Would you have waited for the HTC Passion?

[Martin030908]

Sense is the customization HTC apply to their phones... Those nice widgets on the home screen, etc....

Since they change that actual firmware and don't just add apps, if a new Android version comes out, you have to wait until HTC edits their Sense version before you can use it...

downer.... I got what I want from Sense... I've installed Beautiful Widgets

 

[Dr. Tenma]

HTC just doesn't do it for me. If this does end up being Verizon I wouldn't really care- the processor is just specs unless it's implemented correctly. And since it is also Android 2.0, and the Droid is just as capable of doing the multitude of things an Android phone can do. Plus it looks cooler. So no, I wouldn't have waited, and were both on the market in Verizon for the same price, from what we have seen I would still go with Droid.

 

[Jason]

I'm very happy with my Droid and I love the physical keyboard

 

[imiller913]

Not at all I like the option to use a physical keyboard if I want to.

 

[Anomander]

The Droid was my wifes and I first smart phone. We are both happy with it. We were leaning towards the iPhone, but did not want to abandon Verizon to do so. Droid came out at the right time for us. Just like the computer market I get the feeling the smartphone market will always have something bigger and better just down the road. I think once developers get the hang of android 2.0 the Droid is really going to shine.

 

[Sam]

I'm very happy with my Droid and I love the physical keyboard

+1 that was a big deal for me..

 

[JayMonster]

somebody else brought up an interesting observation that I overlooked.

Having a Google branded phone we are only seeing the beginning here.

Your stuck with Sense. Yes you can turn it off but other than that your essentially stuck with it. Without rooting what you see is what you get.

With Google branding the sky is the limit. Something to think about.

Google wants nothing to do with Sense

I have been screaming this for some time now, but the love affair with Sense seems overwhelming at times.

I have a G1 for work, and it has moved from 1.0 to 1.5 to 1.6... while Sense phones are still stuck on 1.5 (as is of course Motoblur and Touchwiz phones). The G1... and that was a 1st Gen device with limited everything.

There was an article written (that I will find later) that was about how Motorola and HTC were basically saying that the future is SOFTWARE... that they intend to differentiate themselves through things like Sense (and Motoblur). So if you are buying a phone with Sense, you better be married to the "here and now" because essentially you are not buying an "Android Phone" you are buying a "Sense Phone... powered by Android" and whatever version of Android that phone has installed. You loose the effective quick updates.

This is one of the real benefits to the Droid over Passion. Even if the Passion ships with 2.1, the Droid will have it... or soon have it. When 2.5 (or 3.0) rolls down the pipline, you can be sure it will be on the Droid LONG before it is on any Sense based phone (unless HTC becomes the 3.0 launch partner like Motorola was for 2.0).

(I couldn't help but laugh at the one comment about buying a "buggy" Droid... vs a Passion, since... well... they are going to be running the same OS, so you you want a "buggy" Droid? Or a buggy underpinning to lag inducing skin layered on top?)

 

[dieselpowered]

Don't be fooled by "that proccessor"

People are falling into that whole thing. It's not that big of a deal and it certainly will not be outperforming the Droid to the extent that many seem to think.

Would I have waited? No. I have no interest in anything from HTC. Personally I am not impressed with their hardware at all. Never have been.

Moto and Android are what brought me over.

Sorry, I have to agree with this post.

 

[New2u]

somebody else brought up an interesting observation that I overlooked.

Having a Google branded phone we are only seeing the beginning here.

Your stuck with Sense. Yes you can turn it off but other than that your essentially stuck with it. Without rooting what you see is what you get.

With Google branding the sky is the limit. Something to think about.

Google wants nothing to do with Sense

I have been screaming this for some time now, but the love affair with Sense seems overwhelming at times.

I have a G1 for work, and it has moved from 1.0 to 1.5 to 1.6... while Sense phones are still stuck on 1.5 (as is of course Motoblur and Touchwiz phones). The G1... and that was a 1st Gen device with limited everything.

There was an article written (that I will find later) that was about how Motorola and HTC were basically saying that the future is SOFTWARE... that they intend to differentiate themselves through things like Sense (and Motoblur). So if you are buying a phone with Sense, you better be married to the "here and now" because essentially you are not buying an "Android Phone" you are buying a "Sense Phone... powered by Android" and whatever version of Android that phone has installed. You loose the effective quick updates.

This is one of the real benefits to the Droid over Passion. Even if the Passion ships with 2.1, the Droid will have it... or soon have it. When 2.5 (or 3.0) rolls down the pipline, you can be sure it will be on the Droid LONG before it is on any Sense based phone (unless HTC becomes the 3.0 launch partner like Motorola was for 2.0).

(I couldn't help but laugh at the one comment about buying a "buggy" Droid... vs a Passion, since... well... they are going to be running the same OS, so you you want a "buggy" Droid? Or a buggy underpinning to lag inducing skin layered on top?)

Even if HTC was a launch partner, all other droid phones would have it almost immediately. Since sense UI runs on top of the OS, it really wouldn't take much to have it out for the other phones. But i don't think HTC will be a launch partner for any droid OS updates because of how long HTC has to work on getting sense ui working for it.

 

[JayMonster]

Even if HTC was a launch partner, all other droid phones would have it almost immediately. Since sense UI runs on top of the OS, it really wouldn't take much to have it out for the other phones. But i don't think HTC will be a launch partner for any droid OS updates because of how long HTC has to work on getting sense ui working for it.

How long it takes to get Sense to work on it would not be an issue if they were working jointly on a "future version" (much like Motorola and Google did for 2.0).

But other than that, I actually agree with you (though I left the "possibility" for arguments sake)... I don't believe Google will launch any major version of their OS with a SKIN on top of it.

I know Hero owners are craving 2.0, but I can't imagine what that phone is going to run like with 2.0 and SENSE, when 1.5 and Sense was so laggy. But... to each their own.

 

[New2u]

Even if HTC was a launch partner, all other droid phones would have it almost immediately. Since sense UI runs on top of the OS, it really wouldn't take much to have it out for the other phones. But i don't think HTC will be a launch partner for any droid OS updates because of how long HTC has to work on getting sense ui working for it.

How long it takes to get Sense to work on it would not be an issue if they were working jointly on a "future version" (much like Motorola and Google did for 2.0).

But other than that, I actually agree with you (though I left the "possibility" for arguments sake)... I don't believe Google will launch any major version of their OS with a SKIN on top of it.

I know Hero owners are craving 2.0, but I can't imagine what that phone is going to run like with 2.0 and SENSE, when 1.5 and Sense was so laggy. But... to each their own.

When you have a platform OS out and your just waiting for a UI to get around to making it work, i think that does prove a factor. When you have it and you have to wait 1-2 maybe 3 months to get a UI to work on top of it, i would hope google doesn't make that mistake.

 

[JayMonster]

Even if HTC was a launch partner, all other droid phones would have it almost immediately. Since sense UI runs on top of the OS, it really wouldn't take much to have it out for the other phones. But i don't think HTC will be a launch partner for any droid OS updates because of how long HTC has to work on getting sense ui working for it.

How long it takes to get Sense to work on it would not be an issue if they were working jointly on a "future version" (much like Motorola and Google did for 2.0).

But other than that, I actually agree with you (though I left the "possibility" for arguments sake)... I don't believe Google will launch any major version of their OS with a SKIN on top of it.

I know Hero owners are craving 2.0, but I can't imagine what that phone is going to run like with 2.0 and SENSE, when 1.5 and Sense was so laggy. But... to each their own.

When you have a platform OS out and your just waiting for a UI to get around to making it work, i think that does prove a factor. When you have it and you have to wait 1-2 maybe 3 months to get a UI to work on top of it, i would hope google doesn't make that mistake.

Like I said, I agree with you. It would also be a mistake in that basically then Google is saying that the Android GUI is not "good enough" and that would be a huge PR disaster.

Google Experience Phones FTW.

 

[cereal killer]

This is the thing Google does not want to partner with HTC. They will not sit around waiting for HTC to get it right.

They have a popular device to showcase what Android is all about.

HTC cannot keep up with Google's innovation. They will always be playing catch up. If HTC was smart they would have left Sense on the winmo devices and slapped plain old vanilla Android 2.x on it. The Passion that is.

I just don't see how they will keep up. All it takes is for gooogle to come up with their own overlay and its over for HTC.

I don't put anything past Google. They are playing for keeps and are looking to unseat the champ.

I think we are in for quite a ride.