Hi
I have had a windows mobile in various guises for over 7 years
Staring with the Old 2003 Typhoon through Blue Angel, Prophet, Tytn, TytnII, Touch HD and never really thought of moving. But i realised that every time i got a new phone i just loaded the same old Apps and always put up with the crappy Camera (even the HD to be honest except in perfect conditions was pretty bad) and that even with the newest phone WM just seemed to be laggy.
i must say that i have always used WM as i wanted an Organiser and a something for casual gaming when im out and about and not got the DS or PSP
So i read up on Android and decided to go for it
now having used an HD2 for a short while and now the desire i can give my thoughts which may be of help.
I think it's probably best to separate certain Important features
1. GUI
Sense for WM and Android are very different and for WM IMHO is a much better experience (when it's smooth)
It's more customisable and shows much more info on the screen than android, But then it argues that android is less cluttered and much smoother so it's a close one to call .
2. Games
No contest here Android even though it's still in it's early stages blows WM away, Yes i know people will write what about xtract and need for speed etc but the fact is games like that are very few on WM and in some cases like need for speed look great but i didnt think it played well.
Android games on the whole just seem to work and are of very good quality and with the impending 2.2 update for apps to sd and androids increasing popularity i expect that it will get even better soon
3. Camera
Again sorry WM but no contest i always put up with the bad cameras on the WM phones thinking you cant have it all and have to sacrifice some things to have a smartphone , not on the desire the flash is excellent the pics taken are superb , no lag after pressing the button etc, put it this way whenever i wanted to take a pic in anything other than great conditions with the HD i actually didnt bother and missed loads of opportunities but now 2 presses and 9 times out of 10 an excellent pic, Must also mention that the video capture is also miles ahead of any WM phone i have had no jerkiness abd it's all in sync.
4. APPS
Not a great deal of difference here to be honest each platform has some great free and paid for apps
bearing in mind that WM has had years of apps released Android is not far behind and will only get bigger but there are apps that i miss from WM and i'm hoping that as Android matures so will the Apps
Must say though that the Market on Android is so much better than WM
5. OS
WM itself is in my opinion still the same as it was in 2003 nothing much has changed, HTC with manila and Sense did a lot to improve that but a lot of the apps were still based around the OS and i always wanted more and more finger friendly apps which seemed easy to use, On Android of course All apps are designed this way which i have found superb
Although i still do prefer sense on WM but it's close and the android version comes pretty close.
Android os is really just screens where you can out icons or widgets coming from an WM thats very easy to customize it was a difficult transition to Android as you can change the way the screen looks but you are pretty stuck with the look of other peoples widgets (so i'm starting to learn to write my own )
But i still prefer the smoothness of android that i never got with WM
However not being able to store Apps on the SD is a severe limitation on Android and until the Desire gets 2.2 then be prepared to get frustrated if you are like me and just want to check everything out.
Also Exchange support is nowhere near as good on android as with WM
i have it up and running at the mo but it's not perfect and i do miss Wm for that.
And i for some reason didnt relise that you dont get a stylus with the desire, I know it seems obvious now and some will chuckle but it did take a short while to stop trying to remove it
I'm not sure if the above will help as they are really only my opinions but overall i love the desire and although i miss a couple of apps i have far more better stuff on my phone now which makes up for these and i'm sure that the gaps will be filled soon.
I for one am very happy that i swapped over and have actually enjoyed using the apps and games for a change other than just endlessly tinkering trying to change the homescreen and getting WM smooth.
