Yes, we are still talking about iPhone vs Android.

With yesterday's release of Apple's iPhone 4, the massive debate over which is better, iPhone or Android continues to be the rage of the internet, as users of the smartphones pit their egos against one another in heated combat. Trying to throw out a "who is better once and for all" is practically impossible, no matter how many facts that you lay out on the table, the hardcore fans will refuse to be swayed, and the ego battle continues. If you have already chosen a side in this "war", then this article is not for you. I'm talking to the people who are coming into the money to buy a smartphone, and are looking for something nice to put into their pockets, so they can call their friends, and take pictures of themselves in the bathroom mirror.

First of all the most important thing that you need to keep in mind when you go shopping for cellphones is forget what everyone says, thinks, and or feels, the only thing that matters right now is what you like and what looks good to you. It's YOUR money. For all I know, you might like the latest Blackberry model. In which case you can go ahead and stop reading this, and go buy your Blackberry and be happy. Second of all you need to figure out just what it is that you want in your smartphone. What kind of user will you be? Do you like to burn time playing games? Are you buying a smartphone because you want to look cool because your phone can do everything from make fart noises to check the stock market? Or do you do business to the point where you seriously cannot slide by with a Motorola RAZR anymore? (Yes, people do in fact still have those.) With what you want in a phone in mind, we can compare Android versus iPhone on a few key points.

-Battery Life-

How long your phone is going to last while it's in use is probably the most important thing to ponder on when you're shopping for a phone. There are plenty of different Android phones to choose from. When it comes to battery life, most of them fail to hold up to the iPhone. One of the complaints I hear about the iPhone in fact, is how the battery (supposedly) doesen't have the best lifespan in the world. Fun fact: Smartphones are practically computers when it comes to the possibilities that they have. Using the various apps will put a good drain on your battery life. It's going to cost you much more battery to e-stalk that hot chick on facebook than to make a quick phone call or send a few text messages. Use your common sense here. While the iPhone does have a leg up on the battery life, it's not as though iPhones are going to last hours longer than an Android, they last longer in most cases, but the extra time you get isn't so much that it's worth writing home about.


-Applications-

Okay for all of you hardcore iPhone fans that are ready to stand on top of your chair and proclaim absolute victory in this field, you need to first realize that the iPhone had a 2 year headstart, and that quantity does not equal quality. Yes there are WAY more apps avilable for iPhone than Android. However a good majority of the stuff you can add to your phone from the app store is complete crap. When it comes down to apps that are actually USEFUL it doesn't matter which you choose. If there was something major that was left out of the App Store/Android Market, and it's something that you already know about, chances are you've already made your decision on which you think is "better", and you probably should already be on your way to buying that new phone. There is one notable thing that I can think of that iPhone would have over Android. If you're into gaming, and you have an interest in gaming on your mobile device, the selection of games that the iPhone offers is better than that of the Android, but I'd say that this won't last forever, and it's a niche-within-a-niche because not every gamer wants to play games on their mobile. Again, whether iPhone or Droid is better depends on the user.


-service providers-

This time there's no way I can hand it to anything but Android. Android phones are avilable in several different models over several different service providers. iPhones dont have different models really, they have the new iPhone that's better than the last iPhone that came our. Now unless you jailbreak your iPhone, you can't have any service provider that is not At&t. Keep in mind also that a lot of people aren't too happy with what At&t has decided to do with their data plans. Unless you are already with At&t, and already have a data plan, there's no way to pay for unlimited data anymore. On top of that At&t is charging an extra monthly fee to use tethering. Mind you, not everyone needs to use all that much data a month, and even less people NEED to use tethering. At the same time, this alone is enough to make people turn away from the iPhone to buy a droid.


-operating system-

Out of box, this one easily also goes to Android, and is one of the main huge arguments against the iPhone that I see people throwing around when debating "who is better". Android's OS is pretty much fully customizable, due to it being open source. The iPhone OS, while is rather easy to learn and use, is very limited when it comes to customizing your phone. With the new OS, the most customization you get is your background and what apps you put on it. Sweet. However, if you are bold enough to jailbreak your iPhone, you can put whatever you want on it, even go so far as to be able to run the Android OS on the iPhone. Most would argue that you shouldn't have to jump through hoops like voiding your warranty in order to do what you want to your phone. I can agree with that whole-heartedly, it is quite silly to have to go so far to mess with options that should be quite easy to change. At the same time, it's quite silly to ignore the possibilites that arise when you DO jump through those hoops.


-conclusion-

Long story short, If I had to say that one type of smartphone was better than the other, I'd have to say that by a small margin, Android is better, due to the fact that on a few key things like design and customization, Android offers you more choices. Happy shopping, consumer!


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