Almost everyone has a smartphone these days. The most popular ones are Android handsets because they are available in all price ranges and provide you a ton of features. But are you aware of the shortcomings of Android? Read on to find out.
This article has been written based on observations I made while using an Android phone and how I had to replace it with the Apple iPhone.
1. Pathetic Battery Life
Manufacturers call their devices "the greatest smartphones in the world" but not one of them come with good battery life, which happens to be one of the most basic aspects of a cell phone.
Although we are promised several hours of 3G and EDGE usage, the numbers are far away form the phone's actual longevity stats. The battery drains off when you surf the internet, when you play games, when you use GPS and even when you fool around in the menu. Is it just me or does that include all the reasons I bought the phone in the first place? Sigh.
What's the point of supposedly having a bunch of features when your phone is just going to die on you in the middle of the day?
The iPhone on the other hand performs much better when it comes to battery life. It gives up to 40 hours of music playback, 15 hours of video playback and 12 hours on 3G with intermediate usage, which is more than we can expect in a smart phone. And what's more, the apps that are dormant or minimized on the iPhone consume very little power (almost zero, according to Apple) which makes it ever more long lasting. Normal users can easily get through a day with the iPhone.
2. Apps are great. Are they?
Android supposedly has a lot of apps. Access to the Android market is supposed to get you ever-lasting fun. It might be true that there are a lot more free apps on Android but they come at a price – malware! Almost all the free applications you use are embedded with ads, especially when they require an internet pack. Apart from that, there are the following issues:
- Applications are not universal to all phones. Apps built for one device do not work with others.
- Apps are full of security holes. You will notice it when all your data gets used up automatically by an app running in the background.
- Apps even if they work tend to be slow at times. Why? Because they were not designed to a specific architecture or model.
- Free apps are loaded with ads that bring down performance and make your experience worse
This means that out of the 300,000 apps available, most of them are not compatible with your phone and many will be loaded with malware. With what's left, you will eventually get bored.
3. All that power gone to waste
Android phones are built on powerful processors, many of them having a clock speed of at least 1 GHz and 512 MB RAM. Some even have dedicated GPUs. Now, the technical specs sound great, but what's the big deal if it is not going to be of any use?
Sure, there are several benchmarks that show Android phones doing great in the graphics department, but at the end of the day, will it actually convert to something? No.
A good example would be to consider the same games in both Android and iOS, like Fruit Ninja.
The game costs the same but looks better and runs better on the iPhone and also on Symbian. You might want to have a look at the videos of both games to get a better idea.
The iPhone comes out on top even when it is put up against a more powerful dual-core processor. It's not just Fruit Ninja. High end games are few and rare on Android and only high-end phones will support them. Tegra 2 which is supposedly the most powerful Android GPU, has only about 15 games which do not work on any other phones, even if they are dual core.
Now, if you cannot play games on an Android even when it has a dual-core processor, what's the point?
4. Android is cheap? Not really.
"My Android phone is cheap. I get a great camera with HD recording, 3G connectivity, GPS, video calls, games, applications for a great price"
Again, you have been fooled by marketing gimmicks. Your phone has some great features but there will be at least one device out there that doesn't run Android which costs less.
For example, consider the following:
- Motorola DEFY – 5MP Camera, 720p recording, HSDPA, GPS, 800 MHz processor
- SE Vivaz U5i – 8 MP Camera, 720p recoding, HSDPA, GPS, 720 MHz processor
The DEFY costs INR 15,400 and the Vivaz costs INR 11000. I would say the latter is better. You get most of the features of the first phone and some kickass battery life. All you need to do is compromise on the Android factor.
Sure, there are cheaper Android phones that start at the price of Rs. 7000 but you will not get a good touch screen, and you won't get Flash support in the browser. There won't get a good camera, and you may not get to play games like Angry Birds. And suddenly all the plus points are gone.
5. Too much tweaking required
The Android OS is not perfect and it requires a lot of tweaking for you to get the most out of it. Official upgrades are few and rare and if you need to get things in line right away, you will have to root your phone and install a custom ROM which in itself can be really tedious for new users.
Memory management can be a issue on Android and there frequent crashes will leave you thinking if Windows is better. So, unless you do some research and root your phone, you're probably going to end up using a phone that will restart pretty often.
Conclusion – Why go to all the trouble?
You want a great phone. But don't go for all the trouble just to use Android? Poor battery life, application incompatibility and OS crashes just make Android really less worthy.
If you are after the camera, you should know that you can get great digital cameras with full HD video recording for INR 8000. And the quality on your cell phone will never compare to that of your digicam.
At the end of the day, things will boil down to whether your phone has good battery life, has a decent camera and a good browser. You will be able to find all these in other phones as well. Games are not great in droids, and you must go for the iPhone if you are a serious gamer.
But the rest of you can have a look at Symbian phones or Bada phones that fall well into your budget and pack a lot of punch. At least they are good at what they do.
Sure, Android has its upsides, but they do not make up for the disadvantages. So, make a smart move before buying your next phone.
(By Ramesh)
Post from: Killer Tech Tips
5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Get An Android Phone
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