Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

70 pointsgfr142 comments

I am currently on an AT&T family plan in the US. I currently do not have a smartphone, and it is annoying because as a tech person, I feel like I am falling behind the curve. However, I have been hearing all kinds of disappointments with new phones lately, so I ask: if you were to buy a phone today, which would you buy? Or would it be worth waiting for a little while to see how other phones pan out?

Extra info:

-I run linux, not sure if this is a problem for iphone

-I want to become familiar with the technologies that will help me understand the capabilities and limitations of smart phone apps today. Not sure if iphone is significantly more important in this regard than android right now

-I would like to stay on AT&T but can leave if necessary

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Nexus One. I'm surprised you're even asking. Fully Linux-friendly, hackable, powerful and doesn't have any crapware from carriers or hardware manufacturers. Buy it at full price and sign up for a $59/mo month-to-month plan from T-Mobile. Enjoy built-in tethering and guaranteed upgrade to the latest version of Android.

I own N1 and iPhone 4 and I believe that N1 is a superior phone. It doesn't need to be plugged to a computer for everything and as a phone it works much better on TMobile than iPhone does on AT&T: the reception is worse on the iPhone, it wouldn't accept MMS or SMS with non-English characters in 2010. WTF. The software (Android) is totally in a different league too: integration with Google calendars, maps and contacts is truly amazing, and you quickly get used to your phone automatically recognizing phone numbers and addresses in arbitrary text.

Another huge thing is Google Voice: you can dial any number straight from your address book without even worrying which country you're calling to, that's mind blowing to me (and I use it daily).

I bought both because we're doing software development for both, but I'm not proficient enough to comment on their APIs and programming environments. I do prefer Objective-C to Java though

The choice of Java is one of the most mind-boggling things to me. There must be so many developers turned off of the platform because of it.

Luckily, you can now distribute Python scripts as APKs (http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/wiki/SharingScrip...).

What would you have chosen? Java is popular, featureful (have fun allocating memory with objective-c while working on iOS apps!) and fast. I'd bet that it got more people interested than turned off.

Java is popular in the broad sense, but it doesn't seem to be very popular with the developers I know that are creating and interested in creating mobile apps.

Is that because they are iPhone users or because Objective-C is a better language for mobile development?

Probably a combination of iPhone's traction and the general negative sentiment towards Java. I personally feel Objective-C is a good fit for mobile development, because its so easy to drop down to C at any time. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks its conceptually simpler than Java (The Obj-C all just C structs and functions under the hood).

I think it's general sentiment against Java, the language. Many I know, including me, have been there and don't want to go back. At the same time the JVM is a pretty interesting space for language runtime.

Even if its not well liked in the most tech forward circles that may be the most desirable audience for google, there should at least be familiarity with it. And I don't know about you but I can't think of any even halfway decent and plausible alternative google could have chosen.

> Java is popular, featureful (have fun allocating memory with objective-c while working on iOS apps!) and fast.

More importantly, it's the most popular VM to target for new language implementations. You can use Rhino, Python, Lua, Scala, Scheme, Clojure, Fantom, Frink, and others on it.

With a substantial speed penalty on Dalvik.

True in cases where code relies on Hotspot's server JIT and GC, but the fidelity of the JVM->Dalvik bytecode conversion is remarkable.

Java isn't ideal, but I much prefer it to ObjC. You can also "in theory" use any language that compiles to the JVM, like Scala: http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/scala-ide/Developing_for_A...

Thanks for the Python APK link, last time I checked you couldn't deploy standalone Python apps but now I can play with it.

It's also possible to use Clojure on Android:

http://riddell.us/ClojureAndAndroidWithEmacsOnUbuntu.html

... although the impression I get from the stuff I've been reading is that there's a 3-4 second delay when starting up an app written in Clojure. There were hopes that Froyo will help in this regard, but I haven't been able to find any reports on that yet. My Nexus One should be arriving this week, so I guess I'll be finding out soon :)

I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently.

I've learned many languages in my years, while neither Java nor Objective-C is my favorite language right now (erlang is, though I haven't used it for awhile) they both were at different points in my life.

I hated Objective-C for the first week or two, then came to understand it, and saw how it was so much better than Java.

Of course, Java means both the language syntax and the frameworks, and half of what makes Objective-C so great is the frameworks.

Don't let syntax hang you up... you have to get over the syntax hassle to really understand a language. If you want "bad" syntax, look at erlang. That was tough, I had to force myself to learn it, but once I did, the syntax became a non-issue.

Objective-C has every advantage Java does, but the converse is not the case.

I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently.

I've used ObjC for many years and released several Cocoa apps. The syntax isn't the problem; I actually rather like the brackets.

Objective-C has every advantage Java does, but the converse is not the case.

No garbage collection (on iOS at least), inherently unsafe, primitive types requiring silly [NSNumber numberWithInt:x] contortions, header files, no namespaces...

Ya, managing memory in objective-c (again, on iOS) is a colossal pain.

Not to mention the OS X/Mac environment which some people just can't stand.

I see, this is some sort of a popularity / "all the cool kids hate apple technologies" thing rather than an issue based on programming.

Cause if you think those are a list of problems, you don't know how to write software.

Better than java is a pretty low bar but I am not sure that OC makes it even then. I learnt enough to know who much I hated it and then did most of my iphone coding in c++.

Garbage collection, (now) JIT compilation, combined with Dalvik, plus lots of developers know the syntax. Not to mention you can use native code with the NDK.

Java was a good choice in my opinion. I've done enough development for Android to love it, hate it, then love it all over again.

Add also Actionscript 3 ,you can run Adobe Air on android Althought it's rather limited in what you can do.

> it wouldn't accept MMS or SMS with non-English characters in 2010

That's odd. I used receive and send text messages in Latvian and Russian all the time and so do all of my friends. You should try to reinstall the iOS.

Back to the flamewar: I recently got myself an Android phone and I'm not really happy with the Market application quality and the operating system itself. At this point it just isn't quite as polished as iOS is.

Another huge thing is Google Voice

I don't use Google Voice for outbound calls, but I absolutely love the voicemail features from Google Voice. I thought that visual voicemail on the iPhone was nice, but after switching to Android I realized the combination of the web interface and the onboard voicemail app on the phone is a huge winner.

Also, to address the OP's concern about staying on AT&T, my AT&T band N1 seems to work like a champ. If you're not afraid of eBay, then I wouldn't think twice about getting one that would work on AT&T's 3G bands.

I have an N1 and T-Mobile also and totally agree. My T-Mobile no-contract unlimited everything (minutes + text + internet, including tethering) is $79, not $59. It's listed on my bill as "FPEvenMorePlusUnlTTW." T-Mobile coverage does have weak spots but in the good areas tethering speed is > 4Mbps.

The Individual Plan is $59/mo and the family plan you're on is $79/mo.

No, the Individual Plan with "Even More Plus (No Annual Contract)" is $79.99.: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?cat...

The "Family Talk + Text + Web" with unlimited minutes and no contract is $139.99: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?cat...

At least, that's what I'm paying and that's what T-Mobile's site shows. If they're showing different prices in your part of the country please let me know and I'll reopen negotiations with them.

With taxes and fees I pay $89.66/month. There's only one phone (the N1) on this account.

[Edit] I did start thinking about this so I just called T-Mobile. The "FP" in the plan name stands for "Flex Pay," which in T-Mobile's world means you don't have a contract.

Oh, you are quite correct, I was mistaken.

Wasn't the N1 discontinued? http://google.com/phone says you have to be a registered developer to get one, and I don't plan on developing for it anytime soon.

Being a registered developer is easy. http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...

But you can only get the one with the T-Mobile 3G bands. So they'd have to switch to T-Mobile to really be happy http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1578310

I'm pretty sure it is free to register as a developer, so there isn't really much of a hindrance in registering to get one.

From dannyr's link: "There is a one time $25 registration fee. We charge this fee to encourage higher quality products on the market"

I'll second the Nexus One. It's a hell of a phone. I love it, and have recommended it to any of my friends that'll listen.

I'll touch on the things I don't like about it, though, for the sake of comparison.

- Not much internal memory. 512mb gets eaten up quickly by the OS and apps. That's alleviated somewhat by 2.2 allowing apps to be partially installed to SD card, but it's optional to the developer. It's not a huge complaint, but it is a complaint.

- Weak GPU. This isn't a gaming phone. Hardware like the Galaxy S is a lot better in this regard - if you're wanting to play non-puzzle games, look elsewhere. The N1's Snapdragon apparently doesn't perform as well as the Hummingbird found in some other newer phones as well, despite having the same clock speed. That said, it's no slouch, and CPU speed is not generally something I can complain about.

- The AMOLED screen washes out badly in sunlight. With 2.2's auto-adjust, it's usable in direct sunlight, but compared against SAMOLED or LCD screens, it comes up pretty short.

- It's not as big as some other phones. This is personal preference - I'm a big guy and would like a larger phone, so depending on your preference, another form factor might be preferable. The EVO and Droid X are both very large phones (4.3" screen), and the Galaxy S is moderately large (4" screen), while the Nexus One is "only" 3.7". (The iPhone trails the pack at 3.5").

That said, those are the only things I don't like about the phone, and they are extremely easy to live with in general.

I agree with most of those, but I've never had any problems playing 3D games with my Nexus One.

From Homerun Battle to Backbreaker football to that cool racing game I can't quite remember the name of - all run smooth.

> Weak GPU.

Quake 3 runs fine at the highest settings on my Nexus One, and is very playable. The GPU is fine.

The one thing that really sucks about all Android phones is how they scroll. It's _really_ distracting and makes reading long content pretty unsatisfying.

Here's how it works: when you put your finger down on the screen it could be either a tap or the start of a scroll. The phone doesn't know at that instant which. It has to wait to make the call until there's been some amount of motion, about 1 or 2 cm, and until that time, the screen can't move (you don't want the screen bouncing around when you tap on things). So, when you start a scroll, when the phone actually knows it's a scroll, your finger has moved a couple cm but the screen hasn't. Android, for some damn reason, takes that instant to "catch up" to your finger, so that every time you scroll, the screen jerks up a line or two. No animation or anything. One frame it's down there, and the next it's up here. Try keeping your place when that happens, it's really annoying.

There is another way to do it too. The iPhone just doesn't bother to catch up. It works great and seems like no more difficult to implement.

No one is mentioning the HTC Evo (which you would want to mod to r00ted Android 2.2), which I totally love.

The screen is HUGE, to the point that it almost becomes a tablet - yet it is still a phone. The screen makes the phone a little big, but given that the screen goes practically up to the edge of the phone on all sides, it's efficiently proportioned. And I find I can get v productive on it - writing longer emails, reading ebooks, etc.

I get all the benefit of Android (see elsewhere in this thread), Sprint (which is actually v good coverage in SF and other metros), 4G coming soon and unlimited plans for $59. Wifi tethering is free if you r00t the phone.

You won't have any problems with running linux with it (for a start you don't really have to connect it to a computer for anything unlike the iPhone) whereas it's practically impossible to run iPhone + linux effectively (via Wine basically, urghh)

Agreed i used my friend's EVO and she laughed saying your iPhone 3G looks like a Palm Treo circa 2005. Which I agreed. The EVO's screen is awesome; better then the iPhone 4.

Get an N900. I've had an iPod touch for close to a year and a BB curve 8900 for 1.5 year. I still use the former for music, but no longer for browsing or apps and I've entirely replaced the latter. As a developer there are just layers and layers of goodies to be found. Hint: forget about the Ovi and Maemo Select pointers pre-packaged on the phone and go straight to maemo.org for apps, that's where the interesting stuff for a techie is. The only caveat here that you have to be aware is that Nokia has folded all Maemo efforts into MeeGo (a merge with Intel's Moblin.) So to an extent there seems to be an evolutionary disconnect, but keep in mind that the N900 is THE device used by MeeGo dev teams (a slew of people from Intel and Nokia).

Android is still very much on my radar but for purely professional reasons. The fact of the matter is that having used Linux since '95 there is nothing in that environment that even closely resembles a Linux environment, despite it using the Linux kernel (i.e. the user-space has nothing to do with a classic Linux user-space.) In addition, while their platform is "open", their development process isn't. IOW, you get code-drops every so often with no possibility of participating and/or looking into the bleeding edge. Meego, on the other hand, has been engineered with that in mind.

The N900 is an interesting beast.

If my father called, and asked me what smartphone to get, I'd suggest an Android device.

If an old friend called, who happened to be familiar with Linux, I'd advise the N900 with no reservations. The N900 is more open than Android in that it uses the traditional APIs used on the Linux desktop. You can install pidgin, irssi, otr, asterisk, and just about everything else that is popular with Linux. It even comes with an xterm app by default.

The N900 also has incredible integration with Skype, including video. It also supports adding SIP accounts. Both Skype and SIP work very well over 3G on T-Mobile US.

> Both Skype and SIP work very well over 3G on T-Mobile US.

Interesting, where? I have an N900 on T-Mobile in Boston and it's been very disappointing. I had visions of a "data only" relationship with the phone, but neither Skype nor SIP over 3G are of acceptable quality. Over wifi, works pretty well, though.

How have you set yours up? I tried Google Voice -> Gizmo5, buying a skype number, and some other things and nothing worked. For instance, the phone can't seem to handle an incoming SIP call and phone call at the same time -- so I couldn't forward my Google Voice number to both my actual cell number and SIP, and answer with either depending on the situation.

Then, I have general issues with the phone -- no good maps solution (the Nokia program is terrible, and can't use Google Maps), email is painfully slow to open and inconsistent about polling every 5 minutes like I want it to, I've hung up on incoming calls several times because the "Answer" button gets replaced by the "Hang up and send a text message" button when I'm taking it out of my pocket, etc.

All in all, I've been somewhat disappointed with the phone.

I'm currently in Northwest Arkansas. Skype calls work just about as well as SIP calls over 3G, which is to say the same quality as regular calls over GSM. I've used my old Gizmo account with SIP, as well as Callcentric and Skype. No issues.

With respect to maps and email, you have a point. The N900 is not up to speed there.

It's a good geek phone, but not something I'd recommend to my parents.

I can't comment on SIP because I haven't used it (yet) on the phone. For the map, though, there is Sygic's app: http://www.sygic.com/. The app itself is free from OVI, but the maps you have to buy :( Still looks like this would do a decent job. I'm actually going to try it on a trip next week.

Both of my officemates got the N900 right when in came out in the US. They were very happy with it for the first month or so. They are now very jealous of my Nexus One. I think mostly because of the app selection and overall phone quality.

I have been running Linux exclusively since the late 90's and considered a Maemo phone, but decided to go with Android because I thought that it would have much more momentum and my phone using life would be easier.

I have an N900 and I love it, but I don't know if I would recommend it.

Firstly its quite large (not an issue for me) and doesn't work in portrait mode very well. Its not really a phone per say its more of a tablet that can make phone calls. The screen while fine is not as sharp or nice looking as either a HTC Desire or iPhone 4. Lastly its resistive which can be a plus or minus depending on your point of view.

Now that said, it plays fine with Linux since it just mounts as another drive. You don't really need to connect it to anything since you can sync podcasts and the like over wifi or your data connection. You can run almost any software you want on it. Development using Python is a breeze. You can ssh in and use it as a mobile workstation. The browser is a real browser and websites display as would on your desktop pc.

I think the real test for the N900 will be if MeeGo works out to be any good for it. I have high hopes though :)

What a coincidence, today, several years after using several high end, cutting edge smart phones of many kinds (Symbian/RIM/Android), I simply took my SIM card and insert it into an old Nokia 3110c ( http://www.google.com/images?q=nokia%203110 ), I have found in my drawer.

It just a lightweight phone which easy to use as a phone (dial, read/write text messages).

Let us face it. Anywhere I am (home or office) I have at least 4 different ways to connect to the web and waste my time over there [;-)].

Until about five months ago, I had been using the legendary Motorola F3 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE_F3 ) for something like two years. Amazing phone, just the absolute basics: even SMS messaging was somewhat difficult. Due to it's e-ink display the battery lasts almost a week. It was a great conversation piece too.

Let us face it. Anywhere I am (home or office) I have at least 4 different ways to connect to the web and waste my time over there [;-)].

Actually, it was for this reason that I moved on to a blackberry, I was constantly spending time checking my email. Naturally, by the time you open your browser you go on to check other things etc etc. Now I write (personal) emails almost exclusively from my blackberry and it has made me much more productive.

I would have gotten and Android if there had been a model with physical keyboard which I could have gotten, but alas it was not the case.

Given that you're satisfied with AT&T, I'd recommend the iPhone 4. However, Linux support is non-existent. You can use iTunes via WINE, but experiences have been varied.

Luckily, you don't really need iTunes all that much. You only really need iTunes for activation, and that can be done for you at the Apple Store. Media and app purchases can all be done on the phone itself. As for synchronization of data: I recommend Google's services, which integrate nicely with the iPhone --- Apple's MobileMe works best on Mac and Windows.

If you decide to go for Android, I'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy S, which on AT&T is called Samsung Captivate. It's the closest thing out there to an iPhone 4.

Without iTunes you will have no way to backup or apply system updates. It's not worth it.

If you're totally on the fence and any modern smartphone would suit your needs, I would (and did) go with the iPhone 4 (caveat: having mac/pc access would make it much easier). It's sleek, it's smooth, it's got the X-factor and you'll probably have a lot of fun with it. The screen is stunning, the video and still cameras are great (I've officially retired my digital point-and-shoot), FaceTime is a fun gimmick, iOS is incredibly smooth and responsive, and then there's the app store. You can also sync the calendar to your google account, just to clarify, since old_gregg implied that you couldn't. And yes, it also automatically identifies phone numbers and email addresses in text. In fact, it picked up "wednesday at noon" in an email and gave an option to make a calendar event out of it.

I had some success with iTunes running on XP as a VMWare Guest under Ubuntu 09.10... was a bit of a pain but it worked.

I was fortunate enough to be given a Nexus One at a Google developer day and really love it (not just because it was free). My wife now uses my iPhone 3G and, playing with that handset from time to time, I wouldn't go back to it. If you're in the UK, I know Vodafone supply them. Or, if you're in the US, you can just buy one as an unlocked developer phone: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/08/nexus-one-dev...

Samsung Captivate. It has similar quality display with iphone's display and has the best mobile graphics at right now. It doesn't have a front camera, though.

I would wait until November/December until some Android 3.0 phones come out with better UI, next generation dual core CPU's, better graphics, higher resolution, 1 GB RAM, etc

There's no one-size-fits-all solution. Since both Android and iOS have parity for basic functionality either would be a good choice. For third party apps most of the interesting stuff is still happening on the iPhone. There may be equivalent Android apps (ports or clones) but in my opinion it's still a second class platform. Especially when you get into multimedia apps, creative apps, games, etc. On the hardware side the iPhone has probably the best display out there and one of the best cameras. Availability of regular software updates are worth considering too. If you want the wild-west experience there's a pretty healthy selection via JailBreak.

If you can wait a few months it may be worth seeing which phones are going to get Android 3.0. The N1 probably will but all bets are off with HTC and Samsung. I'd say most of their phones sold today will get it eventually but who knows when. Both HTC and Samsung totally dropped the ball on the 1.x->2.x transition. Motorola hasn't experienced a major OS update yet so it's not clear if they will be better prepared. The gimping of 2.2 features for the original Droid is not an encouraging sign. I would suggest a Super AMOLED screen if you want to use your phone outdoors. Maybe wait for the next device Google adopts as a developer reference platform?

Just pointing out that the N1 is HTC.

I was in the exact situation about four month ago and i decided to go with the N900, my considerations were:

1. I wanted a phone that is not Completely closed

2. I don't care about the eye candy

3. I run Linux - Anything that is not 100% compatible is out of the question

4. I Wanted a real keyboard - i just can't get used to those on-screen keyboards

5. I wanted Skype support out of the box

6. REAL multitasking

So I obviously ruled the IPhone out first. Other than eye-candy and hype i couldn't find any good reason to actually want to own one. I have to say - it is a beautiful phone, but I'm the kinda guy that want something practical.

My two real contenders were the N1 (the best android phone at the time) and the N900. The N900 won eventually since:

1. the keyboard is one of the best i had used.

2. It is a Nokia which in my opinion means a better build than HTC.

3. It's almost a Full Linux box - I could take almost any application i have on my box and recompile it with minimal effort for the N900 (it can use either GTK or QT)

4. For some odd reason i really like resistive screens (once you get used to pushing a little ,it feels a lot more accurate than capacitives)

With all that said, for anyone thats not a total Linux geek like me - an android phone will be the phone i recommend to anyone who asks. its obviously the place to go now.

The community behind android is growing rapidly, which means it will progress faster and become more polished with every release.

All good points and the same reason I went with the N900. My only complaints being the screen isn't the best (res is fine but brightness and saturation aren't as nice as htc desire or iphone)

It really is the ultimate geek phone.

Get an iPhone 4. You're already on AT&T, and you'd like to stay there.

I love my iPhone 4. Nothing out there is nearly as good, especially when you're looking at the screen on this thing!

iPhone 4, if like me, you think user experience and ease of use are the most important factors in a device you use 20-30 time a day while on the go.

Droid 2 on verizon (out in about a month I believe) if you have philosophical objections to Apple or want freedom from syncing with your laptop. The original droid is still a great phone and was pretty well designed. Droid 2 will have better hardware and battery life than the original while keeping the same design.

>Droid 2 on verizon (out in about a month I believe) if you have philosophical objections to Apple

...or if you want a professionally functional notification system, or widgets, or strong universal voice support, or...

Seriously, whenever someone starts in with "philosophical objection" they're propping up a garbage strawman. I choose Android because, in a hundred and one ways, it provides me a more usable, more powerful, more useful device.

Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market.

A lot of people I associate with who own Android phones agree with me yet they tell me they refuse support Apple's policies and are voting with their dollar. And I completely understand their view point. Do you?

>Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market.

And, having used both devices in real life and for development, the Nexus One is the best device on the market (if the Galaxy S Pro had 2.2, I'd easily choose it as the market leader). In fact after using an Android device for a while, and trying to go back to an iPhone 4 for a while, the completely gimped notification system (which, to me, is the #1 requirement of a smartphone), and the lack of widgets, made it feel absolutely crippled.

So where does that leave us? Sounds like a couple of people with opinions.

Saying that the iPhone is the best and people who choose otherwise do so for philosophical reasons is absolute garbage, and you're just messaging your own ego and choices, betraying a fundamental insecurity. I choose Android because it's, "far and away", the best platform in my opinion.

You called the original poster out on making an absolute statement, and he clarified it was his experience, gathered from the people he knew. The first sentence in your final paragraph seems to deliberately disregard what he said to maintain outrage.

>You called the original poster out on making an absolute statement

No, I didn't. I called them out for stereotyping why someone would choose something other than the iPhone.

It's akin to saying "The Nexus One is the best device, but I can understand that if you're gay, a follower, or strongly susceptible to marketing pressure, the iPhone might be a better device for you". (You know, instead of finding it to be the right device for them)

The outrage is about the strawman.

In this context, I don't see how "making an absolute statement" is significantly different from stereotyping someone. He owned up to it and clarified where he felt his point applied.

I now understand that he meant to say that among the people he knows, they consider the iPhone the better choice objectively, but some choose Android for ethical reasons. I don't see why you don't see that as well.

Come on, this is a discussion not a flamewar.

Let's share our opinions and keep it constructive.

And in other hundred and one way iPhone is more useable, powerful and useful. Which set of ways one chooses sometimes boils down to "philosophy".

that would be a person's philosophy regarding smartphones and how that person uses them, not with respect to an entire company (Apple)

OP mentioned being a Linux user. The iPhone, lovely as it may be, is a non-starter without access to a Windows or MacOS machine, at least to set it up. If you are willing to forego backups and your stuff lives in the cloud, you can make do after the intial startup.

But really, Uncle Steve needs to give us the ability to use an iPhone without an iTunes computer.

+1. A few months ago I transitioned from OS X to Linux at home, without expecting that it would make my iPhone 3GS so much less nice to own.

It's being replaced with an Android phone as soon as it comes out of contract. There's nothing wrong with it as a phone, but it's at its best only when it's integrated with iTunes on the desktop.

I just got an iPhone4 so obviously that would be my recommendation. I don't think you could go wrong with it or one of the new Android phones.

Since you're already on AT&T and don't mind staying I wonder if you could buy one phone and try it out for a couple weeks and then take it back and try another. That's the only way to really find out about each (Android vs. iOS) since most discussion on the internet about them has reached emacs vs. vi level.

If he's running Linux I'd be hesitant to recommend an iPhone 4, but I've never tried. I suspect lack of iTunes would be annoying. Is there a good iTunes substitute on Linux now?

I don't know about Linux since I quit using it on the desktop years ago. Someone responded to me a couple weeks ago in another iPhone related thread and said linux works fine with the iPhone - YMMV though.

Between Google Sync (over the air email/contact/calendar sync ActiveSync), Pandora and Rdio (streaming music services), and the App Store updates, I almost never sync to iTunes.

I'm not sure how it would be if I couldn't as every so often i do sync some music or movies. But cloud services are making iTunes and the USB cable more and more irrelevant.

It's a shame Apple is so bad at cloud services itself.

If rumours are true, there should be some iTunes cloud support soon.

Software upgrades require iTunes, but I guess as long as you have access to an iTunes equipped box sometimes. As you point out, if you're dependant on adding Music and Movies frequently it would become a pain in the ass.

I'm an iPhone user & Linux-only person for the last 2 years and my experience with the iPhone has been great.

What do you use to put music and movies on?

I don't watch movies on it, but I get music from iTunes (on the phone), my NPR radio app, and Pandora.

Is it possible to move your own mp3's to the phone?

Not that I'm aware of.

How did you activate your phone with Linux only?

the AT&T store activated it for me - the fact that I didn't have access to iTunes didn't even come up(that I remember).

I have an iPhone 4 too and would definitely recommend it.

I know you can use Rhythmbox to sync music and videos to the device. Not sure about apps, but you can definitely just download apps on the device itself. Also, I hear iTunes runs fine in Wine, so that's also an option.

I have an HTC Desire and I'm really happy with it.

Recently, the Google Maps Navigation has been activated here in Italy (with voice search, which I thought was available exclusively on the Nexus One).

Last week HTC released an OTA update with android 2.2, which also added an app for tethering over wifi (tethering via USB was already available) and 720p video recording.

I've been drooling over the Desire for a long time, but now, with rumours of the HD Desire coming out soon, I might wait for that...

what would HD Desire do more than SD Desire? They already do 720p recording (and theoretically playback) since Froyo OTA update.

I'm hoping that it has a screen with double the resolution.

I'm with you on this. It's basically the Nexus One hardware, with some quite minor differences and some HTC-specific Android customizations. It was already pretty darn good, but with last week's OTA-upgrade to Froyo, i'd say it's an excellent smartphone.

The main hardware differnce is that the Desire has real buttons (back, home, menu etc) wheres the Nexus One has soft buttons without the same level of touch feedback.

can't Desire do haptic feedback like EVO 4G? (if you're looking for a feedback)

for me the problem is rather with soft buttons being inadvertently activated when using the device in landscape mode, not the feedback.

If you don't want your photos tagged with your phone's S/N# and don't want your text input logged, Android may be the choice for you.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2553828,CST-NWS-iphone01....

Android on the carrier of your choice, hands down. My wife and I recently switched from a pair of iPhones to a Droid and HTC Incredible, respectively. Using our phones (and integrated Google Voice) is like a breath of fresh air. Between leaving AT&T, the customizability of the OS that my wife likes, and the developer freedom that I like, I can't imagine us making a better choice.

I was in the same situation and went with the Captivate (and Im in a pizza place posting from it right now). Its a really nice device. Its my first smartphone so I cant fully compare but I can say why I chose it.

1. The Galaxy S is going to be a big device on many carriers. 2. Reviews said the battery life is the best around for android. 3. I wanted background apps.

The display isnt quite as sharp as the iPhone for text but it is a joy to use. Im not so thrilled with the apps I cant uninstall but Ill probably root the device to take care of that. Oh and the touch mechanism is really good. Ive never written something as long as this post before and Ive only had 4 mistaps.

I cant compare it to other experiences but Im very happy with it.

I've been an iPhone fanboy (I admit it) since the first generation. I even waited in line for 13 hours for the iPhone 3g. I've spent over $1000 on iPhones and accessories now (I've probably made most of it back considering I sell the old one when I get a new one). I was completely dedicated to Apple and its magical phone. But one day I got a little curious. A friend of mine got the Droid and was in love with it. I figured that I should at least give the Android platform a shot so as soon as Google announced the Nexus One for AT&T I had it ordered and in my hands the next day. I must admit at first I was incredibly angry with the UI, it felt very clunky. Also the touchscreen keyboard was awful and wasn't even close to the accuracy of the iPhone's keyboard. After the first two days with the phone I was a little depressed that I had really just shelled out $500 for this junk.

I stuck with it though, and the Nexus One eventually grew on me. What I started to realize was that it was a phone that wasn't built to be pretty or cute but rather useful. For example, all alerts that came in I would know about via the trackball lighting up a particular color (I had red=text or missed call, green=email, blue=twitter @reply). The status bar also made it very easy to see what was happening on my phone without ever having to actually unlock it. Finally I didn't constantly have to unlock my phone, go to app X and see what just came in. Because the marketplace is so lenient, I found everything I could ever want in regards to apps. Wifi Hotspot creator, LED Flashlight app, NES emulator, eBook readers, etc. It's all there and the majority are free. I never paid for one app on my Nexus One and it did so much more than any iPhone I ever owned. Sure, the apps are never quite as polished but you get over it and start appreciating the functionality. On top of that, being allowed to put whatever I want on my phone by simply mounting the SD card is amazing. Not having to deal with iTunes BS was so liberating.

Unfortunately, Jobs did an amazing job of hyping the iPhone4 and I switched back over. I've never been more disappointed in my life. I dropped maybe 2 calls the entire time I had the Nexus One. Literally the first call I made on my new iPhone4 was dropped within a minute. The antenna problem was real, and it almost ended my current relationship. My girlfriend stopped talking to me on the phone and resorted to texts only. Thanks Steve! After being spoiled by the usefulness of Android the iPhone feels like such a toy. You can only see one push notification at a time, if another notification comes in the last one is erased, I feel like they force me to be using the phone at all times or else I'm going to miss something. I can't even switch back because I sold my Nexus One to my roommate, who rubs it in every chance he gets.

At least my free bumper came in yesterday. Oh did I mention with the new bumper I can't use any standard 1/8" headphone jack other than Apple's ear buds? So every time I want to listen to music I have to take the bumper off...awesome.

Where do you set the trackball color for events?

Phone needs to be rooted with cyanogen mod.

Is it fair to compare a rooted Nexus to a non-rooted iPhone 4?

My iPhone 4 is jailbroken...I think it's quite fair because I feel the same exact way.

I second your opinion - I switched from 3GS to Samsung Galaxy S. Completely correct that it's not polished like the iPhone, but being able to mount the phone as your choice of device is just, as you said, liberating. Have an AVI movie? No problem, just drop it on the device, it plays. Oh, it's in MPEG? No problem.

Swype is cool too, I now can't live without it -- in fact, I stopped using my native tongue in SMS form because it's THAT much easier to type in English.

Oh, now I also have an SFTP client, an SSH client, turn-by-turn navigation, WiFi analyzer -- all for free. Pretty soon, I will get tethering. The only downside to my particular phone is the AT&T crapware you can't get rid of, and it infuriates me that I have to root the phone to delete it. But even that is better than having to deal with iTunes.

+1 for swype. It's actually the thing that absolutely keeps me from considering an iPhone going forward (at least until Apple adopts it). I'm 3x faster than I ever was even on a physical keyboard.

gfr, are you writing a book or something? you've done 8 Ask HN's and only ever posted 2 comments...

i'm going to guess you work for some company (hopefully htc, samsung, lg, or apple) and i'll tell you exactly what i want from a smartphone and why it's a bad time to buy one right now.

first of all it seems like every month two new "iphone killers" are released. they all have the same functionality, they are all the same size, and they all require you purchase the same one of five service choices. until that changes, what's the point of upgrading.

in the recent past, the netbooks, then the kindle and then the ipad appeared and it made people realize that their smartphone was not everything they wanted out of their devices. so now there's a slew of new features entering smartphones and will be for the next 6-12 months.

but what i want is simple. it's not some way to turn a phone into a tablet and it's not some way to turn a laptop into a tablet and it's certainly not some way to turn a laptop into a phone. i want 3 devices that all sync:

(1) a laptop for development, storage, and other processing power needs (i have this one)

(2) a tablet that's smaller than the ipad but bigger than the iphone (dell streak?) it needs to fit in my pocket (barely) but not have to load the mobile version of many webpages

(3) a watch phone with very limited apps (phone, text, stopwatch, notes, etc) because i don't want my smartphone at the beach, on a hike, on a bikeride etc, but i DO want a phone.

Samsung G phones, using the android OS, are available on all carriers...

I'm with Verizon and their version, Samsung Fascinate is expected sooon, likely after the launch of the Droid 2

I have had excellent luck with my Nokia E72. It does not have iphone app capabilities, nor android, but it makes an excellent smartphone, and I love the hardware.

Iphone UI is a little bit better. Android is open and google products works very well on these phones. Regarding development it's easier to develop apps for andorid. Only problem is fragmentation. Different screen sizes and os versions can make lot of troubles.

Another problem is the set of countries you can buy programs from Android market, and even smaller set where you are able to sell your own.

I just spent some time with the Samsung Galaxy S (T Mobile) last night. I was very impressed. The lightest smart phone I have played with at that size. The screen is great, not as good as iPhone 4 but still one of the better ones. It came preloaded with Avatar in HD. Tt's not the best selling point but a good way to demo the phone and I was impressed by the quality once again.

Now the most impressive part was Swype keyboard. First time using it after seeing it 2 years ago at Techcrunch 50. Basically, once you use that keyboard pattern its tough to go back. I think you should be able to install that on any Android device.

I use iPhone 4 day to day. Pretty happy with it, apart from the service.

Personally I've been using Blackberry handsets for years, including currently the Bold 9700 since it came out.

I use email a huge amount so that's a large factor for me, but I've actually not had any complaints in other areas. Browser isn't exactly amazing, but is easily good enough for what I need it for... I use twitter a fair bit and have a great app for that... I don't want to play games / watch films / read books on it... and all round it's just a really nice phone.

personally I went for a Samsung Galaxy S, (A8 processor, Android, 4" AMOLED screen) this was more of a leveraged bet on Android, and a decent processor, than anything else, 3G network in the UK.

Like you I had delayed, but in the end I went with Android because of the rapid iteration model of the platform as opposed to the curated nature of the Apple Product/Service. Not to mention the hackability of the Android platform. YMMV

Been quite happy with my Galaxy S as well. I was actually going to get an iPhone 4 but the local carrier kept giving "dunno" as the availability date and number of units expected; at this point I am glad I opted out.

The UI/UX is not quite as good as i4 and the market is not yet comparable to the AppStore but I cannot really complain too much about either fact. Froyo update should arrive sometime in the next month or two though the 2.1 is usually snappy enough already.

Someone also mentioned the U.S. (rebranded?) version does not have a front camera - my phone does. I am not sure if this is the case, but might pay special attention to that if it is important.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx supports the iPhone 4 out of the box: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPhone

I was in a similar situation about a month ago -- no smartphone, felt like I was falling behind.

I ended up getting an iPhone, because it's what people have now, and there's probably a bigger market for contract work on it right now. I also have a Mac, though. Longer-term, I'm betting on Android to overtake the other platforms (mostly as a matter of cost), but it's still in the stage where startups and early-adopter types are the main users, as opposed to the very mainstream iPhone.

Samsung Galaxy i9000 currently best smartphone on the market. 4 inch super amoled display. 16 GB of built in storage. Supports up to 32GB micro SD.

Also runs on android so you are safe from Steve craziness and Steve tax (unlocked costs half of iPhone 4 16GB).

Most powerful GPU. Runs Quake 3 like a charm: http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/50507-galaxy-s-thra...

got an iPhone to test it for a week, and the first thing I did was to msg my friends, got some replies, and some SPAM. If I needed to delete the spam, I had to press the msg line to get into the msg, then 'Edit' to edit the conversation, then touch the msg then 'delete' button below. Still the conversation albeit empty, stood there. Usability sucks.... I did all these with two clicks in my N72 Nokia, and the Nexus or HTC Evo is far better for me to use than iPhone. I love the way iPhone handles things, its fonts, its colorfulness, and the easier input (size and accuracy of touch space) but I would give it to a girl who needs them to be 'cute' pets rather than a work horse and easy to manage organizer/'get your work done fast' device a nerd like me would need. Android anyday, but then iPhone is the mother of all smartphones since they were the reason the smartphones entered mainstream, and we are having this conversation. Apple is the best for 'cute/beautiful' UI, usability?? - nah

I think you should wait and have a look at Dell Streak. The word is that it would be around $500 without a contract

My wife just got a Droid X, I've got the IPhone 4 and I am very jealous. Her phone is amazing.

The site I'm working on doesn't address your linux constraint, but it exists to help you make exactly this type of decision:

http://www.measy.com/quiz/category/smartphones

Do you like to tweak things? If so get some variety of Android. If you don't get an iPhone. The iPhone will "just work" but it won't do nearly as much as Android.

I have had both (+ win mobile) and prefer android by a long shot.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro. Small enough to comfortably fit in any pocket while still offering all the smartphone and android goodness you want. Plus it has a real hardware keyboard for easy text entry.

I've had an HTC Wildfire for a couple of months and love it. It's basically a smaller version of the Desire. I develop on it too. It works fine. Best phone I've ever had by some margin.

I bought a HTC Hero thinking that it would be more open and Linux friendly as an Android device. It's not. I can't even update the firmware to 2.1 to get the cool new Google apps.

None?

Verizon LTE is supposedly launching in a few months and then you'll want an Android phone that works w/ LTE. Of course, we don't know where you live, so LTE may not be available in your area.

HTC Aria. Fast, fits in your pocket, and runs Android. I've been very happy with it so far. Also since you're on AT&T, this is a no-brainer.

I've heard recommendations of the Samsung Galaxy S, as well as Nexus One (I only know the N1 and love it).

nokia n900

I even used the SIM card from my iPhone in my N900, it doesnt get 3G (only 2.5G, due to At&t's lame network) but that doesn't matter to me since I use bandwidth intensive programs on WiFi anyway.

You should take a look at the Samsung Captivate which is a Galaxy S Android phone for AT&T, if you want to move to Verizon the Droid 2 should be released later this month (I'm planning on getting the European version of that, Milestone 2 I assume they'll call it)

I am concerned, based on a friend's experience with a Behold II that Samsung will abandon the device and not provide software updates.

In the case of the Behold II, Samsung promised an update to Android 2.0 when it became available. After it did, Samsung claimed that it wasn't compatible with the device. Third-party developers succeeded in running 2.1 on it, but, lacking drivers, many hardware features did not work.

In this case there is already an early beta firmware of Android 2.2 floating around to prove that they are working on it, plus they've open sourced the drivers: http://www.androidguys.com/2010/07/30/samsung-open-sources-c...

Has samsung stopped more or less requiring that you also own a windows PC?

I had one of their slides for a very short while and almost every operation that involved putting data on the phone or taking it off required a Windows only program to communicate with the phone.

It's Android, you don't have to attach it to anything, windows or otherwise :)

And even if you do, it presents itself as a USB mass storage device, so it's pretty much universally usable.

I wonder what people think about the non-screened applications for Android, and that many applications have (retro-actively) been pulled because they send private information to douchebags? I'm imagining with Androids popularity, it's going to end up being a world similar to the PC world, where you have Windows cheezoid OS with some antivirus/antiphishig app having to overlook all your applications and make sure they behave properly. Personally I still think the Apple way of pre screening is healthier, as long as it doesn't get draconian. Which poison do you pick?

[citation needed]

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/news/sec/blog/sec...

Be careful who you trust

http://mobiputing.com/tag/jackeey-wallpaper/

Update 2: Google temporarily banned the developer’s apps, but has since decided that they’re safe. You can now download them from the Android Market again. But the bigger point is that you should look closely at the permissions required by some apps to determine whether you’re comfortable with the type of information they’re collecting.

http://www.androidtapp.com/android-wallpaper-apps-falsely-ac...

The worse part about all of this is no one, I mean no one fact checked accurately. VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, CNET, Fast Company, Fortune, PC World, Computerworld, Gizmodo, AppleInsider, etc. the list goes on and on and everybody jumped the gun in reporting the issue. No one asked the developer about it nor really looked into the methods Lookout used in building it’s report called the App Genome Project.

>Personally I still think the Apple way of pre screening is healthier

That's because you're stunningly ignorant, not only about Android's security model, but also about Apple's inability to catch anything but the superficial.

Shame on anyone who upmods a comment like yours which consists of nothing but calling someone a name and then telling two lies.

It isn't "calling someone a name". It's pointing out a fact. They are clearly ignorant about the Android security model, and they're ignorant about the checks that Apple does.

Your claim that they are lies is humorous, however. Ignorance casts a wide shadow.

You can do a lot better and explain yourself instead of name calling which it is. You are not pointing out a fact, you are stroking your ego.

I believe a significant chunk of the damage done in our society can be chalked up to people who are ignorant thinking that their opinions are facts.

You just gave two examples.

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