Q. I am looking into buying the motorola droid and I keep hearing how it is verizon's first android phone. I want to know what exactly is an android phone.
A. An Android phone is a phone the runs Google's Android OS. Android is on open source phone OS developed by Google. You can find out more about the OS at http://www.android.com and you can find out about the Droid phone at http://www.vzw.com/droid.
Help! Getting new Android phone?..?
Q. My mobile phone is turning old and Im deciding to get new Android phone.
I dont really know how to find them since android is the sofware in different phone model.
I want to get a phone which have:
-Android Software
-smartphone(touch screen)
-Longer battery life
-able to update to latest Android version
You can list more than one if they share in common with these features above.
Thanks! :-))
A. You want the perfect phone. Good luck as there is no perfect phone. You would be best to look for right for you. I will address all of your needs, and help you make the right decision for you though, and that is what you would need. As for experience, I am on my second Android phone, and while I would like to have all of that above, there is no such phone.
Android software is the OS, not the app. It is like Windows, or Mac OS. It is what tells your phone how to behave when something is done. All cell phones have an OS, just the basic or feature phones typcially have one tailored for the actual phone. This is impossible in smart phones as they are designed to work equally on multiple devices. The exception is iOS which the OS manufacturer and hardware manufacturer are the same, and there are only 2 lines (recent) which the only difference is ROM. Just by selecting an Android, you would have a smart phone. Also, all Android phones are touch screens. The only ones you would see that won't be assured with a touch screen is RIM OS (Blackberry). And unless you go with a budget provider, you would get a capacitive touch screen which will require that you use your fingers (rather than a stylus option), but this is more consumer friendly. I have yet to see an Android phone without a capacitive (although some PDAs/PMPs will have resistive).
Battery life is a hit or miss. I seen really low end phones that can go a day with average use, but you won't want the low end. A top of the line phone however will decrease the battery life of the phone. Just like a PC, if you have a high end notebook, you would have less battery life. If you are using your notebook to watch a 1080p movie, you would use more battery than if you were using a text editor. This is a fact of life, and there is no phone out there that can promise to be all mighty, and give more than 1 day battery. I have a dual core 1Ghz phone, and I get about 10 - 12 hours with basic use before I need to plug in, or change the battery.
Now, the updates. You want assured updates at least for a year or two, get a Nexus (most recent one) phone. You will not limit yourself to Sprint or T-Mobile. The reason for this is the Nexus phone is the platform phone on the Android OS, and is used to assure compliance with the latest version. This means that Google develops the new version, and tests it on Nexus. If everything works as expected, then they push it unmodified to all of the Nexus lines. Older versions will have to be tested, and could take a couple of weeks. Also, as the OS is developed, it demands more. Just as you can install Windows 7 on a 150Mhz PC, you would find that the CPU, Ram, and ROM (storage) will limit the ability to update.
So, what should you do? Well, here is my advise. Don't concentrate entirely on your proposed requisites. Find out what you want to do with your phone, and work from there. If you want to play games, or watch stutter free videos, you would want a faster phone, but you would have to sacrifice battery. If you are doing basic things, you may not need a dual core phone for example, and therefore can look to a better battery life. As for updates, unlike the scenario above, all new versions have to go to the device manufacturer - tested on your device, and then sent with any adjustments to the kernals to the carriers. The carrier will have to test it on their network, and decide if they want to push it to your phone. This is just the way things are with open platforms. Google is trying to fix that, but it may only apply to newer devices.
Look for a 1Ghz phone. You would want 512MB of memory, and 1GB of ROM. I would recommend to have an micro-SD card slot, and if not - get at least 16GB of ROM. You would want a 3.8" screen or better. Get a phone with Stock Android (without MotoBlur, or HTC Sense). You would have a better chance of OS updates that way. Stock Android is more generic looking, but it would suffice. Remove apps you would not need. If you installed an app, and find it isn't useful, removing it would reserve your ROM, and take off any startup processes the app may have. As for OS version, look for Android 2.2 or better (2011-June-12). This is newest of the standard phone shipments with 2.3 so far only on a small population. The specs noted above will also handle 2.3 for if/when it comes to your device.
As for carriers, almost all carriers have an Android phone. All of the major carriers (AT&T/Sprint/T-Mobile/Verizon) have phones that meet my recommended minimum. Cricket has no worthwhile phone. Virgin has low end phones, and don't expect 2.3 on those ones. The Galaxy Prevail on Boost is their best Android phone - however with a 3.2" screen, you may find yourself lacking if you want to watch videos or play games. It is also lacking in RAM and ROM (384/512 MB).
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