[UFO Chicago] mobile phone advice sought

[Larry Garfield]

Warning: Biased content follows.

At this point, there are only two serious platforms in contention, 
Android and iOS.  Blackberry is sliding rapidly, webOS was stillborn 
(due more to business failure than technical failure), and Windows Phone 
(or Mobile, or whatever they're calling it this week) is still going 
nowhere fast, even with Nokia getting in bed with them.

Of those two, iOS had the early lead but Android is currently growing 
faster and has a larger market share, even with the surge from the 
iPhone 4S.  I think some stats have Android capturing over 50% of the US 
smartphone market.  Both platforms have a bajillion apps.

Android is *not* open, in the sense that Free Software people tend to 
use the term.  To make it useful still requires tying into Google.  Some 
manufacturers still pull dick moves to lock down the device.  However, 
it is still far far less closed than iOS is, by leaps and bounds. 
There's a healthy custom ROM community, if you are into such things. 
Almost all devices let you side-load apps or install 3rd party markets 
rather than going through the One True Curated Walled Garden of The 
Steve(tm).

Some recent stats actually suggest that Android is more stable than iOS, 
despite conventional wisdom saying the opposite.

If not obvious by now, I'd suggest an Android device. :-)

Most carriers have at least some good devices.  Verizon has arguably the 
best selection of high-end phones, but then you'd be using Verizon. 
T-Mobile is reputed to be the most customer-friendly carrier (I've been 
with them for going on 9 years now), but I'd say the weakest lineup of 
hardware.  Sadly due to different frequency bands in 3G/4G spectrum you 
really can't take a phone to a new carrier anymore in this country, 
because we're a third world banana republic.

Probably the best place to track down information on the Android world 
is Phandroid.com.  Pretty good news feed, decent archive of device 
specs, and active forums.

Things to consider are if you want a keyboard or not (they're sadly 
rare), 3G/4G (just get a 4G phone, really), screen size (anything from 
3" to 5" is available; I like a 4" sweet spot but YMMV), manufacturer 
reputation (Samsung is great for initial sale, suck on upgrades and 
support; HTC is better, and the Google Nexus line is best in that 
regard), and processing engine.  (Yes, you can get phones with more CPU 
cores than your laptop, plus a dedicated GPU. It's an amazing world we 
live in.)

There's only a scant few phones shipping with Android 4.0 right now, and 
a few others that will supposedly get upgrades sooner or later.  I would 
recommend getting something with 4.0 on it, or one that has a public 
commitment from the manufacturer to upgrade to it.  Most phones in the 
wild today run Android 2.3.  (Android 3.x was just for tablets.)

If you have specific additional questions, ask either here or on Phandroid.

(Disclaimer: I carry a Samsung Vibrant, aka the T-Mobile version of the 
Galaxy S; best-selling Android phone to date, but Samsung's support and 
upgrade offerings for US customers have been atrocious.  How much of 
that is Saumsung being dicks and how much are carriers being dicks is a 
subject of some debate.  Sadly Samsung is the only manufacturer using 
SAMOLED displays, which are seriously awesome screens.)

--Larry Garfield

On 02/02/2012 09:34 PM, Brian Sobolak wrote:
>
> So when discussing the popularity of Unix and Linux, it is often left
> unremarked that almost all of the mobile phone vendors have moved towards
> unixy platforms through Android and iOS (and if still relevant in two
> years, qnx aka Blackberry).
>
> So I need a new phone. I have been using a corporate one for some time and
> haven't paid much attention to price vs features. I do need a smartphone,
> as I plan (hope?) to be able to use it as a GPS for recording exercise and
> geocaching.  Beyond that, I'm flexible.
>
> My only other requirement is that I will not use AT&T. I despised Cingular.
>
> Any deep thoughts to share?
>
> brian
>