Android or Windows 7?

shuffles03

I have an upgrade with O2. I'm looking at either the HTC HD7 or an Android phone. What should I get? Is the HTC Desire any good? Is that the best Android phone on the market at the moment? I had a go of the HD7 Windows phone in The Carphone Warehouse last nite and I loved it but I've been told that Android is better. I currently have a 3GS but don't want an iPhone 4 (not much of an upgrade really).

Are there any new phones that haven't been released yet that I should maybe wait for?

I use my phone to run an eBay store so email functionality is really important to me. How is email on an android device? Is Gmail an app you have to download or is it embedded into the phone like on the iPhone and HD7? I don't want to be having to open an app everytime I need to check my mail.

I saw that Vodafone have he HTC Desire HD. Is this a lot better than the Desire and if so will it or an equivilent be coming to O2?

Abelloid

If it's Gmail you use I'd go for Android, Gmail is integrated, all of your contacts and accounts will sync automatically.

jimmycrackcorm

Gmail on Android is push-mail so you receive it pretty much immediately just like sms messsages.

wheresmybeaver

Well being a bit of a Microsoft fanboy I'm admittedly biased, but I've been using the HD7 for the last 3 weeks and it is marvellous. Everything just works, and it works really well. The design of practically everything with this OS is spot on, in that you instinctively know how to use it the minute you pick it up.

Compared to Android, it's missing some features (no major dealbreakers IMO) that will eventually appear in updates in the next few months, and the Marketplace is smaller right now (although there are some great apps there; the facebook and twitter apps are arguably the best of any platform).

I was messing around with an android phone for a few days before I got my HD7 and was surprised to be underwhelmed by the whole experience; there was very little consistency in terms of interface and approach between different apps, and the homescreen itself, even with launcher pro, wasn't great.

All in all, I would say that if you like the HD7 after playing with it for a few minutes then you won't go far wrong. Messaging (both email and SMS) is very well presented. And WP7 can only get better as a platform right now.

shuffles03

I'm gonna go to a store again tonite to check everything out. I could get the phone tonite but I'm not gonna rush it. In terms of the Android phones, what is the best at the mo? If O2 won't be selling the Desire HD and it is the best Android device I may move to Vodafone. It's a company phone and most of the others moved to Vodafone 2 weeks ago. I was asked but I said I'd have a look first. What Android device should I go for?

In terms of the HD7, I know what you mean when you say it's easy to use from the get go. That's what I found last nite. Really not sure now.

Kxiii

If your going on Vodafone have a look at the desire hd same size as the hd7. I got mine last week and haven't put it down since. Email works fine I have a couple of accounts set up on it and they all come through like texts straight to the phone and then open up fully. Have a look on techradar at their wish list of features for win7 mobile. Seems that win is missing a few things the desire hd has already like flash on web sites.


http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/windows-phone-8-20-things-we-want-to-see-907134

shuffles03

@KXiii,

Cheers for the link. After looking at some reviews, it's definitely between the Desire HD and HD7. Just gotta make up my mind now. Is there much lag on the Desire HD ie scrolling, pinch to zoom etc? There's absolutely none on the HD7 as far as I can see.

Kxiii

I haven't found it slow or laggy in the least loads up heavy pages like ign or gamesradar with no issues. Pinch zoom and auto text formatting work brilliantly. The oh has a wildfire and using that now feels sooo slow compared to the hd.
I was thinking of getting a netbook a while ago but no need now. Plus the phone comes with open office which is kinda handy.

shuffles03

Went into Carphone Warehouse last nite to have a look. They didn't have the Desire HD but I had a go of the Desire. Really impressed. I especially liked the way one of the home screens could be your email, when I scrolled left, all my mail was there. I figure if I like the Desire, I'm gonna love the Desire HD. Had another go of the HD7. It is really intuitive as well but something is telling me to wait till 2011 to get a Windows device - better devices, software updates ie copy & paste etc etc.

After that I went across to Vodafone to check out the Desire HD. None on display (sold out) and none behind the counter to have a go of. I asked the rep but to be honest, she was pretty stupid. The only difference she could tell me between the Desire and the Desire HD was that one had HD. Really annoying. I hate that. I really don't know how phone stores nowadays do not have working handsets on display. How can you make up your mind based on a dummy phone! I know 99% of people buying phones have no idea what the are looking for and will prob only use them for txting and light Facebook but it's bull!

Anyways, need to find a Desire HD to have a look at. Does anyone know of anywhere in Dublin that has a working model on display?

Venom

For Apps and features the Android phones are way ahead of the Win7 and while Win7 should get them in time (Im amazed it launched without so much tbh) do you need them now or are you happy to wait and maybe get them?

The HTC Sense OS is fantastic and so easy to customise to your needs that Im left feeling sorry for my mates when I play with their phones

shuffles03

Anywhere in Dublin that has a working demo?

evolutionqy7

tbh you wont be disappointed with any choice.

Desire HD. Even better than the Normal Desire just because of the New Sense and improved GPU and processor efficiency leading to better battery life

Windows Phone. As far as i read has very good battery life since its not packed full of ****. I suppose at this stage you know whats its like so gonna spare the intros

But one main advantage of Windows Phone 7 is its a new OS and has tons of space to improve. Where as iOS and Android are mature at this stage and quite slow to imply innovations. Where windows 7 will be improving constantly and bringing new cards to the tablet during 2011

One thing that drives it most is the xbox live platform on it. They have provided best dev tools out there for creating games and apps. But as Microsoft said "dont publish apps in a rush, take your time making a decent effort" so time will tell

shuffles03

Does Android support copy & paste?

Kxiii

Froyo on the hd does not sure about other models.

ChopShop

shuffles03 wrote: »

Does Android support copy & paste?

2.2 does anyway.

Bluefoam

shuffles03 wrote: »

Does Android support copy & paste?

Yes, I've used it on 1.5 & 2.1 stock Android

evolutionqy7

recent version of android do.
windows phone wont support it till the next update

shuffles03

Half the company I work for is on Vodafone and half is on O2. I have a diamond upgrade with O2 so I can get any phone for free but if I switch to vodafone to get the Desire HD I'll have to pay full price for the phone! So annoying!! I wish O2 sold the Desire HD. Now it looks like I'll have to stay with O2. There's no point in paying for a phone when I can get one for free. I guess I'll have to settle for the HD7 or normal Desire! Pretty pee'd off!

Venom

shuffles03 wrote: »

Half the company I work for is on Vodafone and half is on O2. I have a diamond upgrade with O2 so I can get any phone for free but if I switch to vodafone to get the Desire HD I'll have to pay full price for the phone! So annoying!! I wish O2 sold the Desire HD. Now it looks like I'll have to stay with O2. There's no point in paying for a phone when I can get one for free. I guess I'll have to settle for the HD7 or normal Desire! Pretty pee'd off!

Bitching about having to take a FREE HTC Desire!

You sure have a hard life dude :rolleyes:

shuffles03

Suppose I deserve that! It's just, everyone keeps telling me that the Desire HD is miles better than the Desire so that's why I wanted to get it. I've also been told not to get the HD7. Way wud u pick?

Professey Chin

shuffles03 wrote: »

Does Android support copy & paste?

It always has.They made sure to have it in from the start since at that time the iphone still didnt have it :pac:

shuffles03 wrote: »

Suppose I deserve that! It's just, everyone keeps telling me that the Desire HD is miles better than the Desire so that's why I wanted to get it. I've also been told not to get the HD7. Way wud u pick?

TBH it isnt miles better.Slightly bigger screen but still the same resolution, Standard LCD instread of Super LCD.8 instead of 5mp camera and dual instead of single flash.Smaller batter but the power management from the newer GPU and Processor should make up for it. And the updated Sense will be coming to the Desire considering its userbase

The Desire more then holds its own against it and the Dev community behind it is already much more established if youre looking to tinker with it.

As for Win phone7, id hold off getting one for a while until it matures a bit. Still early days to see how it does.

Venom

shuffles03 wrote: »

Suppose I deserve that! It's just, everyone keeps telling me that the Desire HD is miles better than the Desire so that's why I wanted to get it. I've also been told not to get the HD7. Way wud u pick?

I paid 300ish quid for for my Desire and would have no issue doing so again. Iv not really looked into the DesireHD for the simple reason the standard Desire is just that good and the main selling points of the HD being the front facing camera and bigger screen just aint enough to justify an upgrade.

Are having a bigger screen and video calling (which no one will really use) worth the extra cost to you? Also like Ultimate Chin said above Win7 could be the best of the best in time but its not right now and now is when you are buying.

Bluefoam

Venom wrote: »

I paid 300ish quid for for my Desire and would have no issue doing so again. Iv not really looked into the DesireHD for the simple reason the standard Desire is just that good and the main selling points of the HD being the front facing camera and bigger screen just aint enough to justify an upgrade.

Are having a bigger screen and video calling (which no one will really use) worth the extra cost to you? Also like Ultimate Chin said above Win7 could be the best of the best in time but its not right now and now is when you are buying.

You sure the HD has a front facing camera?

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

ChopShop

Desire HD isn't definitively better than the original Desire, and that's coming from someone who has the HD.

Venom

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Think I was mixing that feature up with the Evo :pac:

Professey Chin

Venom wrote: »

Also like Ultimate Chin said above Win7 could be the best of the best in time but its not right now and now is when you are buying.

Ah now I never said that.
The little green guy will always bitchslap WinPh7 IMO

Venom

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

Ah now I never said that.
The little green guy will always bitchslap WinPh7 IMO

Well I ment the bit about holding off on WinPH7 until it matures into a valid modern phone OS.

evolutionqy7

wernstrom! wrote: »

Desire HD isn't definitively better than the original Desire, and that's coming from someone who has the HD.

Well the new sense is just worth it. Im using that and its brilliant. Also on the HD battery life has been improved dramatically

Dean_Mc

Got the HD7 and I am thrilled with it. Admittidly I'm not a fan of andriod put coming from an iPhone to a HD7 I'm impressed.

evolutionqy7

Well lets hope MS keeps strict on marketplace rules. Strong rules against piracy will always attract developers. Also to keep the quality of the games high

wayne040576

There's a review of the HD7 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys73w7KsMYE

He didn't seem too impressed.

shuffles03

Got the HD7 last nite but mite return it tonite. I have a few problems but maybe it's jst me and someone who owns one can help me out?

1. If I want to have a few email accounts on the phone I have to have a separate tile for each account. Also, when I opened the inbox it only showed the last 10 emails, no more. I clicked on settings and changed it to show everything but it never did. Also, only one of my gmail accounts wud show emails. The others were connected and logged in but wudnt load up anything in the inbox.

2. The marketplace won't download most apps. I cud get a few eg. Torch etc but when I went to download a free game or even Facebook, it said that it was not available in the marketplace even though I was looking right at it.

3. The conversations in the messaging seems a bit weird. On the iPhone, msgs I send are in green and msgs I receive are in grey. On the HD7 everything is green so it's hard to distinguish wat is sent and received.

4. The address book confuses me a bit. It's linked with my Facebook account so if I want to ring someone, I click on the Peoples tab in the phone tile and it brings up all my Facebook friends. Problem with this is that I don't ring most of the friends in my Facebook account, therefore there are loads of random annoying names that I'll never ring.

5. The web browser seems a lot slower than in the iPhone. Also, apps like YouTube are just web links and not apps.

Should I keep it? Or are my problems easily fixed?

evolutionqy7

wait for full system access the fun will begin then

shuffles03

Wats full system access? Was just talking to Carphone and they'll take it back as my upgrade hasn't been put through yet. Should I, or are my previous problems easily fixable?

simi956

Shuffles3, I replied back on the O2 forums to your questions, Your issues can be fixed,

shuffles03

Hey, can't find it, sorry. R u under a different handle in O2 forums? Way section is it under? Handsets or HTC? Sorry, I posted a few topics and can't remember where. Cheers though.

simi956

Under HTC

shuffles03

Cheers for that. I posted my question there, prob more relevant there. Thanks, do know anything bout the other problems?

simi956

Have you tried the marketplace today, as there was a brief outage yesterday

shuffles03

Haven't checked. Phone is back in it's box. I tried last nite at bout 11 it that helps?

Dean_Mc

Bear with it, most of the issues you have are just setup fud. The 02 forums are the best place for a response to that since that is where most people go as first port of call. Once you get the hang of it it is a lovely simplistic phone to use with power under the hood.

shuffles03

I have till 7 to make up my mind. Carphone said if I bring it back today I can change it. Phones at home so can't use it. If someone knows how to fix each of those problems that wud be sweet. I've posted it up on the O2 forums, still waiting for a reply.

Dean_Mc

Linky?

simi956

shuffles03, Did you not see my reply on the HTC threads on the O2 forum

shuffles03

http://community.o2online.ie/t5/HTC/HTC-HD7-email-problem/m-p/173519/highlight/false#M2649

Yeah got the reply cheers. I changed the sync settings and it still wudnt load up more than 10. I don't mind bout the Peoples tile but the marketplace still wudnt download loads of free apps this morning before I left for work.

Dean_Mc

Marketplace is still slow this morning. It took about 6mins for the install option to come up on my 30 meg wifi connection.

shuffles03

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Ok, I'm gonna make my decision based on this question:

Since u own a HD7, can u see all of ure emails in ure account across multiple accounts and if u think I can sort out all my previous problems I'll ring Carphone and tell them I'll keep it. I prob haven't given it enough time it's just Carphone gave me till this evening so I'm being pretty hectic about my decision.

Dean_Mc

Yes, when I first loaded my two email addys onto it it gave me two tiles each with an email box. both should a few emails for a few hours then pretty much everything game down the wire.

Both email addies are gmail based and they both had imap enabled.

shuffles03

Ok, make or break. Keep it or get am iPhone 4?

Dean_Mc

I moved from an iPhone to the HTC with no issues. I am slightly biased as I develop software using .net so I am writting applications for it. Having said that I have no issues recommending this unit to non techy friends.