Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide
by Vivek Gowri on December 4, 2010 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
- Mobile
Verizon
In the past year, Big Red has gone from having a smartphone lineup almost completely dominated by Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices, to arguably the forefront carrier for flagship Android devices. The Motorola Droid series of phones has been so aggressively marketed that it's virtually synonymous among laypeople with Android itself, nearly to the point of creating confusion.
Regardless, the choices we recommend on Verizon are differentiated by personal taste. If you want a huge screen, the Droid X is the phone for you. The device is now thankfully running Android 2.2 (we reviewed it when it was running 2.1 after launch), and there's very little to hold against the phone. I loved the hardware android buttons and the form factor and still think Android is completely usable without a hardware keyboard, especially thanks to Swype and Motorola's own multitouch keyboard being included. The other thing to mention about the Droid X is that its OMAP3630 supports 720P HD video encodes, whereas the OMAP3620 doesn't - the result is that the Droid X can shoot 720P video and the Droid 2 can't. The Droid X is currently $49.99 from Amazon Wireless or $199.99 from Verizon on contract.
If you want a keyboard however, the Droid 2 is the next best option. As I noted in our review, very little which is changed from the original Droid hardware wise except for some welcome changes to the keyboard which improve usability, and a slightly different shade of soft touch material. In the wild, the two are difficult to tell apart unless you know what you're looking for. To that extent, it's not really a necessary upgrade from the original Droid unless you absolutely need a faster platform, especially considering the original Droid is running stock Android 2.2. There's also a Droid 2 Global version which packs GSM support and a slightly higher clocked 1.2 GHz SoC as opposed to the 1.0 GHz OMAP3 in the Droid 2 sans Global. We haven't had the chance to fully review a Droid 2 Global yet, so jury is still out whether the $50 difference from Verizon ($199.99 for Droid 2 Global, $149.99 for Droid 2) is worth it, especially considering Android enthusiasts can root and overclock on their own. The Droid 2 Global is also available from Amazon Wireless for $79.99 on contract, curiously enough the Droid 2 is no longer available on Amazon. There’s also the BlackBerry-targeting Droid Pro, though this is another of the Droid newcomers we haven’t taken a look at.
The other tier-1 options on Verizon are the HTC Incredible and Samsung Fascinate. We reviewed both and liked the Incredible's form factor, and it's even better now thanks to Android 2.2. The Motorola Droids' OMAP3 bests the Droid Incredible's Snapdragon SoC in the performance space in almost every category save FPU heavy tasks, but the Incredible is by no means a weak performer. Likewise, the Fascinate bests both with its Hummingbird SoC. The only problem with the Fascinate is Verizon's conscious decision to mandate Bing throughout and strip the phone of almost all mention of Google. Again, the other problem is that the Fascinate like other Galaxy S devices still isn't running Android 2.2. Size and user preference is again what really dominates here - if you want a small Android 2.2 phone, the Incredible is your pick, whereas the Fascinate packs a 4" screen. The HTC Incredible can be had for $0.01 from Amazon Wireless, or $149.99 from Verizon, both on contract. The Fascinate is $39.99 from Amazon Wireless and $199.99 from Verizon on contract.
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DigitalFreak - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Forgot to mention that there is also a dock coming, with HDMI out, USB and an Ethernet port.VivekGowri - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You can still sideload apps, so it's not a huge deal. You can seriously just go download the .apk from the internet, toss it onto the SD card and install off there. The problem with that is that some of the apps don't work too well - I couldn't get Angry Birds to run properly for some reason.Just IMO here - the stock software is NOT okay. It's basically ruining the device, for me at least. It's such a slow UI....I can deal with UI skins that don't lag down the system, like on the Galaxy Tab or the HTC Sense stuff, but man, this thing is slow - I've got dual A9's and it feels slower than the freaking ARM11 phones.
XDA is awesome, I've been looking at their section for the G-Tablet recently. I'll probably have a performance preview up within the next couple of days, but the full review is going to have to wait until after the Galaxy Tab review, so I'll probably look into TNT Lite.
The G-Tablet really does look like the hackers dream, but I've got a question, am I the only one that thinks it has a pretty woeful screen (especially next to the iPad)?
strikeback03 - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Haven't seen one in person, but based on the preview hands-on over at androidcentral I have to agree, horrid viewing angles on the screen and lag that could be measured in multiple seconds in interacting with the OS. And apparently it was even more unusable with the first shipping software revision, IIRC there have already been updates.jonup - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Guys, while I understand the noise around the flagships of the major phone manufacturers/brands is there a chance that we will see reviews/recommendations for some smaller, lighter and more elegant phones? I just picked up X3-02 and so far I am loving it. (I wish I didn't have to work 60+ hours and getting ready for some finals :( ) I paid for it more than some of your higher end offerings just because I don't want to hoe all the extra weight. Maybe you can review even some Vertu phones!?That said I understand it is a niche market and most people on the street would not care because they have not been bombarded with countless commercials everyday, but for those of us that care about looks, texture and quality of materials, we still want to get a feature rich device as much as the physical dimensions allow for. It will be nice to know how they stack up against the big phones.
p.s. I also prefer Longines to Breitling ;)
DanNeely - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
They're less fashionable, but feature phones still make up roughly half the phones sold, so a reasonable case could be made to cover some of the higher end models.G-Man - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
"It’d be completely disingenuous if we had a myopic, USA-centric world view, and we’re actively working on getting a more international spread of devices whenever possible that’s of interest to everyone."You have no idea how awesome Anandtech is for realising this (no sarcasm). So many other sites forget this. Thank you.
Hrel - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You guys REALLY need to start getting some Archos hardware in shop to test out.AuDioFreaK39 - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Excellent article Vivek and Brian! I just spotted one apparent issue with a technical specification. On the very last page regarding tablets, the BlackBerry Playbook was announced to feature a 7-inch 1024x600 screen, not a 10-inch screen. Hopefully this can be corrected, thanks in advance.VivekGowri - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
Riiiiiight. My bad, thanks for catching that!Galcobar - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Actually, the PlayBook is a 16:9, 7" screen, device itself is 5.1" x 7.6" x 0.4" (130mm x 194mm x 10mm).