verizon htc trophy, convince me please

[kregstrong]

ok so i have been a faithful android fan since the first droid, then i got incredible on verizon, loved them both but hated battery life of inc, hated slow updates but i fixed that with cyanogen mod. so i hate the skins the manufacturers add to the phone cause it slows them down and makes them slower to get updates, i love android stock expierience, but verizon doesnt really offer a decent phone with that. the problems i have with android are the lack of polish and overall not the greatest user expierience and inconsistant behavior in the os lol. i changed to a iphone because a lack of good android phones and i like the consistant aproach apple took even tho i dont like apple or the iphone all that much. so ive been eyeing wp7 for a while. i like the ui, but verizon is just now getting its first wp7 phone the htc trophy, not the best phone, but is wp7 worth it? give me some advantages and stuff i would like, to help me decide if i should get it. also i just bought a dx2 and talk about a buggy and inconsistant phone, i cant handle the constant freezing and unsmoothness feeling of the overall os on the phone, so im gonna return it, just trying to decide to get a wp7 or a dif android phone. thanks fellas

 

[Adiliyo]

you've named one of the biggest "features" (for me at least, being of similar mindset to you)

wp7 is more like apple in that it is far more controlled by msft, and manuf and carriers are limited to a sandbox that they can employ their various skins and apps, all of which are removable without jumping through 60 hoops to accomplish.

as far as the trophy not being the best phone, the biggest thing that trophy doesn't have going in comparison to other wp7 devices is there is nothing extraordinary about it (especially if it ends up having a tft-lcd and not an sLCD)

BUT

all wp7 (current gen) devices are very similar since the chassis is spec'd out by msft, which makes them all performance wise very similar, so the user experience will be very similar to anyone on the wp7 platform (which is the same way apple essentially works, except the hardware is made by them and there is only one model per generation, so it seems even more simplified)

even in it's 1.1 stage, i feel that wp7 is FAR more polished than android, and offers a unique and efficient user experience compared to the iphone. once mango is released, it will offer feature parity with any other platform out there for the most part, and hopefully more APIs are opened up to developers so that we get more apps as well.

personally though, i would get the trophy off contract through 3rd party channels, as i would be pretty bummed out when the gen2 hardware rolls out and i'm still stuck very early into a contract. i'm guessing since the trophy is starting out at a lower price, i should be able to pick one up within a month for closer to $200 free and clear, leaving my options open for some new hardware in the fall.

things should be more clear after tomorrows event as to what hardware may be coming to what carriers, so that could help your decision.

i've had 5 android devices on verizon and the iphone4 as well, and while i love android's customizeability, it's a double edged sword, as the device (IMO) HAS to be tinkered with to get to perform fairly decently, and even then i would call it far from being very polished or smooth.

while the iphone4 and ios are far more stable, the platform is getting a bit stale and boring for my tastes, and the constant jumping from app to app gets really old really fast for me. i want more features baked into the OS, which is what wp7 seems to offer.

honestly, i can't think of one android phone on verizon i would even consider right now. if they had a nexus s, it would be a different story, but i personally don't see any vanilla android devices coming to verizon anytime in the near future, if ever again unless google changes something in the way they are developing the platform.

 

[mcetlinski]

Adiliyo - Good summary on the device. Helped me a bit as well. I've been tempted to go pick up the Trophy on Thursday, but if they list a 2nd gen hardware for VZW that will release late summer/fall then I will wait for that. Even knowing that I have about 20 lines that are eligible for upgrade right now. I do like what we are seeing with Mango so far so as an enterprise user I can wait a little longer.

 

[msft_tinkering]

No second Gen hardware mentioned in the Mango Conf. Thinking about what the hardware enhancments could be, I'm going to get one, likely off contract, because apart from faster cpu's there isn't a whole lot in the new hardware features that I think I would actually use. Well that and I've been on an Omnia with 6.5.3 for way too long.

 

[Adiliyo]

unless you really need a FFC, i think most people would be quite happy with the gen1 hardware.

 

[Ruined]

If you want to stay on Verizon, I think the trophy offers the best blend of android and iOS - a lot of flexibility like android but an even slicker and more integrated user friendly OS like iOS. Its also a world phone so when you travel it can come with you.

If the carrier is unimportant to you then the decision is tougher with the Samsung Focus & HTC HD7S on AT&T, plus the HTC Arrive on Sprint (which will be coming to VZW likely as the HTC PRO). That is all a matter of preference.

In terms of "convincing," you should not let yourself be convinced by others, though it is good to take in as much info as possible before making an important decision. I would play with a WP7 phone in a store that has them and if you like the interface and XBOX/ZUNE integration plus want verizon, give it a shot.

 

[Grubish360]

Go into any Best Buy or AT&T store and play around with HTC Surround. The Trophy is exactly like that phone, except for the fact that it is lighter, thinner, and doesn't have the large slide out speaker attached to it.

 

[Adiliyo]

If you want to stay on Verizon, I think the trophy offers the best blend of android and iOS - a lot of flexibility like android but an even slicker and more integrated user friendly OS like iOS. Its also a world phone so when you travel it can come with you.

If the carrier is unimportant to you then the decision is tougher with the Samsung Focus & HTC HD7S on AT&T, plus the HTC Arrive on Sprint (which will be coming to VZW likely as the HTC PRO). That is all a matter of preference.

In terms of "convincing," you should not let yourself be convinced by others, though it is good to take in as much info as possible before making an important decision. I would play with a WP7 phone in a store that has them and if you like the interface and XBOX/ZUNE integration plus want verizon, give it a shot.

Go into any Best Buy or AT&T store and play around with HTC Surround. The Trophy is exactly like that phone, except for the fact that it is lighter, thinner, and doesn't have the large slide out speaker attached to it.

both these things are excellent ideas.

play with the phone, see if it works for YOU, because all we have are opinions, and while mine are as unbiased as i can be, they are the things that matter to me, and how i feel about various platforms.

wp7 is awesome for me because i'm very much a user of microsoft's ecosystem of windows/xbox/zune, and the phone is a natural extension of that and microsoft (finally!) has made an actual ecosystem out of the various portals they offer.

the surround on att and the arrive on sprint are very similar devices, as to the platform itself, you can try out any wp7 phone and get a feel for the OS, it's the beauty of a unified and planned platform (unlike android, which is a free for all really)

 

[Polychrome]

I think the best thing about WP7, especially if you're fed up with all the little bloatware "extras" in the Android phones, is that Microsoft is keeping WP7 free of such crap. Not that HTC didn't *try*. (And their desperate little try is relegated to a teeny little widget. Muahahahahah!)