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[Question] First Android Phone

S

seti

Lurker
Hello,

I am a long time S60 user, currently I have a Nokia N95 which is getting old and I am starting to search for a new phone, after looking the near/midterm future of the S60 I decided to pass and after researching I decided I will go witn an Android phone, but I have some question I hope forum members can help me to answer.

1.- I would like an Android 2.0 based phone, my carrier is AT&T (they do not have any) so I need one that can run on their 3G (HSDPA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands), I been trying to search every Android Phone to verify what OS version has, so is there any page that matches OS versions and models?

2.- If I get a locked phone, wehat is common with Android phones, arethey open to install any application I can find in the web or I can only install the ones provided by the carrier?

3.- How hard is to unlock a locked phoneit? Once unlocked may I load vanilla Android (from google developers page)? May I backup and restore the installed OS? May I reinstall the OS that came with the phone?

4.- If I pay for the device Google offer in their developer page, may I upload Android 2.0? it worth it (read that the CPU may not be the most suitable for it).

I hope all this questions does not bother. I look forward to make the switch from S60 to Android, but as my phone is one of my job tools, usually I do a lot of research before buying.

Many thanks
 
1 - the motorola droid is the only one shipping with 2.0 atm (afaik), but it's a fair bet any phone you decide to buy will have an update to 2.0 (as well as probably many future versions) available for it sometime in the next few months (some sooner than others)

2 & 3 - search for "rooting" in these forums to find out the how; once rooted, you can do pretty much anything you want with the phone, tho' you can also install any* market app on an unrooted locked phone as well
i haven't rooted mine, so i might not be the most informative person about this stuff, but seeing as how happy i am with my unrooted phone (tho' it's not locked with any provider), i can safely say it's not absolutely necessary to root
*(there are regional restrictions)

4 - i have no idea


i'd recommend going with an htc phone (whichever you fancy), since htc has a fairly good track record with android
also, you might wanna check this out: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/17/thegoogle-phone/ :)
 
I was an AT&T customer. And I also was (not so patiently) waiting for an Android phone to hit their network.

I got tired of waiting, bit the bullet and paid the ETF. Got myself a Droid.

I'm very happy with it so far.

mrqs is correct, the Droid is the only device currently available that is running Android 2.0, this was the deciding factor in me going with the Droid.
 
Thanks for the answers.

Droid is a no go for me as I travel a lot, so GSM is they way I need. The Motorola Milestone launched in Germany does not support AT&T 3G.

So, no Android for me at the moment.

Again, many thanks
 
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