"My next phone would be a...if..."

[Guest arirang]

i've been test-driving the DROID [option to exercise 30-day return]. because of the hyper-speed of innovation since the i910's release, it's apples to oranges so i'll omit comparisons. however, some negative misconceptions about the DROID can be put to rest.

1. flaky camera auto-focus--current production releases have 2.01 installed, and i've not experienced any issue.

2. battery hatch lose--current production releases have added a thin rubber pad underneath, so it's snug and secure.

3. horrible battery life [<12hrs]--i easily get that and more with normal usage [voice, web-surfing, enabling GPS, BT, WIFI, aut-sync when needed, etc]. moreover, after a 12hr day, i had 50% remaining so i thought it would be a good time to condition and train the new lithium battery by draining it completely. so with 50% remaining, i enabled BT, WIFI, GPS, maximum display lighting, and played non-stop youtube videos. with all the battery-hogging features enabled, it took an add'l 2hrs before it finally shut down.

4. call quality [inbound/outbound]--i haven't been able to duplicate the tinniness some reviewers have described.

5. sliding keyboard keys not well-designed--compared to what layout? BB and its clones? G1 and its clones? i type SMS, email [but NOT novels] just fine with it and the virtual KB.

so with all the buzz about upcoming smart-phones with 1GHZ processors, 512 ROM/RAM specs, will i return the DROID for one of those? likely not, because...

1. nexus 1 isn't supported by a brick-and-mortar store. i have to navigate through Google's and HTC customer service and deal with finger-pointing.

2. anything with a skinned android [senseUI] can expect delays when rev. updates are released since HTC will have to modify the skin.

3. sure it may say 1GHZ but it's under-clocked [from 200 to 700GHZ] to conserve battery. innovation makes something slow go fast, but not vice-versa.

4. it's hard to go back to plastic bodies once you go DROID with its steel frame

5. if MS wasnt sitting on a mountain of cash to sustain buzz and recover from missteps with WM7, it would be in a death spiral like palm.

6. BB is truly in a quandary as the android and iphone slowly but surely make themselves more enterprise-friendly and secure.

god only knows what google has up their sleeves and when the DROID will no longer be included in their future releases. the heat and battery consumption associated to 1GHZ processor is a technological ceiling that no one has yet to break. therefore, the new buzz is the radio chip inside [LTE/4G/wimax/etc].

Edited March 24, 2010 by arirang

[Guest kdkinc]

Arirang,

Re:

3. horrible battery life [<12hrs]--i easily get that and more with normal usage [voice, web-surfing, enabling GPS, BT, WIFI, aut-sync when needed, etc]. moreover, after a 12hr day, i had 50% remaining so i thought it would be a good time to condition and train the new lithium battery by draining it completely. so with 50% remaining, i enabled BT, WIFI, GPS, maximum display lighting, and played non-stop youtube videos. with all the battery-hogging features enabled, it took an add'l 2hrs before it finally shut down.

I believe that Ni Cad batteries had the memory issue they had to be "trained" they had a "chip".

Lithium batteries will go to the end of charge then crap out ,no weaking of output so to say.Also they can't be over charged, I'm not saying to leave on the charger for days... or charged to often.

Great thread and assessment. :)

At present I'm happy with my O2 but most likely will go "robot" next fall

;) :P

Edited March 25, 2010 by kdkinc

[Guest arirang]

Arirang,

Re:

3. horrible battery life [<12hrs]--i easily get that and more with normal usage [voice, web-surfing, enabling GPS, BT, WIFI, aut-sync when needed, etc]. moreover, after a 12hr day, i had 50% remaining so i thought it would be a good time to condition and train the new lithium battery by draining it completely. so with 50% remaining, i enabled BT, WIFI, GPS, maximum display lighting, and played non-stop youtube videos. with all the battery-hogging features enabled, it took an add'l 2hrs before it finally shut down.

I believe that Ni Cad batteries had the memory issue they had to be "trained" they had a "chip".

Lithium batteries will go to the end of charge then crap out ,no weaking of output so to say.Also they can't be over charged, I'm not saying to leave on the charger for days... or charged to often.

Great thread and assessment. :P

At present I'm happy with my O2 but most likely will go "robot" next fall

:( :(

i think the end-result of fully discharging a new battery [and periodically after that] is a more accurate calibration between the phone's firmware and the battery for day-to-day charging. the phone's firmware will more accurately 'know' when the battery is truly topped off. my experience since the full discharge matches this. prior to discharging, it would have 50% after 12hrs, now it has 70% remaining.

if you use alot of MS services then WM7 will be it [xbox live, myphone, hotmail, etc]. if you use alot of google services then the droid is it. google voice integration is seamless and now has real-time SMS push [an android OS exclusive].

Edited March 27, 2010 by arirang

[Guest arirang]

i think the end-result of fully discharging a new battery [and periodically after that] is a more accurate calibration between the phone's firmware and the battery for day-to-day charging. the phone's firmware will more accurately 'know' when the battery is truly topped off. my experience since the full discharge matches this. prior to discharging, it would have 50% after 12hrs, now it has 70% remaining.

if you use alot of MS services then WM7 will be it [xbox live, myphone, hotmail, etc]. if you use alot of google services then the droid is it. google voice integration is seamless and now has real-time SMS push [an android OS exclusive].

i've decided to keep the droid, and let the new releases with their battery-hungry snapdragon 1ghz processors and various skinnings duke it out amongst themselves.

those of you on the fence between motorola droid and N1. here's a great display-benchmark test pitting N1 with droid and iphone 3gs. spoiler alert--Droid Does.

[Guest kdkinc]

THINK INCREDIBLE April 24 (about)

Now thats HOT :P :(

:( B)

[Guest cerberez]

THINK INCREDIBLE April 24 (about)

Now thats HOT ;) ;)

;) :P

Yeah... love my i910, it's nearly 2 years old and outperforming most phones out today, thanks to the phenomenal people of the omnia communities and their hard work.

but I'm starting to get bugged by a few little things (especially the weak gps chip and lack of a digital compass: geocaching is high on my list of priorities) and my battery is wearing out: doesn't hold as much juice as it used to. Rather than replace the battery, I might take the opportunity to go for a whole new phone.

I think I'll wind up with an Incredible, a Pre Plus, or (and this is less likely) one of those WM7 babies coming out this winter, if they hit verizon.

I'm excited to try out Android OS. It's already got apps I really want and it seems like it'll outlast many of the OSes out there right now. Regarding fragmentation, I did hear that google has planned to slow down its production of OS versions and concentrate on the ones that are out right now.

I was really pumped for the nexus one, because I'm nuts for google and I thought it would turn out to be the ultimate google phone. Instead, they seem to have a really laid-back attitude towards marketing/supporting the phone and fixing its bugs.

I ruled out the droid because I actually see qwerty keyboards as a downside. I much prefer swype and I don't like the idea of a whole piece of the structure of the phone that I don't use. Anyway, Swype, I hear, is coming to android in an official capacity (maybe it'll work even better than the beta port we have for the omnia now).

so I wonder if I'll be able to wait for the Windows 7 phones to come out. Their specs look insane... But I do EVERYTHING on google's mail and docs and calendar; do you think there'll be any problem integrating those services into a windows phone?

However, the palm pre plus might turn out to be too cheap for me to turn down, regarless of how sexy the other options are.

Edited April 10, 2010 by cerberez

[Guest arirang]

But I do EVERYTHING on Google's mail and docs and calendar; do you think there'll be any problem integrating those services into a windows phone?

Google will always have Mobile Apps for windows platform; however, it's naturally not the same experience compared on android platform. some Google service features on windows will never feel integrated--voice, voice+SMS, picasa [aka web gallery], mail+contacts+calendar sync/push, etc.

if you've fully leveraged Google services, then android OS is a no brainer. if you've distributed services among different hosts [hotmail, flickr, etc], then your mileage may vary.

Edited April 13, 2010 by arirang

[Guest kdkinc]

+1 CERBEREZ

I look also a the number of great chefs that have left this Omnia thread. (i910 + i920)

Where did most of them go??? how many returned??

BGA55 came back for a couple of days then went to i920 then..... got captured by the robot ;)

Some of the new phones IMHO are far Superior to the i910 in many ways. However like you said the i910 is now 2+ years old !

BIG changes are coming.

When I my 2 year contract is up this fall I most likely will choose the Incredible. I'll think hard about going the 1 year option with VZW. Unless I'm missing something it will cost about $75.00 more to go the one year option than by that time the Incredible will be yesterdays news.

As far as WP7 goes I'll let the test pilots mess with it for a year before I consider a "new" OS

My 1 cent ;) ;)

Thanks Arirang for a great thread

:P :P

Edited April 17, 2010 by kdkinc

[Guest Root-dir]

HTC droid Incredible looks like where im headed there's a lot of things that are omnia reminiscent about this phone

its mostly touch screen based but has an optical "trackball" (not sure how it differs from the "joystick" but look forward to finding out) this was something i was waiting for i didn't like how the moto droid didn't have some sort of directional control without opening the keyboard

pros

Processor: Snapdragon 1ghz monster > the moto droid's though it lacks a dedicated graphics chip which the droid has

Screen:WVGA AMOLED Capacitive touch screen yeah I think thats all that needs to be said about that.

Memory: 500(and some change)MB of program memory

storage:8GB internal memory first android phone ive seen do this its basically just like my storage on the omnia and it of course still has an sd slot

Camera:Like the omnia at its launch the incredible will have one of the best cameras on the market coming in at 8MP also Dual LED flash

all those crazy sensors that seem to be standard on android phones now including accelerometer(for sure), compass(i think), proximity(i think),and light(i think) [i say i think because i have seen descriptions that leave these out but have seen them in other descriptions i have NOT seen anyone say it DOESN'T though so i think its safe to assume they are there)

FM radio built in: just like the omnia and i know i accutaly used it on my omnia more than i expected to so it will be a nice thing not to loose

3.5mm headphone jack: this has become pretty much standard but it seems its on the top of the phone which lends it's self well to using earphones that dont have a bent adapter

non proprietary charge/data port.

wifi and bluetooth obviously

like the omnia no moving parts(trackballs, sliders ect) nothing to break

cons:

the back has a sort of sculpting to it which i would be fine with me except the camera bezel ends up being the highest point on the back which makes me nervous idk ill have to play with it to decide on this also if i understand correctly the back is kinda rubbery to give it a more tactile feel than the slippery fingerprint magnet that comes from something like an iphone

from what i can tell there's no dedicated camera button so no half click to focus (the camera does have auto focus tho)

THERES NO DEDICATED SEND AND END KEYS this one is going to take some getting used to something i loved about the omnia was no mater what i was doing i knew the phone was always one button away because after all while i use my phone for A LOT of things it is at heart a phone the end button isn't so big a deal as it basically served the same purpose the home button does on this but still this march away from hard buttons is NOT a good thing IMO

the battery is reported to be smaller than the droid's (not by much but i think and correct me if im wrong the droid was already smaller than the omnia) so im not sure maybe they think the will save massive battery on the amoled and auto throttling of the snapdragon we will have to see but either way unless someone comes up with an aftermarket batery this will not be a phone you can afford to forget to plug in at night.

the camera apparently cant do 720p video but that's no big deal to me as long as its decent quallity and smooth which it is based on the preview video i saw.

No dedicated GPU like the droid so idk about open gl or games in general even with the snapdragon

Things I dont know and other thoughts:

i dont know if it can do Tv out and while i haven't acctually used it on my omnia its nice to know that i could if i wanted to.

as i mentioned im not sure about the compass light and proximity sensors although if you look at the picture there seems to be two discolored circles to the left of the ear piece which to me says light and proximity sensors.

while this is releasing with the latest and greatest version of android (2.1) it does have sense which might cause updates to come a little slower than for handsets with a base ui. speaking of sense idk much about it like rather you can turn it off or how well its integrated in to the os.

some have complained about the red highlights but i acctually kinda like it or at least better than the gold accents on the droid i thought the looked out of place

I dont know if this has a scratch resistant screen like the droid or not but an invisible shield can take care of that just like it does on my omnia.

well hope that helps someone please excuse any spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistakes as ive already spent too much time writing this and dont have time to go back and fix errors

[Guest rfarrah]

HTC droid Incredible looks like where im headed there's a lot of things that are omnia reminiscent about this phone

its mostly touch screen based but has an optical "trackball" (not sure how it differs from the "joystick" but look forward to finding out) this was something i was waiting for i didn't like how the moto droid didn't have some sort of directional control without opening the keyboard... snip!

It does look like an awesome phone. I just need to see if it will sync and play nicely with Outlook (contacts, appointments, tasks) on my computers.

[Guest 03civicsi]

It does look like an awesome phone. I just need to see if it will sync and play nicely with Outlook (contacts, appointments, tasks) on my computers.

the incredible has HTC sync which is part or HTC sense so it does play nice with any mail client as far as I know... I synced my contacts to google server just in case, so when I get my incredible all I need to do is log in and let it do the rest... my omnia is now my music/ video player...

I will miss the battery life I got with it... 3 days per charge after I upgraded to a custom rom

[Guest tom999]

Looking for a decent "starter" Android phone, any thoughts?

With all the new android phones out there, or soon to be, I'm interested in picking up a cheap used android phone that I can mess with, flash upgrade, etc. to start into the Android. Change is inevitable but I don't want to lock in to a 2-year plan with Verizon right now. So any thoughts on which 2009 or early 2010 android might be best?

Thanks. tom

[Guest Lisbian08]

Looking for a decent "starter" Android phone, any thoughts?

With all the new android phones out there, or soon to be, I'm interested in picking up a cheap used android phone that I can mess with, flash upgrade, etc. to start into the Android. Change is inevitable but I don't want to lock in to a 2-year plan with Verizon right now. So any thoughts on which 2009 or early 2010 android might be best?

Thanks. tom

Try the original Droid. It still has by far the most ROMs available. The newer android phones are most "locked down" and not as configurable. You should be able to find one for a decent price these days.

[Guest arirang]

Try the original Droid. It still has by far the most ROMs available. The newer android phones are most "locked down" and not as configurable. You should be able to find one for a decent price these days.

i agree with lisbian but not because i have the droid1...it's your criteria, "cheap used android phone that I can mess with, flash upgrade."

AFAIK, D1 and the N1 are the only STOCK android out of the box--no GUI overlay, no bootlock, etc. this makes them accessible and ideal for the modding community. moreover, because D1 has a 'slower' processor than N1, it will be the cheapest. however, like the omnia, it has a strong mod community that will easily be around for as long as the omnia.

heck, if $$$ was no issue, i'd likely stick with my D1 until battery/charging tech improves--it's the final barrier. higher processor speed and bigger display is meaningless if it makes you anal about battery-drain and OCD for the newest battery tweak/hack.

my 2 cents.

[Guest tom999]

Great input! Thanks.

[Guest urphonesux]

i cant even remember how to use the omnia 1 and its the exact same thing as my o2.........well not really

when i change my omnia 1 around for my girl it takes me a second to get used to it again.

She and all of her co workers are completely in love with my old Omnia 1

the last rom i put on it was lyorites lite rom and its been on there ever since then

No problems at all

.................................and my O2 blows the O1 out of the water, and a couple of droids too but thats a different thread