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As some of you may know, I was in Israel for the past 10 days or so. It was a family vacation and hosting the SphinnCon Israel SEM conference.
For this trip, I decided to not go with the AT&T International plan for my iPhone and instead use an unlocked Nexus S phone with an Orange IL pre-paid SIM card. The reason was two fold:
(1) It would save money on the data plan because the Orange data plan is cheaper than the AT&T international data plan. Plus, I can use the phone as a hotspot for my other devices, which I couldn't do with my iPhone, causing me to rent a USB card.
(2) I wanted to give Android, the latest and greatest Android OS and Google phone a real shot. 10 full days using it as my primary smart phone and barely using the iPhone.
When I arrived in Israel, I popped in the SIM card and was immediately able to make phone calls. But the data simply did not work. I spent some time on the phone with Orange's support, but they could only email me a document with settings. When I finally got to the hotel and was able to download those instructions, they did not work. So I Googled for help and found a Google thread with the answer I needed. At that point, I was up an running with data.
The mobile hot spot on the device was probably the single best feature of this phone. I used it more than I talked on the phone. My wife used it, my 19-month old used it, and it worked well. The data was a bit slow, but that was 3G speeds and it was good enough. We connected my MacBook Pro to it, our iPhones, iPads and even gave others access to it when they needed it. Yes, the iPhone will have the mobile hot spot feature soon with Verizon and rumored to be coming to AT&T soon as well. For now, Android had the edge here.
It's open! The Nexus S let's me put any SIM card (GSM required) I want in there. And I did that. I couldn't do that with the iPhone, well, I could, but then I would have to jailbreak the device and thus kill my warranty. That is a huge plus for the Nexus S and Android.
But overall, even with running Android 2.3, I felt I was missing something. Even after 10 days of using it, I still felt tasks such as email, browsing the web and even phone calls, were taking extra time. It felt like I had to take more finger taps to get what I wanted done on Android when compared to those same actions on iPhone. One is example is deleting emails: I right swipe over the email on iPhone. With Android, I have to click on the email or a check box and then click delete.
Finally, the battery does not compare with the iPhone. I can run all day on my iPhone without an issue. The Nexus S and Android 2.3 maybe lastest 75% of the work day. I use it a lot but so do I with the iPhone.
Now, I am way more accustomed to using an iPhone. I have been using one for 3.5 years and I really love it. So giving Android 10 days is likely not a fair test.
The bottom line is that when I landed in New York, I was thrilled to have my iPhone back. That was until AT&T couldn't connect to the network and the data wasn't working. But in regards to the user interface and the friendliness of the device, I was happy to return to my iPhone.
Now that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, I really do not see a real reason to recommend Android to people. When people said they won't get an iPhone due to AT&T, I bought that. I said, great - so get an Android device. But now that Verizon has the iPhone, there is no excuse. Get yourself an iPhone, you won't be disappointed.
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land. He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region.
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