them very much. E uses more iPad apps than I do, because I have a couple of educational apps on it, but I think I'd like the phone to stay mostly for me, at least at this point.

*nods* I looked at the S5 and was very tempted, but in the end went for the cheaper option (S4) just because it's my first smartphone, and I don't have a stellar track record with not losing phones.

[thistleingrey]

*nods* Having an iPad and phone split isn't bad, also to be able to tell E for a few years that your phone isn't her idle-moments entertainment. :) Increasingly, since Apple is holding firm on screen size for the most part, devs do split phone and tablet apps for things involving graphics. (darkforge publishes text games for iOS and Android, so I hear a little beyond what I see personally.)

Fair enough! I hope it serves you well. Because the S3 did phenomenally well for Samsung, there's less casual and objective data about S4 contentment. :)

[cahn]

Ah, that makes sense -- even in the day I've been playing around I've seen that the form size difference does have an impact in how one interacts with the device.

On what you said before: I've also been finding that I do a lot better with the S4's keyboard than with the iPhone's. On the other hand, the iPhone is definitely a nicer size for pocket and hand fit.

[ase]

Partially depends on the existing electronics. If everyone else is iThing, and you go droid, there will probably be a little friction. "It doesn't what?"

I've been reasonably happy with my S4. But if you can get the S5, consider it. The S5 battery is supposed to be an improvement on the S4's.

Very few smartphones have anything in shouting distance of a classic cell phone's battery life. Expect to charge it nightly or every other night, depending on use. My roommate just got a Droid Turbo with purporeted 48 hour standby capability. I am very intrigued.

The tradeoff is that a smartphone isn't really a phone,  it's a handheld computer. The ridiculously short battery life - for a phone - isn't bad for a micro laptop with a backlit screen.

[cahn]

Ha. Yes. My mom is still completely bemused by the idea of going droid.

I am going to miss the days of not charging my phone for a week! Sigh. But yes, having a handheld computer is awfully cool.