65 replies to this topic

[arirang]

after reading iphone vs. BB posts and forums, i realized i'm neither an apps- nor communication-centric user--i'm an info-nympho [pictures, news, music, reviews, locations, etc.]. my next phone would be a device/OS which mines data in the shortest path and with the least resistance [be it clicks, taps, etc.]. moreover, a reliable connection/carrier to the info is a factor that cannot be ignored. the BB is offered by all major carrier so i have choice whereas the iphone isnt so i dont.

a google-centric phone should be the natural front-runner; however, its OS fragmentation is its achilles heel. keeping in mind your typical service contract is two years, it has gone from 1.5 to 1.6 to 2.0 to 2.01 to 2.1 in less than a year. if this trend continues, i could have an android phone with a whole lot things it DOESNT do compared to its latest version. how can i know the android phone i choose will survive this hyper-darwinian culling?

Edited by arirang, 17 January 2010 - 04:01 AM.

[Spirits Keeper]

rfarrah, on Jan 14 2010, 20:41, said:

I was looking at phones today and I still have yet to find anything I think
I'd like better than my O1.  Blackberry is out because I don't want everything (EVERYTHING!) funneled through Blackberry's servers.  Android is still in its infancy.  Even if it does look good, and does pretty things, it still has a way to go before it gets as user-friendly (read update-able, customizable) as WM.  Palm Pre and it's OS was pretty impressive a year ago, but they've taken way too long to move forward - progress on that entire front seems very, very slow.  Besides, the keyboard keys were just too small.

So, I sit here with my O1 and see nothing better out there.  I like updating my ROM to the latest and fastest at a whim.  My 5.0 MP camera with flash is still near the top of the competition's specs.  GPS and phone work great and I can make it look and work almost any way I want.  Free apps are easy to find.  I can upgrade in less than 4 months, but I have yet to see a better phone out there....at least for now.  

I am in the same situation.  I have a ne2 coming up in the next couple of months and see nothing that I think I would like better than my very versatile O1.  I may go with the O2 just for the AMOLED screen and swype keyboard.  But I like my O1 the best of verizon's lineup right now.

[tedkord]

My next phone would be an Omnia II i920, if chefs manage to crack the official update and make custom ROMs without all the Verizon bloat.

Otherwise, I could go with an android handset, if it had equal/better hardware, and if they get  me a way to watch my SlingBox on it.

[iandy1]

Well, my next phone will be the Omnia 2 i920 if... (same as above).

  Or my next phone will be the Verizon Nexus One if this one improves on the problems reported with the GSM version.

  Or my next phone will be the Verizon Imagio if there is a way to unlock the GSM side and use it with any SIM card, when traveling out of the states.

  Must say that still love my Omnia1 for the reasons we all know.

[Lisbian08]

My next phone might be a BB Tour 2 (Essex) if the new browser in BB OS 5.0 is better.  I want a physical keyboard on my next phone.   I am in agreement with problems and limitations of Android.   My only other possibility is a TP2 from HTC.

[jaycarl]

There is nothing at Verizon worth upgrading to over the Omnia 1. In the future that will change but until then the O1 is the most functional overall.

BTW I'm glad Verizon didn't hype up the O1 like they did the Droid. Most people are not ready for a phone you have to customize to your specific needs (why we use Windows Mobile) for it to be fully functional for your daily routine. O1 would of been blasted by ignorant users because they are not willing or lack the mind frame to learn how to customize it. Verizon would have lost tons of money on the O1 if they hyped it up because people would return it because they would be unable to figure it out (read the reviews on VZW site to see what I'm talking about).

When I bought my niece a O1 for her Bday she hated it after 2 weeks of use. After I flashed it to Liortyes rom, installed MS3.5 and a bunch of games and apps she absolutely loves it now. Not many people know someone to do this for them. If you can't figure it out yourself of course you will not like the phone (I didn't like it either out of the box) and return it.

[kdkinc]

jaycarl, on Jan 18 2010, 13:42, said:

There is nothing at Verizon worth upgrading to over the Omnia 1. In the future that will change but until then the O1 is the most functional overall.

BTW I'm glad Verizon didn't hype up the O1 like they did the Droid. Most people are not ready for a phone you have to customize to your specific needs (why we use Windows Mobile) for it to be fully functional for your daily routine. O1 would of been blasted by ignorant users because they are not willing or lack the mind frame to learn how to customize it. Verizon would have lost tons of money on the O1 if they hyped it up because people would return it because they would be unable to figure it out (read the reviews on VZW site to see what I'm talking about).

When I bought my niece a O1 for her Bday she hated it after 2 weeks of use. After I flashed it to Liortyes rom, installed MS3.5 and a bunch of games and apps she absolutely loves it now. Not many people know someone to do this for them. If you can't figure it out yourself of course you will not like the phone (I didn't like it either out of the box) and return it.

Hi jaycarl:
I agree with most of what you said a and reasoning..
The statement on  (read the reviews on VZW site to see what I'm talking about) is more than true, Look at the review counts compared the number of reviews counts for the DROID.(on vzw)
The Droid has been on the market 3-4 months the O1 over a year. I believe the Droid is in the right direction but its not for me...yet,
I want  4.3 or bigger amoled screen, Snapdragon processor 5+ MP camera, touchscreen keyboard.
I also favoring Andoid vs MS though wm7 would be nice.

Thankfully  I don't have to make this decision until SEPT...

  

Edited by kdkinc, 18 January 2010 - 07:23 PM.

[kdkinc]

Checkout this RUMOR at "ENGADGET "


Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship '720p' specs, Zune Phone Experience</h4>



The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording

  

Edited by kdkinc, 19 January 2010 - 12:31 AM.

[Lisbian08]

kdkinc, on Jan 18 2010, 19:18, said:

Checkout this RUMOR at "ENGADGET "


Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship '720p' specs, Zune Phone Experience</h4>



The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording

  

That phone is a beast.  I love the idea of a Zune phone.

[arirang]

kdkinc, on Jan 18 2010, 18:18, said:

Checkout this RUMOR at "ENGADGET "


Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship '720p' specs, Zune Phone Experience</h4>



The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording

  

i feel the 10 megapixel camera-spec is gratuitous and bait for the "higher is better"-crowd and their $$$. i'm an amateur photographer with a decent 10 megapixel DSLR camera [nikon d80]. because the apollo's camera assembly is jammed in a phone form-factor the pixel-pitch will be absurdly high--tunneled light is sharper than funnelled--so pic quality will be no better than a 5 meg or a 2 meg for that matter.

not gonna bite if it costs more than its peers.

Edited by arirang, 19 January 2010 - 02:22 AM.

[pules]

this is a great topic.

I'm considering two major factors for me; proc speed and network radio.

I've been a bb user since 2003 and have watch it grow from a pager to a full blown smartphone (engadget had a great article covering this)

Omnia i910 has been great due to this community, but WinMo is just too corporate and not with the times (some argue the same with BB)

with today's rumor of WinMo7 having two flavors, I guess I'll have to wait to see if I'll appreciate WinMo

going back to my two major factors.

I def want at least a snapdragon proc. (the LG's Apollo 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 is sounding pretty sexy too)
I want to be on the latest Global 4g network, which is going to be LTE. VZW will have 30 markets live before the year is over, but their phase 1 focus is more on data and less on voice, so I'm not sure what this will mean for phones.

lastly, 3rd important on my list....the OS. I'm a huge Google whore. I think Android is going to work best for me.

[arirang]

pules, on Jan 18 2010, 20:58, said:

this is a great topic.

I'm considering two major factors for me; proc speed and network radio.

I've been a bb user since 2003 and have watch it grow from a pager to a full blown smartphone (engadget had a great article covering this)

Omnia i910 has been great due to this community, but WinMo is just too corporate and not with the times (some argue the same with BB)

with today's rumor of WinMo7 having two flavors, I guess I'll have to wait to see if I'll appreciate WinMo

going back to my two major factors.

I def want at least a snapdragon proc. (the LG's Apollo 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 is sounding pretty sexy too)
I want to be on the latest Global 4g network, which is going to be LTE. VZW will have 30 markets live before the year is over, but their phase 1 focus is more on data and less on voice, so I'm not sure what this will mean for phones.

lastly, 3rd important on my list....the OS. I'm a huge Google whore. I think Android is going to work best for me.

i too have fully leveraged Google Apps services, so sensitive and important data resides in its cloud [contacts, calendar, documents, google check-out, etc.]. however, my research and digging shows that today's google-, android-stamped phones don't give me true single, sign-on access to ALL its services--why should i expect partial?

pules, as a long-time BB-user [and great link, btw], what new and/or improved BB feature would keep it on your short-list? radio tuner? music-player? browser? less or zero reliance on blackberry internet service? can't be the apps. from what i can tell wherever there's an app for android, there's a 99% chance a BB-version is on the same download page [including those by google].

Edited by arirang, 19 January 2010 - 03:39 AM.

[pules]

arirang, on Jan 18 2010, 19:22, said:

i too have fully leveraged Google Apps services, so sensitive and important data resides in its cloud [contacts, calendar, documents, google check-out, etc.]. however, my research and digging shows that today's google-, android-stamped phones don't give me true single, sign-on access to ALL its services--why should i expect partial?

pules, as a long-time BB-user [and great link, btw], what new and/or improved BB feature would keep it on your short-list? radio tuner? music-player? browser? less or zero reliance on blackberry internet service? can't be the apps. from what i can tell wherever there's an app for android, there's a 99% chance a BB-version is on the same download page [including those by google].

I think over time we'll see single sign on with google and android, but at the sametime, how much of "big brother" would that be? I fully trust google with my data, but it's still kinda scary.

The BB has had one goal in mind and it does that goal very well; to deliver e-mails securely and in a very timely manner. I don't think any current wireless device does a better job of delivering e-mails like the BB does. BB has grown to become a full functional smartphone by adding multimedia, phone, camera and web browsing, which was great until the iPhone came along and changed general population's expectation of the wireless/PDA industry.

Two things bother me about the BB.....small screen and a very basic JAVA OS (albeit a very secure one) I carry both Omnia and BB Tour with me. I've caught myself using the BB Tour more often when is comes to having to type due to its full qwerty. I'm very happy with the BB. I guess other than a bigger screen and a fancier/flashier OS, I'm pretty okay with it.

With this said, I think the Nexus One on VZW is prob going to me my next phone until something with LTE support comes out.

[DonCasio]

I would choose htc HD (blackstone) if it had at least a direction key and more non-touch soft keys. I miss this thing in my omnia

[arirang]

DonCasio, on Jan 22 2010, 12:28, said:

I would choose htc HD (blackstone) if it had at least a direction key and more non-touch soft keys. I miss this thing in my omnia

i agree the omnia has it right. a dedicated optical mouse/trackball/direction key is better than none. i favor the trackball [ala blackberry] but your mileage may vary.

[semmtexx]

Just got my HTC droid Eris a few days ago and my opinions on it compared to the Omnia i910 are as follows:

touchscreen:  The Eris touchscreen is capacitive and the omnia's is resistive... need I say more?

OS:  Android is far easier to navigate than winmo.  Everything takes way less time to get to, change, and modify.

Interface:  Sense UI pretty much murders all stock and or third party UI's on all fronts.  Speed, fluidity and eye candy are all of course oustanding etc.

processor:  Better than the Omnia's

memory:  Better than the Omnia's.

Battery life:  Actually NOT better than the Omnia's.  (Probably because there is so much going on with android).

Camera:  Color is better than the i910.  Not as much tweakability to the type of shots you can take though.  Viewing photos is alot smoother though on the Eris.

Virtual Keyboard:  Of course easier to use on the Eris due to the differences in screen type.

Trackball:  Well...it's a trackball...

Messaging:  Smoother and easier to use on Eris, also, all contacts are integrated alot better with apps.

Applications:  way more quality on android marketplace.  way more free apps than winmo, and all the free apps i've tried so far are just as good quality as paid apps.

I know that this is a pretty quick and not so professional run down on the Eris but I'd like to point out that between owning the omnia and the Eris, I switched to the BB Storm for about two months.  That's another horror story in itself.  My point here is not to slam winmo.  I used winmo phones for about three years and the whole time was spent sort of liking it but never quite being satisfied and always having to do some kind of hacking just to make it bearable.  The truth of the matter is that If you like winmo, stick with winmo.  But, if you like any of the above comparisons that favor Android and more specifically the Eris, then you should definitely give one a whirl if you are up for an upgrade soon.  I for one still don't understand some flamers that get on here and slam android, iphone and any other OS that isn't winmo.  Winmo compared to some of the newer players lacks on alot of fronts and from what I have seen there is sort of an evolutionary refusal or roadblock if you will on microsoft's part.  All I know is I have been right along side with alot of you guys flashing from rom to rom sometimes 4 to five times a week and for once I can finally say that I am actually happy not having to do that to try obtain some sort of satisfaction.

[semmtexx]

rfarrah, on Jan 14 2010, 21:41, said:

I was looking at phones today and I still have yet to find anything I think
I'd like better than my O1.  Blackberry is out because I don't want everything (EVERYTHING!) funneled through Blackberry's servers.  Android is still in its infancy.  Even if it does look good, and does pretty things, it still has a way to go before it gets as user-friendly (read update-able, customizable) as WM.  Palm Pre and it's OS was pretty impressive a year ago, but they've taken way too long to move forward - progress on that entire front seems very, very slow.  Besides, the keyboard keys were just too small.

So, I sit here with my O1 and see nothing better out there.  I like updating my ROM to the latest and fastest at a whim.  My 5.0 MP camera with flash is still near the top of the competition's specs.  GPS and phone work great and I can make it look and work almost any way I want.  Free apps are easy to find.  I can upgrade in less than 4 months, but I have yet to see a better phone out there....at least for now.  

As far as your comment on Android "Even if it does look good, and does pretty things, it still has a way to go before it gets as user-friendly (read update-able, customizable) as WM."  Umm... I think if you were to go to youtube and search "HTC Hero" and watch the first video that plays, you'll see that Android is well alot more user friendly AND customisable than winmo has ever been.  I'm actually shocked to hear someone say that about Android.  Customization and ease of use are pretty much the selling points of a phone with the Android Sense UI running on it.  Have you ever actually see a demo of it in action or played with one?

[arirang]

semmtexx, on Jan 30 2010, 16:38, said:

Just got my HTC droid Eris a few days ago and my opinions on it compared to the Omnia i910 are as follows:

touchscreen:  The Eris touchscreen is capacitive and the omnia's is resistive... need I say more?

OS:  Android is far easier to navigate than winmo.  Everything takes way less time to get to, change, and modify.

Interface:  Sense UI pretty much murders all stock and or third party UI's on all fronts.  Speed, fluidity and eye candy are all of course oustanding etc.

processor:  Better than the Omnia's

memory:  Better than the Omnia's.

Battery life:  Actually NOT better than the Omnia's.  (Probably because there is so much going on with android).

Camera:  Color is better than the i910.  Not as much tweakability to the type of shots you can take though.  Viewing photos is alot smoother though on the Eris.

Virtual Keyboard:  Of course easier to use on the Eris due to the differences in screen type.

Trackball:  Well...it's a trackball...

Messaging:  Smoother and easier to use on Eris, also, all contacts are integrated alot better with apps.

Applications:  way more quality on android marketplace.  way more free apps than winmo, and all the free apps i've tried so far are just as good quality as paid apps.

I know that this is a pretty quick and not so professional run down on the Eris but I'd like to point out that between owning the omnia and the Eris, I switched to the BB Storm for about two months.  That's another horror story in itself.  My point here is not to slam winmo.  I used winmo phones for about three years and the whole time was spent sort of liking it but never quite being satisfied and always having to do some kind of hacking just to make it bearable.  The truth of the matter is that If you like winmo, stick with winmo.  But, if you like any of the above comparisons that favor Android and more specifically the Eris, then you should definitely give one a whirl if you are up for an upgrade soon.  I for one still don't understand some flamers that get on here and slam android, iphone and any other OS that isn't winmo.  Winmo compared to some of the newer players lacks on alot of fronts and from what I have seen there is sort of an evolutionary refusal or roadblock if you will on microsoft's part.  All I know is I have been right along side with alot of you guys flashing from rom to rom sometimes 4 to five times a week and for once I can finally say that I am actually happy not having to do that to try obtain some sort of satisfaction.

i fiddled with the eris and really enjoyed it, and it's on my shortlist. however, i'm curious to see how many OS upgrades it will be compatible/eligible for beyond 2.0. google is churning out new revs literally every business quarter so a minor concern of mine is investing contractual time and $$$ for a device that gets left behind in the OS/apps upgrade race before it's barely out of the gate. apps developers will hedge their time and money keeping up with latest revs, and divest from older revs--bearing in mind that "old" in this market is typically less than 6ms

Edited by arirang, 31 January 2010 - 01:32 AM.

[arirang]

How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future? interesting read

[Stevenlomb]

I'm hoping that by the time Nexus One gets to Verizon, all the bugs will be worked out.
I love WinMo, but Android might be just as customizable. If not now, maybe soon.