A couple weeks ago I decided that I was really bored with the iPhone4.
Adding to my misery is the apprent 'upgrades' AT&T is doing to their infrastructure in Los Angeles. I even received a letter from VP and General Manager Andy Shibley about the so-called improvements. Well, not so great for our shack in the Hollywood Hills. I also think something weird is going on when the iPhone4 has to choose between multiple transmitters. We're at about 900 feet elevation here, so I presume that is what is happening.
The result is the phone often just won't ring, and I also am missing tetx messages.
I had a spare AT&T sim card that I popped into my Google branded Nexus S phone that was sent to me from a friend inside Google. I really hadn't used it much, just played aroundwith it a bit. I immediately noticed two things: I received calls and text messages reliably and I only got 2.5G connections, which is because of the radios the Nexus S has. It really wants a T-Mobile sim card.
So I ordered one, pre-paid with 2GB/month of data and set out to configure it with all the apps I wanted, but nothing else. Just wanted a functional example.
I must say I am pleasantly surprised. I was able to find Android versions of my favourite apps; Taxi Magic, TuneIn Radio and settled on the K-9 client for my email, which also does PGP (not available on the iPhone) and connected to my OSX-email server, a feat not possible afaik with the built in Android email client. I disabled all google services, which drain the battery anyway, and have been completely enjoying this thing!
I especially like the interface. I know, that's suprising coming from a Mac/iPhone guy, but then again, I was bored.
I'll be using the Nexus S for the forseeable future and will let you know if I decide to switch back or if I run into anything completely annoying.
I *do* miss the push notifications for certain apps. But that is acceptable, for now.