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Beware that OS upgrades on android are manufacturer and carrier dependent unless you get a nexus branded device. Also android devices typically have more bloatware than iOS devices.

To avoid bloatware, bet a Nexus or Motorola Moto X with the sim card for your carrier. I have a Mont x (2014) and Moto X (2013) and love both phones. Both came without much bloatware and get you updates of the OS very quickly after they are released. Plus you can design the phone the way YOU want it to look. Been an android user since the beginning (G1) and would never switch.

A dirty little google secret is that the android versions of their apps have more functionality than their apple versions.

I use Google heavy and this is important for me.

I've had both, have settled on Android which has really improved in the last couple years.

Two in my family are apple with one of them telling me she is going to jump to android and the other asking me to take the pictures because she likes them better than her iPhone picks.

I'm going to pop for the galaxy 6 and it's 1.9 low light lens and plug less charging built in.

Also you can forget about having to use archaic iTunes for management.

I've always been very staunch against Apple, but purchased an 8GB iPhone 3G, and then a year later a 16GB 3GS (at full retail cost) because I was out of room. I couldn't stand talking on the thing as I thought it was uncomfortable to hold, and kept my ruggedized Moto flip phone from Nextel to use as a phone. Plus AT&T service doesn't really exist where I live or where I worked at the time, and I would get one bar with Nextel. I used the iPhone basically as a PDA. Then a friend of mine got the HTC Evo on Sprint, as I was considering getting an iPhone 4. With the Evo running Android you could do such advanced things as sending MMS messages, copying and pasting text, being able to record video (although I was jailbroken and used Cycorder), having a flash on the camera, voice recognition, micro SD card slot, app switching, multi-tasking and best of all the ability to use non stock apps. I hated the stock email client on the iPhone, but that was the only mail client, I couldn't stand the iPod/Music app, but had no choice to use it, as alternative apps came out, they were great, but you couldn't play music and actually do anything else, unless you used the stock app. I switched to the HTC Evo running Android 2.1 Éclair, and never looked back!

A lot of the things that Google (and Blackberry) pioneered eventually would up on the iPhone, I always felt like Apple is two or three steps behind the rest of the world. And no, I do not think for one second Apple products are more 'polished', more 'well baked' or of better quality. They are not the BMW or Mercedes of consumer electronics like some proclaim. I use Apple products most every day at work, I have to support iPhones (4S-6) and iPads (4th gen-Air 2). They are issued to our sales and marketing staff, we have about 25 people in sales/marketing, so that's 50 iOS devices. Lord help me! I find them to be cumbersome, annoying, so overly simplified they are unintuitive and overall a pretty boring set of devices. Not to mention the iPad is just awkward to hold. Every tablet I've used has been 16:9 or 16:10, looking at a 4:3 screen makes me flash back to the 90's. Using iTunes to load/remove content to an iOS device is just a pain, when you're used to dragging and dropping with Windows Explorer.

The biggest advantage of Android is freedom! Like I said, I am responsible for roughly 50 iOS devices at work. Unlock them, and they are just a giant wall of icons, I see you can now add a background image which is mighty kind of Apple to allow that. With Android, every phone and every tablet is completely different. The end user is free to customize to their hearts content with apps, widgets, live wallpaper, different fonts, different launchers and everything else. Some people call that 'fragmentation', I call it awesome! Let the end user have complete control, what a novel idea. And with third party ROMs, you're not reliant on manufactures or carriers for updates. I really don't care that my HTC One Max is only on 4.4.2, I will be installing 5.0 on it over the weekend. Having external storage is great too. Don't have to pay the $100 size upgrades, I just use the same 32GB and now 64GB micro SD card that I have for years.

Very little if any difference between the Apple and Android apps I use on a regular basis from what I can tell on the iPhone. And in the case of the DirecTV GenieGo app, it is my understanding on the iPhone you cannot stream over a cellular connection, whereas on Android you can. Not that I make a habit of watching videos on a 6" phone when I have a 60" TV, I occasionally watch stuff from my DVR when on lunch. For music, I always used the Winamp app, which is no longer available in Google Play, never even really used the app though, 99% of the time I controlled my music with the widget or lock screen controls. Ever since I got my One Max though, I've been using the stock HTC Music app. The thing is awesome, I love the layout, the visualizations and the song lyrics scrolling across the screen karaoke style. I also love with one touch being able to blast my music from my phone have have it stream to my 7.1 sound system, or in one touch stream pictures and video taken from my phone to my TV. I know you can do similar stuff with the iPhone, but I think it requires an Apple TV box, or maybe at least one point it did and knowing Apple, it's probably a lot more restrictive.

nelson61 said:

A dirty little google secret is that the android versions of their apps have more functionality than their apple versions.

I use Google heavy and this is important for me.

I've had both, have settled on Android which has really improved in the last couple years.

Two in my family are apple with one of them telling me she is going to jump to android and the other asking me to take the pictures because she likes them better than her iPhone picks.

I'm going to pop for the galaxy 6 and it's 1.9 low light lens and plug less charging built in.

Also you can forget about having to use archaic iTunes for management.

Click to expand...

What android apps have more functionality than the iPhone's versions? I'm 95% leaning toward an android phone after seeing my friends S5.