Hai2all!
As a CS major with serious hots for computers & networks, I've somehow been neither a gadget guy nor a junkie for new technology. My Motorola V195 (
cnet) worked/works just fine, but finally I realized I could use better input, voice recognition (only with data?? surprising...), GPS (<3), maps I can look at even w/o GPS navigation, and the ability to Wikipedia anything, anywhere, anytime.
So let's put it eloquently: I am seriously like, all wet & shit over this "phone" / GSM+GPS-enabled von Neumann machine running open software. Them HTC-ers sure know good hardware design; and Google's OS, surprise of all surprises, is so marvelous I can't yet praise it what with expecting nothing less than its unintrusive function & speed. (Sense is cool too, that zoom+refit in the browser is totes win).
Speed is marvelous, I see no lag at all. As Ms. Senior-Editor at engadget said (blanking on her name... young east Asian woman, does a lot of good reviews), it proves once again that Hz aren't everything. I wonder to what extent having to paint less of a screen helps out?
Size is perfect: this isn't a PMP, so if it weren't enough that Swypers often outperform people on physical keyboards, at 5'11" / 160-lbs with slender piano fingers I have no problem with the keyboard in either mode. Conclusion? Light & small in my pocket with no input problems. Why, then, would I need a 4"+ device?
Aesthetically, I'd love to get at&t's ugly-ass logo off of the phone's upper-right-hand corner... and I was gonna rant & rave about AT&T's prepaid data plans, American vs European carriers, why locking a SIM card turns babies everywhere into cultists, &c. &c. But I'm sure you all already know this.
Hello everyone, I am a new Aria owner and I am extremely pleased.
Now time for some rooting. Oh, also for lying to AT&T tech support: "Hi, uhh, I unexpectedly got re-assigned to an office in Europe and I need to switch to Vodafone, pls2give free unlock code?" [edit: it didn't work, had to buy one, bah]