Why I dumped my 4G Android for an iPhone

Unreliabilty, anemic backup process plague Android phones

Android is the king of the smartphone world, with better sales than Apple's iPhone, and many good reasons for its success.

I'm a big fan of Android. When it works properly, it opens possibilities that aren't available to iPhone users because Google allows installation of third-party applications not available in the Android Market.

But I've run through two Android phones, which proved to be less reliable than any Windows computer I've owned, and I finally made the switch I was hoping to avoid: I bought an iPhone.

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I am not urging Android users to switch. Most Android phones probably work just fine. If your phone still works, that's great. Keep using it. But I'll explain why I ultimately dumped Android for Apple's iOS.

I started out with the Motorola Droid early in 2010. I loved it. For a few months. It started failing, and failing some more: The keyboard wouldn't work, maps wouldn't work, the home screen would go blank, it was slow, and sometimes I couldn't even make phone calls without powering the phone off and on a couple of times.

I chalked most of these problems up to the poor hardware. The phone had only 256MB of RAM and each new application slowed it down. To keep the phone going for more than a year, I performed at least two factory resets and got one replacement phone.

Finally, I'd had enough and was ready to get an Android phone with some real horsepower. I bought a 4G LG Revolution from Verizon. It was everything I wanted - for two weeks. The large screen, powerful processor and memory kept it running smoothly and I put hours into customizing the phone with an alternate home screen launcher and a lock screen replacement tool to provide easier access to my favorite apps.

Then, in the middle of a business trip, I turned the phone off and it wouldn't turn back on. More specifically, it would turn back on but go to a completely blank screen. After a call to Verizon, I discovered my only option was a factory reset and that was the final straw: I swapped it for an iPhone. I'm even getting a refund because it's cheaper than the Revolution.

I'd long avoided the iPhone for a few reasons: I don't like the small screen and the inability to replace the battery, the notification system is anemic, I'm not crazy about putting all my technology chips in with Apple (since I also own a Mac and iPad), and I hate the restrictions on installing third-party applications.

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One of the biggest benefits I got from Android was nearly-free USB tethering. For a $15 fee, I purchased PDAnet, which let me share the phone's wireless Internet connection with a laptop without paying additional monthly fees. You can't install PDAnet on an iPhone unless you jailbreak it, just one reason why I believed owning an Android phone was nearly as good as owning a jailbroken iPhone.

But after three factory resets, and two phone switches, perhaps the biggest advantage of the iPhone became clear: the backup and restore process. Each time you reset an Android phone or buy a new one, you have to re-download all your applications from the Market (while hoping they're still available), set up your home screens and icons again, type in all your passwords, etc. etc.

Google and the carriers will tell you all your applications will be there in the Market in a convenient list, but in the five times I had to start over this was only true once. In the other four cases, the Market gave me a list of the all the applications I had purchased, but not the free ones I had downloaded.

There are some ways to deal with this. The best one I found was an app that simply provides a list of all your applications and download links to make the process of re-acquiring applications simpler. Some non-Google tools promise to back up your Android applications, usually for a fee. And alternate home screen launchers allow you to back up your settings, which I assume would put your home screens back in order. (Users of rooted phones have more options than owners of non-rooted phones.)

At the very least, Google does back up your contacts online. But the Apple backup process - which I was already familiar with due to owning an iPod Touch and iPad - is far superior.

Next: Why I switched.

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