I’ve used phones with Microsoft operating systems for a long time. Tyla and I have used the Nokia Lumia Icons and HTC 8x phones. Tyla and I have used the HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC Ozone and Motorola Q. The Q was my favorite of the bunch. I could type 30-40 words per minute on that tiny little keyboard. Before the phones, I had other PocketPC devices like the Jornada. I’ve developed apps for all of them and I have a bunch of apps currently in the Windows Phone store. To say I’m a fanboy is an understatement. Windows Phone is a fantastic operating system.
But.
We’re switching to Android. Our two year contracts are up this fall and we’re making the switch. It’s going to be painful and we’re going to have to relearn a lot of stuff about how to use our phones, but I think it’s worth it. It really feels like Microsoft is giving up on the high end Windows Phones. The Nokia Icon was a year or so old by the time we bought it and it’s still one of the best Windows Phone devices available. It seems like people are completely abandoning the high end Windows Phone market. It’s doing pretty well in third world countries. That’s great, but I want a high end phone.
And while it’s true that the top apps generally exist on Windows Phone too, sometimes they are unsupported third party versions of the apps or they come years after the other phones get the same app.
I hate that this happened, but I can’t ignore it any more. It’s time to pick a camp and Android is it. Why Android and not iOS? I don’t like Apple’s walled-garden mentality. I know it works great for a lot of users but I’m not one of them. Plus, Android is the market leader and for once it would be nice to be on the dominant platform.
So if you have a favorite Android phone, let me know. I feel like phone tech has slowed way down in the last year or two so I’m happy to save a little money and get last year’s model. I want a great camera, a ~5 inch screen, Android Pay, and a thumbprint reader would be a nice bonus. What do you suggest?
I have the Droid Turbo and I like it a lot. It looks like the Droid Turbo 2 is still one of the better phones on Verizon. It also fixes one of my biggest problems with the first turbo, no expandable storage. I will probably wait and see what is available this fall before I upgrade again as the turbo 2 has been out for a while now. Take a look at the current and upcoming Nexus phones. They are usually from different manufacturers year to year but they offer a “pure Google” Android experience without all the bloatware that many manufactures put on the phones. A really great resource for any and all questions you may have about Android is http://www.androidcentral.com