netwrker/uk

I had the opportunity (as did many others) over the last few days to download and install the new Android 2.1 update released by Dell & O2. On the whole the process was painless: download, run, wait, and reboot. In all about 30 minutes (over a WiFi connection).

On the bright side, if feels quicker, more responsive, and more stable. The browser is more screen-friendly and the network (over O2) does seam to be working better as well. The single wallpaper across the different windows is good (although it’s now fixed at six) as is the addition of the screen brightness button to the Power Control widget.

However, my main issues with it come still from the custom UI added by Dell to the home screen.

It’s still land-scape only, so moving between applications I still in theory have to rotate the screen. Also, they’ve increased the spacing between the icons, so where it used to be 8x4, it’s now 6x4. This becomes a paid with Calendar Pad - the old set-up could support to calendars side-by-side, so I had one for the current week and another for the current month. Now I just have the one and some space for a few icons.

I really do think that if they can sort out some of these niggles with the UI for Froyo in a few months this really will be an absolutely cracking device! It’s coming along well and the potentials really there now!