Bad experiences with android.

[IanWorthington]

Finally had a real use for a smartphone this summer so I picked up a second hand HTC Magic (running cyanogenmod) on ebay, a machine about the same vintage as my ipod touch. The ipod is nice, but I really don't like the closed box approach apple takes so I thought I'd try an android phone.

After a few months I'm ready to become an apple fanboi: The HTC never stays up for a whole day, it's always rebooting or I pick it up to find it dead. The keyboard is slow and unresponsive compared to the ipod. I can't format a new sd card I bought for it. And the battery life sucks.

*Please* tell me android phones are not all like this? That HTC Magics are known to be a steaming pile of doggie doos? Or that cyanogenmod has broken it? Or something.

'Cause if this is the way of android I owe a huge apology to a whole bunch of friends I've spent years slagging off for going with iPhones.

i

 

[danaj]

I have had several Androids, and I love them. Not all androids do this. You get what you pay for. Buy a new Android with good reviews.....I have the mytouch 4g slide, and haven't had one problem, with the exception of poor battery life, but it usually lasts the day.....

 

[chanchan05]

The HTC Magic is a very old piece of hardware, not to mention that its processor and other internals is weaker than an iPod's. Also, it came from a time when Android was still not optimized to run nicely on weaker hardware, unlike now when cheaper Androids are becoming a viable option.

I have a Galaxy SL, a rather mid-range device, and even my iPhone 4 toting friend is impressed with it, especially since it costs half the price of his phone.

 

[thedosbox]

Finally had a real use for a smartphone this summer so I picked up a second hand HTC Magic (running cyanogenmod) on ebay, a machine about the same vintage as my ipod touch. The ipod is nice, but I really don't like the closed box approach apple takes so I thought I'd try an android phone.

After a few months I'm ready to become an apple fanboi: The HTC never stays up for a whole day, it's always rebooting or I pick it up to find it dead. The keyboard is slow and unresponsive compared to the ipod. I can't format a new sd card I bought for it. And the battery life sucks.

*Please* tell me android phones are not all like this? That HTC Magics are known to be a steaming pile of doggie doos? Or that cyanogenmod has broken it? Or something.

'Cause if this is the way of android I owe a huge apology to a whole bunch of friends I've spent years slagging off for going with iPhones.

i

Does judging a platform based on two-year old used hardware running an unofficial build make sense to you? Really?

You don't know how the battery was treated, yet you're complaining about battery life. Your new SD card may use a standard that didn't exist two years ago, yet you're complaining about not being able to format it.

Try running a hacked iOS 5 on an original iphone (comparable in terms of platform maturity) and see how much you like that.

 

[rui-no-onna]

I have a Samsung Nexus S (running stock Gingerbread) and I like it much better than the iPhone 4S. Battery life appears to be on par with the iPhone 4 and frankly, I've had a lot more FC's on my iPhone so far than on the Nexus. I have been using an iPhone since 2008 (2G -> 3GS -> 4) and have only started using Android for a few months. I'm much, much happier with the Nexus S than I have been with any of my iPhones.

You can buy brand new budget Android phones for $100~150 that would perform much better than the HTC Magic. Hopefully, you paid less than $100 for your phone. Otherwise, you got ripped off.

 

[IanWorthington]

I have a Samsung Nexus S (running stock Gingerbread) and I like it much better than the iPhone 4S. Battery life appears to be on par with the iPhone 4 and frankly, I've had a lot more FC's on my iPhone so far than on the Nexus. I have been using an iPhone since 2008 (2G -> 3GS -> 4) and have only started using Android for a few months. I'm much, much happier with the Nexus S than I have been with any of my iPhones.

You can buy brand new budget Android phones for $100~150 that would perform much better than the HTC Magic. Hopefully, you paid less than $100 for your phone. Otherwise, you got ripped off.

Thanks. What's an FC? I did get a good price on the phone yes What would you recommend as a good budget phone?

i

 

[chanchan05]

Force Close is what he means I think.

Depends on what your budget is really. HTC Wildfire S is good enough for some people, or a Samsung Galaxy Fit. a Motorola Defy also seems good.

 

[jroc]

Finally had a real use for a smartphone this summer so I picked up a second hand HTC Magic (running cyanogenmod) on ebay, a machine about the same vintage as my ipod touch. The ipod is nice, but I really don't like the closed box approach apple takes so I thought I'd try an android phone.

After a few months I'm ready to become an apple fanboi: The HTC never stays up for a whole day, it's always rebooting or I pick it up to find it dead. The keyboard is slow and unresponsive compared to the ipod. I can't format a new sd card I bought for it. And the battery life sucks.

*Please* tell me android phones are not all like this? That HTC Magics are known to be a steaming pile of doggie doos? Or that cyanogenmod has broken it? Or something.

'Cause if this is the way of android I owe a huge apology to a whole bunch of friends I've spent years slagging off for going with iPhones.

i

Trust and believe...if ALL Android phones were like this or acted like this ALL the time....it wouldnt have the marketshare and popularity it has now.

Great thing about the iPhone...its one phone. So if it runs good and is just good hardware, its a home run. With Android....you have to find the homerun phone(s).

Some ppl dont wanna admit it but the Droid X on GingerBread is alot better than the Droid 1. With them both on Froyo the Droid 1 had a couple of pros over the X. GB took care of that, for me anyway.

 

[Stuntman]

What's an FC?

Forced closed. Basically an app or system service crashes.

 

[rui-no-onna]

What's an FC?

Force Close is what he means I think.

Yep, I meant forced close. Basically an application crash.

What would you recommend as a good budget phone?

Depends on what your budget is really. HTC Wildfire S is good enough for some people, or a Samsung Galaxy Fit. a Motorola Defy also seems good.

In addition to those phones, I recommend the LG Optimus One family (AT&T: LG Thrive/Phoenix, T-Mobile: LG Optimus T, Sprint: LG Optimus S, Virgin Mobile: LG Optimus V, etc). I've found them to be pretty decent phones for the price. Battery life's not the greatest but I've found the battery life on my LG Thrive to be at least on par with my iPhone 2G. Good news is an aftermarket battery only costs $12 on Amazon. It's easy enough to bring an extra battery with you. The one thing I really dislike on the Thrive is the very low user-addressable memory. Even with App2SD, it's very easy to run out of memory.

For myself, I wouldn't get anything lower than a Nexus S. While entry-level Androids such as the Optimus One, Wildfire S or Galaxy Ace are very nice upgrades for folks still using feature phones, they just don't cut it for power users.

 

[aysiu]

It's the phone. I had the original HTC Magic, and it had 192 MB of RAM and an underclocked 528 MHz processor... just not enough juice to run anything decent or even to keep the home screen in memory (so there'd be a huge delay whenever going back to the home screen).

Now I have an HTC Glacier (768 MB of RAM and a 1 GHz processor) with Cyanogen 7.1, and it runs like butter. No lags, great battery life, very smooth experience.