(Gotta admit, I’m surprised that a similar thread didn’t already exist).
So I did the math, and between corporate discounts and whatnots, the two year cost of ownership for either an iPhone or Nexus One fall within $50 of each other, rendering the price difference pretty much moot. AT&T and T-Mobile pretty much both scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of NY service, so the ‘Service’ aspect is out of the equation as well. It’s pretty much just a hardware battle at this point.
Nexus One
[ul]
[li] no contract
[/li] [li] unlocked handset
[/li] [li] open system
[/li] [li] desktop widgets*
[/li] [li] i live on the google cloud
[/li][/ul] iPhone
[ul]
[li] bajillion apps, especially the ones I want
[/li][/ul]
I know the iPhone only has one real credit in its column, but it’s a pretty big one. All the major apps are on the iPhone, and while some of them are eventually coming out for Android, most of them never will. And this delta will only get wider as time goes on. True to its Linux roots (heh), Android isn’t gonna shrivel up and die any time soon, but it’ll likely never have the library the iPhone boasts.
I’m stumped, QT3ers. Help me decide.
seriously, though, how did Apple drop the ball on this? Desktop widgets are brilliant on a phone
I love the N1, but I hate the network it’s on. Wait for Verizon’s, and get that. I gave my 3GS to my wife (which means I can occasionally steal it if I have to, and there’s aways the wafer thin iPod Touch for apps…).
As far as phones goes, having played with both the iPhone and N1, I actually prefer the latter. I find it slicker, more responsive, and I really like the operating system (especially the whole “multitasking” bit). Desktop widgets are fantastic. In my eyes, the only thing the iPhone really has going for it is an extensive app library.
As far as Verizon goes, the “no contract & unlocked” aspect of the N1 is a huge selling point for me. Even though the network’s better, I don’t know if I’d want to tie myself to a contract for it.
Nope, because the plan you use on the unlocked phone is cheaper.
Locked: $179 + $79/mo Unlocked: $529 + $59/mo
So your two-year cost of ownership comes out to $2075 for a locked phone and $1945 for an unlocked phone, a $130 difference. If you added ETF to the equation, you’d tack on a $175 fee to T-Mobile and a $150 fee to Google, bringing the delta to $455
Plus you get the perks of having an unlocked phone (hopping carriers whenever you want, overseas use, etc).
Scuttlebutt has it that the iPhone v4 is coming out in May or June, so at this point I’m probably better off just waiting and seeing what comes down the pike. I’ve had my current phone for years, a few more months won’t kill me.
I would bet June\July. The new iPhones are usually announced during WWDC. No official date has been set for this year’s, but it’s usually held early June.
I think that’s a thing only T-Mobile does, though, yeah?
Plus you get the perks of having an unlocked phone (hopping carriers whenever you want, overseas use, etc).
Hopping carriers in the US isn’t really possible – T-Mobile phones don’t work in 3G on ATAT and vice-versa. Hopefully that’ll change once everyone moves to LTE.
Yeah. I’m hoping that it starts a trend, but right now it’s just T-Mobile.
Hopping carriers in the US isn’t really possible – T-Mobile phones don’t work in 3G on ATAT and vice-versa. Hopefully that’ll change once everyone moves to LTE.
I have a number of friends who were using jailbroken iPhones on T-Mobile for a while. I can’t see why the reverse wouldn’t be possible.
In any case, I don’t really have plans of carrier-hopping. It’s just nice to have the option.
Well, having an unlocked phone still gives me the benefit of taking it overseas, as well as selling it on eBay or Craigslist. If I went for the Nexus One and then six months later the Nexus Two came out, I could readily sell my current phone to help offset some of the cost of the new phone.
It is indeed the better phone, but AT&T is just horrible. When the reports of network issues started coming out I scoffed, but over the past couple of months it’s degraded to nearly unusable. AT&T drops 1 out of 5 calls. No joke.
It’s supposedly worst in New York, where every hipster, banker, sophisto, party kid, and everyone in-between has an iPhone. The infrastructure just can’t handle the load and half the time the phone is just a pretty paperweight.
As someone who just jumped between extremes–I had one of the first 32g iPod Touches, and my wife and I just got 3GS iPhones last week–I gotta say, my organizational apps (calendar, contacts, and email on google, Evernote, Remember The Milk) work a zillion times better networked on the 3GS than the syncing via Wifi ever did.
Unless you’re an open-source outlaw who wants to use the N1 with a google voice account and save oodles of money by going with just a data plan, I’d say go with the iPhone if there’s not a real difference in pricing for you. The iPhone may be a fascist regime, but the trains run on time and the streets are very well maintained.
