Android

[Nashy]

So Android has been around for a while now, and is really starting to make an impact. I'm just wondering what the community thinks of it compared to other device OS'.

I've recently purchased a Sony Ericsson X10 and a HTC Legend. Both running Android (1.6 and 2.1), and compared to my other phones (N71, BB 9700, BB9000, BB Storm) they are two of the best phones I have ever had.

Whether this is an android advantage, or just the customising that SE and HTC put into their phones, I'm not sure.

But what are everyone's thoughts?

[JTaylor69]

I've had a little play with it on a T-Mobile G1, and it's quite a nice alternative to the iPhone OS.

[evo_spook]

On phones, I would now only ever buy a iPhone or a Android phone. None other.

The problem with the androids at the moment for me is do I get, product A, B, C, D, E, etc, OS version, 1.6, 1.8, 2.2, etc

The iPhone, do I get 16GB or 32GB, its this that made the iPod take off, you got iPod 20GB, 40GB rather then SXC8937IX0P Music player. No confusion.

[winlonghorn]

  On 12/06/2010 at 22:21, Nashy said:

So Android has been around for a while now, and is really starting to make an impact. I'm just wondering what the community thinks of it compared to other device OS'.

I've recently purchased a Sony Ericsson X10 and a HTC Legend. Both running Android (1.6 and 2.1), and compared to my other phones (N71, BB 9700, BB9000, BB Storm) they are two of the best phones I have ever had.

Whether this is an android advantage, or just the customising that SE and HTC put into their phones, I'm not sure.

But what are everyone's thoughts?

I just recieved my HTC Droid Eris today and I must say that it is a wonderful alternative. It is a very open platform and there are a lot of great free apps. To be honest, I also recommend HTC because of the Sense interface. It makes things much more accessible. :)

[Nashy]

Yeah. The sense UI is great. Sony Ericsson's UI isn't great.

[neo158]

I have an HTC Desire with Android 2.1 and the Sense UI and I personally think it's the best phone I've ever had the pleasure of using, I had a few issues with the automatic backup but formatting the SD Card and resetting the phone resolved that issue. I do feel that HTCs Sense UI adds a lot of functionality to the device as well as making the elements of Android gel together extremely well.

[andrew_f]

I had a Nexus One for a bit but in the end went back to an iPhone. It's an okay OS and being open is good but I fear people jump on that as a be-all-and-end-all feature. In my experiences the apps were a lot less polished and had tendency to crash more and (although 2.2 may have addressed these) I found that there's really bad usability choices throughout the OS versus iOS (for example uninstalling an application).

If Android can keep it's pace and somehow get around fragmentation it is going to get really great, for me I don't think it's as good a system as iOS yet.

Basically right now I would take an iPhone over an Android but an Android over anything else.

[neo158]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:15, andrew_f said:

I had a Nexus One for a bit but in the end went back to an iPhone. It's an okay OS and being open is good but I fear people jump on that as a be-all-and-end-all feature. In my experiences the apps were a lot less polished and had tendency to crash more and (although 2.2 may have addressed these) I found that there's really bad usability choices throughout the OS versus iOS (for example uninstalling an application).

If Android can keep it's pace and somehow get around fragmentation it is going to get really great, for me I don't think it's as good a system as iOS yet.

Basically right now I would take an iPhone over an Android but an Android over anything else.

So you based your experience of Android on the default UI?

You should try an HTC Android phone with Sense UI as it removes a lot of the "bad usability choices throughout the OS".

As for apps crashing and lacking polish all I will say is that apps on any platform, iOS included, will crash, as for lacking polish, well that's subjective to the user isn't it!!!

Fragmentation is an issue for Android at the moment, hopefully all devices that can be upgraded to 2.2 will be upgraded.

[Stetson]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:26, neo158 said:

So you based your experience of Android on the default UI?

:shock: How dare he!

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:26, neo158 said:

You should try an HTC Android phone with Sense UI as it removes a lot of the "bad usability choices throughout the OS".

He owned a Nexus One. It's Google's phone, so you can't say that it isn't a real Android experience. HTC Sense might be better and different, but he didn't have an HTC phone, just Android.

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:26, neo158 said:

As for apps crashing and lacking polish all I will say is that apps on any platform, iOS included, will crash, as for lacking polish, well that's subjective to the user isn't it!!!

Sounded to me like he was expressing his opinion on his personal experience with the device and the software, no need to get defensive. It is subjective, and he didn't state otherwise.

[andrew_f]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:26, neo158 said:

So you based your experience of Android on the default UI? You should try an HTC Android phone with Sense UI as it removes a lot of the "bad usability choices throughout the OS".

Yes, but also Sense on the HTC Desire - it's definitely an improvement but apart from a few widgets it didn't really add all that much in my opinion - I actually liked the 2.1 UI - just not the usability.

  Quote

As for apps crashing and lacking polish all I will say is that apps on any platform, iOS included, will crash, as for lacking polish, well that's subjective to the user isn't it!!!

Sure it's subjective, but the author asked for our opinions and I gave it - with your !!! you're coming across as a little bit defensive.

My experience was that I had more crashes on Android in the months I used it than I would usually had on the iPhone I had prior to it - that's not to say it was crashing every 5 minutes, just more so. Regarding the polish I get that it's subjective but there doesn't seem to be a consistent UI language or paradigm throughout most of the applications - I'm sure as the platform grows this will become an irrelevant point. I found Seesmic to be pretty usable and FourSquare (or Gowalla, can't remember) also had this style, so I hope this becomes the defacto UI to use.

  Quote

Fragmentation is an issue for Android at the moment, hopefully all devices that can be upgraded to 2.2 will be upgraded

I disagree - the fact some devices are being released today on old versions means it's fragmenting. When I had a nexus one I wasn't able to run an app (sorry, not sure of the name and in fairness it was only one app of many, many I tried) because of the screen. It's only going to become a greater divide as it gets even more popular. It's not a show stopper right now but I think, like Symbian before it, it could become an ever increasingly fragmented ecosystem.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

I've always been a bit of a power user with my devices and the first thing I like to do is customise them to my liking - custom tones, wallpaper, etc. Well Android takes that notion to the extreme. It's extremely open and customisable at the slight cost of simplicity, as Android is NOT as easy to use as iOS.

I would say that if you can find your way around an Android phone then get an Android phone, but if it's too confusing for you then get an iPhone.

[neo158]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:33, Stetson said:

:shock: How dare he!

He owned a Nexus One. It's Google's phone, so you can't say that it isn't a real Android experience. HTC Sense might be better and different, but he didn't have an HTC phone, just Android.

Sounded to me like he was expressing his opinion on his personal experience with the device and the software, no need to get defensive. It is subjective, and he didn't state otherwise.

I wasn't getting defensive, my post might have turned out that way, but that wasn't intended. Seeing as he is in the UK he could go and try an HTC device in any phone shop. As for opinions, they are always subjective, but it's nice to hear the thoughts of someone who didn't like Android on the device he tried.

[thealexweb]

I'm using Android 1.5 and I don't mind having to wait for an upgrade, apparently my phone is going to get 2.1 later this month but I probably won't get 2.2, ah well.

[andrew_f]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:40, neo158 said:

I wasn't getting defensive, my post might have turned out that way, but that wasn't intended. Seeing as he is in the UK he could go and try an HTC device in any phone shop. As for opinions, they are always subjective, but it's nice to hear the thoughts of someone who didn't like Android on the device he tried.

At the risk of playing a broken record here: my brother has an HTC Desire (and loves it) so I have had some play time with it. I do like Android, like I said in my post I like it and I think it could get really great - I just think iOS is more polished right now.

This is probably going to make people upset, but my lord Android fans are getting as rampant as iPhone fans. Can we not just use and discuss gadgets without it becoming a battle between clans?

  Quote

I'm using Android 1.5 and I don't mind having to wait for an upgrade, apparently my phone is going to get 2.1 later this month but I probably won't get 2.2, ah well.

Perhaps I'm thinking about fragmentation as an issue when really it only is to us geeks. Is 2.2 much of a step up in terms of requirements that they couldn't skip over 2.1? Not read all that much about it.

[neo158]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:44, andrew_f said:

Perhaps I'm thinking about fragmentation as an issue when really it only is to us geeks. Is 2.2 much of a step up in terms of requirements that they couldn't skip over 2.1? Not read all that much about it.

Good question, I can only assume it's something to do with hardware requirements for 2.2, anyone else have an idea why?

[Hardcore Til I Die]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:44, andrew_f said:

At the risk of playing a broken record here: my brother has an HTC Desire (and loves it) so I have had some play time with it. I do like Android, like I said in my post I like it and I think it could get really great - I just think iOS is more polished right now.

This is probably going to make people upset, but my lord Android fans are getting as rampant as iPhone fans. Can we not just use and discuss gadgets without it becoming a battle between clans?

iOS is definitely more polished. I think it's because Google and Apple have very different strategies for their OS.

Apple like to control everything a lot more and like the experience to be one that falls within their standards.

Google have just created a basic OS and then said to the users and devs: it's up to you what you do with it!

I maintain that the iPhone provides a more polished and simplistic user experience, but ultimately Android is more customisable and the user has a lot more freedom, meaning that with a little bit of effort it can be tweaked to their very needs without needing to void the warranty (ala jailbreaking)

[Joshie]

As a person who's used Android heavily since December, and as a person who's actively followed the custom kernel scene (and general hackery), I'm a big fan of Android. I don't give a god-damn whether or not it's open (openness is overrated), but it's a good platform and the only one to follow if you want to keep up with where mobile hardware is today (mobile hardware fans really aren't well-served by Apple, where 3rd party vendors aren't building uber-alternatives for them).

For making calls, it's just as good as any other phone. Android does nothing better or worse than its competitors in basic phone functionality. Well...except for roaming. Windows Mobile still kicks Android's butt in overall call quality options due to the ability to force roam and/or choose your network. This is flat out impossible without serious mucking about in Android, and requires a full reboot before and after. No simple switching. Need to force roam at work? Sorry. Your Android phone will just rapidly switch between roaming and your home network, sucking your battery dry.

Battery life is otherwise solid. Incidents of "my battery dies after an hour!!!!WTF" are virtually all user-related issues or the aforementioned roaming problem.

As an OS, it's snappy and straight-forward, despite looking like MacOS with a roll-up dock and programs that maximize. (Oh, sorry Mac users--'maximize' is this neat little technology where a program takes up the whoooollleee screen automatically for maximizing your workspace. It's very cutting edge.) There are no GUI innovations.

Tricked out, it makes a great utility phone. Despite a rapid release pace that tends to break app compatibility, new versions don't offer anything revolutionary enough to warrant the hype that surrounds them. Day-to-day, you use 2.1 no differently from how you'd have used 1.5.

It's a lot of fun to jump into the hacking scene and play with cutting edge code on your phone. However, the average discussion thread on XDA ultimately boils down to "Wow, this really makes things faster!" or "Wow, my battery life is so much better now!" Speed and battery life. This is what excites people. NTTAWWT, but XDA is largely also overrated. They get a lot of love and worship and there's this mythos that they can make the impossible possible (sometimes for a small PayPal fee plzkthx!), but in reality the work there is slow and often unstable, and even the old G1 still has kinks in custom 2.1 kernels. They aren't going to magically make Gingerbread happen on an HTC Hero.

The market is the single worst aspect of Android, sadly. Apps sorting is about as customizable as inbox sorting in Gmail (iow, not at all). You can ONLY sort stuff by "Popular Paid" "Popular Free" and "Just in". Want to sort by user rating? Sorry, no. Want to find a certain genre game to play? Sorry, there are maybe five 'genres' you can pick from, and most developers list their games under ALL of them. That's right! Your favorite gem game or gem game variant/derivative/clone isn't just a puzzle game! It's also casual, arcade, and board. Not that all the games are gem games. Oh no. Sometimes the gems are puppies. Or rocks. Oh, and there's sliding puzzle games, too. And sound boards! Lots and lots of sound boards.

Want to just see adventure/rpg games? After all, a handheld is a great platform for turn-based gaming! Well, too bad. No. They're all mixed in with casual, board, and arcade, right next to the gem games. And all sorted by popularity ONLY. Get used to seeing the same titles over, and over, and over again (anyone else's eyes glaze over at the sight of PapiJump and Poke a Mole?), without spending 10-15 minutes scrolling down until you mysteriously get reset to the top of the list.

But I still love my Android phone. I really do. I show it off when I get the chance, and people ooh and ahh at the little [tasteful] customizations I've done to mine. But--and this is a fun but to bring up around other Android fans--I'm definitely 100% going to give Windows Phone 7 a go this winter, hehe.

[thealexweb]

  On 13/06/2010 at 19:44, andrew_f said:

At the risk of playing a broken record here: my brother has an HTC Desire (and loves it) so I have had some play time with it. I do like Android, like I said in my post I like it and I think it could get really great - I just think iOS is more polished right now.

This is probably going to make people upset, but my lord Android fans are getting as rampant as iPhone fans. Can we not just use and discuss gadgets without it becoming a battle between clans?

Perhaps I'm thinking about fragmentation as an issue when really it only is to us geeks. Is 2.2 much of a step up in terms of requirements that they couldn't skip over 2.1? Not read all that much about it.

My phone is capable of running 2.2 but the company that makes my phone has no real interest in making another rom and T-Mobile would rather I buy a new phone so there not gonna force the phone maker to issue one.