Android First Impressions

http://www.mlindgren.ca/archives/151

by elblanco • 16 years ago

52 55 16 years ago

pilif5• 16 years ago

"Most of all, I love that neither Apple nor any other company can tell me what I can and cannot install on my phone."

though on the other hand, I hate, no. HATE, the fact that $CARRIER$ can tell me what application I have to have installed on my phone without any ability of uninstalling them.

Android is not all sunshine. I might post more comments as I continue reading the article.

generalk3• 16 years ago

People that felt this way should have purchased the Nexus One from Google while they were generally available. If more folks had, it might have validated the carrier-less model of selling phones.

pilif5• 16 years ago

I did buy a N1 (gray import even). Too bad it has its hardware flaws: The touchscreen is really bad (choppy, inaccurate) and the button on my wired headset started working only rarely after two weeks of usage (sometimes the press isn't recognized, sometimes as "jump back" - and sometimes it even recognizes button presses even if there's no button on the headset).

liscio2• 16 years ago

It's hard for any company to try and work against the carrier-subsidized pricing of handsets. As long as carriers are supplying the access, this will continue to be the case.

To pay $500 for a phone, versus the $100 subsidized price, is a silly move—especially if you're planning to upgrade every 2-3 years.

I say this because the service from the carriers still costs the same regardless of how you obtained the handset, and in some cases you may be paying even _more_ for service if you don't have a contract.

(Of course, I'm speaking with the US/Canadian carriers in mind. I know things are better outside of North America.)

sfennell• 16 years ago

My biggest issue with buying an unsubsidized phone is that I would still be paying the carrier a premium for subsidizing a phone purchase (to my understanding) without actually getting that benefit. (I guess there are other carriers, I have not actually bothered to look) In the end I just seem to be loosing about $400 or so since my phone bill remains the same, but I have to spend more to buy the phone.

bobbyi• 16 years ago

That's only true if you use the distribution provided by your carrier.

If you don't like the OS the way they provide it, then wipe it and use Cyanogen or some other ROM that is set up exactly how you like it.

Cyanogen may not work on every Android phones, but there are still a lot more phones out there that can run Cyanogen than can run iOS.

pilif5• 16 years ago

This isn't that much different from jailbreaking your iphone and using Cydia though. Both techniques rely on exploiting flaws of the security framework put in place by $VENDOR.

Don't get me wrong: I do like the slightly increased openness of Android, but that just stems from the fact that the OS provides more hooks to hook your app into - it's not more open in the sense that there's less control inflicted upon you on what you may or may not do with the device you legally own.

jerf• 16 years ago

I've been pondering making the switch, but I refuse to buy a smartphone that I am not in control of. (The current solution has been to not buy a smartphone.) Can someone who has done this share how practical this solution is? Does your carrier retaliate in any way? Is this a constant task to keep updated? Do you lose features? Or is this something so simple any techie should do it without any pause for thought as it is all upside and no downside?

rsingel• 16 years ago

Getting Cyanogen on your phone isn't always an easy task. I'm rooted on my EVO, but not rooted enough to get Cyanogen. Thanks Sprint for locking down an "open" phone.

runjake4• 16 years ago

Oh you mean that hacked up version of AOSP by slang-talking enthusiasts often missing the proprietary drivers needed to use things like 4G, GPS, and the device's camera? The one that includes the wallpaper with the scantily clad women in breast-exposing football outfits?

That ought to go well with the IT folks at the office.

brownleej• 16 years ago

Apparently the author agrees with you, because he complains about "how sluggish some manufacturers are to release critical operating system updates for their devices." I'm curious to know how he reconciles that with the comment that you have quoted.

10ren2• 16 years ago

The RAM/CPU specs are close to my netbook. I'm surprised that JIT compilation isn't standard for a Java-related language, it's pretty old now.

The fragmentation is a concern, for market size (for apps), though it will sill be massively larger than for Apple. The appstore deficiency is a greater concern - google need to buy a startup for this, they suck at UI.

The Oracle suit does scare me though. Why invest sweat equity if it might all be washed away? That's the idea, I guess.

Regardless of what happens to this particular platform, the hardware is just about there, so something fantastic will soon be here.

reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dafec/android_first...

mike-cardwell2• 16 years ago

The latest version of Android (Froyo) supports JIT.

Not sure I agree with the "They suck at UI" comment. Most of the rest of the Android UI is really well designed. The Market Place app needs improvement though yes.

10ren2• 16 years ago

Thanks, I'm surprised it wasn't in the first version.

I bet that UI came with the the Android acquisition. Though gmail is very good. All of their other good examples of UI's that I can think of also come from acquisitions: it's an opportunity. Google is great at engineering.

extension• 16 years ago

How is iOS's multitasking less legitimate than Android's? As far as I can tell, they are essentially the same thing.

starnix172• 16 years ago

I believe the fast app switching is more or less the same, but Android lets developers write services that can do anything in the background, isn't iOS limited to just audio or VOIP? For example, I can't write an app to download new tweets every hour or something like that.

It's definitely a double edged sword on Android... some apps that use background services can turn into real battery hogs.

generalk3• 16 years ago

Generally correct: iOS offers a few more services than just audio and VOIP, but it is a fixed list.

On the other hand, I've never seen an app on Android that sucked down battery life, and if it did, I'd uninstall it just like any other buggy app. I've never bought into the whole "background services drain battery life" line that Apple popularized.

ecuzzillo• 16 years ago

I've been pissed off at my HTC incredible not being updated with Froyo, and being UI-ily inconsistent (why when I hit the Home button when I'm already at the Home screen does it proceed to give me a zoomed-out view of all my desktops? Why do I even have multiple desktops on a phone?), and being excessively carrier-branded, and Google lost the not-evil designation with the net neutrality thing.

And, I've been impressed with the iPhone 4's physical and software shininess (and yes, I'm willing to not hold it that way), so much so I was leaning in the iPhone direction for the next round of phone, assuming they did a deal with Verizon (big if), but this now has me reminded of the sucky elements: namely, no Google Voice, bad notifications, and the potential to get hurt, rather than helped, by OS updates.

gierach2• 16 years ago

Like you, I was eagerly anticipating the Froyo upgrade for my Incredible. However, after receiving the update, I am actually looking for ways to go back to 2.1. I haven't noticed any visual improvements, in fact the Sense UI seems more sluggish. Also, HTC and Verizon jammed in a ton of uninstallable software with Froyo. I now have Skype Mobile, Amazon MP3, My Verizon Mobile, some "Stocks" app, City ID (which continues from 2.1) and a bunch more that you can't remove and it all randomly starts running when I'm not looking. The battery life (which used to be great, much better than a buddy's Evo) is terrible as a result. Google really needs to reign it in.

elblanco2• 16 years ago

>in fact the Sense UI seems more sluggish

>The battery life (which used to be great, much better than a buddy's Evo) is terrible as a result. Google really needs to reign it in.

I've actually had the exact opposite experience, it's super snappy now and the battery seems to last a full 40-50% longer. I've noticed in some forums that people seem to be having either your experience or mine. Strange that would happen on a fixed target, unless there's some differences in the guts of different revs of the Incredibles.

Mongoose• 16 years ago

Your Incredible+Froyo experience couldn't be more different from mine. Performance and overall snappiness has increased noticeably after upgrading from Eclair. My battery life hasn't been negatively affected either. If anything, it's improved.

sandipc• 16 years ago

"Why do I even have multiple desktops on a phone?"

I think this 'issue' is here to stay. With Android's widgets, there's no way I can fit everything I use daily on one home screen.

shade• 16 years ago

I feel your pain.

I've tried more than once to escape the iPhone for the less-locked-down Android, and every time I've gone crawling back. I tried the original Droid and had a lot of stability problems (in retrospect, probably a bad hardware sample), and I just spent a week and a half with the Droid Incredible (with the Froyo update), including the long Labor Day weekend... at the conclusion of which I went down to AT&T last night and had my iPhone 3GS reactivated, then returned the Incredible to Verizon this morning.

I could write a long treatise on the pros and cons of both platforms, but what it comes down to is that Android still has too many rough edges not to annoy me, and I'd rather eat the restocking fee and activation charges than spend most of the next two years carrying a phone that annoys me every time I use it. Living in Apple's walled city can be expensive, annoying, and sometimes feels like living in Duloc -- but the trains run on time and the mail generally gets delivered properly. It's not always perfect in reality and Apple sometimes does stupid things with UI (hello, vertical buttons in iTunes 10), but it's usually a very smooth experience and I can't deny Apple does a better job of sweating the small stuff than their competitors. I think that's part of why they have so many rabidly loyal customers. Yes, they're very good at marketing, but in my experience their products do a good job of backing up the marketing ("magical" adjectives on the iPad excepted, perhaps).

I do miss the Droid Incredible's high-res screen, which is why I'll probably buy an iPhone 4 soon. I don't even care that it's on AT&T -- a week and a half of running around Akron and Cleveland running into Verizon dead zones where my iPhone always worked has led me to the conclusion that AT&T isn't all that bad.

White_N_Nerdy• 16 years ago

I am so lucky. I work at home surrounded by computers, so I really don't need a smart-phone because I'm at home most of the time. When I do leave my house, I take my LG Chocolate with me and we have a Garmin in the car for GPS. Ahhh, simplicity.

Android First Impressions

Related Stories