Back in December I tried T-Mobile and the G1 out as a possible alternative for my iPhone. The idea was that T-Mobile’s no contract plans might work out for me and if I liked the Android OS enough I would get a newer Android phone to replace my iPhone 3GS. That experiment ended badly due to the G1 being no where near the iPhone and T-Mobile service sucking as bad or worse than AT&T did where I use it.
I have been eying the Nexus One for a little while since they offer an AT&T version of it. It is the latest in Android phones and it has some advantages over the iPhone in hardware. That and it used the same network my iPhone did I was curious to see if I could make the switch to the Nexus One and Android. I keep saying the iPhone is the best phone I ever had but I would love to get rid of it so I figured I would give it a try.
I bought the Nexus One off of Google’s site. It arrived the next day. I give them props for that. Unlike the G1, the Nexus One hardware was very nice. Call quality was great, the screen was amazing and sharp.
I will cover in another post my switch from Zimbra (hosted at 01.com) to Google Apps. I had to make this switch for this test to really work well, but I had been pondering this switch independently of the phone test for a while also. The point is with a Gmail/Google Apps account setup the process of setting up my contacts, mail, and calendar on the new phone was totally painless. The fact that Google Voice only works with an associated Gmail account and not Google Apps is a down side, but I survived.
I was all set to jump into the Android OS. My original plan was to force myself to switch and use the Nexus One for a month. By that point I will have either wanted to stick with it, or the new rumored iPhone would be out and or announced. In reality I got only a few days (and not even using the phone for full days) before I threw in the towel.
On the plus side most of the apps I used on my iPhone had equivalent apps on Android. I would say the vast majority of the apps I used had some sort of replacement on the Android. The caveat to that is most of them were the Android versions were no where near as good as the iPhone versions. They either were functionally inferior or just visually looked bad. The option of more types of apps still had me interested. Like the ability to have a caller ID app run all the time, or a location based profile app run all the time both were great ideas and reasons why I wanted an Android for multi tasking. But those advantages were short lived when most of the apps I was used to using weren’t as good. I have read others talk about this on Android and I can’t understand how reviewers can say Android will beat iPhone until this is fixed.
One major downside that may have pushed me over the edge in not wanting to use this phone was its music player. I bought a cheap app to sync my itunes playlists to the phone so i was happy about that, but there was no easy way to use the music player when the phone was locked. With the iPhone when the phone is locked you only have to double tap the round button and you get music controls. That is huge! If i wanted to get to the same controls on the Android phone when it was locked I had to hit the power button, swipe my finger to unlock and then either have a music widget on my home screen or swipe over to another home screen with the music widget on it. That just bothered me to no end. Then I realized the Android OS doesn’t come with a video player. Really? And this is supposed to be a nice easily replacement for every day consumers?
The final straw for me was when I was editing an email and I couldn’t use my finder to highlight or move the cursor. I can with the iPhone (well you have to with the iphone since that is the only input), but with the Nexus One you need to use the trackball. Why? I don’t want to use a trackball. I don’t for anything else, but you kinda have to with this function. Little things like that bothered me with this phone. I have read that people say Android is not as “polished” as the iPhone. They are right. It isn’t. I am a savy technical person (or I like to think so) and this stuff bothered me, so not sure what the average consumer would think. I know several friends who are average consumers who love their Android phones. My friend Dave just got a new Incredible. I just don’t get how they are happy, but then again they haven’t used an iPhone. I chalk it up to each person has their own tastes.
On the flip side Google Voice was fantastic on the Nexus One. If anything that was one of the main reasons why I tried this experiment. This plus couldn’t make up for all the short comings.
Lastly the fact that shopping for apps is only possible on the phone was a problem for me. It worked out ok, but I like to browse on the computer and then send stuff to my iPhone. Minor issue but still why can’t there be some sort of over the air sync?
In the end I got a few days out of the phone. I am not worried. It is in mind condition and will go up onto ebay in a few days. Android may be popular and someone will be very happy with this phone, but I am happy drinking the cool aid and I am sticking with my iPhone 3GS. Well until Apple announces something new this month!