First of all, I don't think I've used Touchwiz - had to google it - and there isn't really any knowledge to drop, just my feelings about using and navigating Android.

Further investigation shows I have mainly been using the Sense UI. Although the HTC Hero interface looked a little different to the others.

Overall I found it was a bit too clunky and unintuitive, almost like they were trying a bit too hard to be clever and innovative.

It's difficult to explain.

OK, the first time I picked up an iPhone I felt comfortable in seconds - it was very easy, almost natural, to navigate. Using Android, I was referring to the manual constantly.

Let me try another way - With the iPhone you quickly discover it's good points - it takes time to uncover it's failings. Android was almost a reversal of that. Getting to know the phone's features and good points felt like a chore, so the first impression was negative. I've no doubts that Android is popular and very capable, it just didn't come across as a pickup-and-go friendly interface - which I think is crucial for a mobile OS.

I know, I know, I'll never get a job as a phone reviewer.

I can see that to be homnest. My phone out of the box took a good couple of hours of configuring my widgets and home screens, skins, etc to get the phone exactly how I wanted. Now I have though I absolutely would not swap it for anything (the twitter, FB, email , etc widgets on the homescreens are for me what really make this phone). I guess some people CBA with all that and (and I cant believe I'm saying this) want it to just work.

I had an iPod Touch G2 so I can defo see where you're coming from but I honestly now prefer the homescreen method of using my common apps rather than launching them each time.

I'd say it takes seconds to find a big failing with the iPhone.. the moment you have to use iTunes (windows version)'

I'm somewhat safer on this as I have both a Mac and a Windows box, so it syncs with iTunes on the Mac. To date I've not found anything with my last iPhone that I would consider a 'failing' tbh, but I have relatively simple needs in a lot of ways.

I had to answer my dad's iPhone 3GS the other day, and it wasn't until then that i realised how good the iPhone 4 screen is.

I'm just playing about with mine and the screen is just marvellous.

So you got one in the end! As my iPhone 4 was my first smartphone i've taken it for granted a bit, but actually, the screen really is amazing. Hats off to apple for recognising about the only area they could improve hardware wise and doing it.

Well thanks for the explanation. Kinda sounds like a microcosm of Linux/Windows vs Mac.

If I had a Mac, maybe iOS would be alright for me. But I won't install iTunes on Windows. End of.

It's a shame that the price for things "just working" is a walled garden. But I guess that's just logical when you think about it. The more options there are, the more there is to fiddle with, and ultimately, do badly.

Without getting into 'holy war' territory here, can I ask what folks find so repellant about iTunes on WIndows? It comes up a lot on forums (not just here) so there's obviously something amiss, but I'm genuinely bewildered as to what the problem is. FWIW our main iTunes library here has always run on Windows (Win7 right now, XP before that) and apart from being a bit 'clunkier' I just don't see a major difference between it and iTunes on MacOS - maybe you guys are doing far more involved things than we are??

Interested to hear, anyway. Oh, and thumbs up for the iPhone 4 btw...

Cheers, Pete

To be fair, iTunes has improved a lot recently.

I would often have to plug and unplug my iphone 5 or 6 times (and wait for itunes to time-out on detection each time) for the phone would appear on screen. It shows up nine times out of ten these days.

I'm still not keen on the way it tries to organise your music etc... but at least I can use it; most of the time.

I've not had any problems with it on xp, but, to be fair, all my music is on my mac.

Its a total abortion of a program. As an entry into Apple software its shocking. Gradually its got better but is still a very poor advert. ymmv

How so?

Irrespective of the hardware it's run on, it operates at the pace of an asthmatic turtle.
It's contributed to killing at least 3 Windows installs that I've dealt with.
Syncing with an iPhone/pod is extremely hit and miss and there are a variety of peripheral issues with regard to this area.

Oh, did I mention that it's painfully slow?

I won't allow it near any machine I have anything to do with.

I presume WMP has improved in recent years. Back on my old XP machine iTunes and WMP were comparable in responsiveness, and that was with a full iTunes library and only the current playlist in WMP...