Smartphones

[Irulan]

My son LOVES his new galaxy, and why makes sense. According to him, you can drag and drop folders, and use micro cards for storage. That alone would sell me. I have an iPhone4 and have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely hate being forced to use iTunes for file/music management, and I think it's one of the suckiest peices of software ever written. The fact that Apple forces you into Apple products whenever they can ( the iPhone 5 map debacle is an example) really annoys me. If you decide on an iPhone, see if you can get the 4s still, the 5 is having mixed reviews especially on connectivity.

[OakLeaf]

The Galaxy is freakin' HUGE. I guess it has a lot of nice features, but I'm shopping for a phone now, and I never so much as looked at that one. I don't have room for a tablet computer in my running belt or my purse, and I don't need to be carrying around any more weight.

The smallest phones Verizon offers right now are the iPhone, the HTC Incredible 4G (Android), and the Motorola Razr M (Android).

I use my phone for navigation, and even though Google navigation has gone downhill since they started crowdsourcing, I'm not sure I'd want an iPhone with what I've heard of their maps. But it depends on what you use it for. DH has an iPhone 3GS that he likes plenty well - it's his second iPhone, which gives you an idea of how long he keeps them, although the 4 was already out by the time he got the 3GS.

Funny you say iTunes ... Apple is a hardware company, after all, so you can't fault them for using their own software on their own hardware ... but the one thing I really dislike about my phone is NOT being able to use iTunes. I wind up using my iPod in the car separately, and just not listening to music at all when I'm not in my own car, since I don't want to drag two devices with me everywhere, either. I tried a couple of apps to integrate my music library with my Android phone, but they were useless.

Between the two Android phones I mentioned, the biggest difference is the network. The Motorola Razr M does GSM (world phone) but not 1XRTT (most of the USA outside the urban centers that have 4G and some freeways that have 3G). The HTC Incredible 4G does 1X but not GSM.

[emily_in_nc]

I have a Galaxy Tab 2.0 (7"), but it's a tablet along the iPad line, not a phone. The Galaxy Tab 1.0 did have a phone built in, but the phone function was dropped in the 2.0 version and is simply a wi-fi tablet -- what I was looking for for traveling instead of a smartphone. (I still have a dumbphone!)

My understanding is that most of the Galaxy Android phones are no larger than iPhones (or not significantly so). I'm a frugal sort so have never embraced Apple products simply for pricing/value reasons. I could care less what is sexy or popular; I just want something that works.