The most asked question to the Monkey is “which phone should I buy?”
This can be a very simple or complex answer, based on asking yourself a few questions.
What do most of you friends and co workers use?
If you work in a BlackBerry environment, maybe everyone is using the BBM messenger that currently only runs on BlackBerry.
If all your friends are playing a certain Android game that’s not available on the iPhone will that affect your decision?
If none of this affects your decision than the Monkey strongly suggests you choose the two biggest choices, Apple iPhone or Google Android. They are simply the largest growing choices and truly offer a mobile computer experience.
First off the Monkey must admit, he uses both, unfortunately there is no perfect choice.
The two hottest phones right now are the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 for Android.
- Apple iPhone
- Samsung Galaxy
Both phones feature a high res touch screen, high res camera, thousands of apps available on their own app store (many free).
DIFFERENCES
Android is considered an open platform, while the iPhone is closed.
This is a big deal. Some consider this a strength of Apple while others will tell you its a flaw. The Monkey says its 95% a plus, but that 5% can be a major pain sometimes.
Apple’s iMessage system is considered the most secure.
Apple devices use iMessage as an alternative to text messages. Not only is this a great savings since its free, but recently it was reported that law authorities could not track suspects activities.
Since Android is an open platform, it means your software choices are greater. For example Amazon has their own Android App store that is similar to Google’s App store. The only way to install Apps on the iPhone is with Apple’s App store.
This definitely protects you from bad software and virus’ but also limits some very cool applications.
For example, to load music or movies to an iPhone or iPad you must use iTunes. Android gives you many, many more ways to do this. The Monkey has 2 favorite ways to load media to Android. See this for an indepth walk thru. Another even simpler way is to use Dropbox. For more on Dropbox see this.
Now to be fair there are workarounds to do similar transfers on Apple devices, but they are not as simple or free. Also it should be said that with the iOS 5 software upgrade it made this is all easier with wireless transfers and iCloud. But iTunes is still required and not as flexible.
Jailbreaking the iPhone.
Jailbreaking is a way of making the iPhone an open platform, but this is not without its consequences. You are sidestepping the security of your phone, unless you do a lot of reading and understand exactly what you are doing the Monkey does not recommend this for the average user.
If you were to twist the Monkey’s arm and force him to choose for you, he would have to say iPhone. It simply has the highest user base, customer satisfaction and most quality apps. If you can’t decide, you probably wont be disappointed. But look around this site and others before you buy. Ask your friends’ opinions. Sometimes it is wise to go with the general consensus. Monkey see, monkey do can work for you too.
One last piece of info, always buy the largest memory size available. Its like buying a TV, you will always wish you bought bigger and in case you sell it, it helps your resale value.