Well I went and did it today! I plunged myself into the app loaded world of android phones. I finally upgraded my old phone from over 2 years ago. Two years is like 4 years in phone time. I just deactivated my Motorola iC902. Now my iC902 was a very solid phone. It was rugged enough to survive being dropped several times. And by several I mean like at least 50 – 75 times. It took nice 2.0 megapixel pictures with a flash. Phone call sound and quality was just fine. It was great for texting, mobile email, GPS, music, you name it. All things but browsing the web or net or whatever the kids call it these days. It was able to browse the web okay but not even okay enough to support Pandora mobile. That should tell you something.
So my carrier is Sprint and it has been for some time. Originally I started with Nextel and my loyalty was with them for most of that time before Sprint bought Nextel out. I would guess I was with Nextel for around 6 – 7 years or so and with Sprint since then. After a long time of comparing phones online I had narrowed my selection down to two phone options. Funny enough those two options were the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment just like the title of the article says. Imagine that. Well enough of the small talk and kaffeeklatches.
Like I said I had spent much time online comparing all the Sprint phones and decided it was time to visit as store and compare the phones in person. First, I was very impressed with the Hero. I liked the feel and the design of the Hero. The keypad was a little awkward with my initial trial. I noticed the nice 5 megapixel camera and that was very cool. But what I didn’t notice was a flash. There is no flash on the HTC Hero. I’m not sure why there is not a flash. For me that was a deal breaker. I really was headed to the Sprint store to purchase the HTC Hero but then backed out. I was able to check out the Samsung Moment. It was pretty nice as well.
The Samsung Moment was at first a slight bulkier than the HTC Hero but I attribute that to the slide out full qwerty keyboard. I normally was against a slide out but it was easier to use initially than the HTC Hero virtual keypad. Also the Samsung Moment has a virtual keypad if you wish to use it. The only down side I see is that the Samsung Moment only has a 3.5 megapixel camera. But it does have a flash to take full advantage of the camera. Now my old phone had a 2.0 megapixel so this is still a 150% upgrade on my camera. So to me this 3.5 mp camera with a flash is better than a 5 mp camera with no flash. That’s just my own opinion. Other than that the Samsung Moment seemed just about as good as the HTC Hero but then I received a call.
It was my friend who is a Sprint Tech. He is the guy that I rely on for all my cell phone questions. I mean he is really into cell phones and the current tech stuff. He was into cell phones and working with cell phones even when we were just finishing high school back in the late ’80s -’90s. He knows cell phones for sure. He is what I would call an expert on cell phones especially spring. I think he even told me he helped develop some phones. I had called him earlier and asked him which phone to get. Well he was sick at the time and I had to leave a message. His timing was perfect. I was just about to start purchasing a Samsung Moment. He told me that the processor speed of the Samsung Moment was one of the only phones that will be able to handle the next media push. You know what that is. That’s right TV. The Samsung Moment has an 800 MHz. So the phone will be able to handle basically anything that could be thrown at it. My tech friend confirmed it. I was happy with the selection and the guys at the store hooked me up on my plan and activation charges. Good work. I’m satisfied so far. Now if I could just figure out how to call someone.
For the past 4 years I have been a devoted user of Windows Mobile, primarily using HTC devices. I am now so stuck in my ways that the thought of moving away from HTC’s comfortable designs and the familiar environment of Windows Mobile is almost frightening; this in itself is an anathema to me.
We’ve admired the device specification from afar and were not let down by the device in the flesh. It had the same solid feel of the older HTC Touch and the software responded with an alacrity I am not accustomed to as a Windows Mobile user. Best of all, the mail setup promised me the integration with Microsoft Exchange that I had found lacking in my first foray into Android.
On first removing the device from the packaging, I noted again the sturdy feel of the Tattoo. It honestly reminded me of my first HTC Touch, albeit without the rubbery grip of the Touch. The buttons were both firm and responsive; a genuine ergonomic miracle sat in my hand. I admit to being unable to remove the back cover but I tend to handle devices such as this with the same level of “I must not accidentally crush this” tenderness as I might a small creature or child. Once the back cover was off and the pertinent cards inserted I replaced the cover and booted up.
The Exchange configuration was a little more complicated than I felt it needed to be but it worked. I then configured my hotmail account; a personal email account that I’ve used for almost 14 years. I skipped past the social networking settings, eager to toy with this new and exciting operating system.
And so, as petty as it might seem, the device was reset and repackaged. The device now belongs to one of my colleagues; one of the others who had ordered the phone yesterday. He loves it, although he did describe it this morning as “like a beautiful woman with an amazing body and stunning face until she opens her gob and she’s a f***ing scouser”; so I guess he’s having some teething issues.
So Google has opened their ears and heard what the people in the forums had to say. After Joshua Topolsky of Engadget consistently grilled Google’s Android team about not implementing multitouch, it seems they finally caved. Today Google has posted on their Nexus One blog that an OTA update has begun to be pushed out starting now. The update includes Google’s new Google Goggles application pre-installed by default, updates to their maps application, 3G issues we have heard about consistently (and I have been suffering myself), and they are adding multitouch pinch to zoom functionality to the Browser, Maps, and Gallery applications. Welcome news indeed. I believe a thanks goes out to Joshua Topolsky. We did also hear recently that Steve Jobs said Google is trying to kill the iPhone and that the whole Google is not evil slogan is “bull shit”. Maybe this is Google’s way of saying, ‘we hear you Steve’. We can speculate while constantly checking for updates on our Nexus One’s. The update may not hit your phone today but Google expects everyone to have it by the end of the week.
HTC is the world’s fourth largest smartphone company. It ships 80% of all Windows Mobile and probably a similar proportion of Android devices. Like Microsoft in 2003, Google turned to HTC for its first smartphone, the G1 and its latest, the co-branded Nexus One. The company shipped a total of 11.7 million mobile phones in 2009.