Recommend me a phone and/or plan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Recommend me a phone and/or plan

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

My trusty old Nokia 6280 is beginning to fall apart on me, so I'm in the market for one of these new smartphones I keep hearing about.

Country/Provider: Australia/3 Mobile
Current contract status: Out of contract, currently on a $29/month cap (+$5 data) which gets me more calls/text/data than I use. I'm happy to stay with 3, but that's not a requirement.
Budget (phone/plan): No real budget, willing to consider all options. I want to get something that I'll be able to use for a good 2-3 years at least.
Features I know I want: Good battery, removable storage (mini SD would let me reuse my current card, though I know micro is more common), ability to check gmail, news, etc while on the go. Would be nice to have wifi functionality so I can essentially use the net for free at hotspots and when visiting friends. Qwerty keyboard might be good, though I have fat fingers so maybe something with a stylus would be better? Or both? Something with dual-SIM would be nice as it'd let me get rid of my work phone but I know this isn't a common feature. If I end up on a plan with a free/cheap mobile broadband key thrown in then that would also be good.

Edit: I know most of you are US goons and don't follow Australian phone plans (and how they work) so feel free to ignore all that. I'm more concerned with the phone itself than the plan anyway.

jassa fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Dec 29, 2008

# ¿ Dec 29, 2008 04:29

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:06

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

Godzilla07 posted:

I'd look into the BlackBerry Bold or Nokia E71. These phones are the head of the bar QWERTY with no touchscreen class. They both have Wi-Fi, a QWERTY keyboard, good battery life and support for 16 GB microSD cards which is the highest capacity you can get. The Bold will probably require you to get the BIS plan which is usually more than your average dumbphone data plan. The Bold has a terrific screen which is the best out there.

If you want a touchscreen phone then go with the Touch Pro or Xperia X1. The Xperia is about $200+ more than the Touch Pro. The Touch Pro has a great support community in xda-developers who can keep devices running for a long time. The Wizard is running WM 6.1 so they can definitely extend the life of your device. The Xperia has the superior camera and screen but the keyboard is not up to par with the Touch Pro.

Here's a comparison of the E71 and Bold. - http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/08/12/nokia-e71-vs-blackberry-bold-the-qwertys-rip-each-other-to-shreds/

Here's a comparison of the Touch Pro and Xperia X1. - http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/12/11/sony-xperia-x1a-vs-att-htc-fuze-windoze-mobile-gets-exciting/

Thanks for the recommendations! That first comparison/review was very informative. If it weren't for the dodgy reception, I think I would have gone with the E71, though now I'm not so sure. I don't really want to have to sign up for a BIS plan or anything, and I do like putting third party apps on my phones, something I wouldn't really be able to do with a Blackberry.

That second comparison uses a HTC Fuze, not a Touch Pro. I couldn't find a Touch Pro review on that site, but I'll look into it more later today (after I sleep).

# ¿ Dec 29, 2008 19:49

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

Godzilla07 posted:

The Fuze is identical to the Touch Pro. It's a Touch Pro that was made for AT&T. You can put 3rd-party apps on the Bold. But there is not as many compared to every other viable smartphone platform that is on the market.

Ended up getting a Touch Pro. Thanks for the advice!

# ¿ Jan 1, 2009 09:06

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

I have a buggy, unresponsive old HTC Touch Pro at the moment which is out of warranty and driving me insane. I'm wanting to upgrade to a HTC Desire, a Nexus One (I know it's almost identical to the Desire), or a Dell Streak. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of each and could use some fresh opinions.

Country/Provider: Australia/3 Mobile

Current contract status: Currently 19 months into a 24 month plan with 3 Mobile, who don't have anything worth upgrading to. As a result, looking at unlocked phones.

Budget (phone/plan): No budget, though the pro of getting a Desire ($818.95 AUD) is it's cheaper than a N1 (~~$968.95 AUD~~*), which is cheaper than a Streak ($1058.95 AUD).

Features I know I want: 24-month warranty (included in above prices), a screen that won't scratch as easily as the Touch Pro, fast UI response time, regular OS/firmware updates, good to use for texting/email/IM/web browsing (I don't use voice much).

So far I have the following pros/cons about each phone.

Desire Pros: Cheapest option. Better battery life than the N1 (I think). AMOLED screen, high res (and therefore high PPI).
Desire Cons: Smaller screen. More prone to screen scratches.

N1 Pros: Same as the Desire. May have gorilla glass (haven't been able to find a definitive answer regarding this). Doesn't use Sense UI, therefore should be faster and more responsive.
N1 Cons: Android's default UI seems unpopular, not sure why. ~~$150 AUD more expensive than Desire.~~* Battery reportedly less good than Desire. Overpriced and out of stock with preferred retailer, meaning I can only get 12 month warranty on it.

Streak Pros: Huge 5" screen. Great for non-voice use (texting/email/IM/web browsing). Uses gorilla glass. Good battery life.
Streak Cons: Huge phone (though I'm ok with this). Resolution same as Desire/N1, less PPI. Expensive. Not in stock yet.

Any new insights and/or corrections would be appreciated. Cheers.

* Edit: It appears the Nexus One can be bought for around $700 AUD elsewhere. It's still unlocked, but only comes with a 1 year warranty. So I guess the price difference between that and the HTC Desire isn't so notable.

Edit 2: Decided on the HTC Desire. Yay.

jassa fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Jul 14, 2010

# ¿ Jul 13, 2010 05:41

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

Country/Provider: Australia/iiNet (reselling Optus service)

Current contract status: Not on contract

Budget (phone/plan): Will consider all options.

Features I know I want: I have a HTC Desire at the moment, but it has lovely internal storage (512Mb, of which only 1/3rd can be used for apps, etc). Even installing non-important things to SD card I'm constantly running low on space. I want to get a replacement phone with:

- Android. Not interested in WP7 or iPhones.
- A good amount of internal storage. Was considering the HTC Sensation but then found out it's only 1Gb. Not sure if that's enough to avoid a reoccurance of my current woes.
- Hackable (or likely to be hackable in the near future). I like having root access and being able to load on custom ROMs.
- 4" or 4.3" screen is desirable.

As the network is a relatively unimportant thing (especially if I purchase the phone outright), non-Australians are welcome to contribute based on hardware specs alone. Thanks in advance.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 06:19

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

jassa posted:

Country/Provider: Australia/iiNet (reselling Optus service)

Current contract status: Not on contract

Budget (phone/plan): Will consider all options.

Features I know I want: I have a HTC Desire at the moment, but it has lovely internal storage (512Mb, of which only 1/3rd can be used for apps, etc). Even installing non-important things to SD card I'm constantly running low on space. I want to get a replacement phone with:

- Android. Not interested in WP7 or iPhones.
- A good amount of internal storage. Was considering the HTC Sensation but then found out it's only 1Gb. Not sure if that's enough to avoid a reoccurance of my current woes.
- Hackable (or likely to be hackable in the near future). I like having root access and being able to load on custom ROMs.
- 4" or 4.3" screen is desirable.

As the network is a relatively unimportant thing (especially if I purchase the phone outright), non-Australians are welcome to contribute based on hardware specs alone. Thanks in advance.

Ok so I've narrowed it down to the HTC Sensation, the Samsung Galaxy S2 and maybe the Motorola Atrix.

I like the Sensation for the screen size and resolution, but I'm not so eager about the storage - still, 1Gb for apps is a lot compared to 140Mb. The other downside to getting the Sensation is the lack of permanent root at the moment.

The Galaxy S2 looks pretty great in almost every category, except for the resolution. 800 x 480 on a 4.3" screen isn't as appealing as qHD. On the other hand, it's Super AMOLED so that's a plus. On the downside I would have to wait a couple of weeks to get this phone (the others are available immediately).

Then there's the Atrix, which only has a 4" TFT screen and I think a 1Ghz dual-core processor as opposed to the 1.2Ghz dual-cores in the other devices.

Any opinions are welcome. At this rate I'll be paralyzed with indecision until the next Nexus comes out.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 15:02

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

ExcessBLarg! posted:

I was just about to post the things you already mentioned.

If /data on the Sensation is 1 GB you're fine honestly. Android apps aren't really getting much bigger, with the exception of games. Part of that is based on other limitations, such as certain phones not being able to download > 30 MB .apks from the Android Market, or Amazon Appstore's (in the US) limit of 20 MB for non-WiFi downloads.

Also, where apps (really games) do get big is in art and other assets, not code. So for those that let you, putting apps on the SD card works fine. For things moved to SD, the only parts that are still stored in /data are code (both bytecode and native libraries) and settings or other user data, which won't really grow much larger.

Another downside of the Sensation is that it has only 768 MB RAM compared to 1 GB on both the SGSII and Atrix. Personally I think 768 MB is adequate, so I wouldn't let that alone be the deciding factor.

Honestly, in the end, it may come down to hackability for you. Traditionally HTC devices have had the best custom ROM support, but it's not there right now until it gets cracked or officially unlocked. Although that's supposed to be coming.

The SGSII has no software locks, you can load up a rooted kernel or custom ROM right out of the box. However, Samsung devices have traditionally been the most difficult to support in source-based custom ROMs (e.g., CyanogenMod) because Samsung sucks at software. Hopefully the SGSII will be a bit better here now that the older SGS has official support in 7.1, Samsung uses fewer proprietary blobs in the SGSII, and they gave a free phone to at least one developer. Still, it may not be up to par with what folks have come to expect with HTC devices. That said, if you're just looking for any custom ROM support, Samsung is fine.

The Atrix is somewhere in the middle. With it's signed bootloader it was a lackluster device, but since the unlocked bootloader leaked for it, there's been a good deal of development interest. Although support for source-based custom ROMs has historically been lacking due to the signature problem, the original US Droid (unlocked Milestone) had great CyanogenMod support, so there's a good deal of potential. Also it has a big honkin' battery relative to screen size.

To be honest, I'm not sure that answered anything.

I may not be any closer to deciding on which phone to go with, but at least I'm better educated! Seriously, thanks for that, I was looking for an overview like that but every thread is so specialised over on XDA-Devs which makes it tricky to get the full picture.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 17:07

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

So qHD is really that big a step up over 800x480?

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 02:15

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:06

jassa: Nov 7, 2005; "He's so awesome!"
He really is!

I've decided to get a Galaxy S II when they're released through Telstra here in Australia in 10 days time. Super AMOLED plus does seem like a big enough deal to trump the Sensation's qHD display, especially when combined with all the other features. The slightly more limited range of custom ROMs is a bit of a downside but apparently the Cyanogenmod guys have been working on bringing it to the S II for 2-3 months now, so presumably it's not too far off.

The next step will be seeing how valuable my business is to Telstra. I'm sure I'll end up with them one way or another but since I'll be a new customer I may as well milk that for all it's worth. I'm hoping to barter for a slightly cheaper plan, or more data included, or something.

Thanks again for all the advice so far, ExcessBLarg!

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 17:17

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Recommend me a phone and/or plan