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Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

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Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#81

Post by jsz0 »

There's no one-size-fits-all solution. Since both Android and iOS have parity for basic functionality either would be a good choice. For third party apps most of the interesting stuff is still happening on the iPhone. There may be equivalent Android apps (ports or clones) but in my opinion it's still a second class platform. Especially when you get into multimedia apps, creative apps, games, etc. On the hardware side the iPhone has probably the best display out there and one of the best cameras. Availability of regular software updates are worth considering too. If you want the wild-west experience there's a pretty healthy selection via JailBreak.

If you can wait a few months it may be worth seeing which phones are going to get Android 3.0. The N1 probably will but all bets are off with HTC and Samsung. I'd say most of their phones sold today will get it eventually but who knows when. Both HTC and Samsung totally dropped the ball on the 1.x->2.x transition. Motorola hasn't experienced a major OS update yet so it's not clear if they will be better prepared. The gimping of 2.2 features for the original Droid is not an encouraging sign. I would suggest a Super AMOLED screen if you want to use your phone outdoors. Maybe wait for the next device Google adopts as a developer reference platform?

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#82

Post by jackowayed »

dannyr wrote: post #51
Twisol wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't the N1 discontinued? http://google.com/phone says you have to be a registered developer to get one, and I don't plan on developing for it anytime soon.

Being a registered developer is easy. http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...

But you can only get the one with the T-Mobile 3G bands. So they'd have to switch to T-Mobile to really be happy http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1578310

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#83

Post by rue »

praxis22 wrote: post #72

personally I went for a Samsung Galaxy S, (A8 processor, Android, 4" AMOLED screen) this was more of a leveraged bet on Android, and a decent processor, than anything else, 3G network in the UK. Like you I had delayed, but in the end I went with Android because of the rapid iteration model of the platform as opposed to the curated nature of the Apple Product/Service. Not to mention the hackability of the Android plat…

Been quite happy with my Galaxy S as well. I was actually going to get an iPhone 4 but the local carrier kept giving "dunno" as the availability date and number of units expected; at this point I am glad I opted out.

The UI/UX is not quite as good as i4 and the market is not yet comparable to the AppStore but I cannot really complain too much about either fact. Froyo update should arrive sometime in the next month or two though the 2.1 is usually snappy enough already.

Someone also mentioned the U.S. (rebranded?) version does not have a front camera - my phone does. I am not sure if this is the case, but might pay special attention to that if it is important.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#84

Post by ergo98 »

awolf wrote: post #68
ergo98 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Droid 2 on verizon (out in about a month I believe) if you have philosophical objections to Apple ...or if you want a professionally functional notification system, or widgets, or strong universal voice support, or... Seriously, whenever someone starts in with "philosophical objection" they're propping up a garbage strawman. I choose Android because, in a hundred and one ways, it provides me a more usable, more powe…

Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market. A lot of people I associate with who own Android phones agree with me yet they tell me they refuse support Apple's policies and are voting with their dollar. And I completely understand their view point. Do you?

>Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market.

And, having used both devices in real life and for development, the Nexus One is the best device on the market (if the Galaxy S Pro had 2.2, I'd easily choose it as the market leader). In fact after using an Android device for a while, and trying to go back to an iPhone 4 for a while, the completely gimped notification system (which, to me, is the #1 requirement of a smartphone), and the lack of widgets, made it feel absolutely crippled.

So where does that leave us? Sounds like a couple of people with opinions.

Saying that the iPhone is the best and people who choose otherwise do so for philosophical reasons is absolute garbage, and you're just messaging your own ego and choices, betraying a fundamental insecurity. I choose Android because it's, "far and away", the best platform in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#85

Post by paul9290 »

dotBen wrote: post #71

No one is mentioning the HTC Evo (which you would want to mod to r00ted Android 2.2), which I totally love. The screen is HUGE, to the point that it almost becomes a tablet - yet it is still a phone. The screen makes the phone a little big, but given that the screen goes practically up to the edge of the phone on all sides, it's efficiently proportioned. And I find I can get v productive on it - writing longer emails…

Agreed i used my friend's EVO and she laughed saying your iPhone 3G looks like a Palm Treo circa 2005. Which I agreed. The EVO's screen is awesome; better then the iPhone 4.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#86

Post by topbanana »

Maakuth wrote: post #67
cesare wrote: post #55

I have an HTC Desire and I'm really happy with it. Recently, the Google Maps Navigation has been activated here in Italy (with voice search, which I thought was available exclusively on the Nexus One). Last week HTC released an OTA update with android 2.2, which also added an app for tethering over wifi (tethering via USB was already available) and 720p video recording.

I'm with you on this. It's basically the Nexus One hardware, with some quite minor differences and some HTC-specific Android customizations. It was already pretty darn good, but with last week's OTA-upgrade to Froyo, i'd say it's an excellent smartphone.

The main hardware differnce is that the Desire has real buttons (back, home, menu etc) wheres the Nexus One has soft buttons without the same level of touch feedback.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#87

Post by tshtf »

karimyaghmour wrote: post #69

Get an N900. I've had an iPod touch for close to a year and a BB curve 8900 for 1.5 year. I still use the former for music, but no longer for browsing or apps and I've entirely replaced the latter. As a developer there are just layers and layers of goodies to be found. Hint: forget about the Ovi and Maemo Select pointers pre-packaged on the phone and go straight to maemo.org for apps, that's where the interesting stu…

The N900 is an interesting beast.

If my father called, and asked me what smartphone to get, I'd suggest an Android device.

If an old friend called, who happened to be familiar with Linux, I'd advise the N900 with no reservations. The N900 is more open than Android in that it uses the traditional APIs used on the Linux desktop. You can install pidgin, irssi, otr, asterisk, and just about everything else that is popular with Linux. It even comes with an xterm app by default.

The N900 also has incredible integration with Skype, including video. It also supports adding SIP accounts. Both Skype and SIP work very well over 3G on T-Mobile US.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#88

Post by scott_s »

ergo98 wrote: post #84
awolf wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market. A lot of people I associate with who own Android phones agree with me yet they tell me they refuse support Apple's policies and are voting with their dollar. And I completely understand their view point. Do you?

>Having used both in real life and for development my OPINION is that iPhone if far and away the best device on the market. And, having used both devices in real life and for development, the Nexus One is the best device on the market (if the Galaxy S Pro had 2.2, I'd easily choose it as the market leader). In fact after using an Android device for a while, and trying to go back to an iPhone 4 for a while, the comple…

You called the original poster out on making an absolute statement, and he clarified it was his experience, gathered from the people he knew. The first sentence in your final paragraph seems to deliberately disregard what he said to maintain outrage.

Re: Ask HN: What smartphone to get right now?

#89

Post by lzw »

orangecat wrote: post #60
mahipal wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice of Java is one of the most mind-boggling things to me. There must be so many developers turned off of the platform because of it. Luckily, you can now distribute Python scripts as APKs ( http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/wiki/SharingScrip... ).

Java isn't ideal, but I much prefer it to ObjC. You can also "in theory" use any language that compiles to the JVM, like Scala: http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/scala-ide/Developing_for_A... Thanks for the Python APK link, last time I checked you couldn't deploy standalone Python apps but now I can play with it.

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 course, Java means both the language syntax and the frameworks, and half of what makes Objective-C so great is the frameworks.

Don't let syntax hang you up... you have to get over the syntax hassle to really understand a language. If you want "bad" syntax, look at erlang. That was tough, I had to force myself to learn it, but once I did, the syntax became a non-issue.

Objective-C has every advantage Java does, but the converse is not the case.

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