Been using the phone daily this week as my only phone, and so far it is going well. The main difference between this phone evaluation and the Android attempt is that up front I know this won't replace my current iPhone. With the Android side, I was lead into believing Android was on par with the iPhone, and I found that to be greatly untrue based on my use for a smartphone. With a more honest start to the evaluation, I'm having an easier time looking at the platform's strengths, instead of being frustrated with the parts that don't live up to my expectations.

Still not sure why the battery won't stay charged if I have the USB cable attached to a computer overnight, but for now I've moved to just using the wall adaptor. That seems to be the only way to ensure the battery will be at 100% when I leave in the morning, instead of nearly dead.

Some initial impressions:

Notifications that work. The phone shows a lot of info on the unlock screen, such as an alarm indicator, the next appointment on the calendar, and indicators of how much unacknowledged e-mail exists on each account. Also the indicator on the home screen works the same way. Instead of trying to show unread e-mail (like iOS) or never clearing notifications (like Android on IMAP), it shows how many new messages exist since the last time I checked. If I open a mail account, and then close, the notification clears. Really handy for being able to just skim topics, and not have to read the full message to clear it, thus allowing me to decide if I'll read it fully on my desktop.

Also another nice thing about email when compared to Android, I have an IMAP and an Exchange account set up. Both work equally well and are treated as first class citizens. IMAP folders are handled well, and overall it's a good mobile e-mail client. I'm not feeling like an Exchange or Hotmail account is required for the best experience. Android really made me feel I had to be using GMail and nothing else for the best experience.

Internet Explorer so far has been disappointing though. I understand that down the road the phone will get a version of IE 9, and it's clear it needs it. The rendering of smaller items is pretty bad, and made worse with the PenTile OLED screen this particular phone has. I'd prefer even the older iPhone over this for browsing. And the iPhone 4 screen and browser solidly beats the browsing experience here. Rotating the phone also takes about 2 full seconds for IE to reorient the view properly, compared to half a second on my iPhone. Rotation in other places like Mail is only a second, with most of that delay being due to the slow eye candy effect.

I am using the Windows Zune software for syncing to take advantage of the Zune Pass. I really don't like the software, the interface just seems wrong. Browsing, downloading, and even just generally working with the program, it takes a while just to figure each task out. I do like the syncing though. If the phone is on my WiFi network and charging, I can sync. It also seems to do multiple syncs. With the iPhone, I have to make sure I sync in the morning, otherwise I miss the podcasts that came out after I docked my phone the previous evening. Just now, I opened Zune, and it downloaded 15 songs it thinks I'd like. As the download was still going, it saw the phone on the network and also began syncing. Really hoping Apple copies both the idea of wireless syncing and a subscription service.

I'll probably go more in depth into the marketplace this weekend. So far my use has only been of the native apps. It does work fine as a phone, and SMS seems to work properly too, with nothing really special for either thing. I haven't used the camera yet either, but I do like the dedicated camera button. If you push and hold it, the camera app opens, even if the phone is locked. And every time I've opened the camera, it's ready to take a picture after only a short delay. Both the iPhone and the Android phone seemed to put very little priority on getting the camera ready.