Change is always with Hesitancy.
Its never easy to change, to make the jump, to take the plunge.
But I did it - FINALLY.
From Nokia to Android (HTC Desire Z)
&
now - makes me feel like a FOOL for not doing it earlier.
My Nokia smartphone looks like a dumb phone after experiencing the power of Android with HTC Sense!
TOTALLY loving my new weapon - the ultimate in my arsenal, the 3rd screen, the Victor.
I have a new Friend. A new best friend.
So what if he's green?
So what if he has no neck?
So what if he has 2 antennae on the top of his head?
He is my best friend.
He follows me everywhere & does everything I want - wether I tell him or not.
He follows my every command.
I love him.
My Droid.
My Android.
I begin with these notes.
One may wonder whats all the fuss about a new phone?
Android has been around since 2009!
Yes, I am late on the scene.
Yes I was (still am partly) a HARDCORE Nokia fan/lover. Having used 32 of their phones in the last 7 years or so.
A techie like me should have made the jump LONG ago.
Yes, my apologies.
But I did not have the liberty of taking a chance earlier.
I did not have the time to manage change of contacts, the patience for the learning curve (which although short for me and in android) and many such relatively important reasons then.
But the temptation was ALWAYS there.
And slowly I learned these were non-issues.
But what REALLY made this happen was:
Nokia. Yes, they themselves are to blame.
My E72 would hang up 4 times a day despite repeated repairs and software updates.
I tried the N97mini, 5800 and C7.
The former two had horrible screens. The N97mini keyboard was 3 row - too little for me.
The C7 was QUITE nice. A real surprise from Nokia. Loved it. But NO keyboard!
They took too long for the E6 & E7 - and till then the HUGE growth of iOS & Android and their functionality could not be denied for a guy like me.
My closest friends also had a major role in making me switch over.
The FINAL nail in the coffin was Nokia abandoning Symbian like a mole on the back, aborting MeeGo like an unwanted pregnancy and WORSE - Adopting Windows Phone 7 !
How could you Stephen Elop? This will definitely haunt you till your memory serves you and will hurt us till the end of ours.
Had Nokia chosen Android as they were considering : HEAVEN.
Since BlackBerry was NEVER an option for me:
( http://drsurajdhirwani.blogspot.com/2010/06/nokia-vs-blackberry.html )
I did genuinely consider iPhone 4. Worked out all the permutations & combinations. Including Bluetooth keyboards.
But iTunes was TOO much of a pain. There were too many restrictions. The 'business' functionality was sorely lacking. It was a fun to use phone, but not as smart as I would want it to. And the bottomline was quite expensive - definitely not VFM.
Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile 6.5 or whatever was NEVER an option.
(Horrible experience with Windows 6.1 on a HTC Touch few years ago. Besides poor support in India. & WP7 was just RIDICULOUSLY stupid till Mango update came along)
I still have a Palm Pixi Plus with me - WebOS showed promise. But then Palm was purchased by HP and it was all in suspended animation - in the freezer. And had no eco-system whatsoever.
Bada by Samsung was an OS not even considered for reasons that are obvious.
So frankly, it was more like TINA (There Is No Alternative) besides I wanted Android too (I LOVE Google, seriously) and Google+ app was on Android TOO!
Then Began the hunt to narrow down the piece:
I was very clear about 1 thing - I WANT a physical keyboard. Period. I do not want to even justify why or get into an argument of why not and auto-correct etc. etc.
Call me queer, call me weird, call me eccentric. I don't give a damn. I want and NEED a physical qwerty keyboard.
& when I opt for a tablet next, then too I will buy one which has an accessory keyboard either in the case or in the dock.
I had really liked the original T-Mobile G1. The 1st Android phone (manufactured by HTC). Ofcourse that was not an option today - so there was G2.
Yes, the T-Mobile G2 a.k.a. HTC Vision a.k.a. HTC Desire Z.
The other options were Motorola Droid 2 and Samsung Galaxy 551, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro & Motorola BackFlip.
(HTC ChaCha, Samsung Pro, Motorla Defy / TXT etc. had not even been released)
Motorola Droid 2 was nice - but keyboard lacked the feel & besides - Motorola & MotoBLUR? Not a candle against HTC Sense UI.
BackFlip was just too weird.
Samsung Galaxy 551 was grossly under speced and lower ranged.
SE X10mini pro was just TOO tiny for me.
Had they had a proper SE X10 pro - I would have given it a thought for its awesome screen and looks. But SE doesn't have a soft spot in my heart (except for the SE P990i) wonder why they stopped the P5.
So the HTC Desire Z it was. What a 'Vision'.
I am not going to sit and review the Desire Z here. No, thats not what this is about.
( You can read that here:
Specs: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_desire_z-3421.php
Review: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_desire_z-review-535.php)
contd.... ...
Part 2/3 : http://drsurajdhirwani.blogspot.com/2011/08/android-23-how-to-buy-android-phone.html
Part 3/3: http://drsurajdhirwani.blogspot.com/2011/08/android-33-my-experience-with-android.html