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Rumor: Android 3.0 Gingerbread

* Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5" and higher. We all of course heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU's are coming.
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4" and higher
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android's split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2

Hmm.. Seems like all the phones that are getting Android 2.2 now, will also get 3.0. Even if not officially, some XDA ROMs will make it possible.
I'm quite interested in all of this.

Bouncer5 said:
*
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm intrigued

I was already aware of the plans to scrape the manufacturers UI's will make for faster upgrading for the latest OS Version

hmm I am still on the verge for a decision. Should I get a nexus one right now or wait another 2-3 months until the new handsets are released. I just can't decide

Bouncer5 said:
I was already aware of the plans to scrape the manufacturers UI's will make for faster upgrading for the latest OS Version
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Click to collapse
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.

Hanafubuki said:
hmm I am still on the verge for a decision. Should I get a nexus one right now or wait another 2-3 months until the new handsets are released. I just can't decide
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Click to collapse
At the rate of development in the mobile market, Id wait until the newer hardware is out, I.E 2GHz or Dual processors, Depending on how long that takes of course, And nobody wants to wait on getting a phone encase newer tech comes out the following week, It is rather disappointing when that happens.
kekkle said:
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.
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Click to collapse
I got my HTC Desire for the hardware specs and not the UI which it was bundled with, It's nice but if I could have had the desire with the stock android I would have bought it like that!

I agree that this is a really bad time to buy a handset. 1Ghz (though in a 45 nm architecture) has been here for a relatively long time and it's obvious the newer processors are coming. Same for 800x480 (or 854x480).
More importantly, 3.0 means not being left in the dark as to whether or not your phone is ever going to get a firmware update.

Pickx said:
I agree that this is a really bad time to buy a handset. 1Ghz (though in a 45 nm architecture) has been here for a relatively long time and it's obvious the newer processors are coming. Same for 800x480 (or 854x480).
More importantly, 3.0 means not being left in the dark as to whether or not your phone is ever going to get a firmware update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say 1GHz has been out for a really long time, But the desire was the first handset, atleast over here to get it with that being out in February, but actually finding somewhere selling it was difficult until the carriers had a hold of them really

kekkle said:
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.
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Click to collapse
I'm tired of Sense UI being uninstallable, monolithic and only available on HTC phones. If they want to do that ****, it should be modular, portable, and optional.

Bouncer5 said:
You say 1GHz has been out for a really long time, But the desire was the first handset, atleast over here to get it with that being out in February, but actually finding somewhere selling it was difficult until the carriers had a hold of them really
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Click to collapse
htc HD2 had a Snapdragon back in November.

Bouncer5 said:
At the rate of development in the mobile market, Id wait until the newer hardware is out, I.E 2GHz or Dual processors,
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Click to collapse
I don't know if i'd want a 2ghz device until the battery tech gets better. As it is, I have to carry an extra battery around with my n1. So I could imagine what a 2ghz device with a 1400mah or 1600mah battery would look like...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Honeycomb exclusive to tablets?

I was reading around it is seems the vibe going around is that Honeycomb may only be released for tablets.
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1906&news=google+android+os+honeycomb+tablets
It seems that the phones will stay with 2.x right now and
Tablets will be on 3.X
I guess there is even a leak that version 2.4 will be called ice cream?
They say down the line they plan on merging both OS's and all phones and tablets will run on the same. But until then...
Just found that interesting.

copc said:
I was reading around it is seems the vibe going around is that Honeycomb may only be released for tablets.
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1906&news=google+android+os+honeycomb+tablets
It seems that the phones will stay with 2.x right now and
Tablets will be on 3.X
I guess there is even a leak that version 2.4 will be called ice cream?
They say down the line they plan on merging both OS's and all phones and tablets will run on the same. But until then...
Just found that interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm seeing conflicting 'news' all over the place about this. I need to find a source I was just reading earlier with the lead engineer stating that it will be on phones. I think the confusion is in the fact that it's primarily catering to bigger screens and thus tablets as a focus - but I feel that initially it will be introduced on smartphones at the same time as tablets....meaning, it's not like the LG phone X released on July 10 will come with Android 2.3 and the LG tablet X released on July 5 will come with Honeycomb. It's a situation where they're optimizing the code for dual core cpus and bigger screens and modem-less devices and that pans out to seeming as if phones are left behind, but it's not so. Will look for what I read earlier.
Update:
these don't look familiar, but they work.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/17642/android_honeycomb_smartphones
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/exclusive-interview-googles-matias-duarte-talks-honeycomb-tab/

Bunch of conflicting stuff. Perhaps by design, since Android may be battling inside in regards to keeping one OS platform or maintaing two now? I see no practical way to maintain one.
My guess is we will see two "platforms", kind of like iPhone & iPad. Similar guts, but different specific focus for each. JMO.
The other option is to have one really big a55 rom with both. Quite a few 512mb roms used on devices that would choke. Space is already cramped on some current 2.2 devices.

rushless said:
Bunch of conflicting stuff. Perhaps by design, since Android may be battling inside in regards to keeping one OS platform or maintaing two now? I see no practical way to maintain one.
My guess is we will see two "platforms", kind of like iPhone & iPad. Similar guts, but different specific focus for each. JMO.
The other option is to have one really big a55 rom with both. Quite a few 512mb roms used on devices that would choke. Space is already cramped on some current 2.2 devices.
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Click to collapse
This is my assumption also. I thought it was smart that Google split the OS's up because right now I don't see a big distinction between tablets and smartphones except for the size of the screen. I think Apple will eventually have a tablet specific iOS.

rushless said:
Bunch of conflicting stuff. Perhaps by design, since Android may be battling inside in regards to keeping one OS platform or maintaing two now? I see no practical way to maintain one.
My guess is we will see two "platforms", kind of like iPhone & iPad. Similar guts, but different specific focus for each. JMO.
The other option is to have one really big a55 rom with both. Quite a few 512mb roms used on devices that would choke. Space is already cramped on some current 2.2 devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not so sure. I mean, I agree with you, but in a different way. Obviously mid-low to low end devices that are running with 1GB of storage or less would be left behind so to speak, sooner than later. I mean, I think most people understand that you get what you pay for. You buy a smartphone for 50 dollars on contract vs. those going for 199 then you may lose out at some point. Most of the mid-high to higher end Android devices since all the way back to June of last year are using 2GB+ internal storage which means the possibility is there to use bigger ROMs if necessary. We still can't account for 2GB of ROM in our newer HTC phones despite being blessed with 4GB.
If Android does indeed fragment at 2.3, I'd certainly have no problem with that - what I def. don't want to see is Android 3.0 and then 2.4, 2.5, etc for phones. I'd honestly rather they rename a separately focussed OS something else, like Cyborg...lol. Let 3.0 come and be the uniting point for any and all devices that can run it well, and move up from there. And let the others work with 2.3.
I want Android for early 2010 and older (depending on CPU and storage of course) to be the breaking point. I'm not talking about phones with 1Ghz CPUs and 8GB on board, I'm talking stuff with 512MB ROM and 600Mhz CPUs for example, to cut off at that point - so there's no zero confusion.
Then, I want anything released in 2011, be it low end or not, to support the next clean generation of Android...so, Honeycomb, Ice Cream, Jello, whatever.
People are talking about how apps need to be optimized for bigger screens and it requires separate code because 'stretching' doesn't work all the time. I agree, but I don't think it's worthwhile to have separate apps. 1 app that detects a screen size and 'changes' to match would do, no? Maybe it's possible with honeycomb
So, as I mentioned I do agree in that there are somewhat 2 platforms, in a way. But I disagree about each focusing on something different like iPad and iPhone apps...the only capacity in which I'd like to see them diverge is have 2.3 go to the phones that are more or less obsolete because of space or cpu constraints, and then honeycomb+ come to everything both tablet and phone.

from what I read, that is why they are saying honeycomb is not coming to the phones. all of the graphics would be too small, as it is designed for larger screens.
I guess it is all guessing as only Google knows.

Want to switch from WP7

Hi. I am thinking of switching to android from WP7. If I do I want the Infuse. I am a total noob to android. The main reason I want to switch is due to lack of customization for WP7. I want an os and phone that is totally open for customization.
Help convince me by telling me the pros of the system and ease of rooting and customization.
Thanks
Is the Galaxy s2 worth waiting on?

TOA Duck said:
Hi. I am thinking of switching to android from WP7. If I do I want the Infuse. I am a total noob to android. The main reason I want to switch is due to lack of customization for WP7. I want an os and phone that is totally open for customization.
Help convince me by telling me the pros of the system and ease of rooting and customization.
Thanks
Is the Galaxy s2 worth waiting on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The pros: Samsung delivers kernel source prior to device releases unlike many vendors. Samsung also does not perform any bootloader locking (except for possibly locking out flashing other bootloaders over the current ones) - this means it'll happily try to run any kernel/ROM you throw at it. Whether that kernel/ROM actually works is another story.
Unfortunately the nature of the Apache license used for the Android userland stack is that the source code for the "userland" portion of firmware is not available. As a result, doing a bringup of the vanilla AOSP source or Cyanogenmod takes some time/effort/patience. We've made a lot of progress on a Cyanogenmod 7.1 port - it's the daily driver for a lot of the devs that are willing to accept some missing features (like Bluetooth). As time goes by, CM7 will mature and this allows for a LOT more customization than the already fairly high degree available by "cooking" Android ROMs.
As to waiting for the GS2 - You don't need to wait, the international version works on AT&T's bands. If you mean the subsidized AT&T specific variant - it'll probably lag the current GS2 by a few months in terms of AOSP/Cyanogenmod bringups.

does the sigle core processor hurt the device as opposed to having the dual core, like the gs2 will have?

TOA Duck said:
does the sigle core processor hurt the device as opposed to having the dual core, like the gs2 will have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For most normal things, a single core is fine. Obviously, nobody would buy the phone if it was a slow piece of crap.
But two cores is always better than one.

TOA Duck said:
does the sigle core processor hurt the device as opposed to having the dual core, like the gs2 will have?
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Click to collapse
Not really, few things take advantage of the second core of dual-core devices.
And the Atrix proved that well-written software and an unlocked bootloader on a single-core phone smokes ****ty software with a locked bootloader on a dual-core phone. There are a lot of former Atrix users here that ditched it because, despite being dual-core and having great hardware specs on paper, it was a slow laggy piece of junk.
Admittedly, Samsung's default filesystem (RFS) makes many of their phones slow laggy pieces of junk, but fixing that is REALLY easy (and usually the first thing ROM/kernel devs ever do with a new Samsung device.)

The future of android?

I was wondering, now we've hit the quadcore 1.5Ghz, 2GB ram mark on our phones... What is the next step?
Will there still be a lot of change in the hardware used by manufacturers?
I wanted to hear peoples thoughts on this, mainly because I want to buy a new phone and I don't know if I should wait any longer...

Wait for the Snapdragon 800 chips or the Tegra 4 and 4i chips. Major speed boosts there.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Well android can only get better and if we have come to a stage such as this it could mean that we might soon have budget speced phones with pretty good specs.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

Once ARMv8 gets into the swing of things we will no doubtly see a 64bit verson of android

The nig about android OS's
Unlike iOS for iPhone the only thing that really bugs me is how fast Google Develop the next android OS within the next year we will have something better the JB. They need the slow down the dev speed of these OS's because the market for newer phones coming isn't catching up with the the newer OS releases.
And if you're a sony user well lets just say they don't like updating there ranges they'd rather people be pee'd half way down the line with the 24 month contract stuck on a OS with apps they cannot have due to app developers disregarding older OS's running on current high and mid range market devices.

A USB port

I personally think that the future of android is all about software. Not to say that we won't be seeing hardware improvements - but that's almost a 'must' with every incremental update for any OEM. I mean, we've reached a point where android phones have as much processing and computing power as some people's computers! To expand, I really think that future updates to the android OS will be much more significant, especially since google has chosen to roll out individual components of their OS (such as the Google Keyboard, Play Music, etc) as individual services (apart from the OS). This way, even without updating the operating system - individual components will be updated and outdated phones will still be able to receive "updates" when OS updates from their OEM are no longer supported.

Since Sammy is 95% of the sales of Android, everything depends on sammy.. If sammy abandones Android and people switch to Tizen, android will be like Windows Phone is right now.
Also, the recent developments of android, its bad security permission policy and so on are reasons to be worried about. I simply do not trust google with the right decsiions.

Chips with Haswell-like arcitecture. im sure they will come giving some killer battery life.
Hardware is not my interest to follow right now. But the OS itself is way more exciting.
Sent from my HTC One

Desktop PC hardware got to a point where even a bargain PC has plenty of power for the average user. It seems that phones are getting closer to that point too and I think the innovations that are going to be most exciting are going to be in the next generation of apps that are created to better help us organize our life and connect with people.
Well, of course there's the idea of wearable technology like Google Glass but unless fashion changes I don't think most people want to walk around looking like a cyborg. We saw how bluetooth headsets became an object of ridicule.

Eventually computers will be useless and everyone will have a tablet. android is for sure going to upgrade in terms of speed an fluidity. Devices are going to have crazy specs. However, if android could somehow become less demanding hardware wise, the components within the phones wouldn't have to be that powerful to operate the system smoothly. For example, the iPhone. Dual core, 1 gig of ram. The smoothest phone I've ever seem
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

androidsoccer said:
Eventually computers will be useless and everyone will have a tablet. android is for sure going to upgrade in terms of speed an fluidity. Devices are going to have crazy specs. However, if android could somehow become less demanding hardware wise, the components within the phones wouldn't have to be that powerful to operate the system smoothly. For example, the iPhone. Dual core, 1 gig of ram. The smoothest phone I've ever seem
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A tablet is a computer, you sent that from a computer in tablet format.
Use the right terms, it's not irrelevant.
I will never substitute my laptop for a tablet though, there are some simple physical necessities when it comes to efficient workflow.
I'm writing this with Swype on my phone and it's fast, but it would be faster on my laptop, the physical keyboard is faster and most importantly 100% reliant/error free.
I'll probably get a tablet eventually, there are some things it just does better, but to say it'll replace desktops and laptops is ridiculous.
Android 5.0 is rumored to be less hardware demanding instead of the usual trend, but that remains to be seen.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

JasonKZLY said:
A USB port
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Click to collapse
Yes bro.
The only feature left in here direct.
Usb port support
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Hell!
We got octa-core now!!
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No, we do not have octa-cores.
We have BIG.little quad-cores, and that's not semantics, there's a huge difference.
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future will be
galaxy s5
exynos 64core processor ..obviously closed source...
6inch 4k pixels ultraamoled plus plus foldable
1tb internal memory expandable upto 4tb
8gb ram
mali 1000 gpu
camera 40mp
water resistant upto depth of pacific ocean
Android 6.0(no cm support) lol

Hr Kristian said:
Android 5.0 is rumored to be less hardware demanding instead of the usual trend, but that remains to be seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where have you read that?
Sent from my Incredible S using xda app-developers app

Unless we see major improvements in battery materials , we will see the tech of mobile devices start to level off, because no one would want a device that is as powerful as a desktop PC but you can only use it for 20 min. That is the main reason why desktop PCs will always be better than mobile devices.

There have been hundreds of threads like this. Anyway my speculation is that when the phones and tablets are so powerful that we simply don't need any more powerful devices, we plug the phone onto some kind of dock, hook it up to tv, and put keyboard and mouse on the dock, and run desktop Ubuntu or some other Linux distro(maybe "Android desktop"?) just like it was a mini sized pc computer.
Sent from my teddy bear

Exynos 5?

[GUIDE] Buying an Android Device, Do I need a New One?

In todays fast moving technology world, everyone is intrigued to buy new devices. And this norm is fumed by innumerous manufacturers by releasing products at an insane rate. You have got too many choices and only think to wonder is how much you can afford to pay. Sometimes taking loans is common or simply you take a contract with a provider and regret there is nothing you can do to change your phone afterwards.
Every other day, new features are coming to devices and you wish you had just waited a month to buy the other phone.
Buying the every latest devices is not very wise as you spend alot of your money for just one or two extra features.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS
You must know that in todays phone era, the hardware has gone a long way in comparison with software. My point isnot that software is developing at a slower pace but simply that most of phones available today might never use their full potential in terms of hardware ever. Android Software is going more smooth and promises further improvements even on low end devices. With KITKAT 4.4, Android has gone into a surge to speed up system by 50% and that's just the beginning.
Most of manufacturers are working hard on ONLY hardware. Even phones released two years ago are doing very well till date. If you look into software department and games, you can still play all of latest games on these devices very smoothly. I will give you examples of HTC sensation/Incredible S, Samsung Nexus, SII or any other phone of that time with almost similar hardware. I have checked MC4/Fifa 14/Asphlat 8 personally on all of these devices.
I think to update my Nexus 7 2013 in 2015 and my Nexus 4 Next year (October 2014) while Xperia L around when it is required. Following this scheme I always have the latest device with me and I also do not spend a lot of money. (700-800 British Pounds every three year, considering that I am a Medicine Student and under a lot of loan already). Also what is more to look is that my old devices are still doing a great job. I recently installed CM 10.2(JB 4.3) on my HTC Sensation and it runs just as smooth as Nexus 4/Xperia L for the matter. The software is stable and I can play HD games on 786MB RAM only.
Another point to note is that KitKat 4.4 has only been released for about a week now and I am using 4.3 on my two year old HTC sensation using Custom ROM is simply too cool.
So I WARN you that you need to be smart to buy a new phone rather than spending alot of money on every new phone and never utilising its full potential.
ASK YOURSELF
The most important point you need to consider is WHY EXACTLY YOU WANT TO BUY A NEW PHONE? WHERE your old phone canot be utilised that you must upgrade it.
What would you utilise it for in the LONG RUN? HOW LONG YOU INTEND TO USE IT. WHAT ARE SOME SPECIFIC FEATURES THAT YOU ARE LOOKING INTO BEFORE BUYING.
I know for many looks of a device counts. You want your device to be COOL and feel great in your hand. I agree to the matter but certainly you should never compromise LOOKS with actual performance and hardware. Benchmarks are just a bunch of lies and in real use, they do differ alot and cannot be fully trusted.
I personally give a lot of stress to your HARDWARE and your SCREEN SIZE.
At the moment we are into Octa Core era but have you ever actually thought that if your phone ever used all of these cores at once? I think even Quad Core processors are not fully utilised. Many HD games still just utilise dual core and the rest are off. So in real, many games are not fully using your full phone potential as lack of support from developers or lack of customization to utilise all cores/hardware ! Don't you feel trolled?
Windows phone is fast growing platform but it still lacks a lot what Android offers on the table. I prefer Android over Windows phone any day!
(That's another debate! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=45932842&postcount=14)
If you just want a simple phone for calls and texts and emails and limited apps, I WILL SIMPLY TELL YOU TO USE WP8 or if you just want to call and text NOKIA 3310 (or any in the sequence) shall suit you.
So going for Quardcores (now i think its justified but if all cores are optimized in every application)/Octacores/64bits is just rubbage and you are just tricked out of money when you have something very latest but developers havenot made anything that it can utilise. So if you are considering a phone to use for next two years, I believe a recognised company's quardcore would be more than enough. A change to this trend in future is inevitable but not enough uptill now to run for the latest device. (Remember Mediatek Octacore can not win from Qualcomm Quadcore, so consider which company to choose)
RAM is very important and I believe this should not be compromised. Many phones will do just great on 1gb ram but I will prefer a 2gb ram if my phone is to be used for two or more years.
GPU This is something really tricky which might FORCE anyone to buy a phone with higher GPU. GPU takes a part of ram and its function is to compute 3D functions and thus is mostly utilised in GAMES. So if you are a gamer, I will suggest you to buy a phone with latest GPU rather than an old one. Xperia L/Xperia P/ Xperia M all share almost the same price. However, Xperia P is an old device while Xperia L is recent. Thus, Xperia L will give alot better performance and more smoothness to your ROM comparatively to Xperia P because it can handle graphics better due to its latest GPU.
SCREENSIZE I personally prefer any device bigger than 4 inch display. 3.5 is just too small for your fingers and 5 is just to big for me. For me, 4.3 to 4.7 is just perfect as not only it is big enough to read/games/emails but also gives you enough for big hands.
Remember to always BUY A DEVICE WHICH IS DEVELOPERS FRIENDLY. You won't find much ROMS for HTC Amaze although it has almost the same specification as HTC sensation.
CORTEX CONSIDERATION When you are buying any phone, we usually just consider the clock speed of processor and usually ignore the technology on which the processor is build on. The processors which are currently being available in the market are Cortex A5, A7, A9, A12 and A15. What does this mean? Consider it this way, it shows the technology they are build upon and using. The Cortex A5 is oldest which cortex A15 is latest.
Lately 64 bits have also being introduced A53 & A57. These out perform the previous ones!
If you are wondering how does this make a difference, well take this as an example : A device running a dual core Cortex A9 1 Ghz would run faster than a dual core Cortex A5 clocked at 1.5 Ghz. This is because as the technology is growing, the architecture of the chips are also changing to improve their performance. As the Cortex A9 uses new architecture, thus many improvements have been made to enhance the device performance. ( Xperia U used 1ghz A9 with 512 Ram whilst Samsung Galaxy Star uses 1Ghz A5 with 512 Ram as well but if you talk about their performance, there is a lot of difference between the two. I have personally used both of them) So always consider a device with higher cortex if you can afford to!
REMOVABLE BATTERY is important for those who want to easily swap batteries or want to use their phones for long period of time. This is just a big draw back for me as I keep three devices and I update each one annually so this means that I need to change my nexus after using it for around 2 years to 3 years. In this time, I need to change my battery as battery does get worn out and damaged. But I just can not easily do that.
You might be wondering, the new ROMS are not available. Well actually they are but custom made. If you check out Android development of these phones, you will be surprised that many developers are giving their best to just work hard on new ROMS and they are all great.
At times you just need to do little tweaks.(Some games aren't available on specific models but those devices are capable of running them very smoothly. Tweaks help in these matters)
Another thing one of my friend asked me to add was about support from different manufacturers to their devices! Well, every company has a different policy of releasing updates for their phones according to their price tag (Flashship, mid end, low end phones). So make sure you consider what is their possibility of being updated to newer version of android if you are looking for STOCK roms coming directly from manufacturers. Samsung for the fact is releasing phones every single day and I think, you can not expect support for its low end phones at all whilst one update for mid ranges and few more high ends/flash ship phones.
Sony on the other hand is always slow with updates but provides open source code at times if it doesnot plan to update the android version.
Motorola starts to amaze me with its policy to update even the lower end phones to Android Lollipop and in my opinion Moto updates the android version more frequently and much quicker than any other manufacturer.
Usually the support is around ONE year to ONE and half year max for Flagship phones; SIX months - ONE year for mid-range phones whilst ZERO to FEW BUG fixing updates for lower end phones!
However, If you got a carrier phone like VODA, AT&T etc, you are pretty much struck with your PROVIDER rather than manufacturer for that fact! Usually these phones come with locked bootloaders which are a tough nut to crack, and thus you can only flash ROMs which are made for LOCKED BOOTLOADERS. Thus, if you can afford it, you should buy a contract free phone straight from manufacturer. This will allow you more freedom to customise your phone to your advantage by flashing ROMS, kernels, mods etc! However, it will simply be useless to a person who is not ready to take the risks!
Android Platform
Android Platform is growing very rapidly and new improvements have been introduced with every new build. I think the only issue now Android is still struggling with is battery life in standby mode which although has been improved quite considerably with Android Lollipop but I think it still needs some work in the future which I am sure Google is looking into very closely.
I think this is enough for you to decide if you really need to buy a phone or not.
GOOD LUCK!

Updates :
Added the following in the guide
*Oems
*Generally how long a phone is updated according to it's class (Flagship, low end or mid range phone)
*Considering the advantage of using newer architecture of processor (Cortex)
*Disadvantages of carrier phones
Any suggestions be welcomed!
PLANNED UPDATES :
What to look for in a phone if you are a Gamer, Text & Call person, Mobile Cinema addict, Internet Browsing Freak etc
Edit it more to be organised and easy to access headings for skimming through

What devices do you use?

@Hnk1, well said.
I am still using my good old HTC Touch HD (Blackstone), now upgraded to WM 6.5, and it is still running great. Gives me more than a couple of days on a single battery charge.

You should mention that some OEMs, like LG, like to pump out flagships phones every 3 month that means that your phone, from LG will not get alot of SW support.
That said, other OEMs have the same philosophy for mid range to low end devices. I am talking about official support, Some devices are lucky and get Custom rom support but then, custom roms are more often than not a compromise and not a solution as they have and always will have bugs.
You cannot have up to date phones, with removable batteries and the best experience. Its a world of compromise, as it is nearly for everything else.

Thanks! Hnk1..
This guide is very is helpful ..

thnx

Thanks. Its very useful

xyz121 said:
Great guide man, Thanks!
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Revontheus said:
What devices do you use?
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chan.sk said:
@Hnk1, well said.
I am still using my good old HTC Touch HD (Blackstone), now upgraded to WM 6.5, and it is still running great. Gives me more than a couple of days on a single battery charge.
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shadowcore said:
You should mention that some OEMs, like LG, like to pump out flagships phones every 3 month that means that your phone, from LG will not get alot of SW support.
That said, other OEMs have the same philosophy for mid range to low end devices. I am talking about official support, Some devices are lucky and get Custom rom support but then, custom roms are more often than not a compromise and not a solution as they have and always will have bugs.
You cannot have up to date phones, with removable batteries and the best experience. Its a world of compromise, as it is nearly for everything else.
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TwinEdge said:
Thanks! Hnk1..
This guide is very is helpful ..
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thereefour777 said:
thnx
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Lukadevilu said:
Thanks. Its very useful
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The guide is updated! Added OEMS and carriers briefly. Also, I added little debate about WP vs Android. People's opinion could be different so I respect that! The whole debate is here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2450502&page=1
Secondly, I am glad the guide was a help to all of you! Keep sharing so more people can benefit from it!
I use alot of devices and I borrow many devices from my friends and family to experiment with them! At the moment I am using Xperia L, Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2013. Other phones are either exchanged, sold to buy a new one, lent so they keep changing time to time as they are for development/experimenting purposes only!

Nice guide.

Lord of the Droids said:
Nice guide.
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I'm glad you liked it