I'm afraid all I know about the subject is that the Samsung Epic is a whole ton of fun. I had a basic cellphone when I turned 18 and have had it for the last six years. The battery life, speaker, etc has gotten terrible and all it can do is call people and text, and rather than trying to fix the thing, I decided to invest in a phone that I'll be more than happy to keep for the
next six years, or even the next decade.
I was able to get mine for $150, but you'll probably have to get one for $200 or so. It has a qwerty keyboard so I can text much better. The Android OS is impressive, and I was a little unaccustomed to the idea of not having to hack a handheld to play emulators and the like, though rooting is certainly an option, and very easy to do. You already want an Android phone, definitely a good route to go no matter what choice you make.
Unfortunately, due to some kind of bluetooth difficulty, connecting Wii controllers to the Epic is currently impossible, and I don't know if that can be fixed. However, the
Game Gripper is rather over-priced for a hunk of rubber and plastic but definitely worth it.
Unfortunately, the emulators still aren't perfect. That's one of my major gripes, several apps like emulators lack competition and the developers want money for them or punish you with ads and being unable to load your savestates, though you could install apps you find outside of the market if you'd rather go that route...
Even NES has a little lag, noticeable when you have no frameskip. Keeping the auto-frameskip on and set to 2 has good results, it's usually not noticeable but you might occasionally slip up. You get used to it, it's very, very playable, and I'd assume it's a software problem since this thing is pretty powerful. The resolution is higher than a DS, so it's a great platform for this, though the controls aren't nearly as nice. The worst issue is probably the layer problems in the Genesis emulator, but you can play pretty much every Genesis and SNES game with only minor complaints. Sound is pretty good, but you can't use the headphone jack with the Game Gripper, and the speaker is on the back of the phone. A bluetooth headset works well.
Battery life is pretty good. You can go from a 1500mah battery to a 3500mah battery, but I didn't like the bulk, so I just use a second battery and a wall-charger. The touch screen takes some getting used to. In a lot of ways I don't like it as much as a DS touch screen. It's very smooth and seems to lack pressure sensitivity, and the drawing programs aren't as good and are littered with ads. There are lousy alternatives, but I sure do wish there was a port of Animanatee, I
love Animanatee.
Hopefully it'll get better, the main problem with Android is a need for the kind of talent that the homebrew community for stuff like the Dreamcast, Xbox, DS, PSP, and Wii have enjoyed. I've been trying to learn to write code and make stuff since I was a kid. I haven't been too successful, but with the Android SDK and a ton of well-written and organized information on the official site, maybe I'll finally get serious, focus, and get my hands dirty, and maybe in a few years I can accomplish something. The current state of things is very inspiring. Like the old days of computers, there's simply a lot of untapped potential and ideas that haven't been done, so I've already jotted down things as they come to me that I'd personally like to see. It's just unfortunate that I'm stupid, but one
must try!
Oh, and I can play my GOG copies of NetHack with "Twisty", that's a nice piece of software that doesn't shove ads and benefits down your throat. The NetHack port is surprisingly playable, it looks nice and you can have ASCII or tiles (I hate tiles!), though I've yet to figure out how to do certain keystrokes but there must be a way. Angry Birds is simple fun, it gave me something to do until I could play real games with the Game Gripper. Paint Joy, Maple Paint, and Sketcher are pretty good drawing programs, all with their own advantages and disadvantages (Sketcher mostly being a novelty).
There's stuff like Stick Fighter and StickDraw. StickDraw is the best animator I've been able to find, but it doesn't hold a candle to Animanatee and it's fairly annoying. Stick Fighter has the potential to be cool, you animate skeletons and it fills in frames, which is just the kind of thing this platform needs, but there's a giant ad that takes up 1/8th of the screen, and along with the editing bar, it's frustrating.
You
could, of course, pay for it. If I was to develop for Android, providing I don't turn into a sellout to get food money, I'd ideally make most or all of my apps free and have a donation option on the title screen, maybe even have a few frivolous benefits like a code for bonus content. In a market saturated with ads, I'd much rather donate to somebody outside of the store with my preferred payment method, consciously knowing I "paid" for a product without having to prove it with logins and accounts, since most people will opt for downloading the APK, or use free alternatives anyway, but I'm not sure this topic is the place to discuss this subject in length.
The best or most interesting programs I've found (that
don't come with the phone, but the phone comes with some essential things) include: Amazon Kindle, AndFTP, AndroidVNC, AndSMB, Astro, Backgammon Free, AndroIRC, the Angry Birds games, Chess Free, ColorNote, Dropwords, FTPServer, GameBoid, Gangstar, GBCoid, Gearoid, Gensoid, Go Free, HistoryEraser, IP Webcam, MaplePaint, Marvin, MineDroid, N64oid, Nesoid, Note Everything, Overlook Fing, Pandora, PCE.emu, Paint Joy, NetHack, psx4droid, ROM Manager, ShopSavvy, SNesoid, Stick Fighter, StickDraw, Super Sudoku, Telnet, Terminal Emulator, Titanium Backup, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, WordzUp!.
One of the best things is having a GPS. I have a sense of direction that would rival Ryoga Hibiki, and while I've borrowed GPS, I now have a phone with it. I can use Google Maps and it's satellite scans to navigate around, as long as I have battery I'll probably never get lost. It also came with a 16GB micro sd that now holds much of my GOG soundtracks, I have unlimited 3G access for texting and internet. Unfortunately, I pay $10 extra on my plan for 4G that only exists in a handful of places. An MP3 player, GPS, unlimited internet regardless of Wi-Fi (and if I do have Wi-Fi access, I can use it for greater speeds), the ability be able to read barcodes and take photos with my phone, and a powerful piece of hardware with a keyboard, it's easily worth the $200.
Not cheap, but it does internet like a dream. The browser it comes with is smooth as silk, has no problem with GOG, I can watch YouTube in browser or with the YouTube app, email is seamless, this thing keeps you organized with showing address book birthdays in your calendar, letting you find their address on the map, it's great.
No matter what you choose, I can't say I'm experienced with smartphones and alternative operating systems, but Android is definitely good stuff.
