Hi everybody. New member, Android virgin. This is my story. The tl;dr version is this: considering going Android, want something simple and clean that will replace my phone and camera and has a couple other goodies, want a plan that fits my actual use, have looked at Nexus S and Mytouch 4G, am worried that being in a 2G area means my Android experience will suck, and will probably wait until Q1 2011 to take the plunge on the latest and greatest at that point. Entire brain dump below.
Time To Take The Plunge
Currently I rock a limping Treo 680 on T-mobile prepay with no data. This is cheap cheap cheap and easy. I'm fine without email, web, and online apps. But the old girl is about ready to go to pasture and I feel like it's time to join the full modern smartphone era and see what it can do for my life. I don't want to pay so much more for it, but that's the way things are going.
Leaning Mostly Android
I've been vacillating between iPhone and Android for a while and have mostly decided on Android due to reports of iPhone dropped calls, crappy AT&T reception where I am, no removable battery, antennagate, cracked glass, OS inflexibility, etc. But damn, it's still so nice. I just saw the 4 at the store and its siren song called out to me. (Don't do it, Astrodroid - don't do it - it has to be a functional phone first.) I've recently been looking at the MyTouch 4G and the Nexus S while salivating over the forthcoming LG Star/Optimus 2X (1080p! HDMI out!).
Likes, Dislikes
I like GSM and unlockedness for easy SIM switching and occasional trips to Europe. I've liked T-mobile because it's the best pre-pay deal I've found. I like pre-pay because I'm not a big phone talker and my texting is minimal. I like no contract because I have a congenital hatred of subscriptions, hidden fees, paying a lot for something I don't use much, and being trapped. I use my Treo much more as a computer than anything, even with no data plan. I've been on the Palm OS since 2000 and use it for notes, office suite, PIM functions, mp3, all kinds of offline apps, ebooks, etc. So I've never had or wanted a contract or data plan. I like a hardware keyboard and have disliked the iPhone and Android virtual keyboards I've tried, though I hear you get used to it and come to prefer it.
Vanilla Is For Me
I've heard bad things about all the TouchWizzes and Motoblurs and whatnot. So stock Android appeals to me for the sake of clarity. The G2 basically would have been perfect, but it was kind of heavy, and just knowing me, that hinge would not last. It was already looser feeling than I wanted brand new. I like to buy a phone off contract and keep it a long time and I didn't think that one would work. If I had known more about the Nexus One and had been ready to buy when it came out, that probably would have been perfect. So of course the Nexus S is the obvious target for me now (absent rooting some other phone, I guess - not sure about risking messing things up).
Nexus S Impressions
I just went to Best Buy and played with the Nexus S but it appeared to only be connected by WiFi, so I couldn't give its data functions a realistic test, and lots of its online functions didn't seem to work. It's a good looking phone. I couldn't judge its weight to see if it felt like a toy like everybody's saying because it had one of those security things stuck to it. It seemed fine - very responsive in terms of scrolling and swiping and pinch to zoom. The screen looked great and the white text on black looks really nice. A number of the Android phones I've fiddled with lately have really cheap buttons that seem destined to pop off over time, so the touch button area of the S, which is something I hadn't previously wanted or trusted, seemed smarter by comparison (they don't make buttons like they used to!) The camera was a bit laggy from when you push the onscreen button to when it actually snaps. The iPhone 4 right next to it, by contrast, was instant snap. Neither has a hardware camera button like I'd like, so that's a wash. I'm disappointed that the Nexus S has no SD expansion. I want it to replace my camera and mp3 player but I don't think it can replace either. I've got more than 16gb of music and so would have to pick and choose what songs to load and pull stuff off when I run out of room. I don't want to do that - I want to load it up and forget it and add stuff whenever I want. It doesn't have to be removable storage but 16gb just isn't enough. The camera doesn't seem to work well enough to replace my old 3mpx Pentax Optio point and shoot and the video doesn't seem all that hot either. NFC is useless. So really my only real reason to buy it is no Touchwiz/Motoblur/Sense/whatever and the fact that it'll get updates quickly (which I'm not sure I care too much about, realistically). And I'd be giving up things that I really wanted my next phone to take care of.
MyTouch 4G Impressions
So to see if not having a hardware maker UI layer was really worth giving up the other things I wanted, I went and played with a MyTouch 4G at the Tmobile store. Seems nice enough but I don't really need that genius button or the tacky themes or really even the track button. I didn't see a way to search the device that wasn't voice-driven. I guess I can kind of see what people mean when they say the stuff the hardware makers and carriers add on is bloaty and unnecessary. It's not a terribly big deal and I'm sure I'd get used to it, but the stock setup just seems simpler and more cohesive. The screen looked really good. The heft of it felt good. The mix of hardware buttons and main onscreen buttons felt a little scattered but I imagine that was just the initial unfamiliarity.
Watching And Waiting
At the end of my comparison, I'm still kind of up in the air. Both phones have advantages and disadvantages and probably I will wait to see where the Optimus 2X goes carrier-wise and how its battery does and how people receive it - hopefully the LG UI is not too obtrusive. Overall Android is less whelming than I had thought for some reason. These were demo units with not a lot on them, so I know I can customize and add a lot more, but it wasn't some undiscovered new universe like I had conjured up in my head. And coming from a Palm OS background (the old one), there's something about the iPhone OS that seems comfortingly simple, somewhat tighter than Android. Not everyone would agree and there are some real tradeoffs either way. I keep reminding myself of those and steer clear of the iPhone, at least version 4.
Hunting For A Creative And Flexible Plan
I hate the idea of going from an average phone bill of $20/month to $80 or $90 or $100 or even more after fees and I hate the idea of being locked into a contract. So I'm looking for some kind of creative arrangement that keeps costs down and matches my actual use patterns. I'd shop for the lowest amount of minutes possible and I'm just not sure yet how much data I'll use in terms of mb/gb. I don't like that I already pay $50 for home internet and will have to pay another $30 for phone internet. I looked at T-mobile's daily data passes as an as-needed option but think that Android phones don't really make sense unless always connected for at least some minimal updated info in various apps. There are some monthly no-contract plans, there's Walmart/T-mobile's unlimited voice/text for $45 with prepaid data, etc. Probably I'll just wind up giving in and eating it.
Ferrari On A Dirt Road
Something I only just realized is that my semi-rural area doesn't even get 3G on T-mobile yet, much less 4g. So I'm actually a bit worried about going Android right now (discussing it here). If using the online functions is painfully slow on T-mobile, I'd almost rather not bother yet. I've seen the excruciating task that is web surfing on my friends' Blackberries and I don't want something like that in my life. So while T-mobile makes a lot of sense for me for a number of reasons, and since I'd almost certainly be buying a full plan with data and upping my costs anyway if I went Android, I'd consider switching carriers. I don't like the sort of trap feeling of CDMA since I can't just pop the SIM into something else and because it won't work in Europe, but if that's what I have to do to get a good, full, modern, speedy smartphone experience, I guess I'll go Verizon, which apparently has good coverage in my area.
Now I will tell you about my childhood and everything that has brought me up to this point... okay maybe next time.
Time To Take The Plunge
Currently I rock a limping Treo 680 on T-mobile prepay with no data. This is cheap cheap cheap and easy. I'm fine without email, web, and online apps. But the old girl is about ready to go to pasture and I feel like it's time to join the full modern smartphone era and see what it can do for my life. I don't want to pay so much more for it, but that's the way things are going.
Leaning Mostly Android
I've been vacillating between iPhone and Android for a while and have mostly decided on Android due to reports of iPhone dropped calls, crappy AT&T reception where I am, no removable battery, antennagate, cracked glass, OS inflexibility, etc. But damn, it's still so nice. I just saw the 4 at the store and its siren song called out to me. (Don't do it, Astrodroid - don't do it - it has to be a functional phone first.) I've recently been looking at the MyTouch 4G and the Nexus S while salivating over the forthcoming LG Star/Optimus 2X (1080p! HDMI out!).
Likes, Dislikes
I like GSM and unlockedness for easy SIM switching and occasional trips to Europe. I've liked T-mobile because it's the best pre-pay deal I've found. I like pre-pay because I'm not a big phone talker and my texting is minimal. I like no contract because I have a congenital hatred of subscriptions, hidden fees, paying a lot for something I don't use much, and being trapped. I use my Treo much more as a computer than anything, even with no data plan. I've been on the Palm OS since 2000 and use it for notes, office suite, PIM functions, mp3, all kinds of offline apps, ebooks, etc. So I've never had or wanted a contract or data plan. I like a hardware keyboard and have disliked the iPhone and Android virtual keyboards I've tried, though I hear you get used to it and come to prefer it.
Vanilla Is For Me
I've heard bad things about all the TouchWizzes and Motoblurs and whatnot. So stock Android appeals to me for the sake of clarity. The G2 basically would have been perfect, but it was kind of heavy, and just knowing me, that hinge would not last. It was already looser feeling than I wanted brand new. I like to buy a phone off contract and keep it a long time and I didn't think that one would work. If I had known more about the Nexus One and had been ready to buy when it came out, that probably would have been perfect. So of course the Nexus S is the obvious target for me now (absent rooting some other phone, I guess - not sure about risking messing things up).
Nexus S Impressions
I just went to Best Buy and played with the Nexus S but it appeared to only be connected by WiFi, so I couldn't give its data functions a realistic test, and lots of its online functions didn't seem to work. It's a good looking phone. I couldn't judge its weight to see if it felt like a toy like everybody's saying because it had one of those security things stuck to it. It seemed fine - very responsive in terms of scrolling and swiping and pinch to zoom. The screen looked great and the white text on black looks really nice. A number of the Android phones I've fiddled with lately have really cheap buttons that seem destined to pop off over time, so the touch button area of the S, which is something I hadn't previously wanted or trusted, seemed smarter by comparison (they don't make buttons like they used to!) The camera was a bit laggy from when you push the onscreen button to when it actually snaps. The iPhone 4 right next to it, by contrast, was instant snap. Neither has a hardware camera button like I'd like, so that's a wash. I'm disappointed that the Nexus S has no SD expansion. I want it to replace my camera and mp3 player but I don't think it can replace either. I've got more than 16gb of music and so would have to pick and choose what songs to load and pull stuff off when I run out of room. I don't want to do that - I want to load it up and forget it and add stuff whenever I want. It doesn't have to be removable storage but 16gb just isn't enough. The camera doesn't seem to work well enough to replace my old 3mpx Pentax Optio point and shoot and the video doesn't seem all that hot either. NFC is useless. So really my only real reason to buy it is no Touchwiz/Motoblur/Sense/whatever and the fact that it'll get updates quickly (which I'm not sure I care too much about, realistically). And I'd be giving up things that I really wanted my next phone to take care of.
MyTouch 4G Impressions
So to see if not having a hardware maker UI layer was really worth giving up the other things I wanted, I went and played with a MyTouch 4G at the Tmobile store. Seems nice enough but I don't really need that genius button or the tacky themes or really even the track button. I didn't see a way to search the device that wasn't voice-driven. I guess I can kind of see what people mean when they say the stuff the hardware makers and carriers add on is bloaty and unnecessary. It's not a terribly big deal and I'm sure I'd get used to it, but the stock setup just seems simpler and more cohesive. The screen looked really good. The heft of it felt good. The mix of hardware buttons and main onscreen buttons felt a little scattered but I imagine that was just the initial unfamiliarity.
Watching And Waiting
At the end of my comparison, I'm still kind of up in the air. Both phones have advantages and disadvantages and probably I will wait to see where the Optimus 2X goes carrier-wise and how its battery does and how people receive it - hopefully the LG UI is not too obtrusive. Overall Android is less whelming than I had thought for some reason. These were demo units with not a lot on them, so I know I can customize and add a lot more, but it wasn't some undiscovered new universe like I had conjured up in my head. And coming from a Palm OS background (the old one), there's something about the iPhone OS that seems comfortingly simple, somewhat tighter than Android. Not everyone would agree and there are some real tradeoffs either way. I keep reminding myself of those and steer clear of the iPhone, at least version 4.
Hunting For A Creative And Flexible Plan
I hate the idea of going from an average phone bill of $20/month to $80 or $90 or $100 or even more after fees and I hate the idea of being locked into a contract. So I'm looking for some kind of creative arrangement that keeps costs down and matches my actual use patterns. I'd shop for the lowest amount of minutes possible and I'm just not sure yet how much data I'll use in terms of mb/gb. I don't like that I already pay $50 for home internet and will have to pay another $30 for phone internet. I looked at T-mobile's daily data passes as an as-needed option but think that Android phones don't really make sense unless always connected for at least some minimal updated info in various apps. There are some monthly no-contract plans, there's Walmart/T-mobile's unlimited voice/text for $45 with prepaid data, etc. Probably I'll just wind up giving in and eating it.
Ferrari On A Dirt Road
Something I only just realized is that my semi-rural area doesn't even get 3G on T-mobile yet, much less 4g. So I'm actually a bit worried about going Android right now (discussing it here). If using the online functions is painfully slow on T-mobile, I'd almost rather not bother yet. I've seen the excruciating task that is web surfing on my friends' Blackberries and I don't want something like that in my life. So while T-mobile makes a lot of sense for me for a number of reasons, and since I'd almost certainly be buying a full plan with data and upping my costs anyway if I went Android, I'd consider switching carriers. I don't like the sort of trap feeling of CDMA since I can't just pop the SIM into something else and because it won't work in Europe, but if that's what I have to do to get a good, full, modern, speedy smartphone experience, I guess I'll go Verizon, which apparently has good coverage in my area.
Now I will tell you about my childhood and everything that has brought me up to this point... okay maybe next time.
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