Well, upgrade time is upon me in just over a week. Now that I have finally given in and purchased SwiftKey X, I can survive without a physical keyboard, so I am focusing more on battery life as my main criteria. The battery life of the EVO is terrible unless using an alternate ROM, which I would prefer to avoid. I know the modding community is full of cool people, but the security paranoid side of me just can't trust running custom ROMs.
Unfortunately, Sprint doesn't have any phones that really excite me. Only the EVO, EVO 3D, and Nexus S support Netflix, which would be nice to have, but that would narrow me down to the Nexus S since the EVO has left me less inclined to try the 3D (and I couldn't care less about 3D anyway).
I spend most of my time on my phone doing the following: checking 2 Gmail accounts, reading RSS on Reader, listening to podcasts through Listen, listening to music and audio books in MusicMod and AudioBookPlayer 2, SMS via Google Voice, Google Plus, Twitter, reading a few news sites including Google News. I don't play games, so performance isn't all that important as long as it doesn't feel slow doing the things mentioned. I do find myself taking pictures a lot more lately since the EVO has a pretty decent camera, so that is somewhat important. Bluetooth HID support for standard keyboards would be nice as well. HTC leaves that out but it was nice to have in CM7.
I am sure a lot of you are going to say the Nexus S, but Sprint rates its battery life the same as the EVO, and Samsung's cameras haven't impressed me in the past. Not to mention I'd lose the kickstand, which is good for Netflix viewing and an "ADHD twitch toy". The Photon has the highest rated battery... according to Sprint anyway, but no Netflix, trying to keep Blur hidden, and I'd rather not put that $200 line item on my budget.
Should I just stick with the EVO and go back to CM7 and put up with its many bugs and the heightened security risks to get better battery life? Oh why, oh why can't Verizon or T-Mobile get a decent signal in the buildings where I work?!
Thoughts? Trying to find decent Android hardware is about enough to make look at other OSs. Gmail / Voice / Listen / Reader are very important to me, though, so that is out.
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Which Sprint Android phone to settle for?
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Update: Monday is the day. I am leaning toward the Photon. The Netflix support is no longer a factor since I gave in and bought a 3DS, and after trying Netflix on it, I like that experience better than the Android version anyway.
Also, considering this is a work phone (paid for by my employer), I need to be less selfish in my criteria since this will be passed on to someone else if I go to work elsewhere. So, I have eliminated the physical keyboard criteria since I seem to be in a very small minority of people who actually care about that.
With that in mind, the Photon or Nexus S seem to make the most sense as they have the most flexibility, especially with bluetooth HID support. The Photon dock is pretty intriguing as well, which is a large factor in drawing me that way.
I know the S will get Ice Cream Sandwich first, but I am perfectly happy with 2.3 (even 2.2), so that doesn't matter to me as much as long as the phone isn't buggy.
If there are any last minute comments, they'd be appreciated. If no one has any compelling reasons to avoid the Photon, I should be adding it to Have list sometime mid week assuming that it only takes Sprint 2 days to get it to me.
Also, considering this is a work phone (paid for by my employer), I need to be less selfish in my criteria since this will be passed on to someone else if I go to work elsewhere. So, I have eliminated the physical keyboard criteria since I seem to be in a very small minority of people who actually care about that.
With that in mind, the Photon or Nexus S seem to make the most sense as they have the most flexibility, especially with bluetooth HID support. The Photon dock is pretty intriguing as well, which is a large factor in drawing me that way.
I know the S will get Ice Cream Sandwich first, but I am perfectly happy with 2.3 (even 2.2), so that doesn't matter to me as much as long as the phone isn't buggy.
If there are any last minute comments, they'd be appreciated. If no one has any compelling reasons to avoid the Photon, I should be adding it to Have list sometime mid week assuming that it only takes Sprint 2 days to get it to me.
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Well two other phones on sprint support Netflix as well, The Samsung Epic and the Motorola Photon 4g, I currently own an Epic and I have to charge it every night, but it normally lasts me the entire day. I just purchased the Motorola Photon, although I won't have it til Monday, so I can't say about it's battery life yet, but according to reviews I've read they have been getting up to 24 hours on one charge which isn't bad at all. If your wanting a cheaper one, I'd say go with the Epic, I have really enjoy this phone, I love the touchwiz u, and I like having a slide out keyboard. (although I also use SlideIT keyboard, so I don't use the slide out keyboard to much.
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I know I'm stating the obvious, but i have to go with Nexus S. I am an Epic 4G owner; had I known that the Nexus S was coming to Sprint I would have postponed my purchase. In your criteria you didn't mention if it was important for you to get OS updates on time. If this is something you consider important, then going with a stock Android device like the Nexus S is the way to go.
Regarding battery life, there are applications available now that can help with battery management. I would recommend Juice Defender. Also, it makes a difference whether you are running 3G or 4G. I typically leave my Epic set to 3G since the 4G coverage is spotty where I live. I will check for 4G and use it sporadically, but always remember to turn it off when done. Simple measures like this help save battery life.
You can find Juice Defender in Android Market; here's a direct link for you:
bit.ly/juice_defender
Good luck.
Regarding battery life, there are applications available now that can help with battery management. I would recommend Juice Defender. Also, it makes a difference whether you are running 3G or 4G. I typically leave my Epic set to 3G since the 4G coverage is spotty where I live. I will check for 4G and use it sporadically, but always remember to turn it off when done. Simple measures like this help save battery life.
You can find Juice Defender in Android Market; here's a direct link for you:
bit.ly/juice_defender
Good luck.
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I purchased the Nexus S for a couple of weeks and seriously loved it. However, the Photon 4G at the end of the day has a dual core processor. I did not want to stick with a 6 month old phone for the next 2 years so I traded it in for the Photon 4G and have not looked back.
You get to keep the kickstand, the speaker is outstanding, it is seriously fast, and all new phones will be dual core from now on. I don't see why not get one now.
If you don't like MotoBlur use an alternative launcher like Launcher Pro.
You get to keep the kickstand, the speaker is outstanding, it is seriously fast, and all new phones will be dual core from now on. I don't see why not get one now.
If you don't like MotoBlur use an alternative launcher like Launcher Pro.
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I'm sorry that you feel trapped with Sprint. You didn't mention which T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless phones have drawn your interest but I own an HTC EVO and have yet to find another phone that I'd trade it for. (My wife owns a Samsung Epic. The slide-out keyboard is nice but, with my EVO's larger screen and Swype, I don't miss the physical keyboard at all. While Samsung's devices usually impress me, I wouldn't trade my EVO for the Epic.)
Have you tried any other custom ROMs besides CM7? There's a relatively new ROM named "Synergy" that can be found on XDA Developers that is, quite simply, the most spectacular ROM I've ever used. While I've never tried CM7, I have tried three different AOSP ROMs and I don't know how many Sense ROMs and Myn's Warm TwoPointTwo and Synergy are by far my favorites.
My battery life improved considerably using Warm TwoPointTwo with a custom kernel. I haven't yet heard of any kernels that are compatible with Synergy because HTC has yet to release source code for its latest kernel. Rest assured that when HTC does release the code, though, the awesome folks at XDA will have various kernels built in a matter of a few days.
Have you tried any other custom ROMs besides CM7? There's a relatively new ROM named "Synergy" that can be found on XDA Developers that is, quite simply, the most spectacular ROM I've ever used. While I've never tried CM7, I have tried three different AOSP ROMs and I don't know how many Sense ROMs and Myn's Warm TwoPointTwo and Synergy are by far my favorites.
My battery life improved considerably using Warm TwoPointTwo with a custom kernel. I haven't yet heard of any kernels that are compatible with Synergy because HTC has yet to release source code for its latest kernel. Rest assured that when HTC does release the code, though, the awesome folks at XDA will have various kernels built in a matter of a few days.
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I'd wait for Ice Cream Sandwich. It's supposed to be in time for the hollidays.
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