From Symbian to Android

[jim_h]

Hi,

I've only had my Hero for just over a week and am more convinced now that I made the right choice for my mobile upgrade. It's fantastic. I just thought I'd add my 2p worth to the posts about the Hero and my (relatively) short time with it.

My last two mobiles, both on contract, were Symbian. I had the E61 first and just upgraded to the Hero from a Nokia E71. The E71 was a great phone, but the OS is looking old and tired now. I like Symbian very much as a mobile OS, but it hasn't been updated enough to keep up with the times and it is increasingly becoming a frustration to use. After nearly three years, I really needed a change and Android was the obvious choice.

The biggest gripe almost all reviewers have with the Hero is the laggy performance. Well, yes it does start to stutter if you have a lot of apps running and I suspect this is as much to do with the processor as with Android. It's a relatively new OS and will take time to get things working properly. As for the frustration of the lag, I have to disagree with the reviewers, but for different reasons.

If you want to experience a slow OS with constant lag, no matter how many apps are running, you should spend some time with Symbian. It is painfully slow compared to the Hero, even on a bad day. There really is no contest. So, it really does depend on what you're used to and what you expect. I expected similar performance from the Hero, based on the complaints in many reviews, to my Symbian running E71. Yet, in reality, the two are poles apart! I'd never go back to the Symbian we currently have after spending eight days with Android on the Hero. Everything is much faster and looks absolutely amazing.

The features of the Hero as a mobile phone are astounding and I think Android does well in its current incarnation to take advantage of them. I am very, very happy with my choice of mobile. I spent a number of weeks deciding on which mobile to go with as I took out a new 18mth contract and knew I could be stuck with a poor choice for the duration. My fears about the poor OS performance weren't borne out because of what I'm used to using on the E71 and that was a relief.

Like or hate Google, they have a lot of resources to throw at their OS and that can only mean good things for us fans of innovation. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Symbian shapes up over the next few years and whether it can become a real contender for the open OS crown. In the meantime, I am having a blast with my new best friend. I also take my hat off to HTC, they certainly know how to produce excellent phones.

All the best,
Jim

 

[stoney73]

I agree with you Jim.

I've also just made the move from nokia to htc. Up until last friday I used have an n97. I loved that phone, It should have been brilliant.

Alas, it has so many bugs,problems with hardware. I just got tired of putting the phone in my trouser poscket, and then taking the phone out, two mins later, to find every single app had been opened.
Sometimes i could just put the phone on a desk and this would happen. And then last week it started phoning and sending messages without my permission, lol. That was it. Ze last straw.Plus I got tired of formating and re-installing everything just so that the phone 'might' work for an hour or 2. The n97 should have been recalled.

Its the first phone I've ever changed in the middle of a contract.
I got the Hero,(which is the phone i was originally going to get, before i saw the n97,karma lol), and apart from the terror of unlocking it from orange, its been great.
nice and speedy.

How to convince my fiance that she should swop over from the n97 aswell.

 

[jim_h]

It's funny you talking about the N97 stoney73. That was the alternative I seriously thought about before finally going for Android. I think Nokia really missed the boat with the N97 as hardware-wise, it's a brilliant gadget. If only they'd paired it up with Android instead of Symbian. I really wanted a keyboard after having the E71, but couldn't justify Symbian for a third time.

The many poor reviews of Symbian on the N97 made my decision in the end. I don't think I could spend another year or so using something so slow and tired looking.

 

[germcevoy]

I'm a long time Nokia user myself. Last October I was running a 5800 and an E71 and flogged them both and got a lovely Hero. Have had a great few months affair with the Her but I have bought another 5800. Not exactly sure why but i'm enjoying the familiarity of Nokia/Symbian again. Free Ovi Maps helps. Got a bit bored with the Hero but I will hold on to it until 2.1 eventually arrives and probably run the Hero alongside the 5800 until Symbian ^3 comes out later this year. Then i'll count my chickens.

Also craving a Moto Dext. Android plus proper QWERTY sounds good

 

[nx1977]

EDIT - I've had Nokia's, and only Nokia as my personal phone, since the first one came out on Orange some 14 years ago.

Mrs has had her Samsung Galaxy Portal (i5700) for about 3 weeks now. And it has been the first time I've thought about anything other than another Nokia. I've tried Winmob, Blackberry's and Iphones of friends and nothing had the quality of features I'm used to.

Swapping between hers (playing at home) then using my N96 the experience I can oly describe as 'clunky' and slooooowww. With it's 1gb chip the Samsung flies along and does what you ask, when you ask it! Even web pages load much quicker than my N96 using Opera Mobile 10 beta using the same wireless point.

Eagerly awaiting the HTC desire, I couldnt wait and have bagged a Hero as a stop gap.

If Nokia had an Android phone, I'd have it in a flash. You know the handset will be of top spec. But as long as they continue to breathe life into Symbian, customers will jump to other phones.

OK, so google may be everywhere, and many believe google will evolve into Skynet from the Terminator films. But you have to admit, they've developed a slick OS which is far above the current market leader/must have - Apple.

 

[jim_h]

I agree with you nx1977. I'm not really comfortable with the idea of Google being the next Microsoft and taking over the world, but they have definitely blown Symbian out the water with their OS.

Like you, after being a Nokia user since day one, I would happily buy another if it were running Symbian. I got the feeling that Nokia were a bit desperate releasing Symbian as open source. Perhaps if they'd done it a couple of years ago, things would be very different now. At least they'd have had time to develop Symbian into a real Android rival instead of playing catch-up as they are now. As it stands, Nokia appear to have been riding the crest of their Symbian wave for too long and got complacent. Having the top spot for hardware is all very well, but as they failed to develop Symbian, it looks like Google are stealing customers in their droves.

 

[nx1977]

Did you manage to get all your data across relatively smoothly?

For me contacts and messages (inbox, drafts, sent, folders) are an absolute must. Bookmarks I dont mind doing manually

Pics and files are all on the memory card, so that's easy.

 

[jim_h]

It took quite a lot of time to transfer some things. The contacts on my sim card were fine, until I realised that for some reason, none of them still held any info other than name and telephone numbers when opened on the Hero. It has lost all the addresses and other contact details, so that's one I will have to do manually and is going to take forever.

I also ran an app called HandySafe on the E71 for secure passwords and bank details etc. I transferred everything manually from that onto SplashID on the Hero.

All my email accounts are web based these days and the Hero handles them all really nicely, as did the E71. I never bothered much with bookmarks on the Nokia though because web browsing was painfully slow, even when using my home wifi connection. Pics and ebooks were on my mem card, so they copied across without an issue.

It's been pretty painless (apart from losing the contact details), but still time consuming to get everything I need duplicated onto the Hero. As they are such different OS's, I didn't expect it to be easy though

 

[Cube]

I've also recently moved from Symbian (5800) to Android. My text messages were never transferred (although that didn't bother me). My mail client (Mail on 3) on my 5800 sycned my contacts with my Google Account, resulting in the HTC Hero picking them up (and all the details) when I signed into my Google Account.

There are a few things I miss, such as Gravity (Twitter client - I prefer it over Twidroid), OVI Maps (Google Navigation should be here in around a month) and a fully working BBC iPlayer (Beebplayer seems very buggy), but overall I much prefer android.

Speaking of Nokia, aren't they focusing on Maemo now?

 

[nx1977]

Yes, but it's still not quite upto Android or Iphone standards. Still clunky, and being new, supported by very little - so a worse option than sticking with Symbian.

 

[petefoth]

Symbian isn't (wasn't) only Nokia!

I've come to Android after more than 10 years of Symbian phones from Ericsson (R380) and Sony Ericsson (P800, P910, P990, P1, W950, W960). The SE phones were all UIQ rather than S60, and from the other comments here I'm very glad. S60 always seemd to me to have something missing.

From the P990 onwards, I didn't find the SE Symbian phones clunky at all, and I found the PIM and messaging apps in particular (Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Tasks) really excellent, intuitive and fully featured. Probably came from their pedigree on the Psion handheld machines.

The W950 and W960 were excellent as iPod/Walkman/MP3 player alternatives - so much so that I never felt the need for a dedicated music player. I also liked the touch-screen UI, and the handwriting recognition tex input. By all accounts the cameras were pretty good, but I'm not a photographer and hardly used mine.

From P900 onwards, the Bluetooth functionality 'just worked' in a way that Android is still only aspiring to: seamless file transfer, stereo audio, use as modem, phone audio. The phone functionality also - no dropped calls, or calls which never rang on the device.

I am really impressed by the Hero, and I wouldn't part with mine, but I do miss some of the functionality of the SE Symbian models, particularly the PIM apps and the Bluetooth. Hopefully when Android 2.1 arrives....

Regards

Pete

 

[jim_h]

petefoth - I know Symbian is, or was owned by a syndicate, but it's always been most associated with Nokia and everyone looked to them to lead and drive development.

I still think Symbian is a very good OS. However, compared to Android it is looking old and is very, very slow. It rarely crashed on me and was always very reliable and most apps were well designed. Yet, it's like comparing Win98 or even WinXP with Windows 7. One is new and shiny and faster with nicer features, the others are still out there and being used and work well, but put them side by side and the cracks begin to show.

I'd never put Symbian down or bash it as an OS as I've had it on my last three phones. It's just that I like to keep up with what's new, and Symbian just isn't any more.

Android is very new and immature in a number of ways that Symbian isn't. But, considering how young Android is in comparison just shows how little development and updating has been done on Symbian in the last few years. Android really takes advantage of the features we have on these new breed smartphones and I'll buy whichever OS does the most for my money.

As things are right now, there's nothing to touch Google's offering. In my opinion, obviously

 

[Ex60]

I also have a Nokia E71, and currently browsing for new phones out there. I’ve decided I want an Android, instead of getting another S60 just out of familiarity. However, I do have some questions about Android, since I am not very knowledgeable about this OS.

Does Android have push email? And does it have call filtering ability? What makes Android the perfect phone for you?

And which handset to get? I’m not much of a heavy user, and don’t really have a lot of apps. I basically use my E71 for emails, texting, IM with Skype or Nimbuzz, and a little web surfing (only if necessary, since browsing can be a pain due to the tiny screen). A better browsing experience would be great.

Since I’m used to a physical QWERTY keypad, I’m a little uneasy about touch screen phones without keypads. I prefer phones that aren’t too bulky or heavy. Could you recommend particular models that would suit me?

 

[Jaffa]

I also have a Nokia E71, and currently browsing for new phones out there. I

 

[Ex60]

Yes it has push, what makes it perfect for one person is different for the next, its that custermisable!

The Hero is one of the best and biggest selling handsets at the moment and won a host of awards last year, the nexe gen handsets are just around the corner though

Android has a decent App market which will allow you do do what you want, I use an App for Skype called Fring!, there are loads of IM AIM apps, and browsing is a nice experience on this phone, weill be even better when we get 2.1 and firefox

The keyboard on the HTC hero using Sense UI is very good it has multi touch and workis in landscape, on par with the iPhones, but Swype is just around the corner which makes it even easier.

I love that it can be personalized; sounds good to me.

Will look into HTC Hero. Heard a lot of good things about HTC.

Thanks, I will wait for the newer handsets so I have more options. By the way, is it easy to update your Android OS version?

Hopefully I'm right that I'll adjust immediately to switching phones. I've been a heavy Google user for a while now, and I am looking forward to having an Android phone.

 

[Jaffa]

I love that it can personalized; sounds good to me.

Will look into HTC Hero. Heard a lot of good things about HTC.

Thanks, I will wait for the newer handsets so I have more options. By the way, is it easy to update your Android OS version?

Hopefully I'm right that I'll adjust immediately to the Android platform. I've been a heavy Google user for a while now, and I am looking forward to a having an Android phone.

yup, download the new ROM plug the phone in to the PC and follow the instructions from HTC.

The HTC Legend is avail on pre order now on Ebay for

 

[daveybaby]

@Jaffa: legend is still snapdragon though, right? But running at 700MHz (or thereabouts) instead of 1GHz. In other words, it's still gonna be noticably more powerful than the hero despite being about the same clockspeed.

P.S. htc desire for 60 quid anyone?
HTC Desire
(see T-mobile

 

[Jaffa]

Did not realise just saw clock speed was 700