After ~ 2 years of heavy use my trusty Motorola Milestone is dying. Last legs. Battery life is gone, vanished, to the point where I drive to work with phone in the charger just to plug it into desk charger after arrival. Power socket is worn out and has a slack, so it has to be plugged at precise angle. Slide out keyboard is by now a bit lose and needs first aid plaster employed as pressure device between drawer and main body to keep it closed while in my pocket. It's a bit underpowered, runs out of space on me and due to motorola locking bootloader, it isn't as dev friendly as other android devices and therefore - all in all - phone is not worthy of spending large sums of money to refurb.
Long story short - I need a replacement phone. Something to serve me for the next two years+ while I go back on sim only tariff.
I'm not a germaphobe, or a hygiene freak per say, but I don't do second hand phones. As a principle. It's a personal device, I'm going to be holding it close to my face and mouth for the next few years, etc - so - second hand, used, etc, doesn't interest me at all.
However, now, the first wave of dual core android phones just entered discount stage while all manufacturers prepare for second wave launches in autumn. From currently discounted dual core android phones I narrowed down my choice to two that appear to make sense as a sim free purchase in a 2 year+ run:
- LG P990 Optimus 2X, currently can be had for £270. I'm talking retail prices, not private auctions. It's a pretty good deal for what the phone has to offer.
Daft interface aside, I can't see any immediate weak points, bar one (well two, but they can be considered as one):
I spend up to 5 hours a day in my car, and the phone travelling with me is always put to use. No exceptions. Depending on destination and car I'm using my phone either does navigation, traffic updates, journey logging, speed cam spotting and occasionally it might be used for car diagnostics or replies to urgent messages (easy, easy, put down pitchforks - using voice recognition, of course). For all of that to work efficiently, and not drive me nuts with bunch of cables everywhere, the phone needs to be in active cradle (I usually wire them semi-permanently) and preferably in landscape mode (sat nav friendliness, you see).
And here is the trouble - LG P990 has power socket in old school position - at the bottom. And it's a niche product with very little aftermarket following. Which means the one, and only dedicated, non universal, proper active cradle on the market is designed to hold it in upright position. Not a deal breaker, but a definite downside.
- Motorola Atrix, currently can be had for £360. I haven't seen it cheaper in retail atm. Being motorola, it's specifically designed to be mounted in landscape mode in a car and has full galore of dedicated aftermarket mods and accessories, including very good selection of active car cradles. Besides motoblur, manufacturer's douchebag approach to updates and a widely discussed multitouch crippling feature/bug, as far as I can see, it has only one major downside from upgrade perspective - it will require me to fork out £90 more than LG would cost, for very little advantage, a lot of disadvantages and a solid plus point in terms of in-car friendliness.
So, fellow forumites, some of you might actually have hands on, day to day experience with either phone - help the grumpy old man and convince me, to buy (or not buy) either one of them. Or offer good alternative. It must be android, must be under £360 (in real life retail money, not ebay one off win), be solid and future proof enough to live very hard and demanding life for the next two years+.
Long story short - I need a replacement phone. Something to serve me for the next two years+ while I go back on sim only tariff.
I'm not a germaphobe, or a hygiene freak per say, but I don't do second hand phones. As a principle. It's a personal device, I'm going to be holding it close to my face and mouth for the next few years, etc - so - second hand, used, etc, doesn't interest me at all.
However, now, the first wave of dual core android phones just entered discount stage while all manufacturers prepare for second wave launches in autumn. From currently discounted dual core android phones I narrowed down my choice to two that appear to make sense as a sim free purchase in a 2 year+ run:
- LG P990 Optimus 2X, currently can be had for £270. I'm talking retail prices, not private auctions. It's a pretty good deal for what the phone has to offer.
Daft interface aside, I can't see any immediate weak points, bar one (well two, but they can be considered as one):
I spend up to 5 hours a day in my car, and the phone travelling with me is always put to use. No exceptions. Depending on destination and car I'm using my phone either does navigation, traffic updates, journey logging, speed cam spotting and occasionally it might be used for car diagnostics or replies to urgent messages (easy, easy, put down pitchforks - using voice recognition, of course). For all of that to work efficiently, and not drive me nuts with bunch of cables everywhere, the phone needs to be in active cradle (I usually wire them semi-permanently) and preferably in landscape mode (sat nav friendliness, you see).
And here is the trouble - LG P990 has power socket in old school position - at the bottom. And it's a niche product with very little aftermarket following. Which means the one, and only dedicated, non universal, proper active cradle on the market is designed to hold it in upright position. Not a deal breaker, but a definite downside.
- Motorola Atrix, currently can be had for £360. I haven't seen it cheaper in retail atm. Being motorola, it's specifically designed to be mounted in landscape mode in a car and has full galore of dedicated aftermarket mods and accessories, including very good selection of active car cradles. Besides motoblur, manufacturer's douchebag approach to updates and a widely discussed multitouch crippling feature/bug, as far as I can see, it has only one major downside from upgrade perspective - it will require me to fork out £90 more than LG would cost, for very little advantage, a lot of disadvantages and a solid plus point in terms of in-car friendliness.
So, fellow forumites, some of you might actually have hands on, day to day experience with either phone - help the grumpy old man and convince me, to buy (or not buy) either one of them. Or offer good alternative. It must be android, must be under £360 (in real life retail money, not ebay one off win), be solid and future proof enough to live very hard and demanding life for the next two years+.
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