Related
On gizmodo.
"Tragically flawed" but "the Hero is still the best Android phone yet" so my pre-order still stands
It's making me having second thoughts though. I think I'm going to wait and see. If speed issue isn't there when only a limited number of widgets are used, then I think I'm ok with that.
With a bit of tweaks it will be lightning fast. And who cares of the camera?
Someone in the comments on the article says that a Class 6 micro SD card should speed it up. Guess what I just ordered from Amazon?
The review was pretty much one sided...everything kept coming back to the iphone for some reason
Even after reading through it I decided to go ahead and order my Hero...delivery is on thursday tho...have to wait TWO DAYS lol.
This is interesting from:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/ph...hero-617981/review?src=rss&attr=all&artc_pg=2
The only problem, and it's a big problem for now, is the whole system does lag quite comprehensively at times. It's at its worst when you take the phone out of the box for the first time, and although it does speed up to an acceptable level on the homescreen, certain aspects (such as updating Twitter or the weather) can cause the whole system to slow down to a complete stop at times.
It's a real shame that this is the case, and could be something to do with the fact there's only a 528MHz processor under the hood, which could be a little underpowered when you're multi-tasking the level offered by the HTC Hero.
However, before you write the phone off, there's more than a ray of hope. The last time we played with the HTC Hero, around a month ago, the problem was there but so much worse. This tells us two things: it's likely it will be fixed by the time the phone is released onto the market (or at least the first firmware update will go a long way to doing so) and HTC have had to rush this to market for some reason (perhaps to stave off the challenge of Samsung's first Android phone, the i7500?).
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It probably is due to the fact that these are review handsets or something like that. The Hero rom runs fine on my G1 tbh, it's slow in some places but with a system that has twice the RAM and ROm I would expect that to stop tbh.
Gizmodo reviews you can ignore anyway .
... but still there are quite a few of mixed stories.
Basicly it seems the animation and core Android menu's are smooth and speedy and responsive.
but it seems they put the HTC Widgets on very low priority, as not to slow down the rest of the phone. So the widgets take their time updating their content, which seems more as a connection-speed thing.
I'm sure that if it's not speedy enough from launch, it will come in ROM fixes, either from HTC or from XDA . And if we somehow can get root on the phone, the usual tweaks such as compcache and/or swap will speed it up a bit.
The CPU is fast enough on those MS7xxx based devicse, it's the internal ROM-storage that's kinda slow. The same reason that file-caching tweaks and using SD cards for storage / OS parts work on both the Diamond and the G1 for example.
I'm just gonna form my own opinion on this device when I have it in my hands . But seeing as I'm more than happy with my tweaked Diamond - which is named quite slow in every review out there - I expect good things from the Hero.
Cnet absolutely HATES IT!
(Not.)
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030106,49303060,00.htm
bigbamboo5 said:
(Not.)
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030106,49303060,00.htm
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Thats more like it!
Slash Gear loves it.
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-hero-review-2149880/
Interesting what they comment on the lag other reviews are reporting:
We’ve actually been talking about this in the forums over at AndroidCommunity.com. The reason I didn’t mention lag is because I didn’t really experience any; there’s a slight slow-down in flicking away from a homescreen pane if the widget is updating (such as Peep getting the latest tweets) but it’s incredibly minor (IMO). There was never a lag or delay that I could legitimately say was annoying. The camera, too, seemed faster than some sites are reporting.
The speed you see in the demo videos is basically the speed the Hero ran at all of the time. I’ve talked with HTC about the differing experiences, and they’re just as confused as we are; they say all the review devices (which I’m taking to mean those in the UK and those shipped to the US for reviews there) are running the same production ROM. However there are obviously some differences in performance across the board, not to mention I know a few people have had glitchier devices than others.
In short, this could be a “good” Hero and there could be “bad” ones out there with other reviewers, we just don’t know. Given that Orange UK are apparently beginning sales of the smartphone today, I imagine we’ll soon hear whether those versions live up to expectations or not.
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stilghar said:
Slash Gear loves it.
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-hero-review-2149880/
Interesting what they comment on the lag other reviews are reporting:
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Look at the video "HTC Hero media widget and Flash-capable browser:" in that review.
Now I know what the other reviews are on about. It takes a fraction of a second for it to move between home screens. On default android this was fluid and you saw the "transition" of dragging the screen from one position to another, on the hero it looks more like Homescreen 1, Swipe, 0.2 second wait, Homescreen 2.
Not a problem at all, but most reviewers would criticise for this, especially the ones that always go back and compare to the "all mighty iPhone"
The Hero is far better than the iPhone - me thinks. But I dont want a war about it.
This is just my experience from using apple technology for 20 years
Engadget crushed the hero in their review
"HTC has an explosive entry in the smartphone category with what its done on the software side... now it just needs the hardware to match"
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/
if hero is so weak, what's there to say about mytouch (sapphire) (((
rachael?
hihik said:
Engadget crushed the hero in their review
"HTC has an explosive entry in the smartphone category with what its done on the software side... now it just needs the hardware to match"
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/
if hero is so weak, what's there to say about mytouch (sapphire) (((
rachael?
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Or the Diamond when it was released or even the TD2... really it's all subjective!!
http://phandroid.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/
http://gizmodo.com/5340981/software-update-fixes-the-htc-heros-only-real-problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYV9NNoI8Hc
Well, this changes things. Right after it came out, Matt called the HTC Hero "tragically flawed." Why? Because the otherwise fantastic Sense UI was slooooow. HTC, presumably run by competent, rational human beings, has fixed this.
From the review in July:
The Hero is flawed, though, in ways that are truly depressing in light of its potential and how much it does get truly right: It's often sluggish, which absolutely destroys the user experience. It's a particularly unfortunate affliction as the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre emphasize speed, making the Hero feel that much slower.
This was all but a dealbreaker, this frustrating slowness. But! Paul at MoDaCo has a preview of HTC's forthcoming update, which was vaguely announced yesterday, without much mention of what it would actually do. Now we know: It's about speed. And as someone who's been using a Hero for a few weeks now, this video makes by fingers tingle, ever so slightly.
Best of all, this update, due in a few weeks, looks like it could be ready before the Hero even shows up on whatever US carrier it's destined for, by which I mean, Sprint. Now, excuse me while I go remove the asterisk from that "Best Android Phone Ever" title. [MoDaCo via Slashgear]
Can I get a 'Hell yeah!'?
awesome
Can't wait. Loving my hero so far, except for the lagginess.
Rebooting helps but that's just a bit too "windows mobile" for my taste
I come from an iphone and i really like the openness.
I've got an unbranded urban brown so i should be able to get the update when they release it.
One thing i've noticed from the video is that the clock widget thingie is no longer animated but is now just a static picture.
It's very un-HTC like to actually release an update so quickly and to actually *gasp* fix things
But OTOH, they really set out to prove something with this phone, they can't afford to screw the pooch on this one.
HTC guys, we deffinately know you read these boards and all i can say is ... if this proves to be true and you keep releasing updates on a regular schedule ... i think you will win a lot of customers and dominate the android market.
Take Care,
-Kevin
does the new update lets HERO play video files encoded at 3p FPS ??
and what about the keyboard messaging speed?? is it better now??
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
ghoonk said:
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
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The keyboard can get very slow in webpages I find.
I hope that this update also fixes the missing text messages issue, lots of angry peeps because I don't reply to them!
ghoonk said:
I have no problems running videos at 3 fps. Keyboard text input does get unbearably sluggish at times though.
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actually i meant 30 fps...LOL i made a mistake by typing 3 only...lol 3fps is supported by even the most basic video phone!
thank God...
I really wanted to love the Hero (but the speed problem totally made me reconsider, having had a slow Diamond before) as the UI really is one of the best among the likes of the iPhone, and despite the fact that I am still using WinMo now I must admit that the iPhone UI is just a hell of a lot more out there. The Hero's UI is the first I see on any phone that really does match the iPhone's UI (if not exceed it).
If it actually speeds up so much with the update, it would be absolutely perfect, and I will buy one.
nin2thevoid said:
I really wanted to love the Hero (but the speed problem totally made me reconsider, having had a slow Diamond before) as the UI really is one of the best among the likes of the iPhone, and despite the fact that I am still using WinMo now I must admit that the iPhone UI is just a hell of a lot more out there. The Hero's UI is the first I see on any phone that really does match the iPhone's UI (if not exceed it).
If it actually speeds up so much with the update, it would be absolutely perfect, and I will buy one.
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Agreed. I've just boxed/RMAd my Hero for return. I thoroughly enjoyed the time i spent with it but as it is now, its just not practical for me. Plus i dunno how HTC do their updates and if they truly fix anything useful or just random fixes no one cares about, which is why i wasn't willing to gamble.
If the update does improve things significantly then i'll come back or simply wait for the next iteration but in the meantime i'm returning to my trusty iPhone. Yes its UI is dated, yes it sucks at multitasking, yes the app store policy is draconian, yes battery life sucks. However the little things the iPhone does, it does well and is dependable for me.
I'm looking for a phone to buy in the next 2/3 months and if the hero gets as fast as we can see on the video, my choice is done. Otherwise I'll stick with my old phone waiting for a real Iphone competitor...
Speed the only problem?
I'd say that functional shortcomings are even worse. The speed-issue is mostly a feature of true multitasking. Don't expect good performance from a low-end CPU when it's trying to run all the fancy widget applications simultaneously. Optimisation is always appreciated though.
More important issues IMHO are:
Email not able to display messages with digital signatures. Never mind verification of the signature, but there's no good reason why the unencrypted message body can't be displayed. K9mail from the market handles it, as well as the mail-app in a stock android 1.5 dev.kit.
Email has no option to specify the path for IMAP folders. No folders other than the inbox can be read from servers which require the path to be specified.
The currently used 2.6.27.x kernel has serious issues with wi-fi (performance issues, temporary loss of connection). There are good reasons why the entire wi-fi stack was replaced shortly after (see kernel mailing-list) and we should hopefully soon see Android built with kernel 2.6.30 or later.
LEDs and trackball lights have stopped working on some units. It's been claimed that these problems are software related.
The music-player needs more consistent sorting of songs. Now it sorts songs alphabetically when browsing all tracks from an artist, while the default should be sort by album+disc_number+track_number. Similarly when you browse all albums the ordering of tracks within an album seems random. The natural order here would be by track-number.
Fade out-in between music tracks can be more smooth, as can the fade in/out of alarms and phone-calls.
Peep needs fixing so that it doesn't drain the battery when there's no twitter account configured. I don't know what it does, but it certainly can't be idle when it reduces the standby-time to 6-8 hours. Kill Peep, or give it a valid twitter user-name/password and the problem is gone.
The dialler and phone-book could do with some optimisation. This is the only place I've found where lagging actually causes a problem as it sometimes leads to calls being accidentally initiated.
These are just some of the problems I've found. I'm sure people with other priorities and who use the device differently have other issues.
I really would like that person to post a video showing the contacts app THEN we can know if performance issues have been really solved.
Hero lag can't be worse than what the Pre has in just about every program. Looking forward to playing with one in person so I can check it out for myself. Palm has done a terrible job of implementing a good idea.
Aridon said:
Hero lag can't be worse than what the Pre has in just about every program. Looking forward to playing with one in person so I can check it out for myself. Palm has done a terrible job of implementing a good idea.
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Pre was very zippy/responsive when i played with it
Speaking of terrible jobs of implementing good ideas, how about the fact that despite creating a fancy new UI for Android, including an innovative widget idea, yet again HTC have given us an essentially useless music player. Why on earth didn't HTC learn from the Diamond's problems in order to implement a music player that did not skip during tracks. Unbelievable! I'm so furious about this. And before someone tells me that if I want a music player I should use a seperate player, if the phone cannot perform the most basic function of any music player, which is to play music uninterrupted, it should not be included at all; I am not an HTC tester.
I have a class 6 micro SD card coming soon, if this doesn't help, it's bye bye Hero and hello iphone. It may not multitask and have a bland UI and have a draconian app store (frankly, who cares!?), but what it can do, it does very well indeed.
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
What a bum deal.
Yours sincerely,
A fed up HTC customer.
simcarloc said:
Speaking of terrible jobs of implementing good ideas, how about the fact that despite creating a fancy new UI for Android, including an innovative widget idea, yet again HTC have given us an essentially useless music player. Why on earth didn't HTC learn from the Diamond's problems in order to implement a music player that did not skip during tracks. Unbelievable! I'm so furious about this. And before someone tells me that if I want a music player I should use a seperate player, if the phone cannot perform the most basic function of any music player, which is to play music uninterrupted, it should not be included at all; I am not an HTC tester.
I have a class 6 micro SD card coming soon, if this doesn't help, it's bye bye Hero and hello iphone. It may not multitask and have a bland UI and have a draconian app store (frankly, who cares!?), but what it can do, it does very well indeed.
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
What a bum deal.
Yours sincerely,
A fed up HTC customer.
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My Hero never skips when playing music not that I do so that often. Its so much better than my Diamond was.
simcarloc said:
As for the update, I like many cannot get too excited about this because I am with Orange and their update will no doubt follow in 2015.
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Well that may not be entirely true.
The Jones - listen more often and you will experience it. Unless of course, it's a problem only affecting certain handsets, in which case there are serious inconsistencies in HTC's manufacturing at work here, I doubt it though.
What audio formats you are using? With mp3 and wma (some are high bitrate) I use both wired and ad2p heastets about 4 hours a day and never experienced stuttering. I have a brown one from mobiles.co.uk with vodafone.
Also, while listening to music usually a few applications such as browser or news readers are being used as well.
Interesting sproxy, mine is also from Mobiles.co.uk on Orange and I get no skipping here either, listened to music loads on the phone over the last couple of days. Mine is also one of the ones with no lag, or screen gap I wonder they had a newer "fixed" batch or something?
I just got a Pre a few days ago and have been messing around. I loved my Hero and love my EVO even more, but something was making me test out WebOS. I have compared the two after a little use. The results surprised me, I can say I may be switching between the two for a little while, at least during the week when I don't need 4G.
Software
Notifications - WebOS
Such a beautiful way to display them, easy to see but don't interfere with any current activities.
Native Apps - WebOS/Sense
Messaging, calendar definitely better on WebOS, the HTC dialer though is much better. T9 is necessary in a dialer. HTC Contacts also are much nicer to use, better Facebook (and Twitter/Flickr) integration, easier to manage contacts from different sources.
Homescreen - Sense
I find it slightly easier to navigate apps on android, thanks to apps like "App Organizer" which allows you to categorize apps. Widgets are so helpfull, it would be great if WebOS would have some widgets, like clock/weather, wifi/bt toggles ect. I do think 7 homescreens is to many though. (Note double digit home replacements within android, something for everyone)
Multitasking - WebOS
Not really much of a debate here, WebOS is amazing at multitasking, android's multitasking is much harder to manage running services and swap between the two.
Buttons - WebOS
The required buttons on android are numerous, although they never really bothered my I LOVE how WebOS makes many of them useless. I do miss the dedicated search button and a menu button is useful also (clicking top right is sometimes annoying), although I imagine I could try to program a gesture to do the same. Back gesture, change programs gesture, home button, what more do you need?
Root/Homebrew - WebOS
Obtaining root requires different methods on each phone and each update attempts to stop this. WebOS is open, go at it. I love modding my phone, have on windows mobile, have on android, and have started to on WebOS. If I ever bought a new android phone and it couldn't be rooted I would throw it away, its useless without root access.
Apps - Android
Bigger app market, more devs, stronger tools, ect. WebOS cant really compete here.
Browser - Android
I need to use the browsers more to compare, though they seem very comparable, both being Web-Kit browsers, but I am leaning towards Android right now, with 2.2 having full flash and sense 2.1 having flashlite (full flash with mod). Also, unless I'm completely missing something, the WebOS browser cannot act as a desktop by default. To view sites that auto-detect for mobile devices and redirect you, you have to hope they have an option to view the desktop version (most do), but I like having it default to desktop versions of sites.
Overall - WebOS
This is a really hard decision for me, I really like both and would love some features of both to extend to each other. Multitasking is so much better on WebOS, android is really saved by Sense as vanilla looses hands down to WebOS. I would love to have had Sense+WebOS (HTC nearly bought Palm) alas, it will never happen. I need HTC Contacts/Dialer in WebOS as they are perfection. Hiding contacts from some sources. I have 100 contacts on fb I don't call, text, email, ect, EVER. I don't want them in my phone, but I do want fb info/pics of the people I do call. I no longer use exchange though as both android and WebOS are extremely efficient with gmail.
Now for the Hardware
Battery - EVO
My battery life the first few days has been terrible on the Pre, tried many things and maybe they will work out, otherwise definitely going back to my EVO, which never died from a days use.
Keyboard - EVO (HTC IME_MOD / Swype)
I use the custom keyboard made by the devs at xda, the stock one is quite annoying (up/down/left/right arrows). I also really like Swype, it works really well. The virtual keyboard on the Pre is useless to me. Not only because of the screen size because I had the Hero and it had only a slightly bigger screen. The hardware keyboard on the Pre is decent, especially for its size, but i prefer a slide-out hardware keyboard or a nice software keyboard.
Screen - EVO
Really its just because its so much bigger. Colors are much more vibrant on the Pre, but the extra space is so nice I cant pass it up.
Hardware - EVO
HTC makes a solid phone (despite their early flaws with the EVO) I really do prefer the hardware of the EVO over the Pre. They both feel nice and solid in your hand, but HTC just makes a phone feel and look right. I don't think HP can make a better piece of hardware than HTC either.
Camera - EVO
This comparison is unfair, two phones from different generations the EVO wins though it doesn't have the best camera on a smartphone. The video recording is capped reducing the quality and the FPS. The dual LED flash is better, but can sometimes washout people in closeups. Also the addition of the front facing cam for video chat makes this no contest.
Speed - EVO
The EVO has a faster processor, a generation ahead of the Pre, but WebOS makes the Pre comparable to the EVO in speed. Where the EVO wins is loading time of apps. The EVO loads nearly instantly while launching any app, even messaging, takes a few seconds. This may be different on the Pre Plus, but it would definitely be different in a new WebOS smartphone.
Overall - EVO
I really can't wait for the next WebOS device, please HP bring us one for November (most likely June though). The EVO is a generation ahead and made by (in my opinion) a much better quality company and a better design team in HTC.
If there are other parts of the OS or the phones that I forgot to compare please let me know. I really do love both of these phones and can't decide which I like better. WebOS is amazing, HTC makes amazing hardware (and software modifications). I really would have loved an HTC built WebOS phone.
This makes me wonder how difficult it would be to run WebOS on another phone, yet I am not nearly skilled enough to even figure out how to start on that.
**EDIT**
Voicemail - EVO
Both Google Voice voicemail via the voicemail app and direct replacement of sprint voicemail and sprints voicemail app are far superior to the standard flip phone voicemail of the Pre. This is obviously software and could possibly be changed in the first HP WebOS phone, but I doubt comparable Google Voice service.
you are making me miss using my Pre man, cards are amazing and android has well.. a piss poor multitasking system.
i cant wait until palm releases a new more powerful version of the Pre with 4G on SPRINT Please.
I had a pre since launch. While multitasking appears better I lost count of hoe many times the phone told me I couldn't open an app because I had too many cards open when none were. Don't get me wrong webos is definitely looking good but it still needs quite a bit of refinement. Also the head UI designer for webos has been hired by Google to work on Android.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
While there are valid points in the OP's post in regards to WebOS and how its software is somewhat better than Androids (I don't really think this is true), this will all change come Android 2.5/3.0 (Gingerbread).
Google has already stated that they will be giving Android a major UI face lift. The Human Interface and User Experience VP who used to work for Palm, Matias Duarte left Palm about two months ago and joined Google to work on Android. Not to mention, Google also acquired BumpTop technologies, which is a 3D desktop interface for computers. With BumpTop and Matias Duarte together, I wouldn't be surprised if Google redid the entire Android UI from the ground up and made it so well designed that people wouldn't need HTC Sense/Moto Blur/etc.
Sure there are flaws with the Android OS for now... but come October, I see Android really going mainstream and becoming the dominant mobile OS, especially after its UI changes.
I bought a Pre on launch day and I must say that it was probably the clunkiest, cheapest phone I have owned to date. I initially liked it just b/c it was different than anything I had used before, but once I got over that, there wasn't much to like about it in my opinion. The hardware is some of the worst hardware in the business...maybe they have improved it since its inception, but my phone along with all original Pre's that I dealt with were complete junk. The slider wobbled (see oreo effect), the power buttons frequently failed and lost their spring. On the softare side, the phone always felt as though it was in beta mode. Palm kept trying to fix the stuttering and speed (lack thereof) issues, but most of their updates caused more problems than they fixed. The ONLY thing I really liked about the phone was the multitasking, but even that is more of a gimmick than anything. I don't know too many people that want to keep more than a few apps open at once. Sure it's nice to show people that your phone can keep 25 apps open at once, but who really does that? I'm not really sure how Android's multitasking could be any easier to use...hold down home button and there are your last 6 apps used in their previously used state. The battery on the Pre was absolutely pathetic at best. I realize a smartphone's battery is never going to be that great, but I felt as though it was constantly connected to a charger of some sort...either home or car just to keep it running. As you can see, I'm not a Pre fan and judging from their sales and Palm's demise, I am in the majority.
oh well, to each their own.
Gingerbread is definitely on my radar, as I said I love both of these OS. As for the two many cards issue, that was solved on the Pre Plus, more RAM. I really already would say android is mainstream. It has quickly become the 3rd ranked smartphone OS and blackberry will loose huge marketshare when their original adopters no longer use smartphones, as many people stick to what they are used to.
Yes Palm is not known for their hardware and neither is HP. I wouldn't dare to say it compares to any HTC hardware. Of course there is no need for 25 apps, but 5-10, maybe. Having anymore just makes navigation take forever. The Pre battery is basically useless, I would expect it to be bigger in a bigger device though. Really comparing a 1150 mAh battery to our 1500 mAh one?
I am definitely more hopeful about the future of android, multitasking needs to be easier though. How about take a note from WinMo's multitasking navigation. It was so easy to see what you have open in it. Guessing what you kept open like in android is painful and when switching between many apps you might have more than your previous 6 open. Also nearly all of the google and phone apps dont close.
Can we please steal some of those gestures from WebOS though? Deleting messages/emails and dismissing notifications is just made so simple. Wipe it right off your screen. WebOS has a superior notification system, multitasking, and no need to root, I know everyone here can agree at least give us the option for root.
I dont know how u can say the battery on the pre is horrible?? I love the battery. I use mine all the time, play everything and still is awesome for me. I have a friend that has the Pre Plus and she says its horrible also. I guess im lucky!
I used it for a few days and without charging a few times throughout the day. Fully charged it might make 8 hours, max, while the EVO lasts me closer to 16.
Lol idc what any one says about multi tasking on webos on the original pre it sucked... basically only causr the out of memory stuff i would get so pissed cause it happend so often. Also about the webos interface i had a hard time figuring out his to do stuff. But with android vanillua i understood instantly. I kinda had issues with sense at 1st but i got it pretty quick too. I prefere aosp over sense anyday. Hope a real fully working aosp comes soooon
yeah the pre was pretty nice, hardware wise it sucked but webos made up for it. im temtped to try out the pixi if i can get my heads on it for real cheap. i like its simple form factor and it looks more solid than the pre in terms of hardware design.
Palm/Hp should join the Android world and make the Web OS UI a type of Sense like UI for Android. Having come from a Pre to the Evo I can tell you Web OS is nice but it is missing a lot of features. I got rid of the Pre because it had horrible quality issues and on top of that a lot of missing phone features from the software. In the time it has taken Palm to go from version 1 of web os to version 1.4.1.1, Android has gone from 1.5 to 1.6 to 2 to 2.1 and now 2.2 (and we can discuss all day about manufacturer's not upgrading handsets to the new OS version just to sell new handsets, but at least the community is here to help get you there, my problem with the Web os upgrades is the slow trickle of missing features being added, really, where the hell is voice recognition? is it that hard to get down?). I think Palm trying to do it themselves caused them to fall behind. It was just too much. I got the Pre because I liked the Treo's from Palm before, but the Pre just made me dislike Palm a lot. Yeah, and I know, version 1 of a device and OS, I went in knowing there were going to be better things to come. But after going through 6 phones myself, 4 for my wife, and 5 for my dad (that's a total of 15 pre's, all hardware issues, screen cracking on refurbished phones, phones just outright dying, never to turn on again, headset issues, keyboard issues) it was too much to put up with. They just dropped the ball on the quality of the phone. Because of the Pre, I may never go back to a Palm device.
Yes, the hardware is pretty bad on the Pre, but WebOS itself is nice as an OS. After reading some of the things you said, I realize that it is missing some things I take for granted on android. It isn't as well developed as android, but as an overall OS and its actual potential are still great. I'm sure it is somewhat possible for a home replacement to simulate cards, I've actually thought about it before. If only I knew how to program for android now. I really think android needs better running service/app management, something visual like cards would be great. How about long-pressing the home key brings up running apps in some nice visuals?
Now that the initial hype has died down, and t-mobile employees are officially advising against purchasing an hd2 it’s time for an educated and thorough review that new buyers can actually use. I’m not going to include any technical information, because 1) it is widely available 2) most people don’t choose a phone based on technical specs and 3) we all know this sucker is super fast. What I will do is offer up my opinions along with some tips and tweaks –NO HACKS—should you decide the HD2 is right for you.
To start with, what about the Galaxy S?
Yes, at least one t-mobile employee tried to steer me away from the hd2 and to the galaxy s. And yes, the screen on the Samsung, while a bit smaller, is also a bit more impressive. Darker blacks and more vibrant colors. If screen resolution is the only thing you care about, even over size and price, then stop reading now, because the galaxy s definitely has a superior screen. Holding the galaxy s in my hand though, I didn’t give it a single thought. Here’s why. To start with, I prefer the slightly boxier build of the hd2. Also I feel more comfortable with a couple hard keys, and for me at least, a slightly bigger screen is desirable over a slightly better one. The real decision factor however, was that I was replacing a Samsung touch screen phone which had become intermittently non responsive to touch and after three straight Samsung phones (sgh r210 - t909 - behold) I figured I’d give HTC a chance, after all Google did.
The early days were dark.
This was my first data plan with t-mobile, so the extra 25 bucks a month was a hard pill to swallow. I was really expecting the hd2 to blow me out of the water, thus making it easy to rationalize a 50% increase in my monthly bill. It didn’t. I won’t list all the issues I had with this phone because they are well documented through out the web, but also because that’s just the start of the story.
A happy ending.
Bottom line, Microsoft is great because you can customize the **** out of it. The hd2 doesn’t suck HTC Sense sucks. IT’S HORRIBLE. A waste and an annoyance, but, easily removed. That’s right disabling HTC sense is the first and most important step to loving your hd2.
Settings > today > items (bottom tab)
Then just select windows default (HTC sense is at the bottom, but who cares)
On to the tweaks…
I read a lot about hacking the hd2 registry, but seeing as I was still contemplating returning the phone, I didn’t want to do anything drastic. So I kept it simple. Here are the apps (cabs) I installed to perfect my HTC hd2 experience. Just search the web (and Microsoft marketplace) and you can download all these apps for free. Also, to install a .cab file, just drag and drop it from your computer (connected via USB) to your phone. Then unplug your phone from the computer and browse to the file.
Start menu> file explore> storage card
Click on the .cab file you just dropped onto your phone and the app will install. Then go back to the start menu and at the bottom there should be an icon for you newly installed app. Here are mine:
GYRATOR 2 - Brins0.net
-a simple rotator. A lot of the screens on the hd2 won’t go into landscape without this app
RESET ME - Y.K. Ying
-I think I downloaded this one from the market place. I was messing around with my phone a lot in those early days, and this app cam in handy for settings that required soft reset.
HOMESCREEN CUSTOMIZER - Danny Su
-Another marketplace free download - this is the MOST IMPORTANT app I downloaded for the HTC hd2. It removed that horrible HTC Sense crap, and replaced it with a simple, one screen option.
SHOWCASE - e-natives
-for some reason, when you hit the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner of the screen, whatever app or function is running simply minimizes. The phone is so fast though, that launching applications takes just as long as switching to them, so there’s really no point in having a bunch of apps running, sucking up battery and processor resources. This app makes that X actually close a program and not just minimize it.
So What about the camera, what about the battery?
As for the battery, it takes just a couple hours to loose half your battery power, then the phone seams to operate for another 10-15 hours on the remaining power. I read that this is a snapdragon issue (the powerful 1 GHz processor running the HD2). So while those quickly dwindling bars cause much stress, the phone will operate for almost two days without charge.
I am still looking for an inexpensive camera app to replace the HTC camera, but I have managed to tweak the settings enough (contrast, saturation, white balance) to get some decent pictures in well lit situations. The fact is, the Samsung Behold has an amazing camera in it, and the hd2 just isn’t as great. Oh well.
I'm glad you're here to tell me how to use my HD2.
This is probably one of the most redundant reviews I have read, and about ten months too late at that.
Go and tell someone who gives a feck... Surely, Jeremy Beadle is dead?
wow, someone actually chooses the hd2 over the android galaxy and y'all are ripping him for it???
get a life already.
Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?
ashasaur said:
Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
I never had a SOD on my tp2 when I started flashing my own ROMs minus sense.
Now, I've learned to appreciate what sense does add to the experience, but on my tp2, it was unbearable, even when optimized.
They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.
apallohadas said:
They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.
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Click to collapse
in his defense, he did call it a layman's review. In other words, someone who doesn't live on here 24/7, and doesn't want to flash his phone 3x a day.
nrfitchett4 said:
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
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Click to collapse
The out of memory errors don't happen if you know how to use the phone. People KNOW Windows Mobile is absolutely **** out of the box, but still years and years on people still complain about it, it's bewildering.
Sense is a very good base platform for CoOkie and ROM developers alike to work with and as a result make Sense a far more powerful platform for the end user.
Sense is the Cosmetics on the Zomby,and of course you know what the legend says,zombies live forever,LOL,so cheer up.!!
Wow,
Sorry but that was a disappointed review.
It was your first post on this forum and you only joined this month, so I am not sure what you were trying to advise us of to be honest. No disrepect intended.
People like me have had this phone since the November 2009 release and know all there is to know about it.
HTC Sense does not suck or slow down when you are using the correct ROM, either the lastest official ROMs, or better yet, a custom ROM like Artemis.
In interface of WM is best left in the background until you have something geeky to tweak, although WM6.5.5. is a big improvement.
Anyway, my 2 cents worth.
I agree with the last person staing that sense does not (dramatically) slow down the HD2, an I am still using Stock ROM.
The snapdragon is so powerfull.
The thing I notice however, especially with people complaining about battery life:
Most people think of the HD primarily as a Phone.
This also explains the complaint of a lot of poeple that there are no applications for it.
Given the HD2 has a big screen, which has an unusual format (like the touch HD had), there are still a lot of old apps around which run on the HD2 (some somewhat crippled, others do not run at all)
But, I came from Palm iV (monochrome) via Ipaq to p330o, Touch HD to HD2.
For me the primary use for this machine is: PDA with phone capabilities.
And not like for a lot of people, phone with PDA capabilities.
All phones of the latter category (Like eg. Nokia E71) lack a grat deal of PDA capabilities. This is where Windows Mobile has made a big heap of programming with a lot of open ends.... The PDA community jumped on top in order to improve the PDA experience.
The PDA community slowly moved to phone.
In my opinion, all die-hard tweakers / modders / programmers use the HD2 primarily as PDA. Most complaining users use the HD2 primarily as phone.
Yes, as a phone it lacks stamina (batterylife), Yes as a phone it is higly adaptable, but you will have to adress the HD2 as PDA.
On a PDA, one would tune applications (run this, kill that, beware of sync etc) Most ROM cooks still use the what I call PDA approach (load only what is nessesary, not what could eventually ever be needed, kean and mean) thus saving powerconsumption.
As to my past experience, I switch on things only when needed (wifi, bluetooth, activesync etc), except for push mail. This gives me after a normal day of use more than 50% battery life left (on a stock ROM).
For a PDA (except for the PALM iV, which did not have (serious) backlight and colour display) this is quite good.
A PDA should at least sync daily..... so this is acceptable in my opinion, and do not forget Older machines had wordse battry lives.
If one starts navigating, power consumption is incredible, and a good car-loader is almost an obligation, but then again, most navigation units need a powersource. Even the Nokia E71 drains the battery very quickly if navigating without loader attached.
As for sense/manilla:
I am an winmo addict, even an experienced user (ppc2002, ppc 2003, ppc2003SE, Winmo 5, winmo 6.1, winmo 6.5), and I seem to miss a lot of functionality in sense, so I use a lot of quicklinks to the original WinMo apps (eg. Outlook contacts, WinMo settings), yes WinMo is a bit cumbersome, but if you know your way..... Beats sense a lot of times in functionality.
On the other hand, for the quick "thingies" I still use Sense, but as soon as Sense does not live upto the functionality I need..... WinMo!!
All in all:
I can understand the review, seen from the perspective of a phone user, and I agree with it, but with a twist
For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense (but that has grown on me from ppc2003 on )
Battery life could be better, but I cradle it whenever I can, thus my batterylife is more than sufficient. (As an early adopter from pDA, I am used to cradeling )
Later on I will start experimenting, mainly because of Android (need to experience that too.)
For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense.
I could never agree more!!
In my opinion; the latest stock rom + CHT & its editor + apps = a master piece!!
All the respect for the OP's review!
i'm glad i could help spark a couple pages of discussion. I recently purchased my hd2, and i spent a lot of time on these forums learning all about it. i think my review bridges the gab between the xdadevelopers forums and those of tmobile
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.
kyle_hd2 said:
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that that saying makes any sense in the context that you used it, but all this thread did was mull over old news. But on reflection, what do I care? Welcome to XDA.
Kyle mate.. waiting your review on WM5.
PLEASE DO NOT START A FLAME WAR!
As you can tell from my sig, I have recently acquired a new HD2, flashed and ready with the Windows Phone 7 OS, in addition to my Samsung Vibrant. I will try my best to provide an accurate comparison of WP7 vs Android from an unbiased standpoint, as I show equal likes and dislikes with both OSes and phones. Keep in mind I have a class 6 sd card in the hd2 so it should be just as fast if not faster than the HD7.
Navigation Efficiency/ Smoothness: I must say at first glance, WP7 may seem like a true winner with its GPU accelerated animations and scrolling, both of which are butter smooth. The flips and backflips of screens and icons is nice, as is the rotation swirl, and adds that bit of polish lacking in Android. However, if you look past the animations, you may realize that the Vibrant (modded), does open apps just a bit faster than WP7. The key to WP7 is the eye candy, those animations decrease the delay you may otherwise see with Android phones lacking fancy animation, turn off the animations on both and the Android device will likely open the app first, whether it be browser, Gmail, calculator, calender, etc.
Apps: Android, no doubt. The WP7 app store is sorely lacking apart from a few high quality games and apps such as Netflix. Sure, streaming movies is fun, but what about everything else? Not to mention, the WP7 marketplace strangely lacks a search feature, or just that I didn't dig deep enough.
Browsing: This is really half and half. Smoothness wise, WP7 is a winner with the GPU acceleration, again glass smooth. Page rendering such as Engadget had similar times, with non flash pages the HD2 won easily, but with flash turned off on both, I must say the Vibrant won. Both were connected to wifi at my house, with the Vibrant being 2-3 seconds ahead without flash. At times I question the use of flash on a device lacking hardware acceleration, but then again those white spots on screens where a occasional youtube video shows up on the HD2 is equally if not more annoying than the choppy Android browser. In the end, if you enjoy smoothness and text reading, and perhaps a bit of speed due to the lack of flash, the GPU accelerated WP7 browser will do you well, but if you prefer functionality and watching videos, go with Android 2.2.
I cannot provide information on camera quality due to having an HD2 hacked WP7.
The music player on WP7 is about the same in functionality as the Touchwiz version.
I will gladly provide more information if you need. Remember to click thanks if I helped.
The Windows Search button is context sensitive.
Maybe you're having trouble finding it on the HD2 (keymappings different, etc. /shrugs/ ), but you bring up marketplace search (or search in any app) by simply hitting the search key.
Flash was a huge deal to me, until I see how badly it nerfed the Vibrant's browser performance. Any setting other than off makes the browser perform terribly. The WP7 IE browser runs laps around it. Cutting it off boosts it a bit, but that's terrible since it has Flash Lite before and we didn't have to deal with such terrible performance... I don't hear any of my iPhone-using friends complaining about the lack of Flash.
App are meh. The only thing that matters are complex apps and games. Most mobile apps (non-game) tend to be encapsulations of mobile websites. An Engadget app doesn't make any sense to install, IMO, since I can just go to Engadget.com and the site is optimized for mobile browsers... Same with CNET, etc.
Some apps just aren't worth bringing to WP7. Office apps aren't worth bringing over. NoteTaking apps aren't worth bringing over. SMS Replacement Apps aren't worth bringing over. Exchange Clients. WP7 has Find My Phone/Lock/Wipe functionality built into it, so stuff like LookOut isn't much use (don't care about the sirens, a phone thief/finder will almost always shut the phone off immediately).
I'd say no browser except maybe Skyfire is worth bringing over at this point, because the chances of them outperforming IE on WP7 is slim to none. As far as apps are concerned, WP7 is probably the most consistent (in Look and Feel) and complete OS released to date when it comes to having all this stuff integrated and from a single vendor. Andorid manufacturers usually license different components from dispirate software vendors to "complete" the experience.
Cameras are comparable. Vibrant takes better pictures during the day. HD7 better at night due to the dual flash. The Vibrant tends to get a better framerate on video, but when blown up on a larger screen it looks a bit grainy and washed out (sort of like a painting). The HD7 doesn't suffer that issue, but the framerates are a big lower. I'd say it's a bit of a wash, with a slight edge to the HD7 because the Vibrant simply cannot compete at all in terms of night time picture shooting... It just can't, even with night mode, etc.
As far as the Navigation and smoothness of the system... The animations have nothing to do with it. It's basically iOS performance with extra eye candy to look better. The only thing that lags a bit is scrolling through lists (Android does this as well, but I think the fact that lots of applications load internet data on the fly has something to do with it in some instances) and resuming from apps (which will see significant performance boosts in the March update, among other things).
The animations aren't hiding any lag. We're seriously comparing a phone that lags switching home screens to a phone that can animate pretty much every transition without as much of a hickup. Let's not go there...
The Music Player is not the same functionality wise. WP7 uses Zune. The Vibrant uses the TouchWiz Music/Video player. Zune has FM Radio, can Stream Music if you have Zune Pass, and interfaces with the Zune software on the computer.
Galaxy S has nothing like XBox Live, which is useful even if you don't have any XBL games on your phone because you can send and recieve messages, etc. There are some good games on XBL/Marketplace, though.
I had an hd7,
Wp7 is smoother and more eye candy and better core functions.
Android has apps and open source support.
Sent from my Galaxy S using Tapatalk
I appreciate an actual HD7 owner coming in to improve my points.
And as to the transition animations, it is very likely that those are completely controlled by the gpu while the cpu is controlling the app openings and lifecycles. I seriously doubt that WP7 opens apps instantaneously, instead separating the gpu and cpu tasks for smooth animation while the cpu opens the app.
The Touchwiz music player is similar to that of the IPhone, which is comparable to Zune. I meant comparable, but Zune is milestone above that of the stock android music interface.
Camera on the HD2 really is a meh. Flash pics get overblown due to the dual flash and the pics are a bit grainy even with the replacement ShCameraApp. Most probably software issues, but the HD7 uses the same or similar hardware camera.
The IE browser really is just smoother than the android browser. You won't mind the lack of flash until you come across an embedded youtube video on a page with a black spot.
After the initial surprise by the smoothness of WP7, the lists and tiles do get a little boring.
The thing that bothers me the most is the need for zune to do everything from load pics and videos, to albums and anything onto the phone. Not that zune is bad, but it just hinders an otherwise easy drag and drop.
The HD2 is a keeper for me due to the solid metal and rubber build and its ability to run 4 OSes, 3 natively or almost natively (android, winmo, wp7, and hopefully meego). Plus I got it free from the Executive Response Team, no contract extension either (don't ask, long story).
And N8ter, I was not directly comparing WP7 to the Vibrant since I came from a Nexus One, but gave it up due to several power button failures and screen burn ins.
Yes the hd2 is the dev device of the century, the hd7 is just a slick version of it with a kickstand.
I loved the wp7 everything about it I just couldn't deal with lack of good app support.
It just works, well. No roms or anything needed.
That being said android has more possibilities and capabilities and of course dev support
Sent from my Galaxy S using Tapatalk
Android is the new windows mobile in my eyes. It has better marketing but the same problems with wm are still present. Lack of manufactures support, drivers for custom roms, and mostly manufactors adding there crapware on top of a great os.
I personally needed a break from Android and specifically the vibrant. I was constantly trying to fix problems. I think Android needs to set some rules/guidelines for OEMs that have the resources to put out great product. Open source is great for the community but letting companies put out crap with googles Android written crossed it.
I too tried wp7 on my hd2 and was surprised at the user interface. Almost lag free device, and no need to change SMS, browser, music player etc. Everything works great out of the box besides YouTube. I've only installed slacker, flashlight, wp7 tapatalk, news/ RSS reader, Google voice and that's about it.
I will be back to Android later in the year but for now I just need something that works. With me bring a heavy user I was able to get thru a full day on a single charge.
I will miss my screen a little, my torrent app, and my remote desktop app. Out of all the apps in Android maybe 20 apps were useful to me besides pulling out the ruler vs my friends.
Zune computer software is great. Syncs extremely fast and haven't had a problem yet. No more fighting with my external sd.
Things that are important to me:
Browser
Music
Google voice
Text and email
Little facebook/twitter.
Battery life.
A couple snap shots occasionally
Wp7 does these with no problem.
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
I don't think any Mobile OS or device should be dependent on third-party dev support to make the phone function as advertised. That is part of the issue with Android (not as a whole, but specific [even most] manufacturers). The initial Honeycomb tablets may be different, though, since the manufacturers aren't initially skinning the OS.
The Motorola ATRIX, with all its great hardware goodness, lagged it's way to a 9/10 (cause it has lots of accessories?!) on Engadget. Maybe when their brain catches up (apparently lagging as well) they will get around to giving it a believable rating...
These reviews have been unchanging for the past year, year and a half. No matter how much hardware you throw at Android: "phone lags a lot", "you should be able to get a day out of it with moderate usage (some phones piss the users off if they have to charge more than ever other day - smartphones mind you)" "bad UI yada yada" "skin this and that" "still running older version but update coming *soon*".
XPLANE9 said:
I appreciate an actual HD7 owner coming in to improve my points.
And as to the transition animations, it is very likely that those are completely controlled by the gpu while the cpu is controlling the app openings and lifecycles. I seriously doubt that WP7 opens apps instantaneously, instead separating the gpu and cpu tasks for smooth animation while the cpu opens the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardware accelleration means graphics processing is offloaded to the GPU. Apps open as fast as they do on any other mobile OS, and faster than others. Of course if you're running a mobile game with (relatively) large files to load when it starts up this will not happen instantly. The use of the term instantaneous wasn't really meant to be taken uber literally...
Android runs less efficiently on better hardware because the system taxes the CPU more, since the GPU is going unused as far as the general UI/widgets are concerned. This is why the devices are usually overspecced and/or have functionality ripped out of them.
One of the biggest failures of Samsung was releasing this phone with such great GPU hardware in it, but not putting hardware accelleration into their firmware. Perhaps if they had done that the system would have run a bit smoothly. Nothing could save it from RFS, however.
The Touchwiz music player is similar to that of the IPhone, which is comparable to Zune. I meant comparable, but Zune is milestone above that of the stock android music interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm talking beyond the user interface. I'm accounting for functionality as well The TouchWiz music player is not comparable to iPod Touch in the iPhone. DoubleTwist makes an app that looks like iTunes, but iTunes obviously blows it away when it comes to features and functionality, for example.
Camera on the HD2 really is a meh. Flash pics get overblown due to the dual flash and the pics are a bit grainy even with the replacement ShCameraApp. Most probably software issues, but the HD7 uses the same or similar hardware camera.
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Click to collapse
The HD2's camera is actually pretty bad. I'm sure the cameras are similar, they are both 5MP cameras with 720p. But, I'm also sure they aren't the same, because the picture qualities are IMO a bit too different for that to be the case (even across multiple OSes on the HD2). That being said, I've never done a teardown, so I don't know for sure.
If anyone wants a great camera on a phone, it would behoove them to get an N8. That phone can compete with some DSLRs when it comes to picture quality.
The IE browser really is just smoother than the android browser. You won't mind the lack of flash until you come across an embedded youtube video on a page with a black spot.
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Click to collapse
I went from Vibrant to HD7 and don't mind the lack of flash. Flash, IMO, was not ready for mobile devices when it was released for Android. It's too bloated and resource intensive. It has this same issue on the desktop, but fortunately those machines are powerful enough to just shrug it off in most cases. Flash 10.2 is supposed to bring hardware accelleration, but I'm not sure how much that will help Galaxy S devices...
It causes a lot of Pinch-Zoom and Pan lag, and scrolling on a page with a few flash artifacts on it can be a PITA on some websites.
I do know some sites that crash the Android browser 100% of the time, though...
In the case of moving from Android to WP7, the lack of Flash was actually a bonus for me. If the Vibrant had shipped without Flash (needed it from the market) and Flash Lite was also available in the market, I'd probably have just installed Flash Lite 5 minutes after installing the FroYo update and trying Flash. The irony, though, is that Flash Lite worked for most of the crap that I needed Flash for... I regret even asking for [full] Flash.
After the initial surprise by the smoothness of WP7, the lists and tiles do get a little boring.
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Click to collapse
9 of the tiles on my WP7 home screen are Live. I'll take Live Tiles and normal tiles over walls of icon and widgets with no unified Look and Feel cluttered across 3-7 Home screens. Don't really care about the list. IIRC Android has an option to make the App "Page" a list as well...
The thing that bothers me the most is the need for zune to do everything from load pics and videos, to albums and anything onto the phone. Not that zune is bad, but it just hinders an otherwise easy drag and drop.
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A phone is not a USB thumb drive.
Yes, however managing media on a WP7 or iOS device is much better than on Android, where this sort of stuff is non-existent in the stock builds and requires you to duplicate tons of functionality on the device, set defaults, etc.
There is DoubleTwist, whose Desktop App runs like a 1200lb Gorilla from my experiences (at least on Windows - I thought it was my computer, but I have 5 computers; fortunately), requires a redundant media player to be installed, and sells WiFi media synching (free in Zune).
WinAmp has media synching, but again requires a redundant media player.
WiFi Synching, Automatic Transcoding to the best possible format, etc. This is all done transparently. Once Microsoft Adds Skydrive support and that other stuff in Mango, I don't forsee many complaints about WP7.
But even now, it's a very polished experience. I even prefer the notifications on WP7 to Android, and I don't have to worry about numbers getting burnt into the top of my screen anymore.
The HD2 is a keeper for me due to the solid metal and rubber build and its ability to run 4 OSes, 3 natively or almost natively (android, winmo, wp7, and hopefully meego). Plus I got it free from the Executive Response Team, no contract extension either (don't ask, long story).
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Yes, it's a great device that ran well even on WM. Marred by bad QA on the part of HTC. I never saw a reason to run another or a non-stock OS on my HD2s, personally.
And N8ter, I was not directly comparing WP7 to the Vibrant since I came from a Nexus One, but gave it up due to several power button failures and screen burn ins.
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Click to collapse
Meh, this is the Vibrant forum
All that said, I have all three phones and can choose to use whichever one I please whenever I want to. The Vibrant and the HD7 both have active SIM Cards in them with Data plans, so I can care less what anyone else choose, likes, dislikes, or doesn't choose. I don't have to choose anything, I just have to "prefer at that specific moment." XD
Kinda funny comparing a HD7 to a vibrant. Consider the Vibrant is now 9 months on the market and older tech than the HD7 2 months on the market.
So, The only things I have seen that i would like on the Android platform that the HD7 has over Vibrant
1. A better voice command
2. Flash on the camera
3. More user friendly custom contact menu (add custom ringtones and pics)
4. The Browser revised to integrate flash better.
5. Improve on the sound by adding a onboard equalizer.
That would make the phone alot more ZAPPY..... The S2 maybe ?
The HD7 is using HD2/Nexus One-level hardware. So the hardware is really like 6 months older than what's in the Vibrant. I have no clue how you can say the Vibrant has older tech than the HD7...
The S2 will be snappier than the Vibrant, but most likely because in typical Android OEM fashion, they will just throw hardware at it.
If the ATRIX 4G is any indicator, I don't expect this hardware to make too much of an impact. I think as time goes on Android's performance issues will start to work against it.
It's getting harder and harder to find a performant device and people make fun of Android because it is universally known as a laggy smartphone OS (check out BB or iOS forums, among others, and see).