Ok to I like mobile phones and mobile platforms, I have been working with them for years developing apps and content for mobile browsers. I have been using by iPhone 3G (not 3GS) for a while now and I love many features on it, I feel it has been a real game changer and has forced other manufacturers to up their game. Also I think it has been a catalyst for users to embrace using their mobiles to access web content and to fly the flag for mobile apps.
The iPhone has it shortcomings however and I have been trying to look into a range of the hyped ‘iPhone killer’ phones that are out there. I have used many Windows Mobile devices over the years, with various levels of success and have really enjoyed using my Nokia N95, even when I got my iPhone I still used to swap between devices. I recently bought a Palm Pre for my girlfriend as it was just 50 euro from O2, a good price for a phone with all those features, really I wanted to try it out for myself! I found this to be a pretty good device overall and hope to post another entry on my thoughts on this device. Today I purchased the first Android device available on O2 the Samsung Galaxy Spica (i5700) on the basis that I wanted to see how good Android is and how it compares to the much hyped iPhone.
I did a bit of homework on the device before buying one of the main areas being the comparisons to the similar, but slightly higher spec, i7500. I was happy that it was not a little brother to this device, it actually has a faster processor and bigger battery, that sold me despite a slightly smaller camera of 3.2 vs 5 megapixels. Also I had played with an Android Simulator before, the developer in me had gone head first into developing a simple app rather than experimenting with phone features, so now it was time for the real thing.
First impressions were good, I liked the look and feel and found it similar in size and form factor to the iPhone but with the addition of more buttons and the ability to scroll, which offers a good compromise between touchscreen and traditional single hand use. I found the dashboard/desktop to be clutter free but with quick access to the main menu, everything seemed very responsive and intuitive. The scrolling seemed a little different to the iPhone or Palm and there were a few unintended selecting of apps where a scroll was intended, something that I got used to pretty quickly and reduced after use.
The initial sync with my Google account did not go so smoothly, after a restart everything went well and gmail, google talk, google calendar and contacts were all synched. I then imported contacts from the SIM card, I now have some duplicate contacts, however this is a problem I have had on many other devices (the Palm Pre however has a nice feature for attempting to aggregate contact information into a single contact view). There may be ways to clean this up as I have not looked into this further. Facebook was next and this was a joy as the setup was smooth and the interface was impressive.
Next up was to find some apps, this would be the real test I felt as the ‘iPhone killers’ have to compete with the many apps available (even if many are useless). I found some basic apps that I though would be of use a Compass, ConnectBox for accessing remote servers, a File Manager, Scan2PDF, System Monitor and a Task Manager. There were many more available but as with the iPhone App Store, it can get a bit time-consuming to scroll through all the apps. While the range may not be the same as the iPhone, the power of the apps and the low-level features that they have access to makes them much more powerful than many of the iPhone apps out there.
Next up was something I knew would be a potential hurdle, the entire area of Exchange Synchronisation. I had read that there was no native support, but some devices had support pre-installed and there were some 3rd part apps. With the Palm Pre this had been a breeze, but as I feared there was not support on the Samsung. A quick search revealed that support should be present in Android 2.0, but until then I went with one of the 3rd party apps I found, RoadSynch. I had met some sales guys from this company a few years ago at the Symbian SmartPhone Show and knew they had a track record on Exchange synch and push email on non-Microsoft platforms, not to mention they seemed the cheapest and have a 14 day free trial.
A quick search on the Market found the roadsync app and after a few attempts and setting tweaking I was able to connect to the my work Exchange server (this can be problematic anyway, never mind through a mobile device, so I was delighted). The synch went well and now I have even more contacts to search through. Thankfully I found I do not have to scroll through contacts to get to the one I want as I can start typing the contact name, although I found this a little slower than I would like.
Sending SMS and emails were fine and I had no problems, I had to send a friend the mobile number of another friend, something that can be tricky on many devices. I found I could attach the contact as a vcard attachment to an MMS, but I opted for ultra high-tech “write the number down and type it in option”, I hope to find a better way. The tactile feedback from a keypress and the landscape keyboard was welcome.
The next big worry was the Music application and how to get music from my iTunes library on my Mac on to the device. To cut a long story short using a program called doubleTwist and disabling a USB Storage Device setting on the device allowed transfer of music (including iTunes DRM protected content) with little effort and an iTunes-like experience.
Some annoying details included the first couple of experiences with the keyboard, I had wondered if the lack of a querty keyboard would be a disadvantage, pressing the buttons a little harder solved this and I have found it to be fine and not any worse than the iPhone, but not perfect. There is an option to change to a Samsung keyboard, this was not any better really, but to have the option of using an alternative is one of big potential strong points of the OS, the openness will hopefully allow greater freedom to replace device features that a user does not like.
Another annoying feature was the sleep interval, the timeout was so small it was a little annoying, but easy to get over by pressing the unlock/lock button and I guess by increasing the timeout! The upside is this should really improve the battery life.
I almost forgot to mention the Facebook widget and the ease of customising the dashboard, this is nice as like to be in control of the icons that I want. The switcher app is a great benefit as it provides fast wifi and bluetooth on/off capabilities that I find clunky on my iPhone as I use Bluetooth in my car but turn it off afterwards to save battery, if I am in and out of the car lots I find this frustrating, this is a great simple improvement for both the Pre and Galaxy.
On the battery life, I will report after some proper road testing under different usage conditions, but I am hopeful that I can exceed my iPhone’s limited battery time. Overall I am pretty happy, the Exchange support and Music transfer were crucial, Gmail and GTalk. These are basics after day one, the real power will be the other apps, widgets and services that can be added and the ease of which they can be developed compared to the Apple route for development and application distribution.
I hope this is of use to some, saves me having to explain the details to many friends who have commented on my facebook status!
Niall
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