Monday, May 5, 2014

Taking A Trip Down Android Lane…

Nokia-Lumia-925-htc-one

So, there I was, plugging away online trying to get a Lumia for my boss to test drive when all of the sudden, HTC popped up and ruined the only chance I had of converting someone else to the glory of Windows Phone and the Lumia Icon. Instead, HTC not only stepped up with a guarantee of the One M8 being spectacular, but they even decided that I should try an M7 (they were out of M8’s that were compatible with my carrier) and see what all the fuss is about.

Of course, I pretty well laughed as my Nokia Lumia 925 is all the phone I could possibly want, and probably will ever need, but it made me think… What am I missing by being on the dwarf-child operating system. So I decided to take HTC up on their challenge, which I will start on Friday, or maybe a bit later if it takes me longer to get everything set up. Here’s what I am going to be looking for in the new Android that made me run for the hills to start with.

Have they gotten better with the Apps?

What drove me nuts about Android to start with was the incredible amount of force closes, spinning screens and just unresponsive behaviors that my Android devices had. Even my Toshiba Thrive tablet locked up more than it worked right.

What Apps am I missing out on?

Yes, this is one that is still a sore spot with me. My local credit union (BECU) won’t make a Windows Phone App until more people are using Windows Phone. They haven’t figured out what everyone else already knows though – they won’t start using Windows Phones until the Apps are there. I’m looking forward to using my Banking App, SwagBucks TV and Hootsuite. Those three Apps might just be enough to sway me back to Android.

Can the camera keep up?

Call it an ultrapixel, megapixel or a gigapixel, I really don’t care. What I want to know is that can this HTC One take a good image that I can share. I’ll be honest, I LOVE my Nokia Lumia PureView camera. It is the reason I left the HTC Titan to start with and moving to the 810 was rough for me – even though the camera was very good on it as well. Having the 925 in your pocket to capture images is just a pleasure. I can only imagine how much better the crop and zoom factors make it on the 1520, 1020 and the Icon. Can 4 ultrapixels deliver what the PureView does?

How’s the overall experience with Microsoft products?

I’m spoiled, ok? I have Office on my phone that syncs with my OneDrive and everything is on all my PC’s. It’s perfect. That said, what does Microsoft do to me? They make OneDrive for Android that does exactly what my Windows Phone does – just without the Office part. I honestly don’t use Office that much on my phone anymore now that I have my Dell Venue Pro 8 Tablet, but will I miss it?

Is social networking a better experience with the One?

After performing the WP Dev Preview update, I am completely missing out on what made Windows Phone special, the integration of social media. It’s still there on the surface, but they made it just like everything else in now it relies on Apps to get the heavy lifting done. One of my favorite parts of my HTC Evo 4G (my last real Android phone) was that it used HTC Sense to lay in to Facebook and Twitter. It was much like Windows Phone was in the 7.x days. Post photos, update statuses and view posts just by clicking an icon. It was nice. If HTC has the One set up anywhere close to that, it might be a tough fight to come back to the bummer that is WP social sharing now

I really can’t wait to take the “new Android” for a serious spin. I’m not sure they will be able to win me over, but isn’t the job of anyone in the industry that cares about tech to make sure that we are using the latest and greatest stuff and know what we are talking about when we say Blank is better than Blank?

I hope that the next few weeks brings me a serious threat to leave Windows Phone. I’m not expecting that by any means, but let’s just see what happens. As I said, I’ll try and get going on this soon, maybe even this weekend. My question is, can I leave my Lumia home and use Android as my daily driver?

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