iPhone Switchers

I am not happy at all with htc hero or android as a whole. The fact that apps are on the phones memory, which is small to begin with is incredibly stupid and limiting. it is why we do not see the big polished apps like the iphone has. The OS is splintered among 1.1   1.5  1.6 2.0   2.1  with the hardware being different for everyphone, not all features are useable on all phones, so it is very confusing. Very disapointed to find out we are dependant on HTC and cell south to continue the updates for the phones, and not Google. Too many people in the way of getting updates, if ever. some handset users are already stuck at their present level of OS and will not ever get updated. 

No one good way to sync music, photos or videos to the phone, there are many programs out there but none do it well or smoothly. Hero is slow and laggy, no matter what one does. Android has to be micromanaged for usefullness, ie cache clearing, task killing, tweaking programs and settings just to get it to run right. I am used to just using the phone, not playing with it all day just to keep it running. 

it's a big let down, and unless things change drastically, fast, android will be for the geeks only who love to play with their phones all day everyday anyway. Sure it's nice to have themes and wall papers, but I am an adult, only i see the phone really, it's mostly for my job so after a couple of days themes wear off and i would rather just have a phone that runs. themes slow down an already slow phone. 

Lots of bugs also, many are daily aggravations for me. Honestly, when you are used to the speed, fluidity and polished look of the iphone and it's os, it is hard to go backwards. Android is going backwards in my opinion. 

My hero cannot multitask due to lack of memory, even stock with no third party apps. Sure android OS can multitask, but a lot of the phones cannot due to being under powered. So it really kills the usefullness of the OS, this is because of a lack of standards by google. 

android has potential, but no direction. It has been over a year that 2.0 has been out and we and many others still do not have it. If cell south does not ask htc for further updates, we will not get any more upgrades for our phones. Not cool. 

cell south just shrugs their shoulders and say sorry, past your trial period. i was told i could multitask, and i cannot, something i can do with an iphone, which i had. Yes it can multitask people.  the iphone can...any way thats my rant and i am sticking to it. sorry to be so long winded but it has been eating at me for awhile. i paid full price for my phone, as i was not able to upgrade. i have my service paid for by my employer, i just pay for the phone, so the account is not mine, just the phone. I could not justify the 165.00 a month for my iphone when cell south service is free, and unlimited for me. thanks for listening....  

Yeah the price is pretty much the only reason I'm staying with Cell South right now.  The phone is awful.   And I refuse to get a blackberry or winmo phone.  At this rate I'll probably buy out my contract in june or july whenever the new iphone comes out. I hate ATT (And I do mean HATE) But I need a phone that really does what I pay for it to do.  I just keep hoping against hope that the 2.1 update will come out soon and fix alot of my issues.

One more thing, the dialing and keyboard are damned near unusable. 
What do you think?

So here's my question what doesn't the hero do? Most of the apps I use are on android and the phone works great. Its no Iphone mind you but It a good start and has the possiblty to surpass the Iphone due to there stupity of not releasing it to carriers that have covarage.

Its not what doesn't the hero do,  the issue is that it doesn't do anything well terribly well.

Yes keyboard and dialing are a nightmare..also you are spot on, the hero barely functions as a smart phone. With the iphone i could stream my music to my stereo in my truck, and not get any interference from apps in the background, ie weather, email or news updates, but with my hero, everytime it pulls data it stops, pauses or skips my bluetooth stream. If i surf the net and listen to music it does the same, anytime i try to do 2 things at once, it freezes, and grinds to a halt. Never that way with the iphone.

It's a pretty poor exuces for a smartphone and cell south is less than sympathetic. technically it does multitask, but no human has the patience to use it like it performs when multitasking. the touch screen is poor, multiple hits to open things up plus it is very inaccurate, the calibration is a joke btw.

very poor cursur control when posting online, slow laggy keyboard, the ui is not intuitive at all, nor is it fluid or fast. 2.1 will fix some issues but not most of them. HTC and cell south are very unresponsive to these complaints. very disappointing, as i am used to Apples stellar customer service, they are friendly, fast, accurate and helpful. Try calling google or HTC or going to a cell south store. You will see what i mean. i went to cell south store yesterday, they just shrug their shoulders and say there is nothing they can do. 553.00 for a phone and they shrug their shoulders. Not good, not good at all. 

I doubt it will surpass the iphone. The os is splintered and divided among various handsets that have no standardization what so ever, no minimal requirements, etc etc. This to ensure a great user experience with android os. Too may people are getting upset about not being able to upgrade their os on their handsets, because it is up to the carrier to ask for the updates, and pay for it and then test it as well, before we get it passed on to us. there are no assurances we will get any more updates ever for the hero after 2.1 which has been out over a year and we have not got yet, so don't count your upgrades till you get em.

use an iphone for a day, you will see what I mean. just use it for a day, thats all i ask. it performs ike a 600.00 phone. if i could run my copilot navigation and look up a pdf file on my phone or surf at the same time, or play music and surf, or any 2 things without it crapping out, id be happy, at least liveable with the darn thing. I never had to clear caches, run task killers or fiddle with it several times a day just to keep it running smooth, which the hero is not smooth in anyway.

I'm trying to love my Hero, I really really am.  I WANT to like it.  But so far I just can't.  The screen is too small (it may not be much smaller than an iPhone but trust me once you try typing on it the difference is night and day) its slow and frankly i don't WANT tons of things running in the background.  I'd much rather have my battery and memory free for what I am working on then being used on a program that I closed 15 min. ago.  Dialing is a joke.  My screen calibration program won't even open (this is AFTER returning it to factory defaults).  It's looking more and more like I'll be returning to AT&T whenever the new iPhone comes out this summer.

I feel your pain, big time. My biggest frustration is crap running in the background for no Damned reason then to take up valuable resources the phone has so few of to begin with. 

I really do not get Android, i really do not. How is this a good again> anyone? anyone? 

Now, here is my question, when will we get the 2.5 update about to be released?  we haven't even got 2.1 yet. 2 years from now? will cell south even want to keep up with the updates and how fast will they get them to us? 2.1 has been out for over a year now...i just don't see how this will work for me. it 's not working for me in fact.... 

I agree its no Iphone but android is new and getting better and the divices are getting better that is why I think it will surpass the Iphone is because cdma customers out number gsm so there will be more of us.

Now to the problem is cell south has never been known for getting updates and devices in a timley manor or customer service so thats just something you have to live wilth. Do you want signal or a iphone?

Personaly and please don't think I am trying to talk bad of you guys. But I think you are just fans of the Iphone and thats what you want. personaly I rather have signal and be able to make a phone call or text instead of a ipod that is sometimes a phone. I work with a guy who has a iphone and I accuse him of texting instead of working all the time and he just laughs and says I have to have signal for that.

If I were you guys and you are not happy with the hero and want to give android a fair chance I would go to verizon or sprint where they get updates and devices.

Just my $.02

Honestly (at least where I live) Verizon and Sprint aren't an option.  I do love my iPhone (or did I should say)  But I really think there is much more to it than that.  The hero is just lacking.  It reminds me more of my old Windows Mobile phone than a modern OS.  Its clunky and slow.  Hell I had to install a new keyboard app just to make it halfway usable. 

Everyone that I work with that owns an iphone is pretty envious of my Hero, from the ones that have old iphones all the way up to the 3GS. They all sit down with it and walk away with a good deal of respect for the platform. I've had to hand my phone out for someone to play with it so many times that it's kinda funny. And i chortle a little to myself when we compare reception, they almost never get service.
  I really researched the Hero a LOT before I preordered it, and continue to research the best ways to get the experience that I want out of my phone. I also have checked out iphones time and again when new ones were released, i'm surrounded by them and honestly they just never did it for me. By all means it's a great phone, but it's waaaaay too locked down. I've considered rooting my Hero but it was really only because I love tinkering with things; even non-rooted it gives me everything I need so I don't have to bother with "jailbreaking" it.

I got a kick out of the Hero winning Best Mobile Device of 2010 this year at MWC.

I'm sorry you guys are so disheartened by it. I know what it's like to be into something only to get it and have it be a letdown. Happens to all of us one time or another. Have you tried tailoring it to suit your needs? It's such an open platform that you could certainly do so, that's one of it's strong points.

I will agree that you can customize the hero alot more than an iphone (I've never jailbroken one.. never saw the point) but as much as I've tweaked and prodded mine I just can't make it work well enough to be comfortable with it.  My batter never makes it through more than half a day without being recharged (without much use) and as I've mentioned the keyboard is a joke.  Actually I think the keyboard (and dialing) are really the killing points for me. 

I agree its no Iphone but android is new and getting better and the divices are getting better that is why I think it will surpass the Iphone is because cdma customers out number gsm so there will be more of us. Now to the problem is cell south has never been known for getting updates and devices in a timley manor or customer service so thats just something you have to live wilth. Do you want signal or a iphone?Personaly and please don't think I am trying to talk bad of you guys. But I think you are just fans of the Iphone and thats what you want. personaly I rather have signal and be able to make a phone call or text instead of a ipod that is sometimes a phone. I work with a guy who has a iphone and I accuse him of texting instead of working all the time and he just laughs and says I have to have signal for that.If I were you guys and you are not happy with the hero and want to give android a fair chance I would go to verizon or sprint where they get updates and devices. Just my $.02

-cyberwaste

we are dependant on Cell south for our upgrades, we do not get any long term commitment about being able to upgrade these devices, hell 2.5 will be here in a couple of months, and we have yet to get 2.1

I had the iphone, my company pays for my cell south service so it was not cost effective for me to pay 165.00 a month for an iphone with att when i get free service from my work, thats why i switched. Android only has customization going for it now, for kids i am sure thats the number one thing, hello kitty wallpapers and themes, but i need my phone for work. The hero is a slow phone small memory and a slow processor. It should never have been made like it was, because although the android operating system can multitask, the hero cannot. 

With the iphone,it was joy to navigate, smooth, fluid, fast. Hero freezes, clunky slow and hesitates. mine often freezes. i could do several things at once on my iphone, and never miss a beat or even slow down. If i try to do 2 things on my hero, it just about dies on the spot. The constant fiddling with cache clearing, task killing and tweaking the settings is a drag during the day when i just want the phone to perform. It too reminds me of an older clunky 90's operating software platform. Even the graphics for the app and games look old. 

Cell south is really poor on customer service, i wnet into the brandon store yesterday about these problems, and they just shrug their shoulders and say sorry. WTH..this is an expensive phone and all they do is say sorry. I am pissed. Really pissed with cell south right now. they could care less that these phones are crap and people pay a premium for them, they need to take care of customers. I would rather swap this out for the Nexus, which is comeing out in cdma this summer, hopefully cellsouth will get it. But cell south needs to get with the 21st century, smartphones need to get all the updates and in a timely fashion. Cellsouth needs to make sure that what they sell will perform as advertised, they are not standing behind these devices, at all.

I would definitely steer clear of task-killing on the hero.  there are several good articles online about how the linux based android OS handles memory; just because it's listed in the task killer does not mean it's used, only cached. quite the distinction. I played with a taskkiller the first couple weeks of using the phone but now am FAR happier with the experience after kicking that habit.
  I, too, use the Hero for work and if my phone was freezing all the time I would be very unhappy. Luckily that's not the case.
  I'm sorry your phone is "crap", I'm very happy with mine. However, would i EVER go get help from Cellsouth on a tech issue with my phone? No, I am an experienced computer tech myself and found out very quickly that I have more experience with the device than most people at cellsouth. I wouldn't say that apple/at&t customer service is any better though. A good friend of mine took his iphone to an at&t store in hattiesburg and they just shrugged too. In fact they suggested that he take the phone to the apple store in jackson, lol. 2hour drive for phone support, now that's bad service.
  It seems that a lot of the Hero complaints could have been avoided by checking out the phone before purchase; the "clunky 90's operating system", graphics, poor performance, lag, and low knowledge base of the cellsouth team should have been readily apparent. I preordered mine online, but I also went into the store a week before that and had some good ol' 1 on 1 with the phone before making the decision to purchase. it was before the release date, but i knew they would have one inhouse and they didn't have a problem with me playing with it to make an informed decision. As was mentioned, these devices aren't cheap for most people.

I do agree though, that the nexus one looks like a great device and hopefully cellsouth will support it on their network.

Anyway, not trying to derail the thread. I think we can all agree that Android is a budding platform, while the iPhone has a bit more polish on it being 4 yrs old now. I'm trying to be very patient about 2.1 as I think it will get our devices more up to speed. HTC is releasing it mid-month, so hopefully cellsouth won't drop the ball too bad and get it out to us asap.

I just sold my iPhone yesterday.  I was tired of paying $82/mo for phone I couldn't use at my house and that dropped calls all over the place. I was planning on getting a hero from cellsouth but after reading this thread I think I will wait.  HTC is supposed to be releasing 2.1 soon so maybe that will make a difference.  But honestly, it sounds more like subpar hardware as the main problem which software can only do so much.  If 2.1 doesn't make a difference, here's hoping Verizon picks up the iPhone this summer or cellsouth picks up a more capable android phone.

Until then I will be chillin with my $40 straight talk phone.

Glad i've saved someone else the trouble that I've had.

Yes, thanks very much.  Although I must say you burst my bubble.  One of the main reasons for selling my iphone was thinking that the hero was going to be a suitable replacement.

I think I would be satisfied with the hero as far as basic functionality goes (phone, browser, texting) but the multimedia aspects would be a complete let down.  Music, podcasts, movies, etc on my 32 GB iphone were just plain awesome.  No sd cards to fool with, download podcasts straight from the phone, sync with itunes (resisted at first but came to like it later), player controls on the headphones, voice commands to play albums/artists, could hook it up to a tv, etc, etc.

If Verizon doesn't pick up the iphone this summer, I'll have to get an adroid phone and breakdown and get an ipod touch to make up for that short coming of android.  I don't know how long I can go without a decent multimedia player.

Yeah the sad part is you pretty much lose all of that with the hero.  Also the browser is awful,  damned near unusable. 

Glad I helped out.

Wow what a whiny "I miss my iPhone, so I'm gonna take shots at the Hero" thread.....

The phone is awful.
-wjstone

Hmm... A matter of opinion there don'tcha think? I love mine! Maybe you should have demo'd it in the store before purchasing if it's so awful? Something that carries that status would be noticed immediately.
The phone is great IMO, and I'm glad CS finally got one!

Hero is slow and laggy, no matter what one does. Android has to be micromanaged for usefullness, ie cache clearing, task killing, tweaking programs and settings just to get it to run right. I am used to just using the phone, not playing with it all day just to keep it running. 

-bbrosen

Mine's not "slow and laggy". It runs great! Never do I have to "micromanage" it either. Maybe that's the problem... All the task killers you're running? I just "use" my phone and it does fine. /shrugs Shouldn't need/use task killers with Linux anyway.

Sure it's nice to have themes and wall papers, but I am an adult, only i see the phone really, it's mostly for my job so after a couple of days themes wear off and i would rather just have a phone that runs.

-bbrosen

Maybe you should have gone with a BB or something? Pretty much just a phone with data. Just a suggestion.

I would definitely steer clear of task-killing on the hero.  there are several good articles online about how the linux based android OS handles memory; just because it's listed in the task killer does not mean it's used, only cached. quite the distinction. I played with a taskkiller the first couple weeks of using the phone but now am FAR happier with the experience after kicking that habit.
  I, too, use the Hero for work and if my phone was freezing all the time I would be very unhappy. Luckily that's not the case.
  I'm sorry your phone is "crap", I'm very happy with mine. However, would i EVER go get help from Cellsouth on a tech issue with my phone? No, I am an experienced computer tech myself and found out very quickly that I have more experience with the device than most people at cellsouth. I wouldn't say that apple/at&t customer service is any better though. A good friend of mine took his iphone to an at&t store in hattiesburg and they just shrugged too. In fact they suggested that he take the phone to the apple store in jackson, lol. 2hour drive for phone support, now that's bad service.
  It seems that a lot of the Hero complaints could have been avoided by checking out the phone before purchase; the "clunky 90's operating system", graphics, poor performance, lag, and low knowledge base of the cellsouth team should have been readily apparent. I preordered mine online, but I also went into the store a week before that and had some good ol' 1 on 1 with the phone before making the decision to purchase. it was before the release date, but i knew they would have one inhouse and they didn't have a problem with me playing with it to make an informed decision. As was mentioned, these devices aren't cheap for most people.
I do agree though, that the nexus one looks like a great device and hopefully cellsouth will support it on their network.
Anyway, not trying to derail the thread. I think we can all agree that Android is a budding platform, while the iPhone has a bit more polish on it being 4 yrs old now. I'm trying to be very patient about 2.1 as I think it will get our devices more up to speed. HTC is releasing it mid-month, so hopefully cellsouth won't drop the ball too bad and get it out to us asap.

-ogboot

Agreed with everything stated here 100%. Well done. :)

Also the browser is awful,  damned near unusable. 

-wjstone

Eh? Dude, the browser is one of the more stronger points of Android. Are you using it correctly? If you hate it so much, how about trying Dolphin? XScope? Opera? There are other browsers out there. Again.... my point of someone not playing with the phone prior to purchasing. If the browser is "awful", that would have been noticed upon first use don't you think?

~~~~~

I was straying from this "Android bashing......... Waaaaaaaaa I miss my iPhone" thread, but OGBOOT said his piece so well that I had to echo his sentiments. My wife had an iPhone, and I greatly enjoy my Android over hers. You guys really should have played with the phone in the store before buying one. Hell, I stayed in the store an hour test-driving it before then going home and preordering.

2.1 WILL be distributed as CS has already stated. HTC has not even released it for the Hero yet. So... why don't we wait and see how long CS takes to actually push it out before firing off negative comments about them being slow? Just a suggestion.....

/flame away IDC.