Got a New Phone!

Bought a new phone yesterday.

Yeah.  I went Verizon.  This is the first time in years that I'm not using an iPhone.  Since I've done a lot in the last 24 hours with the new phone, I've a bit to discuss.

The wife wouldn't let go of her vacation and stretched it to the limit yesterday.  She took the kids to the water park and I was positively done with vacationing, so I opted out.  I took the boy with me and decided to drive around Massanutten/Luray/Harrisburg in Virginia.  Then I got to thinking that maybe I should go look at phones at the closest Verizon Wireless center.  After driving around for a bit, I went to Harrisburg, looked around, and asked them if they had HTC Thunderbolts.  They did and I began to ask questions.  I looked at other 4G Verizon phones but had all issues with them.  The Droid X2 had a BIG screen but wasn't 4G.  The Revolution and Charge were OK but again, they weren't meeting my requirements, which I explained in my last post.

So, I ended up getting the Thunderbolt.

My 24-hour impressions are below.

1.  This phone is HEAVY.  When I say this, I'm comparing to my current iPhone 3GS.  My wife's Samsung Infuse makes the T-bolt seem like a boulder.  But I do like the solid feel.  I do like the heft, though...it doesn't seem fragile and is probably more durable than my iPhone.

2.  The screen is brighter than I thought.  It was blinding my wife when I was in bed reading.

3.  Voice clarity is incredible.  I called my mom and could hear everything going on in the background.

4.  Still getting used to the Android Market.  There's a LOT of junk apps...seriously.  I'm not used to that.  I was trying to find a free and GOOD free screenshot app but couldn't find one (and all want you to have a hacked phone (for root access).  I'm still looking for a good screenshot app, too.

5.  I had to find some critical apps that matched what I was using on my iPhone, such as mSecure.  They had mSecure for Android phones but it was a real pain to get a backed up copy imported onto my T-bolt.  At first, I mailed a backup to myself, but the phone wouldn't let me copy the encrypted backup (it was several pages long and the phone wouldn't let me copy AND scroll down).  So, I used mBackup and my Macbook to get a copy onto the T-bolt.

6.  I had a difficult time figuring out how to get my iPhone pictures onto my T-bolt.  Finally, I plugged my T-bolt into my Macbook with a USB cable, which mounted the phone as a drive.  Then I just copied the pictures onto the micro-SD card.

7.  I had to repurchase my highly desirable apps.  Apps such as Tapatalk and Motorcycle.com (as well as mSecure).  That was undesirable but unavoidable.  I found that I'd invested a bit into the iPhone, enough to where it was a bit painful for me to repurchase these apps.  I left alone such apps as Angry Bird, especially since I'd have to start all over with playing it (I don't believe Angry Bird saves game progress to the level that I can continue from the same place I'd left off on the iPhone).

8.  I love the speaker phone.  It is loud.  I love the fact that the speaker is big (it is behind the side stand).

9.  My bill should be the same as what I had with the iPhone, with the exception of the activation fee, which is $35 and will only show on the first bill.

10.  Data plan usage is NOT unlimited, but the salesperson swears that most people don't bump into the limit.  He insisted that 2GB is fine for most people.  We will see, as I do sometimes use data (at work when I can't reach the wifi hotspots).

11.  The voice plan I selected was the 450 plan.  Lately, with AT&T, I'd been bumping into my limit but what was saving me was the rollover minutes (I have a TON of them).  I'll have to watch my usage very closely.  No more speaking with mom for 1+ hours in the middle of the day!

12.  The seven (7) virtual screentops may not be enough for me.  Or, maybe I need to reconsider what I place on those screentops.  I'm used to the IOS's way of grouping screentop icons.

13.  The FriendStream app is NICE!  The wife also has it on her phone (but she doesn't use it...I'm going to push her to try it, as it is VERY cool.

14.  The front-facing camera on this phone is wicked.  It rivals my wife's Infuse (that statement would be scandalous to some).  The flash is bright, also.  The clarity is good.  The rear-facing camera is decent, also, but I would like to test it with apps such as Skype.  Sadly, Skype isn't ready for this phone yet.  Yahoo might work, though.

15.  I love the way I can kill running apps and have an app manage battery consumption.

16.  The micro-USB cable is a life-saver.  No more proprietary cabling.  I HATED the iPhone's cable and the fact that I couldn't do crap with it without iTunes.

17.  The 32-gb micro-SD card is a lifesaver...and it is rather large in storage capacity.  Too bad that you can only access it by removing the battery.

18.  This phone pretty much flies when asked to do something.  I rarely see it running slowly.

19.  I had a few large software updates waiting for me.  It's nice to have these loaded directly to the phone instead of relying on iTunes.  Word of advice, though, some updates can be large...it would be wise to use a wifi connection when updating.  Also, I preprogramed the phone to get the updates while I was sleeping (so it wouldn't interfere with me doing other things...plus, the phone gets hot when downloading large files).

It's going to take me awhile to get used to this phone, especially since I'm coming from an iPhone.  I'm ready for a change, but I'm not going to lie when I say that the iPhone is the phone to have if you just want crap to work.

Loving it so far!

EDIT:


Still need to import my iPhone contacts and music to my Thunderbolt.  I'm currently in the process of importing my contacts.  What I had to do was save all of my contacts in my address book on my Macbook into a vcard formated file.  I then placed this file on the micro-SD card, then I imported the file into my People app.  It looks like it worked fine.  The real test may be my music, especially my iTunes-purchased music.  :(


EDIT 2:


Tried using ITMW (itunemywalkman) to get my music into my Android but it was cumbersome, but I remember a phone salseman mentioning Doubletwist.  I installed that and my music appears to be synching.  It will be awhile, as I've 29GB of stuff to transfer.  I suppose I can do this a few hours every day for a few days.  Most of it is podcasts, I think, so I could maybe remove all the podcasts (I don't listen to them anymore anyways).  We'll see how it turns out.

So, I'm on vacation...

I now have some time to geek out.  I suspect it will involve something with Apple products, whether it be the iPad or the Macbook.  The wife has her Macbook with her, also.  Maybe I'll take a look at hers to see how she's doing on disk space.  I may delve in some scripting on mine.  Or, play with web serving.

Regarding the iPad, I forgot to bring the charger, but I do have my standard iPhone synching cable with me, so I may have to slow-charge the iPad (when I'm sleeping or something, but that means I'd have to put the iPad to sleep).  I'm charging it now as I type, and it charged 2% in 10 minutes, so that's actually not bad, especially since it was at 92% to begin with.

My iPhone is about to be replaced.  I'm not even sure I'm going to stay with AT&T, as I'm tired of dropped calls.  I also work for Verizon and will get a pretty substantial discount (15%) if I switch.  The only Verizon phones that catch my interest are the Droid X2 and the HTC Thunderbolt, which are both LTE/4G phones.  The AT&T phones that interest me are the Samsung Infuse and the Motorola Atrix (the Atrix has a dual core CPU, as does the Droid X2), and both of those are considered 4G phones, even though AT&T doesn't yet have a "true" 4g network...they have that HSPA+ crap that isn't quite on par with 4G but insist that it is equivalent to 4g

My wife has the Samsung Infuse and it is a great phone, IMO.  The screen is 4.5"...huge!  And the clarity of the screen is typical Samsung.  It has front- and rear-facing cameras, also, which is another one of my requirements.  The camera at the back of the phone is 8MP, and the front camera is 1.3MP, I believe.  It is an Android phone.  My wife doesn't like it, but she's coming from an iPhone 3GS (which I have right now), which she loved.  The Infuse isn't as intuitive as her old phone.  I told her if she didn't like the phone, she should return it before the 30-day satisfaction guarantee expired.  In the end, she kept it, as she liked the clarity of the screen and the cameras.  I'd have taken it off her hands if I wasn't still tied to my phone number...we could've swapped (and no, you can't swap the SIM cards from one to the other, between the iPhone and Infuse).  But, she complains of dropped calls and bad reception at work, while Verizon phones tend to get good reception inside buildings.  I've friends who say they can make/take calls when in the subways...can't really beat that.

Comparing both the Infuse and the Thunderbolt, they appear to be very similar in hardware.  What I like about the Thunderbolt is that you get a 32gb micro-SD card with it, out of the box!  The cameras are the same.  The screen on the Infuse is larger, though.  The Thunderbolt is true 4g.  The Infuse has super screen clarity.  The Samsung captures video at 1080P, while the HTC does it at 720P.  This is going to be a hard decision.  Also, I'm still under contract, although I'm seven months out.  I'd have to pay something like $80 as an early termination fee (which isn't bad).  A comparison of the two phones is here.

Why am I not getting an iPhone 4?  I see no need to continue to be tied to any iPhone, as intuitive as they are.  My main complaint about my current iPhone is the fact that I can't customize it the way I want.  I sometimes wish I could have some of the Android apps, as they tend to let you do some pretty awesome things.  I want more screen area, also.  I want the option of having my data stored on external media such as an SD card (no, Dropbox doesn't cut it).  I want real 4g (and 3g will no longer cut it).

I've yet to decide if I'll migrate to Verizon.  I've yet to decide what phone I want, but I want the Thunderbolt pretty bad.  I've seen it on display and it is a nice piece of work.  About the only thing I haven't done is actually used one on the LTE network.  It is pretty much either the Samsung or the Thunderbolt, right now, but I haven't even looked at Sprint's phones.  I'm going to have to do that, also.  I refuse to look at T-mobile, since they are pending a merger with AT&T, with AT&T buying them out.  AT&T will get rid of a lot of things that make T-mobile good.  I do not want to buy a T-mobile phone and find that I'll have to get another phone in a year...that would piss me off.  I hope that merger doesn't go through, either, as that would mean there are only three major players (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint). 

I do want to check out Sprint's phones, though.  It will have to be a top-of-the-line Sprint phone, though.  HTC's EVO 4G would be the Sprint phone I'd probably look at first.