New Android Phone

[droidering]

Hi all,

I am in the market for a new phone. I am leaning towards the Android phones as I like the freedom and options they provide in comparison to the iphones. The problem is, there are SO many to choose from.

I want the phone to be flash compatible (so, i believe i need android 2.2 at least?)
I also want to use my phone as my mp3 player. So, I guess I'll need a longer lasting battery and preferably more memory (maybe with a removable sd card)
It seems backwards to me to buy a phone using android OS 2.1 if 2.2 and 3.0 are out as well?
Obviously I would prefer to spend less on a phone of equal quality and I'm eligible for an upgrade through verizon. Can anyone recommend a few phones for me to research on? Thanks for narrowing down the choices!

 

[lunatic59]

Welcome to Android Forums!

Great idea doing some prior research so there's less of a disappointment or regret. One of the biggest determining factors in a new Android phone isn't so much the hardware as is who made the hardware. The Charge, X2, Thunderbolt, etc are all relatively close in function but each manufacturer has a different "launcher" or user interface. Motorola has blur, HTC has Sense, Samsung has TouchWiz, etc. If you don't know what each one looks like, I'd recommend going to a Verizon store and trying them out. It's really personal preference at that point.

anything 2.2 or above will give you what you want. 2.3 (Gingerbread) is the latest for phones ... 3.0 and 3.1 (Honeycomb) is strictly for tablets.