Product Review For The HTC Android Phone: easy to use device or techno headache?

Since both my wife and my daughter have laptops in my family, we decided it was time for dear ol' Dad to get some sort of mobile data internet capability and voila, we bought the 3G network Android Phone. It's really something else, a quality device to be sure. Not the technological nightmare I was fearing it might be, like some sort of VCR of the third millenium here to confuse even the more adept thirty year old.

The version I have works on the 3G network, it costs me an extra $30 month on my Verizon family plan, to have unlimited data. So far I enjoy getting notices real time on my email accounts combined with texts and Facebook status changes and comments. At first it seemed ridiculous but now of course it's already status quo for me. Seriously when I took a hike through the woods near my house with it for the first time the feeling was strange, to be able to send pics live to Facebook or capture videos to download at the next wifi hotspot. Being able to access any website, all while watching finches and woodpeckers fly around the trees and fields where I hiked with my newborn son. The Android phone has little weather change graphics on the front of the phone, so when it's foggy a moving animation of fog comes on the screen by the temperature. If it rains, little windshield wipers come out, it's clever.

Also, the Android phone has helped me lose some weight.

It's true. There is an application called Slacker which I'm sure many of my readers are already familiar with, but it's new to me! It's basically a sort of Pandora radio, with a free version based on your song or artist type, or a paid up grade with out commercials. I just about passed out on a five mile run yesterday when Jane's Addiction's Mountain Song came on, I started sprinting, my Android phone in an armband case where my old MP3 player used to go! Pretty neat stuff. You can also tune in on the regular FM band.

That's right friends gather round in awe of the other internet! Wait Ben! I already got the best internet there is you say! It came in a box and we let it out in the backyard and now the internet feels at home!

That's just great, glad your internet feels at home, hope it doesn't poop in the yard much.

But the other internet that I speak of here is the mobile internet . For some reason, in my naivete, I thought all internets were the same! Not so not so. The mobile web is a bit abbreviated, but it's getting much better. I formerly had a Motorola phone where the web browser was clumsy and pathetic! This newest Android version is done well. It's not perfect, it's still an abbreviated version, but you can navigate most aspects of a website without much hindrance. I've noticed for example, on Facebook when someone comments on one of your images, it will let you know. However when you try to click on the comment it just takes you to your profile and not the image itself. So there are little glitches here and there, but I still stand by this version.

There are a multitude of apps to be downloaded on the HTC Android phone, so far I've only divulged in a download of The Anchorman (movie) quotes about tiger cologne etc. etc. etc.

The camera and video on my phone are top notch. It takes great panoramic shots, and the timer is easy to use. I still haven't figured out how to sync my youtube account with the video recorder, but I think it's just a matter of working a few kinks out.

Lastly, the voice recognition is superb. It quotes a few hilarious lines incorrectly occasionally, but overall it works great. You can use it for google, or navigator which btw, works incredibly well also. The looks from teenagers that I teach when I spoke a text reply was worth it's weight in gold!

I recommend the HTC Android phone, it's a high quality technological phone that can be figured out by regular people.

November 2011

Just one last note on my Android phone, there is one major downfall I've noticed, battery life! I am lucky to make it half the day without losing charge, it's unnerving. Still an excellent phone though beyond the charge problem.