Ok so I have owned quite a few smartphones in my day, well to be honest 32 different models in 3 years time. You could say that I am either really picky with what I get or am just looking for the latest and greatest item. Since picking up the Incredible I have been overly pleased with it's capabilities, so I thought I could comment on the most recent smartphones that have really entertained my interests! Hope you all find this somewhat useful in case you are on the edge!
iPhone: Some say the pioneer of the new revolution in smartphone design. Some say the blood sucking tool of Steve Jobs. I say it is one of the best all around devices presented to you on the crappiest network around. Yes I said it, sorry AT&T, but when your contract explicitly reads "Do not guarantee service within buildings", and you use that to your benefit, it makes people wonder if they have to be in the great plains in order to access the MOST BARS IN MOST PLACES. As for the device it is the great mix between business and pleasure, but does have some significant fall backs. 1. There is not much capability for customization with hacking. Unless you jailbreak one of these you are stuck with simply changing background images. 2. Prior to 3G-S the devices had very little temporary memory. Maybe this is the driver behind not multi tasking
. 3. Unless you are willing to spend 100 bucks more you are limited to 8gb of memory. Now this may have been good a year or so ago, but now with HD movies, pictures, games, and much more this memory will become limiting. 4. Apple likes Apple stuff made by Apple people that costs enough to make Apple salaries ridiculously high. That's right, be ready to spend a pretty penny to keep this device up to date and running the best apps. No freebie Google stuff here!
Droid: This device is what I like to call the opportunity window for the Android community. Prior to this device Android run phones were few and far between. Now some of this can be contributed to the fact that T-Mobile held the market share on Android for awhile, and with their lack of strong 3G support, the devices were falling on def ears. With the inception of this device on a larger, much more powerful network, came the culmination of the community. The app market has been growing exponentially and hundreds of thousands of units have been sold. The device it's self was a great build by Motorola. The design makes the device feel durable and easy to use. The slide out qwerty keyboard immediately have this device a one up on the iPhone. In addition the upgradable HD space via SD cards also drew some customers over from iPhone. From the 5 mp camera to the nice speaker package to Google maps, this product was truly the first honest competitor to the iPhone market. With all of these great items also came some down falls. 1. Motorola has not had a big breakthrough since the RAZOR and that lack of current knowledge is present with the Droid. The software that runs with Android OS is almost non-existent. I cannot speak for any of you out there, but I was expecting much more user interface, maybe an attempt at MotoBlur? 2. The ROM is ok, but not great. Combine this with an under clocked processor and you get a recipe for non-conforming technology. Soon apps were being produced that the Droid could simply not efficiently run without some lag. Hacking and overclocking the device takes care of some of these issues, but then you will run into battery issues, over heating problems, and lack of warranty. 3. Lack of accessory support. To this day not getting love from outside vendors, the Android based phone could not compete with iPhone here. It is kind of hard to do when every electronics manufacturer is embedded in making a 16 pin iPhone attachment, no one seems to care about micro-usb. It is something out of the control of the Droid, but yet will still have an effect on consumers.
The INDREDIBLE: Now I have owned many HTC based products and all seem to push the envelope with design, both hardware and software. I do understand this phones is not as "durable" as the Droid, but then again either is the iPhone. Moto made a good shell, but HTC put together some great internals and software packages. Being a businessman I prefer the great internals over a rugged shell. Everything I thought the Droid was going to give me, the Incredible ended up doing. To explain a little further I had high expectations for the Droid to be able to interface my contacts, FB, Twitter, and various other things all within the OS. Unfortunately this was NOT the case with the Droid. HTC fixed this issue with HTC sense and the inception of "people" and "Friend feed". These apps, if not familiar with them, really show off the capabilities of the OS. I can go to one area of my phone and check Twitter/FB updates, as well as see who emailed me, text me, and what calls I have outstanding. It really put everything together. I don't really miss the QWERTY keyboard as I used the iPhone for awhile and also found myself using the screen more on the Droid than the keyboard. The touch interface is very easy to use and with the addition of the optical trackball, similar to trackpad/ball on blackberry, it makes the device easily navigable. I have not seen many flaws on this device that cannot be fixed with a few software updates. I can only think of 2 deterrents to buying the phone 1. You love the durable feel of the Droid 2. You like all the pretty accessories you can buy for your iPhone. (But just remember they don't hold a 1ghz processor and around 200mb of free ROM).
I honestly cannot close this off with a little love to my friends over on Blackberry. Those devices are the true pavers of this community. Without the innovations RIM developed over the past decades we would not have the smartphone community that we see today. I loved my Blackberries, but sad to say the times are passing RIM as more and more users like to do more with their devices than just email. Yes I know you cynic out their, Blackberries do a lot more than email, but play around with one for awhile (i.e. browser, FB, nav, etc..) and you will see a lag. Now do the same with an Android or iPhone....see the difference? Yeah I though so.
iPhone: Some say the pioneer of the new revolution in smartphone design. Some say the blood sucking tool of Steve Jobs. I say it is one of the best all around devices presented to you on the crappiest network around. Yes I said it, sorry AT&T, but when your contract explicitly reads "Do not guarantee service within buildings", and you use that to your benefit, it makes people wonder if they have to be in the great plains in order to access the MOST BARS IN MOST PLACES. As for the device it is the great mix between business and pleasure, but does have some significant fall backs. 1. There is not much capability for customization with hacking. Unless you jailbreak one of these you are stuck with simply changing background images. 2. Prior to 3G-S the devices had very little temporary memory. Maybe this is the driver behind not multi tasking
. 3. Unless you are willing to spend 100 bucks more you are limited to 8gb of memory. Now this may have been good a year or so ago, but now with HD movies, pictures, games, and much more this memory will become limiting. 4. Apple likes Apple stuff made by Apple people that costs enough to make Apple salaries ridiculously high. That's right, be ready to spend a pretty penny to keep this device up to date and running the best apps. No freebie Google stuff here!Droid: This device is what I like to call the opportunity window for the Android community. Prior to this device Android run phones were few and far between. Now some of this can be contributed to the fact that T-Mobile held the market share on Android for awhile, and with their lack of strong 3G support, the devices were falling on def ears. With the inception of this device on a larger, much more powerful network, came the culmination of the community. The app market has been growing exponentially and hundreds of thousands of units have been sold. The device it's self was a great build by Motorola. The design makes the device feel durable and easy to use. The slide out qwerty keyboard immediately have this device a one up on the iPhone. In addition the upgradable HD space via SD cards also drew some customers over from iPhone. From the 5 mp camera to the nice speaker package to Google maps, this product was truly the first honest competitor to the iPhone market. With all of these great items also came some down falls. 1. Motorola has not had a big breakthrough since the RAZOR and that lack of current knowledge is present with the Droid. The software that runs with Android OS is almost non-existent. I cannot speak for any of you out there, but I was expecting much more user interface, maybe an attempt at MotoBlur? 2. The ROM is ok, but not great. Combine this with an under clocked processor and you get a recipe for non-conforming technology. Soon apps were being produced that the Droid could simply not efficiently run without some lag. Hacking and overclocking the device takes care of some of these issues, but then you will run into battery issues, over heating problems, and lack of warranty. 3. Lack of accessory support. To this day not getting love from outside vendors, the Android based phone could not compete with iPhone here. It is kind of hard to do when every electronics manufacturer is embedded in making a 16 pin iPhone attachment, no one seems to care about micro-usb. It is something out of the control of the Droid, but yet will still have an effect on consumers.
The INDREDIBLE: Now I have owned many HTC based products and all seem to push the envelope with design, both hardware and software. I do understand this phones is not as "durable" as the Droid, but then again either is the iPhone. Moto made a good shell, but HTC put together some great internals and software packages. Being a businessman I prefer the great internals over a rugged shell. Everything I thought the Droid was going to give me, the Incredible ended up doing. To explain a little further I had high expectations for the Droid to be able to interface my contacts, FB, Twitter, and various other things all within the OS. Unfortunately this was NOT the case with the Droid. HTC fixed this issue with HTC sense and the inception of "people" and "Friend feed". These apps, if not familiar with them, really show off the capabilities of the OS. I can go to one area of my phone and check Twitter/FB updates, as well as see who emailed me, text me, and what calls I have outstanding. It really put everything together. I don't really miss the QWERTY keyboard as I used the iPhone for awhile and also found myself using the screen more on the Droid than the keyboard. The touch interface is very easy to use and with the addition of the optical trackball, similar to trackpad/ball on blackberry, it makes the device easily navigable. I have not seen many flaws on this device that cannot be fixed with a few software updates. I can only think of 2 deterrents to buying the phone 1. You love the durable feel of the Droid 2. You like all the pretty accessories you can buy for your iPhone. (But just remember they don't hold a 1ghz processor and around 200mb of free ROM).
I honestly cannot close this off with a little love to my friends over on Blackberry. Those devices are the true pavers of this community. Without the innovations RIM developed over the past decades we would not have the smartphone community that we see today. I loved my Blackberries, but sad to say the times are passing RIM as more and more users like to do more with their devices than just email. Yes I know you cynic out their, Blackberries do a lot more than email, but play around with one for awhile (i.e. browser, FB, nav, etc..) and you will see a lag. Now do the same with an Android or iPhone....see the difference? Yeah I though so.
