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So many times now when reading reviews of new Android releases and the accompanying phones I read "THIS finally is the Android phone that's really usable/better

by pilif 15y ago

So many times now when reading reviews of new Android releases and the accompanying phones I read "THIS finally is the Android phone that's really usable/better than $then_current_iphone". And now I hear it again: "Galaxy Nexus is the real first Android phone that's really usable. It's even better than the iPhone 4S". Honestly though, by now I lost the trust in these reviews and the phones. I have my doubts that my Nexus S will become a better phone once/if it gets ICS. I have my doubts that I'll actually prefer ICS to iOS. I tried so many times, but I never managed to stick with Android. Also what where they thinking when calling the phone "Galaxy Nexus"? There's a Nexus One, a Nexus S, a Galaxy S, a Galaxy S2 and now the Galaxy Nexus- all released within the last two years. When I was talking to coworkers over lunch, we quickly drifted into utter confusion when trying to compare phone features.

daleharvey 15y ago
Since 2.2 I have much preferred Android to iOS, since then I have always thought it was a better platform and enjoyed using it more, however there has always been little niggly warts around that can be brought up, against the bias of the hacker new crowd it seems like the market has agreed, Android phones outsell iPhones, my non techy friends mostly prefer their android phones. I get the feeling from most reviews that it isnt so much that this is finally the android phone that usable' as much as 'this is finally the android phone that is almost unarguably better than the iphone', or at least the one that doesnt have the warts that android detractors like to bring up in these comparisons
- nitrogen 15y ago
  One of those niggly warts, namely UI stuttering, is significantly reduced on my Galaxy S-derived phone when I terminate any services (like IQ) not specifically related to the apps I'm running.
zheng 15y ago
I agree with your naming gripe, but beyond that it sounds like you personally just like iOS. Different people have different opinions of what phone has really "made" Android. If the Nexus One took the place of the iPhone, I guarantee there would be at least one review for each iPhone model saying "THIS finally is the iPhone that beats the Nexus One".
interlagos 15y ago
"So many times"... Can you point at such a review? Because I don't think such a pre-ICS review exists, whether Gruber wrongly claims so or not. Every prior Android review has been full of asterisks and disclaimers. Most tended to be negative. Sure, they talked about the positives (and there always have been positives), and they talked about the benefits over its Android predecessors, but I've never seen one that openly held it as the leader. Until now. I think it's going to take a while for some people to realize where Android has come from and where we are today. The game has completely changed, and the dated narrative is gone. When I first equipped up with a G1, there were almost no apps, and the few that existed tended to be horrendous. The performance and usability of the device was terrible. But I knew where it was going. Then I got a Nexus One and it improved some aspects of the platform, but I was still left out in the cold for a lot of things: No angry birds. A terrible market. No Skype. No Netflix. And on and on. iPhone-only apps appeared for mainstream services and products and organizations. Today I have a Galaxy S II. It isn't perfect, but the experience with 2.3.4 is pretty damn good. I have Netflix, and Hulu, and endless games and countless top-rated apps (some of which are starting to lead on Android). This is a device I would recommend to a layman. And all of the above was the foundation on which Android captured 55% of the market. And ICS only improves that n-degrees more? Incredible. If Android got such acceptance and loyalty before, this is quite incredible really.
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  Sure. The HTC hero was considered phone of the year by T3, the biggest gadget magazine in the UK, over the iPhone.
blinkingled 15y ago
What we have heard with every release of Android is that this one is more usable than it's own predecessor. Not iPhone or iOS. And that is factually true - 2.1 was way too laggy, 2.2 was better, 2.3 was even smoother and ICS now is, for the first time comparable / exceeding iOS in overall usability. That's what the Verge review claims and as far as I know, before ICS, they have always complained about Android from usability standpoint, preferring iOS as the gold standard.
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  Have you used ICS? They don't have a consistent icon theme, there's multiple messenger apps with different look and feels, the UI favors Tron era styling over actually using the capabilities of a modern display, and the widget adding has a strange 3d effect that means your not quite sure where you're putting something anymore.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
starwed 15y ago
Have you heard it from the same specific people? Because if not I don't understand what the fuck your point is. :) With every release, android will get a little bit better. And every time that happens, some people will decide they now like it better than the current-gen iPhones.
ketralnis 15y ago
> Also what where they thinking when calling the phone "Galaxy Nexus"? There's a Nexus One, a Nexus S, a Galaxy S, a Galaxy S2 and now the Galaxy Nexus- all released within the last two years. When I was talking to coworkers over lunch, we quickly drifted into utter confusion when trying to compare phone features. Anecdotally, I didn't actually know that all of the phones with Nexus in the name weren't the same phone until I read this. And I am an Android user.

by pilif 15y ago

daleharvey 15y ago

Since 2.2 I have much preferred Android to iOS, since then I have always thought it was a better platform and enjoyed using it more, however there has always been little niggly warts around that can be brought up, against the bias of the hacker new crowd it seems like the market has agreed, Android phones outsell iPhones, my non techy friends mostly prefer their android phones. I get the feeling from most reviews that it isnt so much that this is finally the android phone that usable' as much as 'this is finally the android phone that is almost unarguably better than the iphone', or at least the one that doesnt have the warts that android detractors like to bring up in these comparisons

nitrogen 15y ago
One of those niggly warts, namely UI stuttering, is significantly reduced on my Galaxy S-derived phone when I terminate any services (like IQ) not specifically related to the apps I'm running.

zheng 15y ago

I agree with your naming gripe, but beyond that it sounds like you personally just like iOS. Different people have different opinions of what phone has really "made" Android. If the Nexus One took the place of the iPhone, I guarantee there would be at least one review for each iPhone model saying "THIS finally is the iPhone that beats the Nexus One".

interlagos 15y ago

"So many times"... Can you point at such a review? Because I don't think such a pre-ICS review exists, whether Gruber wrongly claims so or not. Every prior Android review has been full of asterisks and disclaimers. Most tended to be negative. Sure, they talked about the positives (and there always have been positives), and they talked about the benefits over its Android predecessors, but I've never seen one that openly held it as the leader. Until now. I think it's going to take a while for some people to realize where Android has come from and where we are today. The game has completely changed, and the dated narrative is gone. When I first equipped up with a G1, there were almost no apps, and the few that existed tended to be horrendous. The performance and usability of the device was terrible. But I knew where it was going. Then I got a Nexus One and it improved some aspects of the platform, but I was still left out in the cold for a lot of things: No angry birds. A terrible market. No Skype. No Netflix. And on and on. iPhone-only apps appeared for mainstream services and products and organizations. Today I have a Galaxy S II. It isn't perfect, but the experience with 2.3.4 is pretty damn good. I have Netflix, and Hulu, and endless games and countless top-rated apps (some of which are starting to lead on Android). This is a device I would recommend to a layman. And all of the above was the foundation on which Android captured 55% of the market. And ICS only improves that n-degrees more? Incredible. If Android got such acceptance and loyalty before, this is quite incredible really.

mikemaccana 15y ago
Sure. The HTC hero was considered phone of the year by T3, the biggest gadget magazine in the UK, over the iPhone.

blinkingled 15y ago

What we have heard with every release of Android is that this one is more usable than it's own predecessor. Not iPhone or iOS. And that is factually true - 2.1 was way too laggy, 2.2 was better, 2.3 was even smoother and ICS now is, for the first time comparable / exceeding iOS in overall usability. That's what the Verge review claims and as far as I know, before ICS, they have always complained about Android from usability standpoint, preferring iOS as the gold standard.

mikemaccana 15y ago
Have you used ICS? They don't have a consistent icon theme, there's multiple messenger apps with different look and feels, the UI favors Tron era styling over actually using the capabilities of a modern display, and the widget adding has a strange 3d effect that means your not quite sure where you're putting something anymore.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

starwed 15y ago

Have you heard it from the same specific people? Because if not I don't understand what the fuck your point is. :) With every release, android will get a little bit better. And every time that happens, some people will decide they now like it better than the current-gen iPhones.

ketralnis 15y ago

> Also what where they thinking when calling the phone "Galaxy Nexus"? There's a Nexus One, a Nexus S, a Galaxy S, a Galaxy S2 and now the Galaxy Nexus- all released within the last two years. When I was talking to coworkers over lunch, we quickly drifted into utter confusion when trying to compare phone features. Anecdotally, I didn't actually know that all of the phones with Nexus in the name weren't the same phone until I read this. And I am an Android user.