A Little Spazzed-Need Opinions

[Curtita1]

HI,
I am new, and am so glad to find a forum like this! Hoping to get some solid opinions.

Basically, I upgraded my BB Curve (hated it) to the iPhone 4, but have decided that an android phone would be better. I have never had an android, and do know there is a learning curve and am okay with that.

I have until the 21st to take the iPhone back, and have been researching phones, but it's kinda overwhelming, especially since I have such a short time to decide which device to get, and I'm scared to death to end up with a phone I'll hate for 2 years!

Here's what I mostly do with my phone:
Facebook
Email
Games
Web browsing
Netflix

Don't need business apps for the most part, but would load some medical apps.

I want the best performance with the most features of course, as do we all LOL.

Office Depot tech recommended Droid X2, Verizon tech recommended Samsung Charge.........but while browsing the web found a site with a LOT of reviews from folks who had issues with the phone connecting to wifi, and I would be VERY unhappy if my phone would not connect with my wifi at home and at work.

I realize happiness with a phone is personal preference, but I'd really appreciate some input on which phones you think are best and why.

Thanks!!!

OH BTW, we are packing today to go out of town tomorrow am, so I may not be able to check for responses as often as I'd like, but this is not a drive by posting!dancedroid

 

[dezymond]

Have you tried an Android phone in store?

Here's my little 'review' with each item in your list:
Facebook: Very similar to iPhone (from what I hear), but not quite as good. Of course the app is more than enough to hold you over and if you're not happy with it you can access facebook through your browser.

E-mail:I personally use Yahoo email and there is an app for it and it works great. Most of the time I use the browser though and that works equally as well as they are the same thing. Gmail works great on the phone, but I have noticed some syncing problems every now and then (fails to update to what I see on my desktop, old emails are still there that shouldn't be, but no big deal)

Games:Games are great on Android. Of course the selection isn't as great as iPhone, but they're getting pretty darn close. I don't play many games, but i know there are options to put emulators on Android, I just haven't tried it yet.

Web:Flash still changes the game . The browser is great and you have a fairly good selection between different browsers (Dolphin is a popular one among us here, but I stick to stock browser)

Netflix:I don't use Netflix myself, but my friends say it's great. The Droid X2 was practically built for Netflix with it's nice big screen.

That being said, each Droid is different with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Out of the new ones that are out right now, I'd personally go with the Inc2. It's got HTC Sense, which I love, and is arguably the best 3g phone available on Verizon.

My friend owns a Droid X2 and he's on his 3rd one. I guess his keyboard went faulty twice and the one he's on works fine so far, but that's all the details I have on that...

Best advice I can give you is head over to the store and try'em out. You can even sign into facebook and try it out, just remember to log out.

 

[Curtita1]

Have you tried an Android phone in store?

Here's my little 'review' with each item in your list:
Facebook: Very similar to iPhone (from what I hear), but not quite as good. Of course the app is more than enough to hold you over and if you're not happy with it you can access facebook through your browser.

E-mail:I personally use Yahoo email and there is an app for it and it works great. Most of the time I use the browser though and that works equally as well as they are the same thing. Gmail works great on the phone, but I have noticed some syncing problems every now and then (fails to update to what I see on my desktop, old emails are still there that shouldn't be, but no big deal)

Games:Games are great on Android. Of course the selection isn't as great as iPhone, but they're getting pretty darn close. I don't play many games, but i know there are options to put emulators on Android, I just haven't tried it yet.

Web:Flash still changes the game . The browser is great and you have a fairly good selection between different browsers (Dolphin is a popular one among us here, but I stick to stock browser)

Netflix:I don't use Netflix myself, but my friends say it's great. The Droid X2 was practically built for Netflix with it's nice big screen.

That being said, each Droid is different with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Out of the new ones that are out right now, I'd personally go with the Inc2. It's got HTC Sense, which I love, and is arguably the best 3g phone available on Verizon.

My friend owns a Droid X2 and he's on his 3rd one. I guess his keyboard went faulty twice and the one he's on works fine so far, but that's all the details I have on that...

Best advice I can give you is head over to the store and try'em out. You can even sign into facebook and try it out, just remember to log out.

Thanks for your response!

I am by NO means a serious gamer. Just like to play Words with Friends, etc and whatnot to pass the time. My ADD brain has to be doing something all the time and when I'm not busy at work, in the car, etc I am on the phone playing games, watching Netflix, and typically only get on a couple web sites, and I do use Google a good bit.

Part of my panic is that I won't really have time to play with the phones in the store because we will be out of town. We'll be coming back the 20th and I have to change my trade the iPhone back in on the 21st. UGHHH. I so wish I'd waited, but was unable to due to some stupidity on the AT&T guy as he brought my ATT iPHone up in recovery mode and didn't tell me. When I tried to sync it had a lot of problems and now even ATT can't get it back up, so I went ahead and upgraded the BB to the iPhone 4.

Great info, Thanks!!

 

[Curtita1]

BTW, we live in the sticks, so reception is a HUGE factor.

 

[spaz33g]

don't get the thunderbolt if you live in an area with spotty service. just throwing that out there. i would honestly go for the charge over the droid x2. the charge has a much nicer screen with very vibrant colors.

 

[Curtita1]

Thanks Spazz, that's great info to know. Reception is definitely spotty out here at times. Hopefully I can get into a store and play with some of the phones.

 

[mamawm]

my husband recently upgraded from the original droid to a charge and it seems to have better reception the the d1 had. the reception is certainly much, much better than what i have on my eris. we too live way, way out in the sticks on the verge of nevernever land.

 

[christim]

If you are really concerned with getting stuck with a phone that you might not like here is another option:

Good advice above. Handle as many phones as you can, check out their wifi connections etc. You also can do this:

Grab a second phone, with it being an android, knowing there is a restocking fee. I think that fee is 35 bucks. Now you can try the phone in the wild, then return the iphone and swap it over to your main line, or return the android phone and stick with the iphone, or trade in both iphone and android phone 1 for android phone 2. Funds permitting of course

 

[takeshi]

I realize happiness with a phone is personal preference, but I'd really appreciate some input on which phones you think are best and why.

So you realize the conflict? Asking others isn't relevant. You need to determine what you prefer and polling others won't help any more than asking others what food/color/car/etc you should prefer. We don't know you and we can't make such assessments for you. If you still want the opinions of others then read the other "what device should I get?" threads instead of reinventing the wheel again for the nth time. Reading the other similar threads may help in that you might run across considerations that you haven't even thought about.

Every device has its pros and cons. Figuring out which one suits you best involves looking at the pros and cons and seeing what you're willing to accept. It's not a one-size-fits-all process or else everyone would use the same exact device.

There's really nothing in your criteria that helps to narrow down the options. Any device is capable of what you're looking for. You need to tell us what criteria you have that can help in selecting one for you. Most people tend to have strong preferences for physical characteristics such as size, weight, form factor, keyboard, screen, "build quality", etc. Have you looked at any devices in person to assess your preferences in these areas? Those could help to narrow it down for you.

I'd also suggest looking at devices with different UI's. Android users seem to have strong preferences for "vanilla" Android or one of the UI's such as Blur, Sense, Touchwiz, etc. We can't tell you what will suit you best. You need to evaluate these things for yourself no matter how much you read.

If you still feel clueless then find people with similar preferences and ask them. At least you stand a better chance of matching your particular needs/wants than randomly polling people on the internet who may have completely different needs/wants.

You always have a return period if you're unhappy with a device. Make the most of it. Play with the device. Don't decide that you don't like the device after your return window closes.

Part of my panic is that I won't really have time to play with the phones in the store because we will be out of town. We'll be coming back the 20th and I have to change my trade the iPhone back in on the 21st.

Don't rush the process. Return the iPhone if you have to to meet the return deadline but take your time in selecting a device. Learn from the past.

BTW, we live in the sticks, so reception is a HUGE factor.

That's really going to be more of a coverage issue. I'm not aware of any centralized resource that objectively compares reception on all devices. You're only going to get people presenting you with anecdotal evidence which really doesn't prove anything. There are many factors that affect coverage/reception and proper testing means accounting for and taking measures to rule out the other factors. Your typical user isn't really capable of that.

Thoroughly test out your coverage with Verizon when you do get a device to ensure that their coverage is suitable for you. Also, keep in mind that poor coverage will definitely have an adverse affect on battery life for any device.

 

[Curtita1]

I realize happiness with a phone is personal preference, but I'd really appreciate some input on which phones you think are best and why.

So you realize the conflict? Asking others isn't relevant. You need to determine what you prefer and polling others won't help any more than asking others what food/color/car/etc you should prefer. We don't know you and we can't make such assessments for you. If you still want the opinions of others then read the other "what device should I get?" threads instead of reinventing the wheel again for the nth time. Reading the other similar threads may help in that you might run across considerations that you haven't even thought about.

Every device has its pros and cons. Figuring out which one suits you best involves looking at the pros and cons and seeing what you're willing to accept. It's not a one-size-fits-all process or else everyone would use the same exact device.

There's really nothing in your criteria that helps to narrow down the options. Any device is capable of what you're looking for. You need to tell us what criteria you have that can help in selecting one for you. Most people tend to have strong preferences for physical characteristics such as size, weight, form factor, keyboard, screen, "build quality", etc. Have you looked at any devices in person to assess your preferences in these areas? Those could help to narrow it down for you.

I'd also suggest looking at devices with different UI's. Android users seem to have strong preferences for "vanilla" Android or one of the UI's such as Blur, Sense, Touchwiz, etc. We can't tell you what will suit you best. You need to evaluate these things for yourself no matter how much you read.

If you still feel clueless then find people with similar preferences and ask them. At least you stand a better chance of matching your particular needs/wants than randomly polling people on the internet who may have completely different needs/wants.

You always have a return period if you're unhappy with a device. Make the most of it. Play with the device. Don't decide that you don't like the device after your return window closes.

Part of my panic is that I won't really have time to play with the phones in the store because we will be out of town. We'll be coming back the 20th and I have to change my trade the iPhone back in on the 21st.

Don't rush the process. Return the iPhone if you have to to meet the return deadline but take your time in selecting a device. Learn from the past.

BTW, we live in the sticks, so reception is a HUGE factor.

That's really going to be more of a coverage issue. I'm not aware of any centralized resource that objectively compares reception on all devices. You're only going to get people presenting you with anecdotal evidence which really doesn't prove anything. There are many factors that affect coverage/reception and proper testing means accounting for and taking measures to rule out the other factors. Your typical user isn't really capable of that.

Thoroughly test out your coverage with Verizon when you do get a device to ensure that their coverage is suitable for you. Also, keep in mind that poor coverage will definitely have an adverse affect on battery life for any device.

Thanks for the input. Verizon is the only carrier that works worth a flip where we live, so I'm pretty well stuck with Verizon.

I do realize the conflict, BUT, it's difficult because I have NO idea what any of these OS's are like, and all i really want is a phone that works well with as few hiccups as possible. And as I said, my time is limited so felt that perhaps I'd be forgiven for posting such a redundant topic. Apparently not lol. I have been perusing the technical threads to see what issues some of the phones have been having so perhaps I should just try and find the threads such as mine, asking for advice.

I will be going into the store on the 21st and handling each of the phones I am considering. I played with the X2 a little bit and the Charge for just a second.

The phones I am considering are the HTC Inc2 since the 1 is no longer available, the Droid X2, Thunderbolt and LG Revolution.

Any input on these phones would be greatly appreciated. As I said, I want to get a phone that is historically trouble free, but fast with good/great screen display and that won't be outdated in the next few months.

So far, from the research I've done the HTCInc2 seems to have the best reviews.

 

[guidot]

The HTC Dinc2 is a great phone from the little I've used it.

Excellent reviews for sure, as long as you don't care for 4G.

 

[Hawaiian Princess]

As it was mentioned, there are pros and cons on any device. I can't give opinions on which is the best as u may wanna try them out ur self. Hands on feel for it, is my best advice. As for a comment that was said "reinventing the wheel again for the nth time" , if ur asking for advice I'm happy to comment. Regardless how many times the same question was asked. But in all honesty, the best way is to read up on that device, get reviews of what others say and judge for ur self if this is the phone for u.
Good luck and the community is here to help and not discourage others from asking a question.

 

[Curtita1]

As it was mentioned, there are pros and cons on any device. I can't give opinions on which is the best as u may wanna try them out ur self. Hands on feel for it, is my best advice. As for a comment that was said "reinventing the wheel again for the nth time" , if ur asking for advice I'm happy to comment. Regardless how many times the same question was asked. But in all honesty, the best way is to read up on that device, get reviews of what others say and judge for ur self if this is the phone for u.
Good luck and the community is here to help and not discourage others from asking a question.

Thank you very much! I've been a member on another forum(obviously not a droid forum!) and know that it can be very frustrating when newbies don't use the search function.

Part of the problem is that it's very easy to get overwhelmed when going to a bunch of different sites and end up reading differing opinions. About the time Ii decide on a particular phone I read the negative reviews and go oh crap! I wish I had more time. I thought I'd have much more time than I've had while visiting family.

I have no idea what "rooting" and other processes are so will be a fairly frequent flyer here once I get my phone.

Thanks again!

 

[Curtita1]

The HTC Dinc2 is a great phone from the little I've used it.

Excellent reviews for sure, as long as you don't care for 4G.

4G won't be an option where I live for quite a long time so no worries there!

 

[Hawaiian Princess]

Pay no attention to critics. The forum is here to help and assist and if we can't help others, new or not, we don't belong here. This is a great place to be, to get the most out of ur device. Rooting isn't for everyone and u certainly don't need too to get ur moneys worth. Here's a link u might wanna view

Rooting - is it for me? Some Q&A | Android Central