[Q] Recommend reliable Android phone ? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
could somebody recommend me a good Android phone with a decent battery and eventually a good support concerning custom ROM on xda?
I plan to buy one for my wife -she currently has a customized HTC HD2 with Android (NAND), but due to bad battery life and some reliability problems (FCs, drop of data connection, etc.) she wish for herself a "stock Android" phone. I intend to buy her this phone as a Christmas present, so it should fulfill as much as possible the baterry and reliability requirements (the requirement of good custom ROM support is just "nice to have").
Thank you very much in advance for any advice / recommendation.
Conrad

google nexus one/s motorola droid lg optimus 2 samsung galaxy s

wait for the galaxy nexus, everybody seems to be. who is your phone carrier?

Google's Nexus Lineup.
One, S and Galaxy

choosing a phone....
Ive had an HD2 running NAND roms (cmylxgo,hyperdroid...) and really liked it. Touch screen went out (i ordered a new one to try and save it).
Just bought Galaxy s2 for wife and Sensation 4G for me-tmobile 14 day trial will allow me to exchange the one I like the least.
Heres the problem.
My rooted HD2 seemed FASTER internet, CLEARER video streaming, better BATTERY (Yes, I said it!) and overall better than Galaxy 2s and Sensation 4g!
**Is it possible that the rooted ROMS are that much better than the stock roms on the newer phones?
a post above also states the Amaze is probably the better choice than the Sensation anyway? True???
Ive got 9 days left!!!!!!! Am I crazy? or, once I remove all the clutter by rooting the new phones, they will crush all others???

Related

Help me choose a phone :D

Hey guys, I'm having trouble with choosing a phone. I actually bought the Galaxy s2 lte (skyrocket)but then i returned because I didn't love it and I felt like there was something better and the plan then was to wait for the galaxy nexus. But after that, I read that the galaxy nexus would be left in the dust once phones like the s2 and the newer htc phones get ics. Is this true? Also, If I want a galaxy nexus I have to wait until it's comes to rogers since only bell and virgin have it where I live. I also read that the normal s2 is pretty good too and will be getting ics pretty soon so that was another phone I wanted but rogers didn't have it, they only had the lte version of it. I've also looked at the htc evo 3d and lg optimus 3d but the phones suck and the only really good feature is 3d and and hdmi port in the optimus. The motorola razr also seemed like a nice phone but then i read some bad stuff about it's battery life and display and I heard about an upcoming droid razrmax which is rumored to be a new razr with better specifications and battery life. Help me decide which phone to buy please.
go to some store, take a look at the phones you mentioned and you`ll find the answer.
I have Lg optimus 2x and i`m very pleased with it. It has very nice features, it`s fast and will be getting ICS.

[Q] Cons for SGS2 in face of HTC Sensation?

Hi, I have dilemma, the time has come to buy new smartphone
I know this question was considered many times but let me describe my point of view.
My adventure with smartphones started with Nokia N82 and now I have HTC Desire Z. I was really happy having Desire Z and HTC made a real impression on me. Now I am considering to buy HTC Sensation or Galaxy S2. I really liked dev support for HTC and Cyanogenmod ROM and also other ones. I didn't use stock ROM. I am reading about many positives for SGS2 like display, camera, RAM and cons like Touchwiz, display resolution.
I would prefer to choose HTC maybe beacuse I know their product, I didn't have any samsung before.
My preferences:
For me the most important is performence, customization possibilities and dev support. I don't care about outside but only what is inside. I like sometimes to grab a picture or record a movie. For sure I am using the phone for multimedia: playing, web browsing and waching films. It would be nice if some newer games could be played smoothly. And I was really impressed by HTC custom ROMs (especially CM7).
Could you give me any view for situation repsecting my preferences? I wouldn't like to miss HTC and would like to have sure I will be satisifed if choose SGS2 (it said better performance/hardware).
I hope you understand my uncertainties.
Sebalos said:
Hi, I have dilemma, the time has come to buy new smartphone
I know this question was considered many times but let me describe my point of view.
My adventure with smartphones started with Nokia N82 and now I have HTC Desire Z. I was really happy having Desire Z and HTC made a real impression on me. Now I am considering to buy HTC Sensation or Galaxy S2. I really liked dev support for HTC and Cyanogenmod ROM and also other ones. I didn't use stock ROM. I am reading about many positives for SGS2 like display, camera, RAM and cons like Touchwiz, display resolution.
I would prefer to choose HTC maybe beacuse I know their product, I didn't have any samsung before.
My preferences:
For me the most important is performence, customization possibilities and dev support. I don't care about outside but only what is inside. I like sometimes to grab a picture or record a movie. For sure I am using the phone for multimedia: playing, web browsing and waching films. It would be nice if some newer games could be played smoothly. And I was really impressed by HTC custom ROMs (especially CM7).
Could you give me any view for situation repsecting my preferences? I wouldn't like to miss HTC and would like to have sure I will be satisifed if choose SGS2 (it said better performance/hardware).
I hope you understand my uncertainties.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have got the SGS2 and will be going for a HTC or Nexus next time as the devs seen to have more freedom with htc and definlty Nexus. Also if rumors are true then smartphone compinies like samsung, sony e.t.c are going to be making their phones harder to root and more closed except for googles own phone range.
Thanks for your reply. Can you tell me what is your feeling and comments about SGS2? Did you have before any HTC smarthphone?
It is a powerful phone, but no more powerful than the HTC sensation XE. The s2 fells like it could break at any moment, it would be broken by now if my wife owned it. The camera is ok, their are a lot of custom roms for the galaxy s2 as it is a popular phone, although. I do like my phone, but next time try nexus. I have has a HTC desire before and they are very solid phones.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Hmmm to be honest, both Sensation and Sensation XE have the same type of processor and also the same amount of RAM, the only difference which I have noticed in specs is clock value 1.2 MHz and 1.5 MHz but 1.2 can be overclocked to 1.5 MHz. In that case SGS2 is winning by 1GB RAM. Hmmm hard choice.
How can comment below
For SGS2 in comparision to HTC Sensation I get known:
- SGS2 salmoled display better than LCD but worse resolution
- SGS2 1 GB RAM, for HTC left 200MB RAM free on stock ROM
- SGS2 pretty nice photos, better than for HTC
- SGS2 better movie recording
- SGS2 better movies playing
- SGS2 faster GPS sattelites localization
- SGS2 10 multitouch counted, HTC only 4
- SGS2 worse built than HTC (personally prefer HTC onecast built)
- HTC "death grip" issue
- personal - no experience with samsung products
- personal - fall in love with HTC - THE MAIN REASON OF PROBLEM TO MAKE CHOICE
I've used a Sensation and quite honestly prefer the S2. Not sure what more can be done to this phone than whats out there already, runs fast, battery lasts long, has a nice camera, has a great screen. I used to have a HD2 and I loved it (And also thought nothing could beat HTC phones) theres nothing wrong with the sensation but the S2 tops so many top 10 lists and for good reason. The CM range is nice but my S2 is pretty much perfect without it so I have no strong urgency to run it
DramatikBeats said:
I've used a Sensation and quite honestly prefer the S2. Not sure what more can be done to this phone than whats out there already, runs fast, battery lasts long, has a nice camera, has a great screen. I used to have a HD2 and I loved it (And also thought nothing could beat HTC phones) theres nothing wrong with the sensation but the S2 tops so many top 10 lists and for good reason. The CM range is nice but my S2 is pretty much perfect without it so I have no strong urgency to run it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems you know my dilemma It is pretty convincing in case as you'r writing you also had HTC phones, I am getting more for S2
My wife has sensation.I have SGS2.
HTC wins in raw resolution, but the s2 screen is truly gorgeous. The s2 also has far better camera and is much much slicker (faster) on the ui..
the screen is the MOST used part of the phone
so choose between best colors vs best resolution
I prefer the S2. Makes all other screens seem ancient
Tomorrow I have to decide in case I am going for new phone but I've already made decision thanks to your comments, thanks. S2 won.
If you are going to go for a custom rom then you will free up most of the Ram for the HTC, as sense is the ram killer. How about going for the HTC phone and then induldge in a Samsung Galaxy Tab, or go for a the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
The case that I am going to extend standing charge in Tmobile and they have special offer galaxy s2 or htc sensation for 0.25 E , there are some more phones but these ones are the best ones.
Was in the same dilemma. Decided on S2. Screen and better mic is why it won out. Only thing I will miss from a HTC phone is Sense. Which as above uses ram but personally I like the UI.
Sebalos said:
Tomorrow I have to decide in case I am going for new phone but I've already made decision thanks to your comments, thanks. S2 won.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
welcome in our club
If you buy S2 I suggest to use custom luncher like go luncher ex
because touchwiz is a bit too stock by means of customization.
and for sms -> handsend sms
all the other stock bits are very good, you may never bother with custom roms
(in the first months at least)
since we are XDAers not just stock phone users, how is dev support for the Sensation compared to the SGS2? I imagine its easier to develop drivers for the Sensation even though the SGS2 is more popular overall in sales figures...
dmo580 said:
since we are XDAers not just stock phone users, how is dev support for the Sensation compared to the SGS2? I imagine its easier to develop drivers for the Sensation even though the SGS2 is more popular overall in sales figures...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I'm not stock user but as well custom Roms, now I have Desire Z and I really apreciate all devs support and it is also for me one of the key points.
That's why I'm also asking whether support for Sgs2 is as well developed as for sensation?
I think the dev support here is fine, have no idea what the sensation section is like. But as I said before, what things can't we do with our phone due to lack of dev support? Only things I can think of are source drivers for things like ICS but tbh I wouldn't buy a phone just because it can run an update possibly 2-3 weeks early. On the whole, to me anyways the SGS2 is simply the better phone overall hence why I chose it.
Good answer thanks I am already convinced about SGS2. I was going to get it today but there was no black one in the store, only white Tomorrow I will have my SGS2
htc wont be getting that much dev support since they lock bootloaders
gs2 or galaxy nexus would be the best option for you
you can check the development section
we have cm7, cm9 , miui ggbread, miui ics, B2geeko and many others project

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 ???

need help, looking for a low end android phone

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.

Is the GS3 still a good deal?

Hi.
I am considering on getting a new phone and one of the hottest options for me is the Galaxy S3.
I currently have an Iphone 4s (Yeah, I regret buying that piece of crap every second of my life) but I've had Android phones earlier too, most noticeably the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Originally I want the Nexus 4, but I can't find any with a good price in my country (they all cost like €400 or so) and buying form the Internet isn't an option because no one delivers online stuff here in this terrible country.
So, I found some SGS3 that cost around €300 and I think the price is OK. I can afford that, but I'd like to ask some questions to the users on XDA before purchasing it.
Since I've used Android before, I know almost everything about it (the stuff like rooting, custom Rom's, and custom recoveries. ODIN and so on) I\d like to know if the S3 is still a good phone. I mean does it still perform well. Im worried about this a bit because my GS2 was a good phone but it was laggy and tended to heat a lot when using it a lot or during high-graphic games.
Is the 1.4 GhZ quad core chip still a good processor that can handle perfectly most of the daily routine stuff.
BTW, I intend on putting stock Android of some form, like CM10.1 or AOKP or PA, on it because I hate TouchWiz.
Would you guys still suggest the Samsung Galaxy S3 even after more than a year since it's release?
if u want cm10 or any aosp Rom dont think of GS3 because of closed drivers the camera is still crap on cm10.1 because of that reason
so ur only option would be living with a themed touchwiz and removed blotware otherwise find your self another phone
dont go for s3
buy any htc or a sony device that u can afford.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
How about nexus 4 ?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
S3 always gave me good performance. i would recommend the same. you have many custom roms other than touchwiz that work perfectly as the stock f/w's. i feel so sad about the people using this phone supporting other brands.
Yeah as mentioned, if you want AOSP, go for something qualcomm based.
Camera IMHO is pretty good if you use the aosp camera mod from xda. Just poor in low light but sammy camera isn't much better in low light anyway
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Get it
It's a good phone in general, but on stock the RAM and CPU shows it's age. It's not exceptional in the graphics department, same GPU as S2
And the battery is kind of short compared to, say, the note II.
Ok, I see your point. It was probably the same thing about the drivers with the Galaxy S2. Always had problems in custom ROM's with the camera and the sound in some ways.
Like I feared, the S3 might be a bit better than the S2 in performance because of the better processor but since it has the same GPU and same amount of RAM, it shouldn't much different overall.
As I said, I want the Nexus 4 but it's hard to find it here in my country for an acceptable price (even then it's still not easy finding one).
Since some of you suggested HTC or Sony, what do you guys think about the One X? I can also find the HTC One X for around €300 which is OK imo.
But one of my friend has it, and he has problems with the Wifi a lot. The reception is very low, and sometimes his phone just won't start, or at times it wont play any kind of media, like music and videos and so on. That's why Im worried about the HTC One X. As for the Sony alternative, they do not have any good phones besides the new Xperia Z and upwards IMO.
I guess I will wait and see if I can find a Nexus4 for a month or so, but I really, REALLY want to move away as far as possible from the Iphone and get back ASAP to Android. At the end of the day, I think I will still be better with a Custom Rom based on Touchwiz than iOS.
May god help me.
i9300 is so much more comfortable to hold than the i9100, a huge improvement there. Right now I would buy the HTC One, but it's expensive
Oh well, I just bought a new sgs3 from my carrier subsidized and it's the best phone I could've bought for the money.
I'm coming from an abused HTC Desire so the upgrade is huge.
Still on stock rom so I'm experiencing some lag when pushing the phone a bit. Will probably root/custom rom in the near future.
Was aiming for the HTC One X + but couldn't find it anymore for sale.
Had my s3 for a year now and i love it. Its big screen is much better for me than iPhone 4s which my partner uses.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
Yes, it's still a good deal to buy it and it's still has support from Samsung, so it's means that it's will get latest updates.:good:

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