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Hello Xda fellows
Does anyone else have a strange feeling that our beloved blackstone is slowly but for sure falling into oblivion?
sigh
yes, of course it is. it is three genrations old now (touch pro 2 and diamond 2 are next generation and htc leo is the newest).
However, this doesnt mean its going to be forgotten. the android project is really gaining ground. the "improving gfx performance" guys have just released a killer graphics pack and all of the apps made in future for the td2 and tpro 2 (maybe even leo) will work fine.
so, to answer your question, it is getting a bit old (a year old now) but that doesnt mean its going to disappear. look at the polaris and kaiser
good to hear opinion like that thanks man
the good thing about our phones is that it is still "current" in that the _relatively_ "newly released" TD2 and TP2 have very similar specs to our phone...it's just not at the very top anymore
Falling into obvlivion might be correct, but that doesn't mean the device is bad. If you like a device, you like it nomatter how many new devices are out.
I Dont think its falling into oblivion, look at the specs...
More ram than most, better screen than most, wvga is becoming more and more recognised, you dont get a 3.5mm headphone socket on most other devices, 5mp camera, most others are 3 or below, and really as long as xda developers lives on all devices do too
As far as I can see, it's still the top of the tree until the Leo is released.
Major_Sarcasm said:
As far as I can see, it's still the top of the tree until the Leo is released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC are not making a phone called Leo.
Yes. I am a pedant
A month ago I sold my HTC Diamond for a Touch HD...
I had the option to go for a Touch Pro, Diamond 2 etc...
but after trying a few the screen on the Touch HD is far superior to any others tried even the Iphone doesn't look as perfect as the HD.
It runs as fast as both the Touch Pro and Diamond 2.
The only difference in my opinion is the TV out on the Touch Pro.
Its inevitable that as time goes on the HD will eventually become obsolute or redundant as you'll move to pastures green. However with the HD, I feel this is still a bit in the future. There is nothing out there to really make me consider getting my wallet out and purchasing it. As time goes on this will obviously change, but not just yet!!
Fallen Spartan said:
Its inevitable that as time goes on the HD will eventually become obsolute or redundant as you'll move to pastures green. However with the HD, I feel this is still a bit in the future. There is nothing out there to really make me consider getting my wallet out and purchasing it. As time goes on this will obviously change, but not just yet!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I would have absolutely agreed with you until this last week or so. The HD2 just looks too good to miss.
It'll certainly quieten the missus and her damned iPhone a bit.
Meh, I still got me HTC Universal running, the bigger the HTC the longer they last!
Blackstone is NOT going to fade out so soon.
Crap, I just switched from Polaris to Blackstone... )
And there has to be something much much better than HD2 to make me cry why have I bought HD...
I guess you are right!
about HD2, is just got one ~10 Days ago and i have to tell you, its not that different from the HD.
its just a little bit better in every way, but always just a little
(little faster, manila little smoother, gps little faster, screen a little bigger....)
but so far everything form the hd2 works just fine on hd (exept a free 3D game, forgot the name)
The only phone i would upgrade to is the HD2..
I love this phone! It may be buggy, badly designed vanilla rom and feel like plastic in your hands after a while, but you can do anything with it! It's powerful, got a _sweet_ display and it's the best phone I've tried surfing the web with.. With Opera Mobile 10 that is.
There's no phone out there worth upgrading to yet, this phone has still got atleast 6-12 months left in my hands..
INMHO I do not think that this phone, the HTC HD, will obsoleted soon. The most I read in others forums the most I think that still the HTC HD is on the TOP. The capacitive screen seems better than the one of LEO or HTC HD2, at least for use most application or write an sms. In addition, I have seen this evening in the developers and hacking forum that a multi-touch driver has been released for our HTC HD, so we can have the best of both worlds. Even, the Android runs quite smooth in the HTC HD so you can switch between windows and Android in less than 2 minutes. I am not thinking in change my phone in this moment, I quite satisfied, but If I had not one, I will take the advantage of the new release of the LEO to get a very cheap HTC HD in the second hand market.
If HTC had sorted out the Qualcomm driver situation I'd be all over the HD2, but I'm thinking I'll skip this generation, just not enough of an upgrade for me at the moment...
HD is a great phone
THUDUK said:
A month ago I sold my HTC Diamond for a Touch HD...
I had the option to go for a Touch Pro, Diamond 2 etc...
but after trying a few the screen on the Touch HD is far superior to any others tried even the Iphone doesn't look as perfect as the HD.
It runs as fast as both the Touch Pro and Diamond 2.
The only difference in my opinion is the TV out on the Touch Pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have mine for about 3 months now.. ans I could have got many other phones.. but I agree with the superlatives you mentioned. skinny too, where most phones are a quarter brick in the pants.. I had to help a colleague with his Kaiser on a WM6.1 and use a stylus , only to realize and appriciate the touch HD.. Is it, eventually, become obsolete? yes, but at least not until 2011.. if I won't break it by then (flashing, or screen cracking it) I will keep it for a longer time. It simply suits my need. I am sure there will be other phoned, but until there is touch HD2 around, working in 3G US, I will keep it, flash it, test it and hope there will be enough chefs on this thread
Thank you folks for the sleepless nights you give me.. my wife is sure I have an affair, or I am into cyber sex.. until it does not stop- I will stay with the HD..
BigE said:
Well, I have mine for about 3 months now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi BigE! Long time no speak!
Good to find you in here!! I need your help...
AS you probably remember, I am a Trinity user. With MSkip's ProPlus Ultimate 3.5 QVGA 110209 installed, I am basically at peace. It's perfect for my needs.
BUT...
Recently, I've been tempted to buy a Touch HD, disable the TouchFlo and install MSkip's ProPlus Ultimate 3.5. Is it worth it?
The bigger screen, the more powerful processor, etc, etc... Will I really notice the difference if I just use Spb MS3.5?
I know you're not a massive fan of Spb MS3.5... I use it purely as I need an appointment list on my Today Page. That's why I don't use Manila. That's why as far as I can see I would not be happy with the TouchFlo 3D on the Touch HD. Such a shame it's missing!
I look forward to your advice. Maybe you'll convince me to leave Trinity!?
Mattster.
I got my Touch pro 2 from att about a little over a week ago. Now I must have flashed 10 roms on the phone so far. I used to have the first generation tilt for 2 years. Going from that to the new tilt 2 I am not that impressed with the difference in speed. I am wondering was the first generation tilt fully pimped out really that good for what it was or do we still have a way to go with the tp2 as far as development goes. That aside I feel the speed is only marginally better so far, aside from the hardware differences I am wondering, is this as good as it is going to get? Any other opinions about this? Just wondering what the consensus is.
ucanthang29 said:
I got my Touch pro 2 from att about a little over a week ago. Now I must have flashed 10 roms on the phone so far. I used to have the first generation tilt for 2 years. Going from that to the new tilt 2 I am not that impressed with the difference in speed. I am wondering was the first generation tilt fully pimped out really that good for what it was or do we still have a way to go with the tp2 as far as development goes. That aside I feel the speed is only marginally better so far, aside from the hardware differences I am wondering, is this as good as it is going to get? Any other opinions about this? Just wondering what the consensus is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello there... I also have the original Tilt (Kaiser) as well as the Tilt 2 now... I can really tell as well as you that the speed is not so much improved from the original at 400Mhz... and now 528 or so... those 100+ Mhz are lost with the new screen resolution and software like TouchFlo 3D... so it's pretty much the same thing when speaking about performance... The only things that I can tell for sure are...:
-> GPS Lock is awesome from 10 sec - 40 Sec... easy... (much better than Tilt 1)
-> Screen is a huge plus... obviously...
-> Tilt function same as Tilt 1... sluggish as hell often.
-> Camera is more or less the same thing... (a bit more resolution on the Tilt 2 but slow and buggy as Tilt 1 in my opinion)
-> Plus on Proximity / G-Sensor...
Also I have to mention something that everybody already knows... We all know that "in the World of PDA's the Iphone is just a toy" but I have to say that the touch sensibility / quality is much, much better on the Toy (Iphone 3G/3GS/Ipod Touch) than any HTC or whatever brand PDA including the HTC's Touch Pro 2 of course... I was hopping to finally get a much better Touch Screen on the Tilt 2 and I was disappointed as usual. The question stands... when are we going to get an Iphone kind of touch screen on our PDA's...?
I can continue and post a complete review... lol... but that's not the idea...
Now... what I find strange that nobody seems to realize is that there is no support for Flash on the new Tilt2 (with Opera)... I already tried to install the Juggalo_X Official Flash Lite 3.1 CE-OS 20757.cab plus replaced the Opera browser with other versions and there is no way I can get Flash working on the Tilt 2. Am I the only one that wants or would like to have Flash working? This was done in 2 minutes on the Tilt 1... and works great on Tilt 1... any ideas?
Well I am glad someone responded and shared my sentiment. It is a little bit of a let down so far with the tilt 2. The one issue I now am pending is do I return my phone before the 30 days and go back to the tilt and hold out for something down the pike for the holidays or get something to hold me over till then and get the leo whenever it makes its way down here. Samsung Omnia 2 will be arriving in multiple carriers soon I think as well. You get an 800 mhz processor with that and it def seems sleeker. Not sure what to do at this point. Unless there is an explosion of really quick and eye catching roms that maximize the performance of this device I dont think I will keep it past the 30 days.
Damn
I have a day one Tilt. I had about twelve roms on it ,including TPC Titanium Ultimate 23053. That was the fastest rom I ever had on my Tilt. The stock ATT ROM on my Tilt 2 murdered it. A co-worker at work has a 3GS and tried out my phone and was very impressed with the Touch screen. Apparently, as was the case with my original tilt, each batch has subtle differences. Even Cnet was impressed with it. Newtek, people realize. They just use skyfire or internet explorer mobile. There is a workaround for Opera, but it's hit or miss like the original fix.
If I am not mistaken, didn't the tilt 1 have only 64 megabytes of ram. For me, the hugest difference between my mogul and my previous phone, the Touch pro, was the HUGE gap in ram that I gained, ALONG with the drastically better resolution. Those two alone made the upgrade worth it by far. On my mogul, I would always have to fight for roms that give me 50% free ram at boot and could rarely multi-task. I get my Touch Pro 2 on monday. I don't expect it to be much different from my Touch Pro because it technically has the same guts. I will be looking foreward to the nice big screen though.
newtek1 said:
Also I have to mention something that everybody already knows... We all know that "in the World of PDA's the Iphone is just a toy" but I have to say that the touch sensibility / quality is much, much better on the Toy (Iphone 3G/3GS/Ipod Touch) than any HTC or whatever brand PDA including the HTC's Touch Pro 2 of course... I was hopping to finally get a much better Touch Screen on the Tilt 2 and I was disappointed as usual. The question stands... when are we going to get an Iphone kind of touch screen on our PDA's...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As soon as the HTC Touch HD2 is available. It's the first HTC device that contains a capacitive touch screen like the "toy" and the cpu has twice the speed as well.
André
well
i think kaiser is a real good cellphone ..but tp2 is better ...
I loved my original Tilt, but after getting my Tilt 2 there is no going back.
For me:
1. The screen is SOO much nicer and bigger..
2. It much more responsive the gestures and finger friendly.
3. It not instant but is noticeably faster than the Kaiser overall.
4. My experience with Opera is nicer and faster.
5. My GPS lock is MUCH quicker.
6. It retrieves my e-mail faster.
I for one am happy.
newtek1 said:
Now... what I find strange that nobody seems to realize is that there is no support for Flash on the new Tilt2 (with Opera)... I already tried to install the Juggalo_X Official Flash Lite 3.1 CE-OS 20757.cab plus replaced the Opera browser with other versions and there is no way I can get Flash working on the Tilt 2. Am I the only one that wants or would like to have Flash working? This was done in 2 minutes on the Tilt 1... and works great on Tilt 1... any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skyfire's flash built in works great.
newtek1 said:
Also I have to mention something that everybody already knows... We all know that "in the World of PDA's the Iphone is just a toy" but I have to say that the touch sensibility / quality is much, much better on the Toy (Iphone 3G/3GS/Ipod Touch) than any HTC or whatever brand PDA including the HTC's Touch Pro 2 of course... I was hopping to finally get a much better Touch Screen on the Tilt 2 and I was disappointed as usual. The question stands... when are we going to get an Iphone kind of touch screen on our PDA's...?
I can continue and post a complete review... lol... but that's not the idea...
Now... what I find strange that nobody seems to realize is that there is no support for Flash on the new Tilt2 (with Opera)... I already tried to install the Juggalo_X Official Flash Lite 3.1 CE-OS 20757.cab plus replaced the Opera browser with other versions and there is no way I can get Flash working on the Tilt 2. Am I the only one that wants or would like to have Flash working? This was done in 2 minutes on the Tilt 1... and works great on Tilt 1... any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you prefer the way touch works in iPhone then you have to wait for HTC Leo which is also based on capactive screen. TP2 and others are all based in resistive screen.
As for Flash Lite 3.1, it comes with IE on TP2. Anyway, Adobe will make available the full Flash 10.1 player for WM phone. Public beta before end of the year.
att tilt 2 opera flash problem
kierandill said:
Skyfire's flash built in works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same problem at first when i got the phone it worked in opera but when i did a clear storage aka hard reset it stopped working. i called att and they called htc both of them had no clue that that would happen if you do a hard reset. so they sent me another phone i got it yesterday and set the phone up and it still didnt work. well they sent me a refurbed phone. so now today i have two tilt 2's that wont work right i have another one coming it friday and it is supposed to be brand new. i have tried every flash lite on the web and opera and it doesnt work. they are doing some thing to the phone. htc says that it is supposed to be on the phone but it looks like to me they set it in the phone as a third party software and if you reset the phone you lose it and after you can find flash lite and install it it still doesnt work in opera and p ie doesnt work as well after either. so they are about to lose alot of money becuase its supposed to work and it doesnt. but if anyone out there knows how to make it work with opera and tilt 2 windows mobile 6.5 email me asap at [email protected]
twilite318 said:
i have the same problem at first when i got the phone it worked in opera but when i did a clear storage aka hard reset it stopped working. i called att and they called htc both of them had no clue that that would happen if you do a hard reset. so they sent me another phone i got it yesterday and set the phone up and it still didnt work. well they sent me a refurbed phone. so now today i have two tilt 2's that wont work right i have another one coming it friday and it is supposed to be brand new. i have tried every flash lite on the web and opera and it doesnt work. they are doing some thing to the phone. htc says that it is supposed to be on the phone but it looks like to me they set it in the phone as a third party software and if you reset the phone you lose it and after you can find flash lite and install it it still doesnt work in opera and p ie doesnt work as well after either. so they are about to lose alot of money becuase its supposed to work and it doesnt. but if anyone out there knows how to make it work with opera and tilt 2 windows mobile 6.5 email me asap at [email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude?!! Did you even read this thread. Opera does not do flash out the box!!! There is nothing wrong with any of those phones. Use Skyfire! There is a hack someone created to do flash on Opera. It's called Opera flash fix. Stop wasting your time and HTC and ATT's time with this issue. Adobe is supposed to make Flash 10 compatible with Windows Mobile later this year.
Hi all,
I have Palm Treo 700p's and want to update a bit without losing my fair and flex
family plan with Sprint; unfortunately Spring says I can't upgrade to any of the
phones that natively run Android,
I learned about flashing HTC phones running WM and have been trying to learn.
Trying to decide between the Touch or Touch Pro which seem to be the newest
HTC phones I can use.
It appears that the Touch had the best support but the developers have moved
on and the Touch Pro may now be getting more support; do I read this correctly?
Which would you recommend, Touch or Touch Pro, or is there another phone I
should check with Sprint for use?
I welcome your input
Thanks
FS
You're going to be very disappointed if you expect either of these phones to run Android natively well.
This port isn't nearly done. Perhaps the only phone (to my knowledge) that could be considered complete is the HTC Vogue - which is ironically the original Touch you are probably speaking of.
The TouchPro IMHO is a better phone (the keyboard is fantastic - only better is on the TP2 ) but does not run Android very well. Android is just a plaything, for testing and for fun on most WinCE devices.
To sum up - the Vogue & the HD2 have the most complete port of Android, with the Vogue probably being considered "completely finished" (full NAND), however... that hardware is old. HD2 is very promising, they have a few little bugs to squash and then NAND... But no HD2 love for Sprint.
Not sure how good of an Android experience it is on the Vogue. Won't ever be that fantastic on the TP or TP2 tho.... Old hardware there as well my friend
I was in the same boat. have a great (cheap) old data plan that I was not willing to give up.
I went with a touch diamond. My previous phone was a vogue.
I can say that the diamond is a far better phone than the vogue. Better screen, more responsive touchscreen, better video, accelerometer, better camera... but the Vogue probably does better with Android since it can run Android from Nand instead of the storage (SD) card.
Android is fun on the Diamond, but its pretty crippled. No camera. No speakerphone for things like GPS. Poor battery life. Too slow for any flash apps to run fluidly... Basically android on the Diamond feels more like an emulation- because that is all it is.
That said, its fun to be able to play around with android, and WinMo is not so bad for a dead OS. There are some decent ROMs and plenty of freeware still floating around. And the Diamond makes for a nice phone on terms of small size, GPS, good speakerphone, WIFI and even WIFI sharing with the right ROM.
tk76 said:
I can say that the diamond is a far better phone than the vogue. Better screen, more responsive touchscreen, better video, accelerometer, better camera... but the Vogue probably does better with Android since it can run Android from Nand instead of the storage (SD) card.
Android is fun on the Diamond, but its pretty crippled. No camera. No speakerphone for things like GPS. Poor battery life. Too slow for any flash apps to run fluidly... Basically android on the Diamond feels more like an emulation- because that is all it is.
That said, its fun to be able to play around with android, and WinMo is not so bad for a dead OS. There are some decent ROMs and plenty of freeware still floating around. And the Diamond makes for a nice phone on terms of small size, GPS, good speakerphone, WIFI and even WIFI sharing with the right ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to set the record straight, this project is running natively on the hardware - it's not a virtual machine, and it is certainly not being emulated in any way shape or form...
I could see how you would think that, because of all the broken/not working stuff... Well we just have to reverse engineer WinMo libs, dlls, etc and then write our own drivers basically for the different pieces of hardware.
Hence the reason new kernels come out so frequently - there's a lot of work that needs to be done on that kernel to get everything working the way it should. Devs are making some good progress lately, hopefully DIAM/RAPH will have NAND soon. I heard Neopeek was working on NAND back in August on his DIAM... haven't heard much about it since unfortunately. However, RHOD's have a partial NAND, and with the head of steam we've got going now, I'm pretty confident soon we will be up to the level of the Vogue - if not beyond it. However, the processor/RAM specs are pretty paltry compared to most native Android devices.
Sorry for the damned long post. One last question, your speakerphone doesn't work in GPS? Hrm. It should. Have you tried the newest kernels...? The autobuild service is down, but F22's been kindly building them for us...
why not just get a NEWER phone other then one that was released 2-4 years ago?
Cause after having invested SO MUCH time into running android on the phone, it's impossible to give up.. And having full control over hardware compensates for the hardware being ancient
Aaron McCarthy said:
why not just get a NEWER phone other then one that was released 2-4 years ago?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because moneys doesn't grow on the trees..
HELICOPTER88 said:
Because moneys doesn't grow on the trees..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! Or I would have had a nexus 1 a long time ago... ;D
e334 said:
Exactly! Or I would have had a nexus 1 a long time ago... ;D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and I would have had a Desire...
so i've recently bought a tp2 on ebay for sprint and now wondering if its an upgrade to my touch pro (raphael) or Touch (vogue). I've been using the raphael for a while and liked it for my uses had wm 6.5 and xdandroid. battery life was terrible back than so i just couldn't use xdandroid... and than the screen went out - started looking fuzzy. switched to my old vogue and installed xdandroid. been liking it so far but it's glitchy at best. So my question is i've heard many complaints about the tp2 being sluggish. is it worth the upgrade? how is the battery life on xdandroid? last a day with some browsing and push email?
If u like android so much, u should've just bought a cheap HTC android phone. You'll notice that the performance of this phone isn't as great as many users here says it should be. Sure there will be some that will argue that u can overclock it, but for one IMO I don't really see much of a difference or being useful (since a majority of the time the phone crashes) and by doing so, u are risking your phone in being damaged.
Android on this phone is nothing more but a mirage and merely a showoff for people to show that this phone can run the os. Let me tell u it can run it, but it's not at all practical. Many features that you may require on the phone are not working and overall I just find that as much as that the phone can run android, the hardware for it is not good.
I rather use windows mobile -and that's not saying much because I hate it. Just stick to what the phone has - After modding many times I came to realize that it's just best to keep it how it was and thats by using the correct stock rom. With all the crap I've gone through, I prefer the phone to work rather than modding it, customizing it, change icons, colors, layout, blah blah blah, optional garbage that the phone can't do properly.
Sorry to burst ur bubble about this phone, but if I didn't say it then you will soon find out the harder way.
Thanks - haven't got an android phone because i didn't want to pay the extra money to move to a new plan.
I was happy with my touch pro (raphael) in windows mobile, but the limits to it mostly android apps are very useful on my Touch (vogue). I know the limits of the phone, just was wondering if beyond the astehtics better screen, was this better than the Raphael?
I have a SonyEricsson Xperia X1 which is starting to break down and I'm thinking of getting a new phone. The Desire Z is the only non-Xperia phone I found that has everything I need. How is it? Pros? Cons? Battery life? GPS?
Also, I'm new to Android because the Xperia X1 has WinMo. What are the drawbacks of Android? The pros I already know of. How's the freeware app availability and development? (I will never pay for an application.) How about the advanced user customization? (I liked that about WinMo. Registry editing and changing files.)
Thanks for any answers!
Here's my review of the Desire Z based on my review (note: this is my first mobile device with something better than WinMo 5.
It has a nice performance (unless you're running something like HTC Sense 3.0+ HTC Sense). The keyboard (if you use it) is very comfortable and it features a "search" and a "menu" key, plus 2 shortcuts, the only thing I would like is an extra row for numbers (but I'm already used to the soft keyboard so I rarely use it). I wish I could review the stock rom, but I removed it after 2 days (and this is my first android phone). Battery life is OK, I get 1 day of battery life with medium use (screen on for like 4 hours, nothing heavy running), however, I bought my phone used, so I think the battery should have been better if it was new. The camera is OK for taking casual photos, the flash does a very good job for taking in dark places, just don't expect "ultra sharp" quality. The speaker is very loud, however, I find myself most of the time putting my hands on the back of the phone to "bounce" back the sound to myself, as the speaker is on the back side.
As for android, there are a lot of free applications, however, the market sometimes has apps that are useless or malicious (although you'll usually only notice them after scrolling a lot down). There's also something called GetJar, where you can get apps for free every week legally (they call them "gold apps"). Most of the apps you'll need will be free (soft keyboards, launchers, email apps) and most of them will be free but will have a "pro" or "donate" version (usually the free ones will have ads, which I can easily ignore, as they're usually small.
Sorry for any typo, English isn't my main language.
Time has long since passed to ditch Winmo. The drawbacks to Android? There aren't any. Winmo is a joke for lag, memory leakage, instability, and crashing. Android is stable and fast; and enjoys huge support from manufacturers, developers, and the user community. There is no "registry" since that is a Windows invention. But there are hacks and mods for anything you would ever want to do, and much more. Trust me, make the move to Android, and you will never look back on Winmo (except to shake your head and laugh).
There are plenty of free or ad-supported apps on the Market, as far as most any utility you would need. And also good quality free games. But really, why such an adamant stance on paying for apps? What would be the big deal in PAYING for software, if its something well made, that you use frequently, and say costs $1 (less than a Euro). That amount of money is completely insignificant for me when spend on something useful like a good app. God forbid the people that develop software should be compensated for it, and motivated to create other quality software, and to continue supporting their apps with updates and bug fixes? User made freeware is fine an all, and there is certainly good stuff out there. But its not going to fill every hole or need.
The con with the DZ is that its over a year old. This is really old in smartphone terms. Good phones with hardware keyboards are indeed rare. But aside from the keyboard, the Z has really fallen far behind in terms of CPU, memory, and other specs. If you are really hung up on a hardware keyboard, and can get a good deal on a Z, then go for it. Otherwise, I'd use my money on a more current device.
Thanks for the replies, guys!
Yes, the physical keyboard is a must. It's so much easier and faster than virtual keyboards. If I have to write more than three consecutive letters, I'll flip the keyboard open instead of trying to write with the virtual one. I do a lot of writing with my phones. My work phone is a Galaxy S and I have tried pretty much every keyboard it has, but they're all equally horrible. The same with my Xperia. I blame my first ever smartphone, the Nokia Communicator 9500. It was huge and awkward, but it had the comfiest keyboard ever.
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
The only experience I have with Android is via my work phone, but I don't know about how customizable it is, because the work phone has been heavily restricted.
Tych0n said:
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Xperia X1 was made by HTC.
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
Tych0n said:
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought buying an HTC cellphone is reather better than other android cellphones for 2 things:
1- its tough... it doesn't break easily, even with tiny hinges holding the screen...
2- it has Sense UI...
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
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|RIROZIZO|
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May be, but it's been my favorite since I first saw it.
Riro Zizo said:
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
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I've only found the launcher (home screen and app tray, for the OP) itself to really be any effect on performance, and its easy enough to use an alternate launcher. And the lag on the Sense launcher is really not as bad as some make it out to be.
Its purely a matter of personal taste, of course. But my personal opinion is that Sense is a much more aesthetic, refined, and unified Android experience than AOSP, or other manufacturer skins.
Of course, the beauty of Android is that if you don't like Sense, you can always flash a more vanilla ROM, or something else like MIUI.
---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 PM ----------
Tych0n said:
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
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If you are just talking utilities and useful apps, I think you will be right at home on Android. I honestly can't think of any utilities that you HAVE to pay for. Many are either free, or have a paid premium version with extra features (or remove ads), if you like the free version and decide to pay.
Desire Z it is, then!
I can get one from two different places without a nordic keyboard for ~300€ or one with nordic keyboard for ~500€. Guess which one I'll buy...
I came to Android on the DZ from a WinMo phone. Best move I ever made, Android made my old WinMo (which I was happy with at the time) look like a laggy, clunky joke.
Welcome to Android !
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ. My preferred rom is virtuous affinity - this give a smooth and very usable sense 3.5 experience. However, I would do think this phone is at the end of its lifespan. The built in ram and the single core cpu are going to limit how much further it can be pushed and I don't think we are ever going to see usable/smooth ics or sense 4 on this handset.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
MaxWiz said:
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
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This a million times! I'm astonished that there's so few sliders with full keyboards out there. The market is dominated by those goddamn slates. I've watched my friends write with the virtual keyboards of iPhones, Galaxies and whatever, and it always looks slow, clumsy and awkward. They even have to use predictive text input to compensate for the slowness. In contrast, writing with a QWERTY thumb keyboard is a breeze. The Desire Z is apparently pretty much the newest and best Android slider there is on the market, but it still has a WVGA screen, while pretty much every new slate has some HD-super-gizmo screen. What the hell? My Xperia has a WVGA...
But anyway, seeing as I can get a DZ for LESS (~300€) than I paid for my X1 (~450€), I'm happy even though it might not be the fastest and newest there is.
I'm a big fan of hardware keyboards too. I switched from the Motorola Droid to the HTC G2. I found the keyboard on the G2 to be not so good. Not sure if it's just because I got mine used on ebay and it was worn, but it doesn't look like it's worn out. I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often. So I've been tending to use the on screen keyboard, which is really good. I think the on screen keys are bigger than on the droid so it's pretty easy to type on. But I found the hardware keyboard to be much slower to type on than the Droid.
jgummeson said:
I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often.
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That could be from wear. The keyboard of my X1 worked flawlessly in the beginning, now it duplicates and misses keystrokes all the time. It's still better than the virtual keyboards, though...