Hey Guys, long time/first time. I'm a Verizon customer with an OG Droid (my first and thus far only smartphone). It's got it's problems, but most of them have been lessened by rooting and installing the latest Bugless Beast ROM and Chevy's LV 1.2 GHz kernel. I still get hung up by the tiny amount of RAM and app storage (apps to SD only alleviates this so much...) I would love to go out today and buy a new phone; I'm eligible for an upgrade, my current phone is barely cutting the mustard, I'm grandfathered into unlimited data, and I even live in a great VZW LTE area. In short, I'm the ideal candidate for a new phone this holiday season.
But I'm waiting. I was caught up in the Galaxy Nexus excitement just like everyone else, and it's specs are pretty impressive. I'm really intrigued at the idea of a 720P screen, and obviously Ice Cream Sandwich plus Google updates makes for a tempting package. Plus, with the debacle that was the Galaxy Nexus release, it seems safe to assume we won't be getting another one of these on Verizon in the future. Still... it's not ideal for me. And especially with Tegra3/Krait/A15 right around the corner, I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger. So here's what I'm waiting for (also known as what I think I can reasonably expect within the next 6 months).
I want a phone with a hardware keyboard. One of the main sources of entertainment on my Droid are emulators, and I hate the on screen controls. I've had a Game Gripper for over a year now and I love it - it turns my Droid into a bona fide gaming console, and I take a perverse pleasure when people look over my shoulder and quietly gasp when they see I'm playing Mario.
I want a phone with a camera button on the side. Holding the phone with one hand while tapping the screen with the other leads to bad pictures. I don't take enough pictures to justify buying (or carrying) a DSLR or even a point and shoot, so it's important to me that the camera on the phone is capable. It doesn't matter how good the lens or image processor is if the phone jolts every time you snap a picture.
I want a phone with miniHDMI. I don't want to spend 15 dollars at Monoprice for a MHL connector, I want the thing baked into my phone so that I can easily play Netflix, Youtube, or decode from attached storage and output on the TV in my classroom or at my in-laws.
I want a phone with a HD screen. The pixel density on the Rezound and GN is ridiculous, and I love the possibilities of the extra pixels on the home screen. It's like on computers - once the desktop standard became 1280x1024, 800x600 was blocky and awful. Even though the screen on my Droid feels good, I know there's a lot more potential with a higher resolution.
I want a phone that can dock into a dummy tablet so that I can finally get on the tablet bandwagon without getting butt raped for two data plans by Verizon.
Finally, I want a phone with a processor built on 28 nm technology so that it has LTE built in rather than haphazardly cludged on to the PCB. I don't want to think about the power consumption of my wireless connection at all, or have to worry about deactivating the feature when it's not in use. I want a phone with blistering fast game performance, buttery smoothness, and the ability to decode any video file I throw at it, including Blu-Ray iso. I want a phone where the manufacturer actually thinks about audio performance beyond a gimmicky standard EQ setting.
Is all that too much to ask in six months? If you're waiting like me, what are you waiting for?
But I'm waiting. I was caught up in the Galaxy Nexus excitement just like everyone else, and it's specs are pretty impressive. I'm really intrigued at the idea of a 720P screen, and obviously Ice Cream Sandwich plus Google updates makes for a tempting package. Plus, with the debacle that was the Galaxy Nexus release, it seems safe to assume we won't be getting another one of these on Verizon in the future. Still... it's not ideal for me. And especially with Tegra3/Krait/A15 right around the corner, I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger. So here's what I'm waiting for (also known as what I think I can reasonably expect within the next 6 months).
I want a phone with a hardware keyboard. One of the main sources of entertainment on my Droid are emulators, and I hate the on screen controls. I've had a Game Gripper for over a year now and I love it - it turns my Droid into a bona fide gaming console, and I take a perverse pleasure when people look over my shoulder and quietly gasp when they see I'm playing Mario.
I want a phone with a camera button on the side. Holding the phone with one hand while tapping the screen with the other leads to bad pictures. I don't take enough pictures to justify buying (or carrying) a DSLR or even a point and shoot, so it's important to me that the camera on the phone is capable. It doesn't matter how good the lens or image processor is if the phone jolts every time you snap a picture.
I want a phone with miniHDMI. I don't want to spend 15 dollars at Monoprice for a MHL connector, I want the thing baked into my phone so that I can easily play Netflix, Youtube, or decode from attached storage and output on the TV in my classroom or at my in-laws.
I want a phone with a HD screen. The pixel density on the Rezound and GN is ridiculous, and I love the possibilities of the extra pixels on the home screen. It's like on computers - once the desktop standard became 1280x1024, 800x600 was blocky and awful. Even though the screen on my Droid feels good, I know there's a lot more potential with a higher resolution.
I want a phone that can dock into a dummy tablet so that I can finally get on the tablet bandwagon without getting butt raped for two data plans by Verizon.
Finally, I want a phone with a processor built on 28 nm technology so that it has LTE built in rather than haphazardly cludged on to the PCB. I don't want to think about the power consumption of my wireless connection at all, or have to worry about deactivating the feature when it's not in use. I want a phone with blistering fast game performance, buttery smoothness, and the ability to decode any video file I throw at it, including Blu-Ray iso. I want a phone where the manufacturer actually thinks about audio performance beyond a gimmicky standard EQ setting.
Is all that too much to ask in six months? If you're waiting like me, what are you waiting for?
