Not too long ago, I was using a piece of crap Nokia E70 with no data service. That’s right, i paid $400 for an unlocked smartphone that had no data service. While some found the E70 a perfectly acceptable alternative to the iPhone, I found it an extremely frustrating piece of shit. Granted it only really started feeling like a piece of shit after I first played with Mobile Safari. Try browsing any website on a tiny-ass screen. Painful.
I bought said Nokia 3 months before Apple first announced the iPhone. Crappy.
And then I quit working for Apple the day before they announced that every employee would receive a FREE iPhone. Crappier.
I’m batting 1000.
I have been trying to justify replacing the E70 ever since. The one thing that repeatedly stood in my way was T-Mobile. However, like most tales of disgruntled cell phone customers, mine is one of satisfaction. I just can’t justify dumping T-Mobile for a company that repeatedly draws the ire of its customers. Even if it is for the best phone ever.
Somewhere in there, Google announced Android. It was a promising announcement, but with no supporting hardware, sounded a lot like vaporware. Until the G1. Fuck that thing is ugly. Buying one of those would have been putting lipstick on the pig that is my E70. And what is with that goofy offcenter keyboard that can only be used in landscape. As the kids like to say, WTF? So we have a promising OS running on a lame phone offered by a great carrier.
And then, like a ray from heaven, T-Mobile announced the myTouch 3G (possibly the worst name ever for a cellphone and henceforth referred to as the touchMyself 3G). No goofy slide out keyboard. Nice slim design. Things were starting to look up. And after much convincing, mostly in the form of getting her to play with a friend’s G1, the wife agreed that we “need” fancy new phones.
Today marks 2 weeks with the touchMyself 3G and my first impressions follow.
- It is small enough to fit comfortably into my pocket. Something the E70 could never achieve unless you have enormous pockets.
- I am surprised to find that I like having a trackball. Initially, I couldn’t imagine why you would want or need one with a full touchscreen interface. It is especially helpful when making various text selections.
- The screen is beautiful. Bright colors. Clear crisp graphics.
- Generally speaking, Google did a great job with Android. While it lacks some of the visual polish of the iPhone GUI, it is equally as functional. I still prefer 90% of Apple’s interface design decisions, but Android is an incredible leap forward form the hideousness that is Symbian S60. I am so glad to finally have icons that fucking make sense.
- The screen is noticeably less sensitive on the left and right edges. This is especially noticeable when trying to use the keyboard. Luckily the letter A is so rarely used.
- The keyboard is… the keyboard is O.K. I haven’t spent enough time typing on the iPhone keyboard to be able to compare the 2, but this is the one area that the E70 won hands down. Its full QWERTY keyboard was much easier to use. However, I am happy to give up a better keyboard for a bigger screen, better applications and the friggin’ internet (although its lack of, was not the E70’s fault, but my lack of funds to provide the interwebs).
- The Android Market is great. It is very handy, easy to search and almost everything is free.
- The bulk of apps in the Market are FUCKING AWFUL. Seriously. How hard is it to make a decent looking interface? You could scrap up some clip art buttons and make a better looking app than most of the garbage I have found in the Market. In fact, I find most of these apps so hideous, that I have picked up a Java book again in the hopes of developing my own Android apps. I know I can do better.
- Seriously HTC? You couldn’t add a friggin $.02 headphone jack? I can live with the goofy adapter to use my headphones since it has the mic in it. However, I can’t listen to the headphones and charge the battery at the same time without a clunky $15 adapter. Fucking lame.
Those are my first impressions. I’m planning on pulling together some more specific examples, but I’d have to rate my initial experience as mixed. I haven’t been able to put the damn thing down for the last 2 weeks, but there are some definite flaws – mostly with HTC’s hardware.
