Considering a Switch, Need Some Questions Answered

[Wrathwitch]

HI all! HEAVY Apple user here, but lately I have been considering something different. I think with ICS that I may be ready.

However, there are some questions that I NEED answered before I look to switch. I will explain why I am asking after I post the questions.

1) How RELIABLE is the Android system? Meaning, does it ever just randomly dog lock/freeze on you?

2) I know on the rare times that I need/want to refresh my iPhone I can restart it by holding down the sleep and home button, how do you do this with Android (hoping like hell it's not a battery pull).

3) Is there a way to get OS updates without having to wait for the lazy a** carriers to finally grace my handset with the latest and greatest?

Those are my prime 3 questions and here is my experience with phones other than Apple:

Firstly I live in Canada and when the iPhone first came out, my carrier (Telus) didn't offer it, so I thought I would go with the closest similar phone I could get (HTC Touch Diamond) What a colossal mistake!!!! That phone bricked more than a mason. I rely 100% on my phone as my alarm clock and on occasion when I would wake up in the night and go to check the time, I would find the damn phone had dog locked on me. Then it decided it would be fun to randomly call *911 for me even when I didn't even have the phone in my hand! So, enough of that and I went to the next "closest" thing I could get to a touch phone with my carrier (BB Storm). Yep LOL!!!

BB Storm however wasn't a bad phone compared to the htc touch diamond. It actually was quite reliable but the OS was a headache and the fact that I had to pull the damn battery almost every day to refresh it was a pain (4 min boot up time anyone?) Oh and if that wasn't bad enough, Telus made us wait for more than a YEAR before they released the OS update which would have made the user experience MUCH better. I finally got sick of how unpleasant it was to surf on the BB and when the iP4 came out I jumped on it and haven't looked back.

I have NEVER had a problem with the phone EVER. I hate to say the "it just works" but it does.

Why do I find myself on an Android forum? Well.... I have had this phone for 2 years now and Apple doesn't really seem to want to offer much variety in it's handsets. I was very upset to find that the iP4S was not a redesign. Yes it works, but yes it is getting bloody stale and Siri and a spec boost isn't enough sometimes. I recently watched a video from Wicked4u2C highlighting some of the differences between the OSs and I have to admit, ICS does look appealing.

I know I probably picked two of the crappiest phones that were likely released in comparison to the iPhone haha but regardless, they did make an impact.

So what I am looking to know from Android peeps is just how reliable is the handsets running Android? Are there any particular hardware developers that are more reliable than others?

Thanks!

Oh and if this isn't in the correct forum for this, please move me kindly moderators!

WW

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[Tears_for_Fears]

1) How RELIABLE is the Android system? Meaning, does it ever just randomly dog lock/freeze on you?

2) I know on the rare times that I need/want to refresh my iPhone I can restart it by holding down the sleep and home button, how do you do this with Android (hoping like hell it's not a battery pull).

3) Is there a way to get OS updates without having to wait for the lazy a** carriers to finally grace my handset with the latest and greatest?

1) Despite what iOS/WP/Symbian fans say, Android is quite a stable OS. Of course, there are rare cases when users get buggy/laggy phones, but these are only rare cases. In general, Android is a stable OS, in personal, it's the best OS I have ever used. Even if something goes wrong/doesn't handle, you can costomize almost everything to work the way you want it to.

2) By holding Power(sleep) button and volume up at the same time.

3) Yes, if you hate waiting for official updates (or if they're unavailable), you can always use customized ones made by smarta** developers like Cyanogen Mod. (The most famous)

---
When people run in circles,
it's a very very mad world.

[Tears_for_Fears]

Firstly I live in Canada and when the iPhone first came out, my carrier (Telus) didn't offer it, so I thought I would go with the closest similar phone I could get (HTC Touch Diamond) What a colossal mistake!!!! That phone bricked more than a mason. I rely 100% on my phone as my alarm clock and on occasion when I would wake up in the night and go to check the time, I would find the damn phone had dog locked on me. Then it decided it would be fun to randomly call *911 for me even when I didn't even have the phone in my hand! So, enough of that and I went to the next "closest" thing I could get to a touch phone with my carrier (BB Storm). Yep LOL!!!

I have no idea what kind of phone HTC Touch Diamond is, but Android does not act like that. It might freeze if you're doing something your phone can't handle (hardware wise) when you load up a million apps (with the real multitasking and not the half one in iOS) but it rarely happens at all. Atleast with my experience with Android.

---
When people run in circles,
it's a very very mad world.

[Tears_for_Fears]

And not speaking about reliability, customization or specs, Android is actually more simple to use than iOS (according to users' comparisons) and to me personally, looks better and is way more pleasurable to use.

I can't compare it's stability to iOS, 'cause I've only had to test iOS for a short time, not enough to compare.

---
When people run in circles,
it's a very very mad world.

[cali]

No comments to make, just wanted to welcome you to the site.

[Wrathwitch]

Hey all,

Thanks for the welcome.

I guess the only way I am going to know for sure is to take the leap.

If or when I do, I will pop back in and say hello again!

Thanks!

WW