Smart Phone for light usage

[sagargv]

1. Budget - Not very specific. 10-15k seems like a good deal. Please suggest based on my needs. Dont mind spending extra. But I'm concerned I might lose it since I'm a light user and most often I dont have the phone on my person.

2. Display type and size - dont care.
3. Form Factor - dont care
4. Preferred choice of brand - dont care

5. Preferred input method - okay with touch and qwerty
6. What camera option you want - flash and autofocus. Dont need front cam. wont use the phone for video calls.
7. Preferred operating system? iOS/Android.
8. Preferred connectivity options (3G, Wifi etc) Bluetooth, 3G, Wifi
9. Preferred applications - GPS, facebook, gmail, wikipedia
10. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, mails, internet, gaming etc) - navigation, calls, messages, camera.
11. Any specific mobile phones in consideration - Samsung Galaxy Ace

12. Any other info that you want to share
- Want good battery backup
- Fast response on the screen is a must. Laggyness / jerky movements are unacceptable
- Dont have a good digicam/camcorder, so good camera is preferred
- Dont care about modding or 3rd party firmware or jail breaking or whatever. I'm a light user and I want things to work out of the box.
- I'm really a very light user. Sometimes it takes days for me to figure out that my phone has switched off because the battery is drained.

Issues with galaxy Ace.
- Poor video recording.
- Hear rumors over the internet that battery life is poor.
- Doesn't play divX / xVid out of the box. Adding one app is not a big deal though.
- No Flash support.

Thank you.

[desiibond]

Check these:

1. HTC Wildfire S
2. Nokia C7
3. LG Optimus One

[AndroidFan]

My recommendations based on OPs query...

1. HTC Wildfire S

It is a good phone out of the box, but battery performance could be average. If you don't want to tinker with your phone, you must get an HTC...

2. Samsung Galaxy Ace

Good 5 MP Camera but very poor QVGA (320x240) video recording. Good built quality, light weight. Looks like an iPhone kirf. Personally, I don't like it...

3. LG Optimus One

Average built quality, decent performance, average 3 MP camera but good video recording (VGA). I own this phone... Its become better after using custom ROMs... Atleast twice as fast as it was originally...

[sagargv]

A bit of change in requirements. I will be buying a camera. So very good video recording isn't so much of a necessity.

1. HTC Wildfire S

a) How is battery life ? Particularly in comparison to galaxy ace.
b) How is the screen response ? Its clocked at 600Mhz which concerns me. Does it produce lags in the UI or in games ?

2. Nokia C7
-Based on an older Symbian and is a bit costly ( 18k ). Not too inclined towards Symbian.

3. LG optimus one.
- Speed ( and UI ? ) issues out of the box. And 3 MP camera is a tad too low. I'll opt out of this.

How is motorola Defy ?

I like that it has a long battery life and is rugged.

Right now, I'm considering Moto Defy, Samsung Ace and HTC WildFire S.
What do you guys say ?

Oh, and I have sweaty hands. Will I have trouble handling a touchscreen ? Will a gorilla screen be better for me ? This would point me towards defy.

[KDroid]

+1 for Motorola Defy!

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by sagargv

A bit of change in requirements. I will be buying a camera. So very good video recording isn't so much of a necessity.

1. HTC Wildfire S

a) How is battery life ? Particularly in comparison to galaxy ace.
b) How is the screen response ? Its clocked at 600Mhz which concerns me. Does it produce lags in the UI or in games ?

Battery life is decent and better than Ace's it seems.
Screen is okay. Don't expect fireworks. It is a midrange device.

Originally Posted by sagargv

2. Nokia C7
-Based on an older Symbian and is a bit costly ( 18k ). Not too inclined towards Symbian.

I think the current price is 16k-16.5k

Originally Posted by sagargv

3. LG optimus one.
- Speed ( and UI ? ) issues out of the box. And 3 MP camera is a tad too low. I'll opt out of this.

Much similar to Wildfire S but has got very good developer support.

Originally Posted by sagargv

How is motorola Defy ?

I like that it has a long battery life and is rugged.

Right now, I'm considering Moto Defy, Samsung Ace and HTC WildFire S.
What do you guys say ?

Oh, and I have sweaty hands. Will I have trouble handling a touchscreen ? Will a gorilla screen be better for me ? This would point me towards defy.

Yes. Defy is a superb phone and for some reason, I like Defy more than SGS:L or W:S or ace.

[bugsome]

Originally Posted by kunal.d

+1 for Motorola Defy!

-1 Still having Eclair... outdated

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by bugsome

-1 Still having Eclair... outdated

already got Froyo update.

[thetechfreak]

Originally Posted by kunal.d

+1 for Motorola Defy!

Also there is no way to install Custom ROM to a Motorolla phone at the moment. So try to avoid it.

Go with this-

Originally Posted by desiibond

Check these:

1. HTC Wildfire S
2. Nokia C7
3. LG Optimus One

[sagargv]

@thetechfreak,

Why would I want to install a custom ROM ? Android 2.2 official update is available for Defy.

--

Point taken about HTC Wildfire S battery performance. Reviews confirm it.

But it sports a 600MHz processor. So its rather sluggish and games aren't smooth.

HTC Wildfire S review from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Mobile phones

HTC Wildfire S Mobile Phone review - Performance and Interface - Trusted Reviews

How does Galaxy Ace compare to this ? It sports the same processor but at 800MHz.

[thetechfreak]

Originally Posted by sagargv

@thetechfreak, Why would I want to install a custom
ROM ? Android 2.2 official update is
available for Defy.

Wasnt aware. Its good that it got it.
But Android 2.3 is out as well...

[marvelousprashant]

Defy is good but can be laggy at times. Either go with Ace or SGS L. Will cost you more but a really fast processor

[sagargv]

does defy lag more than ace ?

[cyclops]

C7 is worth the price paid. If you are okay with the Symbian applications, which are actually pretty good and serve every purpose.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by sagargv

does defy lag more than ace ?

motorola blur sucks. launcher pro, zeam launcher rocks. simple replace stock launcher & most of the problems will be gone.

[Soumik]

C7 - Excellent hardware and construction. But the UI is really not worth it. Its too cluttered and feels really cheap. Avoid this.
Wave II - Even better hardware. But very buggy UI. Also avoid this.
Galaxy Ace - Good device. Low resolution display. Very bad battery life.
Defy - Own this. Excellent device for the price. Very high res display and very compact, strong body. Decent battery life.
Galaxy SL - Excellent device for the price. High res big display in a big thin shell. Moderate battery life.
Wildfire S - Havent used it, but Wildfire seriously feels slow once u use Defy/Galaxy SL. Only thing going for it is the HTC sense. Avoid it.

Between Defy and Ace, blindly pick Defy. Much better processor at same stock speed, much better built, comparatively much higher pixel density, better screen, slightly bigger screen in same or smaller body. Lags, never faced a lag while using any app or game.(Lags come when the annoying vodaphone pop ups come out of nowhere, and the frequency just seems to keep on increasing. Really frustating!!! Will raise a request to get them removed next week.) There was a slight lag while scrolling through menu on stock eclair, its become a lot smoother wit the froyo update.

Between Defy and SL, depends on your exp on both devices. SL menu screen is smoother than Defy, camera is better, but lacks flash. Has a bigger better display, slightly less pixel density, but hardly matters. SL has the same proc as Defy, at a slightly higher clock speed. The touch, while very responsive, sometimes mistakes flicks for taps, which can be my style error, but i faced it. I didnt like the huge thin body of the phone, but its a personal taste.

[sagargv]

I've skipped HTC Wildfire S. I guess I should skip Ace too.

Why is the Ace so popular ? Spec-wise its horrible compared to Defy. Ace is priced at 14k while Defy is at 16k. The vast difference in spec seems to make the extra 2k more than worth it. There must be a reason why Ace is so often recommended but not Defy.

So few people seem to have motorola phones. How is the service ? Am I missing something about motorola phones in general and Defy in particular ? It looks like a steal with no competition around its price point and yet its not often recommended.

Galaxy SL costs 19k while Defy costs 16k. Is the extra price justified ? For my needs, I felt 16k was getting a bit high. But 19k seems stretching it to the breaking point.

[dreatica]

+1 for Defy. Rugged phone for daily usage, plus the latest update to froyo makes this phone perfect. I too prefer this phone over Galaxy SL/Optimus one/Ace/Wildfire:S.

I own optimus one, I wish defy would hv launched before the O1.

Buy VFM phone defy !

[sureshk]

+1 for defy .planning to take it soon .
my only concern for defy is its high radiation . dont know abt SL

[sagargv]

I was about to buy Samsung Galaxy S I9000 but that thread on HTC Desire came up.

Is it a better buy @ 16.5k from flipkart ?

[Soumik]

Both Defy and Desire have very high radiation. Dont worry abt it.
Between Defy and Desire, i have Defy and my roomie just bought Desire. I would still prefer Defy over Desire.

[aditya2696]

can anyone tell me if wildfire and wildfire s has got flash support or not

can anyone tell me if wildfire and wildfire s has got flash support or not and which are the other phones that have flash in them

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by sagargv

I was about to buy Samsung Galaxy S I9000 but that thread on HTC Desire came up.

Is it a better buy @ 16.5k from flipkart ?

if you can spend 16.5k, go for it. HTC has promised Gingerbread and unlocked bootloader and it is one huge hit among mods. Just take a look at the number of ROMs available at XDA.

Originally Posted by aditya2696

can anyone tell me if wildfire and wildfire s has got flash support or not

can anyone tell me if wildfire and wildfire s has got flash support or not and which are the other phones that have flash in them

I think flash needs atleast a 1GHz processor (if I am right). W:S support Flash Lite if I am right.

[sagargv]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Looking at the battery issues with Desire, I bought Samsung Galaxy S.

Admittedly, the SAMOLED really attracted me when I tried out these phones at Univercell. Also the S is way more responsive than ace and LG O1 and the screen is markedly superior. I found that the phone lags a bit for about 5 seconds after booting while its scanning for media. But its fine after it settles. Is this the lag issue that so many people are ranting about ? I really cant complain. Even my PC takes about 10 secs to settle down after logging into windows.

And no need for itunes to load media from the PC ! iPod really bugs me with iTunes. This combined with the cost made me stay away from iPhone.

I have only one complaint about SGS. The GPS seems week to me. It does fine out doors taking about 20 secs to lock. But has a hard time locking in doors. Anything I can do about this ?

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by sagargv

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Looking at the battery issues with Desire, I bought Samsung Galaxy S.

Admittedly, the SAMOLED really attracted me when I tried out these phones at Univercell. Also the S is way more responsive than ace and LG O1 and the screen is markedly superior. I found that the phone lags a bit for about 5 seconds after booting while its scanning for media. But its fine after it settles. Is this the lag issue that so many people are ranting about ? I really cant complain. Even my PC takes about 10 secs to settle down after logging into windows.

And no need for itunes to load media from the PC ! iPod really bugs me with iTunes. This combined with the cost made me stay away from iPhone.

I have only one complaint about SGS. The GPS seems week to me. It does fine out doors taking about 20 secs to lock. But has a hard time locking in doors. Anything I can do about this ?

First of all congrats. The lag that people used to talk about is not the slow boot time. The OS used to get slower and slower on use and also there used to be lag while accessing menus etc. This is resolved now and you should not be seeing that anymore.

coming to GPS issue, yes, GPS on SGS is pretty weak. Don't be surprised if it shows that you are in Singapore or in some other country

Do try out the Cyanogen mod. much better than the factory ROM.

[sagargv]

Thanks.

Is the Gingerbeard Official update out ?

Too bad I didn't know about the GPS. If I had known, I would've bought a different one. Its decent enough for me to manage though.

The Download ( Vol down + Home + power ) and Recover ( Vol up .. ) modes are available in my phone. So is it safe to root it ?

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by sagargv

Thanks.

Is the Gingerbeard Official update out ?

Too bad I didn't know about the GPS. If I had known, I would've bought a different one. Its decent enough for me to manage though.

The Download ( Vol down + Home + power ) and Recover ( Vol up .. ) modes are available in my phone. So is it safe to root it ?

yes. the official update is already out. Update using Kies. and yes, rooting is damn easy. head over to xda forums. you will get loads of info there.

[Sam]

@Sagargv, congrats enjoy stock ROM for now. once you root & install custom roms its hard to go back.

[sagargv]

updated to gingerbeard via Kies. Something's not right. I've connected the USB cable and the battery is charging, yet the power reading is going down and not up. I cant connect to my google account although maps and internet works fine.

GPS performance seems the same.

Is there a better gingerbeard or custom ROM or can i go back to froyo ?

[Soumik]

2.3.4 CM7 mod. should be there for GS. Heard is the best and most stable one.
Chk out XDA forums. sure to get more info on it.
BTW, Congrats!!! Got one of my fav devices with u now. Wish i had some more money to get it. :'(