I thought it would be cool to document and share my experience with Android from an Android virgin's POV. I'll try to update this regularly until I either throw in the towel or accept Android as my new mobile OS of choice. I have a dry sense of humor so take my criticisms with a grain of salt.
First, a little history?
I love gadgets and tech and as of about 5 or 6 years ago I have been hooked on phones and mobile devices. My first smartphone was a Treo 700p. From there it was a 755p > htc HD > Palm pre > Frankenpre > htc Arrive > htc Radar > Nokia Lumia 710 > Nokia Lumia 920 (for a few weeks. It was a loaner from a friend) > htc One.
The pre was the first phone I "hacked" or whatever you want to call it. Then did a hardware mashup of a VZ and Sprint pre to make the Frankenpre. WebOS is still, to this day, the most intuitive mobile OS I've ever used. Synergy is a huge eye-opener. It just works! Performance wise it left a lot to be desired but no one has been able to beat the UI to this day. Fast forward > HP buys Palm. Palm goes to hell. Hello WP 7.5.
WP was a good mix of customization without getting out of hand. I like the live tiles, the available apps cover 97% of what I'd use, but it's missing some major features. One word: Fluid. Yay, synergy is still here! Switch from the Arrive on Sprint to a Radar on T-Mo and for the first time go HW Keyboardless and I'm never looking back. I can still type faster on a pre with less mistakes but WP's auto-correction is pretty amazing. A year later switch to the Lumia 710. WP isn't going to see 7.8 on my phone so I force it.
Fast forward > Hire new guy at work. He has a One and 920 on ATT > Loans me the 920 > I force the Amber Update and GDR2 with a Rodgers ROM > Use it on T-Mo.
Holy crap this camera is awesome! WP8 is nice. Still very fluid. Still missing some features I want. Unified notifications, true speaking capabilities with search, etc. Fast forward > Give the phone back > Think Microsoft is behind in some areas and ahead in others > Recall MS stating "We are 2 years behind where we want to be" > Decide to try Android for the first time while MS gets caught up now that they own Nokia.
So, here I am with an htc One in my hand.
Day 1 Initial thoughts.
Purchased a used htc One off CL. Condition 9.8 / 10. Price $375. Deal? I think so.
Hardware
Easily in the top two phones I've owned quality wise, but I can't think what number 1 would be. Maybe the 920? Maybe the One? Screen is crisp, bright, and I can't stop looking at it. The size is almost perfect for my hands. It's a little big but the shape of the phone helps tons. Compared to the Lumia 920, it's much more manageable even with the same size screen. This reminds me a bit of the Radar with the metal. Power button placement is a little odd but it's not a deal breaker by any means. Where is the hardware camera button?
Software
Starting with a clean wipe, let's connect it to the PC and browse the local files just to poke around?WTF!?!!!?!!
Jeez?The guy I bought it off of didn't do a full wipe before selling it. So, I have all kinds of pics and music and TV show episodes on here?No worries?for me at least. <facepalm> He took pics of computer screens showing his login info for bill pay websites like Verizon, power company, T-Mobile (he uses the same password for all of them, BTW) as well as pics of his DL, car registration, past paper bills, etc. Not too smart but lucky for him I'm honest and wouldn't use any of this against him. But I digress?
Enter my info, gmail account, wifi, etc. and we're in! I don't mind htc Sense. Looks pleasant. The home screen news feed thing works but needs a little more customization for what feeds you want. Going through all the settings, everything seems to be here. Your typical Android with Sense sprinkled on?Why do I feel worse about accepting Googles terms of use than Microsoft's?
Whoa. Apps are updating already. Nice. Check OS versions?Hmmm 4.1.2. I thought the One had 4.2.2? Quick search?Nope. 4.1.2 for T-Mo. Crap. Testing Google search. Voice recognition is much more accurate and faster than WP. I'm liking this.
How do I have my music on here!? Ahh. I forgot I uploaded some of my music to Google Music a LONG time ago. I like that. <Streams music> WOW! If all phone speakers sounded this good! People talk about Nokia having Android on their Lumia line?htc needs to have WP on this hardware!
Let's try the camera?Hmmm. Not impressed. Good but not 920 good. Let's root and load a 4.3 ROM before I get into this too much?
Quick search on XDA and 30 minutes later I'm rooted. Another 30 minutes and I'm running 4.3 GE for the One. Not as hard as I thought. Just requires a little reading and following directions.
Boot, enter Google account info, wifi and we're in again! MUCH faster UI. OpenGL makes a huge difference. OK, this is bare bones Android. Back to speaking Google searches?For some reason conversational searching doesn't work?? Can't find anything in settings to make it work. Verbally set a reminder so I don't lose sense of time and I'm going to bed at 3 AM again. Do the same for an alarm to wake me in the morning. Moving on.
Install a few apps?Flixster, MS Office, One Note, Outlook, NFL Mobile, Steam, box?Hmm. These apps are lacking something?Design sense. Coming from WP where you have an almost universal design language to this is a little disheartening. This is just a start. I'm sure I'll find those beautiful apps. Moving on.
Let's add some more accounts. Where is the option to add my Facebook account? My Twitter account? I guess this isn't baked in. No worries! Install the apps and we are good to go! Let's filter my contacts. Yowzers! No synergy? I'm sure there's a setting for this somewhere.
Notification to go to sleep. Bed time. Tomorrow is a new day.
First, a little history?
I love gadgets and tech and as of about 5 or 6 years ago I have been hooked on phones and mobile devices. My first smartphone was a Treo 700p. From there it was a 755p > htc HD > Palm pre > Frankenpre > htc Arrive > htc Radar > Nokia Lumia 710 > Nokia Lumia 920 (for a few weeks. It was a loaner from a friend) > htc One.
The pre was the first phone I "hacked" or whatever you want to call it. Then did a hardware mashup of a VZ and Sprint pre to make the Frankenpre. WebOS is still, to this day, the most intuitive mobile OS I've ever used. Synergy is a huge eye-opener. It just works! Performance wise it left a lot to be desired but no one has been able to beat the UI to this day. Fast forward > HP buys Palm. Palm goes to hell. Hello WP 7.5.
WP was a good mix of customization without getting out of hand. I like the live tiles, the available apps cover 97% of what I'd use, but it's missing some major features. One word: Fluid. Yay, synergy is still here! Switch from the Arrive on Sprint to a Radar on T-Mo and for the first time go HW Keyboardless and I'm never looking back. I can still type faster on a pre with less mistakes but WP's auto-correction is pretty amazing. A year later switch to the Lumia 710. WP isn't going to see 7.8 on my phone so I force it.
Fast forward > Hire new guy at work. He has a One and 920 on ATT > Loans me the 920 > I force the Amber Update and GDR2 with a Rodgers ROM > Use it on T-Mo.Holy crap this camera is awesome! WP8 is nice. Still very fluid. Still missing some features I want. Unified notifications, true speaking capabilities with search, etc. Fast forward > Give the phone back > Think Microsoft is behind in some areas and ahead in others > Recall MS stating "We are 2 years behind where we want to be" > Decide to try Android for the first time while MS gets caught up now that they own Nokia.
So, here I am with an htc One in my hand.
Day 1 Initial thoughts.
Purchased a used htc One off CL. Condition 9.8 / 10. Price $375. Deal? I think so.
Hardware
Easily in the top two phones I've owned quality wise, but I can't think what number 1 would be. Maybe the 920? Maybe the One? Screen is crisp, bright, and I can't stop looking at it. The size is almost perfect for my hands. It's a little big but the shape of the phone helps tons. Compared to the Lumia 920, it's much more manageable even with the same size screen. This reminds me a bit of the Radar with the metal. Power button placement is a little odd but it's not a deal breaker by any means. Where is the hardware camera button?
Software
Starting with a clean wipe, let's connect it to the PC and browse the local files just to poke around?WTF!?!!!?!!
Jeez?The guy I bought it off of didn't do a full wipe before selling it. So, I have all kinds of pics and music and TV show episodes on here?No worries?for me at least. <facepalm> He took pics of computer screens showing his login info for bill pay websites like Verizon, power company, T-Mobile (he uses the same password for all of them, BTW) as well as pics of his DL, car registration, past paper bills, etc. Not too smart but lucky for him I'm honest and wouldn't use any of this against him. But I digress?
Enter my info, gmail account, wifi, etc. and we're in! I don't mind htc Sense. Looks pleasant. The home screen news feed thing works but needs a little more customization for what feeds you want. Going through all the settings, everything seems to be here. Your typical Android with Sense sprinkled on?Why do I feel worse about accepting Googles terms of use than Microsoft's?
Whoa. Apps are updating already. Nice. Check OS versions?Hmmm 4.1.2. I thought the One had 4.2.2? Quick search?Nope. 4.1.2 for T-Mo. Crap. Testing Google search. Voice recognition is much more accurate and faster than WP. I'm liking this.
How do I have my music on here!? Ahh. I forgot I uploaded some of my music to Google Music a LONG time ago. I like that. <Streams music> WOW! If all phone speakers sounded this good! People talk about Nokia having Android on their Lumia line?htc needs to have WP on this hardware!
Let's try the camera?Hmmm. Not impressed. Good but not 920 good. Let's root and load a 4.3 ROM before I get into this too much?
Quick search on XDA and 30 minutes later I'm rooted. Another 30 minutes and I'm running 4.3 GE for the One. Not as hard as I thought. Just requires a little reading and following directions.
Boot, enter Google account info, wifi and we're in again! MUCH faster UI. OpenGL makes a huge difference. OK, this is bare bones Android. Back to speaking Google searches?For some reason conversational searching doesn't work?? Can't find anything in settings to make it work. Verbally set a reminder so I don't lose sense of time and I'm going to bed at 3 AM again. Do the same for an alarm to wake me in the morning. Moving on.
Install a few apps?Flixster, MS Office, One Note, Outlook, NFL Mobile, Steam, box?Hmm. These apps are lacking something?Design sense. Coming from WP where you have an almost universal design language to this is a little disheartening. This is just a start. I'm sure I'll find those beautiful apps. Moving on.
Let's add some more accounts. Where is the option to add my Facebook account? My Twitter account? I guess this isn't baked in. No worries! Install the apps and we are good to go! Let's filter my contacts. Yowzers! No synergy? I'm sure there's a setting for this somewhere.
Notification to go to sleep. Bed time. Tomorrow is a new day.
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