Wait. Just a little bit. That’s the advice I recently gave my brother-in-law and his wife. Both of them are rocking OG Droids and are looking to upgrade. They said that one of them could upgrade today, and the other could upgrade in January.
All indications are that the next version of Android–called Ice Cream Sandwich–will be coming out in about a month. By the start of the Christmas shopping season, phones and tablets will start shipping with ICS.
If you buy one now, it could be a year or more before you get the update (*cough*Samsung*cough). Even when you do get the update, your old phone may still have some features that will make using the new version confusing (like hardware buttons for back, home, menu, and search–all of which will be rendered obsolete).
So be patient. Buying a phone today is a lot like buying a computer 10 years ago–by the time you buy it, it’s already obsolete. Wait as long as you can and buy the most phone you can afford at the time. My Nexus One was the fastest phone in the world when it came out, and it’s already showing it’s age 18 months after it was introduced (NFC? Dual Core? Front facing camera? What are these new-fangled things!). While I would love to go out and buy a new Samsung Galaxy S II phone, I am waiting for the next Nexus phone.
