I've heard recommendations of the Samsung Galaxy S, as well as Nexus One (I only know the N1 and love it).
Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
121–130 of 146 posts
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#122Nexus One. I'm surprised you're even asking. Fully Linux-friendly, hackable, powerful and doesn't have any crapware from carriers or hardware manufacturers. Buy it at full price and sign up for a $59/mo month-to-month plan from T-Mobile. Enjoy built-in tethering and guaranteed upgrade to the latest version of Android. I own N1 and iPhone 4 and I believe that N1 is a superior phone. It doesn't need to be plugged to a…
I'll second the Nexus One. It's a hell of a phone. I love it, and have recommended it to any of my friends that'll listen. I'll touch on the things I don't like about it, though, for the sake of comparison. - Not much internal memory. 512mb gets eaten up quickly by the OS and apps. That's alleviated somewhat by 2.2 allowing apps to be partially installed to SD card, but it's optional to the developer. It's not a huge…
> Weak GPU.
Quake 3 runs fine at the highest settings on my Nexus One, and is very playable. The GPU is fine.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#123iPhone 4, if like me, you think user experience and ease of use are the most important factors in a device you use 20-30 time a day while on the go. Droid 2 on verizon (out in about a month I believe) if you have philosophical objections to Apple or want freedom from syncing with your laptop. The original droid is still a great phone and was pretty well designed. Droid 2 will have better hardware and battery life tha…
OP mentioned being a Linux user. The iPhone, lovely as it may be, is a non-starter without access to a Windows or MacOS machine, at least to set it up. If you are willing to forego backups and your stuff lives in the cloud, you can make do after the intial startup. But really, Uncle Steve needs to give us the ability to use an iPhone without an iTunes computer.
+1. A few months ago I transitioned from OS X to Linux at home, without expecting that it would make my iPhone 3GS so much less nice to own.
It's being replaced with an Android phone as soon as it comes out of contract. There's nothing wrong with it as a phone, but it's at its best only when it's integrated with iTunes on the desktop.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently. I've learned many languages in my years, while neither Java nor Objective-C is my favorite language right now (erlang is, though I haven't used it for awhile) they both were at different points in my life. I hated Objective-C for the first week or two, then came to understand it, and saw how it was so much better than Java. Of cour…
I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently. I've used ObjC for many years and released several Cocoa apps. The syntax isn't the problem; I actually rather like the brackets. Objective-C has every advantage Java does, but the converse is not the case. No garbage collection (on iOS at least), inherently unsafe, primitive types requiring silly [NSNumber numberWithInt:x] contort…
Ya, managing memory in objective-c (again, on iOS) is a colossal pain.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#125I've been an iPhone fanboy (I admit it) since the first generation. I even waited in line for 13 hours for the iPhone 3g. I've spent over $1000 on iPhones and accessories now (I've probably made most of it back considering I sell the old one when I get a new one). I was completely dedicated to Apple and its magical phone. But one day I got a little curious. A friend of mine got the Droid and was in love with it. I fi…
I second your opinion - I switched from 3GS to Samsung Galaxy S. Completely correct that it's not polished like the iPhone, but being able to mount the phone as your choice of device is just, as you said, liberating. Have an AVI movie? No problem, just drop it on the device, it plays. Oh, it's in MPEG? No problem. Swype is cool too, I now can't live without it -- in fact, I stopped using my native tongue in SMS form…
+1 for swype. It's actually the thing that absolutely keeps me from considering an iPhone going forward (at least until Apple adopts it). I'm 3x faster than I ever was even on a physical keyboard.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently. I've learned many languages in my years, while neither Java nor Objective-C is my favorite language right now (erlang is, though I haven't used it for awhile) they both were at different points in my life. I hated Objective-C for the first week or two, then came to understand it, and saw how it was so much better than Java. Of cour…
I submit that if you take the time to learn Objective-C you'll feel quite differently. I've used ObjC for many years and released several Cocoa apps. The syntax isn't the problem; I actually rather like the brackets. Objective-C has every advantage Java does, but the converse is not the case. No garbage collection (on iOS at least), inherently unsafe, primitive types requiring silly [NSNumber numberWithInt:x] contort…
Not to mention the OS X/Mac environment which some people just can't stand.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#127Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx supports the iPhone 4 out of the box: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PortableDevices/iPhone
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#128Given that you're satisfied with AT&T, I'd recommend the iPhone 4. However, Linux support is non-existent. You can use iTunes via WINE, but experiences have been varied. Luckily, you don't really need iTunes all that much. You only really need iTunes for activation, and that can be done for you at the Apple Store. Media and app purchases can all be done on the phone itself. As for synchronization of data: I recommend…
I had some success with iTunes running on XP as a VMWare Guest under Ubuntu 09.10... was a bit of a pain but it worked.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have an N1 and T-Mobile also and totally agree. My T-Mobile no-contract unlimited everything (minutes + text + internet, including tethering) is $79, not $59. It's listed on my bill as "FPEvenMorePlusUnlTTW." T-Mobile coverage does have weak spots but in the good areas tethering speed is > 4Mbps.
The Individual Plan is $59/mo and the family plan you're on is $79/mo.
No, the Individual Plan with "Even More Plus (No Annual Contract)" is $79.99.: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?cat...
The "Family Talk + Text + Web" with unlimited minutes and no contract is $139.99: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?cat...
At least, that's what I'm paying and that's what T-Mobile's site shows. If they're showing different prices in your part of the country please let me know and I'll reopen negotiations with them.
With taxes and fees I pay $89.66/month. There's only one phone (the N1) on this account.
[Edit] I did start thinking about this so I just called T-Mobile. The "FP" in the plan name stands for "Flex Pay," which in T-Mobile's world means you don't have a contract.
Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been drooling over the Desire for a long time, but now, with rumours of the HD Desire coming out soon, I might wait for that...
what would HD Desire do more than SD Desire? They already do 720p recording (and theoretically playback) since Froyo OTA update.
I'm hoping that it has a screen with double the resolution.