I have learned quite a bit about the Android OS and the devices it runs on in the past couple weeks. I was able to buy a used LG Optimus S phone for a measly $10, so of course decided to snatch it up. My son wasn't overly amused by this, as he was using it as a toy at the time. Once I'm done playing with it, I plan to give it to him, but I'm not really sure how long that will be. I'm having fun with it learning things.
I learned a few things about different carriers and different devices during this time as well. I stopped by the Sprint store and the AT&T store (corporate stores - I won't go to a 3rd party store as they only want to sell you things) and asked questions and played with the devices on display. The people at both stores were extremely helpful and knowledgable about the devices.
My Optimus is not a top of the line phone, that's for sure. I was happy with it's performance until I started playing with the new devices. Big difference! I have no plans on shelling out for a new one, but if I get the opportunity to test one I'll do so.
On with the actual information! I plan to post the review in sections as I tend to ramble on and no one wants to be met with a text wall. I'll go over the basics of things and then do other entries about specific details. I'll also take requests from the comments.
The first thing I noticed was the screen responsiveness. It is an entry level device, so I wasn't expecting great things. When I got the phone it had Android 2.2 on it and the screen was really nice and responsive to my touches. It would track my finger well and I didn't have to press hard to get it to see my finger. Sprint pushed out the 2.3 update a few days ago and I went ahead and installed it. The screen is now rather flaky. It doesn't track as well as it used to and when I drag my finger across the screen it tends to think I've either lifted my finger or am just tapping. It makes moving things around interesting, not to mention all the fails I'm now getting when trying to unlock the security pattern. I am unsure as yet whether this is normal or just my device.
The 4 physical buttons below the screen (on new phones they are software buttons, but always there) were definitely a change for me, as I was long used to my iPhone's single button. I am still of mixed opinion about them but I think I've adapted fairly well to their use. I do rather like being able to bring up an alt-menu no matter where I am in any app, however. I think that's a rather handy feature and makes a lot of things easier.
The single button to start a search can be handy, but I'm not really in love with it. Pressing and holding search brings you to the voice commands, and those are pretty sweet. iPhone's Siri is nice, but I think the Android voice commands are more matured. I haven't used them extensively and some things I just can't do as I do not have an active account on this phone, but thus far it has done everything I've asked it to do.
I really don't care for the "Back" button, as I much prefer a software sutton designed into an app to navigate, and I also really prefer swiping to go back in my browser.
The home button is a home button. Not much can really be said about it. I do like pushing for a second and getting a list of recently used apps, but there seems to be no functionality for double-tapping it. I think Android really loses out not having that.
There is much more I've learned about using an Android vs. using an iPhone, but I'll leave that for more posts later on.
I also checked out the new 
