Droid Proves to be Smarter than the Rest

      The largest known smart phone, the BlackBerry was released in 2002 and has continued to have significant popularity amongst teens and adults alike. “It has games, Internet and hundreds of apps, like weather and game scores. Plus the address book never gets full,” explained junior Monroe Sherman.

      However, senior Erin Brady found that BlackBerry wasn’t very user friendly. “I considered the BlackBerry, but I ended up not getting it because the system was too confusing for me to learn … the screen was too small and the keys were impossible to type on.” Brady decided to buy an iPhone instead. 

      Senior Amanda Chaput also ultimately decided BlackBerry was inferior to the other offerings. “My [Blackberry] Pearl was worse [than my Droid]. It wouldn’t let me answer calls, it would freeze and it had this weird noise it made when I did too many things at once,” said Chaput.

      Among the students interviewed, the Droid got the most praise between the three smart phones, no matter what type of smart phone the student owned. Senior Jack Hanlon purchased the iPhone because it was the closest fit to the Droid available for AT&T customers. “My friend has the Droid, and I was impressed with all the features it had. It was really handy at times. [So when it came time for an upgrade] I looked for a Droid-type of smart phone.”

      Senior Caitlin Whiteis, owner of the BlackBerry Storm also wishes she has a Droid. “I actually want the Droid now because the Internet is so fast and you can download apps like you can on the iPhone,” said Whiteis.

      Even though the iPhone and Droid both have apps available, the Droid’s apps still beat the competition according to students who favored the Droid. “My phone updates regularly; it is constantly changing … My [Droid] is also perfect for people like me who have special needs. No BlackBerry can tell you if a food is gluten-free,” said Chaput.

      To compare the iPhone and Droid even further, Joe Zerafa, a senior who has owned the Droid for more than a year said, “Android [the Droid operating system] provides a better operating system than iOS [the operating system that runs on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad]. To begin with Android is [like] the United States and iOS is communist Russia. With Android you can do whatever you want with the system. Google doesn’t care. iOS, you do what Apple wants. No options.”

      According to the students, the winner is clear. “Want 4G service? Android has it. Want a giant screen? Android has it. Want top of the line hardware? Android has it,” said Zerafa.

by Christine O’Connell ‘11

In less than a generation, cell phones have evolved from just calling, to texting and calling, to now having games, GPS systems and even apps that show the movie times at the local theatre. Amongst the many smart phones available from each wireless carrier, the iPhone, BlackBerry and Droid stand out in the crowd. But to find out which smart phone of the three leaders in the market truly is the best, we turned to students with smart phones to be the judges.