Just very recently I upgraded both of my devices (phone and tablet) to newer ones from Google. I got an unlocked Galaxy Nexus and a new Nexus 7 tablet. And of course this allowed me to sell off my Galaxy S2 and my Galaxy Tab 2 (which were both pretty nice devices). Well fast forward a couple weeks and someone else wants to get in on the upgrading!
Jen has had my hand-me-down iPhone 4 for probably around a year and has been patiently waiting for the next iPhone to come out to use her available upgrade. Well, I showed her some potential photos of the new iPhone 5 (or whatever they're going to call it) and she wasn't impressed. The general thought being ... "it's just a taller iPhone 4." And she's pretty much right. I think there was some disappointment there - so we started talking upgrade options.
Naturally Android is the only other choice (if you say Windows Phone or BlackBerry, I'm going to pretend you no longer exist). So based on her usage (some games, some email, nothing major) I figured just about any Android device would be fine for her. She doesn't need to root or do anything like that (and won't let me anyway). But if she's going to use her upgrade to get a new phone, why not make it a good one.
I picked out the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III, and the Motorola Atrix HD. I'd say these are the top 3 Android phones at this moment. The Samsung seems like it is the clear favorite here with a large screen and the 2GB of RAM... with the Atrix being kind of the budget option but still really nice. But back to her usage, any of these would be a really good phone for her - so the specs don't really matter too much. Off to AT&T we went.
She was able to try out each of the phones and I told her it was up to her to decide... it really just came down to whichever one she liked best as far as the look and feel go. There was something "plain" about the One X in person that didn't really appeal to her (or me). The Samsung is nice... but the color choices are a bit odd. She liked the white, but wondered why there wasn't a black. She did like the white Atrix HD also... and eventually decided on that. She liked that there were no physical/separate buttons - it had a cleaner look to it. Like my Galaxy Nexus, the Home/Back/Tasks buttons are part of the actual display - not separate from it.
Turns out Best Buy was selling the Atrix for $50 with upgrade ($100 at AT&T). So we went over there to get one. Unfortunately they don't offer the white version. Only the black... but she was OK with that since she's going to put a case on anyway. Just a few minutes with the BB rep and we were done. She spent the next many hours playing and learning. I think she likes it... but we'll wait a bit to get her real reaction.
And the reality is that at any time, either her or I would be perfectly comfortable going back to Apple if a future iPhone seems worth it - but right now I think we're both happy enough on the other side of the fence. There are plenty of options to choose from and things are constantly changing.
The iPhone 4 will be sold off (assuming she's happy with the Atrix for sure). And thankfully I was able to have AT&T unlock it last night for me (since it was past it's initial 2 yr contract period and my account is in good standing). That took about 2 minutes. So now I can get a few more $$ for it when we sell it off!
Which reminds me, if you're looking for an unlocked 32GB iPhone 4 in black - we'll have one to sell here very soon. Current eBay prices look like it'll be somewhere between $300-$400 still!
ONE COMMENT ON THIS POST To “Yet Another Android Device”