Tag Archives: iPhone 5c

From HTC/Android to the Dark Side: Part 1

Yes – I’ve finally joined the ‘wonderful’ world of Apple.

I’ve been using HTC phones for years, before it was commonly known they were even made by the then small HTC – they were simply
branded by Orange as the SPV – Sounds, Pictures, Video – one of the first ‘Smartphones’.

This was before Android was even an itch in Google’s underwear, and HTC devices were running Windows Mobile. It was a slow, flaky
& unreliable operating system, and the phone would frequently crash – but I loved it. The technology and functionality was way
beyond what was currently offered by anyone else – remember early Nokias?

The ability to simply copy files from your PC to your phone, such as text documents, spreadsheets, music and even (initially,
short) videos, was revolutionary, and I fell in love with the brand.

4 or 5 years and 3 SPVs later I was getting a bit sick of the sub-standard operating system provided by our friends at Microsoft.
Fortunately for me, Android came along.

The Android OS gave me more flexibility and reliabilty. I could play entire movies on the high quality screen – great for holidays & travelling or even in waiting rooms. I copied episodes of the series ‘24‘ and ‘Alias‘ onto my phone and would watch them at lunch time at the gym on the running machine!

The first iPhone came out but I believed it to be over priced and over hyped; I didn’t like the restrictions that ‘Mother Apple’ placed on you – I prefered the openness and freedom an Android phone gave you. I considered other Android phones made by manufacturers such as Samsung, but always prefered the looks, price, and features of what seemed to be superior HTC models.

My last HTC phone, the One S, was a slim, impressive device. But only a year into my two year contract I started to get frustrated. The battery life was poor. If I spent more than 30 mins watching films/playing games/surfing the web then the battery would die before bed time. The lack of expandable memory on this device and my desire to load it with music and entertainment meant it had soon expired, and I was in a constant battle to keep space clear.

Then there was the reliability. It started getting slow, and regularly crashing.

At this point I would be grumbling and my girlfriend would helpfully interject with a sweet comment such as “on my iPhone, that
doesn’t happen” or “oh, on the iPhone you can do suchandsuch instead, isn’t that better?“.

Around this point I was having some problems with my laptop too. Ok, I was always having problems with my laptop – it’s running a
Microsoft operating system, hello! – but the damn thing was grinding to a halt and having problems recognising USB devices, including the mouse. After a memory upgrade and a repair of Windows it was better, but still running slowly.

Enter the ever helpful girlfriend.

Look how many tabs I’ve got open“, showing me the 40+ tabs she has open on her (relatively old) iMac. I had 15 and it was running at a snails pace.

Look what soandso piece of software can do” – etc.

Then there’s my brother, friends, family, colleagues, all talking about how wonderful their iPad/iPhone/iMac is – especially about how nicely they all interact together.

I started seriously considering getting an iMac. I’ve always stuck by the idiom ‘why make life hard for yourself’ – and my Windows laptop was making life hard for me.

But they’re not cheap, and it’s a big jump, changing all the software I’m used to etc etc.

Then came the ideal opportunity to test the waters of the dark side… my phone contract was finally coming up for renewal.

I ordered a shiny new iPhone5c in white. Having been frustrated by the lack of expandable storage space on my 16GB HTC, I was
disappointed that you couldn’t expand the iPhone’s either, and opted for a large 32GB model.

I’ve now been a member of ‘the Apple family’ for a couple of weeks.

Have I turned towards the dark side??

Find out in my next post as I compare the iPhone5c to my HTC One S.