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.
Hey fellow members of XDA, I hope you're all well!
Anyway, I have a question relating to Android phones. Recently, I purchased a Nexus 7 - I was previously an iOS user, but, after using the Nexus 7 - I found Android was actually on par, if not better than, the iOS experience.
So, although my original plan was to purchase an iPhone 4S - I have decided against that notion - and instead I am planning to buy an Android phone, and possibly even a Windows Phone - once Windows Phone 8 is released.
I will be using the phone for mainly internet browsing, social networking, music, movies, gaming, and perhaps even reading at times - although I already have a Nexus 7 for those, you cannot really take it everywhere despite the size of it, and no 3G/4G severely hamper it's connectivity. By that I mean, you can hardly fit it in your pocket.
Currently, I am thinking about purchasing either the HTC One X - or the Samsung Galaxy S III. Both are great phones, and while HTC has the advantage of Tegra 3 - and a staggering 0.1 GHz faster processor - the Galaxy S III has SuperAMOLED Plus, and it also has expandable storage. Both, in my opinion, are equal to each other: neither are truly better than the other, comprehensively, in any factor. GSMArena notes that the SGS3 chipset, the Enyxos, is not as good as the Tegra 3 chipset present in the One X. Tegra 3 is certainly preferable, since Tegra 3 offers a great gaming experience with exclusive games, such as the recently released Horn.
The Windows Phone 7 phones available right now, to me, are underwhelming, but if rumours are anything to go by, WP8 seems intruging, and may even be a possible contender to the current smartphone superpowers.
The deals I have found, though, note that the HTC One X is cheaper, however, presumably because it was announced earlier.
I have found a HTC One X available for £325 - or alternatively, on contract, £18.50 a month.
The Galaxy S 3, however, costs £410 (T-Mobile), and contract @ £22.75. (For purchase, both devices are second hand, but in Mint condition - boxed, unscratched, no faults etc.)
I used moneysupermarket to find the cheapest contract deals, and CEX to find the cheapest second hand, but mint condition, devices.
However, with the announcement of the Galaxy Note 2 at IFA, as well as, to a lesser extent, the Sony Xperia T (I think Sony phones are sexy), I am deciding whether to hold of for a couple of months. The Galaxy Note 2 may, however, be too big? I've seen the Galaxy Note, and it's a mammoth of a 'phone.' (Currently Galaxy Note users, can you comfortably use a 5.3 inch screen? And would you be able to handle a 5.5 inch screen? How comfortable is it in the hand, and are there times where the size just becomes overwhelming?)
I now think it would not be a good idea to purchase a phone now, a time where the next Nexus phone, and the next iPhone, are due to be released.
While both are most likely out of my price range, (£350 recommended, but £400 absolute limit - doesn't include top-ups, and for monthly deals, £25-£28 monthly - doesn't include upfront payment) would you think it would be worthwhile to wait until the release of the next Android/iOS/WP8 flagship phones, or do you think that nothing major will happen? By major, I mean the S3 or One X become virtually redundant compared to the newly released phones. I have seen recently that HTC are preparing a WP8 device, and are also preparing another flagship phone, for example, while all of us know that the iPhone 5 will soon be released, and the Galaxy Nexus is already approaching it's one year birthday.
Thanks for the help! I will listen to all suggestions, and I am also open to other phones available in the market now, or possibly in the future.
Please, though, do NOT mention BlackBerry's! Or any WP7 phones, at the moment.
EDIT: Ok, after researching the specs for the Galaxy Note 2 - it is basically an enlarged SGS3 - although it has 1GB more RAM, and it's processor is clocked 0.2GHz higher. In that case, I wont specifically wait for the Note 2.
Konflict1471 said:
Hey fellow members of XDA, I hope you're all well!
Anyway, I have a question relating to Android phones. Recently, I purchased a Nexus 7 - I was previously an iOS user, but, after using the Nexus 7 - I found Android was actually on par, if not better than, the iOS experience.
So, although my original plan was to purchase an iPhone 4S - I have decided against that notion - and instead I am planning to buy an Android phone, and possibly even a Windows Phone - once Windows Phone 8 is released.
I will be using the phone for mainly internet browsing, social networking, music, movies, gaming, and perhaps even reading at times - although I already have a Nexus 7 for those, you cannot really take it everywhere despite the size of it, and no 3G/4G severely hamper it's connectivity. By that I mean, you can hardly fit it in your pocket.
Currently, I am thinking about purchasing either the HTC One X - or the Samsung Galaxy S III. Both are great phones, and while HTC has the advantage of Tegra 3 - and a staggering 0.1 GHz faster processor - the Galaxy S III has SuperAMOLED Plus, and it also has expandable storage. Both, in my opinion, are equal to each other: neither are truly better than the other, comprehensively, in any factor. GSMArena notes that the SGS3 chipset, the Enyxos, is not as good as the Tegra 3 chipset present in the One X. Tegra 3 is certainly preferable, since Tegra 3 offers a great gaming experience with exclusive games, such as the recently released Horn.
The Windows Phone 7 phones available right now, to me, are underwhelming, but if rumours are anything to go by, WP8 seems intruging, and may even be a possible contender to the current smartphone superpowers.
The deals I have found, though, note that the HTC One X is cheaper, however, presumably because it was announced earlier.
I have found a HTC One X available for £325 - or alternatively, on contract, £18.50 a month.
The Galaxy S 3, however, costs £410 (T-Mobile), and contract @ £22.75. (For purchase, both devices are second hand, but in Mint condition - boxed, unscratched, no faults etc.)
I used moneysupermarket to find the cheapest contract deals, and CEX to find the cheapest second hand, but mint condition, devices.
However, with the announcement of the Galaxy Note 2 at IFA, as well as, to a lesser extent, the Sony Xperia T (I think Sony phones are sexy), I am deciding whether to hold of for a couple of months. The Galaxy Note 2 may, however, be too big? I've seen the Galaxy Note, and it's a mammoth of a 'phone.' (Currently Galaxy Note users, can you comfortably use a 5.3 inch screen? And would you be able to handle a 5.5 inch screen? How comfortable is it in the hand, and are there times where the size just becomes overwhelming?)
I now think it would not be a good idea to purchase a phone now, a time where the next Nexus phone, and the next iPhone, are due to be released.
While both are most likely out of my price range, (£350 recommended, but £400 absolute limit - doesn't include top-ups, and for monthly deals, £25-£28 monthly - doesn't include upfront payment) would you think it would be worthwhile to wait until the release of the next Android/iOS/WP8 flagship phones, or do you think that nothing major will happen? By major, I mean the S3 or One X become virtually redundant compared to the newly released phones. I have seen recently that HTC are preparing a WP8 device, and are also preparing another flagship phone, for example, while all of us know that the iPhone 5 will soon be released, and the Galaxy Nexus is already approaching it's one year birthday.
Thanks for the help! I will listen to all suggestions, and I am also open to other phones available in the market now, or possibly in the future.
Please, though, do NOT mention BlackBerry's! Or any WP7 phones, at the moment.
EDIT: Ok, after researching the specs for the Galaxy Note 2 - it is basically an enlarged SGS3 - although it has 1GB more RAM, and it's processor is clocked 0.2GHz higher. In that case, I wont specifically wait for the Note 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TL;DR but if you want to get the note II just because of the processor you can overclock the S3 all the way to 2.1 ghz but I recommend not anymore than 1.8/1.9. The S3 is a great phone I have it right now.
Also the One X has a much faster CPU if you look at quadrant scores. But really you get 60 fps on all games basically and butter smooth.
Oh yes, I forgot that you could overclock Android devices... Nonetheless, I doubt 0.1Ghz clock difference will provide a completely different, and better, experience.
Wait for the next Nexus.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda premium
Well, now I sort of need a phone urgently...
I guess I could wait a little bit, but, if I can no longer wait:
HTC One X, or the Samsung Galaxy S III?
Konflict1471 said:
Well, now I sort of need a phone urgently...
I guess I could wait a little bit, but, if I can no longer wait:
HTC One X, or the Samsung Galaxy S III?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S3
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda premium
HTC is a pain to s-off and you have to remove your void stickers and take apart your phone and use a wire to do it....its not fun and very easy to render your device unusable....gs3 is incredibly easy if you like customizing...get a gs3...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 01:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 PM ----------
a lot of custom roms and kernels have different radios in them and if you cwm then root your HTC without s-off first then you will not be able to use your WiFi and your device will constantly try to turn it on and kill your battery....so you can unlock it then cwm then root but unless you take it apart first and s-off then it's pointless to Rom it. otherwise you will run into problems. a lot of roms say s-on is ok until you flash and realize your WiFi isn't working...so HTC will give you pain unless you know your device 100 percent inside and out....if you do it make sure you touch the right contacts with the wire at the right timing or you just ruin your phone....had that problem myself and went and bought a gs3 plug it into Odin and let Odin do the magic for you with out opening up your device just to completely unlock it (s-off) gs3 is the way to go....HTC has better processors but they have to turn down the clock because there batterys are horrible....if you want speed and battery life and the option to customize get a Samsung...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Been going through a lot of smartphones in the past few weeks doing the old "craigslist shuffle" - buy one, toy around with it, realize it's not quite everything I want, list it, sell it, take the proceeds and buy another, repeat ad nauseum and now I'm at it again. Here's my situation:
I currently have a Galaxy Note (I717 AT&T model), unlocked, in use with T-Mobile on that oh-so-awesome $30/month plan, and while I like this phone quite a bit, I have an opportunity to trade it (and all the accessories I have for it: 2 batteries, 2 cases, original box/cable/charger/manuals/etc) for an LG Optimus G + cable/charger + case.
Now, I need to point out that a) I'm well versed in ROMs and flashing having been doing so for nearly a decade now, and b) I made the offer to trade (straight up mine w/accessories for the LGOG as noted) with the intent - mind you, the intent of possibly putting that LGOG -> Nexus 4 hack to work, but I just spent the better part of 2 hours reading that Nexus 4 conversion thread and was saddened to see that even in spite of the hack working if it's done right, there are aspects to doing it that I'm not willing to tend with at this point: no microSD card usefulness, the 8GB storage limitation is not good (I don't keep stuff "in the cloud" unless I have no other alternatives), NFC is still useless with the conversion (and I do tend to use Google Wallet actually, and other reasons I find NFC useful), and potentially other things that, again, I need to have working.
So, considering the LGOG is a quad "beast," even at about 1 year old the fact that it's more powerful overall than the Galaxy Note I have makes it a potential device even in spite of not being able to do that Nexus 4 conversion I was interested in. And yes, I know I could probably find someone willing to dump their Nexus 4 for this Galaxy Note pretty fast but, the actual Nexus 4 has more limitations natively than the LGOG does, pretty obviously.
I suppose what I'm asking at this moment is if anyone else in this situation would consider the LGOG for the Galaxy Note a good trade. I use T-Mobile as noted so, I'll have to carrier unlock the LGOG if I do this, not really a big issue since I can buy an unlock code - I will attempt to get one from AT&T first (have a few friends that are AT&T customers and they can give it a shot for me) so using it with T-Mobile is a no brainer.
I know the bootloader is unlockable, that's a big plus of course, and yes there are custom ROMs applenty nowadays - I tend to prefer pure stock as much as possible with as little bloatware as can be stripped or gutted out. And of course with it being a newer device than the Galaxy Note it's considerably better in terms of battery life as well which is a big thing for me especially since the LGOG has a non-removable battery (it can be removed but it's not like the Galaxy Note of course, and I would be looking at getting a brand new battery for it since it's been in use most of this year according to the current owner).
I don't use the stylus aka S-Pen on the Galaxy Note that much; I do like that it's there as an option but the only time I take it out is usually just to show someone that it's got one and can be used for a variety of purposes.
Seems like the LGOG is better than a Nexus 4 in most respects; it's what the Nexus 4 should have been all along is what I see mentioned quite often, and aside from being able to just load pure Android factory images on it, I can't see why the Nexus 4 itself would be considered better in any respects aside from that one thing (it's a Nexus device).
So, if anyone has read this far I appreciate it, but the basic question remains: is the LGOG worthy of me trading away my Galaxy Note? Would any of you - if you had the Note and didn't make full use of everything it offers (S-Pen, etc) - go for this trade and then make the very best of what the LGOG has to offer?
Thanks for any advice, input, or opinions, they are appreciated.
Just as an update, I went ahead and took a chance on the LGOG and did the trade, got an unlock code from the freemyblackberry.com website in about 8 minutes for $4, can't beat that.
Now to get to some experimentin'...
I bought an LGOG a few months ago while I was looking for something to use on T-Mobile. Got it unlocked in a similar fashion and it works fairly well now. I love the speed thanks to the quad core and 2GB of RAM. The Micro SD slot is great as well. I think the previous owner had done the Nexus 4 conversion to the phone, but I went ahead and undid it so I could use the mSD slot. I've been using Houstonn's Rootbox rom for quite a while and it works well for the most part. My only complaints are that my Wifi MAC address randomizes on every boot (probably due to something not getting fixed properly when going back from the Nexus 4 conversion), the battery life isn't spectacular, and the phone doesn't support T-Mobile's 1700MHz 3G band or their Wifi Calling feature. But other than that, everything is great! Screen is beautiful, camera is good, everything is smooth, phone is sized well for your hand, etc.
I would recommend you give his ParanoidAndroid or Carbon ROM a try here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2228880
Paranoid seemed to work very well for me, but for some reason the mic and earpiece on my phone don't work during calls with that ROM.
Edit: The mic and earpiece work now after applying the LTEhybrid33-84.zip modem.
Good luck!
Hi All,
I was using a S7 Edge from the time it was released. Sold if off after pre-booking Note 7.
Long story short, I am looking to buy a new phone.
Where I stand now: I am currently using a Moto X Style, however it lags a bit in games like Mortal Kombat X. Hence the urge to upgrade.
Options: 1. Moto Z + Hassleblad mod + JBL Speaker mod (Moto Z Force is not available in India)
2. Samsung S7 Edge
I am confused as to which phone to buy. The S7 Edge checks all the boxes except that it doesnt support dual sim and MicroSD at the same time and it has a measly 32GB inbuilt.
The Moto Z doesnt have the above issue.
My biggest question regarding the Moto Z is its camera and the Hassleblad mod. From whatever reviews I have read, the mod is a disaster when it comes to image quality (except when zoomed).
What I use the phone for: Mainly for gaming, GPS, Music, Camera, Surfing.
It would be great if you folks can help me decide.
I'd say go for the Z Force. Bigger battery, better camera. Shatter shield too which helps alot. Ive been using it for the past month and i havnt been disappointed in the performance of the phone. Im aware z force is not available where you are but it wasn't available for me either as im in London. Had it shipped over and I sure havn't regretted it.
I have Moto Z unlocked version in the US and I like it, but for me the low light camera on the S7 edge is better for me and takes and focus a lot quicker, takes pics much faster, the battery in the S7 edge is bigger, unless you get the Moto Mod for the Z, the S7 edge is 3600 and the standard is 2600 for the Z unless you use the moto mod to add to it. me personally I`m probably going back to the S7 edge in few days. I had the Note 7 in the blue coral color and loved it, and that blue coral just came out here in the USA, so I think I will be making trip Back to Best Buy to return my Z for the S7 Edge Blue coral.
I had all the Notes family and the S7E.
I wanted to give Moto a try, the unlock version.. love the Mods. As far as the support( XDA family) it's kinda of weak.
Don't go to the Moto forum, they are all sheep. The Moto Z is a good placement holder until Samsung or Others bring out their 2017 models, in 3 to 4 months.
Thanks for the response folks.
Is anyone using the Hassleblad mod? If yes, is it worth it?
I go on road trips very frequently and need a mobile with a good cam. This would just be a temporary phone till Sammy's next flagship comes out.
If I can get hold of the Coral Blue S7 Edge, I will it eyes closed. I just love the color.
shuvadeep said:
Hi All,
I was using a S7 Edge from the time it was released. Sold if off after pre-booking Note 7.
Long story short, I am looking to buy a new phone.
...
I am confused as to which phone to buy.
...
It would be great if you folks can help me decide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your question you ask if it's better for your needs to buy a Samsung S7 Edge or a Moto Z...
You have already received some answers and made your consideration too...
In my opinion they don't have a lot of sense... I'll try to explain (to you and to other interested...) why.
S7 & Moto Z are for sure two of the best phone in the whole market. I don't think there is a single task ("doable" with a smartphone...) that can't be done with them.
Moto Z have the plus of modularity which, beneath still a bit "embrional" an S7 will never have. But let this apart.
The core of the discussion is that S7 and Moto Z are the two (top...) opposite in their projectual philosophy.
Where Samsung decided to provide an "fitfully already to use phone" with a lot of UI extensions, apps, gadgets as so on, BUT (quite) hard to modify and with a lot of possible issues in this, Motorola made the opposite choice: a (really!) quite "Vanilla" Android with no apps added BUT very easy to modify and with an enormous level of possibilities on this, with a great compatibility granted by a quite stock OS. To explain how many a Moto Z is "basic" out of the box, it's shutdown menu include only the... "shutdown" option and a lot of custom ROM come with more apps installed than on Moto Z (it's provided with quite a minimal Gapps....).
So, this is the real point to evaluate in chosing: what type of user are you?
If you are the type of user not interested in rooting/Xposed modules and so on, stick with S7 that is able to provide a quite good experience "out of the box"... if, at the contrary, you are the type of user (like me...) that consider an Android with no root an unuseful piece of hardware, Moto Z is your choice: it's level of "easyness" in customizing it is one of the best ever seen on a stock product in years... a real "ready for geeks" product with infinite possibilities.
Between this two products, let me add a third contendant (a bit more oriented to Moto Z than S7 anyway...): OnePlus 3T is for sure an object to give it a look before decide what to buy...
Can someone please shed some light on the Hassleblad mod?
Is it really worth it?