First-time Smartphone buyer

T

The Chrysanthemum

New member
I'm looking to upgrade to my first Smartphone (Verizon). I currently have an LG VX8350 and only use it for phone and music, but want to have web access and apps.

Features I am looking for
- Touchscreen
- Web
- Flash enabled
- MP3 Player

Features that would be nice to have but not required:
- Multi-touch gestures
- Touchscreen QWERTY keyboard

So far I have only played around with the Palm Pre Plus. I liked that it had multi-touch gestures (ie zooming in Google maps). However I thought that the keyboard was too sensitive. I would click one letter and it would enter it 2 or 3 times. Also it does not have a touchscreen keyboard.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for me based on my preferences?

I don't know anything about any of the operating systems, so any information could be helpful.
 
Motorola Droid. You'll get Flash in the next few months, and multi-touch is already partly there (an update should fill that out soon). Plus, it has a very nice screen and the largest app market you'll find on Verizon.

There's only two real quirks with the Droid, in my day to day experience: it could be a little bit faster, though it's pleasantly fast among Android phones, and the hardware keyboard is almost too flat. But it does have an onscreen keyboard, and I find it works well.

(If you're wondering how I know without being on Verizon: I have the Droid's international equivalent, the Milestone, and it's extremely close.)
 
If you can afford it, get the Nexus1. Or if you can get a Droid and resell it and then buy an N1, do that instead.
 
Right, the Nexus One is not yet on Verizon. I started looking around at more phones, as well as browsing different app libraries. I'm definitely leaning towards an Android phone. I think the HTC Eris is a good fit for my first smartphone, so I've started a list...

Droid
Pros
- Larger, Higher Res Screen
- 16 GB SD Card
- Now starting upgrades to Android 2.1
- Slightly faster than Eris

Cons
- Bigger and clunkier
- Not sure I need the physical keyboard.

HTC Eris
Pros
- Smaller, thinner, more pocketable (going from an old flip phone, this is a good thing)
- Sense UI and 7 homescreens

Cons
- 8 GB SD Card (though this can be updated)
- Running 1.5 (but I believe that an upgrade can't be far behind)

Other considerations
- I had no problem working with either the physical keyboard on the Droid, or the virtual keyboards on either
- Rumors of Nexus One and HTC Incredible coming soon...though they might be out of my budget.
 
Get the Droid. It's genuinely faster and feels much more like you'd want Android to be. A handful of apps want phones in its class or faster just because of the performance, not the OS. I say this as someone who's used the Milestone (Droid outside of the US) and mostly uses the larger touchscreen keyboard.

Don't know what the Incredible pricing will be, but the Nexus One depends on whether there's contract pricing: if it is, it probably won't cost more than $199. If not, it'll be $530 but won't have an early cancellation fee.
 
So I'm glad I waited a few weeks. I'll be getting the HTC Incredible after it comes out in 2 weeks. Anyone know if there is an easy way for me to transfer contacts and calendar events from an LG VX8300 to an Android phone? I used to back up my contacts using BitPim. Would that work?
 
Your best bet is to have them transfered from your phone to a CSV file and import that into Google contacts through your GMail account and sync that down. Takes a few minutes to set up, but it's the best way.

And good thing you waited indeed; I'm jealous until the next iPhone comes out.
 
Do they charge for that? I know they used to. If so, is it something that I can do? I haven't used it in a while but, I think BitPim allows you to export to CSV.
 
I used BitPim to pull my contacts from my LG Dare (exported to .csv file) and then imported that into gmail. The Android phone will completely sync with your gmail account (and will want you to create one if you don't have one already when activating the phone) so all your contacts will come to the phone automatically.
 
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