Ask The Droid Women Issue #1: Phone Shopping Advice
We recently announced our new “Ask the Droid Women” feature and a couple of you asked questions, and here is our first set of answers!
Amy asked:
What are your favorite ways to use your Android to spend time with your kids? (And do you have a hard time sharing your Android with them?)
DroidWomen Answer:
Unfortunately, Amy, none of our current regular writers have children, so we’re going to pose this question to the readers here and on Twitter. Readers: If you have kids and can answer Amy’s question – please post your response in the comments below!
Sue asked:
Which is the best smartphone for me? “Me” = a professional, 30 something female who, while quite intelligent overall, is a non-techie/late adopter. I have tried to like iphones and I just don’t. I have not gotten used to touch screens either. I have a Blackberry for work, but actually hate it for anything beyond email. I want essentially a pocket PC [and] an all in one media device. I will do calling, heavy texting, heavy web browsing and email, music. GPS/navigation and a good camera would be useful. I am not a game player, nor am I heavy into social networking.
PLEASE HELP! I’m willing to invest in the right phone, just not sure what that is for me. I have heard Android is “not for beginners” so I’m a little freaked out as I have no idea what that means.
DroidWomen Answer:
Hi Sue! We tend not to do specific hardware recommendations on Women With Droids because we haven’t each tried out every phone. However, we can give some buying advice based on your question!
Kassy says: The best advice I can give someone is to take the time to go into the store(s) and try different models. The main reason I say to play with the phones is they all have different screen sensitivity levels and shapes, very personal preferences. I was torn between three phones at first, after a lot of research, but the moment I touched them it was clear my Motorola Droid was what I wanted. I probably spent about an hour playing with them to make sure and it gave me confidence in my purchase.
As for useage as a camera, most Android phones come with either 3 or 5 MP cameras, with the HTC EVO being the king of Android camera phones with a whopping 8 MP back camera and 1.3 MP front camera. A flash is important if you want full camera capability. I haven’t had the opportunity to test out all their cameras but you can easily do that with in-store sample phones. Another cool camera feature to look for is a dedicated camera button on the side, available on some models, it makes it even easier to both bring up the camera and take the shot.
Google navigation is free, pre-installed, and mine has outperformed every standalone GPS and smartphone I’ve put it up against. It gets updated regularly, both as an app and the Google maps it uses for data. Make sure to buy a car charger if you plan on using it a lot in a car, it will drain your battery more than most uses.
Android is fine for beginners but also allows advanced users to do more than other operating systems, which is the only reason it has gotten a reputation as being for techies. You don’t need to root it or mess around with it, it’s just that you can if you want to. Every smartphone does have a bit of a learning curve but I’m confident that anyone can be proficient within a week and there are plenty of resources to help, including this site, of course!
It’s impossible to recommend specific models as this is a highly personal decision, what I like best might even be the opposite of what you like best. However, if you keep all of these things in mind while shopping you are sure to find the one that suits you and your lifestyle perfectly.
Liz says: First thought is that if you’re a heavy texter, you will probably want a physical QWERTY keyboard, like the Droid 2 or the Samsung Epic. Sometimes the touchscreens can be a pain in the butt to accustom to, depends on the person, but since you’ve already expressed that they are less than awesome then a physical keyboard would really be helpful.
The only phone I would consider “too bulky” would be the Droid X, possibly the Evo. I think pretty much any Android phone would qualify for “media device/pocket pc.” If you’re planning on storing a lot of music on there, you’ll want to research internal storage capacity, and storage expandability through microSD cards.
As someone who transitioned from Blackberry to Android…they can be completely fine for beginners! As with all devices, there is a learning curve. Take your time, do your homework and you can be really happy with the results.
Renee says: I think Liz and Kassy gave some great basic hardware advice to consider (Yes, try the phones out! Touchscreen preferences are very personal.), so I’ll focus on answering your software concerns.
When it comes to app choices (for texting, email, music, etc.), almost every Android device allows you to install apps through the Android Market, so you’ll get the same options on most phones. To make sure you can get all of the best apps, make sure to ask what operating system the phone runs and whether it will get automatic upgrades when new versions are released by Google. The ‘standard’ Android operating system version out now is 2.2 (a.k.a “Froyo”), and I would stay away from any phone that isn’t already upgraded to at least Android 2.1.
Some carriers also add their own software interfaces to the base Android interface, which is another reason to try out the phones in stores. You may want to first go to a store that has display phones from several carriers to try & compare so you can experience both the hardware (touchscreen, camera) and the software (homescreen, texting interface). Ask what each carrier has added that you can’t remove so you know what “features” you’ll be stuck with. It’s a good idea to tell the salesperson in advance that you don’t really care about games or social networking apps so they don’t try to use those as selling points or for demonstrations.
For keyboards, you should try out both hardware and software (on-screen) keyboards before buying. I know someone who swore they would never buy a phone without a hardware keyboard for texting because he said on-screen keyboard keys were small and frustrating, but he made the switch after trying Swype keyboard in landscape mode (big keys, swipe-style entry) on the Droid X, which has a good responsive touch screen.
I don’t want to add too much more length to this article, so I’ll just also add that once you dive in and get your new phone, check out our Beginner’s Articles here and our app recommendations here!
I hope we helped make you feel more confident about what to look for when shopping for your first Android phone!
Do you have a question for the Droid Women? Ask in the comments below, and we may answer yours in our next issue!
For Amy…
All my kids love Angry Birds. It keeps them busy. Even my smaller kids enjoy it. I downloaded a “Memory” type game with SpongeBob from the market.
Talking Tom is a fantastic entertaining app for little ones!
@amy
Games are always good especially when stuck at the doctor’s office waiting. One I’ve found so far is 2 Person Reactor. It’s a reaction time challenger to see who is faster.
I have a quesiton about my camera and my pic gallery. My camera performace is super slow. I am missing great shots because the camera will not load in time to take a pic. I was thinking that I have too many pics in my gallery. So,I keep trying to clear out the pic (moving them to my pc and deleting them off the phone (sd card) but that has not worked. Any ideas?
My second question is about waking the phone up during a call. If I am on a call for more than 2 mins and I want to hang up, is the only way to wake up the screen is to push the power button? I thought you can shake the phone to do that?
Great site and twitter feed, keep up the great work.
Cheers!
Jane @sfmktmaven