Will be coming to upgrade time in a couple of months and thinking about upgrading. One option is some type of Android handset.

So, thought i would ask what difference in the real world, not geek land, does 2.1/2.2/2.3 make?

If i say a few games, maybe a bit of iPlayer, mp4s and mp3s, syncing with a mac, something resonably light durable, not to big.

and before someone says HTC desire, can i have a reason why, what makes it better than a Motorola defy or a samsung galaxy s etc.

typical, wrong !!!!!!!*&£$%£@ forum, ho hum.

Here I am, brain the size of a planet and you expect me to talk about phones?

I just bought my missus an Orange San Francisco for £100 from play.com. She’s with Vodafone, but unlocking it, debranding it and putting the latest OS on was easy (www.orangesanfrancisco.co.uk). Phone is good, fast, lots of apps, easy to use. although the driver software was a bit of a pain to get hold of. Camera is a bit sh*te though.
Buying the phone means you can drop your contract and go PAYG or get a cheap sim only deal on a 12mth contract.

2.2 will give you Flash support, which is what powers iPlayer and ting. Better resource management and multitasking too IIRC.

I’d be inclined to go for the Defy for it’s robustness, and reportedly decent battery life.

I have the Desire and it’s superb except for the limited internal storage and sub par battery life (though no Android phones are great in that regard). The Samsungs are worth a look too.

Oh and Desire vs Galaxy S: The Desire has better GPS reception and a nice optical trackpadbuttonnipple thing; Galaxy has better battery life and bigger screen. HTC are also the fastest at releasing Android updates.

Captain, I always saw you more as one of the ships doors “Glad to be of service”.

😉

PS nice Fjords.

android? don’t forget to bring a charger.

hi, thread hijack by confused stupid person, sorry!!!!

but, got the htc wildfire, in the about phone part of the settings, it says android version 2.2.1 what is this, 2.1 or 2.2?

ta

gordon

Galaxy S is the ‘next generation’ of Android phone and would need to be compared to the HTC Desire HD rather than the HTC Desire – the screen is bigger but also higher resolution (so in the same ‘league’ as the Apple Iphone4).

I’ve got a Desire and it’s my first proper smartphone (I’m discounting the N95 I had as it was a glorified phone for me rather than something I use for more than just phoning). The concept of a smartphone is brilliant – loads of apps that can be installed on-the-fly (well once you have found them!) and use them…it makes the device a lot more than just something to make/receive calls with and is a great step forward.

To be honest, I’d suggest any smartphone is the same as any other in terms of brand i.e. Android is Android is Android and is very similar to Apple’s Iphone – as a smartphone concept.

I believe Android could multitask from the word go and the later versions are likely to improve the multitasking/power management/task management and utilise more of the features that the newer smartphones come with i.e. I think there are some extra sensors in the HTC Desire so there are some apps that make use of these – the same app is available for the Desire but it isn’t as ‘functional’.

Android is a very good platform – it’s generally free (or far cheaper than Apple) – it’s flexible and expandable (same as Apple) BUT the big difference between Android and Apple is that Apple ties you completely into the Apple way of doing things, however, that does mean that any app you buy from Apple will have been tested and passed – Android isn’t the same in this respect – they do not central testing to ensure an app does what it is meant to do, however it does allow you to install from multiple places.

Android phones tend to have more than 1 button to access content…

Almost every smartphone I have experienced (personally and from friends, etc.) all have issues with poor battery life – this is the bit I really don’t understand – they seem to be pushing these devices as the next best thing and can do so much and yet they put some real poor performing batteries in them so they tend to only last a day – switch everything off and you may get a day and night out them but it seems such a stupid thing to not develop/improve – really smartphones these days should be going a minimum of 2 days between charges without skimping on stuff – but it just isn’t happening.

If you are going Android you are unlikely to go wrong with any model – just choose one that comes closest to what you are after…

They are very good devices.

Gordonb – you have Android 2.2 – the .1 is something else to do with the version of 2.2 you have…

It’s not a case of poorly performing batteries, it’s more due to power hungry screens, processors and lots of apps running in the background accessing the network.

But yeah, battery life is shocking if you compare it to an old-school mobile. Compared to my laptop it’s pretty good though.

dick, thanks… couldn’t work that out….

2.2.1 is an updated version of froyo 2.2. There was a couple of glitches which the 2.2.1 eradicated.

Most New Android phones will now run at least Froyo. The New NEW ones such as the google nexus (effectively a samsung galaxy s) run 2.3 which is called gingerbread lol. Most recent android handsets will probably be updated to this in time.

i went from blackberry to an htc wildfire and only stuck it for about 4 months before i went back to the bb. Not for me but sure is popular. It does do plenty and most of it well but it seemed underpowered and the touch screen wasn’t as good as an iphone, battery life was also terrible, i’m sure it’ll improve……

I just upgraded to an android phone and a bit underwhelmed to be honest.

Rubbish battery life so end up having to keep shutting off data transfer and wifi connections to eek some life out of it, then turning it all on again to use it. Close an app but it doesn’t close it really, it still runs in the background so you have to kill it. Usual convention of organising messages into inbox/outbox, etc totally out the window. Camera fine on the phone I opted for (5.1 megapixel) but they’ve taken the lazy option in that you need to find an app to make the most of it instead of having something decent out the box. Upgrading the software meant having to go through the process of backing everything up to memory card then restoring it or have everything wiped. Even organising the contact list isn’t straightforward – maybe I just want a list in a phonebook instead of the phone being too smart and trying to sort anything and anyone into different contact accounts. And the bloomin touchscreen.

Ah well, 2 years of it then I can find something that works and does the job. Maybe I’m just a luddite or completely missed the point of Android or any smart phone.

Hi,

I had a iphone 3 which was great now got a Desire and I think Android apps are really poor compared to the iphone. I found the iphone easier to use, just alot better phone all round. I’ll be going back to an iphone when my contract is up for renewel. The battery on the Desire is awfull needs charging evry night even with a battery saving app. To be honest though I’m not much of an app user/downloader I just use a few which I might find helfull I don’t even play any games :lol:. I might even go for a Blackberry next as I use my phone mostly for calls, txt’s, emails and the net.

I have a Desire and have now decided to get another on my upgrade. I’ve referred a lot to Techradar’s review pages as they seem to have in depth reviews which seem to be written in fairly plain English, worth a look. Googling Techradar and the phone model will sort you out.

Unless you are sure you need a BIG screen and the fastest processor/biggest memory then consider the HTC Legend. It’s like a desire, but phone sized and usable. I like mine a lot.

I did a battery conditioning trick on mine and I’ve managed to get almost 2 days out of mine (providing I don’t use the Wifi for 3 hours+ at night).

1) Turn your device ON and Charge the device for 8 hours or more (doesn’t matter how charged the battery is)
2) Unplug the device (from mains) and Turn the phone OFF and charge for 1 hour
3) Unplug the device (from mains) Turn ON wait 2 minutes and Turn OFF and charge for another hour. Your battery life should almost double.

I don’t think it almost doubles but I have gone 2 days without a charge (unplugged it Monday morning, used it (but not a huge amount of wifi) and needed to plug it in dinner time Wednesday) – assuming I don’t use the Wifi then it lasts a good length of time…thing is my device usage has changed somewhat so I’m only making about 100 minutes of calls, 5-600 texts and surfing a lot – so all the stuff I tend to use the phone for are battery killers…still I haven’t found a current smartphone (other than Blackberries but they still seem to be business-orientated rather than consumer-friendly) that doesn’t suffer from this.

They are good devices (all smartphones – as much as I dislike Apple, their device is very good) but it depends on what you use them for…

Iphone4. Leagues ahead of android in terms of useability.

I also have a HTC Desire which I thought was the dogs danglies until I got the Iphone. I was vehemently anti iphone till work gave me mine. I wouldn’t be without it now.

i would get an iphone, but there is no way i can justify spending that much on a phone.

Had a Blackberry for 2 years, it was great but not much fun after texting and calling.

Bloke at work keeps banging on about how everybody should have android phones and that “iOS is dead” in between nobbing about with his phone to get it to do half of the stuff my iPhone can do for 59p

I might entertain an Android phone but I can play Street Fighter over bluetooth in the office on my iPhone, so that was an easy call to make!

Hadduuuuuuuurrrken!!!

Finally sorted my Xperia X10 with Android 2.2.1, flash and multi-touch, even though Sony-Ericsson said out couldn’t happen and stopped supporting it after Android 2.1. Faster than a lot of current-gen phones now: 4.5 Mflops on 2.1 – 36 Mflops on 2.2.1 😀

I’m getting to my point, slowly. The Xperia Play is out soon. Phone and Playstation Portable all in one, and when Sony stops supporting it, the guys who’ve spent their spare time to make my phone the beast it is today will set their sights on the Xperia Play. It should definitely be a contender on the list for your next phone.

+1 for the orange san francisco

An hour or so of fiddling and it’s unlocked, debranded and upgraded to 2.2, a few apps installed and I’m very happy with it for the cost.

Only 2 niggles are that the email app keeps downloading old emails not just new ones and wifi often drops when the screen turns off.

Camera is rubbish as well.