Iphone 4S or Galaxy S2

[Myshra]

The 4s is pretty much a tablet in a phone

Come on, your fanboyism is quite funny but you can't be serious with this stuff Considering size rather than power is the biggest differentiator (and biggest buying reason) between a phone and tablet, using your fanboy logic the SGS2 surely must be closer no?

 

[Robbo]

Try out the Galaxy S II in a shop and see what you think to it.

In my personal opinion (!), I think the 4S is the best overall phone out now, the Galaxy S II is excellent but it lacks the exceptional polished feel and Apple are making strides with all the iCloud stuff, which you may (or may not) find useful. I know it is available already but not as such an integrated and polished solution.

Siri looks very useful for in the car. I've been watching real videos of real people testing it (not Apple) and it actually looks pretty good. Far better than any voice recognition technology I've ever seen, and I've tried many different ones.

Apps are also a let down in comparison on Android, it's improving but it has a long way to go yet unfortunately.

 

[Pottsey]

Come on, your fanboyism is quite funny but you can't be serious with this stuff Considering size rather than power is the biggest differentiator (and biggest buying reason) between a phone and tablet, using your fanboy logic the SGS2 surely must be closer no?

I am serious it’s got more power than most tablets like the transformer. You can in some ways like as a media centre use the 4s over a tablet and in many ways its better at it due to the air stuff. It’s not fanboyismn I don’t even own a single apple product and I think buying any phone right now is bad idea.

 

[kona786]

Apps on Android are fine on android - i haven't seen anything special on ios.

SGS2 is a great media player as it has great codec support/hdmi out/dlna.

 

[Robbo]

Apps on Android are fine on android - i haven't seen anything special on ios.

Oh they're fine, but they're on a whole different level to the Apple ones for the most part. I think most people on Android have just got used to the inferior ones or use the website itself as an alternative solution.

 

[kona786]

I have an ip4 here and the apps on it aren't anything special.

 

[Robbo]

Fair enough, but I very much disagree.

 

[ebilcake]

Galaxy S II or if you can wait a month get the Nexus Prime.

iPhone 4S is nothing special.

Well I don’t agree on that, depends on what you want to do. You can run apps and games on 4s the S2 couldn’t even dream of running as it lacks the power.

Your not stupid Pottsey, in order for that to happen developers would have to completely ignore the original iPhone 4 and other iPhones which is not going to happen.

Your living in the dream world.

 

[Dugganator]

people who say the apps are crap on android it might be worth showing some sort of comparisons maybe as at the moment it just seems to be like mug slinging with no facts to back it up.

I have always been a person who tries to buy the best regardless of brand. I say try as it doesn’t always work out but I like to look at things find out as much information about both and then make a decision based on those facts.

Person 1 "apple apps are the best and run amazing ....android is rubbish, slow and doesn’t have as many apps"
Person 2 "no android are just as fast if not faster and have the same level of apps now"

When I looked at the android market as suggested by someone here I could only find one app that I had on my iphone that Android didn’t have. If the apps do runner slower or have problems on either platform it would be handy knowing what they are and if I would even use them haha. Not after a list btw.

What I'm trying to get at is if the person has used both phones and range of the same apps there feed back would be helpful. Not someone who is just sitting in one corner saying they are the best without something to back it up.

Benchmarks are lovely but if 99.9% of the apps don’t require that sort of power then its still kind of pointless once again to drill on about it.


I still havent made my mind up yet but still kind of swinging towards the S2 if not the nexus prime unless I have missed something that might take me back to Apple.

 

[Locke]

I'd love to know about these amazing apps as well, if it's possible.

Every time I see an iPhone at uni, all I see is people using Facebook and Twitter, which have fancier transitions and not much extra. Never seen anyone playing games

 

[Robbo]

I've used the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S II pretty much equally over the past year (I own both of them, along with several other phones).

I've already commented thoroughly several thousand times so I'll try and keep this short.

It's quite possible that, depending on what apps you use, you can find the exact same ones on Android as you'd have on an iPhone. However, that doesn't change the fact that the general polish and availability is superior on the iPhone. You will be hard pushed to find someone that can effectively argue the Android Market is equal to the Apple one, it simply isn't.

It's not just worthless apps either, things like banking related ones and high quality games still haven't made their way onto Android.

To put it in perspective, I have about 70 apps on my iPhone at present, I can get just about half of them on Android. For someone else, they may have 100 apps and all of them may be available on Android... who knows.

You sound like you want to try Android, so why not get the Galaxy S II on one of the 12 month contracts and then if you don't like it, get the iPhone 5 at the end of that period. At least we'll have the bigger screen then and people unable to look past aesthetics won't be so dismissive of it. The 4S is basically getting universal praise after the initial disappointment with regard to a re-design and larger screen.

It's also worth noting (no disrespect to anyone) that the majority of people in this particular sub forum - phone geeks - are going to, and do, heavily favour Android. Unfortunately the Apple section is separate to stop endless arguments and trolling.

 

[Pottsey]

Your not stupid Pottsey, in order for that to happen developers would have to completely ignore the original iPhone 4 and other iPhones which is not going to happen.
Your living in the dream world.

Or you just do what they did with the Ipad and run a downgraded version on older phones. Take Real Racing 2 you can only host a multiplayer match on a 4S or Pad while the older phones run a downgraded version. We have already seen Infinity Blade II and other apps developed that will either not work on older phones or will be downgraded a lot. You are not going to get http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL7p2P6Ft3Y on the older Iphones not without a downgrade in visuals . EDIT: or do what the Ipad 2 and 1 did and just auto run different versions based on your device.

I'd love to know about these amazing apps as well, if it's possible.

Every time I see an iPhone at uni, all I see is people using Facebook and Twitter, which have fancier transitions and not much extra. Never seen anyone playing games

Well there is Airplay which lets you do stuff like http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/07/real-racing-2-shows-off-iphone-4s-graphical-chops-brings-split/ great for gamers. Along with the benefits it provides for movie watching.

 

[Locke]

So banking and high quality games?

Neither of which most people (including iPhone users) will spend many hours on.

People aren't saying it is equal to the App Store, the point was that most people wont notice the difference in missing apps.

to the OP:

I'd wait until the next release of Android is detailed (in a week or two) so that you can compare it to iOS since the current Android release is technically almost a year old!
Hardware is similar on both phones for the majority of people.

 

[Ryan-3]

Personally I would go for the iPhone 4s. I tried out the galaxy s2 but nothing can compare to the iPhones touch-screen. Damn, I wish a device came out with android and a good touch screen.

This. And i've quite abit of paid stuff in iTunes, as well as that I use iTunes all the time, so its always the iphone for me.

 

[Robbo]

So banking and high quality games?

Neither of which most people (including iPhone users) will spend many hours on.

People aren't saying it is equal to the App Store, the point was that most people wont notice the difference in missing apps.

to the OP:

I'd wait until the next release of Android is detailed (in a week or two) so that you can compare it to iOS since the current Android release is technically almost a year old!
Hardware is similar on both phones for the majority of people.

Some will, some won't. It depends entirely on the person, which was my point.

In my experience, most people do notice the difference.

 

[fez]

I'd love to know about these amazing apps as well, if it's possible.

Every time I see an iPhone at uni, all I see is people using Facebook and Twitter, which have fancier transitions and not much extra. Never seen anyone playing games

I think that is the general point with every phone. I have a nexus one and its pretty good, has loads of things the iphone can only dream of and yet I am probably going to get an iphone 4s.

Everyone uses their phone for a different reason and based on that, one device is likely to be better for you. For researching a lot over the last few weeks all I have seen is people being ***** and behaving like 5 year olds.

I don't want a phone with a 4.5" screen. I would hate to have that in my pocket and it doesn't fit nicely in my hand.

I don't care that android can do a million and one things, I only need it to do about 20 things really well.

I would like to have an integrated ecosystem that encompasses my mac and mobile devices.

Apps are fine on both android and iphone so that isn't too much of a decision maker.

Comments like this pretty much summarise the android fanboy. Ignorant and ill informed.

Siri is a joke btw same as Icloud anyone that uses them as an example clearly shows they are clutching at nothing. Apple marketing is what make them look good and lets face it they have been out for a while now. Voice command software and online storage.... wow

So all apple have done is put some online storage up and stuck voice recognition on their phone? If that genuinely is your view then I do worry.

Apple phones are all about making your experience of a mobile phone seamless and easy to use. The tradeoff is flexibility and modification.

Android phones have massive customisation potential and do pretty much everything the iphone does, they just don't do it as well in some cases.


I am somewhat temped to wait and see about the nexus prime but the screen size puts me off and I have had enough of android. I don't have the time or the inclination to fettle with my phone any more. I just want one that works and makes my life easier.

I just can't figure out why every discussion on either android or iOS always turns into a full on debate about which is the unequivocally better phone and how you are a muppet if you go for the wrong option.

 

[sarge78]

What I'm trying to get at is if the person has used both phones and range of the same apps there feed back would be helpful. Not someone who is just sitting in one corner saying they are the best withou

For general use iOS and Android offer virtually the same hardware, software and experience.

I have zero issues moving from one to the other (~15 vital apps)

Try them both out and pick your fav.

 

[Robbo]

Wow, I totally agree with most of the points fez has made there.

 

[robgmun]

Personally I would go for the iPhone 4s. I tried out the galaxy s2 but nothing can compare to the iPhones touch-screen. Damn, I wish a device came out with android and a good touch screen.

I just want to pick up on this point, my OH has an iPhone, and purely in terms of responsiveness of the screen is good and you can't tell the difference between either of them. But the fact that the iP4 has a higher res screen is completely wasted because of it's small screen. the SG2 and iP4 both look great with the SG2 just pipping it at the post because due to it's contrast and colour. The bigger screen on the SG2 makes it much more comfortable to watch videos then on the iPhone.

in less then a year new phones will make the iP4s look stoneage

But i will consed to two things.

1) Yes I'm one of those people that like to check my bank stuff on the move and it **** me off that Natwest has an iPhone app for ages now and hasn't developed one for Android WTF????

2) Samsung Keis, piece of crap won't work on my W7 64-bit OS, and loads of people have the same problem, i have to resort to accessing and dumping files via wifi!

 

[ebilcake]

Or you just do what they did with the Ipad and run a downgraded version on older phones.

If there are versions available for the iPhone 4 there will be versions available for Galaxy S II, if developers choose to release them.

They won't have to cut down the visuals for a Galaxy S II anywhere near as much as for the iPhone 4 so the visual difference won't even be as big, also remember the Galaxy S II doesnt have to push as many pixels either.