Google Pixel XL

I have always had a soft spot for Android phones. It caters to the inner geek in me, or if I have to be totally honest, the geek I used to be. Massively customizable, almost every aspect tweakable, and you can get to a command line prompt within a few seconds.

I always preferred Google's own interpretation of Android, through their Nexus line. The last Nexus device, the 6P made by Huawei, alongside the excellent 5X made by LG, were great devices.

But, their hardware was clearly from a 3rd party, and while Google had influence in the software, they only had heavy influence and not absolute control of what you held in your hands. With the Pixel range, Google clearly aims to change that. I am currently using an XL, which as it claims, is the bigger of two devices.

The hardware manufacturer is not highlighted, and this is first and foremost a Google device. What are the key differentiators from Nexus devices ? Frankly, little to nothing other than 24/7 support directly (ostensibly) from Google. No self-respecting Android user would go for Android support to anything other than xda forums. It is also the first phone to ship with the Google Assistant, which is theoretically a context-aware AI that is meant to be a personal assistant in your pocket.

My experience is that Google Assistant is good as a product for techies; I think its got a year or three before usage becomes even remotely mainstream. What is clear is that by adding it into a phone, and making it available in Google Home (which I have ordered and funnily enough is the first device that has my wife's attention i.e. she wants it), we should see the AI engine improving exponentially.

Its a good device; is it good enough to replace your Nexus ? No. Is it better than a Samsung ? Much harder question. I'd say the S7/S7 Edge only have the advantage due to waterproofing and SD card. But, because I don't store much on phones and am generally always well connected (and have lived without a water proof phone this long), its not a big swing for me. Getting software updates and releases first, is.

The last HTC phone that anyone will care about

HTC was a credible, solid device manufacturer that not only made great hardware, but paired it with its customisations of Android that in past years made Android a credible option for business users rather than a geeks wet dream. But it feels like someone sucked out all the energy and dynamism out of HTC, and threw it into Samsung. Now don't get me wrong; Samsung, while they make great hardware, make some god awful UI's and add (in my mind) almost no tangible value to the Android ecosystem rather than numbers.

 

But you have to face reality; HTC is haemorrhaging its senior executive team, and despite announcing it before the Samsung S4, has delivered the HTC One it to market in most markets later (sometimes by days, but often by weeks) than its feared rival. So is this the last great phone HTC makes ? I hope not, but fear it is.

 

Onto the merits of the phone!

 

• Its gorgeous to hold in your hand, and feels so well built and less plastic than its rival
• Those stereo speakers are truly amazing - no more tinny noise, thanks to those Beats-inspired additions
• HTC Sense 5 is truly a breath of fresh air, providing a great skin on top of Android

But I'm afraid its not all roses :-(

 

• The battery life is miserable - try running out of juice (properly) by 4PM in a business day
• The lack of a large Calendar widget is a dreadful omission, given that its been there in almost every prior device
• The design gives the hint that its not life-proof compared to its rivals

 

I like it; enough to make it my primary ? Lets run the battery a bit longer and see. But if it continues to be miserable, no.

Samsung Galaxy SIII vs HTC One X

So, the big decision; do you buy the Samsung Galaxy S III or the HTC One X ? I'm not a fan of change, and I'd really appreciated the HTC Sense interface; I felt it enhanced, rather than detracted from, stock Android.

 

I ordered both, and played with both (the Samsung for about 10 minutes, and the HTC is now my primary device). Samsung's TouchWiz just seems to get in the way, and over simplifies the phone approach. I can see how this works well if their goal is to convert people from the iPhone to Android. It frankly pisses me off, and I spent most of yesterday helping a friend clean it off and install Cyanogenmod 9. He spent most of yesterday evening telling me how great it was over the stock interface, and based on my extremely limited time with it, I'd agree with him. He's going to love Jelly Bean when it arrives.

 

The One X seems on the surface not dramatically different from previous phones and iterations of their overlay. It just feels polished, smooth and natural. You can see that they've tried very hard to abstract the interface issues away from Android and provide a more consistent interface.

 

It feels good in the hand, and although the non-removable battery and lack of micro-SD (almost standard these days in any phone other than from Apple) is a concern, frankly it feels better and more well constructed than its equally large competitor. No doubt the Samsung will get more sales, but is it a better device than the HTC ? Not convinced. Battery life is sucky on both.

 

Both are still too damn big to be used with one hand, so it will be interesting to see what the iPhone 5 looks like size-wise. Its going to be a touch act to follow though, as the 4S appears positively dated compared to these new giants. Lets see.

HTC Sensation & LeeDroid

 

I've been a big fan of HTC for a while; their Sense UI is really slick. I changed my previous Desire HD for a Sensation, which is essentially the same phone but dual-core.

 

There's not much to say, other than that its a slick device, good build quality, but a little boring with plain old factory software. I used revolutionary.io in order to S-off the device, and installed LeeDroid on it. The combination is very fast, powerful and a pleasure to use. Highly recommended!

Desire HD

I was very happy and comfortable using the HTC Desire, which is an Android phone. It was stable, fast and felt much more integrated and polished than the Nexus One, itself a good device.

 

Then HTC announced the Desire HD, a bigger version of the Desire. To be honest, if screen size bugged you before, its about the only compelling reason to change to this. Superficial thoughts on it are;

 

• it is bigger (maybe uncomfortably too big)
• the build quality is poorer than its sibling (it scratches ridiculously easily)
• the battery life is lower because of the larger screen
• it feels slightly snappier (but not significant enough to warrant changing)
• htcsense.com has a long way to go - I'm not sure where this is hosted, but connectivity and the site itself needs a major improvement

HTCSense.com is a portal where users of qualified phones can track their phones (ala MobileMe), lock / wipe them remotely, access their backed up data, etc. Its a great promise, but needs some more polish and thought.

 

So, overall, happy with it, but as happy as I was with the Desire. Nice, but not different enough to justify a change.

 

PS. These can also be rooted and its annoying that Google doesn't force manufacturers to do this out the box

Updates on the rooted Desire

I mentioned yesterday that I was using an HTC Desire. Some quick pointers;

1. The image I used has the option to underclock and do various other things; don't use them, they caused my phone to be incredibly unstable.
   
2. You can install Wavesecure as a system service, allowing you to enable the GPS tracking remotely.

Using an HTC Desire

After mucking around with CM6, I decided to spend some more time with HTC Sense UI.

I like it; it feels polished, gets useful stuff done without getting in the way, and appears to be more stable than CM6. I've been plagued with random reboots while the device is locked and I'm sleeping, and this isn't great for me.

So, I pulled out a HTC Desire, switched on, and ran through the OTA upgrade, only to discover that it cannot be rooted. So, I had to follow this route to downgrade, and then used the unrevoked method to install a custom recovery, Clockworkmod. I then applied a pre-rooted image, from XDA-Developers. This is a good, stable combination which I'd highly recommend!

PS. unrevoked have released a version that can downgrade from the 2.2 upgrade. Much easier.

PPS. The compelling things for me in the HTC mods are

• Corporate directory integration
• A much better dialler with T9 lookups
• Some pretty, useful and pretty useful widgets
• A better launcher