Just thought I'd drop in with my impressions after a week with my new HTC Magic Android "Google Experience" phone.
I don't know what Ben's post text limit is, so bear with me, I may need to serialise.
First, let me preface by mentioning my previous smartphones to set the scene for some meaningful comparisons.
After a number of trouble-free years with my old simple (but bullet-proof) Nokia 3310, I was given a Sony Ericsson P800 by VF and told 'Use it! Show it to people!". I was immediately blown away by the screen real estate and flexibility of this gorgeous little machine. Having used a Palm M500 PDA previously, I had no trouble with the stylus and Graffiti-like touch screen and the little 3 axis jog side wheel made navigation of the UIQ 2 interface a one-handed breeze. It was a little light on RAM and the insane price of 256 Mb Sony Memory sticks was a real PITA, but I loved that phone - until I drowned it at Omana. Dang!
I was given a P900 as a replacement, which while more powerful, was a step backward in case aesthetics. The P900 served me well though, with the addition of Opera and Datviz Roadsync for Exchange Activesync and a few games and utilities I had a pretty useful unit - and not a bad phone.
After that, I was drafted into an OCS pilot and told to use Winmo 6. They gave me an HP IPAQ 512 Voice Messenger, which isn't a bad phone, but frankly Winmo sucks bigtime compared to what I'd been used to.
So to today. This is the first time in over 10 years I've actually been in the market to buy a phone, as opposed to getting given one. I must be losing my charm! :-)
I've tossed up between Android and Apple for a while and eventually came down on the side of Android for the following reasons:
1) Flexibility. I feel that the Android platform, while still fairly raw, offers a huge amount of potential in terms of flexibility and scope for innovation.
2) Openness. There have been apps pulled from the Android Market under carrier pressure (notably Wifi Tether), but in that case you just go to the developer site or another repository. No big deal.
3) Hardware choice. There are 5 major hardware vendors (so far) in the OHA which hopefully will result in better features and price competition.
4) It's new and different and deserves supporting. Shallow I know, but hey, why be a follower!
Oh yeah, and my daughter pointed out that in shows like Dr Who, if eveyone is using the same technology it is easier for evil aliens to take over your brain. (Only one interface to program) :-)
Next: The Hardware question
