Reviews: Product – HTC Dream Smartphone and Google Android

After I left the States and started working from home, I couldn’t justify owning a cell phone. I love cell phones, but it’s sorta stupid to pay for one if you never leave the house and you don’t actually know anyone to call. I promised myself that when I got a new job, my reward to myself would be a brand spankin’ new cell phone. Well, I recently got a job that will take me out of the house, and that, along with the addition of new Canadian friends with whom I would like to converse, has led me to purchase a new cell. I had been in withdrawal and have since become obsessed with my new phone, now known in our household as “the mistress.”

In an attempt to prevent myself from boring my friends to tears with constant prattling about my exciting new phone, I have decided to write a review here. I usually find myself frustrated with tech reviews – they’re either too technical or not technical enough and they never give me the information that I really want about how I’m going to use the product. So here is the review that I would have loved to read before purchasing this phone:

So, the phone is the HTC Dream Smartphone, which quite possibly is known by other names outside of Canada, but I’m not sure exactly what. It runs on the Google Android platform and it has been added to my Rogers plan. Now, a word about Rogers. I know it’s the evil empire, I do. However, if the evil empire is going to provide such good service, well, I am all for it! When we had Bell, we were constantly losing either the TV or the Internet and got nothing but nastiness from the customer “service” staff. With Rogers there have been no problems. They pick up their phone, they send out technicians, they are friendly and nice and efficient. At the odd time that they make an error, it is corrected quickly and apologized for with free channels. They keep adding new services, like this new and wonderful ability of the TV to show caller display. You can use the remote to send the call directly to voice mail! I love it. They now own my cable, internet, land line and cell phone life. All Hail Rogers.

So anyway, back to the phone. The main reason I wanted this phone was basically because I wanted an iPhone, but with a full QWERTY keyboard. I have made attempts at texting on the iPhone touchscreen and they haven’t ended well, but the HTC Dream, although it is a bit bigger and clunkier than the iPhone, has a full keyboard, allowing me to type with ease AND without losing a chunk of the screen to a digital keyboard. Also, iPhones and Blackberries are EXPENSIVE and the HTC Dream was on special with Rogers (ALL HAIL) for thirty bucks.

I also wanted the phone because it runs on the Google Android platform, and I am Google’s bitch. I already have a love affair with Google Search, Google Maps, Google Translate, Google Reader, and the email, calendar and contacts built into Gmail. The Android platform taps into all of these web based services, automatically syncing my email, my contacts and my calendar with the phone. No annoying entering of contact info or fretting over incompatible programs! And, if the phone dies, my info won’t be lost! Many of the applications available on the Android Market also take advantage of the connection with Google. More on that later.

I don’t have any photos of hardware, those are all much better represented by the HTC website, but here’s my personal home screen after a few weeks of messing around with the customization:

The phone is really easy to use and allows the user to navigate with the touch screen, the trackball, or the keyboard. Handy! This is the main screen that you see when you turn on the phone. The menu bar displays notifications, whether text messages, emails, or announcements from programs that are running. It also shows signal strength, GPS signals, and the wi-fi connection. Just below that, the phone has a built in Google search window! You don’t even have to bother opening the browser, it’s just right there, waiting to settle bets in bars!

The main screen actually consists of three pages, this middle one, and an additional one to the right and left. You can add bookmarks and shortcuts to your favorite applications, contacts, and web pages and organize them by task. For instance, on my main home screen I have my icons for Gmail, contacts, browser, calendar, and a shortcut to call/text/email Stark.

To the right I have shortcuts to my Rogers account, my two favorite websites and NewsRob, a program that lets me access my Google Reader blog feed through my phone. To the left I have the stuff I use when I’m going out, Google Maps, the TTC map, the forecast, an application that tracks my running and an application that can find wi-fi networks.

It’s really easy to scroll between the three pages with a simple flick of the finger on the touch screen. Simple and convenient!

When you receive a notification, you just pull the notification screen down from the tool bar. For instance, here I’ve received an email from Facebook:

Clicking on it takes me right to my gmail:

The rest of the functions can be accessed through the settings or the menu. It’s really simple to turn the GPS or wi-fi on and off or download applications on the Android market. The comfy keyboard makes sending texts and emails a breeze. The phone also comes with a camera and a camcorder function. I haven’t tried the camcorder yet, but the phone takes decent photos.

You wouldn’t want to use it in the dark, but the quality is decent enough. Best of all, it’s easy to just email them right from the camera application. An accompanying USB cable also makes it easy to transfer the photos right to your computer.

Finally, there are the endless applications (perhaps not quite as endless as those available on the iPhone store, but good enough for my needs), from Google Sky Maps to translation programs. They are easily installed and uninstalled using the Android Market and most of them are free. Some applications I’ve been enjoying include the previously mentioned Wi-Finder:

And NewsRob, which syncs with my Google Reader, allowing me to access all my favorite blogs right from my phone. You can read by topic:

Or scroll through the posts of your favorite blog:

Finally, there is Cardio Trainer, which I just installed yesterday. I had been planning on begging, borrowing or stealing a GPS training watch, the sort of thing that retails from Garmin for $400 or more. But now that I have my new phone, there’s no need! This little application tracks my run via GPS (it supposedly will also work as a pedometer on treadmills, but I have no idea how that works – motion sensor?), plots it on a map that updates as I move, and gives me the time, speed, and distance I’ve traveled. I wish I had this sooner! It would have saved me so much tedious plotting of routes! Here’s the main page:

I haven’t yet tried “Race Against Yourself” and I have no desire to ever try the weight loss section. Eww, with the fat android becoming skinny. I do not need my new phone to encourage my barely contained eating disorder, thank you very much.

Anyway, you can set the application for running, biking, skiing, etc. and somehow it figures everything out. I tested it alongside my watch, and it worked out almost exactly. Here is the screen you see right before you begin a workout:

You can also set the application to talk you through your runs (if I wanted to be nagged, I’d call my mom, so this feature has been turned off) or disable the map to save batteries. After you work out, you can access your run and all past runs through your History page:

Click on your run and you’ll see this page:

From here you can either zoom in on the map or select “statistics,” which will bring you to a page listing all that data that runners crave, like Total Climb and Average Speed and all that. But that’s not all! You’re also given a code to track your progress on their website. Here’s the page for the same run as shown above:

For no apparent reason, I accidentally cut off the elevation and statistics listed below the map, but they are there. I’m sure there are running programs that display more than this, but for my purposes, it’s not really necessary.

In conclusion, I love my new phone. The one problem I would take the most issue with is the battery life – it’s bad. I haven’t really had the opportunity to take the phone out for extended periods of time, but even so I can see that I will want to disable the wi-fi and the GPS and cut down on my application usage for times when I am not near the charger. I wouldn’t want to count on this battery in an emergency situation on a long drive, that’s for sure. Smaller issues – I’m not thrilled with the phone’s Gmail interface and it’s annoying that it doesn’t have a standard headphone jack, but other than that, there’s no glaring problem I can think to list right now. I’m sure I’ll come up with some valid complaints in the next three years before my Rogers (ALL HAIL) contract expires.