I'm thinking of getting either am unlocked Galaxy Nexus or unlocked iPhone 5 that I will use with either AT&T or T-Mobile service via either Straight Talk or T-Moble Pre-paid. Both phone have the basic features and apps I need. The iPhone is newer and faster and has a much better camera. Galaxy Nexus has bigger screen and much better GPS navigation and is $300 less to buy out of contract ($349 vs $649). I'd rather use the smartphone for navigation even though the car has nav because the smartphones have more up to date business listings, better traffic info and it's also easier and faster to enter an address or business by voice than it is using the factory nav and I don't have to pay $250 or more per year to keep the map updated. The factory nav will be more of a backup to use when out of the service area or if there is some kind of phone service outage. I don't think sharper photos and saving a second or less opening apps is worth $300 to me, so I would lean towards the Galaxy Nexus unless it is a problematic phone in a Prius where things either don't work at all or a much buggier than using an iPhone in the car. Does the Galaxy Nexus reliably pair bluetooth, transfer address book, stream bluetooth music and show track titles on screen on a 2010 Prius? Are there any issues with using the Galaxy Nexus in a Prius that are different or worse than issues with an iPhone 5? Is there any actual benefit to using Galaxy Nexus vs iPhone 5 in a Prius other than lower cost and better navigation function of Google Nav vs Apple Maps?
All I can report is my experience with a GNex on the Prius C CDN base model (C2 equivalent). Pair bluetooth, stream music: Yes. I am not having luck with track titles making it to the car's display but sound quality is great. Reports suggest some custom ROMs are better at putting out the track titles. Transfer address book: After trying a few times and approving it on the phone, it does eventually transfer successfully. Issues? The only one that stands out is, if my phone was previously configured to connect for both streaming and phone calls, but I start up the car in radio mode, it still connects for streaming and silences the phone speaker. So if I'm going to be using nav and not listening to music, but I still want phone calls to come through, I have to go into settings before driving off and disable streaming audio.
I'm not really sure there's enough of a difference in support for entune between android and iphone that it should impact your purchase decision. My experience with my android phone, is that it does everything I want, streams audio, sends track names (this is dependent on whether the app supports sending that data over bluetooth, which is why some people with custom roms have different experiences, but there are plenty of music apps that are freely available in the marketplace if the stock music player doesn't). So I'd say, focus on the features you care about on the phone, and the ecosystem you'd rather be in (apple or google). Both phones will sync without significant issues to your prius. Good luck! (and google nav is fantastic, probably the killer feature for android).
i'm using gnex verizon LTE now perfect. but if i was in ur shoes right now, then i whould be thinking about NOTE 1 or NOTE 2. gNOTE whould be able to get it for 3-400 on craigslist or the new gNOTE which is coming out next month. forget about the iPhail 5. I've used all versions of iphones, ipads and all versions of galaxies and many adroid tabs. I have 5 lines of ATT opened with my name and i'm piggybacking to my friend's verizon family line to use Gnex LTE. I've tried it all, but first of all Verizon LTE is just 10 times better than ATT LTE ( FASTER and RECEPTION). i like the ASOP of Gnex but i really liked the NOTE for the screen size and the PEN!!!. Only reason why i ditched the ATT NOTE was because of the LTE service. I've tried the iphone 5 for about 2 days... It's the same.... old.... $#!+... especially the maps...... big FAIL... i just can't leave google maps and navi.. and the google talk video while i'm driving @75MPH when commuting with my GF with VERIZON LTE. and the battery.... i bought OEM samsung battery with battery charging cradle for $30 and the ohter battery is always charged when i swap batteries. after swap, it starts charging the empty battery to be ready for next swap.... in the car using the car charger or at the house on the plug. it uses the same micro usb. i'm going with Gnote 2 with verizon next month. bigger screen more features pen is just awesome big battery and removable/swappable. just my 2 cents..
FWIW, my current iPhone 5 (and previous iPhone 4S) works great with my 2010 V w/ nav. While $300 is a big difference in cost, keep in mind that iPhones tend to keep their value higher/longer than competing phones (I recently sold a year old iPhone 4S 32 GB for $300 to Game Stop, which is what I paid for it new).
