Database Info

[Q] Buying a new Android

I am totally confused about what to buy... At present am considering Motorola Defy, Google Nexus S & HTC Desire Series
I don't wanna mod my phone for a year (till its warranty expires). I have to get satisfied with official updates for 12 months!
It should have a nice display (large enough), quality camera coupled with decent hardware
My budget is around Rs.15k (250 Euros)
Please help me chose my first Android

I guess the options u are considering for ur phone and ur budget is contradictory..
With ur price range,u can purchase only M Defy
Desire S is 22K
and Nexus is 20K

Sorry for the contradictory budget
ritam378 said:
I guess the options u are considering for ur phone and ur budget is contradictory..
With ur price range,u can purchase only M Defy
Desire S is 22K
and Nexus is 20K
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well my mistake.. It should have been roughly around 15Ks ~ 20Ks
Thanks for the rectification

If you don't want to mod your phone you shouldn't buy defy. It's a great phone, but without mods it's not the best. The best support comes with the Nexus S as it gets the stock Android so you don't have to wait for the manufacturer to update it. At the other hand HTC is one of the most reliable brand and Sense is really great.
I won't say you should buy one or the other because it's your choice, but for regular user (I mean non-developers) the desire s it better.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA Premium App

Most value is Samsung galaxy S2.
just my 2 cents

Now am even more confused :'(
PsHegger said:
If you don't want to mod your phone you shouldn't buy defy. It's a great phone, but without mods it's not the best. The best support comes with the Nexus S as it gets the stock Android so you don't have to wait for the manufacturer to update it. At the other hand HTC is one of the most reliable brand and Sense is really great.
I won't say you should buy one or the other because it's your choice, but for regular user (I mean non-developers) the desire s it better.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot PsHegger
Over here in India I've heard that after sales service of Motorola is not great. Thats why I'm a bit afraid of modding it till its warranty period is officially over. I'd love to tweak, but it seems that if I opt for Defy, I've to settle with Android 2.2 for a while atleast.
Moreover I'm a bit inclined towards Defy beacuse its cheaper (comparitively) & its rugged. I believe it has a good value for money considering the hardware it packs for €250.
Please do correct me if I am wrong. Purchasing a phone @ 15k INR is a big investment for me

pritishnanda said:
Thanks a lot PsHegger
Over here in India I've heard that after sales service of Motorola is not great. Thats why I'm a bit afraid of modding it till its warranty period is officially over. I'd love to tweak, but it seems that if I opt for Defy, I've to settle with Android 2.2 for a while atleast.
Moreover I'm a bit inclined towards Defy beacuse its cheaper (comparitively) & its rugged. I believe it has a good value for money considering the hardware it packs for €250.
Please do correct me if I am wrong. Purchasing a phone @ 15k INR is a big investment for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should only buy what you can afford bearing in mind that the mobile phone industry is constantly evolving.
My choice however goes for Nexus S...

pritishnanda said:
Thanks a lot PsHegger
Over here in India I've heard that after sales service of Motorola is not great. Thats why I'm a bit afraid of modding it till its warranty period is officially over. I'd love to tweak, but it seems that if I opt for Defy, I've to settle with Android 2.2 for a while atleast.
Moreover I'm a bit inclined towards Defy beacuse its cheaper (comparitively) & its rugged. I believe it has a good value for money considering the hardware it packs for €250.
Please do correct me if I am wrong. Purchasing a phone @ 15k INR is a big investment for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have DEFY and it was the best choice I could make. I can recommend it to everyone. If you can buy a Blur-less defy it's good for everyday use with the official 2.2 and you don't have to mod it.
But as you said it's a big investment and I don't want to give you bad advice. Defy is good for everyday use and gaming for a mid price and we shouldn't forget that it's life-proof (yes, that was an aspect for me). The truth is that I bought this phone because of the price, but if I could afford it I'd bought the Desire S.
I think YOU should make the decision, but whichever you choose you won't be disappointed.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA Premium App

From your choices, I'd go for Nexus s because its vanilla android (don't have any bloatware) and you'll get the updates faster than anybody else.
It may not be dual core but the hardware is good enough.

+1 for Google Nexus S

Desire for 16.5K (Not Desire S - It's not worth the huge difference over the Desire). The official GB update will probably be the last one for it, but, you can see the list of mods yourself for it.
Besides, I dont think its necessary to wait till the warranty expires, more so because the phones here ship with generic, unbranded and unlocked ROMs, so, getting back to them for warranty purposes shouldn't be an issue. (I modded my Wildfire in a week of getting it. )

Samsung Galaxy S2, best phone I ever had.

Out of those choices, get the Nexus S.
I'd root it instantly though.

Defy or Wildfire?
3xeno said:
Desire for 16.5K (Not Desire S - It's not worth the huge difference over the Desire). The official GB update will probably be the last one for it, but, you can see the list of mods yourself for it.
Besides, I dont think its necessary to wait till the warranty expires, more so because the phones here ship with generic, unbranded and unlocked ROMs, so, getting back to them for warranty purposes shouldn't be an issue. (I modded my Wildfire in a week of getting it. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please ref to http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3337&idPhone2=3514 I don't see any reason eXcept Sense UI (and the proposed Gingerbread update) why Desire should be preferred over Defy. Can you pls explain...
@PsHegger: Can a modded Defy has MotoBLUR in it? Desire is out of stock @ most of the stores over here... Nexus S (doesn't come with AM-OLED now a days) seems overpriced. Whats a Bloatware?
Will it be wise if I wait for Defy+?

My Mrs has the desire s, everything stock and its rapid very reliable great camera good battery, tough phone full metal skin, feels like a quality phone,
Or go budget and buy a used hd2 for cheap I've had mine for years now. Winner winner chicken dinner
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

Get the Nexus s , Its the best phone for your price range. I got mine a couple of months back and i rooted it recently. Its brilliant and i don't think you'll have any warranty issues also.
Think the LCD version is like 20K and the AMOLED version is 27K.
Even if you don't root the phone. You'll get the updates instantly.

Go for LG optimus black. Undoubtedly the best in the league. Display even beats the screen of iPhone 4
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

pritishnanda said:
@PsHegger: Can a modded Defy has MotoBLUR in it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have CM7 on my Defy and it does not contain MotoBLUR, but there are a few mods which can be installed on any Defy regardless of MotoBLUR
Sent from my MB525 using XDA Premium App

by lg optimus 2x
best phone ever by lg optimus 2x.
its simply great

My Options
Price Index July:
Motorola Defy---------------------------- Rs. 15,500/-
Nokia C7 (may be Astound)---------------- Rs. 16,730/-
LG Optimus Black (P970)------------------- Rs. 19,500/-
Samsung (Google) Nexus S (LCD Version)- Rs. 20,000/-
Samsung Galaxy S i9000------------------- Rs. 21,000/-
HTC Desire S------------------------------ Rs. 22,500/-
LG Optimus 2X----------------------------- Rs. 25,500/-
To be honest I'm a bit inclined towards Defy & Nexus S... However I'd be glad to know more about two Motorola products: Defy+ & Droid 3... What can be the expected price of Droid 3? Should I wait for it?

[Q] Which phone to buy

Hello guys,
I am new here. I wanted to buy an android phone which should be under 15k (can increase the budget to 16 or 17k). I have shortlisted Motorola DEFY primarily because of its looks. I would browse the internet take pics, play games, and experiment with it (developing stuff, OC,installing custom ROMs etc) apart from the normal things. Please tell me if I have chosen the correct one if not please suggest me one.
P.S I am from India.
and yes I saw this somewhere "GPU is weaker than all of the above phones, so future games (even some current games) may lag, SAR rating (not important IMO), no more updates after Froyo." is it really a down?

i think the better fhone for your use is LG o2x. This phone have boot free and is very good to play games.

Budget!!
it for more than 20k here!

what bout the htc evo 4g

The thunderbolt.....
Sent from my HTC Bliss using XDA Premium App

HTC EVO is for more than 25k and and I couldn't find a quote for HTC thunderbolt
And yes guys Rs15k is equal to about $320

How about the Huawei Ideos X5 (U8800). Similar hardware to Desire Z, without the keyboard obviously. Should fit in your price range. I got mine for under $200.

huawei? bad customer support and off-course brand value
But leaving that I got this from gsmarena
"a. bad cpu. b. no radio. c. bad touchscreen. d. bad battery life. e. bad signal reception. f. bad service coverage. Still if you want to buy it then go for it !!"
Is is better than Motorola Defy?

Lol, read again, he/she is replying about the Dell XCD to the post below, some dude claiming it is the same phone. Which it is no where close.
Anyway, you can compare here.
CPU, RAM, memory etc the same, except no keyboard.

Are you sure that it is a better phone than Defy?
I asked a friend (because I am a noob) about the Huawei and Defy he said defy is better because more development (software-ROMs) and better GPU which is very useful for playing games as I could wait for loading but cannot wait and get good quality while playing games.

He is probably right then, I'm sorry I don't have a Defy to compare with
Also check if you can what lens the defy has. I know some can do 720p video recording and some cannot, but maybe better to check out the defy forum section.
Edit: By the way, the SE Xperia Play also uses the adreno 205 GPU

No offense xmsnx.
know of any good phone in the price range?
Btw SE Xperia Play is almost double my budget.

I meant, the same gpu is in the Ideos X5, so it must good enough
Anyway if I was you, I would visit a store and try out some phones first if possible.
But good luck, hope you get the best phone you can

Thank you very much

Any one else wants to share their views?

Ehem, what about SGS (scl version is cheaper than amoled) idk how does it costs actually, but I think it can fit you

If I were you I will buy SGS (still good for games), DHD (the same) or Xperia Play (exclusive games and this nice control sticks). Motorola Defy is not good for games if you are looking on this 3 smartphones .

I have the original Droid Incredible - got it the day it was released and absolutely love it, but it is getting close to the time when I am going to upgrade. Would like to stay away from Motorola, but pretty much open to other brands. Very happy with HTC, but Samsung would be a close 2nd. Anyone know of a phone with similar width to the original Incredible? I really like what I have read about Galaxy S2, Sensation SE & Vigor. Must be on Verizon and would prefer the smaller width, but I have a feeling these sizes may be a thing of the past. Anyone know of a more narrow phone than above mentioned that would still perform about the same?

Guys, Guys, his budget as he stated is 15k INR which is about US$310. And here in India the prices also are (little) higher that the US or EU. So, in India the Defy costs abot US$300 and the Galaxy SLCD version costs US$365 and they basically have the same TI OMAP 3630, but the SGS LCD is clocked at 1Ghz while Defy is clocked at 800Mhz.
And in this budget the closest things up and down are the Galaxy Ace(US$287) and the Galaxy SLCD at the moment, and Galaxy Ace is crap. But I would refrain from buying a Moto.

SGS , DHD and Xperia Play all of them are above budget for me. My dad is very particular about the budget he is getting me a 15k phone only after so much of pleading.

What do you think of this?

Hello guys, I'm buying a new phone for under £150 and I found this, It's an Orange branded phone but they will be an unlocking and de-branding method out soon, there always is, but here are the specs- what do you think?
TFT, 800 x 480 pixels WVGA resolution, 262K colors, 3.5 inch touchscreen
5MP Camera with autofocus and flash (and a 0.3 MP front camera- not 100% positive but it says video calling on specs along with something that looks very much like a front camera)
ARM11 800MHZ processor
Running on Android Gingerbread 2.3
512 MB internal memory (according to Orange- most of that will be filled with useless Orange-related junk)
3G and WIFI (Obviously, pretty standard nowadays)
All of this for only £99 + £10 top up on Pay As You Go.
You could easily replace the original Orange themed launcher to ADW and make it look like a normal, and custom rom's will be arriving very soon.
What are your views? I'm not too good when it comes to phone specs but they look good value for money. I have question though- will this support multi-touch?
I'm personally thinking of picking this up to replace my Galaxy 5.

i had the same query!!
but inverted
so lets talk for htc hd2 : i am thinking of bying a no name phone with the same phone specs as the hd2.
the Question is : may i this noname phone to make it work as the HD2 phone?

If money is a problem, get the cheaper phone- same specs but cheaper? You may as well, but if you care about having a big company name on your device then obviously just settle with the HTC, also make sure you read up a lot about the no-name phone just incase it has bad reviews.
Anyone got any comments/views regarding my questions?

Anybody have any views please?

Its the ZTE-Blade II the specs aren't much different than original model, I owned original and for the price there ok "very cheap made devices" soon after picked up HTC DHD as it was sluggish can't imagine the II being much different.....
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

great phone!
where can i finh it?

My friend does have the ZTE blade, the first one. it was sluggish while he was running froyo but speedy with gingerbread, even thus it has a 600mhz processor.
With a 800mhz ARM11 for that price I would give it a go.

Thanks, can you verify that it has a front camera?
And you can buy it from any Orange store or there website, you get free headphones worth £60 along with other freebies as part of the Christmas box.
Sent from my GT-I5500 using XDA App

Is this the phone that you are talking about?
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/san-francisco-II-from-orange-in-black
If not, Could you provide a link?
Otherwise the specs are a little different from what you wrote, the cpu is not ARM 11, its ARMv 6, but it does have front facing camera:
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=3224&c=orange_san_francisco_ii_zte_crescent

Yes thats the phone, I read on a website it had am Arm11- knew that was too good to be true.
Do you think this phone is worth a purchase to replace my Galaxy5? I want a larger phone at a low price so it seems a good upgrade as it has better camera, a front camera, it's on gingerbread and a better processor, thank you.
Sent from my GT-I5500 using XDA App

Also would you recommend this phone or the Samsung Galaxy Ace? Thanks
Sent from my GT-I5500 using XDA App

Well, to be honest I would't buy a phone with an ARMv 6, but its obviously my opinion depends what do you need it for.
Yes, it does have larger screen than your Galaxy 5 and it's cheap.
But.....have you tried to look for some better USED phones like HTC Desire and so on?
You can find something for 150 Pounds/Euro and so on:
http://uk.webuy.com/phones/search_results.php?manuId=9&stext=desire
EDIT: Galaxy Ace seems a good phone to me, more or less the same as the ZTE:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_ace_s5830-3724.php

I don't want to buy second hand, is the ZTE worth a purchase? Or should I pay an extra £35 and buy the Galaxy Ace?
Thanks
Sent from my GT-I5500 using XDA App

Again, depends what you will do with it.
If I really have to go for one of those two, I would choose the ZTE it has higher resolution 480x800 (320 x 480 ACE), and much more ram 512 (against 280 of ACE) which at the end of the day its VERY important.

Thanks for your help, It is much appreciated, I'm going to get the ZTE, it's cheaper and has better resolution, ram and a front camera.
Thanks a lot, have a nice day!

Suggestion of the best android phone?

Hello,
I want to upgrade my phone to high end android (have been using windows mobile 6.5.3 and android 2.3.7 )
so i have looked over some thing like 20 phones and i could not pick one that will i will be able to like my own child .
The problem is mainly since all the phones have the same price, ie,. the htc desire HD have 4,3" display and 1 ghz cpu while the LG optimus 2x have the same 3.4" display but with dual core cpu and over eBay the price is the same for me, so what to choose HTC or a little cheaper LG ?
And that effects all phone so if you pls can you suggest me some phones and a reason why you have suggested them over other phones.
I prefer bid displays over 4.0" and thin around ~10mm
I am asking since i will buy a phone which will stay with me over several years before i will choose to replace it,
(got stack with Moto Defy with 3 year contract - and its bad .. very bad... )
thank you for any help.

HTC for sure. I believe them to be second best to Samsung phones at this point. All you have to do is look at user reviews.
mri.project said:
Hello,
I want to upgrade my phone to high end android (have been using windows mobile 6.5.3 and android 2.3.7 )
so i have looked over some thing like 20 phones and i could not pick one that will i will be able to like my own child .
The problem is mainly since all the phones have the same price, ie,. the htc desire HD have 4,3" display and 1 ghz cpu while the LG optimus 2x have the same 3.4" display but with dual core cpu and over eBay the price is the same for me, so what to choose HTC or a little cheaper LG ?
And that effects all phone so if you pls can you suggest me some phones and a reason why you have suggested them over other phones.
I prefer bid displays over 4.0" and thin around ~10mm
I am asking since i will buy a phone which will stay with me over several years before i will choose to replace it,
(got stack with Moto Defy with 3 year contract - and its bad .. very bad... )
thank you for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

cuseme said:
HTC for sure. I believe them to be second best to Samsung phones at this point. All you have to do is look at user reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, but does single core 1ghz cpu is real important or i have to buy dual core cpu ?

mri.project said:
Okay, but does single core 1ghz cpu is real important or i have to buy dual core cpu ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely go with a dual core and I would agree that HTC is better than LG. If your going to play any graphic intensive games you definitely need a dual core processor with at least 1G of RAM. A quad core processor is the way to go if your outside the U.S.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Search xda dev thread for each of your choice, and choose one which has most development that will make it life longer.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app

marifb said:
Search xda dev thread for each of your choice, and choose one which has most development that will make it life longer.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have tried to search for the best option . like the HTC HD2 which developers just can't get enough of it.
but the phone is old, Galaxy s 1 is way too expansive for a 2 years old phone, and the HTC is a general expensive device.
So i could find only the LG Nitro which is a good phone for its $ .. $470 for a 4.5" HD with dual core cpu and 10mm thick, can't find any thing better..
HTC are mostly fat devices and i can't see any reason why but the thin cost as double as $550 .. and onlt 480-800 res. while the LG is
around 1280x720 res.
see my problem?
Besides it all the phones run Android so there is not problem modding it , and the Nitro have Cyanogen 9.0 support so it should be solid for a while.

mri.project said:
Hello,
I want to upgrade my phone to high end android (have been using windows mobile 6.5.3 and android 2.3.7 )
so i have looked over some thing like 20 phones and i could not pick one that will i will be able to like my own child .
The problem is mainly since all the phones have the same price, ie,. the htc desire HD have 4,3" display and 1 ghz cpu while the LG optimus 2x have the same 3.4" display but with dual core cpu and over eBay the price is the same for me, so what to choose HTC or a little cheaper LG ?
And that effects all phone so if you pls can you suggest me some phones and a reason why you have suggested them over other phones.
I prefer bid displays over 4.0" and thin around ~10mm
I am asking since i will buy a phone which will stay with me over several years before i will choose to replace it,
(got stack with Moto Defy with 3 year contract - and its bad .. very bad... )
thank you for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you heard about mi-two? Google for it to find more information. Generally it looks awesome with 4 cores clocked at 1,5GHz, Adreno320 GPU, 4,3" IPS display with ~340dpi (30% more the iPhone4S) and great battery capacity. The only problem is that it might not be easily available outside China. But if I will be able to get one I will do it without thinking much about it.

The Optimus 2x is a 4 inch 800x480 screen, not 4.3
Anyway, due to ****ty support from LG, prices for it have absolutely tanked.. It's now available from $200-300 outright.
The good news? ICS is coming out very soon for it (rumored). Apparently it's in the testing stage.
So might be a very cheap way for you to get a fairly high end dual core for stuff all money.

dyleck said:
Have you heard about mi-two? Google for it to find more information. Generally it looks awesome with 4 cores clocked at 1,5GHz, Adreno320 GPU, 4,3" IPS display with ~340dpi (30% more the iPhone4S) and great battery capacity. The only problem is that it might not be easily available outside China. But if I will be able to get one I will do it without thinking much about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xiaomi mi-two $550 preorder now on eBay. it will be cheaper for me to GS III OR HTC ONE X i just don't like these devices - gs iii due to plastic and htc one x due to 16 giga with out micro sd card memory while i use around 40 giga on a phone.
any way i just thought you could suggest me a device and a reason why it is better then LG and so far i see that they are non, i never saw a company which give any support for a phone... so i am not looking for support .
Any way thank you all i have decided to buy the LG device the Nitro - looks great and cheaper then most devices. btw LG is also manufacturing Apple and Samsung mobile parts so i can't see why it should be worth quality.

Buy HTC One X. It is a really cool phone !!!

Closed
What is best for me may not be for you, so there is no such as "best"

[POLL]Best Phone Brand and SoC

as of today we all know that there is no perfect phone manufacturer that provide our needs when it comes to AOSP, smoothness, lagfree, and great user experienced i create this thread to have a background in different phone and help some of users to decide which phone is the best and best manufacturer that can provide our needs if you buy your next phone to not waste again your money in a useless and full of promise phone
post your opinion and suggestion of which phone brand is the best to buy without a waste of money
i include non android
i don't know if i miss something but almost all in the choices is available in every country
and
vote for the best SoC you can provide your background when using the SoC you said please vote 1 for best BRAND and 1 for SoC, i only include the most common SoC that racing to be the TOP SoC of all time
you can vote more than one but please one brand and one soc only to be able to create a accurate poll and provide what's the best

Mtk6577 because it's so cheap sub 150€ phones can have dualcore a9 socs
Sent from my GT-S6500 using xda app-developers app

Samsung = average build quality + sh***y accessories

Nokia phones have always been fantastically build (WP or not). So I'd have to go with Nokia.
If we are talking just Android phones, I would go with Samsung or the Google Nexus phones.

Phone Brands...
The only two companies to produce anything amazing that I have tested so far would have to be HTC and Motorola. Granite, Motorola doesn't quite have the whole keyboard phone thing down, their Droid X2 and Razr devices are pretty solid. HTC are generally a number 1 producer. If I had to pick a third place operative, it would have to be Samsung. Once they got off their a**es and actually figured out how to design a phone, their Galaxy line seems pretty solid. Although their durability could be a bit better. :good:

sk8er_boi47 said:
Samsung = average build quality + sh***y accessories
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It´s true:good:

Vector17-Darkroom said:
It´s true:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so after all samsung still need to work more, today its hard to decide what kind of android should i buy i have top 3 brands in my mind, samsung, google and htc
Sent from my LG-P990 using xda premium

I think Samsung launching superb smartphone which are very famous in youngsters. I think Samsung is best mobile brand.

I am new
I agree with second post.

Zedd247 said:
Mtk6577 because it's so cheap sub 150€ phones can have dualcore a9 socs
Sent from my GT-S6500 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:good: I have an Huawei u8836d (Mtk6577) and is almost perfect: reasonable price, good performance, materials, everything