Welp, I've been back on Android for a few months now. Some observations.

[jalb]

Hey guys! I haven't been around much lately, mostly due to switching phones. My Samsung Focus started doing this thing where it would act like I was plugging it in all the time, make the chiming sound constantly and the charging icon would come and go. I think it was trying to change the power source in the background as well, which I say because the phone also started lagging and the battery would not last but like 2 hours.

Anyway, I tried to get it replaced and they refused - even though it was my THIRD FOCUS (one other one had the same problem and one had ghosting on the screen), they said the 1 year warranty is only from the date of original purchase, so even though I had the phone only for like, six months, they wouldn't do it. SO, I was stuck buying a new phone, and as much as love me some WinPho, I wasn't will to pour that much cash into a W7 phone with W8 so close and (at the time) no guarantee that there would be an upgrade path.

Anyway, some observations from the other side - I'm no ******, very much a mixed household here.

I ended up getting the HTC One X.

http://i.imgur.com/1qcWV.png

Because I loved it's style. Here are my pros and cons as a reluctant Windows Phone regugee:

Love
-Chrome web browser blows IE out of the water
-It's pretty fast for the most part. Neither phone lagged per se, but this is more perky than the focus.
-The camera is insane and has a buttton of options
-The Google ecosystem is really super well put together (docs, music, etc). Interestingly, I still put all my important stuff on Skydrive. Errors and all, it still gives me 25 gigs free. <3
-Google Now is absostupidly amazing and makes Siri and TellMe look like toys.

Hate
-The UI crashes sometimes. Like I hit the home button and it will say "loading" for 20 seconds or so. Drives me NUTS. Metro/Modern just doesn't do that.
-No native podcasting. I really, really, really miss Zune. Play Music is cool and all, but I don't buy music online, I only buy from the band's website, so the whole streamy thing is not important to me, and the interface sucks and there's no podcasts. All the podcast apps in the app store blow chunks.
-It's ugly. I rooted it an unlocked the bootloader (huge process on this phone cause AT&T are dicks) and put a cleaner ROM on it, but it's still ugly. I took all the extra screens off (why would I need 7 screens??) and removed all the widgets. It lets you make folders in the dock. Still ugly as ****.


So anyway. Who cares right? Funny story - the other day, my daughter was complaining about her phone (Palm Pre +, cool phone, slow as balls), and I thought man, I wonder if that Focus can be fixed. I googled the heck out of it, and saw some guy say "just blow the charge port out with compressed air".

Believe it or not, that fixed it! As I was setting it up for her, I realized how much I miss that phone. The One X is nice, but as I've always said, the Focus feels so swag to me, it's just a luxury device. The screen is amazing, and it feels good in your hand, and I found myself scrolling the start screen up and down, lol. I have honestly considered, when Windows Phone 8 hits the streets, depending on what phones are out there, I may just give the One X to her and get me a nice Nokia or something. We'll see.

 

[scottcraft]

Thanks for sharing. I followed a similar path. I had problems with my Trophy, so after some warranty replacements I bought an HTC Rezound used. Overall it's been a solid experience. It isn't as pleasing to use as my Trophy, but it is less glitchy and it does a lot more stuff. This Rezound has really opened my eyes to how far android has come since I had a Motorola Droid. I am still leaning towards WP8 for my next device, but I will check out the latest androids too.

 

[threed61]

When I realized the flaws in webOS weren't going to be fixed, I tried Android. It didn't take many months to switch to wp. I have 4.0 on an Android tablet, I think Google is close to getting it right, but I still prefer wp to Android. In spite of all the complaints about fragmentation, I like that Android moves ahead relentlessly. Microsoft's lack of urgency and 'its good enough' attitude towards wp may be what does it in. I really hope not, because I think its better than Android.

 

[scottcraft]

When I realized the flaws in webOS weren't going to be fixed, I tried Android. It didn't take many months to switch to wp. I have 4.0 on an Android tablet, I think Google is close to getting it right, but I still prefer wp to Android. In spite of all the complaints about fragmentation, I like that Android moves ahead relentlessly. Microsoft's lack of urgency and 'its good enough' attitude towards wp may be what does it in. I really hope not, because I think its better than Android.

I too like that Android is always pushing the limit with their technology and hardware. I don't feel that WP8 will be able to do everything that a phone like the GS3 and the Note 2 will be able to do, but if it's reasonable close I will get WP8, since I find it a more pleasing OS to use.

 

[jalb]

This is true, but the carriers ruin it for the users. Unless you have a Nexus device, whether or not you will be getting the latest and greatest updates is completely up in the air.

 

[scottcraft]

I agree that the update situation with android isn't that good, but it seems like I've read somewhere that Google is working to provide updates in a timelier manner. As it stands right now Apple is the best at updates. I would love to see WP get to the same point as Apple with updates.