Droid vs. iPhone

Since a new phone is going to be my Christmas present, you guys are stuck with me debating for the next month.

I’ve come down to four basic things that I really care about. There are plenty of “nice to haves” that won’t ultimately influence my decision:

• Camera: I rarely take pictures from my phone. Sure, if it was a better camera I’d take more pictures, but it’s not a big deal to me.
• Video: If I don’t care about the camera…
• Keyboard: The Droid could have gotten a leg up with a kick ass physical keyboard, but short of that, this isn’t a big deal to me.

So what do I really care about?

• Network: This really matters. My wife complains about AT&T all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to check a web page on my Verizon phone because her AT&T iPhone couldn’t get signal.
• Apps: Huge. Both my daughters play games on my wife’s phone. The number of cool apps that can’t run on my Pearl is ridiculous. This is a big part of why I want a new phone.
• Notifications: While my Blackberry is old, this is something it does well and I don’t want to lose it. I can just look at my phone and know if there are new tweets or Facebook postings.
• User Experience: Victoria is a walking iPhone commercial. At 2 1/2, she could completely use my wife’s phone, at least in terms of playing the games she likes. Software should be that easy.

So the Droid wins on network and notifications and the iPhone wins on apps and user experience. Still a tough call. Right now I’d say the iPhone is going to win on apps. Android just has a long way to go on apps. With an iPhone I could unlock my ZipCar…