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So Many Choices

RentzM63B

Newbie
Oct 27, 2009
34
0
Okay, so 3 choices.

Not sure if this is the best forum to post this in, but I'm just wondering what the main differences between the 3 upcoming Android phones for Verizon are. The Moto Droid, the HTC Desire, and the HTC Passion. I've done a little quick researching on the phones and haven't found very much hard info on the two HTCs, other than that the Desire should be launching November 6th or so, and the Passion is supposed to launch in time for the Holiday season (any more direct dates on this?).

I currently have a BlackBerry Storm and was anticipating the Storm2, but now I am leaning towards an android phone, specifically the Moto Droid. But should I hold out for one of the HTCs or would it not be worth it. I've heard that the HTC Desire is getting a 512 Mhz processor (not the OMAP that the Moto Droid is getting) and I've also heard that it might be getting the Snapdragon processor (apparently super-fast). Which is true?

I've heard that the Passion is definetely getting the Snapdragon. Other than that, nothing. I personally like the looks of the Desire over both the other phones, but I like the fact that the Moto Droid has a slide-out qwerty keyboard (while not a huge fan of slide-outs, this certainly opens up a few more possibilities).

I haven't really been a fan of Motorola in the past, but the Moto Droid looks to be a winner, and farely well built (so I've heard). But is there any reason that I should hold out to see what the two HTCs will be like? Are there any outstanding features that either of these phones will have that trump the Moto Droid (other than the Snapdragon processor, most likely NOT in the Desire, but in the Passion)? I also know that the Moto Droid will have Android 2.0 running, but I've heard that the Desire will most likely get 1.6. Is the Passion Likely to have 2.0?

Of course, I'm going to play with all the phones before making a decision, but I'm just curious as to whether or not I should even hold out for the additional month before the Passion comes out, or if I should just choose between the Moto Droid and the HTC Desire? And I've never played with ANY phone running Android so I'm not sure how much I'll like it, but from everything I've been reading/watching, it looks pretty cool.

Oh, and does anyone know what the whole HTC Sense is about? I know it's HTC's version or whatever of Android, but what features does in have?

Thanks for any help people...
 
The HTC Desire will be similar to the HTC hero. It is a decent phone, but the hardware can be sluggish on the software, especially since it is running the HTC sense on top of Android. That being said, the HTC hero is a great phone. The screen on this phone is smaller as well. I am guessing that this phone will be running Android 1.5 or 1.6 instead of 2.0 as well. It does have HTC Sense, which is nice.

The Droid will be running stock Android 2.0 and has a solid processor as well as a dedicated GPU. It also has a larger screen and slide out keyboard. I actually like having the stock Android because you can still customize with apps.

I don't know much about the Passion except that screen is gigantic and it has a 1 ghz processor. But it also does not have a dedicated GPU, so we don't really know if it will that much faster than the Droid. I would expect HTC sense to be running on this as well given it is an HTC phone.
 
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Rentz,

Not to confuse you further, but from what I read there will be not one but TWO Motorola Android phones by year's end. One is the Droid that we've been reading so much about. The other - currently codenamed Calgary - will be a cheaper model, and feature MotoBlur on top of Android (if that's the right way to put it).

My sources for this? See this article from Christian Science Monitor online

and this one from the Brighthand blog .....

From what I can understand, phones using HTC Sense or Motorola's Blur are aimed at those who think the purpose of a smartphone (and possibly the purpose and meaning of life itself!) is to be enveloped 24/7 in the social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc) .... Myself, I like to have mobile access to the internet to get information more so than to keep up with whether my friend Bob just ate lunch or my friend Sue just posted a link to a funny YouTube video.

So that's one thing to consider when choosing among the new Verizon phones running Android -- do you want one that's optimized for synching up with Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/Flickr etc etc .. ...

Hope this makes sense
 
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Not to confuse you further, Rentz, but according to Christian Science Monitor and to Brighthand blog there will be a second MOTOROLA Android/Verizon phone this year, codenamed Calgary. Supposedly cheaper and less powerful than the Droid, and coming out a few weeks later.

And according to Brighthand, the Calgary will run MotoBlur (which as I understand it is kinda like HTC Sense -- an attempt to center the phone user's experience around interaction with people on the social media like Facebook). Personally, that is NOT my primary interest in getting a smartphone -- I'm more interested in being to access INFORMATION from the internet than in finding out my friend Bob just ate a spicy enchilada for lunch.

So that is one difference to consider with these upcoming models, apparently TWO from Motorola (although the second isn't coming out 'til later this year) and at least one from HTC (and perhaps two from HTC?). Namely, do you want one optimized for synch'ing up with Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/Flickr and so on ... compared to one with the home page typically displays various apps as one is used to seeing on a smartphone.
 
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Not to confuse you further, Rentz, but according to Christian Science Monitor and to Brighthand blog there will be a second MOTOROLA Android/Verizon phone this year, codenamed Calgary. Supposedly cheaper and less powerful than the Droid, and coming out a few weeks later.

And according to Brighthand, the Calgary will run MotoBlur (which as I understand it is kinda like HTC Sense -- an attempt to center the phone user's experience around interaction with people on the social media like Facebook). Personally, that is NOT my primary interest in getting a smartphone -- I'm more interested in being to access INFORMATION from the internet than in finding out my friend Bob just ate a spicy enchilada for lunch.

So that is one difference to consider with these upcoming models, apparently TWO from Motorola (although the second isn't coming out 'til later this year) and at least one from HTC (and perhaps two from HTC?). Namely, do you want one optimized for synch'ing up with Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/Flickr and so on ... compared to one with the home page typically displays various apps as one is used to seeing on a smartphone.

From what I understand BLUR and Sense are the same only so far as a different changes to android's UI. Sense does little to integrate social messaging like facebook or twitter. Sense allows more pages on your home screen (7 instead of 3). On those 7 screens you can put your different widgets and apps how you see fit and save them for different occasions (aka scenes to HTC). There is a twitter widget (and probably a facebook one) from HTC, but its up to you if you want to use it. Its much more about customizing your phone then BLUR seems to be.
 
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