Went over to compare the screen against Caleb's Nexus One, and I'm not sure what the Super part is all about. Screen readability for both appeared the same in sunlight. As far as readability of the OLED screen, it is a bit worse then LCD on the iPhone 3GS and 4 under sunlight, but not terrible. The biggest issue I could find was more the glare the screen has at certain angles. Still seemed usable enough outside though.

One odd issue I did notice is banding in the blue color on a website, that Caleb wasn't getting. Also, I did notice dithering artifacts here and there. Handing the phone to someone else at work who owns a Droid also noticed it without any prompting, so there is some quirkiness there for some reason. Dealbreaker either way? Not for me, but the Droid owner did say he wouldn't buy it for that reason. I was impressed with the blacks on the phone though. It was dark enough, that black on the screen just seamlessly blended into the black of the bezel.

I did find conformation in a video from Samsung showing the devices at some trade show confirming they did customize the mail program to offer a Unified Inbox, so odds are the folder rework was their handy work too.

AT&T now has the phone back, and I've woken the iPhone 3GS back up from it's nap. Had the GPS worked reliably this weekend, I would have been a bit more willing to keep the phone at least for the full return period window. Today I tried getting a GPS lock for an hour with the phone sitting next to an iPad that picked up accurate GPS location in 30 seconds after a cold boot.


This is why I'm more leaning towards just not even trying Android on another phone at this point, because I can't try pure Android. Every single phone for sale in the US, with the exception of the initial Droid has modifications. And with the Droid set to not receive 3.0 (due to not meeting minimum CPU requirements), I'm not going to invest in a phone that can't even run the newest OS a year after it's release. By not having a consistent experience across devices, it makes it much harder for people like me to even receive support from fellow Android owners. Most of this thread has been "I don't have that problem, or mine doesn't work like that", and ultimately that just had lead to more frustration on my side.

Even ignoring the Apple iPhone ecosystem, it seems like other smartphone platforms are able to provide a very consistent experience. Palm did for ages with their old OS and still does with WebOS. RIM has done the same with Blackberries, with the exceptions of the ones designed around full touch interfaces. Symbian seemed pretty consistent too. Windows Mobile had some fragmentation issues, but not a ton. Android though is suffering badly, and someone at work I think put it best with "Android is the Linux Desktop for mobile phones". Open, and no clear direction with so many parties pulling it in different directions all the time. While this might be great for the geeks out there, it's not great for providing a good and solid user experience.