by Bob Kovacs

Yesterday, I looked at HTC’s Android offerings on Verizon Wireless, and today it’s Samsung’s turn. With a highly successful year in 2011, Samsung is now battling neck and neck with Apple to hold the title of the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, and the company has some of the most technologically advanced products currently available.

At the moment, Samsung has three Android phones on Verizon, spanning the range from affordable to the highest of the high-end. The top Samsung Android phone for Verizon is the Galaxy Nexus (top phone in the photo above), which is the only phone currently available in the U.S. with the Android 4.0 operating system. The technology goodies don’t stop there, as the Galaxy Nexus also features a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED+ display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, making it a true HD display. With its dual-core processor, 32GB of built-in storage and 4G LTE connectivity, it doesn’t get any more high-end than the Galaxy Nexus. Read more…

by Bob Kovacs

Verizon Wireless currently has four Android phones from HTC in its lineup: the Rezound, ThunderBolt, Rhyme and DROID Incredible 2. These four phones span an interesting set of capabilities and features, from decent performance with a lot of accessories to top-of-the-line features that create envy among cell phone fans. There’s a healthy range in the prices as well, and you can find a real bargain if you look carefully and buy at the right time.

Right now, the most powerful HTC Android phone for Verizon is the Rezound, a monster performer that features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of out-of-the-box storage, a 720p HD display, integrated Beats Audio technology and Verizon’s 4G LTE network capability. (The HTC Rezound is the bottom phone in the photo above.) No other Android phone has better specs than the Rezound, and no other phone anywhere comes with a better set of earphones. Featuring a 4.3-inch LCD display, the Rezound was the first phone in the US to ship with a true HD display that has a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The Rezound’s display is exceptionally sharp, and watching a well-made HD video on it is a real pleasure. Read more…

by Bob Kovacs

When I got my first Android phone more than two years ago, I got a phone with a slide-out keyboard because I thought I would really prefer a physical keyboard. Sure, the keyboard added bulk and weight, but it initially seemed like a good idea and made it easier to type out a quick e-mail response. Funny thing though — displays kept getting bigger and bigger, which made it look increasingly practical to use an on-screen keyboard to type messages. My first Android phone’s display was just 3.2 inches, which makes an on-screen keyboard too small for my fat fingers.

Now that the typical Android phone has a four-inch display (and many are bigger still), on-screen keyboards are big enough that I can use them without making a lot of mistakes. Typing out a longer message on a phone — on either a physical keyboard or an on-screen “virtual” keyboard — is still far more tedious than using a standard computer keyboard, but there are some apps to help. In particular, I like to use Swype, which is the best known of the apps that allow a technique called “trace typing.” You can tell if your phone has Swype if you see the blue “S” in the lower-left corner of the on-screen keyboard. (See the photo above.) Read more…