Advice for your new phone.

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Over the last few months I have been jumping from phone to phone and I have learned a few things along the way. This is mainly directed at people who plan on getting the Epic4G or any new phone soon.

Keep the box unmolested.
This is useful if you need to return the item or plan on selling it in the future. People like to have the original box with all the manuals and extras when they buy a phone.

Do not put on a screen protector for 30 days.
Again if you need to return the phone, you pretty much ruin the screen protector you place on it. Assuming you are careful with the phone there shouldn't be any issues, they are pretty scratch resistant. Also try applying it in the bathroom with the shower on with hot water. The extra humidity will help get the dust/fibers out of the air. Nothing will bug you more than dust stuck under a screen protector.

Wait on getting a case
Like the issue with the screen protector, if you return the phone you will end up down $20-$30 for a case that you cannot use. Also normally at launch the selection of cases is limited as time goes by you will see more and more case options become available.

The battery will suck at first
As with most new devices. The batteries will need some ramp up time before it is working at its peak, do not get discouraged, as it can take a few charge cycles before you can see normal operation.

Start transferring your contacts over to Gmail.
If you do not have a gmail account, you will need one. If you are new to Android you will find a lot of the services revolve around your Google account. If you are hesitant to make the jump, I can assure you that you will not regret it. If you have the account and contacts ready to go before you get the phone you will be in a good position when you do get it. On booting the phone it will ask you to log in, and 10 seconds later it will have all your contacts available.

Get a Google Voice account
Even if you do not plan on giving out the Google Voice number for people to call, it has other uses. One of the uses of Google Voice is visual voice mail. Yes Sprint includes this feature for free, but Google Voice is better and can be accessed from the phone, or any web browser. The Google Voice app (download required) makes the integration seamless.

If I think of more I will add them later. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

I definitely made a few mistakes here. I just moved, so all non-essential small boxes were tossed in the garbage. This includes my EVO box. Now that I plan to sell my EVO, I wish I had the original box. Oh well... discount I guess

good tips! thanks!

I have a question for chronic phone switchers. Are you just eating ETF's and/or changing phone numbers constantly? I read all these people with Vibrant's and Captivates who plan on jumping ship to the Epic or people with Incredible's and other definitely out of their 30 day policy phones that are jumping to Sprint. Do you just have money to burn or what?

Nah, I just gamed the system. Not intentionally mind you. I just kept getting buyers remorse and future phone envy.

1) AT&T Tilt 2 to T-Mobile HD2, only for a few days, then I saw the HTC Incredible.
2) HTC Incredible 29 days > Switched to EVO. Verizon charged me 1 month's bill, no ETF. At 30 days they would have.
3) Returned EVO at 29 days when I read about the Epic4G. I wanted a keyboard to play emulators. Plus the 30FPS cap irritated me. Sprint put me on seasonal hold($9 a month) and refunded me the money for the 1st month's service.

So the whole time I have paid less than normal monthly fees and have seen 3 new phones. No ETFs. Only bad part is I have been without a phone for a few weeks now waiting for the Epic4G. I guess the savings of not paying $100 a month gives me a healthy discount on the phone when I do get it.

Originally Posted by Pops_G

Crazy phone switching

I've never been a chronic phone switcher until I learned about Android phones. Now that I see new **** coming out constantly, I think I'll have a new phone every 4-5 months. I'll try and hold onto the Epic until dual-core phones start appearing...

Originally Posted by hydralisk

I've never been a chronic phone switcher until I learned about Android phones. Now that I see new **** coming out constantly, I think I'll have a new phone every 4-5 months. I'll try and hold onto the Epic until dual-core phones start appearing...

Word on the street is the Epic4G is still going to hold its own vs those dual core processors. The GPU on the Galaxy S is much faster than anything else available right now.

Originally Posted by Pops_G

Word on the street is the Epic4G is still going to hold its own vs those dual core processors. The GPU on the Galaxy S is much faster than anything else available right now.

Yes, the GPU on the hummingbird will hold its own. However, think about EVERYTHING ELSE that the GPU does nothing for. App load times, the number of things going on at the same time... etc etc. I dont know when exactly the GPU kicks in, so I cant say for certain that the Galaxy S phones handle screen transitions, large menu scrolling, and browser panning\zooming better than other phones.

Besides, SUPPOSEDLY the Qualcomm dual-core's GPU can handle 80 million triangles per second whereas the hummingbird puts out 90 million. It's close enough that I would consider upgrading for all of the benefits that I get from non-graphics related tasks.

Any tips from people who just got their phone?