Hey. I’ve got a Blackberry Curve, and I like it, but I’d like to upgrade and get something that runs things a little faster. I’m really contemplating the BlackBerry Tour and the Nexus One (I’m on T-Mobile). I’d like GPS, because fiddling with your phone/GPS while driving is illegal in Michigan (which is a good thing), so I’d like to get something that handles maps and driving directions nicely. I’m used to having keys to press on the device, and I’ve putzed around with a friend’s Android phone to see how the touch screen is. It’s okay, but I found that the iPhone’s touch screen was a little better. Both are far behind the BlackBerry, but that could just be a matter of proficiency.
Does anyone have any opinions or another phone or options I should consider?
I just recently went from a Curve to Nexus One and I have no intention of ever going back to Blackberry. It takes a little while to get used to, but Android is a much better operating system. I’ve only used the navigation a few times, but it seems to work great. And it can be operated by voice too. It seems like the GPS is a lot more sensitive too. It could tell when I walked across the street.
T-Mobile/HTC G1 has a GPS (Google Maps/GM Navigation come preinstalled) which is a lot more accurate than the GPS system in the iPhone or Blackberry, virtual and slide-out keyboards, a trackball, and the Android OS, which is (IMHO) about a million times more intuitive than the iPhone interface or the Blackberry OS.
Plus, it’s ridiculously cheap. The only problem with it is that it has extremely limited onboard memory, but it will accept up to a 32GB SD card and supports hot swapping.
I use the GPS/Google Maps as my primary satnav system and it works extremely well. The only downside is limited customizability - you don’t get a choice of voices, or at least I can’t figure out how to switch to a different voice.
Not an option. If I had Verizon, I think I’d have already made the plunge and got hte new Droid. Kevin Fucking Smith: The G1 is a decent phone. I dig it, and that might end up being a good compromise phone.
I say it took me about a day to figure everything out, mainly figuring out what options are in what menus. The Android interface is pretty intuitive. The majority of time was just spent getting used to the touchscreen. The only downside that I know of is that Blackberry is a lot better with e-mail, unless you’re using G-Mail, which is well integrated with Android.
From what I’ve seen with a friend’s Samsung Moment, there’s a huge difference between Android 1.5/1.6 (what the G1 an uses) and 2.0/2.1, which is what the Droid/Nexus One and some of the upcoming phones use.
T-Mobile is GSM, right? You might want to check out the Motorola Milestonewhich is the GSM version of the Droid and has the same basic features and physical keyboard. If you want Android goodness, a physical keyboard and the usual high-end smartphone features this is probably the best option right now.
I’m not necessarily against a touchscreen phone. I’m just wondering about the adoption period and if the functionality and the Android operating system is worth it, really.
For my money Android is the best mobile OS right now. It’s got a critical mass of applications: 50,000 and increasing fast and it’s a lot more open and customizable compared to the iPhone. In the last six months it’s also seen some great hardware from Motorola, HTC and others. And it should get even better with the upcoming Froyo update with flash support among other improvements.
I had a Droid during a brief switch to Verizon. I first tried a Blackberry Storm 2 and hated it, then upgraded to a Droid and loved it. Oh, serious love. But Verizon’s first bill arrived and it was higher than expected so I went back to my old faithful T-Mobile, thus saving about $60/month.
I chose a Motorola Cliq running Android 1.6. It has a physical keyboard, which I really like for texting and surfing the internet on the phone, but it has a slower processor than the Droid. Overall, I like it a lot, and it is supposed to be updating to Android 2.1 this quarter fingers crossed.
As for the Droid/Milestone physical keyboard, I have one and think it’s near-worthless. The key spacing and layout aren’t very conducive to fast typing.
The normal Android virtual keyboard isn’t great either, but there are better replacement apps on the Market.
One more question, especially for enalzi: I’m already a T-Mobile customer, but it looks like if I get the Nexus One, it’ll cost $279 instead of $179 for a new plan. Is that accurate?
The Even More Plus plan doesn’t have an Annual Contract and is $20 cheaper a month. Over two years that $480. That’s why the subsidized phone requires the more expensive 2-year contract. They’re passing the savings off to you now and will make it up later.
The best part for me is that if, say, a few months from now I’m really low on money, I can cut the data plan off without having to pay any fees. Or end my plan altogether. Or go to a data only plan and use VOIP to make calls.
Interesting. I can’t foresee 2 years into it, though. If I had a job that I knew was going to be rock solid for a while, I may look into it.
My employer pays my cell phone bill and they pay for me to have unlimited everything. Otherwise, I think I’d just be looking at a relatively low amount of minutes with a data plan.
Another Nexus One question: can you text message/email multiple people at the same time? On a BlackBerry, you can select “Add Recipient” and add people to receive your text message.
