I recently fucked up my old 3GS and need a new smartphone. Unfortunately, I live in Canadur, so my selection of good android phones is limited and I don't want to switch providers. Basically, I have narrowed it down to $50 for a Optimus 2X or $160 for an iPhone 4S. I primarily use my phone for browsing the web, reading emails, and watching videos when I am on the bus.
@VanillaPlant
For right now I would say the optimus since it has a bigger screen and probably more battery life but if you like your phone up to date the iphone 4s is the better choice that is unless the optimus has a decent community behind it that makes good custom roms for it (like cyanogen mod) but that would require you to do some tinkering with your device i.e. rooting, flashing, troubleshooting, etc.
The Optimus 2X is a good budget price phone for people who don't want a budget phone. The Tegra 2 may be getting replaced with its successor on tablets but you're still well into the sharper end of SoCs for computing (even if they lack the NEON media instructions from the cores, having two of them and some passable brute force get through any shortcomings). But LG are less than committed to updates (is 2.3 out yet for the 2X international? ICS is planned for the Summer and with LG time that could mean in 12 months) so you probably should decide if you want to commit to the ROM community or not. I like Cyanogen and see no disadvantage to running CM7 until they get a decent build of ICS working on the 2X so it doesn't really bother me.
Comparing the 2X to an iPhone 4 (don't have a 4S to give me context) then it is visibly snappier at web, has plenty of video codec support and larger screen output (also an IPS screen, just not as many pixels as the 4 - it is by no means low res but the 4S will give you more) but the main thing I like about the 2X is I can run code on it. Any code I like. I own my phone and it is a computer, it can run any arbitrary code I want because I have full control of it. I do not have to pay a license fee or fight against a manufacturer intent on restricting my access to the root user to run code on my phone. It is a computer not a consumer electronics device. Obviously, this requirement means I have very little experience on Apple phones (or WinPho7 for that matter) so I can't give you the blow by blow comparison but I will say the 2X may be priced to move, but it is in no way budget. And spending $15 on a spare battery means whatever I do, there is at least another day of charge in my top pocket in case I'm not able to charge it up one night and I don't need a stupid surround case to emulate that functionality, it has proper battery support. As phones should.
I recently fucked up my old 3GS and need a new smartphone. Unfortunately, I live in Canadur, so my selection of good android phones is limited and I don't want to switch providers. Basically, I have narrowed it down to $50 for a Optimus 2X or $160 for an iPhone 4S. I primarily use my phone for browsing the web, reading emails, and watching videos when I am on the bus.
Any helpful advice is appreciated.
For right now I would say the optimus since it has a bigger screen and probably more battery life but if you like your phone up to date the iphone 4s is the better choice that is unless the optimus has a decent community behind it that makes good custom roms for it (like cyanogen mod) but that would require you to do some tinkering with your device i.e. rooting, flashing, troubleshooting, etc.
The Optimus 2X is a good budget price phone for people who don't want a budget phone. The Tegra 2 may be getting replaced with its successor on tablets but you're still well into the sharper end of SoCs for computing (even if they lack the NEON media instructions from the cores, having two of them and some passable brute force get through any shortcomings). But LG are less than committed to updates (is 2.3 out yet for the 2X international? ICS is planned for the Summer and with LG time that could mean in 12 months) so you probably should decide if you want to commit to the ROM community or not. I like Cyanogen and see no disadvantage to running CM7 until they get a decent build of ICS working on the 2X so it doesn't really bother me.
Comparing the 2X to an iPhone 4 (don't have a 4S to give me context) then it is visibly snappier at web, has plenty of video codec support and larger screen output (also an IPS screen, just not as many pixels as the 4 - it is by no means low res but the 4S will give you more) but the main thing I like about the 2X is I can run code on it. Any code I like. I own my phone and it is a computer, it can run any arbitrary code I want because I have full control of it. I do not have to pay a license fee or fight against a manufacturer intent on restricting my access to the root user to run code on my phone. It is a computer not a consumer electronics device. Obviously, this requirement means I have very little experience on Apple phones (or WinPho7 for that matter) so I can't give you the blow by blow comparison but I will say the 2X may be priced to move, but it is in no way budget. And spending $15 on a spare battery means whatever I do, there is at least another day of charge in my top pocket in case I'm not able to charge it up one night and I don't need a stupid surround case to emulate that functionality, it has proper battery support. As phones should.