In November I wrote about iOS vs Android and what I felt were the immediate drawbacks and positives with iOS after one week's use.
After my stint with iPhone 3GS and iOS 5 was over, I felt a bit.. empty. Was this it? Had I missed something?
Now don't get me wrong. I still think the UI is slick, that iOS 5 seems quite a thorough OS. However, I can't understand the hype. Ok, Apple were the first ones to give a great and smooth smart phone to the masses, and they still deliver. The competition has however come leaps and bounds and I didn't feel Apple improved my life with their latest OS on one of their best selling cell phones ever, 3GS.
Also, three things bothered me:
- Many apps didn't save the state, meaning I would fire up an app, do something, then fire up another app, do something, go back to the former app just to see what I did now was gone. Dislike.
- In general, you had to pay for good apps. Since I'm an Android user, I'm not really used to pay for good apps. I pay for great apps that improve my life.
- You had to use iTunes to even change the ring signal. No way I would bloat my laptop with that crap.
For me, Android with its Market is a clear winner, although there of course are drawbacks there too. For now though, I won't even consider being an iPhone user, if I'm not forced to.
Since I'm a pretty avid Android user, and barely have touched Apple devices at all, I somehow felt enthustiastic when I got the chance to try out an iPhone 3GS with iOS 5 for a couple of weeks.
This is my second day using an iPhone, ever, and here are my thoughts on the smartphone and its latest OS so far:
Pros
- Very slick UI, iPhone might actually be the easiest phone ever to get started with.
- The keyboard just works and is very accurate more often than not. Normally, I'm having a torrid time using the keyboard on new smartphones, but this keyboard is nothing like it. And this is the standard iOS keyboard..
- Of course, the number of apps in The App Store. It's filled with goodies and there's plenty to choose from.
- Once you get used to it, Notification Center is great for a productivity guy like me.
Cons
- I have to fill in my Apple Id password every time I download something from The App Store. Not OK.
- I miss some Android apps, like my keyboard SwiftKey X, the best Facebook app FriendCaster and remote app Unified Remote. Even after some research, I've not found anything similar that is as good as these apps.
- I'd like The App Store to have a filter for games vs just apps. I'm not interested in games at all, which means browsing The App Store for the most popular apps would be so much better if I could filter out the games. As a new iOS user, I'd like the most used apps presented for me in an instant.
- To set up complete Gmail syncronization, with e-mail, calendar and contacts, you have to setup an Exchange account. The Gmail account alternative won't syncronize your contacts. I haven't tried iCloud, even though I can imagine it's a life saver for many?
I'll be posting more stuff on my experiences with iOS. Feel free to join the discussion!