Allright,
As you might have heard recently i have actually made one of the most controversial move in my live, something that nobody thought i would do.
Well actually it’s the 2nd controversial move, but let’s not get into that now :p
Surprise surprise, i am now fully using Android.
Yes.
Android.
That green monster which i have labeled in the past as "ugly, boring, slow, fugly, alay, stupid, horrendous, makes me wanna puke" and so on. I can never run out of bad thing to say about them.
Which is natural, because naturally i grew up around the windows environment, hack things around in the windows mobile era, thus makes me a windows fanboy.
So what happen then that suddenly i found myself "sleeping with the enemies" and
being genuinely branded as traitors? read on....
1. The Community
You see, back then when Android comes out, i was still using the old trusty Windows Mobile. I think i had a device codenamed "Kovsky" which was essentially an Xperia X1, and "Rhodium" which is essentially HTC Touch Pro 2. Back then i can see that Android had potential.
It was free, it was open, it was a new interface, it essentially got everyone (both normal users and developers) excited and licking their lips at the prospect that this might be the new holy grail of windows mobile.
Believe it or not, so was i.
But then happened the thing that always happens when something touted as "new and potential niche" become well known.
It blew up.
It’s like gangnam style, harlem shake, or that stupid caesar dance. You see it, you thought it was fun for the first 10 minutes, then you just got sick and wanna puke every time some other people start doing it over and
over again. You basically just begging to say to people that okay, you've get the idea and now shut up.
That what got me to the point of really annoyed with Android. Its users back then were proclaiming that they are so powerful, oh so good, oh we are the best, we tinker with our device and flash ROMS like we are hackers. Which just simply annoys me to no end.
Excuse me, we in Windows Mobile community has done the same thing you did, like 5 years ago. It’s not new, unless the only phone history you know starts with Android era.
Back then, i was also part of the notoriously genius XDA Developers. Well they were genius, im just a reader and member, really. It’s practically forum where people talks about their WinMo device, creates custom ROM, port app between brand, and basically just creating anything they want from scratch. So you can sort of understand when some new punk comes and starting to proclaim all that.
XDA at the time was also famous for featuring only phone that uses Windows Mobile, made by HTC. My old Xperia X1 was featured because it was actually made by HTC.
No android device or from other maker than HTC are allowed.
Well we ported android to be usable in windows mobile, but essentially, only windows mobile phone is allowed to be discussed and featured there. Its an exclusive club, no way in hell android or iOS devices coming around to XDA. Although XDA finally opens up to allow some other devices non HTC to come, but still no Android.
2. The slowness
Around the boom of Android, one of thing thing that i hate was the device. It was practically everywhere, and everywhere i look it was shit. The device was slow, it kills app every now and then, ran out of memory, looks genuinely crap on small screen, it freezes, it lags,
it lags,
it lags,
it lags,
and it slows down to a point where it’s almost unusable.
But thats not all why i hate android
3. The icon
One of the reason why i largely ignored Android was because of the icon. That mini little icon that looks like sweet candy. Sweet candy that is too sweet and gives me headache. Too much grid icon on android gives me the headache. It looks the same all around. iPhone, symbian, android, for god sake they are all grid !
4. The Phone design
Let’s admit it, android predominantly occupied by samsung. It’s just the fact. And guess what? Samsung is pretty much the same all around. That silly, round galaxy shape. Whether it’s the most expensive, or the cheapest one there is, they all look the same.
Not to mention they made out of....plastic.
Fuckin plastic.
It feels like 1995 all over again.
Plus, Samsung just feels like it’s....cheap. Sure, you can use air gesture and wave your hand around in the air like an idiot without touching your phone, but it doesn't hide the fact that your galaxy feels cheap.
Or maybe Samsung dont want people to hold their cheap plastic, that’s why they created air gesture.
No wonder im always in love with HTC. They build phone like a tank, with sexiness as much as Natalie
Portman's thigh and legs. And HTC dont use plastic.
But guess what?
I bought an Xperia. Sony Xperia Ultra.
It has 2.2 Ghz Quad Core Snapdragon 800 processor and 2 Gb of RAM. It’s much much faster than HTC One and Galaxy S4 in their crappy Snapdragon 600.
It has 6,4 full HD screen with triluminous display and XReality engine usually found on high end Sony TV.
It is only 5.5 mm thick. For comparison, your blue 2B pencil is 6 mm thick. Its thinner than pencil. It is super sexy.
It is water and dust proof. I can throw it into swimming pool, and it will still survives the day.
So, the community? XDA seems to get better now. They open themselves up to device non HTC and to other OS including iOS and Android.
The device? Its so quick, no lags at all.
The icon? i did a workaround by reducing the cluttering icon
The phone? it is sexy and very well built.
So, i am on Android now. XDA made peace with other OS, and so was i. But hell no to iOS.
Stay tune for my Xperia Ultra review on my next post.
