I love Apple products. I was excited for the iPhone when it was first announced but I did wait until the kinks were worked out on the first model and have been an iPhone owner since the 3G model was released. There was a brief fling with a Windows Phone model, but as much as I loved Microsoft’s take on the interface, the lack of apps and dreadful camera had me shipping it back ASAP.

Lunch at The Habit Burger Grill – snapped on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

I did take a look at Android back then, but the cameras on the models couldn’t hold a candle to Apple’s dedication to making the camera an important feature and not an afterthought. When Verizon SoCal approached me to take a look at their phones and network, I thought it’d be a great time to revisit the platform.

I received a shiny Samsung Galaxy Note 3 via FedEx and took it to the beach that day and loved the screen. I love the portability of my iPhone 5S but it’s much more enjoyable to watch videos on the Note. I also remembered that VZ has an exclusive with the NFL on their mobile app that allowed me to watch preseason games on the device & I watched quite a few World Cup matches this summer as well. I was actually supposed to send the phone back a month ago (oops!) but they were generous enough to extend the loaner.

The phone comes with a stylus, but I’ll have to say that my penmanship isn’t the best and I preferred to use the onscreen keyboard. I’ve seen some gripes online about the faux leather backing on the device but I actually found it comfortable to the touch. My only gripe on the shape is that it’s definitely difficult to use it one-handed, which may be one reason Steve Jobs was hesitant to make a larger iPhone.

There are definitely plenty of similiarities to iOS with Android, however one way that it towers leaps and bounds over Apple, in my opinion was in the way of sharing items in apps to social media. I’m a social media addict and love to post items via Twitter, Facebook and other networks. Apple has made some headway in recent years and it’s easy to share to Twitter and Facebook personal pages. However, from most apps on Android, I can share to Twitter, 3rd party twitter apps, Facebook, my Facebook business page(!), Dropbox, Evernote, etc. I’ve used a clunky third-party app to “clip” pages to save to Evernote and I can do this directly from most apps on Android.

Balboa Park. Snapped with the Galaxy Note 3

Verizon’s network was pretty speedy in most spots. I used the phone at home, at work, on weekend trips to LA and it rarely skipped a beat. They’ve been making improvements to the network here in San Diego and it seems to be paying dividends. I’m a bit of a data hog, so that’d have to be taken into consideration if I’d decide to switch! I’ll have a post on a companion wearable tech device coming soon.

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