Two weeks back, I went into my local phone store here in Vancouver to get myself a Huawei U8100 with Android 2.1. I previously owned Windows Mobile 6.5 for about two years. After this, a Samsung which unfortunately was stolen at my local swimming pool. This is my take on the Android mobile platform:

Likes

• Big User Interfae improvement compared to when Android first came out but still looks semi-basic compared to iPhone.
• It has a pattern unlocking feature which means you shouldn’t need to remember a PIN, which I think is great.
• If you have a Gmail account, it syncs very well. I was able to get a bunch of my contacts back. You will appreciate this feature, if your phone was stolen, got lost or changing to a new phone.
• Also related to Gmail, I could get my Calendar synced with the phone with no hassle.
• Kindle for Android: This is a great app that works very well with Android.
• Handcent SMS is another great app that makes you want to send SMS every minute! You can even set thumbnail pictures of the people you having a conversation with. I think this is way too cool!
• Google Maps: found it very useful when I’m up-and-about for directions, maps and transport links.
• The apps market has a great feature of searching for the kind of app you want. No need browsing through the thousands of apps available.
• You can use your choice of browsers. Currently, I’m trying out Dolphin Browser. This browser is looking really good.
• Contact list allows you to connect with your faceBook account and you could decide to only display contacts with phone numbers. This I think is a very useful feature if your contact list is huge and you don’t want your faceBook friends all over your phone.
• Touch screen keyboard has big keys that could fit my fat finger!
• In terms of games, I sometimes play Air Control. This could get addictive sometimes.
• It supports PDF documents.

Dislikes

• Apps are littered all over the phone, which could sometimes make looking for an app a slight pain in the bum. It could have been more categorized.
• The touch screen is not as smooth as it could be. Sometimes it could be jumpy!
• The Music app that came with the phone can be a bit clunky.
• The default SMS application just looks too plain.

These are just my own personal opinion about the Android 2.1 platform.