Pros and Cons of HTC Radar -1

Pros:

• Smooth - the interface is smooth and reasonably fast. As one of the five people on earth who have ever purchased a Zune, I had no trouble navigating among and inside apps. It is intuitive enough for someone who has never used a smartphone.

 Cons:

• Calendar - initial view is Agenda, unlike the monthly view of iPhone. One needs to press the menu at the bottom of the screen to switch to monthly view. The crazy thing is, even though each day's events are shown on the monthly view, it is impossible to see what they actually are because they are displayed in tiny fonts to fit into the grid. Therefore all you can tell from the monthly view is that on a certain day, there are a number of tiny black lines implying that you have something to do for that day. Such design is not only inconsiderate, but illogical - if you are not letting users see what the events are, why not simply replacing them with symbols (like dots on iPhone calendar)? It is a major work of stupidity in my opinion. 
• Integration Issues - the OS can't automatically identify an address in an email, therefore I can't click on the address to view it on the map. Moreover, I can't even copy the text in the email! I may read it, but that's it. I can't copy the text in the email!

Why I got a Windows Phone 7 Smartphoe (HTC Radar)

I had a Blackberry Curve for three and an half years - since I arrived in the U.S.. It a piece of tough plastic wonder - extremely reliable, rugged, always performing to its standard. I loved it for its simple key stroke shortcuts and full keyboard. I thought I would always stick to Blackberrys until my girlfriend gave me a iPod Touch 4. It is a thing a beauty - by its appearance and software design - its is built for brainless idiots and I love products designed for brainless idiots because they are so fast and simple to use.

But iPod Touch has a couple major draw backs: the Chinese Pinyin input sucks. The auto completion is a joke. Also, it is quite inconvenient (or should I say ridiculous) to separate letters and basic punctuations such as comma and period. Also, obviously iPod is a MP3 player after all, I won't have the always-on network - and hopping from Starbucks to Starbucks (or McDonald's) is just impossible. After salivating at my girlfriend's iPhone is and its wonderful use as a map and mobile PC, I made a decision: I needed a iPhone.

Due to some timing issues with my work and cash flows, I decided to drop 4S and wait for the rumored iPhone 5, because it was rumored to be a complete revamp - the true child of the Job's vision of the next gen iPhone. I patiently waited since the release date of iPhone 4S. I bore the pain of my now obsolete and irrelevant Blackberry Curve until I could stand the frustration anymore. I needed some phone "smarter" to fill the void between now and the iPhone 5 release date. I needed an Android.

So I began to screen Craigslist for used, unlocked Android. Two sellers were chosen and I went out to meet both. The first was selling an HTC Inspire - very reasonably priced comparing to other sellers. The phone was rooted and unlocked - the OS has been reinstalled so that all the bloatware could be do away with. But despite the obvious benefit of rooting, OS was a bit screwed up - even from the eyes of untrained Android users. The Market Place was crippled with incomplete list of apps. So I backed out of the deal with a low ball price - the seller must have felt insulted. And I searched on.

The second seller had two phones on sale: one is HTC Inspire and the other is HTC Radar. It was not until I met him did I know that his Inspire only has 2G network if working on my network. So I was left without choice - I thought since I was here I might as well give the Windows Phone a chance.

The first impression was really good. The phone is well-built. The screen is, of course, decades ahead of my BB Curve. OS is fairly smooth and responsive. The phone was almost brand new but was sold at 2/3 of the lowest price (of a new phone). The value buyer inside me was sold. I bought a Windows Phone after spending the whole week research Android options!