Sometime tomorrow we're expecting our new Android phones to arrive. The carrier is not Sprint, directly, but a third party vendor that uses Sprint to deliver their service. It seemed like a great deal, because the new carrier will take care of our still quite substantial ETFs, and I'd been wanting to get into Android for a long time.
But here's my concern: My current, and first, smartphone, is an HTC Pure/Topaz. It's been a decent phone, and I can get it to do most of the things I want, albeit with some effort expended on various workarounds and seeking out third party apps. It was a refurb when I got it in May 2010, so I don't even know old it is. From here I see it was introduced in October 2009, and I have no idea if mine goes back to this first generation of the model or not. As I say, I've been able to coax it into providing for most of my needs, but I'm fed up with the limitations of Windows and its tendency to be disdained and excluded by app providers. If you've ever had a WinMo smart phone, you know what I mean: There's always an app for that, but not for that, if you get my drift.
So I picked out the LG Optimus S. Looking at the specs, here, I see that it was apparently launched towards the end of 2010, so it's at least a year newer than the HTC Pure. But continuing to look at the specs, I find a couple of very disturbing things, at least to me as an Android noob. First, the 3G network connectivity runs on EV-DO. EV-DO!? What? EV-DO was the technology used by my last two dumb phones! Does this mean the Optimus S is an utter, hopeless pig of a phone? And the data transfer speed isn't any more encouraging: Next to "DATA" we have: 3G Rev. 0, up to 153.2 Kbps. 153 Kilobits/sec? My current HTC has: HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps.
So it looks like I'd be going from 2Mbps (or even 7.2) to something that's a dozen times slower? How is it even possible that smart phones with such slow connectivity would still be recently launched and sold? And yet, this phone is supposed to be able to provide its own hotspot. How would that possibly be done if the data throughput is but a trickle? It matters to me because I do like streaming media, albeit usually just audio.
It's enough to make a middle aged man (want to) cry. If it's as bad as all that, I'd rather send my new unit back unopened, swallow a $30 restocking fee, and pick out something else.
But as I've made clear, I'm an Android noob. Is there some factor I'm unaware of, which the more knowledgeable can use to reassure me?
But here's my concern: My current, and first, smartphone, is an HTC Pure/Topaz. It's been a decent phone, and I can get it to do most of the things I want, albeit with some effort expended on various workarounds and seeking out third party apps. It was a refurb when I got it in May 2010, so I don't even know old it is. From here I see it was introduced in October 2009, and I have no idea if mine goes back to this first generation of the model or not. As I say, I've been able to coax it into providing for most of my needs, but I'm fed up with the limitations of Windows and its tendency to be disdained and excluded by app providers. If you've ever had a WinMo smart phone, you know what I mean: There's always an app for that, but not for that, if you get my drift.
So I picked out the LG Optimus S. Looking at the specs, here, I see that it was apparently launched towards the end of 2010, so it's at least a year newer than the HTC Pure. But continuing to look at the specs, I find a couple of very disturbing things, at least to me as an Android noob. First, the 3G network connectivity runs on EV-DO. EV-DO!? What? EV-DO was the technology used by my last two dumb phones! Does this mean the Optimus S is an utter, hopeless pig of a phone? And the data transfer speed isn't any more encouraging: Next to "DATA" we have: 3G Rev. 0, up to 153.2 Kbps. 153 Kilobits/sec? My current HTC has: HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps.
So it looks like I'd be going from 2Mbps (or even 7.2) to something that's a dozen times slower? How is it even possible that smart phones with such slow connectivity would still be recently launched and sold? And yet, this phone is supposed to be able to provide its own hotspot. How would that possibly be done if the data throughput is but a trickle? It matters to me because I do like streaming media, albeit usually just audio.
It's enough to make a middle aged man (want to) cry. If it's as bad as all that, I'd rather send my new unit back unopened, swallow a $30 restocking fee, and pick out something else.
But as I've made clear, I'm an Android noob. Is there some factor I'm unaware of, which the more knowledgeable can use to reassure me?
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