Vodafone shows off HTC's second Android phone

Pretty good

Looked at this in the shop.. but why do all these android phones come with a "chin" at the bottom of the device?

I'm gonna wait for the Pre!

@Darren Mansell

I'll start off by saying I'm an iPhone owner, of both the first-gen and then the 3G, but I don't class myself as a fanboy. The platform has its problems - lack of open-ness is a bit of a problem for me, but I've dealt with it so far and with 3.0 offering the features I really miss perhaps the problem is semi-solved. Anyway, I love much of Android - the idea of hacking together a piece of software for it, as I can on a normal machine, and using it as I like, is just fantastic.

My problem with the G1 is that it's just not consumer-friendly. It's not pretty (and it's competing against the very pretty iPhone), the keyboard looks a bit nerdy, and as you pointed out, the UI isn't as polished. Let's not forget that 'smartphones' (broad label I know) simply were not popular with the masses until the iPhone rolled around, and it's that polished UI which got it where it is today. I don't know how the Android community is going to combat that (and, admittedly, I haven't looked), but it needs doing if it's going to become a truly mass-market phone.

In terms of the keyboard, don't forget that most people you see with an iPhone probably can't type very well on a normal keyboard, never mind a virtual one in the palm of their hand. I've been touch-typing for going on ten years now, and within a day of getting my iPhone was up to speed - it's the use of QWERTY, not the fact that it's virtual, which catches most consumers out.

They'll never be able to compete...

... until they can come up with a design that looks as sexy as the iPhone's. Currently it just looks looks tacky. At least HTC have really lifted their game recently with the Diamond (and the Palm Pre looks pretty good too).

I think the lack of an application library as big as the iPhone's will hold the Android phones back a lot too.

Nice, but...

...couple of problems. One, it's on Vodafone (terrible signal for me) and two, it does need the hardware keyboard. That said, the up-and-coming Samsung android mobile is much prettier (so much so that I could settle for a virtual keyboard) and the Pre... well, that's what everyone's got their eyes on at the moment, methinks.

not sure

not sure if I agree with the keyboard comment... if you really want solid keyboard, then get a phone with real keyboard. I use BlackBerry and iPhone and it's really major difference.

one good thing on iPhone is the whole integration with other apple toys ... iPhone + iTunes + Airport Express = sweet music experience across whole house. It's not perfect, but cheap and works.

Android is good, the problem is that Symbian is good, BlackBerry OS is good, Microsoft Mobile OS is good, PRE is good ... they will all compete with each other and Apple will keep raising the same speed as iPod did few years ago. As you can see even 2 years old iPhone is upgradable to newest OS, I wish I could say the same about my old Blackberry or my Friend's 2 years old HTC WinMo phone.

I like the barcode reader...

Try going into any shop and start scanning barcodes with your phone and see how well that goes.

A friend of mine saw a funny product in a shop just a few weeks ago, took a picture and sent it to me. Immediately afterward she was forcibly removed from the store and had her phone confiscated until the image was removed.

I can't see "I'm doing an online price comparison with all the other shops on the street" going down any better than "I was sending a picture of this hilariously named product to my friend"3

price

"When, oh when, will the US drag itself into the 21st century of mobile telephony?"

I totally agree with this statement, I feel like US is always 5 years behind.... There is one big difference between US and European market - size. Europe is really small and it's "easy" to change the technology, it's much harder for cell operator to change technology across US.

but again, I totally agree with you. When I got my first phone 8 years ago I paid almost exactly same money for almost exactly same features. I have hard dtime to believe that ATT's cost is the same.

Street View

That compass-enhanced Street View is pretty darn sweet.

@Adam: "Immediately afterward she was forcibly removed from the store and had her phone confiscated until the image was removed."

I call bullshit on this, no-one but the police (and rarely even them) can "confiscate" your phone for taking a picture of something.

European vs US market

How is the European market 'small'? Both Europe and the US are around 10 million sq km in size, and the population of Europe is at least twice that of the US.

4 x faster than that OAP?

that typed "Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow."

But could he spell though?

@ decoherence

Er, No. Thomas is right. Yes, the blackberry is pre-iphone, but it was and it is still a business device, which you see most of the time in the hands of shirt-and-tie guys. You would never see it carried by a teenager, because blackberry is everything but cool.

@ Thomas Jolliff

Australia is not that much smaller than the USA in size and has a far smaller population, but we manage to keep up with the latest mobile technologies... I don't see any reason at all for the USA to be laggards!

to @Hans

Hans, try to keep it on subject, please. I'm from Europe as well... just fyi do you know where is South Carolina vs South Dakota? Maybe you do, but not many Europeans know, yet they all expect everybody to know everything about Europe.

To be more accurate, I was not comparing size of continents. Each country has it's own separate network (yes own by few big players) and thus you have lot of small markets, US is different and people expect to have same coverage and rate across whole US (btw. I can call from any US city to any US city for the same rate, can you do the same in Europe?).

Also don't forget the population differnce (call it densite if you want).

Yes, it really sucks in US and I wish it would change.

Played with it...

It really is much nicer in the flesh..err plastic. I played with one for around half an hour at the weekend in a Vodafone shop. The screen is very responsive and the App market is growing all the time. I can see huge potential for the Android system. My problem is should I buy now or wait and see where the Samsung i7500 is heading in UK

I stopped using WinMo as it's too slow, unstable and the UI is years out of date no matter how you dress it up with things like Touch Flo.

@Rob Haswell - agree the street view is very cool.

@koichan - Totally agree HTC has some very nice hardware that Android would look great on