There was a time when the mobile in your pocket with a Bluetooth and VGA camera was in the ‘in’ thing. Options were limited, but so was our usage. The texting and calling would suffice the communication between people, as far as mobiles were concerned.
Skipping Symbian and other operating systems, which were completely based on functionality, jumping to iOS by Apple. It completely changed the way phones were perceived. Now you didn’t buy a mobile because of your type of usage, you bought based on the functionality it provided regardless of your usage. It has set the benchmark and all the manufacturers tried to ape it.
Android became the poor man’s iPhone
There are very few people who actually use android as an android cell. The functions they use are restricted to texting, chatting, emailing, calling and gaming. And gaming too is restricted because of the battery issue.
The relatively poor battery life restricts the whole android usage experience. More often than not I have seen people restrict their usage and cringe whenever someone else tries to check the phone’s functions. So what is the hype behind android?
In my humble opinion Android for mobiles is useless if you are going to use the customization option which differentiates it from other OSs. Android for tablets and phablets are a totally different case. That is where the android experience is fulfilled.
I had seen the Asus Padphone 1’s review and the recently launched Padphone2, they seem pretty interesting. A phone, tablet, laptop all in one is something unique and they have solved the battery life issue also in a really unique manner. You can use the quad-core phone till it lasts, then insert it into the tablet and the tablet seamlessly starts running the phone and charging it at the same time. Yes the tablet has a separate battery.
And the tablet starts from where the phone leaves any application. Like the MS Surface it comes with a detachable keyboard, which again has in-built battery. I heard that it will be priced at around 70k. Sounds steep but might be worth it, let us see.
MS Surface pricing is a disappointment, was hoping that they will price it much below the iPad. This stupid hope of mine was reassured after I had seen their adverts, it seemed like they wanted it to be a mass product. If they price it in India much below the iPad, that can seriously make a dent on Android market share along with the Apple’s.
Seriously people instead of jumping the bandwagon, seriously compare your usage with the kind of features a phone provides. This will not only save you money, but also the awkward question –
How much android of this android device do you use?
[About the Author: Sudarshan R recently completed his Computer Engineering from University of Mumbai. He loves to read and has opinions on anything and everything. His passions include music, automobiles and gadgets. You can follow him on his Blog here]