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!
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