HTC HAPTICS & DURABILITY VS SAMSUNG GALAXY S2 & OTHERS

In the spring of 2011, I was in the middle of the hunt for a replacement smartphone to take over the duties for my cracked iPhone 4. Samsung and HTC were in the hunt, and I really thought I was going to end up with an HTC device.

At the time, rumors were rampant about an “HTC Holiday” which was supposed to be released by AT&T. That device never came to fruition. But what got my mind on HTC in the first place was my test drive of the Evo 4G.

I was formerly a Sprint customer, but the chances of returning to Sprint were slim to none. My main issue was a big dead spot in the area that I work during the day. But the Evo 4G captured my attention for many reasons, and I had high hopes of landing a similar HTC device if offered in the future by AT&T.

The HTC Inspire was released to AT&T soon after the Evo 4G, and it had the same large 4.3″ display that the Evo had. It was lacking several features of the Evo, and also the iPhone 4. The biggest thing I could not give up was my front-facing camera. That would have made the HTC Inspire a perfect handset, in my opinion. However, it was the look and feel of the HTC devices that I fell in love with.

Sometime after the rumors of the HTC Holiday dried up, I jumped on the Samsung Galaxy S II pre-release band wagon, and I abandoned my plans to wait for the Holiday (or any other HTC device). Now that I have had my Galaxy S II for over 2 months, I can still say that HTC has an edge on them in the area of haptic response.

What I like about the HTC Inspire and other smartphones is how the screen gives a “bouncy” feel when the haptics are turned on. Pressing the virtual keys feels a lot more gratifying on the HTC devices than on the Samsung devices. Instead of the bouncy feel, the haptics on the Samsung Galaxy S II gives much more of a “crisp” shallow feel.

On other smartphones by different brands, the haptic response can feel absolutely overdone. When pressing a key, the vibration can be too strong, and too long in length. It gives more of a “fake” feel, as if touching the screen and the haptic vibration are two separate things.

Conversely, on the HTC devices, you get a good strong vibration that comes across like more of a “bounce”, which tricks the mind into feeling like a button is pushing back against your finger. The haptic response seems to meld into the touch of the key a lot better, merging the two actions into something that the brain considers an actual simultaneous physical event.

When you can fool your brain into thinking that the two activities are not separable, your typing goes a lot faster. But when the vibration and touching (and even the sound feedback) are not 100% intertwined, it slows your ability to enter text somewhat. That’s why I think the HTC devices give the best feedback next to physical keys that “pop” the bubble convex membrane underneath the key.

As far as the Galaxy S2, don’t get me wrong… I am loving the haptic feedback. There’s no doubt about that. Having anything at all is better than my dead iPhone 4 screen that only gives sound feedback. As I mentioned, the haptic response is crisp and clean. But as compared to the HTC devices, it’s more of a “shallow” feel that doesn’t trick my brain 100% into thinking I’m hitting physical keys.

For that category, I would have to tip my hat to HTC and say that they’ve created the best haptic response on the market. It’s too bad that Apple is sitting on a pile of haptic response patents, however. What really gets me is that they own the majority of the patents for mutli-touch haptics, but they don’t even release basic haptics on their devices. Go figure.

Getting on the topic of durability, I don’t think I can make a clear call. But there is definitely a difference between the HTC products and the Samsung Galaxy line as far as build. The HTC devices are heavier. They feel much more solid in your hand. However, the Samsung Galaxy devices are super light, and thin.

There are two schools of thought on what is better for smartphone durability: light weight vs heavy build.

The HTC devices are built thicker, and with more metal. In your hand, they feel chunkier and much more solid than the Samsung products. Using heavier material could mean a stronger build. But then again, it might not. The more a smartphone weighs, the harder it will hit the pavement when dropped (just refer back to the iPhone 4S drop test video).

The Samsung Galaxy S2 and related products are the thinnest smartphones on the market. Plus, they are super light. Built with an all-plastic body, you have a feather-light phone. It feels a little bit “cheaper” than the HTC devices as a result. But when you drop this phone from 2 to 3 feet, it will not break. It’s light enough to endure dropping. That’s a big plus.

It really depends on what your preference is regarding the build. I do love the way the HTC feels so solid in my hand. But I know that I am VERY hard on smartphones, and I don’t need to own anything that is prone to cracking and breaking from frequent dropping. So while I like the haptics and the “solid feel” of the HTC products a bit better, I’m still going to say that I made the right choice in sticking with Samsung.

Do you own an HTC Inspire or other similar model? What do you think of the haptics as compared to Samsung, Motorola, or anyone else? I’d like to hear your response!

Carlton Flowers
Haptic Gadget Man

GET A SAMSUNG GALAXY S II SMARTPHONE AT AMAZON BEFORE APPLE RUNS THEM OUT OF NORTH AMERICA!

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G Android Phone (AT&T)

The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is available right now on Amazon.com for between $179 and $199 with a 2-year contract agreement with AT&T! Pricing depends whether you are getting a new account, adding a line, or upgrading an existing line.

This is the lowest price you will find the Skyrocket, the super capable LTE Android smartphone with the jumbo-sized 4.5″ display.

Click the link or the thumbnail pic to hop to the Amazon Wireless Store and get it now while the price is good!

The Original Samsung Galaxy S II 4G Android Phone (AT&T)

The original Samsung Galaxy S II is available right now on Amazon.com for between $99 and $149 with a 2-year contract agreement with AT&T! Pricing depends whether you are getting a new account, adding a line, or upgrading an existing line.

This is the lowest price you will find the Galaxy S2, the super capable HSPA+ Android smartphone with the optimal 4.3″ display.

Click the link or the thumbnail pic to hop to the Amazon Wireless Store and get it now while the price is still this low!

Tweet This Post

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PERFECT SIZE FOR SMART PHONES AND TABLETS?

Tablets and smart phones are all the fuss these days. Everyone seems to be arguing about what the “perfect” size is for a display. iPhone owners say Evo 4G is too big. Droid X owners say iPhone is too small. iPad owners say the Galaxy Tab is a stupid idea because 7″ is way too small for a tablet. But what is the perfect size for what you want your device to do?

I own an iPhone 4. I have many friends who own iPads, and have a handful of buddies who have the Evo 4G and the Droid X. iPhone loyalists claim that the Droid X and Evo 4G displays are too big, and the phone is not practical for stuffing in your pocket. But at the same time, they claim the iPad is the perfect size at 9.5″. Steve Jobs claims that 7″ is a stupid size for a tablet, and nobody will ever want such a size.

My opinion? My iPhone 4 is too small. The crazy-good resolution of 960 by 640 pixels is wasted on a screen that is too small for practical enjoyment. No text reflow means you cannot enjoy using your iPhone as a reading device. Movies look great, but they sure would look better if the display was the size of the massive Droid X or Evo 4G. In a time that newer devices are going the 4″-and-larger route, who was it that came up with the idea that micro-sizing a smart phone was a good thing?

I have been searching for a tablet device and hope to make a purchase by spring of 2011. I’ve thought about the iPad, and even more about a 7″ Android-based tablet (eat your heart out Steve Jobs). I would prefer to have cameras and Adobe Flash capability, so that rules out the iPad. 7″ is a good size to me, because I want to use the device mainly for reading technical and marketing blogs, and to write blog posts. But do I really need an iPhone AND a tablet device? How expensive will it get if I find that I need 3G service on two separate devices?

Recently, I was drawn to the Dell Streak. The Streak is a device that I initially thought nobody would buy or have any interest in. I thought it was a tablet computer. As a tablet, the 5″ size would be stupid. Why would you want to waste your money on a tablet less than 7″ when so many are available? Why does it have to be that small?

Then I discovered the fact that the Dell Streak is a phone, not just a tablet. All of the sudden, the Streak looks like the perfect device. This could serve as my smart phone and tablet device, thus eliminating the need for separate 3G service contracts or hauling around 2 different devices.

Looking at the Streak, it is like a Droid X on ‘roids. But not only does it have a larger display than the Droid X, it also has a front-facing camera. The Evo 4G has a front-facing camera and 8mg rear carmera, but switching to the Sprint network is not an option for me. Verizon is also not an option because I will not be willing to downgrade to lesser capable CDMA network as opposed to GSM. Dell Streak is on the AT&T network, so this looks like a no-brainer.

When I originally dropped my iPhone 4 and shattered the screen, I decided that this was the one thing I needed to finally make the transition to Android and get away from Apple once and for all.

But after looking at the smart phones available through AT&T, I discovered that none of them have a front-facing camera. I can’t go backwards on that after enjoying this capability on my iPhone 4. So I decided to keep my broken iPhone 4 and wait for the next generation to come out and upgrade… unless I pounce on a Dell Streak instead.

The Dell Streak is the only device that does everything my iPhone 4 will do (that I deem important, of course). And with the monstrous display, this would knock out the need for buying a tablet device in the future. I’d be perfectly satisfied with my jumbo 5″ smart phone. For that matter, bigger is indeed better.

What is your optimum size for a smart phone? How about a tablet? Post your opinion below and let us know!

Carlton Flowers
Gadget Geek
www.carltonzone.com

Tweet This Post

TEXT REFLOW SEEMS STANDARD FOR ANDROID OS… WHY NOT iOS4?

“Text Reflow”, or the function of word wrapping text when you zoom in on an article using your smart phone browser, seems to be a normal feature on Android smart phones these days. But this is lacking on the iPhone iOS4 platform. I am a heavy article reader, and I rely on my iPhone 4 to keep up-to-date with trends within the fields that I do business.

A major annoyance to me is the need to scroll horizontally to read articles when zooming in using the Apple’s Safari browser. When I pick up an Evo 4G or a Droid X, the text automatically re-wraps itself beautifully when you zoom in on an article or document. This is especially handy for those that like to speed read. In fact, you can download several programs on the net that basically provide the function of flashing text in groups of 2 or 3 words at a time to facilitate rapid reading. When you zoom in using an Android device, you can increase the text size as much as you want and it will reformat the text to allow vertical reading. You can easily flick down the page and rapidly read any article much faster than you could be scrolling sideways.

The folks over at Apple seem to think that text reflow is not necessary because the Retina display is so clear that you don’t need to zoom in on text to ease reading. I don’t understand this argument, and I think it’s an excuse to get around the fact that the Android platform has outdone iOS4 in this one single area. It doesn’t matter how clear the screen might be. If you can’t read tiny text on a printed document because of poor eyesight, you’re not going to be able to read it on a Retina display either. So you are left to zooming in to a decent size, and having to scroll back and forth horizontally to get through an article. It is very cumbersome to say the least.

Text reflow is almost a deal-breaker for me. I absolutely love my iPhone 4, but I would consider trying to get out of my contract and sell my device just to be able to have a device that I could use to speed read information in the manner that text reflow allows. I’m not a programming expert or software developer, but I would have to assume that this is an easy fix (or addition) for the Apple developers. In order to stay ahead of the competitors (who seem to be catching up rapidly), why not put the Apple ego aside and get this done?

I have started a blog page dedicated to drumming up support for text reflow on iOS4. If you are an iPhone user and you see the benefit of having text reflow for reading purposes, please click on the link and post a response on my blog page. I want my iPhone 4 to be my primary reading device, and I’ll do just about anything to have this feature!

Carlton Flowers
Techno Geek

http://carltonzone.com/blog/iphone-text-wrapword-re-flow-discussion-page/

UPDATE! I have found a temporary solution to the text reflow issue with the Safari browser! Read about it in my latest blog post here:

http://carltonzone.com/blog/quasi-text-reflow-on-an-iphone/

Tweet This Post