It sure seems that Google/HTC’s Nexus One was intended to be the end-all-be-all phone to save the universe from evil, but so far all it’s managed to do is come up short in multi-touch performance/bugs, poor 3G signal connectivity and to top it all off, HTC’s unimpressive customer support. Now added to that list is a growing number of reports of screens cracking during charging which costs roughly $273 to replace.
As Engadget correctly points out, one of the big things HTC/Google bragged about in their “making of” video series for the Nexus One was the high-flex bend tests done against the phone during manufacturing.
HTC’s response is that the phone does not belong in pockets… naturally. I keep my phone inside of a bird cage that I carry above my head at all times; so I think I’m all set.
All of these growing pains that the Nexus One has had seem to be “beginner” mistakes that other comparable phones (like the Droid) just don’t seem to be having. Poor positioning of an antenna inside the chassis causing intermittent signal loss, cracking screens and obviously poor multi-touch behavior/bugs… these are the bugs of a relatively green device company which HTC is not.
They’ve been in the game for a while, making a name for themselves riding the Android train to success but also putting out devices that are so polished and original (like the HTC Touch HD/Pro2) that you’d think they were successfully reproducing the Apple-sexy in the Android/Windows Mobile realm.
My own experience with the Nexus One after 10 days was a screen that upon close inspection would show ‘static’ — just like an old over-the-air standard def signal on a CRT TV used to look like 10 years ago. It wasn’t strong static, relatively weak, but absolutely noticeable. HTC’s stupid self-serving response to my in-warranty device enraged me so I returned it — which was easier than fixing it… retarded.
That’s besides the point though — even on a brand new device I was seeing wonkiness that I’m sure others have seen as well. This phone seems to be plagued with design issues (primarily hardware) from top to bottom and has left enough of a bad taste in my mouth that I make no plans to purchase another HTC device in the future and would warn anyone thinking about it to keep reading and searching for complaints on the device in the first place.
Motorola of all people seem to have nailed the Droid. My experience with Moto in the past was always “great hardware, shit software” and fortunately for them, Android seems to have replaced their “shit software” problem leaving them with “great hardware, great software”.
I’ve not seen any of these same issues reported against the Droid. While I cannot get a Droid (T-Mobile) and it’s not really what I want (no physical keyboard needed) it does seem to be the goto Android device at the moment.
I’ll be curious to see what is on the market by the end of the year though for Android consumers. Possibly a 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon-based handset in the works; unfortunately seems to be another HTC device.
