Fanboy I am NOT

I think it has been said in this blog a few times that people call me an Android fanboy. I do not think I am an Android fanboy but I call myself a gadget fanboy. I like stuff which is looks cool, have cool features, cool feature to price ratio and more important is future proof. 

Take for instance my HTC Desire which I bought close to 2 and a half years ago. I wrote about it on the 5th of July 2010 and up till today I am still using that same very phone. Yes it may not be the same original software that came with the phone but that is what I mean by future proof. I am able to easily flash new ROMs and software to make the phone new again. However it is really showing it age recently when Amy got her Samsung Galaxy SIII. 

I always tell everyone that the Samsung Galaxy SIII is the first proper Android phone which the combination of hardware and software is just perfect. The HTC One X is also no slouch by the way but the HTC Sense interface that comes with it while very cool slows the phone down considerably. 

I admit that one of the best thing about the iPhone is its ease of use and things just work and it is very fast. This is due to the vertical company that Apple is where the hardware and OS is all done by the same company. Even the things that are "not within" the companies control they still control through their iTunes and App store. While this is all good and works, it actually sort of inhibits innovation. 

Before you go crazy and screw me for bashing Apple, check my logic out. There are a lot of brilliant people around the world and Apple have many brilliant people working for them but again they always say it is always good to get a fresh perspective in things. So if you imagine the Android environment where Google builds the basic interface and each hardware manufacture is able to customize it to their own systems.

Companies like Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, etc have their own strength in their own industry and it shows in their product. HTC is known to have nice looking interface which is attractive and they are using it to their advantage. Sony now is beginning to have a good camera subsidiary and they are using that know how in their phones by introducing phones where the camera is the specialty. Motorola on the other hand has also been about built quality and they even introduced Kevlar into their phone to make it durable. Samsung on the other hand is all about integration to other devices such as the TV and they have their Samsung AllPlay.

Each of the manufactures have a specialty and they are putting it to good use which creates innovation. If you still do not see my point about how Apple has created an environment that inhibits innovation then I guess we defer in the way we think. 

One of the companies that I didn't think would make it big in the Android phone arena was Samsung. Their initial phones were too iPhone like and I would say yes they sort of deserve to be sue-ed by Apply but not to the tune of 3 billion. Their phones initially look very plasticky and never had any good functions compared to the rest. HTC always had Sense, Sony always had superior camera and Motorola always had good built quality. However Samsung had crap software, crap built quality, crap hardware and they were just following the rest.

The Galaxy SI and Galaxy SII didn't have much difference other then it screen was much bigger but in terms of software was pretty much the same. However then came the Galaxy SIII which packed good built quality, good hardware features and good software features. Thinks like the Smart Stay was cool and pretty useful but then the rest of the features like S Voice were quite gimmicky. While cool not many people would use them. However recently Samsung has updated their software to put in even more cool features. Check it out....

You can say I am an Android fanboy or whatever but you got to admit some of the features are super cool. The Facebook integration is super cool, the take 5 pictures and choosing which face you want is to me EXTREME cool and even the low light thing is super cool. I know about photography and from a BLACK screen to something you can see is extremely good when you think about the camera sensor that they use.

Comparing this features to the features of say HTC, Motorola, Sony even the iPhone, I say that Samsung takes the cake on this. None of the other phone manufactures has a super killer feature. Even the soon to be launched iPhone 5 (in Malaysia) don't have cool features which people use on a regular basis. In fact they took out Google Maps and YouTube which is a heavily used feature in the phone.

So I ask you once again. Don't you think the Galaxy SIII is a uber duber cool phone?