Best phone on rotations

Rising third year here. Which phone do you guys think is best to use on rotations when looking stuff up or during downtime on-call or whatever. I prefer a decent-sized and easy to read screen. Self disclosure: I know next to nothing about iPhones/androids so I don't know what's important to consider in buying one. Any help is appreciated.

Originally Posted by MrDocMD

Rising third year here. Which phone do you guys think is best to use on rotations when looking stuff up or during downtime on-call or whatever. I prefer a decent-sized and easy to read screen. Self disclosure: I know next to nothing about iPhones/androids so I don't know what's important to consider in buying one. Any help is appreciated.

iPhone 4s IMO.

+1 iPhone 4S

Samsung galaxy s2 or Google nexus also by Samsung. Android medical app development is moving faster than apple. Plus these phones have better hardware than the iPhone. Give me a 4.6 inch high def screen over the puny 3.5 inch screen any day.

Originally Posted by badasshairday

Samsung galaxy s2 or Google nexus also by Samsung. Android medical app development is moving faster than apple.

Can you back up this claim? From all the medical apps that I've seen, and apps in general really, they always come out for iPhone first, then Android.

+1 iPhone

Originally Posted by Star Fox

Can you back up this claim? From all the medical apps that I've seen, and apps in general really, they always come out for iPhone first, then Android.

+1 iPhone

You can check out a lot of this on tech sites, but basically it goes like this. Rate of growth in the android app market is significantly higher than the iphone. It appears that the Android market may have pulled ahead in total number of apps, or they are at least neck to neck. Also in terms of when apps are put on one platform or another, it use to be true that most come out for iphone first, but with android making up a greater market share of smart phones, this is becoming less true. In fact, popular apps like Epocrates, Facebook, Netflix, etc are on both platforms.

The beauty with the android market is that it allows for open development, unlike the restricted development found on apple. So if you are a doctor and have a great idea for an app, you can make it with ease on the android market and distribute it easily. The best real life example was when I was on ICU rounds with the ICU team. The ICU fellow pulled out an android app that had all the things you could ever want for critical care, neph, cardio, pulm, renal. We all thought it was awesome and d/l it on the spot, except for one resident with an iphone who was searching but could not find it. Turns out this app was made by an ICU fellow who made a very practical app for medical professionals.

At the same time I won't deny that apple has very high quality apps, but in terms of day to day usage it doesn't make as much of a difference as hardware and software capabilities of the devices. This is because the most popular apps are available on both and the small party apps on the android give you a lot of choices.

In sum, android in the future. The market share is increasing in terms of total smart phones and the open application development continues to increase accordingly.

Originally Posted by MrDocMD

Rising third year here. Which phone do you guys think is best to use on rotations when looking stuff up or during downtime on-call or whatever. I prefer a decent-sized and easy to read screen. Self disclosure: I know next to nothing about iPhones/androids so I don't know what's important to consider in buying one. Any help is appreciated.

+1 for the iPhone 4 / 4S.

Play with a 4S in an Apple or AT&T store, and do the same for the best Android phone you can find. You'll have plenty of medical apps on either platform, so choose based on which phone you like more. There has been a string of new Android phone reviews over on Engadget fwiw.

Only thing about the iPhone: odds are good that we're going to see a new one come out sometime before October of this year going by track record (and the usual, more credible rumor mill sites), so you'll be behind one generation in a matter of months if that matters to you.

$0.02.

I have an iphone 4 now but I plan on getting something with a bigger screen, maybe the galaxy s2.

Thanks for all your replies. How much are you folks paying for your service? I'm trying to shop around for the cheapest monthly plan that will be adequate for my needs.

Originally Posted by MrDocMD

Thanks for all your replies. How much are you folks paying for your service? I'm trying to shop around for the cheapest monthly plan that will be adequate for my needs.

Virgin Mobile, you have to pay out of pocket for the phone, but it is $35 for unlimited web, texting and 300 minutes (used to be $25, but still better than anything else)

I got the optimus for $100 with a coupon and it runs epocrates and medscape and all the other medical apps I have on it.

But I am going to second the suggestion to look into what cell phone carrier your hospital uses if you are primarily at one hospital. I spent 3 months at a different hospital that has absolutely no cell phone reception whatsoever except for sprint and it was really frustrating to have basically nobody's phones working.

Originally Posted by MrDocMD

Rising third year here. Which phone do you guys think is best to use on rotations when looking stuff up or during downtime on-call or whatever. I prefer a decent-sized and easy to read screen. Self disclosure: I know next to nothing about iPhones/androids so I don't know what's important to consider in buying one. Any help is appreciated.

The best phone is one that gets signal in the hospital/OR. Interestingly, most pager system in east coast, esp NYC, hospitals is by Nextel, which is owned by Sprint. So while sprint is not as good as verizon, in hospitals sprint phones get signals everywhere. If you really want to get signal even in the basement of the hosp, get nextel iDEN phone. (but those phones dont have internet capability)