Hi Peter,
as a Samsung (*) owner for less than one week, I can’t answer many of your questions yet. But my wife has been using an Android phone from Samsung (S4? I’m not really familiar with their numbering) for over two years without the least problem. No display cracks (and she really doesn’t treat her phones with velvet gloves), no heating up no nothing. A battery charge lasts three or four days.
On the other hand, I have an iPhone 5 from my company for a little under two years now. Although I am a dedicated Apple fanboy since 25 years (started using a Macintosh in 1989) and will not tolerate anything else on my desk ever, this iPhone is the by far the worst mobile phone I have ever had (if I could I would trade it back instantly for the previous company phone, a Blackberry!). The battery lasts hardly a day even if you don’t use it at all, and network reception and voice communication is simply appalling. I am told that the iPhone 4 was much better and the iPhone 6 is a little better in these respects, but I have no wish to try that out, especially not at the funny price they are asking.
When my own phone contract was up for renewal and they asked me which phone to send me, all I asked for was “a black one and not an iPhone please”. So last week for a whopping 29 Euros (an iPhone would have cost at least 200 with my contract plus 20 Euros extra per month) I found a “Galaxy Grand Prime” in my mail. I don’t know (or care) where that fits into the numbering scheme of Samsung.
I have been using it for five days now on it’s first charge and it still shows 20% battery left. Voice communication and network reception is excellent. Those two points make up for 90% satisfaction for me with any mobile phone. It seems to take a little longer to get a GPS position than the iPhone.
The camera is supposed to have 8MPixels, but I haven’t tried that out. I always (!) carry a proper camera with me so I have no habit to use a mobile phone for taking pictures. Therefore I have not tried any photo or video upload functionality. But I suppose that Vimeo might be poorly supported with an Android device. Afrer all, Google owns YouTube…
Skype works nicely, but I have not found out yet, how (of if at all?) it can use the phone’s address book. That’s much simpler with Apple devices.
( * ) “Samsung Android owner” it must read. My last phone, now six years in use, was also from Samsung. But running Windows Mobile which must be the worst bit of software written in almost 70 years of computer history. But I only used it for voice and text messages and it never had the least problem.
For me, the Nexus 6 has removed the need to carry a tablet. I use the phone to read the newspaper in the train …
Hmm. I know I want one 
Well… I have ordered the S6.
Some outfit in Germany is selling it on Amazon for a lot less than the UK Amazon sellers.
Before you all wonder which museum my Nokia 808 will end up in, I am keeping it as my backup phone, to carry on trips
Thank you all for your feedback.
Ok, I’m putting the bottle of champaign in the fridge that I reserved for the day when I can remove support for this Symbian/Opera POS from autorouter… I had originally expected this for 2020 or so 
Interesting! (I mean it!)
I for one would never go anywhere from the iPhone, or Apple for that matter. I installed Windows on one Mac (via Bootcamp) … and every time i boot it i see how far behind Windows is.
iOS is still light years ahead of any Android version I have seen. It’s more stable and elegant and I really never understood why the closed file system would be a problem. I can upload anything to my Dropbox and to a million other services and although i use iPhones and two iPads constantly i have never felt the urge to save a PDF on a USB stick :-) But I am not an engineer ;-), so what do I know! And by the way: Today there’s millions of wireless HDDs and all kinds of accessories for almost anything you will ever need. I have microfones, fisheye lenses, portable batteries, adapters to up- and download images … and there’s even software that gives you access to the file system, if really necessary,
The iPhone camera is a great camera, and what i love it most for is that Apple didn’t step into the Megapixel trap. They might, but i hope they don’t. While Peter’s 41 MP Nokia camera is impressive, the quality is definitely not 5 times better. It’s maybe a little better than the iPhone 6 camera, but i have not made a real comparison. The iPhone has a great video mode, slow motion and HDR mode and with the help of some apps the results can be very impressive. I need nothing more from a smartphone camera than it can do. If i want to make real pictures (field of depth, bokee …) i use a professional DSLR. There’s too many things in photography a smartphone camera cannot do, and will not do for a long time.
I have Macs in three offices and I use two iPads and an iPhone. What i like best is that i have exactly the same data on every device … I can leave the Mac in my home office and drive over to my office… and I will have the same browser tabs, the same address books, eMails, calenders. While others can do that too … nobody can do it as smooth as Apple.
And as a pilot i think that nobody has Flight apps like Apple. Not even close.
PS: For somebody who wants an Android phone the S6 is a very good choice!
there’s even software that gives you access to the file system
That (access to the Documents directory using software such as I-explorer) is being blocked with v8 IOS… it will create significant problems for some “expert” users. No way will I ever update the Ipad2 I have.
the quality is definitely not 5 times better
Sure; the CameraPro app downsamples to 12MP, averaging adjacent pixels.
Android is far easier to root (jailbreak) and then you can customise it. For example you can disable all auto updates including update nagging. Also quite a few useful apps need a rooted phone. Plus you can remove various rubbish and free up more memory. The root kit for the S6 is available already
Regards access to external devices, I like to be able to backup stuff (photos etc) to a separate physical device. Phones do get lost or stolen, or stop working. Also internet access is rarely available at even a small fraction of the speed required to backup photos, so while dropbox is a great solution for a lot of stuff, there is a lot it will never do. And a very easy way to get a document printed off in a hotel, with a dumb person at the desk, is to copy it to a flash stick (as a PDF – another thing…) and ask them to print it.
I for one would never go anywhere from the iPhone, or Apple for that matter. I installed Windows on one Mac (via Bootcamp) … and every time i boot it i see how far behind Windows is.
iOS is still light years ahead of any Android version I have seen. It’s more stable and elegant and I really never understood why the closed file system would be a problem.
Well… I’m certainly a “Mac person”, having used Macs since the original Macintosh. I used an iPhone for two years, then switched to Android. The reason is that I don’t want Apple to decide what software I can or can not run on my own hardware. Apple has made some well publicised and not very enlightened decisions in that respect and I’m sure there are lots more than have never got public attention.
And honestly, Windows is almost as good as MacOS today and in no way is iOS “light years” ahead of any Android version.
There’s many wireless HDD’s to which you can transfer your photos.
And I don’t upload photos to Dropbox either, but i have a 1TB account for documents. Photos are automatically uploaded to Apple’s cloud in the background, if i want. But The only backups i make are DSLR pictures to my 128 GB iPad, which is easy (USB cable and adapter).
If i really need to print something i either print it directly from the iPhone or – if that doesn’t work – i can always print it from any hotel computer. After all i got that PDF by eMail or from the internet, right? I open a browserbon the hotel computer, open my eMail and print. That is even quicker than transferrung PDFs to USB sticks.
Well, yes Windows has come a long way but compared to OSX it feels like a LADA to me. I have yet to see somebody going back to W after they had a Mac.
I don’t really care about the file system restrictions because i find the variety and quality of iOS apps for everything i do much better. I’ll probably stay with Apple for a long time. But i am different than Peter: i only want the apps and the solutions, i am happy when i don’t see a file system :-)
I have Macs in three offices and I use two iPads and an iPhone. What i like best is that i have exactly the same data on every device … I can leave the Mac in my home office and drive over to my office… and I will have the same browser tabs, the same address books, eMails, calenders. While others can do that too … nobody can do it as smooth as Apple.
I don’t think you understand what Google really is. With Google you can do the exact same thing as you describe, only it doesn’t matter what OS you use. If I use Windows, Mac or Linux, I can simply install a Chrome browser and everything is available. Today I use Android phone and pad and normally use a Chromebook instead of a PC (I also have a PC though). Anyway, the experience is much smoother and interconnected than any Apple device. Google is a “cloud OS” and Android is simply the end “receptor” or interface for a phone. Also, Android itself is much more than simply an interface for apps and the cloud. By rooting Android it becomes a Linux device where you can do everything imaginable, but it’s only for those with special interest. I have no urge or need to do it (I still have my Nokia N800, N900 and N9 if I should feel the urge for “Linux”. The N900 is an amazing device, even by today’s standards)
With my Chromebook, I can simply put it in “developer mode” and it essentially become a Linux box (maybe a Linux box “light”, but still). Some people dual boot in Ubuntu.
I can upload anything to my Dropbox and to a million other services and although i use iPhones and two iPads constantly i have never felt the urge to save a PDF on a USB stick
This I agree with. The potential problem is lack of wifi. Overall though, I think the process of obtaining wifi if it’s not there, is rather simple in most cases, or just bring a small PC as a “middle man” to transfer files. I also think rooting a device just to be able to read from a stick is rather silly. It should be available out of the box.
I don’t think you understand what Google really is.
You underestimate me :-) Yes, I know it can easily be done with Chrome/Google. I just prefer Apple’s ergonomics, look and feel, that’s all. And it’s not even that important. The coffee is important, not the brand of the coffee maker :-)
What i want to say is: While I was never in it as much as Achim or Peter I have spent a bigger part of my youth installing software all night long or trying to repair a broken computer … like all of us … today (maybe it has to do with beeing 55 years old now) I try to focus on the solution. Can I make a nicer picture, can i plan the flight quicker, will it help my guitar playing? I quit using CDs, DVDs (in computers) rarely use a USB stick (but i have to to update my avionics) and I try to do everything via Cloud/Dropbox. Works well for me.
I have to admit that I like Apple’s industrial design a lot. To me that’s a big factor, I *hate*__Italic__ beeing surrounded by ugly stuff with a passion and the typical Windows PC is something i do not want to look at. I rather pay a higher price … but that’s only me. Must not be true for anybody else.
