Cellphone Showdown - The preliminaries

I've started the 6 month process of shopping for new cellphone upgrades.  Right now I have an HTC Legend, a relatively low end (mid range at the time) android phone.  My early upgrade isn't until the fall, but that doesn't mean I haven't started shopping around.

Here's my current short list based on what's out and known right now:

Samsung Galaxy Nexus- I love the idea of a 'pure' google experience phone, but the specs are a little behind other phones even when it was released before Christmas.  The build of the phone, the curve, and the ICS operating system are all very enticing.

Samsung Galaxy S II - On paper better than the Galaxy Nexus, but there's something I just don't like about Samsung phones.  If I could get the specs of this phone, in the body and OS of the Nexus then that would be the leader of the list for me.  Yes, I know that the Galaxy Nexus is made by Samsung, but it just doesn't look or feel like a Samsung to me.    I don't know if it's the build button at the bottom, or what, but it just doesn't appeal to me, better specs or not.

Motorola Droid  RAZR (or RAZR Maxx) - I have a Motorola Xoom, and love it, strong build quality, solid OS, clean of crud (relatively).  I like the design of the RAZR, the thin lines, the edged corners, and that they are in the midst of being bought by Google which suggests that it will be quick to get upgrades and loving attention.  (unsupported by fact, of course).

Finally, the big boy in my wish list right now is the HTC One X.  I have an HTC phone now, as does my wife, and my best friend (all Legends) and without exception, we love the phone.  HTC has made big moves in the last year in unlocking their phones (meaning they can be rooted, or opened for modification without having to jump through stupid hoops) and also making their modifications to the Android system (known as HTC Sense) lighter and faster.  Personally, I love the behind-the-scenes changes that HTC makes for it's phones.  This currently is possibly the most powerful Android phone, and ergo the most expensive, but I'm hoping that the summer will temper that pricing a little bit for when my contract comes up.

Of course, this list of phones will grow and shrink as new models are released.  On the horizon in the rumour mill are the Samsung Galaxy III S, and probably a newer RAZR.   As those phones are released, and as models become available with my current carrier of choice (Bell Mobility), I'll give hands-on impressions and see where I can steer my wife and friend to  join me on my quest for upgrades.

Ice Cream Sandwich - Motorola Xoom Wifi

I woke up this morning to find that my Xoom had the brand new Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android waiting. I've been using my Xoom (with Honeycomb) since last March, and this has been the most exciting update for the Xoom to date.

Starting with the basics, the new font (Roboto) is very crisp, and easy to read. One of the minor gripes, and an early reason why I almost avoided the Xoom, was it;s ugly font for the clock in the system bar along the bottom. At the end of the day, the font became a non-issue, and i haven't looked back since. The system navigation (swiping back and forth between screens) and general responsiveness has been notably improved. The system widgets for Gmail and Calendar are very easy on the eyes now (not that they were bad before), and the contacts app (now called People) is much better.

If I can reduce this little review down, it would simply say "Polished" like never before. There isn't as major a change from the user experience from Honeycomb (3.0) to ICS (4.0), but if your phone has ICS, and you used Gingerbread (2.3) then it's almost a whole new world.

Aside from spit and shine polish that ICS brings to the table, and the snappier UI response, the built in keyboard has greatly improved it's speed/response when it comes to web browsing. Sites like news.com and canv.as no longer lag in scrolling, however the built in browser still chokes on the animate gifs on canv.as, whereas Firefox Mobile handles it no problem.

The Camera software has been improved, with the new automatic panorama options enabled, allowing for some beautiful landscape shots. Strangely though, the much discussed feature of the Facial Recognition Unlock security feature is missing. I'm hoping that it's just being reworked/tweaked, and will come at a later time.

Generally speaking, I tend to burn out on my fascination with technical gadgets like my android phones and tablet, but I can tell that my Xoom has truly been rejuvenated with this update. There's a lot more that I could type up, and describe (like the improved inline spell checking just like MS Word in most applications) but there are better reviewers and writers out there and all that I can do is express my satisfaction with this update.

[note] This was originally posted on Google+ on Thursday Jan 19