Why I Will Never Buy an Android Phone Again (a short story):
Last July I was looking for a new phone because my LG Dare, which I had for about 2.5 years, would die every evening regardless of how much I used it. In fact, I could have it fully charged but when I woke up the next morning it would be dead if it wasn't plugged in. I called Verizon and went to a couple different stores and they presented me 2 options, either the HTC Droid Eris or the HTC Droid Incredible. I opted for the Eris because it was cheaper, in stock (where as the Incredible was back ordered by at least 1 month), and I didn't understand why my phone would need a 1Ghz processor (the Eris has a 512Mhz I believe). Bought the phone and things went relatively well. However, for the first 2 weeks of having it I had major issues. I would frequently answer/place a call and have no audio on my end. The microphone and speaker just wouldn't work. Unfortunately, I couldn't replicate the problem reliably so my attempts to get Verizon to fix it where futile. My major concern was if I ever had to make an emergency call and the person on the other end couldn't hear me. However, about 2 weeks later my phone magically downloaded a software update and I haven't had that problem since.
When I bought my phone it came with 288MB RAM and an 8GB microSD card which I thought was plenty of storage. Lesson learned, this is no where near enough space. Apparently, one of the little features they don't tell you is that you can't put apps on that SD card so you are limited to the internal memory on the phone. This is one of the most annoying features I have ever seen. I have a number of apps on my phone that I need (SSH Client, FTP Client, network security tools, etc). The only game I have is Solitaire and it barely fits. In fact, I frequently have to clear out recent text messages to have space left on the device. Now, when I say space left on the device, I mean the following: For some reason when my internal storage gets below 20MB I start getting warnings that I am low on space. There is no way to get rid of or clear these warnings other than clear space. Highly annoying because when this warning is triggered my phone stops receiving emails, etc. It also kills the battery ASAP.
I am aware that Android 2.2 allows for Apps to go on the SD card. Unfortunately, my phone does not support it natively. In fact, about 2 weeks after I bought my Eris, Verizon stopped selling them and supporting them. Therefore, no Android updates.
Current situation. Using the internet browser on it is challenging to say the least. It frequently just closes randomly and I have to start over from square 1. I occasionally get SSL certificate errors for sites like google.com (for some reason
www.google.com/m/ is not covered under the certificate for
www.google.com, etc). And I don't even dream of trying to go to Google Plus's mobile site because at that point my phone just vomits everywhere and complains that I have exhausted my memory for internet storage.
Battery Life. I charge my phone every night and even with light usage the battery drains quickly. I do everything I can to save power. I have task killer installed and use it every time I use the phone, brightness is all the way down, etc. The battery life is terrible. I hesitate to use the phone to listen to music or stream video because the battery dies quickly. Using the Google Maps navigation is out of the question unless I have it plugged in in the car. It won't last a 2 hour trek. O, and if I do have my phone plugged in while using a service like Spotify to stream music, my battery still declines. In other words, the charger can't match the power consumption of the phone.
On the plus side, I went to the Apple store this afternoon and played with the iPhones. I am counting down the days until February 22 when I am eligible to get one. It will be a very happy day having a phone that works as it should. Couple of questions though. Does anyone know if there are SSH/FTP client applications available for iPhone?
I can't wait.
