Help me choose my next Android phone - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all!
Im going to buy a new android phone, but i want your advice, since I consider the people around here the most wise ones in this matter.
I wanted to spend around 330 $ (+- 280 euro)
Must be completely developed... as in already rooted, and ported to CM and/or MIUI
Better if scheduled to receive ICS.....
I currently have a SGS+ that i will give to my wife (she's not interested in modding at all)
So, i leave this choice in your hands, people..

Try: geeksphone (dot com)
They follow a rooted by default philosophy.
Otherwise you're stuck with the expensive Nexus phones I guess..

Related

[Q] Definite desitions about buying P500 or not.

Hi guys. I know that here might be some similar topics, but i want all relevant answers in one place.
Past few weeks (month) i did some research on which android phone to buy.
I gotta say that my budget was fairly limited. 200 EUROS is absolute PEAK - i simply don't have more money for new phone right now.
After some discussions with guys via czech androidforum.cz i was encrouraged to take closer look at LGOO and ZTE Blade.
I would buy Blade right now, but... but then i realized that i would root it and give that CM7 of course, but.. in that case there is higher risk that phine gets bricked - these ZTE phones is very hard to REPAIR in our country because REPAIR CENTRE - ZTE for Czech Republic doesn't offer good service and lacks support. The other thing that discouraged me from buying Blade is its weak battery.
So finally i decided to buy LGoo - i didn't buy it yet - i am about to buy it (in a week). Why i wanna buy this one? I like its battery capacity, unofficial ROMs support and other good things. It simply looks as good android based phone.
My las question is: Are there other phones in this price category that i might have overlooked?
Well, i own one as well, i can tell its not bad phone, battery life 2 to 3 days based on how much you use it (one day if you use it a lot - like almost all day ).
Default rom is kind of fail. I dont understand how can they sell it with that laggy launcher. I use launcher pro.
All in all there is not much choice in your prize limit, i was in the same situation
I was thinking also about some samsung galaxy phones or SE xperia x10.
Custom roms are great. I used stock for a long time, few days ago I began testing all custom roms i found
With Neocore benchmark it almost doubled score (from 34-37FPS to 54-57FPS stock clock or 61FPS with OC) using CyanogenMod port by mik_os.

Should I Buy The SGA?

Hello everybody!
I currently own a Samsung Galaxy Europa (I5500) which is on 2.3.7 Cyanogenmod 7.1, I like my phone but I want something a bit bigger with a better processor and camera etc so i have a few questions for anybody willing to reply, first of all I will let you know what I want in a phone and you can tell me if this phone is right for me then I'll get down to the questions.
I want a phone that runs fast and smoothly, loads up social networking applications fast, good for texting, fairly good camera, a good battery life to last a full day at college (Heavy texting, few phone calls, facebook browsing and checking emails once or twice) and easy access to emails- that pretty much sums up what i want.
Now my questions (All of these are related to STOCK roms, no custom ones- I want this phone to be my little stock phone which i will take good care off, i use my G5 for flashing etc)
Does this phone run smoothly?
Does this phone have an OFFICIAL 2.3 Gingerbread update via Samsung KIES?
Has it got a good battery life? (How long does a full charge last?)
Is there any word on an Ice Cream Sandwich update for SGA?
That's about it, please take the time out to reply to me, i'd appreciate it!
Thank you,
Curtis.
I find its ARM-11 processor somehow slow. However, the camera and screen for its money are brilliant.
YES, IT HAS GOT STOCK GINGERBREAD UPDATE. Its behaviour is smooth, but with rough edges. Battery life isn't as good it could be.
My tip - Xperia ray. It has got the best screen I've ever seen on an sub-300EUR Android device. It has got a better processor and it's nice to hold in hand too.
Depends on your budget, SGA is kinda "best buy" device in it's price segment, but as I can see you can get a quite nice deals on SGS and SGS2, so I would go for those.
Go for the LG Optimus series .
Otherwise the Xperia Play or Arc can be a good choice .
You could also try the Samsung Galaxy S+
If not , try the HTC EVO 3D or the Sensation
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA App
I like my Ace, but i'm not sure if i would recommend to someone at this time.
I guess there are better phones (higher res, faster CPU, more internel memory) for a price that is not that much higher than the ACE's.
I want a phone under £200, i managed to find a SGA on my favourite PAYG network for only £145!
Than choose between SGA and SE x10.
Isn't the SE X10 the tiny phone with a even tinier qwerty keyboard?
Nope, that's X10 mini and Mini Pro, I'm thinking about full X10:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=2964&idPhone2=3724
(X10 has bigger display, better camera 8Mpx, 1Gb internal memory+8Gb card+384MbRAM, and it's also upgradable to Gingerbread)
Holy sh*t, how much is that in the UK?!
Hmm...try something like this>
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ctg/Sony-Eric...3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A5251&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
(I'm not so much into ebay auctions, but I think you can find some good deals)
I don't like buying second-hand or from eBay, i prefer to buy from a store like Phones 4 U, Carphone Warehouse or Three, neither of them stores sell the normal X10
Have you checked your network provider deals, per example my wife got SG Tab and IP4 for 70 euros (two year contract with Orange De).
I only buy phones on Pay As You Go, as I am in college, I haven't got a steady flow of income so i don't want a contract in case i can't afford to pay it one month
Hey, i just found a brand new Galaxy S2 (Pay as you Go contract), just save some more money>
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-G...58729?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item1c1ffd0089
Thank you for all your help, I can't afford that at this moment in time though, i'll just keep my money and put it all together at Christmas and get myself something then, i can get a HTC HD7 for £170 from my local CEX (unlocked) so i may get that.
I really don't want to start a WP7 trolling topic, but, if you want an open platform, isn't it too strange to consider HD7 as an alternative? Of course, Metro is great and everything works just so smooth, but it's not that open..
For the money i bought my Ace, it was the Motorola Defy. Now i'm thinking why i didn't choose the motorola. It has a processor seemed to the ace one, at 800 Mhz; it has more RAM(512MB); It's super ressistant. And it support flash player native.
In Sweden the price for SGS and SGA are almost the same, so i'd rather go for SGS(no led for the camera though). And as dami391 said Motorola Defy, the phone is "better" (specwise) and cost about the same.
It's kinda hard to recommend SGA now that there are better phones around the same price.
But I'd say that I'm very happy with my purchase of SGA.
As the guy above me said, now you´ve got a lot more than we had when we bought our beloved SGA.
I would recommend the SGA for you if its price is affordable for your incomes. Id say that is the best phone I ever tried but this thought just came only when I installed a new rom and rooted it, if you are not planning install new roms I definetely would say dont try the touchwiz interface and the stock rom that comes with the Ace. It sucks.

Which phone should I get.. This is how I will use it

Truth be told I have been waiting for second gen WP7 devices to hit the canadian market, which doesnt seem to be happening anytime soon. Over the course of the past 3 months I have aquired an Acer Android tablet, sold my ipad and purchased an Android phone for my wife (casual user).
Now I am at the point where I am very tired of my 3 year old BB Curve and I want to start developing for the mobile market (for fun, possibly create custom apps for work, I am in IT)
I come from a Java background 10 years ago, then moved to .NET, which is why I was waiting for a Windows Phone, but has time has passed I have been following Android news and I am strongly considering getting an Android phone.
What I am not clear on is the Nexus line of phones, I guess this line of phones is managed by Google, which then chooses new OEMs as new phone are released? Is this a big benifit when it come to update/App support/ROMs..etc or is it a drawback?
Also, if you were to choose a phone to fit the following needs/wants, Is the Galaxy II or Galaxy Nexus a better fit (I really want a Samsung phone)
Needs
-Exchange support, not full, but the more ActiveSync features that are supported, the better.
-ROM Access, Id like to play around with ROM/Custimize the phone
-App support, I noticed on my Acer tablet a lot of apps are not available, that we can get on the phone
Wants
- I am stuck with this phonme for 2 years, so being able to upgrade to 5.0 when it comes out would be ideal.
- A Big screen! The softbuttons only on the Nexus is nice
- I want ICS right now, but I dont mind waiting till April when the GII gets it in Canada\
- I want to develop for it, if one is easier to development for (doubt it), it would be good to know.
Thanks, just looking for advice and figured this forum would be good, as I like to mess around with the software side of things, long time reader, first time poster!
ddemers said:
Truth be told I have been waiting for second gen WP7 devices to hit the canadian market, which doesnt seem to be happening anytime soon. Over the course of the past 3 months I have aquired an Acer Android tablet, sold my ipad and purchased an Android phone for my wife (casual user).
Now I am at the point where I am very tired of my 3 year old BB Curve and I want to start developing for the mobile market (for fun, possibly create custom apps for work, I am in IT)
I come from a Java background 10 years ago, then moved to .NET, which is why I was waiting for a Windows Phone, but has time has passed I have been following Android news and I am strongly considering getting an Android phone.
What I am not clear on is the Nexus line of phones, I guess this line of phones is managed by Google, which then chooses new OEMs as new phone are released? Is this a big benifit when it come to update/App support/ROMs..etc or is it a drawback?
Also, if you were to choose a phone to fit the following needs/wants, Is the Galaxy II or Galaxy Nexus a better fit (I really want a Samsung phone)
Needs
-Exchange support, not full, but the more ActiveSync features that are supported, the better.
-ROM Access, Id like to play around with ROM/Custimize the phone
-App support, I noticed on my Acer tablet a lot of apps are not available, that we can get on the phone
Wants
- I am stuck with this phonme for 2 years, so being able to upgrade to 5.0 when it comes out would be ideal.
- A Big screen! The softbuttons only on the Nexus is nice
- I want ICS right now, but I dont mind waiting till April when the GII gets it in Canada\
- I want to develop for it, if one is easier to development for (doubt it), it would be good to know.
Thanks, just looking for advice and figured this forum would be good, as I like to mess around with the software side of things, long time reader, first time poster!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go for the Nexus. It will have amazing dev support, and being a nexus is a huge benefit. It it guaranteed to get updates for 2 years, and receives all updates first. Unlocking the bootloader is a simple command throught the terminal emulator. Dev wise...you just can't go wrong with that phone.
Galaxy Nexus if your planning to dev as that's what its really made for as boot loader can be unlocked easily an it will have the next Android version guaranteed.
Sent from.... somewhere...
another vote for Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus
you can also subscribe to the Samsung Developer program, to get loaner phones for DEVing
Thanks, looks like Nexus is the way to go
Thanks for the info, Is there a reference blog/document that outlines why the Nexus devices are special and what you get, not that I dont trust you all .
Just search google or whatever. There are multiple blogs that detail all the abilities of the Google Nexus. Again though, for what you're wanting the Nexus is going to be the best thing kicking right now. Easy unlockable bootloader and the ability to take updates immediately if you like.
If you're going to develop you might want to check out www.thenewboston.com He starts at the very beginning of basic development and gets as advanced as you like more or less. Great resource.
Nexus is a great choice for you.
samsung 9100
Get the iPhone 4 and jailbreak it.
Galaxy Nexus. It will last you years because its a google phone and will always receive updates first. Plus, they have the highest dev support.
My Blog: knowledgexswag.tumblr.com
Twitter: @knowledge561
Galaxy Nexus is the first choise then Galaxy S2. u can think sensation xe if u like sense
s2, galaxy nexus, atrix2,moro rzr droid, lg 2x, on this order
alex2792 said:
Get the iPhone 4 and jailbreak it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find the IPhone way too small to type on + I want to stand out . If people use an on screen keyboard I dont understand how people can be productive with such a small phone. I work with a lot of Iphones due to clients purchasing them, so I have been able to test them thoroughly.
Nexus or Galaxy S2
If you want a big phone get the Samsung Galaxy Note.
Specs here: http://bit.ly/oCrrPw
Sent from my T959 using xda premium
SGS II for sure!

Choosing a low budget androphone: Wildfire S, Motorola Defy or Acer Liquid Metal?

Hi everybody!
As the title implies, i'm looking for advice on low-end android devices.
EDIT:
decided to exclude the LG optimus one (3MP camera kills it for me), and the Galaxy Ace (278Mo of ram as opposed to 512mo on the Wildfire S)
But here come new challengers, as i've read marvelous comment on them:
The Motorola Defy, and the ZTE Blade S/Orange San Francisco II.
EDIT: removed the ZTE Blade S (hard to get and no support for adobe flash)
Added the Acer Liquid Metal (cheaper than i expected!)
After quite a lot of research, including here at XDA, it came down to those 3 devices, in that order:
1)Motorola Defy
2)HTC Wildfire S
3)Acer Liquid Metal
All three have:
- 512mo of ram,
- a 800+mhz CPU (well, actually, the Wildfire S has a 600mhz cpu, but it seems to be on-par with other 800mhz proc, performance-wise),
- Gingerbread
- a 5MP camera,
which are all important to me.
Oh, and i'd like the mobile to be able to turn into a wifi hotspot, i know the wildfire s does, but i guess all 3 mobiles do?
*Ideally, it should be a device i can reliably find around 200$ or less online or in brick and mortar stores.
I'm looking for the budget device that can be the (combination of) best/fastest/most stable with Root/kernels/roms/OC and the such, as this is what i'm willing to do. (plus, it's quite fun)
I'm not looking for the absolute fastest/most powerful, but rather more for the phone that benefits the most from a stable, bug-free rom.
*I already have a HTC Wildfire S, but after many, many, many tries, i didn't manage to root it.
(I'm stuck with a 0.9 HBoot that prevents me from getting the root, from what i have gathered, a problem on some HTC Wildfire S devices. Guess i'm just unlucky )
However, i guess i could find a store that could XTC Clip it for me.
(XTC clip works with ANY HTC wildfire S with a 100% success rate, right?)
Or maybe sell it, and buy another, already-rooted, one.
And it seems a rooted HTC Wildfire S could go a long way as far as getting a good device goes.
(Given the info on Cyanogenmod's site, the S can't benefit from Cyanogenmod 7 while the classical wildfire can. The other two can)
*EDIT:
after some research, regarding flash support:
- Defy and Liquid Metal both support full adoble flash
- Wildfire S supports only flashlite
Looks like the skyfire browser can help with flash support to some extent, but i must confess i really like Opera mobile.
Oh, and i'm perfectly aware that a phone around that price won't skyrocket to SII or Iphone 4 levels of performance, but that's not what i'm looking for.
Thanks a lot for your answers!
Bangoo said:
Hi everybody!
As the title implies, i'm looking for advice on low-end android devices.
After quite a lot of research, including here at XDA, it came down to those 3 devices:
*HTC Wildfire S
*Samsung Galaxy Ace
*LG Optimus One
Ideally, it should be a device i can reliably find at 150$ or less online.
I'm definitely looking at the budget device that can be the (combination of) best/fastest/most stable with Root/kernels/roms/OC and the such, as this is what i'm willing to do. (plus, it's quite fun)
I'm not looking for the absolute fastest/most powerful, but rather more for the phone that benefits the most from a stable rom.
*I benefited from a good offer for a HTC Wildfire S, but after many, many, many tries, i didn't manage to root it.
(I'm stuck with a 0.9 HBoot that prevents me from getting the root, from what i have gathered, a problem on some HTC Wildfire S devices. Guess i'm just unlucky )
However, i guess i could find a store that could XTC Clip it for me.
(XTC clip works with ANY HTC wildfire S, right?)
(I live near Ottawa, Canada, and i'm pretty new there, so if you're willing to share a good store's adress regarding XTC Clip, i'd be grateful)
Or maybe sell it, and buy another, already-rooted, one.
And, apparently, a rooted HTC Wildfire S could go a long way as far as getting a good device goes.
(Given the info on Cyanogenmod's site, the S can't benefit from Cyanogenmod 7 while the classical wildfire can? Am i right on this?)
*Samsung galaxy ace is pretty hard to get at 150$ apparently (it's more like 200$), and i like the fact that the Wildfire S comes with more ram. Maybe it's irrelevant?
*As far as the LG Optimus goes, i've read very mixed reviews. Some claim it is a best budget phone, others tell you not to buy it at all.
Would that phone really benefit from rooting as far as performance goes? Is it easy?
I've also read great things about Huawei Ideos, ZTE Blade and Acer Liquidmini, but those are fairly hard to come by used and unlocked, as compared to the 3 phones above.
I could however use some feedback on them, or others i might have missed for that matter (easy to hack? really benefit from being hacked?)
Oh, and i'm perfectly aware that a phone around that price won't skyrocket to SII or Iphone 4 levels of performance, but that's not what i'm looking for.
Thanks a lot for your answers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suggestion...
If you are in the silicon valley (i know its a long shot...WWW is a global phenomenon ;-) I would check out some meetups and try to find one that is giving away free device to developers that attend those meetups...I can say that I have received around 3 brand new devices and they are worked out great for development purposes... plus you will save money!
I would go with the LG if I'm not mistaken it already has a almost fully functional CM9 only camera doesn't work i think.
Sent from my LG-P350 using xda premium
I'm not sure about Canada, but in the US you can find high end phones (Galaxy S2) for under $200 (with contract agreement) at authorized dealer locations such as Best Buy.
use craigslist or kijiji and get an lg optimus 2x. Good battery life, excellent camera and dual core 1ghz, plus it has HUGE rom dev and ics :-D. U can get one for around $100.
Hi guys!
Thanks a lot for the answers!
@Leo.o: a trip to Silicone valley would cost me a lot more than 150$.
@Nerot: interesting, i'll check that, even if the camera not working is kind of a big letdown.
@Towle: i'm already under contract agreement (that's how i got the HTC Wildfire S i didn't manage to root)
@Icenight89: I'll check that phone, thanks for the suggestion. Edit: checked, and the phone is more around 250$+ for an unlocked one.
Sidenote:
All in all, is it worth the trouble to root my current HTC Wildfire S?
Would it be a very good phone once rooted?
Also, is XTC Clip garantueed a 100% success rate, as i didn't manage to unlock the bootlader using the tools at HTC dev?
I apparently found a shop in Ottawa that could do it for 30$, but i don't want to waste those 30$ for it not to work.
Edit: i've also read great things about the Motorola Defy, anyone got feedback on it?
(not that i really care about the "indestructible" aspect, but if the phone can be greatly optimized and last a few years, spec-wise, the fact that it's highly resistant is a plus)
I have a Samsung galaxy gio, and my mom has the ace. They are both great phones, but i like the gio much better. Its just an awesome phone for the price. My sister has an HTC wildfire s, and i personally HATE it. It has almost no room to install apps, and i find it impossible to type on it. It doesnt seem to be able to keep up with me.
@AlwaysDroid: the galaxy Gio is really light, spec-wise, in my opinion.
But feedback is always appreciated, so thanks a lot!
Went with further research, and decided to eliminate the LG optimus one (3MP camera kills it for me), and the Samsung Galaxy Ace (278mo of Ram kills it for me, i must confess i love having 512mo of Ram).
So, now the competitors are: HTC Wildfire S, Motorola Defy+, and, the ZTE Blade S/Orange San Francisco II.
I'll edit the first post.
Eliminated the ZTE Blade S (hard to get and doesn't support flash)
Added the Acer Liquid Metal (cheaper than i expected!)
Edited the 1st post.
Still looking for advice/feedback, thanks a lot guys!
well...did u choosed anything ???

[Q] ten inch tablet with the most roms available

Hi all,
I love installing custom roms on my hardware and seeing what they can do. It's just plain fun for me
That said, I've had two tablets, a Nook Tablet and a Sero 7 Pro. Both are great, but the Nook took nearly a year to crack the boot loader and for the first roms to emerge, and despite some dedicated work by XboxeXpert and other on the Sero, Hisense refuses to release the source and development is pretty much paralyzed over there.
I'm sick to death of it. My wife has promised me a new 10 inch tablet this christmas, and number one on my shopping list OPEN FOR THE DEVS! Second on the list is decent hardware, followed by reasonable price. I don't need the latest and greatest as long as it performs decently.
Searching the interwebs for this information, I find tons of threads about the best roms, the best tablets, etc, but I've not found any (including here) about the most open, and the most dev support.
So I'm looking for thoughts - what is the most dev-friendly 10" tablet? Which tablet has the most roms available? If you are a dev, which tablet do you love working on?
Thanks for any ideas!
TM
P.S: If you are a manufacturer or sales rep lurking the forum (we know you do) understand that this sale will be entirely based on whether your stuff is unlocked. I'm talking to you, Hisense...
Nexus or Samsung
tmoulder said:
Hi all,
I love installing custom roms on my hardware and seeing what they can do. It's just plain fun for me
That said, I've had two tablets, a Nook Tablet and a Sero 7 Pro. Both are great, but the Nook took nearly a year to crack the boot loader and for the first roms to emerge, and despite some dedicated work by XboxeXpert and other on the Sero, Hisense refuses to release the source and development is pretty much paralyzed over there.
I'm sick to death of it. My wife has promised me a new 10 inch tablet this christmas, and number one on my shopping list OPEN FOR THE DEVS! Second on the list is decent hardware, followed by reasonable price. I don't need the latest and greatest as long as it performs decently.
Searching the interwebs for this information, I find tons of threads about the best roms, the best tablets, etc, but I've not found any (including here) about the most open, and the most dev support.
So I'm looking for thoughts - what is the most dev-friendly 10" tablet? Which tablet has the most roms available? If you are a dev, which tablet do you love working on?
Thanks for any ideas!
TM
P.S: If you are a manufacturer or sales rep lurking the forum (we know you do) understand that this sale will be entirely based on whether your stuff is unlocked. I'm talking to you, Hisense...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want good support and plenty of custom ROMs, I'd personally go with either the Nexus 10 or a Samsung tablet. When it comes to the Nexus the reasons are obvious & Samsung is a widely used brand and will most likely have a great user base & dev support.
The Nexus 10, hands down. But don't go buy one today. The 2nd generation is rumored to be unveiled soon.

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