This is my review of the switch. Keep in mind I have only had the device for one day(not even 24 hours yet). - Got it on Friday Nov 30th at 8ish
Long story short, I had a Verizon Nexus (battery sucked) so I traded it for a GS3 (hated touchwiz) rooted it to get AOSP on it and bricked it. Waiting for my phone to be repaired so my brother is letting me borrow an iPhone 4s for a week or two while I wait. Also I am a web application developer so I am kinda tech savvy.
I consider myself a fan boy because I have said “you wont catch me dead with an iPhone”. I live with a Apple fan girl (fiancee), my brother, sister, dad, step mom, sister in-law and brother in-law all have iPhones.
Back story on the Nexus.
I love everything about the Nexus except for the battery life. I have tried everything to make it better.
- Custom Roms
- Custom kernels
- Black Gapps
- disabling all notifications
- tweaking auto-brightness settings
- etc. (you get the point)
The hour I had a working GS3 I lost maybe 1-2% battery max. But I couldnt stand touchwiz so I bricked it (I’m a moron). Flashed a ROM for a different phone onto the GS3.
ok Now to my review of the switch. I am not tech blogger but this should be interesting either way.
Pros:
- Notifications work well from the icons and lock screen (not the pull down)
:tup: Love having weather in my notification “center” or drop down - 5 day forecast and detailed weather is nice. I know you can get detailed in Android but I really enjoy the 5 day. - Love having my calendar in my notification “center” or drop down
:tup: :tdown: Settings are all in one place. (I love to hate this and hate to love this) - Feels “expensive”
:tup: Developers definitely spend more time on these apps (the runkeeper app on iPhone is way better than the Android one). - Hardware vibrate button - genius (but not necessary)
:tup::tup::tup::tup: Battery life is pretty fucking good so far. I am easily impressed though because I was averaging 10 - 12 hours max on my Nexus. We will see what the GS3 can do when I get it back. - Polish, polish, polish
- I like how you can sync your phone and recover a new one with little effort and be exactly the same as you were before. Google needs this like nandroid, but that wouldnt work if you were switching device types… so it would be hard to implement.
- it’s so easy to use in most situations that its boring.
- I like how Pandora and other music apps control the lock screen. Only a few apps can do this on Android (damn developers)
- I like the interface for deleting text messages, pretty useful.
- The “multi-tasking” function is pretty useful. Double click the button…
- Camera is pretty nice on this phone, interface is alright.
- Love the custom auto dim setting.
Cons:
- No lowercase on keyboard (on android when the next letter is lowercase it shows as a lowercase on the actual keyboard)
- long press for numbers on keyboard (on android I love that I can long hold the “Q” key to get a “0”)
- Haptic feedback, love it miss it.
- Period button is under the “123” drill down on the keyboard.
- I miss Google integration (not a huge deal, it’s manageable).
- I hate its physical form, I dont like the form factor in my hand. Specifically the flat edges. I like a rounded device (see 3gs)
:snky: No multi select that I could easily find in the image gallery. Is there one? (Apparently this exists so nevermind) - I miss swipe keyboards
- I miss the notification light on the Samsung devices (not sure who else uses them) I shouldnt have to turn on my screen to know I have a text waiting.
:snky: Editing a word after its typed is not as easy as Google’s implementation. (type a sentence go back to modify one word) this isn’t as bad as I thought I figured it out. - Screen shots with one hand are tough.
- iTunes (its no secret everybody knows why) - apparently its not needed?
- Sharing an image onto G+ isn’t integrated with the share button on the bottom left of the photo app. Kinda annoying. But who uses G+?
- If you put this phone down on glass, picking it up isn’t easy…
- I hate the 4 and 4s but kinda like the 5’s form factor.
- I miss my back button (I need a back button).
- When syncing with iTunes, select playlists and use the fill function to fill the rest of your drive with “other” songs randomly. This needs a “Leave me x gb of space for other shit option”
- WTF is iMessage and why are they going to my friends disabled iPhone instead of his new Android?? Confused… Sounds like iMessage is horrible.
- miss the “if you click on two links in the browser it magnifies” function on android
- Expandable notifications are pretty much amazing. The iOS notifications are… too small or something I cant figure out why I don’t like them
- icon arrangement is annoying.
- weather app icon should update like the calendar icon. Ie show the current temps conditions like a widget. Like the calendar app does.
- Wait I have to clear every notification in the notification pull down… They don’t automatically clear when I view the notifications… Annoying.
:snky: If Pandora is running there is no quick way to find it? Like how do I know what music app is running? Besides the lock screen. Kind of annoying. - Apparently you go left after a double tap of home button. - You can’t change default applications?!?!? ugh that is annoying.
Bugs:
- Froze on the first day, not sure how or why.
- installing an app I somehow got two icons(same app), but one was stuck in the “install” mode. Couldnt remove it. Reboot it disappeared.
- I have a item in my inbox(gmail) that cant be opened or deleted x3 now. This creates a bubble # I can’t get rid of on the app icon
Google Now vs Siri:
Fuck talking to your phone (unless someone is on the other side). That being said Google Now wins. But by no means is that a reason to buy Google. It’s “cool” nothing more.
Maps:
I live in Buffalo, I know where most things are. I don’t need it for anything yet…
Overall its a solid device it does what it should and it does most of it really well. But so far I find it “boring”. The part of Android I enjoy is that no two devices are the same, making it more interesting to me. But this also makes it harder on users and I understand how this could be a con too.
If you know how to fix any of the things I mentioned please let me know. I will be updating this as I go (I am pretending to be a tech blogger/reviewer). I get bored easily.