Recently, my beloved iPhone 3G experienced what the US Airforce would probably call an “uncontrolled interface” with the ground. Tragically, the ground was concrete.
Initially, it appeared that the phone was ok, but after several hours I noticed some gray pixel lines extending across part of the screen, and over the next few days these became worse, resulting in a gray blotch in a strategic spot on the screen. I thought I could live with it, but then I noticed during a flight to Sydney that this made things even worse. Must have been the pressurised cabin, but something funky was going on. In fact, the pixel problem seemed to migrate and shift a bit every day. It became clear that I was going to have to get it fixed, especially since I was planning on handing this unit on to one of my kids when I upgrade in a short while to the iPhone 4.
So, I figured I would use the 2-3 week turnaround on the insurance repair job to check out the Android platform, and through a great stroke of fortune, Vodafone came out with the HTC Legend, and so I was able to grab one of those (running Android 2.1) and I will be using it as my primary phone for until my iPhone returns or is replaced.
Getting started on the Android was pretty straightforward, although I have to say there are some things that are not quite as intuitive as I would have expected. I marked that down to just getting familiar with a new platform, but there are still things I’m discovering which surprise me because they’re kind of hidden 2 or 3 layers down in the user interface. But, given that I am largely a Google guy with my email and calendar setups, it was a fairly simple business to get that sorted, although it was a bit confusing to have a second mail option on the phone which is apparently redundant if you’re using a Google setup. Odd.
My initial impressions? It’s fast. I expected that because I have been using an older iPhone 3G. The Legend’s screen is quite a bit smaller, and although I like the form factor, I miss the slightly larger touchscreen… it’s just easier to use and read things on a bigger screen space, especially when you have to hold the device at the same time. I don’t like the Android keyboard… just seems a lot slower for me to get up to speed on it, but I’m also giving that some time to settle and see whether that’s just a familiarity thing. At this point, I’m almost avoiding doing any typing other than the basics because it’s just painful.
I’m missing some of my most used and favourite iPhone apps that are a part of my workflow… Instapaper and Simplenote being two critical apps that I’m missing big time. There are others. The Android app store is fairly woeful compared to the Apple one, and the quality of some of the apps seems less impressive. Also, battery life on this thing isn’t as impressive as I thought it would be… in fact, it doesn’t feel too different to my Apple experience.
I do love the multitasking on the Android, and it’s been actually sort of nice to be able to play Flash stuff, even though I fundamentally agree with Apple’s decision to give it the flick on their phone platform.
Media integration sucks on the Android. You have to do a lot more work to get your stuff happening on your phone, and that makes this a poor choice for a novice user who just wants it to all work. This was one of my prime reasons for playing with the Android, and I couldn’t serious recommend it to someone who is starting out with a smartphone… they would find this a very difficult platform to get going on.
So, I have another couple of weeks with this thing, and although it is an interesting and cool platform, I’m already missing my iPhone, and I can’t imagine staying with the Android as my primary phone once the iPhone 4 comes out… there is just no comparison, I don’t think.