About “The Race to the Perfect Phone” article

 

The Race to the Perfect Phone

This seems to be a rare unbiased review. Since I don't have other experience except Android, here's my 2 cents:

1. Lastly, I'm seeing more and more reviewers saying that they actually like stock Android 2.1+ *more* than Sense UI. Stock Android is simple and logical.

2. I don't understand what is "unprofessional Linux-distro feel" of fonts (BTW, Google recently released Open Source Web Fonts), I don't understand words about lack of color coordination.

3. About apps organization: there is no and cannot be a single perfect hierarchical organization of applications, because one can organize them using *different* criteria. (It's because of this reason, in GMail Google organizes email messages using *labels*, rather than folders. Each message can hold any number of labels. Labels and search - that's the key. I would suggest that allowing to dynamically group apps on a smartphone using labels and to search for apps would improve Android. Is WebOS "cards" something like a materialization of labels, so that a single app could be contained in several cards?
For now, though, having several home screens and single-level folders is not too bad (certainly better than iPhone's mess - displaying All applications, though iPhone 4.0 introduces folders too.)

4. "The problem is that for every HTC, there's a Sony-Ericsson or LG -- manufacturers that just haven't figured out why it's important to take this extra step in the software experience. This is what could kill Android: it places far too much faith in the manufacturers of the phone hardware. In the past, manufacturers haven't had to worry as much about providing their own high-quality software on phones."
I agree with what you said above, with exception of, in my opinion, problem is mostly not in inability of manufacturers to supply decent Android *software*, but rather in using sub-standard  *hardware*. I think Google should include a [stricter] minimum set of requirements on hardware for Android. For this moment such a minimum should be something like what we have on original Verizon Droid, or maybe even on Nexus One. Fast processor, 800x480, a good capacitive screen, etc.

5. Froyo (Android 2.2) *IS* going to be available on most Android phones; question is - how fast it will be. BTW, yesterday I installed Cyanogen 5 custom ROM on my old ADP1 (HTC Dream - the very first Android phone). Cyanogen 5 is an improved custom variant of Android 2.1!

6. Two major drawbacks for Android <= 2.1 is its lack of a decent copy/paste mechanism and a dismal battery life (latter is true for all current smartphones.)

 

Vladimir Kelman
http://goo.gl/M6kc - Non-Phone Android Devices Wave.