Smartphones. Who here has 'em?

[Dave_H]

iphone 4s.......nice phone, I'm loving it

[Activate: AMD]

2 years in the smartphone world is interminable! I can't wait to get something new and replace my aging DINC. I installed Business GingerSense rom a few weeks ago and its nice, but laggy as all hell. I guess its back to CM for me, I was just hoping to see a little more progress out of CM9 in terms of the QSD8650 chip that powers the inc and the original nexus. I wasn't a huge fan of CM7 so ICS would have been nice :\

Another random thought: the android smartphone ecosystem is an absolute cluster----. The way that the OEM's "support" old phones is crap, a former top-of-the-line model is lucky to get more than 2 OTA's with meaningful revisions, and when it gets them its like 6 months after the changes were relevant (see: froyo->gingerbread on like, every phone). This is disgraceful. I guess its just the state of the hardware arms race, that you need a new and improved phone every 3 months, but it really makes choosing a new phone a game of russian roulette: either buy the new hotness the very second it comes out, or buy it with the uncertainty that it could be replaced tomorrow. I love my android phone and I'm happy to have choices (when the carriers figure their sh-- out) to make, as opposed to having them made for me by Apple, but this situation is undoubtedly driving people away from android and can't be healthy for the OS as a whole

[zetachi]

just got my 2nd OTA update on my Bionic. But case in point on what ODOG said. It was cream of the crop when it first came out in August. three months later and we had the Razor and the Nexus and now those are almost outdated also.

[kbohip]

^^^I hear you on the Android software update mess. I actually swore never to buy another Motorola product ever again because of what happened to me with one of their phones. I bought an Android phone of theirs on the promise that they were going to upgrade the software on it. Lol, how naive I was to think that looking back. It was my first smartphone and coming from a pc background, I had no reason to doubt a simple software update from a company the size of Motorola. Surprise surprise, the update never came. The promises of an update sure did though, but in the end I was left with a phone running an ancient version of Android (1.5) that I couldn't even use a lot of the apps in the market with.

I ended up then buying the phone I have today. A Samsung Galaxy S that I purchased in July of 2010. Oh and guess what? When I bought this one it was running Android 2.1, with a promise from Samsung of course that there would be an update to 2.2 at the very least. I wasn't naive enough to be holding my breath this time though, but a lot of the people who had bought the phone on that promise were pissed that Samsung kept dragging their feet on the update. The update did eventually come, but it took around 6-9 months to get there if I remember correctly. By the time the official update came, I didn't care anyway as I was already running Froyo through a custom rom.

Fast forward to today, and I still have the Galaxy S and now in no small part due to the fact that I'm running ICS on it, through another custom rom of course, I'm happier than ever with the phone. This brings me to my point. The major reason people eventually upgrade their Android smartphones really isn't because of a hardware change. It's to get the latest software with the better hardware being almost an afterthought. Eventually they are forced to upgrade their manufacturer abandoned phones because the apps that they use stop supporting the older version of Android that their phones have.

Case in point, after the update of my phone to ICS, it's running better than ever. Here's the best part. Samsung said my phone would never get the upgrade to ICS as the phone didn't have a fast enough processor to run it. Well guess what? This old single core cpu Galaxy S runs ICS BETTER than it ever ran Froyo! I'm not kidding, it feels like I have a brand new phone now, but it's coming up on 2 years old. If it were not for custom roms, I'd probably get rid of my Android phone and go back to a dumbphone.

It's no surprise why the phone manufacturers don't want new updates of Android to keep rolling out to their older lines of phones. They know that if people are still running all of their apps without a problem on a phone that's still quite fast, it's going to be much harder to convince them to buy the latest and greatest hardware they are trying to sell at a very high price.

This is where Apple I have to admit has the perfect business model here. They make both the software and the hardware but they are slower to come out with phones that have incredible hardware specs like larger screens and quad core processors etc. This way their phones hardware ages closer to the software. Ie, all apps are still supported on a 3 year old iphone 3gs running the newest ios software, but the phone is so much slower than the "new" dual core iphone, people want to upgrade to it for the speed boost. It's in this way they don't feel like Apple is abandoning them by not giving them software updates, but their phones are just plain getting old.

In this respect Apple's model is like the pc and Windows. It takes a long, long time for most pc's not to be able to run the newest version of Windows at a speed most users consider acceptable.

[Activate: AMD]

^^so many truths in your post kbohip. The ability to run custom ROMs is an absolute godsend that the vast majority of people will never take advantage of. Before the apple fanboys get too excited, its worth mentioning that Android has, in general, iterated much more quickly than iOS and added features at a faster rate, even if it was to catch up at first. Thats exacerbated the situation for manufacturers rolling out updates since they have to test the frequent new software on a large backlog of phones, on lots of different carriers. Apple has 5 phones (incl CDMA versions) and is responsible for both the hardware and software, allowing them to tailor the software directly for their own hardware. Thats a huge advantage. Where the Android OEMs have shot themselves in the foot is the proliferation of these skins. they made sense when the UI was lacking, but now its pretty solid and incorporated the functionality that was being added by sense, blur, etc. Why the OEM's insist on lugging all that dead weight and dev time around is beyond me.

[kbohip]

^^so many truths in your post kbohip. The ability to run custom ROMs is an absolute godsend that the vast majority of people will never take advantage of. Before the apple fanboys get too excited, its worth mentioning that Android has, in general, iterated much more quickly than iOS and added features at a faster rate, even if it was to catch up at first. Thats exacerbated the situation for manufacturers rolling out updates since they have to test the frequent new software on a large backlog of phones, on lots of different carriers. Apple has 5 phones (incl CDMA versions) and is responsible for both the hardware and software, allowing them to tailor the software directly for their own hardware. Thats a huge advantage. Where the Android OEMs have shot themselves in the foot is the proliferation of these skins. they made sense when the UI was lacking, but now its pretty solid and incorporated the functionality that was being added by sense, blur, etc. Why the OEM's insist on lugging all that dead weight and dev time around is beyond me.

Oh yes the skins! How could I have forgotten to mention those! Motorola has the Blur skin, Samsung has Touchwiz, and I'm sure there are others I don't know of. The point is though they are as you say, a complete waste of time now. Do they really think most people in the market for a new samrtphone are thinking, "I'm going to buy a Samsung because of that super awesome Touchwiz skin!" All these unique skins from different manufacturers really do is confuse the potential Android phone customer even more.

[Activate: AMD]

I actually prefer the way the sense UI does some things versus CM7 (aka stock android) in gingerbread. it doesn't do anything "new" but it does do the contact integration and certain things better IMO. That said, I'd trade it all in a heartbeat for faster updates

[John C]

iphone 4s.......nice phone, I'm loving it

I really like my iPhone 4 non-s. it has been trouble free and does more than I will ever need. A bigger screen would be nice for these old eyes though!

[Keven]

Thinking of loading up the old credit card again.

Think the Motorola Droid RAZR will be my next phone and the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 will be my next tablet. I've been using a BlackBerry Playbook that RIM gave me back when I was reviewing cell phones, but I used my dad's iPad 2 over the weekend and the thing is cool with all the apps and whatnot. Playbook is really stable and has good web browser but, alas, zero app market - worse than Android or webOS.

I like the Archos 101 G9 tablet but Archos' Android tablets are what the kids would call "hella ghetto". They're cheap but you kinda get what you pay for. Screen isn't as nice, no software support, sometimes kinda janky, etc.

[Keven]

Oh yes the skins! How could I have forgotten to mention those! Motorola has the Blur skin, Samsung has Touchwiz, and I'm sure there are others I don't know of. The point is though they are as you say, a complete waste of time now. Do they really think most people in the market for a new samrtphone are thinking, "I'm going to buy a Samsung because of that super awesome Touchwiz skin!" All these unique skins from different manufacturers really do is confuse the potential Android phone customer even more.

I actually prefer the way the sense UI does some things versus CM7 (aka stock android) in gingerbread. it doesn't do anything "new" but it does do the contact integration and certain things better IMO. That said, I'd trade it all in a heartbeat for faster updates

What I want to know is why is Google bringing in that famed UI designer (Forgot his name) to redo the Android UI for ICS when they're still going to allow the manufacturers to still change it. That's like having Frank Llyod Wright design a house for you, then having a two-year-old decorate it with crayons.

Google could lock down the UI, Microsoft strictly controls the UI of Windows on PCs (this is why you had to download those crazy Alienware skins from their website, they shouldn't ship them on the PCs). But, I don't think Google wants to offend the manufacturers. They are sort of at their graces.

[Activate: AMD]

Thinking of loading up the old credit card again.

Think the Motorola Droid RAZR will be my next phone and the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 will be my next tablet.

I'd probably go with the nexus, but the RAZR Maxx would be up there too. Sure, its not as hyper-thin, but the humongous battery more than makes up for that, and its still thin relative to other stuff out there

What I want to know is why is Google bringing in that famed UI designer (Forgot his name) to redo the Android UI for ICS when they're still going to allow the manufacturers to still change it. That's like having Frank Llyod Wright design a house for you, then having a two-year-old decorate it with crayons.

Google could lock down the UI, Microsoft strictly controls the UI of Windows on PCs (this is why you had to download those crazy Alienware skins from their website, they shouldn't ship them on the PCs). But, I don't think Google wants to offend the manufacturers. They are sort of at their graces.

I think your last point is the reason. the OEM's don't have just fight apple, they're competing with each other. when everyone is using the same handful of SoC's its hard to differentiate a huge amount even on hardware and for the people who don't much care about the nitty-gritty details of hardware the only way to "wow" them in a unique way is the software. sadly, its just bloat for the most part

[Nate]

I got the Droid Razr. Great machine, but I got it for the 4G support. I already had an X.

Got it home and the 4G is hit or miss...I went to take it back after a couple weeks of trying it and the guy says "Nope. You had to return it within 14 days." I was a few days past that. I swear he told me 30 days.

So I paid $300 for what is essentially a dual-core Droid X. Only to hear the announcement of the Razr Maxx. To be followed by commercials advertising it for $200.

This was on top of being sold a Pantech UML290 4G Modem + Contract. They never mentioned my unlimited data would grandfather if I upgraded my phone.

I'm out $1000's for next to no improvement in service over the next couple years.

[kbohip]

Thinking of loading up the old credit card again.

Think the Motorola Droid RAZR will be my next phone and the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 will be my next tablet. I've been using a BlackBerry Playbook that RIM gave me back when I was reviewing cell phones, but I used my dad's iPad 2 over the weekend and the thing is cool with all the apps and whatnot. Playbook is really stable and has good web browser but, alas, zero app market - worse than Android or webOS.

I like the Archos 101 G9 tablet but Archos' Android tablets are what the kids would call "hella ghetto". They're cheap but you kinda get what you pay for. Screen isn't as nice, no software support, sometimes kinda janky, etc.

You might want to take a look at the Le Pan 2 tablet Kevin. Yes, I am aware that it has the worst name in the history of well, anything electronic, but most of the reviews over at Amazon say it's easily the best 10" dual core Android tablet out there for $280.00. It will supposedly be getting an upgrade to ICS as well, but you know how much faith I put into manufacturer's promises. There are some reviewers that have complained about wifi problems though, but I think if I were in the market for a tablet right now, this one would be at the top of the list.

http://www.amazon.com/Pan-II-9-7-Inc...pr_product_top

[Invictus]

My Mytouch 4g with 768mb ram and a single core running OC @ 1.7ghz still runs everything i throw at it. Outside of the tegra games it obviously doesn't support. Its not bad with ICS on it.

Would love to get a new phone. Just cant justify it yet. Maybe if it was time for a upgrade...

[Keven]

You might want to take a look at the Le Pan 2 tablet Kevin. Yes, I am aware that it has the worst name in the history of well, anything electronic, but most of the reviews over at Amazon say it's easily the best 10" dual core Android tablet out there for $280.00. It will supposedly be getting an upgrade to ICS as well, but you know how much faith I put into manufacturer's promises. There are some reviewers that have complained about wifi problems though, but I think if I were in the market for a tablet right now, this one would be at the top of the list.

http://www.amazon.com/Pan-II-9-7-Inc...pr_product_top

Hmm, that does look like a nice little tablet but I would probably get a 16:9 tablet, plus the reason I'm drawn to the Xyboard is the built-in 4G.