Help me choose a new Sprint phone

[Amamba]

Wow. I didn't want to start a pillow fight on the forum...

I think WM was a great platform. I still like it. I am sure WP7/8 is great. However, MS decided to pull the plug on WM while being fully aware that all major providers were still selling WM phones with 2 year contracts. And they didn't merely abandon the platform, they seem to have went out of their way to kill it. They killed MyPhone. They made SkyDrive all but unusable for WM devices. I can use MS Skydrive with my wife's Android phone and our Android tablets, I can use Dropbox and Box.net with my Windows Mobile phone, but I can't use MS Skydrive on MS WM phone. Finally, Bing Navigation quits working. Again, they are perfectly aware that there are tens of thousands of users still under contract. A normal reliable company would've waited for 2 years after the major providers discontinued WM devices to kill the services. So why would I want to stick with MS ? They've fooled me once already.

So, it's Android vs iOS, and looks like Galaxy III vs Evo 4G LTE. I am not getting 4G where I live, btw.

I tried Android's alternatives to Siri and they suck. OTOH, I like to tinker with my devices. Also, we already have 2 Android tablets and one Android phone, it makes sense to get an Android device. Should I wait until Sprint gets iPhone 5 ? (This may not happen for a while, it seems). Perhaps then the price on smartphones would drop - right now, to upgrade to either of the Android phones would cost me $200.

Also, can you compare a few features between the three phones above ?

1) Pic / video quality - I know they all have 8 mp cameras and hd video, but I assume the output isn't equal.

2) Battery life. From what I read Galaxy wins, then Evo, then iPhone ?

3) Overall "speed", feeling of the phone - which one is / feels faster ?

4) Multitasking... Android is supposed to have it but it doesn't always work on my Nexus 7 tablet. I like to be able to listen to the music while browsing internet / reading a book / editing a spreadsheet. No problems in WM, but can be problematic in Android. Although this may be device specific.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by Amamba

So, it's Android vs iOS, and looks like Galaxy III vs Evo 4G LTE. I am not getting 4G where I live, btw.

I think the new iphone will have 4g so it wouldn't matter in the decision anyways.

I tried Android's alternatives to Siri and they suck.

Well which ones did you try? I ask this because if you used the ones in Google Play most of them are based on old systems. The ones inside the SGS3 for example like S-Voice is made by Naunce which was the parent company of Siri.

OTOH, I like to tinker with my devices. Also, we already have 2 Android tablets and one Android phone, it makes sense to get an Android device. Should I wait until Sprint gets iPhone 5 ? (This may not happen for a while, it seems). Perhaps then the price on smartphones would drop - right now, to upgrade to either of the Android phones would cost me $200.

Your call on whether to wait or not, it boils down to how desperate you are to get something new. Also it depends on who you order from, if you use a 3rd party you can get an Android phone as low as $100-$110. If only directly is an option, you can get $50 statement credit.

1) Pic / video quality - I know they all have 8 mp cameras and hd video, but I assume the output isn't equal.

The iphone and sgs3 use same camera which is better then the one on the evo. Only difference between iphone and sgs3 is iphone does the post processing for you while sgs3 lets you configure your settings.

2) Battery life. From what I read Galaxy wins, then Evo, then iPhone ?

Well both iphone and evo have sealed batteries. The SGS3 has the biggest battery and you can carry spare fully charged batteries. I have an Epic and that is what I do, I have 3 batteries, 1 inside the phone, 1 on external charger and 1 in my pocket. So when my cellphone dies any time, I take the battery out, put it in fully charged battery. And when I come home I put dead battery on the charger and put the fully charged battery in my pocket. So effectively I never have to charge again.

3) Overall "speed", feeling of the phone - which one is / feels faster ?

They are all pretty fast. The Androids don't have the Project Butter like your Nexus 7(should have it before end of year), though it does have hardware accelerated ui. Though AMOLED screens do have faster response time in general. So my answer is you gotta try it yourself, sorry :/

4) Multitasking... Android is supposed to have it but it doesn't always work on my Nexus 7 tablet. I like to be able to listen to the music while browsing internet / reading a book / editing a spreadsheet. No problems in WM, but can be problematic in Android. Although this may be device specific.

Well this one is a no brainer, sgs3. The 2gb ram.

There are also other phones in the pipeline like the LG e970 for sprint. Though people are not too big fans of LG. Though it will have the new quad core krait processors and 2gb ram.