Switching to Android from Iphone

[SUMMIT75]

Got a quick question for anyone with a new Android Phone. My contract with AT&T is about to end and I'm looking at switching to a Galaxy S7. I've had it with the poor battery quality and camera quality on my iPhone 6. As well as starting to have touch sensitivity issues and weird IOS issues. Although I have grown to like the isolated IOS system for its level of security, I've learned that it's not impenetrable. How's the Androids security compare to Apple?

I dig the idea of a better camera, battery life and option for external memory, especially as a backcountry hunter needing to squeeze as much room for pictures and life of battery. But I have questions for its level of security with its operating system compared to IOS. Also curious if you can listen to all the same podcasts as you can with a IPhone and if most of the apps like banking apps are still available on a Android?

Also anyone have Sprint or T-Mobile? I'm done with the major carriers, tired of insanely high cell bills and it's still not that much better in coverage than what it seems with a lot of other people I know with other carriers.I don't get all bent out of shape when I have a dropped call or a dead zone, 10-15 years ago we all survived when our cell phones did get coverage and as long as it works most the time and I get a call or text out even if it goes to roam everyone once in awhile then I'm not picky.


On a side note my main areas of hunting are CO, ID, MT ,the North West and the Texas area.


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[Hunt'nFish]

Sure, anything you can do on an iPhone you can do on a droid. I've havery the S5 and have been holding out for the S7 as I heard the S6 had some real issues due to the crappy processor they used.

Not sure where your located but the best thing I did was switch from ATT to Verizon, tough to abandon an account I'd had for over 20yrs. But now I can text from just about anywhere in the Oregon backcountry, short of the deep holes. Kinda cool to hit the top of a ridge and turn on the phone and see a message from your buddy that he's dropped into the next drainage 2hrs ago and will meet you at the cutoff trail intersection at noon. It's almost like having person to person spot messaging. Course the radios are used as well, but the range on them is severely limited by terrain and I tend to have mine off when hunting anyway.
Hunt'nFish

 

[SUMMIT75]

Yeah I enjoy Verizon as far as coverage but the insane amount of money Verizon and AT&T want for two smartphones and a descent amount of data per month is in my own opinion absolute nonsense. I have two iPhones, 20 gigs and it's still over $200 and that's after my discount thru my company. I think I'm leaning towards a galaxy S7 for sure but just trying to figure a ok carrier that will at least work a good share of time around the Rockies. I'm done paying $180-$225 a month for two phones, that's just insane.


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[SUMMIT75]

One thing that is interesting is I have seen a few publications where it states that Apple is part of a group of companies determined to see hunting all together end. They are amongst companies like Jetboil, Patagonia, Nike,etc...


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[SUMMIT75]

Also what's funny is three years ago I had a incident at a Apple Store where I broke the screen on a hunt and took it to them to repair, upon paying for the new screen they asked me what happen to it. I told them it was when I was cleaning a harvested deer and they said and i quote... "That's fair justice for murdering a innocent deer"

Made a it loud and clear and it's was noticed amongst the other customers, making me looking like a barbaric a-hole. I vowed to never own another apple product, well I got frustrated with my S6 active and well I compromised.

Actually the more I remember that experience the more I want nothing to do with Apple at all.


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[Dave5280]

I don't plan to switching back to Apple anytime soon I love my s7 edge works and functions much better. Also being waterproof helps when I'm out on the lake.

 

[jmez]

If you want battery life get a Droid Turbo 2. You will get 48 hours on a single charge as long as you aren't streaming anything.

 

[Mischief209]

Verizon has the best coverage if that what u need also most expensive .Tmobile has the best bang for your buck with good coverage and fast LTE speeds. They just don't work here once you hit the mountains. In my case that's perfectly fine. I've had tmobile for 10+ yrs and have no plans to switch. I'm paying 70$ unlimited everything. Sprint has the worst coverage, and I AT&T has good coverage but the absolute worst company to deal with.

I like androids better then I phones, because you can put I a memory card and you can replace the battery. (on some phone they seem to be going with a sealed back so u can't take battery out) I won't get a phone if I can't do both. Not sure about s7. I know it has expandable memory not sure on battery, it's lighter and easier for me to carry an extra battery in back field for gps use or pictures.

They're will be a learning curve coming from iphone. You will like it once you have it figured out. No more cloud storage either. Everything saved to card, then card pulled and upload to computer. Easier,faster,safer. Cloud can be hacked. Androids are secure I've never had a problem in the many years and I use my phone to pay all bills,banking,trading...etc. Hard to beat a waterproof phone to. Good luck and take your time picking a phone, all phones are good, some just have different features. Samsung,nexus,htc you will be very happy with.

 

[Drifli]

Me and my wife both have apple. We still have unlimited everything, including data. With my discount we pay just over $160 a month. Remember if you are Police, Fire, or a few other professions you get a hefty discount. Also don't ever cancel your unlimited data. I know lots of people who did this not knowing all they had to say was they wanted to keep there contract.

 

[COlineman78]

So... my response to this is going to be long winded as I am a nerd who loves my gadgets and have a pretty vast experience with almost all manufacturers and service providers. I am a software engineer by trade so I can make just about any phone work for me, but I know this isn't the case for most people so for the purposes of this discussion I will be referring to stock phones and capabilities. I guess I will start with the simplest part which you must decide first: carriers.

There are 2 distinct groups of carriers: ones based on CDMA and ones based on GSM. These are old technologies but still drive cross compatibility and roaming contracts. CDMA is a digital 2nd generation phone technology that is only used in the USA, parts of Central America and Canada. Carriers that use CDMA include Nextel, Sprint and Verizon. The rest of the world uses a technology (and technologies derived from) GSM (HSPA). T-Mobile and AT&T along with most of the smaller carriers all run on GSM/HSPA. Because of that, if you travel out of the country, GSM carriers are your only choice. Why do you need to know this? Well you really don't other than for once simple detail. In order to help promote competition in the wireless space the government has forced the providers into providing "reasonable" roaming fees to allow smaller providers to even exist. However, this forced roaming arrangement only mandates they provide basic capability (no LTE roaming), so you will get voice, text and sometimes very limited slow data when roaming. Okay, so now that we know those things lets look at the big 4: AT&T expensive, slow, wide coverage. Verizon very expensive, acceptable LTE speeds but not the fastest, by far the best coverage. Sprint beyond terrible service, but you can roam on Verizon with free unlimited roaming (painfully slow data), dropped calls, cheap unlimited data packages. T-Mobile is my best value pick although they lost me as a customer when they removed the discount from my account without even telling me. They have very good service along all interstates and in most towns. They had the fastest service of all the providers I tried (25Mbps on HSPA+, 50+Mbps on LTE). The major downside is that once you get out of their coverage area they only allow 25Mb of free roaming data, but I was rarely in an area where I didn't have voice coverage if that's all you care about.

Okay, next devices. Now this is a very complicated area that has many factors. Most carriers have stopped subsidizing phones so you are going to now either be paying out of pocket or getting it financed for 24 months. The issue with getting it financed and purchasing it at the store is that you could get it cheaper online if you payed full price or even getting one used. Swappa.com is the best site for buying use phones and they do a very good job at making sure the phone isn't stolen and is in the condition claimed (go off seller rating). The issue now becomes are you ready to spend $650-800 on an S7 when you can get a Nexus 5X for $200 or a used S7 for $500. It's easiest to start with manufacturers first here so here we go:

HTC: Good hardware, they do way too much to the software (customization) so don't hold your breath that you will receive any software updates.

Samsung: Really good hardware, but their software customizations make things harder to use not simpler IMO. They will do software updates for a year and then leave you SOL. They have designed their customized software to make the transition from iOS easier but in doing so have made the overall user experience worse IMO.

LG: They had one good model of phone with the G3 but everything since has been complete crap. Stay away.

Motorola: Mediocre hardware, but they keep the software as close to stock android as possible so you get fast updates and a good user experience. The only things keeping me from switching to Moto is no waterproof and until recently no expandable storage.

Sony: This is what I have owned for the last 5 years. They aren't very big in the US, but are very popular oversees. This is mainly because they won't allow the carriers to corrupt their phones with bad software. They have more customization than Moto, but not nearly as much as Sammy or HTC. Good camera sensor, 100% waterproof (my phone sat in 3 feet of water buried in silt for 5 minutes while I tried to find it this summer), expandable storage are the reasons I have been a Sony fan. They don't make a phone compatible with Sprint and the only Verizon one is 4 years old (Z3V, what I own). AT&T and T-Mobile both will work with either the US or global unlocked versions of all of their phones. This was just announced this week: Sony Xperia XZ hands-on review - Review - PC Advisor (might be a while before you can get here, but watch ebay).

Google Nexus: These are phones made by other manufacturers that run stock android and are directly sold and maintained by Google. These phones receive software updates on day 1 of a new release (while they are the latest phone, as they get older it is delayed by a month or so). The new ones of these will be out this fall codenamed Merlin and Sailfish. The rumor is that the Nexus line will be growing in the next year. The problem I have had with Nexus phones is the lack of expandable storage (rumor of a 128GB version may have me rethinking my need for this) and lack of waterproof. I have a Nexus 7 tablet that is now 3.5 years old and runs like it is new with the latest software. I would seriously consider these if I were switching now. Also, if you do decide to go with these I would consider Project Fi, which is Google's new cell phone carrier that is mostly using T-Mobile's towers. They charge you only for the data you use. If you aren't a data hog I have heard people are keeping their bill between 40-50 a month.

So, now that I have given you the rundown of the phones; now I guess the case for Android. By default Android phones aren't encrypted like iPhones, but it is an option. Assuming that you have enabled that option and encrypted the drive then you will have the same security if not more options than your iPhone. Also, remote wipe isn't enabled by default; you must install an app by Google called Android Device Manager and then give it permissions to remotely wipe. One thing you will notice in switching from iOS is that there are a lot more free and ad supported apps.

If you want to discus any of this in more detail feel free to PM me your number.

 

[SUMMIT75]

Thanks fellas for the advice, gonna wait till the IPhone 7 comes out to determine what I want to do. I'm still leaning towards the S7 for external storage for all my pics and videos from my scouting trips when I use my phone skope and slightly better camera quality. I'm usually pretty safe as far as apps that are sensitive to money or personal info. I also don't demand a ton from my phone other than daily use,music, camera and occasional emails and social media....oh and of course tapatalk!!

 

[COlineman78]

FYI, most new Android phones will have SD cards now. There was 4 years where Microsoft was suing everyone for including them with FAT32 and exFAT support, but they recently said they would stop which is why you are starting to see them again. Sony and Huawei were the only ones that never stopped because they never got big enough in the US to get sued.

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[miller1]

Thanks fellas for the advice, gonna wait till the IPhone 7 comes out to determine what I want to do. I'm still leaning towards the S7 for external storage for all my pics and videos from my scouting trips when I use my phone skope and slightly better camera quality. I'm usually pretty safe as far as apps that are sensitive to money or personal info. I also don't demand a ton from my phone other than daily use,music, camera and occasional emails and social media....oh and of course tapatalk!!

You won't regret going with the S7, awsome camera and with the external storage you can take thousands of pics.

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[fngTony]

COlineman78 nailed it. One thing that keeps me staying with Samsung is their auto brightness that you can see very well in direct sunlight. S7 has been flawless for me. Even my die-hard apple relatives give it props.

I've been with at&t for 9 years mainly because they treat me good. Coverage is decent where you expect it. Verizon coverage is huge in Colorado but not worth the extra $35 a month when it makes a difference 3 times a year. Sprint is a few years behind on network upgrades, not very clear on how their plans work, network is very small with out roaming. T-Mobile really is the best for your money and respectable coverage.

 

[back country]

I went in to my local AT&T store a few weeks ago and was looking at the S7. When I asked the saleswoman about external storage, she said with the S7 you were unable to add memory such as an external card. But in this thread, several have said you can....seems like maybe I was misinformed I guess...

 

[COlineman78]

I went in to my local AT&T store a few weeks ago and was looking at the S7. When I asked the saleswoman about external storage, she said with the S7 you were unable to add memory such as an external card. But in this thread, several have said you can....seems like maybe I was misinformed I guess...

You can add any size micro SD to an S7, but not an S6. Currently the largest microSD card available is 256GB, but they are expensive. 128GB are reasonable and 64GB are getting to be pretty cheap. Look for UHS-1 at a minimum or UHS-3 as a preferred. These are speed standards.

 

[fngTony]

It's combined with the sim card tray. Another plus over iPhone is the s7 starts at 32gigs which is plenty until you download a bunch of maps

 

[SUMMIT75]

Yeah Im done with IPhone. Gonna switch to Android.


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[fngTony]

Feel free to PM if you have any Android questions.

 

[kpk]

For whatever it may be worth, my girlfriend was a diehard iPhone lover. Had every single one as soon as they came out and wouldn't even look at another brand. She had major problems with all of them. From not turning on, headphone jack, all the way to battery exploding and destroying the entire phone. She finally got fed up and got a samsung after I repeatedly told her how much I liked my S5 (she went through probably 4 or 5 phones and I was still on #1). I've beat the crap out of my S5 and it's even gone swimming a few times (in a lake for extended periods). She now loves her samsung and swears she will never go back to an iPhone.

It took her a week or so to get used to it, but she's very happy she made the switch now.