The myTouch Slide Is Awesome
June 17th, 2010 · android, mobile, mytouch, reviews
It's pretty awesome.
Late last year, I bought a Motorola CLIQ. The CLIQ runs Android 1.5, has a nice keyboard, and it comes built-in with neat social networking features (via MOTOBLUR). (I wish Motorola didn’t feel the need to uppercase all of their brand names. >_<) Anyway, it was a pretty decent phone, and it was a nice introduction for me to the wonderful world of Android.
However, I craved a newer Android OS (at least 2.0, so I can get support for multiple Google accounts). I also didn’t like that the CLIQ’s touchscreen wasn’t all that great. Once I heard about the myTouch Slide, I decided I would upgrade and give this new guy a try.
I’m glad I did, because this thing’s awesome.
Definitely an Upgrade
I’ve been a Motorola fan for a while. A lot of my previous phones have been Motorola phones. I heard good things about HTC’s smartphones, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this phone exceeding my expectations. It’s so much faster than the CLIQ, and the touchscreen is way better. Certain games like Word Up! didn’t work that well for me on the CLIQ because the touchscreen wasn’t very accurate. I don’t have that problem on the myTouch Slide. Everything just works.
The myTouch Slide runs Android 2.1, which includes features like multi-touch, Google Maps Navigation, and support for multiple Gmail accounts. Multi-touch is nice, but I don’t find myself using it that much. Supporting multiple Gmail accounts is a major plus, since I’ve got multiple Gmail and Google Apps accounts. I was planning on buying a new GPS, but now that I have Google Maps Navigation, I don’t think I’ll be needing it. Navigation works pretty well, and it integrates nicely with Google Maps.
Cool New Stuff
HTC is popular for their widgets, and now I see why. Their weather/time widget is just too darn cool. Whenever I open my phone, the screen animates based on what the weather’s like. If it’s raining, then rain drops appear on my phone, and a little windshield wiper wipes them away. If it’s cloudy, little clouds float across the screen. If it’s storming out, flashes of lightning appear on the screen. It’s just too cool and fun eye candy.
My favorite feature on this phone is Swype. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you watch some videos on it. Swype is a new way to use your touchscreen’s virtual keyboard to enter text. Instead of typing a word, you simply swipe your finger across the screen. I heard about Swype before I got this phone, and I was initially skeptical of it. However, now that I’ve gotten a chance to use it, I have to say that… I’m ready to ditch using a physical keyboard and switch to using a virtual keyboard for my phone. That’s a huge deal, considering that one of the main reasons why I bought this phone was that it has a physical keyboard. Swype is very fast, and it’s easier than regular typing when it comes to entering in long sentences or big words.
Unfortunately, though, a lot of the Swype videos out there are comparing using Swype to using the standard input on an iPhone, which means that Apple lovers are quick to dismiss it and bash it. (Just read the comments on any Swype YouTube video to see what I mean.) But trust me; it’s something you need to try first before you dismiss it, and I’m sure Swype will eventually arrive on the iPhone as well, because it’s so awesome that everyone should be able to use it.
Final Thoughts
If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m really glad I bought this phone. I liked my Motorola CLIQ and had very few complaints with it, but I didn’t realize how much I was missing until I switched to the myTouch Slide. It’s been a month since I’ve had this phone, and I’m still in a “omg this phone is soooo cool” phase. So, if you’re on T-Mobile, and you like Android, then I would highly recommend buying the myTouch Slide!
