Why are all these phones so crappy?

S

syd_myster12

New member
Hello all, first post here... just having a lot of trouble deciding what to do about getting a new phone so I thought I'd ask for some advice. I don't mean to complain too much here, but after looking around at the available phones I am really disappointed. Maybe somebody can give me some direction or point out some things I am missing.

Anyways, I've narrowed it down to Verizon and Sprint as the providers I will use. AT&T and T-Mobile both have garbage for signal in my (large metro - 1.5 million people) area, so I won't even consider them. Sprint doesn't have a great signal either, but at least it's acceptable and cheap enough (I have Sprint now).

I should say that I my only real requirements here are that my phone have a hardware keyboard (touch screen keyboards are a dumb idea on multiple levels), works well as a PHONE (can't stress this enough), and I would like to get a something with an OS that will have developers - so Droid is my only real option right now.

So between Motorola and Sprint, the only Droid phones with a QWERTY keyboard are the Motorola Droid, Motorola Devour, and Samsung Moment. I went to the store and played with these phones and I've got to say I was not impressed.

Droid
The Droid might as well not even have a hardware keyboard because it is designed so poorly that it's basically useless.

Devour
The Devour has a pretty clunky keyboard as well, but its much better than the Droid. What seems wrong with this phone is that it comes with Android OS version 1.6 instead of 2.0 or 2.1, and I cannot find anything that says an OS upgrade will be available.

Moment
The Moment has a really questionable screen. It looks like it reflects light almost like a mirror so if you are outside it will be hard to see. The hardware keyboard is also not very good, but better than Droid. The design is also kind of large.

So I'm wondering if it would be best for me to just sit tight and wait for Windows Mobile 7 phones to start pouring out (so long!), or if there are things I am overlooking about the phones I mentioned (like a software update to 2.1 for the Devour). Maybe there are other Droid phones on the horizon that I am not aware of?

Sorry this is all over the place, my research is just going in circles of disappointment. Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Get used to touchscreen keyboards. They are faster, and allow for a better phone construction. You'll have trouble for a week or so, and then never look back.
 
With that in mind, try the upcoming Sprint HTC EVO 4G with Swype. Or the Verizon HTC DROID Incredible with Swype, which will probably net you better reception.
 
Thanks for the reply, but I disagree. I've used an ipod touch for years and the touch screen KB on that is just awful, would never want a phone like that.

Touch screen keyboards are just not advantageous. They take up almost the entire screen (allowing for much worse software design) just to allow inputs. It is much harder to find the keys and type accurately, which makes it much slower. The only thing touch screen keyboards allow is that you don't need the extra room for the hardware on the device. I really don't care how my phone is constructed as long as it fits in my pocket and works well for what it is supposed to do. Maybe I'm in the minority on this but I could personally care less if a phone looks cool or slim.
 
I can hit better than 50wpm on an iPhone. They have the same key placement, while allowing for adjustment to alternative character entry, and with a solid dictionary, text prediction, and autocorrection for commonly misspelled words, they are FAR better than any physical keyboard this side of a laptop. While it is true that during text entry they do take up larger space on the screen, as long as you can see the last several lines you've typed what else are you looking at WHILE you're typing?
 
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