Can I Haz Droid iPhone X?: Review of the Verizon iPhone
For almost a month now, I’ve been cheating on my Droid X with a Verizon iPhone 4 review unit. While it’s been a pain at times managing two phones at once, I’m really going to miss the iPhone when I send it back. But, do I love it enough to switch?A bit of background: Besides my Droid X, I’m pretty much a Mac user. I use an iMac at work and a MacBook Pro at home along with my iPad and iPod Touch. We do own a Windows based laptop for times when one is required for some (usually silly) reason. On Google, I use G-mail, Google Docs, Chrome and Google+ every day as part of my work pattern. To really test the iPhone, I would use it as my main phone most of the time and leave my Droid X tucked away for the day.Since I use my smart phone more as a pocket computer than a phone, the lack of being able to talk on the phone while using data never really came up for me. It’s just not something I want to do. I don’t install lots and lots of app on either my Droid X or my iPod Touch. If an app doesn’t quickly become something I use on a regular basis, it gets deleted.MailI have to admit I was rather worried about how the iPhone would handle email since I really don’t like the Mail app on a Mac desktop. What a pleasant surprise to find out that mail on iOS is a different critter. And I like it! I especially liked how it handled HTML email messages compared to Android. Now, when we finally decide to move to Lion, I will be willing to give the Mail app another try since it’s suppose to be more iOS like. Calendar, Contacts, and So OnSince I’ve already been using these applications as part of both my desktop and iPad, these were easy to set and use. The calendar on the iPhone worked more smoothly for me than the one on my Droid X and integrated with my calendar from work (on an Exchange server) better too. As a test, I also imported my contacts from Google and it also went smoothly.Hand FeelIf you’ve read any of my other cell phone reviews, you know that how it feels in your hand is very important to me. My iPod Touch is a 2nd generation one so the iPhone 4 feels different in your hand. It’s more substantial for sure. But the glass back was scaring the crap out of me since I really didn’t want to potentially break a phone that wasn’t mine. It didn’t help that the MacBreak Weekly episode for that first week with the iPhone contained a long segment with the panel talking about how many times they had each broken their own iPhones. Luckily, one of my iPhone owning friends lent me a spare case she had and it made all the difference in the world. I liked this case so much that I purchased one just like it for my Droid X.One thing I really noticed with the iPhone is definitely more of a one-hand phone than the Droid X. Without even thinking about it, I found myself just using one hand to navigate, scroll and generally use the iPhone. Because of the larger size of the Droid X, that’s not something I don’t usually do.CustomizationThis is where the iPhone let me down. Thanks to several apps and just the general settings, I’ve been able to tweak my Droid X to be just the way I wanted. This especially was true for notification sounds. Since the iPhone was just a review unit and not mine to keep, I didn’t want to buy a ring tone or other sound that I wouldn’t need once I sent the iPhone back. The standard iPhone ring tones that came with it were less than exciting and sometimes just plain silly. (The sound of a telegraph?!? Really? How many people under 30 even know what that is?) While I ended up finding out that the official Twitter app for iOS is the best free option (loved that included user name autocomplete), I hated the fact that I couldn’t select which messages I wanted to be notification for by a sound (I wanted just direct messages). It was all or none. So I went with none. By the way, I tried many Twitter apps (TweetDeck, HootSuite, Echofon, etc.) before going with the official Twitter app. This is where the difference between apps on the Android platform and iOS was the most obvious. Just because the app is great and does just what you want on one platform, that doesn’t mean its sibling on another platform acts the same way.The other thing I really noticed was now much I missed the menu button on my Droid X. One button on the iPhone may look sleek, but sometimes you need more options. There were many times when I was in an application that I would hit the one button on the iPhone, search for a settings option or such and never find it. SummaryAll in all, I really enjoyed my month with the Verizon iPhone 4. What I’d really like is a blend of both phones: The best of the Droid X combined with the best of the iPhone 4. Alas, that’s not to be.I’m eligible to upgrade my phone with Verizon right now. In fact, I’ve been able to since May 21st. I like my Droid X right now and I haven’t found anything that worth switching phones for. I do know that I will be watching for announcements about iPhone 5 and 4G on Verizon iPhones very closely. But, for now, I’ll wait and see. September’s not that far away.
