Folks,
so far being a merry webOS user, I still sort of feel the desire to move away from my good ol' Palm Pre, trying to compensate for some of its shortcomings, starting with the sluggish performance and the total lack of applications. Android is my platform of choice, however I feel completely lost amongst a large load of devices at hand, ranging from cheap to pretty expensive. I don't really have a clue which one to get, but I have a few "requirements" or wishes it should fulfil:
(a) Screen size is not that important; far better would be being able to mostly operate the device single-handed, i.e. quickly pick or reject calls, navigate the media player or take a picture using the camera app while sitting on a bicycle. Palm Pre(2) screen size - 320x480 @ 3.1 inches - is the perfect match for me, iPhone 4 or Galaxy screen seems too large for that.
(b) Camera: Megapixels don't matter that much. Having a good picture quality, autofocus lens (not fixed-focus) and being able to shoot _fast_ is way more desirable. Being able to crop/resize images wouldn't hurt too. All along with being operable single-handed.
(c) Sounds: Being addicted to music, I just want one device that does it all, so the phone should play mp3 (and ogg?) at decent quality, should allow for attaching quality headphones and quick (single-handed?) "next" / "previous" navigation and volume control.
(d) Case: device should be modestly rugged. Not necessarily all-outdoor but should be robust enough to deal with dust, light dirt and light rain - the kind of operation environment when travelling to work by bike most of the year. case should eventually be rubber-coated and/or provide a good, stable grip while operated with a single hand.
(e) For storing media files, some sort of memory card support (SD?) is highly desirable; best would be to also be capable of removing the card without having to power down / disassemble most of the device (seen that before).
(f) Battery lifetime: as long as possible, obviously. ;-) A bit more realistic, though: I don't mind recharging the device daily and/or keeping a second battery if changing battery / restarting the phone is fast enough. However I'd like to be able to switch off features like WiFi, GPS, cellular data and the like manually in order to save battery if needed.
I know that some of these things (case, in example) could be compensated by adding rubber covers like those out there for the iPhone, and that would be perfectly fine to me. Adding to this, I don't want bleeding-edge new shiny hardware or devices to leave lying around on a conference table to impress your colleagues. I just want to have a robust, stable everyday workhorse running a decently up-to-date version of Android (2.2? 2.3?) which just works and doesn't want a fortune to be spent on it.
Oh well. Long first post. Thanks for your patience reading to here, if you did.
Any recommendations, thoughts, considerations on this _greatly_ appreciated. Meanwhile, thanks a bunch in advance and for your time.
K.
so far being a merry webOS user, I still sort of feel the desire to move away from my good ol' Palm Pre, trying to compensate for some of its shortcomings, starting with the sluggish performance and the total lack of applications. Android is my platform of choice, however I feel completely lost amongst a large load of devices at hand, ranging from cheap to pretty expensive. I don't really have a clue which one to get, but I have a few "requirements" or wishes it should fulfil:
(a) Screen size is not that important; far better would be being able to mostly operate the device single-handed, i.e. quickly pick or reject calls, navigate the media player or take a picture using the camera app while sitting on a bicycle. Palm Pre(2) screen size - 320x480 @ 3.1 inches - is the perfect match for me, iPhone 4 or Galaxy screen seems too large for that.
(b) Camera: Megapixels don't matter that much. Having a good picture quality, autofocus lens (not fixed-focus) and being able to shoot _fast_ is way more desirable. Being able to crop/resize images wouldn't hurt too. All along with being operable single-handed.
(c) Sounds: Being addicted to music, I just want one device that does it all, so the phone should play mp3 (and ogg?) at decent quality, should allow for attaching quality headphones and quick (single-handed?) "next" / "previous" navigation and volume control.
(d) Case: device should be modestly rugged. Not necessarily all-outdoor but should be robust enough to deal with dust, light dirt and light rain - the kind of operation environment when travelling to work by bike most of the year. case should eventually be rubber-coated and/or provide a good, stable grip while operated with a single hand.
(e) For storing media files, some sort of memory card support (SD?) is highly desirable; best would be to also be capable of removing the card without having to power down / disassemble most of the device (seen that before).
(f) Battery lifetime: as long as possible, obviously. ;-) A bit more realistic, though: I don't mind recharging the device daily and/or keeping a second battery if changing battery / restarting the phone is fast enough. However I'd like to be able to switch off features like WiFi, GPS, cellular data and the like manually in order to save battery if needed.
I know that some of these things (case, in example) could be compensated by adding rubber covers like those out there for the iPhone, and that would be perfectly fine to me. Adding to this, I don't want bleeding-edge new shiny hardware or devices to leave lying around on a conference table to impress your colleagues. I just want to have a robust, stable everyday workhorse running a decently up-to-date version of Android (2.2? 2.3?) which just works and doesn't want a fortune to be spent on it.
Oh well. Long first post. Thanks for your patience reading to here, if you did.
Any recommendations, thoughts, considerations on this _greatly_ appreciated. Meanwhile, thanks a bunch in advance and for your time.K.
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