Have they arrived yet?
I've still yet to order a sim card for my Alpha... I'm very dependent on being able to make calls and texts!
Yup, my Alpha has arrived and jumped in with both feet and put my sim card in straight away with a 32G microSD card i have laying around.
First of all, I accidentally ordered the 6G of RAM version so have a ton of RAM for it to play with, but weirdly it takes quite long to boot up for a new device. Once boot up though it is snappy as one expect, it its probably not Samsung Galaxy Note 8 speed but it is also not £900.
I will judge everything here from the perspective of a £165 phone compared to my experience of coming from a iPhone 6.
1 - Screen, this is HD, it is good sharp, colour is accurate and touch response is just like an iPhone. I can't tell the difference.
2 - Touch ID is fast, it unlocks the phone quickly and reliably.
3 - Battery life is VERY good. I used it the whole day and went to bed with 30% of battery left.
4 - Camera - it's sharp when it focuses but it does take time to focus, much longer than the iPhone.
5 - The glass back is a fingerprint and smudge magnet, you will constantly cleaning it and the only case that i can find is a cheap one from eBay for £5.
So after 2 day of Android use I am not only not hating it…I’m actually like it, I thought it would take much longer. One thing I thought I would hate is having used to the bubble of IOS and the uniformity of the skin, I thought it would be daunting to have this open style OS, however it feels like a breath of fresh air that I can change stuff around as I see fit. In one way I have no clue what a lot of the settings do but so far it seems fun just trying it. Once the usual suspects of emails, contacts, Facebook and Instagram are all logged in, it felt like home again. I am still fiddling however, perhaps that is a downside as I will constantly fiddling. For example, I am tying to figure out how to create a widget page similarly to one on the IOS when i swipe left with my normal stuff like Hue and Harmony remote.
It did take a few hours of setting it up to at least get it running with the basic, mostly remembering passwords. Google account took care of the contacts and emails and calendar syncing so the only thing I would say I am missing is iMessage with other iPhone users. That will just be on my Mac from now on. Most apps looks the same but some are less intuitive. I also need to get used to what everything looks like, like getting a text message is a different colour than what I am used to so at a glance I don’t know that is a text compare to a regular notification.
The biggest thing I am having to pinch myself with is how much of a phone I am getting for my money. Sure I don’t have wireless charging or water resistance but neither does my iPhone 6.
Not everything is amazing however. The sim tray feels cheaply made, the vibrate is not that strong and having self facing camera at the bottom really is not the best place for it although I never use it. The metal edges is EASILY scratched, in fact I have somehow done it already and its only ever been on wood and fabric surfaces. Then again, it’s a £150 device, not £1,150.
I still have the Elephone S8 on order that is due in 3 weeks and that’s supposed to be a better phone than this so I am totally sold on the Android and cheap Chinese phone idea. I can see myself in a year's time getting the Samsung S8 Plus when it gets to like £400.
