My friend Alex asked me last week which Android phone to buy. I literally couldn't answer. Not because I don't know Android—I've been using it since the T-Mobile G1. But because there's no sane answer anymore. Everything's splintered.
A year ago, I could say "get a Nexus." Easy. That's what the serious people did. But even that's a fuzzy answer now because Google's running two Nexus lines and they're not quite flagship-tier in the way they used to be. Or I could've said "get a Galaxy S II if you want polish" or "get an HTC if you want software that doesn't look like someone vomited design elements across your screen." You could actually make these recommendations with a straight face.
Now? The Galaxy S III just came out, and it's genuinely good. Faster processor, better screen, that weird home button thing some people like. But there's also the HTC One X which has an excellent camera. And the Motorola RAZR HD is coming soon and will probably be solid. And there's still the previous generation of everything from 2011 that you can grab on the cheap, which might actually be the smarter buy depending on what you need.
This is the problem: there's no monoculture anymore. Apple has five iPhones at any given time (current, previous, and three budget variants). That's manageable. You can think about it. Android has, what, twenty phones in active development from five major manufacturers? More if you count international variants and carrier exclusives.
I spent an hour with Alex showing them options. Here's what happened. They looked at specs. Everything looked the same on paper. Screen size, processor, RAM. But then they asked about software, and that's where it falls apart. Because Samsung runs TouchWiz on their phones, which is frankly embarrassing compared to stock Android. HTC runs their own Sense skin. Motorola runs their own thing. Smaller manufacturers like Sony are trying out their own interfaces. Even after removing the carrier bloatware (if you can), you're left with completely different user experiences on phones with nearly identical guts.
The worst part? Manufacturers are still chasing specs like it's 2008. Eight megapixel camera. Quad-core processor. Four-point-five inch screen. All of these things check boxes in a store, but they don't actually tell you whether the phone is good to use. That S-Pen thing Samsung threw into some phones? Nobody needs that. But it looks impressive on the spec sheet.
I miss the Nexus strategy when it actually meant something. Those were phones built by Google, with Google's actual Android on them, and there was only one choice at any given time. You knew what you were getting. Now even the Nexus stuff is muddied.
Alex eventually just walked out saying they'd think about it. They'll probably end up at a Verizon store, the salesperson will push them toward something random, and they'll be fine but slightly disappointed with the software experience, which is honestly the most Android thing possible.
The irony is that Android itself is getting better. Ice Cream Sandwich was solid, and Jelly Bean is coming, and the core OS is actually competitive with iOS now in terms of polish. But because any manufacturer can slap their own garbage on top of it, the whole thing feels fractured and confused to regular people who just want a decent phone.
So that's my answer to Alex: whatever. Pick one that doesn't make your eyes hurt and hope the manufacturer doesn't abandon updates within two years. Welcome to Android.