Been one month now with an HTC Magic on Vodafone UK. It's a work phone and was an ideal chance to investigate Android before my own upgrade is due in February.
I'm currently using a Blackberry, have in the past used Windows Mobile devices and an iPhone so have experience of all my options.
I really wanted to like Android. I like the idea of open source smartphones and having a choice of hardware but it's just not living up with what I was expecting:
WiFi - very hit and miss. My Blackberry and iPhone both (a) let's me connect to a hidden WiFi network and (b) never drops the connection. The Magic (a) won't connect to a hidden WiFi - I have tried the hidden SSID app and that didn't work and (b) connects to the WiFi but if I leave the phone for any time, then it drops the connection. WiFi is still on, but not connected and I have to manually re-connect. Not good.
Productivity apps (Calendar, notes, contacts) are simply not up to scratch compared to Blackberry and also to a large extend, to iPhone. Lack of desktop syncing seems to be a problem especially with regard to syncing notes. I don't use a Google address or calendar or contacts and don't want to sync to those.
Market Place is good - compared to Blackberry. BB app store is awful, slow, expensive and there's very, very little on there. iPhone....well - miles ahead of the Android store in numbers, most apps seem a lot cheaper and most of the ones I tried were better - more finished/polished.
Other things that wind me up are the lack of any way of deleting the deleted items in the email app - they have to be deleted individually which seems daft and there being no way to re-order the apps in either the main "app screen" or in folders that are placed on the desktops.
I still have two months, so we'll see what happens with app development, but for me, the lack of apps and the standard of market place and the productivity apps and syncing are real downers.
But then I don't want to stay Blackberry as the app development there is almost totally dead. I don't really want an iPhone as the lock-in is just too much with Apple saying what we can and can't do.
I'm currently using a Blackberry, have in the past used Windows Mobile devices and an iPhone so have experience of all my options.
I really wanted to like Android. I like the idea of open source smartphones and having a choice of hardware but it's just not living up with what I was expecting:
WiFi - very hit and miss. My Blackberry and iPhone both (a) let's me connect to a hidden WiFi network and (b) never drops the connection. The Magic (a) won't connect to a hidden WiFi - I have tried the hidden SSID app and that didn't work and (b) connects to the WiFi but if I leave the phone for any time, then it drops the connection. WiFi is still on, but not connected and I have to manually re-connect. Not good.
Productivity apps (Calendar, notes, contacts) are simply not up to scratch compared to Blackberry and also to a large extend, to iPhone. Lack of desktop syncing seems to be a problem especially with regard to syncing notes. I don't use a Google address or calendar or contacts and don't want to sync to those.
Market Place is good - compared to Blackberry. BB app store is awful, slow, expensive and there's very, very little on there. iPhone....well - miles ahead of the Android store in numbers, most apps seem a lot cheaper and most of the ones I tried were better - more finished/polished.
Other things that wind me up are the lack of any way of deleting the deleted items in the email app - they have to be deleted individually which seems daft and there being no way to re-order the apps in either the main "app screen" or in folders that are placed on the desktops.
I still have two months, so we'll see what happens with app development, but for me, the lack of apps and the standard of market place and the productivity apps and syncing are real downers.
But then I don't want to stay Blackberry as the app development there is almost totally dead. I don't really want an iPhone as the lock-in is just too much with Apple saying what we can and can't do.
