Moving to Android : Part-1

After many years of being a Nokia user, I'm moving to Android on a Nexus 4. I've had my Nexus 4 for a few weeks now. This is going to be a set of time delayed posts on my impressions of the device.

I'm a long time fan of Nokia's hardware and their Symbian OS. I started my mobile journey with a Nokia 1100, moved to a Nokia 6126 and then until a week ago used a Nokia E-72.

My E-72 is still in working condition - it allows me to check email, browse the web and still gives me 3 days of battery life. However, one careless morning about a year ago, I dropped it and the screen got a crack in it. Over the last few months, that crack has started to expand. I decided that it was time to find another device before this one completely gave up on me. This way I could move to a new phone and still have my E-72 available should I need a backup device.

So what device do I move to? I'm still a Nokia fan, my mom has a pretty amazing N-8 device - the last of the Nokia Symbian devices, so that was one option. Alternatively, I could goto IOS or Android. Lots of searching and researching later, I decided that I would go to Android.

My basic requirements for a new phone are primarily (a) it be unlocked, (b) it doesn't change my contract (I have no contract!) (c) It should last me at least a few years, (d) it should allow me to tinker with it as I want to and (e) be priced around the $300.

I could have tried a Nokia Windows phone (its available unlocked on Amazon for about $500), but a) its running Windows phone not Symbian (b) You can't buy it unlocked from Nokia, you have to find it from a third party vendor and (c) at $500, its above my budget. So the only other phone I was left with was the Nexus-4, so I went and bought a Nexus-4 directly from Google.

Lets get started. To begin with, its huge! It is at least 1.5x bigger than my E-72. Makes putting it into the side pockets of a pair of jeans quite a tight fit if you decide to sit down. Its a got a very decent screen. I can read it quite comfortably in day light, though, in direct sunlight, its not the easiest thing to read. I don't plan to read books on this device, so that's not really a factor for me.

Lets set it up. A friend of mine helped me trim my original SIM card into the Micro SIM form factor that this device uses. I charged up my phone, put in the SIM card and started playing with it.

Initial setup:

Initial setup was quite smooth. I was asked to sign in with a Google Account and it asked me for my WIFI credentials, did some stuff (??) in the background and then told me that it was ready to be used. Great. I could text people, I sent a text message or two. It could find me on Google Maps, it was able to download some updates for the existing apps from the web, I was able to go online and browse the web. Excellent!

Overall, I'm quite happy with the phone even if I am about to criticize it a lot. When it isn't complaining about battery life and such, it is fast, the screen is brilliant and very responsive. The much bigger screen makes it easier for me to read the text and overall, the availability of the app store (and improved technology under the hood) provides a number of features that my E-72 just couldn't provide.

My next few posts will look at my experiences in getting it to do what I want.