i want to buy a smartphone for school use

[Cilraaz]

I'm going to agree with Cilraaz with Moto. I've got a Moto Droid and it's been a great phone. Albeit mine is rooted and running a custom ROM I enjoy it far more than I would with a iPhone that I can't "play" with like my Droid.

I think that's another thing that I love about the Android community. Android users root a phone to replace the OS with a custom version. iPhone users root a phone to install an app that Apple won't allow them to otherwise.

I'm running a Motorola Droid 2 with AngDroid's 2.4.5 Super Clean BS VA PRO ROM with some modifications. The base ROM is a stripped down version of the R2D2's OS, with all of the MotoBlur removed. Then I added the R2D2 boot animation, Star Wars lock screen sliders, and Star Wars sound effects. Oh, and it's overclocked to 1.2GHz (1.4GHz was stable, but didn't give a big enough improvement to justify the heat/voltage increase). I love my D2.

[llDemonll]

Also HTC Desire HD has probably the most advanced hardware of any smartphones atm & almost as good default UI as iPhone.

phone looks good, but from what i've read it has horrendous battery life

[Zookii]

I think that's another thing that I love about the Android community. Android users root a phone to replace the OS with a custom version. iPhone users root a phone to install an app that Apple won't allow them to otherwise.

I'm running a Motorola Droid 2 with AngDroid's 2.4.5 Super Clean BS VA PRO ROM with some modifications. The base ROM is a stripped down version of the R2D2's OS, with all of the MotoBlur removed. Then I added the R2D2 boot animation, Star Wars lock screen sliders, and Star Wars sound effects. Oh, and it's overclocked to 1.2GHz (1.4GHz was stable, but didn't give a big enough improvement to justify the heat/voltage increase). I love my D2.

Read that with the newer Android OS, possible 2.3 or 3.0 not sure, that Motoblur will be a thing of the past. The Droid 2 is basically an upgraded Droid hardware. I won't get an upgrade till next year so hopefully the 4g Droids will be rolling out by the time I get ready. As of now I use CyanogenROM 6.0 on my Droid and it works great.

[jaimelannister]

I think that's another thing that I love about the Android community. Android users root a phone to replace the OS with a custom version. iPhone users root a phone to install an app that Apple won't allow them to otherwise.

I'm running a Motorola Droid 2 with AngDroid's 2.4.5 Super Clean BS VA PRO ROM with some modifications. The base ROM is a stripped down version of the R2D2's OS, with all of the MotoBlur removed. Then I added the R2D2 boot animation, Star Wars lock screen sliders, and Star Wars sound effects. Oh, and it's overclocked to 1.2GHz (1.4GHz was stable, but didn't give a big enough improvement to justify the heat/voltage increase). I love my D2.

How tech-savvy do you have to be to do all this stuff?

[Cilraaz]

How tech-savvy do you have to be to do all this stuff?

I've been seeing some surprisingly non-savvy people doing it. For the most part, if you can follow directions, it's simple. Though if you do things wrong, you can destroy your phone.

[Zookii]

I've been seeing some surprisingly non-savvy people doing it. For the most part, if you can follow directions, it's simple. Though if you do things wrong, you can destroy your phone.

It's very hard to "brick" these phones. So long as you don't destroy the bootloader, which is hard to do IMO but possible, then you can always get the phone functional again. Rooting them has became super easy as compared to when I originally did it and had to use my terminal on the phone to use sudo for a bunch of commands.

[Cilraaz]

It's very hard to "brick" these phones. So long as you don't destroy the bootloader, which is hard to do IMO but possible, then you can always get the phone functional again. Rooting them has became super easy as compared to when I originally did it and had to use my terminal on the phone to use sudo for a bunch of commands.

It is difficult to brick them, but it can happen and therefore needs to be mentioned. The last thing I need is someone bricking their phone and coming back saying "you said I could root it and never said this could happen".

[Zookii]

It is difficult to brick them, but it can happen and therefore needs to be mentioned. The last thing I need is someone bricking their phone and coming back saying "you said I could root it and never said this could happen".

You're being nicer than the ROM creators. Most of them are pretty harsh and don't even say you can brick them. Most the time the phone gets put into a boot loop and that's the worst most people have seen. Heck even on the CM forums the mods there question those who say their phone is bricked as a bricked phone is very slim to none to do. Probably less than 10% or even 5% possibility.