Good points:
- The screen. Noticably brighter and crisper than anything else I've seen. Still difficult to read in bright sunlight, but not impossible if you turn the brightness up.
- Snappy - the faster processor makes it very responsive.
- Voice quality. The second microphone really works - my son used it to call me from a noisy car, and I couldn't tell.
- Voice entry. Still a bit slow, but suprisingly accurate. I'm using it more and more as I gain confidence in its accuracy.
- Android. After the Iphone, the freedom to do what YOU want with the phone is exciting.
Bad points:
- The camera. OK for snaps, but you'll still want a dedicated camera for "real" photos.
- The four utility buttons at the bottom can be unresponsive - not a huge issue, but occassionally annoying.
I almost put the battery life in the bad points, but I guess you have to trade it off against the fast processor, and also the huge amount of use it's getting as my two sons and myself explore every aspect of it. In general use it will last a day no problem, but for now I'm having to charge it twice a day. The battery seems to be getting better after some long overnight charges.
Vodafone... popped my SIM card in, entered the PIN number, and that was about it - I may have had to click an "OK" once, but I don't remember where. Voice, data and SMS inbound worked out of the box. Sending SMS messages didn't work though - I got "Message not sent". After a bit of googling, the fix is simple enough:
- Install "Any Cut" from the Android Market.
- Press and hold any blank part of the home page and click "New shortcut"
- Click "Activity", then "Testing", then "OK"
- Go to your home screen and click the new "Testing" shortcut
- Click "Phone information"
- Scroll all the way down to the "SMSC" field, and enter "+6421600600" and click "Update"
You should now be able to send SMS messages. The number above is only for Vodafone NZ, so if you strike this issue with other carriers, google for their SMSC number and use it instead.