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Android Hardware Thread - 2009 Edition

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Bad_Boy said:
So what do you think the droid will cost?
And what is the cheapest smartphone plan verizon has for unlimited data + unlimited texting + around 500 minutes.

I'm on a family plan with my dad now, but I might have to get my own contract if I want this droid.
Click to expand...

Since they're gunning for the iPhone, I wouldn't think it would be any more than the 3GS. So $200 on contract. I'm in the same boat as you right now. Family plan with my Dad and very interested in the Droid. My sister is also on the family plan and has unlimited texting on just her line so you should be able to add unlimited packages to individual family plan lines if that's what you're interested in.

Speaking of which, do we know yet if the Droid has a compass? I want to check out all this Augmented Reality hubbub.
 
gkrykewy said:
So do you guys get a commission from Sprint or something? If not, you should. I remember during the summer they were offering $150 cash for transfers from TMO.
Click to expand...

I have the golden $30/month SERO plan with 500 minutes & unlimited text/data from Sprint, so I'm a fairly loyal.

omg rite said:
I'm confused about those TMO prices.

* 500 + Unlimited Text + Unlimited Web – $60

So that's for regular phones? Not for something like a Cliq? You'd have to add $10 if you had a Cliq? Because right now it's $29.99 for 300 minutes and $35.99 (what the fuck) for unlimited data + web for the Sidekick. So $65.

That 's 200 more minutes for $5 less. But if you have to add $10 more, it doesn't sound as good as it originally was rumored.

If this is seriously it then my mind is made up: moving to Verizon.
Click to expand...

They haven't released details about what specific phones are allowed on the plans. I would assume that the Cliq will be allowed on the $60 plan. However, as I mentioned earlier, the $60 plan does not appear to include phone subsidies based on the leaked flyer. That means that you would have to pay full price for the Cliq which is probably going to be like $200-300 more than it would cost you on the subsidized plan...which is $80/month for 2 years.
 
MThanded said:
Still good just not sprint good :D . When tmo gets free unlimited calls to any cellphone on any network like sprint does then hit me up lol
Click to expand...

They did/do. For a limited time earlier this year they gave customers in good standing the opportunity to sign up for the "Unlimited Loyalty Plan". $49.99 a month for unlimited minutes. I definitely signed up for it. They really need to offer that plan again for new and old customers again.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/02/t-mobile-unlimited-loyalty-plan-now-available-nationwide/
 
Augh! My Droid boner won't go down! :(

Especially after today, when I was working on someone's 3Gs iPhone for them and noticed they were getting Edge connections in most of the building. AT&T, fewer bars in more places™! :lol :lol :lol

Apple really needs to get on different carriers. :(
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
Augh! My Droid boner won't go down! :(

Especially after today, when I was working on someone's 3Gs iPhone for them and noticed they were getting Edge connections in most of the building. AT&T, fewer bars in more places™! :lol :lol :lol

Apple really needs to get on different carriers. :(
Click to expand...

It's much better for Android if they stay on crappy AT&T. :D
 
Andrex said:
It's much better for Android if they stay on crappy AT&T. :D
Click to expand...

True.

So have we got a ballpark figure on what Verizon will be charging monthly?

It's also worth noting that my co-worker has Verizon and has 3G access on site versus self shitting AT&T.
 
alternade said:
Do you review phones(FCC or blog) or are you a sales rep of some kind?
Click to expand...

Neither. Developer for a mobile software company. We do a lot of stuff for operators that gets prepackaged with phones, so we often end up with pre-release devices and specs that are still under NDA. I'm currently running our Android dev team, so I get to play with all the Android stuff.
 
El Papa said:
The "new" Tmo pricing doesn't look all that different from what I'm already paying. I get 1000 minutes (much more than adequate), unlimited text and web (Android Plan) for $70.

I guess the new stuff is the Flex pay and phone payment plan.
Click to expand...


I'll elaborate when I can, which means after official announcement.

Its hard seeing all the misconceptions.

But I'll say this I'm not super happy with the finalized plans and some details. But like I said I'll explain it in plain english what this is all going to mean after the 25th.

Its good and bad. The weird part was they were supposed to roll this out to lessen confusion. But still. Yeah they been keeping it close to the hip, even to us. Problem is T-Mo is getting paranoid about leaks ever since the Myfaves debacle. I even saw on another site some yahoo posted a screenshot from our internal resource website which is part of our intranet. He won't be employed very long...
 
iapetus said:
Neither. Developer for a mobile software company. We do a lot of stuff for operators that gets prepackaged with phones, so we often end up with pre-release devices and specs that are still under NDA. I'm currently running our Android dev team, so I get to play with all the Android stuff.
Click to expand...

Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuckyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

The only thing better than that would be working on the actual Google team for Android.
 
tokkun said:
I have the golden $30/month SERO plan with 500 minutes & unlimited text/data from Sprint, so I'm a fairly loyal.



They haven't released details about what specific phones are allowed on the plans. I would assume that the Cliq will be allowed on the $60 plan. However, as I mentioned earlier, the $60 plan does not appear to include phone subsidies based on the leaked flyer. That means that you would have to pay full price for the Cliq which is probably going to be like $200-300 more than it would cost you on the subsidized plan...which is $80/month for 2 years.
Click to expand...

If this is true i dont understand why they would do this. Such a wierd move by tmo. Maybe it will all become clear soon. If its true that is a bass ackwards.

Chojin said:
I'll elaborate when I can, which means after official announcement.

Its hard seeing all the misconceptions.

But I'll say this I'm not super happy with the finalized plans and some details. But like I said I'll explain it in plain english what this is all going to mean after the 25th.

Its good and bad. The weird part was they were supposed to roll this out to lessen confusion. But still. Yeah they been keeping it close to the hip, even to us. Problem is T-Mo is getting paranoid about leaks ever since the Myfaves debacle. I even saw on another site some yahoo posted a screenshot from our internal resource website which is part of our intranet. He won't be employed very long...
Click to expand...
I am interested to see how these stand up to sprint plans with free calling to all mobile phones. Maybe tmo has something up their sleeve. Your post points to the plans being better than they seem.Also since the cats out of the bag tmo really should just push up the plan explanation at least. Don't want misconceptions they need to release something official.
 
My contract with AT&T is up in about 6 months. I've used nothing but WinMo phones for the last 5 years.. I think I may finally make the switch to android.

It will be great not to have to install a custom ROM in order to get basic functionality. My last two WinMo phones were completely fucked.

Tmobile Wing - massive memory leak built into the phone. Page pool took up half the fucking ram.

AT&T Tilt - Page Pool takes up 3x as much Ram as it should, Qualcomm GPU inside the phone that the stock ROM completely fucking ignored to the point that a phone that was better on paper was slower than my old Tmobile Wing stock.

They are both truly amazing phones once the home brew community fixed the issues with custom Roms. But that is WinMo's basic problem. They are shit out of the box, and most people don't have the time, patience or ability to install a custom Rom to make the phone not shit.
 
I must be really missing something. What is so special about Android? :/

You guys are acting like it's the most revolutionary thing ever... what is special about it?
 
StoOgE said:
My contract with AT&T is up in about 6 months. I've used nothing but WinMo phones for the last 5 years.. I think I may finally make the switch to android.

It will be great not to have to install a custom ROM in order to get basic functionality. My last two WinMo phones were completely fucked.

Tmobile Wing - massive memory leak built into the phone. Page pool took up half the fucking ram.

AT&T Tilt - Page Pool takes up 3x as much Ram as it should, Qualcomm GPU inside the phone that the stock ROM completely fucking ignored to the point that a phone that was better on paper was slower than my old Tmobile Wing stock.

They are both truly amazing phones once the home brew community fixed the issues with custom Roms. But that is WinMo's basic problem. They are shit out of the box, and most people don't have the time, patience or ability to install a custom Rom to make the phone not shit.
Click to expand...

I had an htc mogul and a touch pro. Had massive problems with both of them :-/ . Windows mobile left a bad taste in my mouth so i ended up gettting an htc hero.
 
Question for those of you in the know. For all the phones like the Moment or HTC's phones that have a separate UI built on top of Android, are you still able to access the Android marketplace the same way as the G1 and MyTouch can?

Brought up the Samsung Moment or the Hero to my wife today for our switch in several months time from ATT to something else (unless they magically drop their prices a ton before then), and she thought that you couldn't get Android apps for free on there. Pretty sure she's just misinformed but I'm sure some of you have clarification on that.

Obviously, not every app is free on the Android store, but I just want to know if these other phones have access to the store or if they're walled off.
 
Mr. Durden said:
I must be really missing something. What is so special about Android? :/

You guys are acting like it's the most revolutionary thing ever... what is special about it?
Click to expand...
Depends on the user -- but I wouldn't call it revolutionary: just very, very good. Most people in this thread are getting excited about the hardware; hence the thread title.

It's the second best touch-based interface, closely behind the iPhone.

It's very open, so you can have a Google Voice app, various tethering apps, etc., that might be blocked on other handsets. There's also a thriving (minus a recent setback) community that offers custom ROMs, etc.

It can be (and usually is) very closely tied in with Google's services. I use a company version of Gmail (GAFYD), and Android offers the best mobile interface for Gmail.
The push is amazing -- probably the best of any mobile OS. Any changes in email, contacts, and calendar are updated within a couple of seconds, many times "instantly."
 
JoeFu said:
Question about tethering, do I have to root my g1? If not are there any apps that let it tether that are free?
Click to expand...
I know this app: http://www.junefabrics.com/android/

works without root access. You can get a free "trial," although once it expires you can keep using it, with it prompting you every few minutes to get the paid version. Slightly annoying, but worth it. There might be other non-root programs out there that I don't know of.
 
Oozer3993 said:
Since they're gunning for the iPhone, I wouldn't think it would be any more than the 3GS. So $200 on contract. I'm in the same boat as you right now. Family plan with my Dad and very interested in the Droid. My sister is also on the family plan and has unlimited texting on just her line so you should be able to add unlimited packages to individual family plan lines if that's what you're interested in.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figure I could just add a smartphone plan to my already exhisting personal line on the family plan of unlimited texting and unlimited data. Which would be about 30 a month.

But lately, my dad just wants me off his plan when my contract is up and wants me to get my own line. :/ Seems like the cheapest plan for what I want, plus the any 5 numbers is 120 for one smartphone. >_<
 
andycapps said:
Question for those of you in the know. For all the phones like the Moment or HTC's phones that have a separate UI built on top of Android, are you still able to access the Android marketplace the same way as the G1 and MyTouch can?

Brought up the Samsung Moment or the Hero to my wife today for our switch in several months time from ATT to something else (unless they magically drop their prices a ton before then), and she thought that you couldn't get Android apps for free on there. Pretty sure she's just misinformed but I'm sure some of you have clarification on that.

Obviously, not every app is free on the Android store, but I just want to know if these other phones have access to the store or if they're walled off.
Click to expand...

Yep, access to the market is exactly the same. Not only that, but you can get a small app called "Market Enabler" which will let you fake your provider and be able to access apps which may not be available in all regions.
 
Battersea Power Station said:
It's the second best touch-based interface, closely behind the iPhone.
Click to expand...

It has some major advantages over the iPhone as well (background applications, far more open development, not locked down to one hardware vendor).
 
iapetus said:
It has some major advantages over the iPhone as well (background applications, far more open development, not locked down to one hardware vendor).
Click to expand...

And widgets. Don't forget widgets. Having the information just *there* without having to open an application is incredibly convenient.
 
josephdebono said:
And widgets. Don't forget widgets. Having the information just *there* without having to open an application is incredibly convenient.
Click to expand...

I'd prefer widgets to be a little more flexible - not being able to include your own UI components in them is very restrictive. But having them at all is a good thing, I guess. :D
 
These reviews will determine if i switch to the moment or stick with the hero.

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-moment-first-impressions-2161309/
samsung-moment-sprint-review-unit-43-r3media-540x405.jpg

WTF why does it say htc hd2 on the screen?


Like the Motorola CLIQ, the Moment is taking on the mid-range of Android devices. Unlike the CLIQ, however, Samsung have done little to the core OS; there’s no intelligent social media integration like MOTOBLUR, or UI streamlining like HTC Sense. The end result is a somewhat bare feeling, and we miss the well-designed widgets of the rival platforms.
Click to expand...
Thats my only apprehension. I could get it then root it and possibly ugrade the ui.
 
MThanded said:
These reviews will determine if i switch to the moment or stick with the hero.

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-moment-first-impressions-2161309/
samsung-moment-sprint-review-unit-43-r3media-540x405.jpg

WTF why does it say htc hd2 on the screen?



Thats my only apprehension. I could get it then root it and possibly ugrade the ui.
Click to expand...

It's playing a video of the HTC HD2 review?
I don't mind the bare bone OS. You can always customize it to your liking. The Moment dose look sweet in that picture.
 
tokkun said:
Can't you install those UI tweaking apps without rooting?
Click to expand...
Id like to put sense ui on the phone. I don't believe that would be possible without rooting. Maybe I am incorrect.

Are there other non root needing ui enhancers?
 
Mr. Durden said:
I must be really missing something. What is so special about Android? :/

You guys are acting like it's the most revolutionary thing ever... what is special about it?
Click to expand...

Isn't this like... the fourth time you've posted this? At least in this thread.
 
Andrex said:
http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2009/10/htc-tattoo-with-donut-full-video-review/

HTC Tattoo review. Very surprised at how smooth and fast the interface is, keep in mind it's a resistive screen.
Click to expand...

I've always liked and preferred the Sense UI and lately I'm getting to the point where I feel that I have to pick up an HTC phone no matter what. I like the Amoled screen of the Moment...but functionality will trump sexiness of the screen as I use the phone more and more.

That round button found at the bottom middle of the phone...does that serve the same purpose as the trackball? I like the idea of using another input to scroll around the desktops and up and down lists rather than touching the screen.
 
Mr. Durden said:
I must be really missing something. What is so special about Android? :/

You guys are acting like it's the most revolutionary thing ever... what is special about it?
Click to expand...

I'm a phone n00b so I could be wrong about some things but here are the reasons why I like it.

I'd like a small personal computer with me in my pocket that can act like a PDA and more. I use a lot of Google Apps to begin with and so this seems like a perfect fit.

I think the Windows mobile platform can do multitasking as well but the manner in which the Android platform is open I feel like there will be more to it than the Windows platform. I'd like to be able to surf the web and while keeping that running then go off and send an SMS and while typing that check the weather for next weekend before finishing off the message. It seems like how I'd use my own desktop computer but on a phone. This could be possible on the iPhone or Windows mobile phones but it just seems so easy to do with Android.

I also think user interfaces for these mini devices need to be better and I am liking with what I see from some of the Android UIs available so far. More than any other phone I've seen it looks easy and fun to use.

Other people could answer better the reason why it is a great thing. These are my reasons for being excited.
 
Iknos said:
That round button found at the bottom middle of the phone...does that serve the same purpose as the trackball? I like the idea of using another input to scroll around the desktops and up and down lists rather than touching the screen.
Click to expand...

It's an optical track pad, so it's like a trackball. Not sure if it's better though.

moment-unbox-gal40.jpg


moment-unbox-gal39.jpg


moment-unbox-gal35.jpg


moment-unbox-gal34.jpg
 
MThanded said:
I think sprint really needs to run more commercials on this. They are really slumming. Most people i know who have the plans dont even know that they now can call any cellphone without a hit to their minutes.

Here is what i get for 69.99 on sprint
Click to expand...

Don't forget- if you're a new customer to sprint, you can qualify for "everything plus 500" which is the same thing as the 69.99 plan, but $10 less.

So that's 59.99 for unlimited everything except calls to landlines. (500 minutes.) you need a referral code- but I posted the link to that a few pages back.

way, WAY better than what Tmobile is offering right now.
 
Manmademan said:
Don't forget- if you're a new customer to sprint, you can qualify for "everything plus 500" which is the same thing as the 69.99 plan, but $10 less.

So that's 59.99 for unlimited everything except calls to landlines. (500 minutes.) you need a referral code- but I posted the link to that a few pages back.

way, WAY better than what Tmobile is offering right now.
Click to expand...
yup yup yup. Sprint all the way baby!!!!!!!!!

Iknos said:
I've always liked and preferred the Sense UI and lately I'm getting to the point where I feel that I have to pick up an HTC phone no matter what. I like the Amoled screen of the Moment...but functionality will trump sexiness of the screen as I use the phone more and more.

That round button found at the bottom middle of the phone...does that serve the same purpose as the trackball? I like the idea of using another input to scroll around the desktops and up and down lists rather than touching the screen.
Click to expand...
I have been using the hero for two weeks now. I wanted to go to the moment for the faster proc but you put it exactly right. Sense ui really completes the experience.
 
MThanded said:
I have been using the hero for two weeks now. I wanted to go to the moment for the faster proc but you put it exactly right. Sense ui really completes the experience.
Click to expand...

So speaking of this, how has the processor been treating you with the Hero? Showed my wife the Hero today when I saw the prices that you guys are posting for Sprint and it's making my wallet cry with AT&T. If Sprint would buy out my contract I'd switch today.

The Hero looks pretty nice, and if I bought a Sprint phone today, I'd probably lean towards that, but in several months time when our contract is up, no telling what they'll have at that point. I'm just wanting something that is going to go smoothly between apps, watch Youtube videos easily, check and send email, access and edit Google docs and calendar, browse various Android apps or games, etc..
 
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/motorola-droids-website-published-a-bit-early-with-specs-galor/


A 3.7-inch, 16:9 touch screen with 480 x 854 resolution. A 5 megapixel camera with 4x zoom, autofocus, and dual LED flash. A 1400 mAh Li-ion battery for up to 385 minutes of usage time and 270 hours standby. A 550MHz processor (marginally better). A pre-installed 16GB microSD card. Bluetooth, 802.11b/g WiFi, and a micro USB port. Six ounces of weight spread out over a 2.4 x 4.6 x 0.5-inch body. We know, you were wanting the Motorola Droid's price and release date, too, but that's the one detail not on this page, we're afraid.
Click to expand...

im suprised to see the processor spec.
 
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