In November I decided that it was time to change from AT&T to Verizon. It was a more difficult choice than I thought it would be. I really like my iPhone but the poor service, poor coverage and expense were more than I could afford. When Verizon announced that their Early Termination Fee (ETF) would increase from $175 to $350 I was pushed to make a decision. I bought a Motorola Droid smartphone.
My brother has had an Android based phone for at least a year and he had lots of good things to say about it.
After having owned it for 2 months now I will offer my views.
Plus
Multitasking. It is SO nice to have programs that keep running in the background.
Open System. There is no need to ‘jailbreak’ the phone since most of the features are available and there is very little reason to dig that deeply.
Off of AT&T.
LED flash for the camera.
Much easier to develop for. Uses Java with free SDK.
Google Maps
Google App integration.
Removable/replaceable/upgradeable battery.
It is really a computer.
Over the air updates.
Minus
The graphics in the available software are not as polished.
There is no good ebook reader available. That should change as the market matures.
There is no integration with Podcasts and the desktop like there is with an iPhone and iTunes.
The lack of an Audible.com client for audiobooks. There are some pretty good audio players but it is necessary to remove the DRM from the audio files.
There are no good cases available because of the sliding keyboard. One thing I liked about my old Ipaq 4705 was the selection of nice leather cases.
The physical appearance is not as stylish.
Overall Impression:
I am very pleased with the Android. The keyboard is a flat keyboard that is difficult to use with my big fingers. I don’t miss iTunes Store as much as I thought I would. Don’t let the claim of 100,000 applications on the iTune store fool you. There is a lot of clutter, chaff and redundancy in the store. For example, at last count there are 156 flatulence programs available. The Android marketplace lacks a solid web interface to their market. There are several sites that act as front ends but none offer a good search capability.
One interesting feature of the Android is that when you find software that you want to download while browsing the web on your PC you can simply scan a barcode on the screen and the link for the download is fed to the phone. Very slick!
The maps and application integration are without peer. I have gone from being a heavy user of Outlook to an infrequent user.
You may see the AT&T commercial claiming that the Android does not allow you to surf the web and talk at the same time. This is sort of true. If you have a wifi connection you will still be able to surf the web while chatting. The reality is that I have only found one time when that was an issue. I was on hold with a call so I put it on speaker phone and opened up my IM program (did I mention that I love the multi-tasking?) I replied to a message but I could not send it without a wifi connection or when I hung up the call. So in 2.5 months of use I have had exactly one time that AT&T had the advantage.
The Over The Air (OTA) updates deserve special mention. When an update is available to the operating system you receive a notification and it is downloaded and installed. You do not need a PC to complete this. When there are updates to your applications the Market Application will check daily and inform you of their availability. again, without the need to have a connection to a PC.
The best analogy that I can offer about the iPhone versus the Android is that the iPhone is a TV dinner and the Android is a fully-stocked pantry. One is ready to go and is fine if you like the predetermined flavor. The other has unlimited possibilities. There is room for both in the world. I still keep my iPhone around for managing the podcasts that I listen to. But as soon as an application appears that integrates the Android with the desktop it will become available on eBay.
Overall grade: A-
Meandering with a Purpose 