God damn, I adored this phone. When it was released back in late 2009, I was stuck on a Blackberry Curve 8900, and I badly wanted the Hero. I’d been eyeing up the (then young) Android operating system and, like many others, saw the huge potential. Unfortunately, the only device I would consider running Android at the time was the HTC Magic. While it had a neat little design, there were quite a few features lacking that ruined the device for me. No 3.5mm headphone jack? Very basic Android software and user interface? No thank you. But then along came the Hero. 

The Hero ran HTC’s Sense user interface, a UI running on top of Android that made it feel like an entirely new operating system. With Sense, I felt that Android became usable and tolerable - Android 1.x on the HTC Magic wasn’t exactly pretty, nor was it terribly functional. Sense allowed you to take advantage of tons of new widgets and apps, all packaged in one sleek operating system. 

The Hero also had a really distinctive hardware design that incorporated the ‘chin’. This section at the bottom of the device fitted to the side of your face nicely, making phone calls an absolute pleasure. This was the first phone I owned that I actually looked forward to using; I found myself finding any excuse to whip out my Hero and use some of the awesome apps that were on it. One of the biggest features that the Hero was advertised with was the inclusion of Adobe’s Flash player. While this wasn’t exactly full-fledged Flash akin to that of a desktop version, it proved enough to play most online videos smoothly, and even play most basic Flash games that were around the Internet at the time. As a sidenote, I don’t use Flash on my current Android phone, which is kinda ironic, but is also another story. 

The Hero was something truly different, and stood out from the crowd. I’d probably put this phone in my top ten smartphones of the last decade, simply because it brought a ton of new features to the table that other manufacturers had been way too scared to bring themselves. Well done, HTC. 

Instagram was released on Android today, and I love it. 

Well here we go, folks; it’s that time again when I’m looking for yet another phone. This time, it’s more of a ‘political’ thing rather than me specifically needing a Nexus S. After all, it will most certainly be a downgrade from my current phone (HTC’s Incredible S) in terms of specs. So why am I selling a high-end HTC for a one-year-old, rather cheap-feeling Samsung? 

The main reason I’m pretty sure I’m going to the Nexus S is software updates. I am sick of HTC cutting their customers off after eight months. My phone was released earlier this year and it won’t get an update to Ice Cream Sandwich. To me, that’s outrageous. One of the main problems with Android is the fact that manufacturers like to install custom UIs, which slows down the update process for certain devices, and in some cases prevents an update from being available. 

The logical choice of Android phone in this situation would be the Galaxy Nexus, but as I’m a broke student, the Nexus S will have to do. I can’t sell my Incredible S for much, so the cost of me selling it will cover the cost of a brand new Nexus S off Amazon perfectly. The Nexus S will get ICS within the next few months, and it’ll probably get the next release of Android after that (most likely another eighteen months away); this makes it the only future-proof phone that I can realistically consider buying. The only real issue I originally saw with the Nexus S replacing my current device was the lack of HD video capture on its five megapixel camera, but the amount of phone photography I do is minimal, and for decent shots I’ll just use my Fujifilm S1600. 

I’m also fed up of HTC Sense slowing my phone down; something that was previously aesthetically-pleasing for me has just turned into a CPU hog/graphical nightmare of a UI. Stock Android is so much faster, and the Nexus S also has some pretty powerful graphics processing power. 

So at the end of the day, I’m happy to slightly downgrade my device for something that I feel will last me longer, and that will give me less grief. My current phone is like a Ferrari - powerful, but has a lot of flaws; the Nexus S is more of an Audi R8 - a sensible, slick, and reliable alternative. As a daily driver, I’ll happily take the R8 over a Ferrari. 

Look out for my final decision on Twitter over the next few weeks. 

So we finally got the Galaxy Nexus (previously known as the Nexus Prime). I got home from a 2-3am bike ride earlier today and sat down to watch the stream of the launch event, and at first I wasn’t really that impressed. However, I’ve taken a closer look at the GalNex (which is how I like to refer to it), and it’s grown on me. A lot. 

Screen

I want to address this first, because I think that it’s the most impressive feature of the device. The GalNex features a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED display touting a resolution of 1280x720. Yes, that is a 720p display on a phone. I’ve been impressed with both Apple’s Retina Display as well as HTC’s qHD displays, but this takes things to a whole new level. You’ll be able to fit so much on that screen; this makes it ideal for browsing the web and reading large amounts of text. Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology will also ensure that the screen looks utterly amazing, which it does. 

Camera

Although the phone ‘only’ features a 5-megapixel camera, it records video in full 1080p HD with continuous autofocus, and has some nice effects built-in, such as the panorama mode that merely requires you to sweep your phone from one side of your shot to the other. The software will then automatically create you a nice panorama. Looking at the image samples online, I can see that the camera quality is very good, and probably on a par with that of the 8-megapixel cameras found on most recent HTC devices. It really shows that the number of megapixels really doesn’t matter. 

Ice Cream Sandwich

Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will ship with the Galaxy Nexus. It features a total UI overhaul, and the only word I can use to describe the new UI is stunning. Everything takes a whole new ‘glass’ look, and the blue accents around the whole OS give it a very ‘Tron’ like appearance. Check out this video for a runthrough of the new OS. ICS also supports dual-core processors fully, which makes the GalNex a damn fast device, with its dual-core 1.2Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM. 

Samsung

I hate to burst my own bubble, but the only real thing that puts me off this device (other than the potential SIM-free prices, which are likely to be over £500) is the fact that it’s a Samsung phone. I have a minor vendetta against Samsung, and because of this there’s a small part of me that wants to completely avoid this phone. However, it is Google-branded; also, to be fair to Samsung they have packed in some formidable hardware. Samsung have only manufactured the device, and designed the hardware, so you are getting a Google phone with the Galaxy Nexus, and not a Samsung device. Samsung also don’t have the rock-solid build quality of HTC, and I suppose they never will, but I think this is something I could deal with. 

Verdict

Am I getting the Galaxy Nexus? Truthfully, I don’t know for sure yet, but it’s more than likely. As with every phone, I need to get my hands on one and find out what it’s like to live with before going out and purchasing one (I’ll need to purchase SIM-free and sell my current device, as my contract isn’t up for a very long time). I’m also getting fed up of HTC being unfaithful with software updates; where’s the 2.3.4 update for the Incredible S, guys? I believe that it’s the best smartphone in terms of raw specifications, and it will (like every Nexus device) get the latest Android software updates long before any other phone. Previously, this hadn’t bothered me, but now that I’ve been stuck using non-rooted devices and delayed software updates for the past two years or so, I think I want a change. 

Look out for my continued coverage on the Galaxy Nexus, and feel free to leave comments to help me decide. 

While I love HTC Sense, every now and then I can’t help but have a play with some other different styles of homescreen on my phone. The (theoretically) infinite customisation potential of Android means you can do pretty much what you want to your homescreens. 

As you can see, I’ve created this ultra-slick and minimalist homescreen design simply by using Launcher Pro, WP Clock Live Wallpaper, and Widgetlocker (for my lock screen, which you’ll see a bit later). I only use one homescreen, with WP Clock set as my live wallpaper with a custom background (I pulled from a quick Google image search), and three docks (one pictured) at the bottom containing all of my most used apps/shortcuts. 

I’ve used the aforementioned Widgetlocker app to bring back the classic Android (2.1 upward, I think) lockscreen, complete with the profile changer on the right. Obviously it’s less functional than my previous seven HTC Sense homescreens; there are no widgets or even app shortcuts on my homescreen, but it’s beautiful to behold. 

PS: I have not rooted my phone, as you can see I still have some elements of HTC Sense running, such as the slate theme (which goes well with the new minimalist look). 

Android has become so successful over the past couple of years, people are starting to cry over silly little things. There’s been an increasing number of people in the community crying (my term for moaning) about HTC’s locked bootloaders on certain Android devices. In short, a locked bootloader prevents users from installing custom ROMs (such as Cyanogen) on their devices. What does this mean? Hackers’ nightmare; average users probably couldn’t care less. 

I’m taking the Phil Nickinson approach to locked bootloaders: if you want an unlocked bootloader, buy a developer phone such as the Nexus S; don’t buy a more consumer-orientated device such as my HTC Incredible. Just because you’re a developer, or even just lean toward the developer community, doesn’t mean you should expect all companies to be open to hacking. After all, most people won’t hack their device. 

PS: Luckily, HTC recently made an announcement that they would no longer be locking bootloaders. No comment. 

Y’all remember a while back I was keen on getting an Incredible S this summer (I change my phone every year, no matter what my contract length is), but I was actually pretty pissed about the build quality of the device. It wasn’t what I expect from HTC; by no means was it bad, it was just a mass of plastic, and felt very light, almost verging on flimsy. Enter the Desire S, similar to the Incredible S but with a slightly ‘worse’ camera (5MP as opposed to the Incredible’s 8). Specifications between the two devices remain as-near-as-makes-no-difference similar. The Desire S is also quite a compact device, something that I always admire, and it feels lovely in the hand.

Everything is here: 1Ghz CPU, 1.1GB of RAM, 720p HD video capture, Android 2.3 with the latest version of HTC Sense, and a front-facing camera for video chat (a huge win for me, as I use Skype a lot). I’m supposed to be keeping my HTC Legend for another year (24 month contract), but my early exit fee this June will only be £240, and the Desire S will come free on the same Vodafone contract. I can’t think of anything better to splash out on, apart from alcohol and food of course. 

Yeah, shock horror skid slide smoke. Everyone is constantly telling me how amazing their Android phone is after root. It’s not that I can’t see the advantages; I could probably think of more to do with a rooted Android device than most people, but the reasons behind why I won’t root stem from which side of the argument I take. Before I go on, I use an HTC Android phone and probably always will, because I don’t like stock Android. At this point you’re probably ready to quit reading because I come across as a complete idiot, but hear me out on this one. There are two reasons why I use Android over other platforms: i) You can customise the hell out of Android, and ii) Deep integration and synchronisation of services. The latter is the main reason, and HTC’s Sense actually takes this to another level with even deeper social integration within Android. I love that my Android phone is constantly tied to my Google account, so if I create an appointment on my Google Calendar at my desktop, it appears in my phone’s calendar instantly, and vice versa. Synchronisation is at the core of Android’s appeal for me, and in my opinion is light years ahead of iOS and Blackberry in this department. 

This brings me on to the main point about why I won’t root. The image above is misleading in my opinion; it insinuates the view that many have toward rooting Android, which is that their device will be set free. The point I’m making is that non-rooted Android, for me, is already an incredibly open and free platform. I don’t need any hacks to make my HTC’s experience any better, far from it. You all know about the consequences of rooting an Android device, and also the consequences if it all goes wrong. For me, that’s a big risk that won’t really be worth it in the end. Sure, many people will disagree, but for how I use my phone, rooting is totally unnecessary. 

Somewhat ironically, I’ve jailbroken my iPod Touch, but this is a perfect illustration of what will happen if I were to root my Android phone: I hardly ever take advantage of the potential that a jailbreak gives me, so I won’t do the same with Android.