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[Q] Which phone to purchase

Hey guys,
I've been following xda-developers for last few months and it totally rocks.
Now I've been using Sony ericsson w950i (unlocked) until now.
Been thinking of moving to smart phone.
Now I'm confused, I don't care about carrier (though using ATT for now)
Here r choices: 1. Evo 2. DroidX 3. xperia X10
I don't want an iphone and I can't purchase Nexus One (which I would have if I had enough money :-/)
Anyway so here are criteria for phone:
1. Can be rooted, I like cynogenmod and I may hardly use original android
Here r few of my assumptions (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong)
I can't use proprietary UIs if I put cynogen (it doesn't matter but I wanna confirm)
Evo is my ultimate choice but heard battery sucks (what about spare battery solution ?), How severe is battery issue?
Please feel free to provide ur opinion about other phones as well. I may eventually end up purchasing Evo still I want some experienced opinions
Thanks

Evo is a great phone. It IS starting to get old. Perhaps wait till christmas to see what new phones HTC brings out?
THe X10 is outdated and will most likely only ever see android 2.1 so Id steer clear of it. In fact, I dont intend on buying any more SE phones but thats just me. .
The droid x seems amazing, can be rooted but its quite big in hand (but i suppose youre looking at the EVO so thats similar )
Have you considered the Samsung Galaxy S phones? including the AT&T captivate?
They can be rooted, unlocked, will certainly see cyanogen mod development and because there are sooo many of them around now both locally and internationally (unlike droid x and evo), there will be lots of development for them. Specs wise, they are the top gun.
Personally, id wait a bit and see what comes around the corner. If you still want what youve listed here, youll get a better deal seeing as many will flock to the new devices
Cheers!

I love the Evo. It's my mini tiny PC. Battery wise, well it does juice it up quite much...but then again I am constantly on my fone so I got Ian charges, dock for home, n extra battery as well.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Thanks guys,
As ozy pointed out waiting till Christmas/new year would be best possible option even for me, however don't want to renew my contract with ATT for one year just for that (will certainly look for something though)
And about Samsung phones I'm bit skeptic (fragile and get heated -- well thats 5-6 years back experience, never used it again so I'm not saying they r bad however I'm just being doubtful, though amoled screens r worth checking out)
And thanks anani exactly thats how I'm planning to use (though its on internet forever than on phone) I would appreciate if u can point out battery accessories links

lengthy bump..

If you are happy with AT&T I would get the Captivate. I have an Evo, love it, but my wife gets her phone through work so is stuck with AT&T. She recently upgraded from the Iphone, which she always hated, to the Samsung captivate. I have rooted it (simple compared to the Evo) and done a few mods, got rid of AT&T's market censorship, enabled side loading, and got rid of all the AT&T bloatware, and replaced most of the supplied apps with better ones from the market.
Running it side by side with my Evo I have to say, while I like the Evo better, but it has some advantages. The screen is much better looking, it has slightly more responsive touch input than the Evo, and Touchwiz is a less bloated UI than Sense. On the downside, the only two things I can find to complain about with it is that the bottom buttons are not as responsive as the Evo's, and the GPS on it takes a long time to lock and isn't as sensitive as the Evo's is. I am working on improving the GPS now though with some success. It will also be getting Froyo within the next few weeks, and rumor is the button issue may be addressed with the update.
Overall though, I like the captivate, especially since the phone call quality is really good, it is light weight and seems to be built very well. Also the screen fps isn't capped at 30 fps like the Evo is. If I was on AT&T that is what I would get.

You don't even need to think about it
HTC Desire with OLED mon ...

Thanks wfrandy and seals,
I'm kinda annoyed with at&t network at my place, most of the time I've had complains from friends saying "I tried your phone for whole day" and etc plus I'm not really in for data usage cap. Thats the main reason I'm hanging on my old phone else I could have renewed my contract by now.
But yea Captivate seems nice and Samsung strategy to make phones as open as possible is also tempting.
And about Desire - is it available with any carrier? I thought desire is not available in US market

hmm,
So I've a deal for htc droid incredible, verizon is giving it for free.
What are your reviews? I liked phone the only downside to the phones we were comparing seems to be 3.7" screen and no 4g connectivity
Please let me know if anyone have used the phone
Thanks

Last day with a G2X

Had it since January. Want a better quality screen (resolution-wise) and camera. Other than that, HellFire was awesome to me for the most part. The most recent ICS issues with data drops really bugged me too. GPS locks were never instant, but decent - another slight nuisance. I figure for $100-$150 more a Galaxy Nexus is worth it to me at this point, or something comparable. Actually if the LG Optimus 4G LTE works for me on WIND mobile that could be a good buy for only like $50 more. I just don't know if data will be 2G speeds or not. Yet to find out. If anyone knows that and sees this message, please do respond. It's been fun, this was my first Android. Got to really figure out a lot of stuff, since with this device our support basically is the XDA forums as LG doesn't help us any. Can't believe how bad the stock ROMs are for this device. Incredible they'd even release a device with those ROMs. Anyway, selling it today and then shopping for a new Android. Likely a Galaxy Nexus at this point. Please advise if there are other options! Thanks to xoxhell and all the other developers for this device.

update to stock 2.3.4 will fix all the problem you listed

Due to my experience with this phone and lack of support from LG, I am done buying any LG products in the future. This could have been a great phone had LG just given the community development teams what they needed from the start. Do you think the experience will be any different for other LG products? I don't.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

By the way, I got my girlfriend a galaxy nexus for her birthday and that is an awesome phone. You can't go wrong there.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

I know how you feel. Think I might use my HD2 with a WP7 ROM on it... then jump to the galaxy s3 when/if it gets here...
Hate how LG/Nvidia/T-Mobile/whoever really made this phone one of the least desirable devices when it has so much potential...

Longevite said:
update to stock 2.3.4 will fix all the problem you listed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fully aware of this. HellFire 2.2 even is great and a rock solid ROM with no issues. But, I don't really want to run Gingerbread. For $100 more I'd rather get a phone with a much nicer screen resolution and quality (bigger screen size is a minor plus as well) and a phone I don't have to worry about ICS issues with. The support for this phone is crap, let's all face it. I will miss this phone, mainly cuz it was my first Android and I had fun learning how to use Titanium effectively, how to switch between ROMs, etc (since these are absolute necessities with this phone), but man I will not miss the little nuisances I constantly had with this phone because of LG's terrible support.
And yeah, I briefly looked at the 4G LTE but when it comes down to it... the support will be garbage as well. Great quality screen, but same old terrible LG support. Galaxy Nexus it most likely will be...

My daughter's G2X was stolen at school and I was thinking about giving her my G2X and getting a Galaxy Nexus. I don't know if its really worth it. 130 for another G2X or 400 for a Nexus with ICS that always gets updates.
MIUI = WIFI calling does not work which I rarely use.
CM7 = Phone freezes while unless I use faux and setcpu to down clock while screen is off but the battery life is amazing.
Weapon G2X = no T9 dialer unless I download one and use notigo to clear missed calls.
ICS = no drivers
Galaxy Nexus has working ICS with T9 dialer but no wifi calling.
I have some thinking to do.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

Sold my g2x to t-mobile for their deal and got 100 towards a trade up... Switched over to the galaxy s2 and couldnt be happier. My g2x had some scratches on the bezel and a screen scratch so it was a good value deal. Just happy to have something that will get ics and.... Everything actually works consistently. Loved the g2x as a first android but it was underutilized unfortunately.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

One of the best things about the G2X is the size... it is a very compact phone.
That is why im staying with mine for now...I use it as a cheap wifi hotspot in my van and takes up no space...
All the issues ive had in the past have gone away since ive updated the baseband last week...GPS is amazing and everything else has been flawless with the stock,rooted kwes rom...

majic12 said:
One of the best things about the G2X is the size... it is a very compact phone.
That is why im staying with mine for now...I use it as a cheap wifi hotspot in my van and takes up no space...
All the issues ive had in the past have gone away since ive updated the baseband last week...GPS is amazing and everything else has been flawless with the stock,rooted kwes rom...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could have been smaller if they didn't make such a ridiculously large bezel at the bottom of the G2x. So much wasted space. O_O

Dralanmage said:
Due to my experience with this phone and lack of support from LG, I am done buying any LG products in the future. This could have been a great phone had LG just given the community development teams what they needed from the start. Do you think the experience will be any different for other LG products? I don't.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's ALL manufactures in the US when it comes to updates. I had the Vibrant before this and it was quickly forgotten about by Samsung. If I don't like the nexus when I'm ready to upgrade my phone I'll be done with android due to the poor software updates.

majic12 said:
One of the best things about the G2X is the size... it is a very compact phone.
That is why im staying with mine for now...I use it as a cheap wifi hotspot in my van and takes up no space...
All the issues ive had in the past have gone away since ive updated the baseband last week...GPS is amazing and everything else has been flawless with the stock,rooted kwes rom...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put these phones side by side and don't really notice a difference size wise at all, despite the Galaxy Nexus having the bigger screen. And I saw this new baseband, any ICS support yet? Don't really care either way. Same old stuff with the LG phone, having to constantly hack and update it to it's wannabe Galaxy Nexus status yet it will never happen. The extra $100-$150 for the GN is worth it to me. I totally understand how it's not for some people. Although, I would think if you know enough about phones to even know about the XDA forums then IMO it probably also would be worth the extra money to you to get a GN. That's just my thoughts. Also, the screen resolution and screen quality is considerably better on the GN.
I've been there, that was me, trying to defend the LG Optimus P999. But I gave up defending it, time to switch. I was in denial long enough lol. Well that, and money was an issue for me a few months back...

Scoobyracing03 said:
That's ALL manufactures in the US when it comes to updates. I had the Vibrant before this and it was quickly forgotten about by Samsung. If I don't like the nexus when I'm ready to upgrade my phone I'll be done with android due to the poor software updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference is that most manufacturers at least release a working rom while being tight arses about community support. LG didn't release a decent rom until well after a year from release, and it's already outdated.
You can't go wrong with the galaxy nexus... I want one now. The only "flaw" is that there's no more mass storage device support in ICS. I use Linux, so I either use my network drive over smb or adb to transfer files. Windows works fine though.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

As bitter as I sound about the LG Optimus P999, I would say it is an outstanding value phone. Throw on HellFire 2.2 based on Gingerbread and this thing is super snappy and runs great. It's when you're trying to have the latest and greatest as far as software goes... this thing really pisses you right off.

I did it. I ordered one. I'll still have 3 g2x's in the house.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

I got a sgs2 and really like it. No official ics but it's awesome even on GB. Still have a g2x around as a backup and I like that phone too. Updated baseband worked really well.
-T-mobile SGS2 Hercules

Yeah, I'm getting my GN today but still have 3 friends or family that have the G2X and IMO that is like the perfect phone for them still because of valueerformance and them not being techie's not caring about the latest and greatest. Sounds like this baseband is far along enough to go with now. I shyed away when I still had my G2X, mainly because it limited what ROMs you could put on. Can you put on HellFire 2.2 with the new baseband or any ICS ROMs yet? I'll still be monitoring the xda G2X forums as my friends and family still own it.

HTC Evo 4G lte or Galaxy Nexus on Sprint

I know Sprint service is terrible but my plan is so cheap because I get 22% off. Any ways I have had the Gnex for 2 days and it's good but the screen is kind of grainy looking. So I want to get thoughts on which phone people feel will be the best deal over the next 2 years.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

So it's basically SAMOLED vs S-LCD 2?
Well, I've always liked S-LCD because everything is crisp and every viewing angle is a pleasure to see. Even with SAMOLED+, I always preferred how LCD looked. However, it's undeniable that you'll get worse battery life with LCD. So the choice there is what's more important to you.
GNex also has the biggest dev community, so 2 years from now: you'll still have a sure thing versus a phone we don't even know if the bootloader will be unlocked for sure.
On the other hand, the specs for Sprint's HTC phone is better. Plus a MicroSD slot!

I picked up my Evo LTE earlier this week and couldn't be happier. The size and weight of the phone is just perfedt. And its so thin. And probably my favorite part is the incredible camera speed. It is faster than any camera I've used.
I played with the gnex at sprint. While the idea of playing with open source and long-term support and updates sound enticing, the overall feel if the new Evo won me over. Plus, I've grown fond of sense UI
But you'll enjoy either device I'm sure.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

vry nice...
its really awesome... lyk it to mch..

HTC EVO Number one !!

i would go for the galaxy nexus any day no matter what carrier its with

I'm going to have to make the same difficult decision this fall. I think I'll stick with the Evo family, but really they both seem like great phones with great dev communities.

I've had the Galaxy Nexus for a little over two weeks and it's great, but overall I think aside from AOSP ICS, the Evo 4G LTE is better.

So i need to make this decision tomorrow. My mother has my original hero running cm7 and has been working great for her. I upgraded too the 3VO this past July. I am not a sense fan at all. I been running MIUI for the past 7 months =no 4g or 3d support. I could careless about 3d, the phone just had a great processor at the time. So Ive broken it twice. 1st time i called asurion (cracked screen) and got replacement. 2nd time (cracked screen) .I bought a cheap digitizer and installed it myself. The problem is the cheap digitizer never worked 100% right to begin with. I then dropped the phone in the toilet 1 month ago. I managed to work with it up till now where the digitizer is so bad i cant even unlock my screen. Asurion wants 100$ for a replacement. I called sprint told them i dont even want the phone anymore since its basically EOL. They told me im eligible for early upgrade. That option costs 115$ which can be billed to my fathers account (NP he makes enough $$$ in Saudi Arabia). I have to purchase my replacement or new phone myself. Im sick of the evo 3d. I want a phone that is gonna have full CM9 or MIUI support. Im aware the galaxy nexus already does. Does the EVO 4G LTE look promising for support? Or is HTC gonna be a pain in the ass with their closed source proprietary bull****.
I dont care about a micro sd if the nexus comes with 32gb internal.
I prefer battery life.
The question is will the Qualacomm LTE be NOTICEABLY faster than the nexus TI OMAP?
Im paying for this myself (23yrs old). I wanna get the best possible deal. Will sprint buy back my broken evo 3d if I restore it to stock and act like it works? What would you do?? Appreciate any advice. godless XDA community

camara this camara that wait untill the galaxy to kick ur but 20 pic is shutter mode beat that

I think the Galaxy Nexus would be better, honestly having the latest Android version is such an advantage compared to other phones. All the apps that come out will be designed specifically for AOSP and you won't be left behind in app and OS support in let's say 2 years.

Which phone did you end up going with? I ran into the same issue and since I was a big Evo supporter I stuck with the Evo family, I'm a loyalist for some reason
qhinton said:
I know Sprint service is terrible but my plan is so cheap because I get 22% off. Any ways I have had the Gnex for 2 days and it's good but the screen is kind of grainy looking. So I want to get thoughts on which phone people feel will be the best deal over the next 2 years.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

LG G2 vs flashaholics

As good as the G2 is (I have D800) it really sucks in a major area, that most of us come to XDA for, flashing tons of custom roms. I switched from the iphone 3gs about 4 years ago to a Galaxy SkyRocket and got hooked. The SkyRocket was not even that popular of a phone being sold by only one carrier and the amount different ROMS I had a choice of was insane. And Xposed framework was not even out yet, and if you look at the forum for the SGH-I727, it is still going strong, stronger than the G2 for that matter. Hell if I could have put multi-rom or Ubuntu on my SkyRocket, I would still use it. The G2 is rated as best phone of 2013 and carried on several carriers and it is downright boring in flash land, I am actually tempted to look at the iPhone 6 (not really), though I will definitely bail on this G2 and scoop up the Nexus 6 as soon as I can preorder. I wonder if anyone from LG ever creeps through the xda forums, they would probably be able to correlate one phone companies high sales directly to how easy the phone is to play with, just saying. For right now my flashing habit is kept in check by flashing roms to my SkyRocket even though I am not using it, pretty sad.

Ive actually been satisfied with the g2. Hopefully youve seen the main g2 dev and original dev areas on xda. I came from the lg spectrum. It has less its whole lifespan than the g2 had its first month.
Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

ossito2012 said:
As good as the G2 is (I have D800) it really sucks in a major area, that most of us come to XDA for, flashing tons of custom roms. I switched from the iphone 3gs about 4 years ago to a Galaxy SkyRocket and got hooked. The SkyRocket was not even that popular of a phone being sold by only one carrier and the amount different ROMS I had a choice of was insane. And Xposed framework was not even out yet, and if you look at the forum for the SGH-I727, it is still going strong, stronger than the G2 for that matter. Hell if I could have put multi-rom or Ubuntu on my SkyRocket, I would still use it. The G2 is rated as best phone of 2013 and carried on several carriers and it is downright boring in flash land, I am actually tempted to look at the iPhone 6 (not really), though I will definitely bail on this G2 and scoop up the Nexus 6 as soon as I can preorder. I wonder if anyone from LG ever creeps through the xda forums, they would probably be able to correlate one phone companies high sales directly to how easy the phone is to play with, just saying. For right now my flashing habit is kept in check by flashing roms to my SkyRocket even though I am not using it, pretty sad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like the previous post...if you're looking to flash...look in here -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g2/development this has a bunch of ROMs that are for most variants of the G2. If you're just looking in the AT&T section...its extremely limited.

Tremulant1 said:
Just like the previous post...if you're looking to flash...look in here -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g2/development this has a bunch of ROMs that are for most variants of the G2. If you're just looking in the AT&T section...its extremely limited.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dev section is pretty good, I have flashed a lot of ROMS not in the At&t thread, I should add that I understand that nobody has to make a rom for us to flash but other than stock (G2, Flex, G Pro 2) based roms our phone is hurting. CM/AOSP based roms have been struggling to get past some of the LG related issues auto-rotate, bluetooth, file transfer, audio, you name it. I will say that Kernel development is pretty kick ass.

I looked in the g2 development section . there are actually quite a lot of development going on for this phone. It makes sense for them to post there and make roms that aim for all variants

I wonder if it's the locked bootloaders that relegate certain phones like the G2 to second-class status. Or maybe it's the Nexus 5 in this case.

How Do You Like This Phone?

I'm currently on Verizon with the G4 and planning to go to T-Mobile so I can have some gosh darn freedom with my phone. How do you like this phone? How's the UI? I haven't owned a Sammy in almost a year now since Verizon is stingy as hell with them. Camera decent? Debating on this phone, the V10 from LG and possibly one of the Nexus phones if T-Mobile gets them.

Bump

I like it, but am pretty bored with it. Not enough newness outside of camera features. Go with a S6 edge plus if you are upgrading to feel like it's worth it.

Dennisg34 said:
I'm currently on Verizon with the G4 and planning to go to T-Mobile so I can have some gosh darn freedom with my phone. How do you like this phone? How's the UI? I haven't owned a Sammy in almost a year now since Verizon is stingy as hell with them. Camera decent? Debating on this phone, the V10 from LG and possibly one of the Nexus phones if T-Mobile gets them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had Samsung and HTC phones. I can say this is the nicest phone I've had.
To answer your specific questions.
I think the UI is great. On the previous Samsung phones I've had I immediately wanted to root them because I hated the Touchwiz interface.
Not so with this phone I think they have improved Touchwiz a lot. You can always change the launcher if you want as well.
I also have not rooted and gone to a custom rom because I really like using Samsung Pay ( I happen to have a card that works with it right now)
The Camera is very good - if not one of the best right now.
The functionality of the S-Pen is also very nice, quickly jot down notes etc,
You can also root it if you so choose.
All in all I think there is a lot like about this phone.