Phone upgrade time, send help! (Android? iOS? Soup cans with strings?)

[burrito]

I'm in the market soon for a new phone. Stuck on the AT&T network (can't be changed), and avoiding the hell out of another Samsung phone after the insane problems I've had with the last two. Not much of a care for Windows Mobile as an OS again, so eyeballing the HTC Aria or the iPhone. Not a fan of Apple, but willing to bite back my dislike if the thing will work efficiently.

Honestly, haven't done much review digging (went back to about July in the tech forum here), just looking more for personal experience with the phones and to have a few questions answered, because the rep in the AT&T store yesterday was a complete idiot.

I don't know much about the OS of either phone so jailbreaking/whatever/etc. is probably not going to be an option.

1) Does the phone have capability to load/read/edit text (.txt, .doc, etc) files? Huge importance, a ton of my notes are saved to my current phone and is used probably more than text/calls.
2) If I already have the (now non-existant? I guess) unlimited data plan, will I still need the entire list of crap AT&T has listed under the iPhone 4 added on? Tethering = wtf?
3) How irritating is it to move files from a computer to said device. Older Windows mobile phones, so basically used a microSD card when I was too lazy to dig up a cable. Does either phone use the microSD still or is that dead by now?
4) Battery life? I loved my old HTC Kaiser, but the battery life was complete shit. Not looking into Kaiser 2/Tilt 2 due to said battery.
5) Stupid, but background images: they can be changed on the phone? It's a strange anal retentive thing I have, can't quite explain it.
6) Durability? I tend to have moments when gravity doesn't quite agree with me-- how do these phones stand up to wear/tear/clumsiness?

Any help would be appreciated so much-- having to get this resolved before 18 Jan.

[sruon]

Android:

1. Yes, multiples app have the capacity to read/edit these files and more.
2) Not sure what you mean
3) MicroSD yes but most of the time they're not intended for hotplug, but there are multiple easy to use FTP applications so that you can access your phone over WiFi and drag/drop files if you're too lazy to find the cable (and who isn't these days).
4) Depends how much you expect, need, use your phone: a complete day (a bit less on some devices) spamming stuff on the phone is to be expected.
5) Yeah, you can use multiple background types, live (3D animation but drains battery), your own background pictures or the defaults one (20 or so of them)
6) I've had my HTC Desire for 7 months now, using a simple leather cover and an invisibleSHIELD and it's still in near mint condition. The shield has taken some hits but if I removed it you couldn't tell the phone has been used at all.


My personnal HTC favorites, they all have great specs on top of an active community (http://forum.xda-developers.com/), not sure if AT&T will sell them or whatever :

HTC Desire
HTC Desire HD
HTC Evo 4G
HTC Incredible

[jmc]

For at&t you should look at the......

Samsung Captivate (Android)
HTC Aria (Android)
Any of the Windows 7 phones (I know you list android/iOS devices, but windows 7 phones are still a thing to consider)
iPhone 4.

The difference between iOS and android is gradually shrinking, so it should just be between which phone you like the most based on physical needs and not software needs.

[wyrmtung]

Here are the iPhone answers:

1) Yes you can. There is more than one way to skin this cat. You can buy an 3rd-party app but which one is best? There are a few apps that can do this but it is hard to know without doing a lot of research on reviews. You might have to even waste money buying a few to see which one you prefer. This problem also exists with Android.

I prefer to use either the built in Notes app that comes with the iOS. Since I am always in the Apple ecosystem, I have iTunes automatically sync my notes with my computer and vice versa. The notes go into my Apple Mail which I can edit on my computer and/or convert into a Word doc if I want to pretty it up. You can do the same on a PC by having iTunes sync your notes with Outlook.

Another way to skin the cat is to just write yourself an email which you can save as a draft and edit it whenever you want then email it to yourself when you want to send it to your PC.

2) You must give up your unlimited plan privileges and sign up for their 2GB data plan with tethering. Guess it depends on how badly you want tethering and if you can keep your data usage under 2GB. Personally, I usually can find free WiFi if I really need to get online with my computer away from home or work.

3) No microSD slot. You are limited to the 32GB of memory in the phone. As for moving files, which files? Some files like music, movie, and picture files are moved by syncing with iTunes. Other files like docs, spreadsheets, and pdf can be transferred wirelessly by either emailing it or using an app like Air Sharing (which is a pretty good app.)

4) Battery life? Relative term. iPhone 4 has the best battery of all the iPhones so you can take it for what it is worth. People that like the iPhone are constantly using it so the battery runs out faster. It's hard to compare apples to apples when talking battery life among phones.

I always plugged in my phones when I drive to and from work so I never have battery issues. I made that a habit with all the cell phones I ever owned.

5) Yup.

6) Get a phone case and it should be fine in "most" cases. I had a friend drop a naked iPhone from about shoulder height and it was totally fine. I had a coworker who was sitting down and it dropped out of his pocket (less than 2ft drop) and it hit in the right spot to make the screen crack.

[wyrmtung]

One more thing to consider when choosing an OS: customer satisfaction surveys. Apple always ranks first in CSAT surveys for "customers who like their phone" and "customers who would buy it again." Second place is usually a version of an Android phone with the other OS's rounding out the rest. And when I mean "first" I do mean first. I have yet to read a survey in the last three years that did not rank iPhone above all others.

[Tyche]

You should be able to grandfather your unlimited plan to a new line. I was.

I hate apple as well, but I have an iPhone 4 and wouldn't trade it for anything.

[DAKPluto]

Umm, what one person said above is wrong, you do not NOT have to get tethering. Only need that if you want the ability to tether. (Or you can jailbreak, and not let AT&T cheat you out of $20/month)

When it comes to the "app store" world, Apple still crushes the shit out of Droid. No questions there. If there is any complaint I hear most from droid users, it's that the droid app store needs a lot of work when they compare it to apples.

[wyrmtung]

I misread his question. My response was based on him wanting tethering. I assumed he already knew he could keep his unlimited plan. Me bad.

As for apps, the disadvantage with Droid is the same issue with PC's. It's all fragmented. Apps are not centrally located and they sometimes need to consider the hardware limitations of the various manufacturers. With Apple, the same company makes the software, hardware and app store.