My Time with an Android Phone

I talked earlier this week about how I lost my phone, but more over why it wasn’t a big deal because I had secured my system. Suffice it to say I had to replace my phone, I use my phone for nearly every aspect of my life, so not replacing it was not an option.

 

I was able to secure a new phone for a relatively small price, but I had to wait a few days to actually get the device. In the meantime, my provider was able to provide me with a loaner smartphone which I was to use while I was waiting. The phone they gave me was a Samsung Galaxy S5. For those of you who’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m a massive fan of Apple so I was a little hesitant to use the Samsung. I have to admit, the S5 is a pretty cool device.

 

There were some things about the Andriod I really liked and started to understand the appeal of Android phones;

 

1) Used all my apps – I like my apps that utilize cloud technology. The reason I like them is so my information is not “device dependent” and by that, I mean that no matter what device you use (cell phone, tablet, computer) you will still be able to access your information.  With the Samsung, I was able to download all the apps that I needed (including Evernote in which I wrote a couple of posts including this one) and function like I did on my iPhone. To download the apps you can use the Google play store so all I had to do was use my Google account and I was able to download the apps I needed. They even had an iTunes app so I was able to access all of my music!

 

2) It’s super light – this particular phone was very lightweight. I had to hold my iPhone (one I got it back) to compare and they are about the same. It’s possible that the reason I found it so lightweight is that I didn’t have a case on the Samsung and I always put one on my iPhone which would add a little bulk to it, but overall I like the fact that it’s as easy to carry around as the iPhone

 

3) Chrome integration – This, I have to admit, is deeply cool. I was signing into all of my different apps and I used my Gmail account as my email. What I didn’t realize was that because I did that, it used any credentials that it had attached to my chrome account to auto log me into the apps. This means that I didn’t have to (for example) log into my Evernote account. It simply had that information and applied it automatically.

 

Despite all this, there were somethings about the Android phone which, despite some of them being my own issues, were deal breakers for me.

 

1) No texting/my bad – I only had my Android for 48 hours, but in that time I couldn’t figure out how to text my friends and more importantly my wife. This is simply because they are all on iPhones and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work like iMessage. Not being able to text, at least for me, for a couple of days was disruptive but not a massive deal breaker. I’m sure that if I had to have the Android for an extended period of time then I would have figured out the texting issue and it would have worked out.

 

2) The keyboard is different – This is another thing that while I didn’t like, it wasn’t Samsung’s fault. While the keyboard on the screen was a regular QWERTY keyboard some of the other buttons were in different spots. For me, finding the period button was tricky because it wasn’t in the same spot, so I would instinctively press the number key to bring up the keyboard with the symbols when I didn’t have to. This was me, not the phone, and I would imagine that if I had had the Samsung for longer I would have gotten used to the different keys in the different places.

 

3) The fingerprint scanner is a bit too sensitive for me – Apple’s fingerprint scanner is awesome because when you program your fingerprint it gets you to program the area around where you think you’re going to press your finger down. This has the added benefit of making it so that if you press your finger to your phone at a slightly different angle to the one you programmed it at it’s no big deal and your print is still recognized. This is the one thing that I had a seriously difficult time with my Samsung. Not only did I have to have my finger at the exact angle that I scanned it at originally, but I also had to swipe it in the exact same manner that I scanned it originally. For this alone, I would personally not go with a Samsung. To their credit, I’ve been assured by some of my friends and co-workers that Samsung has improved that in later models, but for me, as a first time user found it to be a real let down.

 

Getting the opportunity to use a Samsung and the Android Platform for a couple of days was a great experience. I’ve been with Apple since 2009 and so being “in the text” and not looking out at what else is out there is what a lot of these companies are looking for. I think, however, it’s good to try new and different things. My Cell phone before my first iPhone was a flip phone (which tells you how advanced Cell technology was at the time) and the quantum leap that Cell phones and Smartphones have undergone in the past nine or ten years has been remarkable. I’m encouraged by the app makers because I was able to switch from one phone to the other and then in again to the phone that I was able to secure with relative ease. This means that people who wish to switch hardware (or if they didn’t have a choice in my case) can do so safe in the knowledge that they will be able to continue to function and (a few small functions notwithstanding) use their programs like they did on their last phone. I will admit, being an Apple person for years I did go back to them (my replacement was an iPhone 8) but I like the fact that we no longer live in a world that is “hardware dependent” so that we can use the programs we like on the platform that we like the best.

 

What hardware do you use? Would you consider changing?