so i did it.. i finally upgraded from my crazy old phone (i think my contract was expired by over a year) to a fancy new smart phone. in doing this, i will triple my monthly cell phone bill. i hope it’s worth it.

my first reactions to the phone are:

  1. it’s heavy… it probably weighs 2-3 times what my old phone weighed. and it’s big. bigger than my ipod in length and thickness.
  2. it has a slide out keyboard. i’ve never really used a keyboard and the jury is still out on this one. at first i hated it, and lucky for me there is also a virtual keyboard that i can use if i don’t want to slide the keyboard down. i’m so used to the ipod virtual keyboard that it’s frustrating to me to try to go back to a word and edit the spelling… there is no zoom bubble that appears like on the ipod. so that’s been a learning experience.. also, the keyboard is off center due to some touch pad or something that i can’t figure out how to use. so typing with my right thumb is hard. if i place the device on a flat surface i can type on it much better with my index fingers.
  3. it doesn’t have a physical call button, so if i am talking and want to hang up with someone abruptly, i need to move the phone vertical and wait for the “end call” button to appear… that’s strange.
  4. the speakers are great… i listened to some music on it and it was quite loud.
  5. setting my brownshu.com account as my main account was very easy. even though it’s not technically a gmail account.. i was psyched.
  6. i was pissing and moaning that there wasn’t a native facebook app for it in the “market” (app store), but then i realized some time later that it comes pre-installed. i actually kind of like it better than i do the ipod app. also… i had the option of pulling all my facebook contacts into my contact app.. so everyone’s email address that facebook knows automagically appeared in my contacts, and merged with the contacts that i had already set up. there is also a facebook “widget” that you can stick to one of your 3 screens that scrolls through the top 10-20 latest facebook updates and gives you the ability to update your status from right there.
  7. the 9wsyr app is available for android. woot! i heart those crazy entertainment stories.
  8. putting music on the phone is kind of a pain, but putting podcasts is beyond a pain… because the phone mounts a drive, you need to drag files from your computer to the phone rather than “synching” like you do with an ipod.. well. podcast file names are not what the display names are in itunes, AND there is no way to tell if you’ve already listened to it or not when you are looking at the file in windows explorer. i’m also losing the smart playlist ability to queue my podcasts in chronological order.. an ipod is something i will still definitely need. but i’m thinking a nano will be sufficient for my podcasts.
  9. i downloaded this app called shopsavvy. it’s supposed to be able to read barcodes and let you know where the product can be purchased online or near you cheaper.. it’s not worked for me so far.
  10. the camera seems pretty decent. i like that there is a light. i’ve not tested the video camera yet.
  11. i have only gotten one phone call, so i am curious to see how it works when i am not staring at it, waiting for it to ring, and what it will do when i have a voicemail.
  12. it’s only frozen on me once when i was copying music to it.. i just reseated the battery and it worked again. the internet seems a little flakey, but when i switch from wifi to g3 it usually gets on the stick.
  13. i kind of enjoy the slight vibration when you push buttons…
  14. i am not sure about the text messaging.. i *think* i’ve been text messaging and not gmail messaging… but as spotted pointed out, if i set up a google voice account to it i won’t need the text messaging package.
  15. i’ve been using twitdroid for twitter.. i like it, it’s light and i can look at trends right form the interface.
  16. i bought the body glove phone protector… and it’s going back. it made it even bigger than it actually is and made opening the keyboard kinda hard… it was a bitch to remove after the guy put it on in the store… i hope the phone is not so delicate that it will break being unprotected in my purse… good thing i opted for the insurance.