Depends on the phone you get. If it is a high end phone, it is guaranteed to get 1-2, maybe more, updates (especially if it is HTC or Motorola). If it is a Nexus, it is guaranteed to be relevant for 2 years. Worse comes to worse, I can update it myself. Once again, your attempt to troll has failed because you don't know wtf you are talking about.
Oh, I know. I've done some work on the ED12 builds of Gbread with the same guy who did midnight rom for epic4g. Okay, I'll take my comment back. The phone is amazing, I'm just scared of it not getting timely updates because its Samsung. That and Samsung isn't fully supported my CM7
Okay, it comes down to all of these factors: Carriers: Alot of people tend to ignore the carrier just due to the phone itself. Tmobile Pro's: Cheap, good plans, and a decent phone selection as of late, GSM (If you travel alot), they're stupid when it comes to detecting leaked baseband versions, wireless tether , etc. More leniant towards the rooters. Tmobile Con's: Coverage is very spotty, HSPA+ isn't consistent but I'd rate it better than Wi-max, you're stuck on EDGE alot of the times in certain parts of Houston Tmobile Phones worth mentioning: The G2 (CM7 support on this device is amaing) Mytouch series (meh.... but to each his own) Galaxy S lineup &the latest G2X (This one is my choice if I were on Tmobile) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sprint: Pro: Pretty good coverage for the price (you can increase it if you're rooted by force roaming onto VZW analog, 1x only for data), they have pretty good support in terms of going into a store, nice selection of Android phones, including stock Android, and UNLIMITED plans Cons: telephone support is garbage, Wi-max is a complete joke if you're going to put it on the 2.5 ghz spectrum which is horrible for building penetration, the added 4g fee isn't worth it. Phones: Of course you have the EVO series, EVO -EVO SHIFT- AND EVO 3D Samsung Epic 4g, deadline date for getting Gbread is May 15th, don't expect it anytime soon though as they want to release the evo 3d first, decent phone with nice amoled screen. Nexus S - same as Tmobile's but with a CDMA and Wi-max radio, if you're looking for a cheap (199 with 2 year contract) nice stock experience, this is your phone. Available May 8th -------------------------------------------------------------------------- AT&T Pro's: Great coverage, more so in the 850mhz markets vs the 1900 pcs. As of late, their Android selection has gotten better but it's still not the best. Not so cheap plans, but expect good service, however you will get dropped calls as GSM carriers don't handle loads as well as CDMA does. This shouldn't scare you away though. Cons: They don't update their Android phones in a timely manner in cooperation with the manufacturer, they disable sideloading non market android apps, and they are EXTREMELY against unauthorized tether users , their 4g isn't what it is made out to be, HSUPA (upload on their 4g) is disabled (unless you're rooted XDA has a fix for it from the telstra version ) Phones: Atrix 4g (A dual core beast,qHD screen, however it has its set of glitches, very fast, but it's running Blur, and of course.... locked booloader) Inspire 4g (A quality device made by HTC, no front facing camera, but a decent device with a nice price, not so bad in terms of speeds and fluidity) There are no other Android devices on AT&T worth mentioning IMO, I once had an aria... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Verizon Pros: Good ol VZW network coverage, pretty good footprint on par with AT&T if not even better in other states. 4G LTE is really special and it penetrates buildings even better (700mhz) than their standard voice frequency, less dropped calls as they run on (800 mhz). Good customer service. Pros: They have a history of putting an awful amount of bloatware on their phones (vz navigator, vcast, crap crap crap), they have unlimited plans now but that will soon be long gone, they've never been the value carrier but you get what you pay for. They are against rooters to a point, be careful loading leaked RUU's and radio's as they can see your baseband version. Yes, they did put Bing on the Fascinate, to date I believe that is the only one. Phones: IMO, but I'm biased since I'm a VZW customer the best Android phones. Going back to the Droid, Droid 2, Droid Pro Global, Droid X, HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Charge, etc -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturers HTC: Pretty good quality control, alot of people enjoy their UI (HTC Sense), they don't make it incredible hard to root, at all. However, all their phones seem to look like the Evo, lol. Cyanogen supports a couple of HTC phones Motorola: Good quality, doesn't feel cheap, however the absolute worst in terms of modifying your phone, locked bootloader, very hard to root. Recently Motorola has stated that they are now open to the idea of opening the bootloader, as long as the carriers agree. (Which they're probably not going to be very fond of that) Samsung: Okay, so if it isn't obvious, I have a major issue with this company. But I will try to be as non bias as possible Hardware wise: They make EXCELLENT phones, those hummingbird processors in last year's galaxy s line up was really snappy, and i prefer of the Snapdragons. The upcoming Galaxy S2 has amazing specs, for those of you who believe in quadrants (i know some dont, i dont want to argue about it) quadrants on this device are over 3400! Software: Okay, here is my problem. They don't care about their customers. Last year, galaxy s phones around the world had GPS woes, from being unable to get a lock, to get an extremely inaccurate lock. Software updates: Okay, many people can argue with me and say the blame is on carriers (and to some extent that is true) , most Galaxy S devices were updated in a timely fashion in Europe and throughtout the world. The majority of the world is on a GSM platform. Samsung updated fine in Europe, but a big reason for that is that they had less fragmentation of their own line. The IT-9000 (i forgot specifically) was more popular, and thus easier to update. In the U.S you had so many variants, including CDMA and GSM cousins. Carriers in the U.S got Froyo around mid november, they started testing, but what people don't know is that the four major networks, kept rejecting these builds that Samsung was giving them. In other words, Samsung sent them Froyo, the dev team said "this , this this, and this is wrong", and they had to keep sending it back to fix. I'm not trying to argue with anyone, but I hope my post can help someone make an informed decision of their next phone. For 2 years
I'll give you the original Mytouch (that thing sucked), but I have the MyTouch 4G and this thing is AWESOME. Great build quality - nothing but metal and gorilla glass. Ideal size for one-handed use (read: swype), but great screen nonetheless. 1ghz second generation snapdragon processor, 768 MB of RAM. CM7-compatible all the way!
Another thing to consider- the new Motoblur that Motorola is rolling out with Gingerbread is actually supposed to be pretty good. Keeps the Atrix in the running for me, but I'll probably get the Galaxy S II.
to each his own... but for me sense looks too cartoony and childish to me. Stock gingerbread android with blacked out menus look high end and sophisticated... stock gingerbread looks especially beautiful on a amoled screen. All the extra features that sense includes with their widgets and custom apps can be achieved through third party devs. Cyanogenmod 7 is just a much more snappier experience. Its so snappy that i put it side by side with my roomates iphone 4 and tested certain apps like browser, music, screen transitions..etc and my thunderbolt with cm7 launched these apps quicker with smoother transitions than the iphone 4 and my phone is at stock cpu settings.
