Review after review I felt my sense of hope being drained from my heart. After a few good months with my precious sparkly bronze Nokia it entered into the inevitable coma that most (if not all Nokias enter - hence their low status in California). Once again I restarted the hunt for a good replacement for my old and true love, the HTC with Google phone. The one that opened the door to so many that now exist. The phone that so many called ugly and bulky and crappy was a beautiful magician that enhanced my life.
"Oh that one? Yeah, actually it's being discontinued so we can't sell it anymore." His words were a slap across my face. "Are you serious?" My intent to go in and make a quick purchase of happiness had been killed. "Why?" He shrugged his shoulders and attempted to straighten up some of the phones nearby him. I felt a sense of betrayal as well disappointment that now I would be forced into getting the MyTouch or MyTouch slide - both of which revolt me. But that's when I saw him. The most gorgeous and breathtaking phone of my life. Our eyes met and I immediately knew that the HTC HD2 belonged in my hands so that my fingers could enjoy the picture perfect 4.3 inch screen of beauty.
I made my way over to that attractive beauty and we shared a Hollywood moment of admiration as I slowly scrolled up and down the large icon filled home screen. Everything about it amazed me ... until he spoke. "Actually, that's a Windows phone. Not an Android." He said, "Windows," and I said, "What the french toast?" As if the discontinuation of my baby wasn't bad enough, he had to throw that piece of information out at me like a curve-ball made of crap.
I left the store feeling a bit confused. Why was I so quick to judge Windows? After all, I spent a majority of my life using Windows and I began reminiscing the old days before my MacBook. The freezing. The out of no where shutting down. The seizure like movements of my screen. The constant viruses. The number of times I force-shut down my desktop, laptop, school computer and so on. I popped my own dream bubble as I drove back home contemplating what to do.
"OMG!!! YOU HAVE IT!!!" I saw it in her hands and I felt a shot of excitement as she shared the wealth. But something was different, a little off than the one I saw just a few days before. As I scrolled through the screen, an Android robot made his appearance every now and then. Confusion took over until I gave the phone a second look. It was not my baby HD2 but rather its cousin, the Evo from Sprint. Correction, the Android operated EVO from Sprint. I gave her back the phone like a child forced to return the toy to its rightful owner after a moment of hope sparked that I too could one day have my own one. And Sprint had done it again. It had sewn in me this hope that an amazing phone existed that I could get under the umbrella of T-Mobile only to then discover that if I wanted it, and wanted it unlocked and with my T-Mobile service I had to pay over $450 for it. And in this case, over $600.
The next few weeks were spent on pure research. Windows Mobile 6.5. HTC HD2. I wanted to convince myself that I could tolerate Windows Mobile. That all I really needed on this awesome HD2 were the calls and texts and emails. Occasionally Microsoft Outlook products, and just a few free apps from the place Windows dares to call an Apps Marketplace. I even tried to ignore the six websites of pure negative reviews on this phone. From people who were on their third replacement to people who couldn't stop cursing T-Mobile for stupidly accepting this phone into their collection without Android (and I so agree). I thought maybe those 93 people just didn't know how to use the phone and so once again I headed out to T-Mobile ready to make the purchase.
I gave her my phone line number. I showed her my I.D. And I stated which phone I wanted to upgrade to. "Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked with a serious and worried look. "Um, I guess..." She sensed my hesitation and began the bashing. "Because you know it's a Windows phone ... WINDOWS ... and not Windows 7, but 6.5, and you can't upgrade to 7. And because of that it's very slow and requires at least three reboots a day and rarely does anything but open Microsoft outlook for Power Points and Word. We've had so many people returning it. I'd advise you to wait because we have another phone coming out in this month..." And I cut her off. "Yeah I know, the Samsung Vibrant. I've done my research. But that one's smaller and well uglier. It looks the iPhone." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's only smaller by 0.3 inches and it's slimmer and it's Android."
It was quite ironic to hear the sales clerk try and convince you that you're making the wrong decision but she was doing it anyway. I felt like I was buying a can of expired beans and she was warning me of the consequences. And under the pressure of being stared down by four pairs of T-Mobile staff eyes I thanked her for the advice and promised to wait for the wanna-be Samsung. Instead I ran to my laptop and looked up ways to convert the poor and innocent HD2 into an Androidian rather than a sad Window. There was a way, but it sounded so rigorous and dangerous to the phone's system that although I saved the links and articles with the instructions, I knew I would never actually use unless I had the founder of The Geek Squad by my side, holding an electronic crash cart, ready to resuscitate at any moment. I imagined it. A dark room with an operating table beneath the only bright awkward white light above that poor HD2, who did nothing but obey the order to tag along that Windows 6.5. And there I was slowly slicing into its system trying to cover up the original OS and force the Android in. And suddenly the beep begins and he crashes. In comes the nerd, black pants, white shirt, suspenders and all, crash cart in action. And the imagination ends, knowing that the phone probably won't do any better with the addition of Android on top of Windows.
I decided to check out the HTC EVO and see what people had to say. Whether the HD2 got bad reviews from being Windows or from being HTC. Not one bad review popped up. And once again I envied Sprint. I even looked up where that phone was available (even at full price) and I discovered that it was sold out on eBay, Amazon and Overstock (kind of ironic to be sold out somewhere called Overstock no?).
I went to bed that night unsure of what to, with my current phone slowly drifting in and out of death, and it made me wonder, how could T-Mobile have no common sense about this issue? I mean the lady not only criticized the HTC HD2 but rather EVERY Windows phone T-Mobile ever released and I asked myself, why would they agree to accept Windows on such a highly rated phone? I get that Windows needs money (lol funny statement) and that they probably have a contract with phone companies, but this was such a terrible deal that they should have said NO DEAL from the start.
Now they have a long list of dissatisfied customers who are either cursing them daily or returning that phone in hopes of something better and Android loaded to come out - other than that Samsung too!
