Smartphones thread

[Eudaimonium]

Hey guys, I didn't see a thread like this so I have a few reasons for creating one.


Namely, primary reason being that I'm a bit of OCD regarding any larger investment like a phone, computer, or whatever else is supposed to last.

I am not stopping and am not satistfied and am not pressing "Buy" button until I am 110% sure that this is EXACTLY what I want to have for following number of years.

Which is why I spend sleepless nights usually investigating all possible solutions and alternatives within a given budget before comitting to buy.

The only problem is, I know about modern phones about as much as I've managed to learn in the past week or so, and I'm not really up-to-date with everything and that causes discomfort, for I know that my 6-year old Sony Ericsson M600 will eventually die and needs to be replaced.

Going with the assumption of a worst case scenario:
I need to replace my phone ASAP,

I have started gathering all information about modern phones as I possibly can, to aid me in choosing a perfect phone if need be.

Thanks to Jeffreythe00 I have had the chance to try out iPhone 3G before giving it to my bro (who had a seriously shitty phone up to now).

The phone itself is awesome, but the company making it isn't.

In order to use all the custom createed apps and user created content, you have to jailbreak it, voiding warranty in the process and risking bricking the phone even if you're extremely unlucky.

I have had a self-imposed crash-course and managed to do a hard restart, download and crack a firmware, flashing the phone with it (jailbreaking it), unlocking it and finally bringing it to usable state.

So if I were to invest money in a new phone, I don't think I'd want to go through all that again. Also, iPhones cost a truckload of money.

I didn't have a chance to try out a Windows phone, but by the looks of it, I won't anyway. I don't care if it's more functionality rich than any other, the unintuitive visual interface appears to be made by toddlers, for toddlers, is bugging me to no end and it's borderline insultive.

Offtopic, why the f**k do they do that? MS Visual Studio, Skype, Browsers, everything is going into this latest "minimalistic" trends. What the f**k? They gonna bring back the shaded UI's of today in 2 years and call it innovation?

So Android so far appears to be the way to go for me. AFAIK creation of user content and acquiring it is piece of cake. I wanna learn app development anyway.

Problem becomes, which phone.

I usually have a set of criteria so strict, that I basically go with best "good enough".

Through my week-long search, I appear to have found something perfect enough I'd definitely invest in,

Motorola Droid X2, or Motorola Droid 3.

Droid x2

Both

3

I was originally leaning towards X2, since it appears to be cheap enough to fit in my budget, and every single "drawback" mentioned anywhere appears to be a plus for me. Biggest complaint being lack of 4G network which there aren't any here, and some camera issues (which I'm never going to use anyway).

DROID 3 appears to be even better, pretty much same except bigger screen and FINALLY a physical keyboard (somebody still loves typing without looking), but it appears a little pricey.

Basically these fit into what I'm looking for a phone:

Big sturdy durable black brick (both have metal casings),
Fast (Dual core processor in a phone, jeez)
UI flexible (Is android)
UI animations smooth and fast (combination of two above).

Problem is, they're rarer than god damned Krypton gas lasers.

From a quick eBay search, DROID x2 appears to be in range of $100, while DROID 3 is around $200.

So I'm gonna shoot out a question here,

Do you think any phones are superior to this within the given price range?
Any that I might've missed that might fit my criteria better?

Anybody selling?

 

[bennett326]

dude seriously fuck Motorola. everyone i know with one has problems. dont buy the droid 3. Just dont

question why not a nexus 4? get one of us in the US to buy it for you...

personally i have had HTC phones for the past two and a half years. i have not complaints. I started out with an HTC evo 4g and i loved it until the day it was ran over buy a car. i know have the evo 3d and am completely happy. sure HTC phones come with crapware, at least its pretty. besides you can always root

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Yeah, the Nexus 4 is quite nice, and the best part is that it's unlocked. Might not be your thing if you want a dedicated keyboard, but that'll come down to preference.

Nexus 4 have ETAs of 6-7 weeks or so though.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Wat.

After going through the troubles of explaining what exactly am I good with getting rid of, and fine doing without, to reduce the price of the phone to barely fit into my already tiny budget which shouldn't exceeed $150 or maybe $200 max,

All you have to say is,
"Get $500 phone"?

Seriously why do I even bother.

Bennet, your "fuck motorola" yelling is completely contradictory to everything I've read about them.

As if no other phone had any problems ever.

Bionic badger, the "preference" isn't the only thing affecting my choice, here.

For those interested, which there are none,

Scratch the Droid X2. It only comes as CMDA network variant, no GSM.

Droid 3 appears to come in GSM variants. So I'm down to exactly one choice within my budget.

Could use some suggestions beside "Get the most expensive phone, it's good!".

 

[bennett326]

Wat.

After going through the troubles of explaining what exactly am I good with getting rid of, and fine doing without, to reduce the price of the phone to barely fit into my already tiny budget which shouldn't exceeed $150 or maybe $200 max,

All you have to say is,
"Get $500 phone"?

Seriously why do I even bother.

Bennet, your "fuck motorola" yelling is completely contradictory to everything I've read about them.

As if no other phone had any problems ever.

Bionic badger, the "preference" isn't the only thing affecting my choice, here.

For those interested, which there are none,

Scratch the Droid X2. It only comes as CMDA network variant, no GSM.

Droid 3 appears to come in GSM variants. So I'm down to exactly one choice within my budget.

Could use some suggestions beside "Get the most expensive phone, it's good!".

my bad didnt see the 200$

i said the nexus 4 because someone that lives in the states can get you a 16gb one for 350$ NOT 500

go for the droid 3 if you wish. my mother has it. it is hell. its still running 2.3 for one. it freezes up constantly ETC. bottom line it does not run smoothly. hell i almost bought her a nexus, yeah the first nexus to replace it. but she wanted a physical keyboard.....:beer:

 

[Eudaimonium]

Well, damn.

That makes quite a dillema, doesn't it?

Well, starting off with preferences, I really dislike the design of Nexus. It's a phone, not a woman. Why's it got curves and not corners?

And $350 is still my phone budget multiplied by two.

So that's definitely a no go.

Any other alternatives?

 

[bennett326]

Well, damn.

That makes quite a dillema, doesn't it?

Well, starting off with preferences, I really dislike the design of Nexus. It's a phone, not a woman. Why's it got curves and not corners?

And $350 is still my phone budget multiplied by two.

So that's definitely a no go.

Any other alternatives?

do you really realy hate curves?

because how about the galaxy nexus GSM? its a year old, but it still has a 1.2ghz duel core processer. you can find them sub 200$ easy on ebay

 

[Jacob32123]

do you really realy hate curves?

because how about the galaxy nexus GSM? its a year old, but it still has a 1.2ghz duel core processer. you can find them sub 200$ easy on ebay

I love my LTE Galaxy Nexus. Sure, it is LTE, but the rest is the same. Fast, reliable, and the Nexus OS beats the crap out of the modified versions of Android.

And don't go Motorola.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Well the problem is that if you're "OCD" about getting a phone that'll last you a long time kind of contradicts buying an old or entry-level phone. You can get the Droid 3 if that's the only one within your current constraints. The phone is stuck with the Gingerbread version of Android, which is pretty old. There are no plans to upgrade it, though you can probably hack something on there. Also, it costs $300 for an unlocked version on Amazon, the same price as the 8GB Nexus 4. So I'd defer to the Nexus in that case. If it's only $200 where you are that's probably okay.

The alternative is waiting it out until you get something you want, rather than buying something that may not be relevant even now. If you're afraid your Sony will die soon, get a real cheap stopgap. It'll buy you some time to better decide on which phone you really want to "invest in" rather than something you may need to replace sooner than later because it wasn't relevant even now.

Anyway, I'd get the Nexus 4. $300 or $350 for an unlocked, Android Jelly Bean phone is good stuff. Sure there's some time to wait, but maybe it's worth suffering the cheapo stop-gap?

 

[bennett326]

And don't go Motorola.

Well the problem is that if you're "OCD" about getting a phone that'll last you a long time kind of contradicts buying an old or entry-level phone. You can get the Droid 3 if that's the only one within your current constraints. The phone is stuck with the Gingerbread version of Android, which is pretty old. There are no plans to upgrade it, though you can probably hack something on there. Also, it costs $300 for an unlocked version on Amazon, the same price as the 8GB Nexus 4. So I'd defer to the Nexus in that case. If it's only $200 where you are that's probably okay.

The alternative is waiting it out until you get something you want, rather than buying something that may not be relevant even now. If you're afraid your Sony will die soon, get a real cheap stopgap. It'll buy you some time to better decide on which phone you really want to "invest in" rather than something you may need to replace sooner than later because it wasn't relevant even now.

Anyway, I'd get the Nexus 4. $300 or $350 for an unlocked, Android Jelly Bean phone is good stuff. Sure there's some time to wait, but maybe it's worth suffering the cheapo stop-gap?

i would not buy the 8gb. there is no sd slot. and in reality you probably have like 6gb free

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Well I only referenced the 8GB it because if it were between a $300 Droid 3 and a Nexus 4 (8GB), I'd go for the Nexus 4. For myself, I would go for the Nexus 4 16GB for that extra $50; it's not that much more unless you're really pinching pennies.

 

[jander6442]

Wait until May the quad core are coming I read that the HTC one X in EU. already has a 4core. Then I read where the chips coupled to the 2core are still faster than the 4 cores that will suck the battery down in no time for what .2 more GHz not ready for that. Qualcomm is going to be producing soon (prolly already has) a 1.4 to 1.6GHz all this is depending if you live in US is that the chip is not very LTE friendly.

I would say a good scenario is going to go for the latest greatest phone you prefer and if it is like here in US and you sign the service contract go for one that has unlimited data for sur and try to get one that they have unlocked the bootloader or at least have a recovery exploit. Then at least you can port some future ROMs if thats your cup of tea.

For me I would have jumped all over the HTC EVO LTE but the sucker has no way to remove the battery which is the deal breaker for me.

I currently have the HTC EVO4G there are ports form the Nexus I believe already out there for it I know you can get CM9 for it also, there are some pretty good JB ROMs for it out there only problem is the camera is patched and the FFC is a no go.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Hm, could somebody clear up the differences between various Android OS's?

Gingerbread, that sandwitch thing, etc... I've seen a lot of them out there.

I'm looking at Galaxy GSM reccomended by Bennet,

Not bad. Pretty much looks like an iPhone. Not overly fond but not too bad either. The battery life appears to be lacking a bit and it's on Android 2.1 - which you guys say isn't all that good?

Anyway, I'll have it written down as one alternative so far.

Even with all the reccomendations, Nexus 4 is way out of my reach.

And yes, the outter shell design is surprisingly high on my priority list. There's just certain something when you look on the table and go "Holy hell that's MY phone!". All the newest Androids and billion-core processors and unlimited memory and 2 meter screens can go f**k themselves; if the phone doesn't look like some high-tech brick, I ain't gonna enjoy it.

That's why I was leaning towards Motorola, but obviously I am not going to do that.

Also, I don't really give too much of a cr*p wether the phone has a dual core processor or not - obviously it's an advantage if it has but if everything's running perfectly smooth on only one, it's fine.

 

[awillis2589]

Look into the droid razr maxx. They even have it in the hd version now but I have the razr maxx and its amazing. The battery can last 2 days, it's about the same size and droid x2 but with a better screen, it now ships with ice cream sandwich and is a 4g phone. Read some reviews and you can even check consumers report but its the best overall phone Verizon sells.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Looks great but even used ones prices are skimming the budget mark.

Written down as one more alternative.

Also, note that I don't need a 4G or even a 3G network, carriers used here are... stuck in the old ways.

OK I'm also scoping out some Sony Xperias. Anybody had any hands on experience with those?

Most notably something like this,

New Sony Xperia U ST25i Dual Core 5MP Hspda GPS Black Phone 7311271369806 | eBay

Looks pretty damn awesome, and cheap too.

EDIT,

Yep, Xperia U (AKA ST25i) looks like a winner so far.

It accepts a standard SIM card, not a Micro one (and I'd very much like to carry over my SIM),
Comes factory unlocked, loaded with features, can be upgraded to new Android 4.X,
Is sold by all the chinese drop-shippers worldwide (So I don't have to go and bother people to check the shipping prices for international), and going through all the videos on youtube well...

All in all, it appears this is what I'd be looking for.

Any thoughts?

 

[jander6442]

Read up at XDA man thats where all the phone geeks are at they have developers there to.