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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 ???
I know this has probably been posted before, but anyone got suggestions for a good cheap android? I am new to this whole android OS thing, I have a webos phone (pixi) so I am looking to upgrade. Nothing too expensive though. I have looked into the att avail, but it seems as a prepaid only phone. I have att (without a data plan). and I will be using the android os for wifi
I have also looked at the samsung galaxy y but it seems too cheap.
Any suggestions I am looking for a phone that would work on att, and that I could find on amazon for around $150.
Any sugestions?
Galaxy gio , Galaxy ace, HTC wildfire?
Perhaps Xperia mini would fit the bill? I was considering Galaxy Ace but ended up paying exactly the same for mini which is clearly a superior device. It is perfectly capable of running ICS which is a big plus for me. Official update should be released in April/May and some custom ROMs are already available.
Some people have reported overheating issues (soft keys acting strangely) but I haven't had such problems.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with it, and to me it seems like the best choice for the money.
P.S. Live with Walkman is essentially the same device. You get a slightly larger (but worse) display, a secondary camera and longer battery life. Price tag should be the same so I'd say it's a matter of preference.
The Pantech Burst is so underrated that you can find one for that price (in my area I saw 3 between $180 and $125), works on At&t and has a Snapdragon dual-core 1.5ghz CPU, 4" Super Amoled display and a solid if plain design.
You could look into the Meizu MX.
Hello and welcome, I have a few questions which do need answering, the first of which is, how do i root my Tablet (Lenovo tab s8-50f). Ive tried all the apps (Framaroot, blah blah) and no exploits work. does anyone know how to root it ? the second question is how do i flash a custom rom on that tablet. Tablet specs are listed on Lenovos website.
Thank You
I just recently bought one to, I love it, is thin, high res pretty good performance, but yeah no exploits yet :\ in order to flash a custom rom we first need root, then a custom recovery
bump!
Im very surprise, this is an ansdroid device, and a pretty nice one, and still no news on it
Lenovo Tab S8
I bought one of these too. Love it! I have it installed in the dash of my car in place of my stereo. It sounds amazing through my speakers and amp. The reason I bought it was because I couldn't find a Nexus 7 locally where I live. I guess I could have bought one online. Hind sight is 20/20 right?!? I can't wait for a custom kernel to come out for this that will allow me to use a backup camera while still charging the tablet. The Nexus 7 can do this with Timur's kernel installed. If anyone knows anything on how to make this happen please let me know!
Great tablet!
I picked up one of these the other night, so far so good be interesting to see if it receives the upcoming lollipop update. Can't seem to find much discussion on the net about it either. Hoping root will become available soon!
Just picked one of these tabs up at best buy for $174 after NY tax! For the specs & price it seemed like a steal. I and running nove prime launcher and I am really enjoying the front facing speakers on this tab. Just need roooooot!
I just got one of these today at a pretty crazy low price. I am extremely impressed with Lenovo on this one. The build quality it great. The specs are awesome. I really hope we see root and some custom roms for this soon.
Look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2924127
[Q] Lenovo S8 (S8-50) Tablet - Possible Support?
Sent from my Lenovo TAB S8-50F using XDA Free mobile app
Guys,
I sent the Pixel C back. It died in 2 days. I was looking at the Sony Z4 tab along with the google one. Now I am looking back at it. Is that Sony Z4 tablet still a fantastic tablet? Issues? Just looking for overall comments before I look to find one to buy..I dont see them for sale much right now so I find it might be hard to get one anyway. But thought I would ask before I started looking..
Well I was in the same boat as you. I recently purchased the Nexus 9 lte tablet but wasn't happy with it due to the poor construction and some light bleed issues in the screen so I decided to look for this Z4 in Amazon and got it for $589.00 Free shipping and no Tax. Man best choice I've ever made! Really well build table, super thin, great speakers and water proof. Doesn't have many development support or Roms support but you can root it, install Xposed, debloat it and live with it.....oh and great battery life. Compatible with T-mobile and At&t LTE even it says 4G.
Yes is still a great option almost a year after of his released.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
My topic My Z4 Tablet Pros and Cons gives some of my and other's thoughts that are still relevant for the most part.
Also, the tablet flies on Marshmallow. I'm still super happy with my choice.
Does anyone think they might come out with a replacement for it anytime soon?
jongcruz said:
Well I was in the same boat as you. I recently purchased the Nexus 9 lte tablet but wasn't happy with it due to the poor construction and some light bleed issues in the screen so I decided to look for this Z4 in Amazon and got it for $589.00 Free shipping and no Tax. Man best choice I've ever made! Really well build table, super thin, great speakers and water proof. Doesn't have many development support or Roms support but you can root it, install Xposed, debloat it and live with it.....oh and great battery life. Compatible with T-mobile and At&t LTE even it says 4G.
Yes is still a great option almost a year after of his released.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with android tablets is that they do not sell well. That causes OEMs to only release mid to low end tablets perpetuating the situation. It's a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of making their tablets better so that they can sell better, they make them worse so they sell even worse than before.
That lets (as a result) old tablets to still be excellent. For example my Note Tablet is the best pen-based tablet to this day (maybe ipad pro 9.7 will change that), portable, unlike the 12inch behemoths and awesome functionality coming out of the pen.
Similarly Xperia Z4 remains even after a year of its release one of the best if not *the* best tablet, period. It's the lightest 10 incher ever created by far, making it the only choice for heavy readers. After MarshMallow some of the best battery lives in the industry, excellent screen and the lack of Roms can be fixed by xposed (which pretty much has *all* the features of custom roms).
Still whilst my wife has one, I won't buy one for myself because I don't want to support Sony's ridiculous DRM-Warranty policy. If that doesn't bother you, I don't think you can go wrong with this tablet, I'm hard pressed to find anything better (maybe ipad pro if you don't mind jailbreaking).
Stevethegreat said:
[...] the lack of Roms can be fixed by xposed (which pretty much has *all* the features of custom roms).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent point.
There don't appear to be many of these devices around, and I am curious to try and find out how many.
I love the hardware. If it was just about the specs, I'd have bought one already!
But I'm undecided.
If the bootloader was unlockable, with custom recoveries and custom ROMs, I'd have bought one. However, with Asus not cooperating, and I think too few devices around, I am not sure this will achieve the critical mass to get the attention it deserves.
Sadly, the lack of international availability, and, well, Asus being Asus, means that if this was an experiment to judge the demand for super-sized phablets, then I think it failed. I don't think we'll see another from Asus.
I have one, and will be keeping it for now. However it is not my daily driver, and until AT&T fixes their HSPA+ network in my area, or root becomes available so I can unlock bands, this device will stay just a play around device.
Hi,
I have one since about 2 months and I love its big screen, reviews said that there was no lag, no freezes etc... False, the proc is not that good and I'm really desapointed but that's not why I will change.
I'll change because I cannot accept that an android phone cannot have root or unlockable bootloader, for me it's not an android...
If I wanted an extremly locked phone, I'd choose an iPhone... lol
Oh and... still no Nougat update for other versions than ZF3 5.2 and 5.5 (Stopped because euh... well, because what in fact?)
So, for a 750€ smartphone...
Asus? Never again.
wow, only six people bought one? and one of those is going to sell it. doesn't look too good.
edit: updated the count
Yea I have it and im using it on T-Mobile which is OK with hspa+ but the bootloader unlock not coming out is killing my joy with the phone. Awesome device but I find myself using my OnePlus 3t more because of Asus stupid choices with the bootloader.
Have one & will keep it. The only really irritating thing so far is having both speakers on one side, when you keep the phone in landscape mode; but I'm getting used to tolerate it and can use the headphones anyway.
ptae2000e said:
Have one & will keep it. The only really irritating thing so far is having both speakers on one side, when you keep the phone in landscape mode; but I'm getting used to tolerate it and can use the headphones anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the iphone7 has a dummy speaker, one set of grilles are just blind holes!
so I guess even having genuine dual speakers is a win, but yes, would have been better to have them top and bottom, or even on the long edge.
the availability of an official boot loader unlock tool has swung me back to considering this phone again.
I have had my Z3Ultra for a number of months now after I purchased it to replace my nice but also annoying Huawei P8 Max. I totally love this phone. Can't complain with the exception of the lack of Root, which as I write this message, the developer community is working on bringing it to our device. Apart from this, I am looking to keep it until a new device is released with much better spec but at least the same size possibly even a 7.9" (YES it can be as like the Huawei P8 Max, this phone has a lot of wasted space and overall size can still be kept to current size- check Xiaomi Mi Mix) with ultra thin bezels and curved display, stylus pen, keyboard attachment, better cpu, 128GB or 256GB ROM, 6GB+ RAM, dual sim + independent sd slot and finally quad speakers (top, bottom, left, right side with similar quality to the ones already on it (they are awesome, I mean it). Anyway, enough dreaming from me, lets hope someone from Asus is reading my expectations of the next version.
I have one and will keep it, i am coming from a sony z ultra that I've been using for almost 2 years and sony z3 tablet compact 4g 3 months before that and a sony z1 before that, i have only had the asus zenfone 3 ultra for 1 week but have wanted this device since may last year, i bought this for £420 from eglobal and only bought this because my cousin wanted a better device than the Samsung s4 but he wanted to buy the sony z5 because he knew i enjoyed my sony devices but never asked why i didn't have a updated version like the z2 or z3, i sent him the information about the zenfone 3 series and the asus launch videos, he finally bought the deluxe 820 version after 3 months from the same seller but wanted this as soon as i showed these devices to him, i also bought my dad a sony z2 for work and recently upgraded his device to the asus zenfone 3 5.2 inch version. My cousin now wants the ultra version and im going to also buy his deluxe version to use for work. This is the best decision ive made but would buy a xiaomi mi max for less than 200 if i don't get the deluxe from him and stay with my ultra device too. I drive for work and have always had large screen devices for 3-4 years. Lets see what asus has to offer other than the AR version as this is only a small version or normal size lol. I've been recently looking around for root and unlocking bootloader and will wait for asus to release this to all.
Xiaomi Mi Mix? specs? quat speakers?
AWFRONT said:
I have had my Z3Ultra for a number of months now after I purchased it to replace my nice but also annoying Huawei P8 Max. I totally love this phone. Can't complain with the exception of the lack of Root, which as I write this message, the developer community is working on bringing it to our device. Apart from this, I am looking to keep it until a new device is released with much better spec but at least the same size possibly even a 7.9" (YES it can be as like the Huawei P8 Max, this phone has a lot of wasted space and overall size can still be kept to current size- check Xiaomi Mi Mix) with ultra thin bezels and curved display, stylus pen, keyboard attachment, better cpu, 128GB or 256GB ROM, 6GB+ RAM, dual sim + independent sd slot and finally quad speakers (top, bottom, left, right side with similar quality to the ones already on it (they are awesome, I mean it). Anyway, enough dreaming from me, lets hope someone from Asus is reading my expectations of the next version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get this Xiaomi Mi Mix specs? quad speakers? stylus pen? curved display? keyboard attachment? sd slot? Man, what are you smocking, cause I want some!!!
berbecaru said:
Where did you get this Xiaomi Mi Mix specs? quad speakers? stylus pen? curved display? keyboard attachment? sd slot? Man, what are you smocking, cause I want some!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is nice to dream and imagine good things in life and the spec posted (as stated in my original post) is what I want to see in an ideal device of this size. Oh No. I am definitely not smoking anything. Just dreaming the possibility of a perfect phablet (A mix between ZF3U, Samsung Galaxy S7/S8 type edge display and mi mix type bezelless front with the extras as cherry on top).
BTW. As I discovered very recently ASUS Customer Service for the ZenFone series is rubbish to say the least but more like non-existent. God help us when we need care for our precious ZF3U.
AWFRONT said:
It is nice to dream and imagine good things in life and the spec posted (as stated in my original post) is what I want to see in an ideal device of this size. Oh No. I am definitely not smoking anything. Just dreaming the possibility of a perfect phablet (A mix between ZF3U, Samsung Galaxy S7/S8 type edge display and mi mix type bezelless front with the extras as cherry on top).
BTW. As I discovered very recently ASUS Customer Service for the ZenFone series is rubbish to say the least but more like non-existent. God help us when we need care for our precious ZF3U.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are wright buddy, this is what I want too but no body makes it. :laugh::laugh:
My wife had 1. She dropped it face first on a concrete with flip cover that came with the phone. The screen still shattered. The flip cover is coming covering the screen but still didn't protect it from the impact. I guess that's the gamble when you have a very large screen.
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk
Love it so far
speculatrix said:
wow, only six people bought one? and one of those is going to sell it. doesn't look too good.
edit: updated the count
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one and love it, despite the stuff that is installed there out of the box. Its fast, bright and really useful. One thing that slightly upsets me - need to reboot it every second day to keep at the top of its abilities.
Overall - I'd never hesitate to recommend it.:good:
I had one, then gave it to my daughter while i used other smaller screen phone... Then i realize i got hooked on big screen, so i bought another one for me
speculatrix said:
wow, only six people bought one? and one of those is going to sell it. doesn't look too good.
edit: updated the count
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly, you CAN'T assume that just because folks don't report stuff here on XDA, that no one has it. Next, many users are Chinese, or from Taiwan. They won't necessarily speak English. Third, since the LTE bands are NOT available in the U.S.A., that kills more of the market. Lastly, the going rate is around $500 USD, if someone here DID want to buy one. Ours is black screen bricked right now, so we're trying to get help with the (WW) international version unbricking.
I should have been more clear, what I was interested in was how many XDA forum members have bought this, so as to gauge the level of interest and likelihood of hackers and developers doing interesting things with it. I don't know enough about custom Asus ROMS in this respect to actually do the work, but would have been willing to help test rooting and custom recoveries, only I ended up buying an LG V20 because it had all the features I wanted and the AZf3U didn't, and also my concerns about Asus's upgrade longevity set in.
hillg001 said:
Mainly, you CAN'T assume that just because folks don't report stuff here on XDA, that no one has it. Next, many users are Chinese, or from Taiwan. They won't necessarily speak English. Third, since the LTE bands are NOT available in the U.S.A., that kills more of the market. Lastly, the going rate is around $500 USD, if someone here DID want to buy one. Ours is black screen bricked right now, so we're trying to get help with the (WW) international version unbricking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was planning to get zf3 ultra but with almost no rom support, I might get the mi max 2 instead.
I don't think the mi mix is a good idea since it has a fragile ceramic body. I prefer metal body...
*Edit: I gave away my mi max (helium ver) and back to using my 5 years old coolpad 9976a