My 18 months contract with Orange for my HTC Hero expired last month and for the first time ever I’ve plumped for a 12 month SIM only deal. My Hero, great phone as it was, only lasted me 7 months before I caved in and bought a HTC Desire on the day of release from T-mobile. I did love the Hero but from day one it was just lacking that little bit of power which always reminded me that great as it was, it wasn’t really cutting edge spec wise.
Twelve months on and the Desire is still running strong and will probably last me a good while yet. Spec wise it more than holds it’s own with the newer phones being released today and I’ve never thought that it wasn’t powerful enough for my needs.
Such is my gadget fever that I can’t actually remember the last time I had a phone for over a year. Once six moths have gone by my eyes usually start to wander and before long I’m trying to invent justifications for why an upgrade isn’t just desirable but necessary. However, looking around at the newest devices I can’t see anything that seems like a worthy upgrade to my trusty Desire. The latest phones are still running at the 1GHz mark, albeit with newer processors offering a bit more power efficiency and better GPUs. But there’s nothing like the jump up I experienced when switching from my Hero.
And even if there was, so what! As I’ve already said, I’ve never found that my Desire is unable to comfortably handle the tasks which I throw at it. At this point in time I can’t really see the benefit of upgrading to a newer phone given the incremental improvements I’d enjoy. Now I’m not against progress, it’s good to see tech keep improving but to me it just feels that we’ve reached a stage where even midrange hardware is at least good enough.
It’s hard to find much difference between the various high end phones available right now. There seems like so many options but little actual choice. To be clear, I’m not saying that these are bad smartphones. On the contrary I firmly believe that new buyers have never had it so good. It’s just that the rapid innovation and progress of the last few years seem to have slowed markedly of late.
Maybe that’s why I bought an iPod Touch a few months ago. Android wise there was nothing new that was exciting me so instead I thought I’d try out iOS to get a feel for how it works and compares. I’m pleased with my choice and feel like I actually got something new and fresh. If I’d picked up a Desire S something tells me I wouldn’t feel the same.
I actually feel the same way. Had my nexus 14 months and took it as a given I w. ould be replacing it but looking at what’s out there I don’t see the point. I would probably snap up the atrix if it was a nexus phone but I’m not buying a device with motoblur, touchwiz etc.
Hopefully Google make the next nexus device really compelling and right up their with the best in class. Even if it is 6 months away.
I too have a Hero, my upgrade date came and went in January, the contract itself is up in April.
I think I’m going to go on a sim only plan and buy out right my own sim unlocked handset…
My partner has a Desire and as much as it’s a zillion times faster than my Hero I can’t help thinking something better is just around the corner.
I’m hoping that by April the next super phone will be out and I can be at the cutting edge again.
I think 2012 is going to be the year of the Tegra 2 chipset so may one of those (but not an LG!).
Funny, I have the same problem. I keep reminding swmbo that my contract will be up for renewal in April (gotta plant that seed early so there are no shocks later :o) ).
I’m looking arround at the current and upcoming releases and nothing is grabing my attention. I thought i must be coming down with something because i’m usually champing at the bit for someting new. Unfortunalty, my 3GS still fits the bill. I did sucumb to a Palm Pre from ebay, but whilst its a great phone, it was a little small and i couldn’t get an Audiobook app for it (I listen to alot of them) so it’s back on ebay. Once I can throw of the chains of O2’s tethering restrictions I will be a happy bunny. Especially with the release of bluetooth hotspot with iOS4.3 (I will be able to use it with my wifi iPad).
I’m tempted to look at the 3D LG phone coming out, but only slightly though as I don’t have anything else I can view 3D images on, and don’t envisage getting anything for at least the next 5 years (by then the tech should have settled down on formats etc).
At leaset I didn’t have to go out and by and iPod Touch though ;o)
Mine is up now and I think I will drop my tariff for a while. I have a HTC Touch HD and I will be moving away from windows as they don’t seem to be developing anything good for it, even windows 7 looks disappointing. There are rumours of the HTC Pyramid coming sometime in May, this will be a similar size to the Desire HD but with dual core processor.
Totally agree, nothing yet to temp me away from my nexus although I’m itching to change it.
@Runadumb the next Nexus us out there… Nexus S. Available in Carphone Warehouse and black/white version from Vodafone. I myself have been ‘sim only’ for a few years now. Last summer I stumped up the cash for a used/great condition Nexus One and like you guys there’s no need to jump to the next device yet. The camera whilst not as good as say the iPhone4 or Nokia devices it’s good enough, like the Desire is runs everything I throw at it. I was considering buying the Nexus S but now that I have Gingerbread on my Nexus One the only reason to go for the Nexus S is the NFC, which will be worth the money in the future,, just not yet. I would only buy ‘Vanilla Android’.
got to say me too, hero contract ended, now on pay as you go O2 web n txt. no phones interest me that much LG 3D for the 3D gimick
i’m running android on my hd2. Finding that changing the flavour of android is almost like getting a new few every few weeks 🙂
But, my contract is up soon and like you guys i can’t see anything that would make me go “i want that one” just yet
Nexus S or Desire HD are the only temptations at the moment. the next wave of htc’s don’t seem to offer much more
I’ve got the ‘original’ HTC Desire, nearly had it for a year now and still loving it, and still fast enough for me. My friend bought the Desire HD, but I didn’t like it becuase it was too big, needed to strech may hand to hold it, and wouldn’t fit snugly in any of my pockets… too big.
The Desire’s size and screen resolution is perfect. Nothing new on the Android smartphone market to justify an upgrade.
I’ve actually rooted it and using a Desire HD rom on it :)… So I’ve got all the lovely features of a Desire HD, new slicker HTC sense interface, visuals, etc.. in a size I like, and it runs it just as fast…
I will swithc to a sim only deal in a few weeks, and save about £20 a month.. not a bad idea in this day an age….
I’ve been thinking exactly the same. The Desire from Hero was a big jump but Desire to 2011 smartphone’s it’s just not as big. Android simply doesn’t need dual core yet.
My Desire too never feels sluggish, where a few minutes on a friend’s Hero it clearly does. My contract isn’t due to run out until September but so far nothing makes me wish I could upgrade now.
iOS and Android software pace has reduced over the past few months. Android 1.6 to 2.1 was massive but 2.1 to 2.3 isn’t much different at all.
That’s exactly what I think as well. Eclair really was a big release and massively improved Android but Froyo and Gingerbread are relatively minor updates.
Android and iOS are now both reaching maturity and there’s not that much more to add feature wise. That’s kind of why I bought the Touch, I’d just got a bit bored of Android.