Mobile Buying Guide

[sam]

rule no.1

Any mobile that is rebranded and sold through a local brand is excluded even if the same is manufactured by International company.

if i include karbon and spice i'll have to include micromax, lava, iball, etc. So simply excluding any and all local brands.

[AlphaQ]

correction sam...
samsung wave y resolution is 240x400(odd)

sorry sam..my wrong..wave does hv 320x480 res.

[sam]

VB update caused tables to be disabled. guides won't be available till i fix them.

[choudang]

xperia updated to ICS 4.0.

[Richie Rich]

Is there any news of upcoming phones in the budget of under 25k.

[sam]

price cut on Xperia S & One S. Also there is LG Optimus L9 but highly underpowered hardware. no idea of additional launches from Samsung, Sony or HTC.

[Richie Rich]

when we can expect price cut of One S and Xperia S.

[sam]

One S already received a massive 5k pricecut and now both cost 27-28k. Xperia S may get a further pricecut if Ion's price come close to 32k. Current selling for 36k or so.

[dashing.sujay]

Isn't adreno 220 (xperia S) a sucker?

[sam]

Isn't adreno 220 (xperia S) a sucker?

Mali 400MP is better than 220. But 220 is not that bad. But problem starts when you mix high resolution display and a mediocre GPU.

[randomuser111]

I'd like to disagree there. Xperia S Adreno 220 is very capable and the proof of that can be seen in benchmarks. It scores as much or more in most graphic benchmarks, especially when you consider its running at 1280x720 resolution.

Nenamark 2, GL Benchmark 2.5 HD, RD 3D benchmark all prove this fact. Both are about the same.

Let's compare GL Benchmark 2.5 HD scores of Galaxy S2 Mali 400 vs Xperia S Adreno 220. The figures for Galaxy S2 taken from Anandtech and I ran these tests on my XS on stock ROM with no CPU/GPU overclock. But since its GPU based mostly, even if I overclock I can't get any better scores than when its stock. Only GPU OC can help.

GL Benchmark 2.5 Fill Test Mtexels/sec

Galaxy S2 - 395
Xperia S - 124

GL Benchmark 2.5 Fill Text Off Screen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 312.1
Xperia S - 131

GL Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Test Mtriangles/sec

Galaxy S2 - 9.28
Xperia S - 26.98

GL Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Test OffScreen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 5.92
Xperia S - 23.77

GL Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Text Fragment Lit Mtriangles/sec

Galaxy S2 - 8.73
Xperia S - 22.19

Gl Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Test Fragment Lit Offscreen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 5.5
Xperia S - 21.83

GL Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Test Vertex Lit MTriangles/sec

Galaxy S2 - 8.65
Xperia S - 21.89

GL Benchmark 2.5 Triangle Texture Test Vertex Lit Off Screen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 5.68
Xperia S - 21.16

GL Benchmark 2.5 Egypt HD Frames/sec

Galaxy S2 - 9.1
Xperia S - 13

GL Benchmark 2.5 Egypt HD Offscreen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 8.8
Xperia S - 8.3

GL Benchmark 2.5 Egypt Classic

Galaxy S2 - 60
Xperia S - 39

GL Benchmark 2.5 Egypt Classic Offscreen 1080p

Galaxy S2 - 31
Xperia S - 20

So, you still think Adreno 220 is quite a bit weaker than Mali400 ?

Other benchmark scores -

Nenamark 2 - 39.8fps
RD 3D benchmark - 48 fps

[sam]

mali 400 had some problem and was pointed by many reviews. Adreno and PowerVR are available since along time so all benchmarks works just fine. I think it was anandtech that said Mali 400 is capable but cause of poor support (from either Google or benchmark programmers, not sure) the score was lower than it should be.

[randomuser111]

^
Well that's what the point is, in real world and even in benchmarks the Mali400 doesn't have much over Adreno 220. No doubt it has a lot of potential but its pointless that the potential will never be harnessed. The same was the story with Samsung hummingbird chipset (potentially the fastest and most powerful single core chipset) but it never really could perform as good as it could have. Same goes for Exynos Dual and Exynos Quad this year.

Exynos Quad is also on paper a superior Quad Core chipset than Tegra 3 is, but its getting beaten by One X with Tegra 3 even though on paper Tegra 3 is less powerful.

So calling Adreno 220 quite a bit weaker doesn't really make any sense as its as fast in real world than the Mali 400.

[daksh]

Moreover galaxy s2 scores from anandtech are old and they improved drastically after ics update. Exynos is way superior than S3.

[randomuser111]

^
Proof for "way superior" ? You know what let's not even get the Xperia S into the picture. Just compare the Galaxy S2 skyrocket and the Galaxy S2 International. The former has Adreno 220 and the later Mali 400. Compare benchmark scores of both and find out for yourself if Mali 400 is much better or not.

And btw who told you that the above scores are "old" ? GL Benchmark 2.5 only came out last month and this test was also done last month. Check the article date on Anandtech.

[Richie Rich]

As far as i know Galaxy S2 I9100 with all latest updates is much better than Xperia S in terms of performance. Though screen resolution difference is there.

can anybody can tell me what is the current quadrant and antutu score of both the devices with all updates?

Moreover galaxy s2 scores from anandtech are old and they improved drastically after ics update. Exynos is way superior than S3.

Yes, from last year htc sensation lost its market due to some issues and s3 processor performance.

[randomuser111]

^

Buddy, don't blame Qualcomm for HTC's own incompetence in optimizing the S3 chipset. Sony and Samsung could extract Exynos level performance from the S3 chipset but HTC couldn't. And it's not fair that you claim the S3 chipset is weak only because of HTC having not optimized it at all. The Exynos maybe far better than the S3 in Sensation and Sensation XE but it's not way better than the S3 in Xperia S/Galaxy S2 skyrocket. GSMArena shootout between GS2 and Xperia S proved that already.

Anyway I do not know about GS2 but Xperia S Quadrant Score is now ~ 3600 and Antutu ~ 6750

[HE-MAN]

damn man awesome thread

[pratyush997]

@you made best Guide ever..

[pratyush997]

Hi folks.. How is this one ?
Xperia s for 22k
SONY XPERIA S LT26i WITH 1 YEAR WARRANTY | eBay

[sam]

For 4k more you get manufacturers warranty. Your money, Your call.

BTW, A BIG UPDATE:
check post #10 first page. A lot of info are missing and things maybe out of place so please help me fix the errors or missing info.

[bhushan2k]

BTW, A BIG UPDATE:
check post #10 first page. A lot of info are missing and things maybe out of place so please help me fix the errors or missing info.

you will definitely not get chipset, processor n gpu used in those Indian phones from any site.. i too was looking for the same once...still will let u know if i find it..

[sam]

most of the info is available if you spend enough time digging. reviews, XDA (all are rebranded chinese mobiles), benchmark sites (that list the GPU ---> i.e. partly the chipset), etc. but not the cheaper ones.

[aAdirulz]

@Sam
1st of all thanx for the very nice post n need a Help
i have decided to go for a mobile bt m very confused
my spec are
1ghz processor
512mb ram min
ICS os
andreno205 or more
internal space 4gb min
2000mah battery
3.5 inch min screen (gorrila glass display if )
5mp back with led and front also
at last budget 15k max
if it is a Dual sim then it would be Best plz do a research 4 mine ha
nd plz i dont know any details like which processor is good bad, gpu, ram etc plz suggest a gwd one
nd if can can u mention the best VFM under 5-10, 10-15 plz
thanx

[Vyom]

...

Oh come on...
There are best buys given in this thread. You can search on flipkart using numerous filters. You can come to at least a small comprehensive list of your own!
Do some research lad. This is not a spoon feeding thread!!

[aAdirulz]

Oh come on...
There are best buys given in this thread. You can search on flipkart using numerous filters. You can come to at least a small comprehensive list of your own!
Do some research lad. This is not a spoon feeding thread!!

i have done that bt not flipkart at phonecuury n Se live with walkman is gwd bt small screen

[hitesh]

It is written "enchanced" in a5 . Please correct it

Same error in GPU performance chart

[sam]

lol thats an odd typo. thanks for pointing

[hitesh]

Also where is a100 ?
It is a great phone for 10k

Also is this correct in a9 ?
MSM7627A
It is not mentioned anywhere else . Shouldn't it be msm7227a.

[sam]

A100 is discontinued by micromax. online or offline, everywhere it is out of stock. most likely a dual core version of A100 will appear.

7627A = MSM7227A + CDMA or some baseband. performance wise it is same.