Buying my first Android - Shopper's hell

J

Jessica E

New member
Hello people,

I've been wanting to buy an android phone for some time now, but I just can't get to it. The problem is I can't decide myself to buy any phone so I was wondering if I could get some help here.

All I'm asking is for a touchscreen device (no keyboard) with a decent screen and processor.

My problem is that I live in France, and while the hot new devices that are released every-so-often in the US look cool, they don't seem close to being available here.

If I were in the US, I'd defenitively check out phones like the EVO, Doid or Nexus One, but none of them are here yet. Here's a screen of the latest HTC offerings in the "touch" category to show you how sad things are:


I'm ready to spend some money on this, but I don't want to settle for something that is already obsolete of that will be soon. What would you suggest? Are the HTC Desire/Wildfire any good? Should I wait a bit more?

PS: I'm going to Thailand soon, and since I'd rather that the OS be in English than in French, I'm could take something there.
 
I have the htc hero and really enjoy it. I'm in the US by the way. It does lag but that should be solved by 2.1 which is supposed to come to my carrier in a few days. I believe the desire is similar but has either 2.1 or 2.2 already installed which might be a current choice. My carrier, who does get phones later than the big carriers like at&t and vorizen, tmobile and sprint and we are suppose to be getting the desire in the next few months so you might want that as it has a more current os. I'm very satisfied with the hero and am looking forward to the update.
 
The HTC Desire is good yes. Until a few weeks ago it was the best phone you could buy in Europe. It has slightly better 3G support than the Nexus One for use outside of the US, so in general you want a Nexus One if you live in the US, or an HTC Desire (which is an almost identical phone) if you live in Europe.

However, the HTC Desire got topped by the Samsung Galaxy S when it was released. The SGS is currently the best Android phone you can buy.

My advice would be to get a Samsung Galaxy S if you can afford it, and if not an HTC Desire.
 
I'd actually recommend the Desire over the Galaxy, you know that the Desire will see future updates, but Samsung has a history of abandoning their devices. The Desire is pretty much the Nexus One with a bit more memory and Sense, its a very solid device.
 
from all the hype the galaxy s is getting, i wouldn't be so quick to choose the desire. i personally like the desire more (i really like htc, and i think the desire looks nicer), but i feel like there's gonna be a good number of devs picking up the galaxy. there are a decent amount of devs with the desire, but i think it'd worth the wait to see if there's gonna be guys supporting the galaxy even after samsung decides to discontinue it.
 
What makes the Samsung Galaxy S better than the Desire?

And what are the differences between the Desire and the N1 (apart from the Sense UI)?


PS: Is it just me or did Samsung imitate that horrible iPhone UI with the Galaxy's interface?
 
the specs on the sgs are the best...but id rather have a phone with a good physical feel and polish to it. I heard that the sgs feels like some generic nokia or motorola. Honestly I want one of the newer phones so bad but I'm waiting this one out. My droid can keep me happy for the next few months until the next best thing is announced

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
Are you moving to Thailand permanently? In fact, you can buy a nexus one in Bangkok (smartmobile.co.th among others), as well as the Desire and Samsung Galaxy S. The same site seems to indicate that they can order an Evo for you, but I'm not sure it's worth it since there is no 4G in Thailand (and 3G is restricted to one carrier, and, oddly, on the American 850 frequency only. It's a mess, but I imagine that means you can use the nexus one 3g just fine -- currently only iphone, blackberry, and a smattering of ancient nokia phones are officially supported by True Communications' 3G network).

It's kind of a tough choice between those three phones, but I'd go with Desire. I personally love the HTC Sense UI widgets look and feel, and you can always switch to another launcher if you want. On the other hand, the nexus seems to be the darling fav. for getting the newest OS updates, but HTC said Desire will get updated this year and unless you are heavy into geeking on your phone, you probably won't miss it. On the other hand, if you think you're going to spend your days and nights scouring forums for newly cooked roms, I suspect the nexus one community will be larger and richer.

As for the SGS... it looks nice, but no flash on the camera. That said, the screen is absolutely magnificent.

Hope this helps!
 
I'll take your word for that. It looks cheap even on the Samsung website.



No, not moving permanently. I was in Asia a year ago, but I'll be in France for the next few. Anyway, thanks for the info. I'm definitively interested in the Nexus One if I can get it so I'll check that out.


OK, generic question. Is there any (easy/failsafe) way to switch to the default UI (vanilla?) if Sense pisses me off for some reason. From what I've seen, Sense looks cool, but I don't know If I'll want it (and I read somewhere that Android 2.3 will not have custom UIs, I don't want to be/feel "downgraded" then)
 
Who said that? Someone who's a bit jealous maybe?

I've used an SGS for about 30 minutes. It's a tough solid feeling shiny plastic with a metallic band, as opposed to a matt/textured plastic as you'd get on HTC phones. It's the same stuff only one is shiny (so easier to clean, but shows fingerprints more), and HTC phones are mostly matt (so it gets permanent marks eventually as it "polishes", and is harder to clean in general). I'd tend to agree that it doesn't look quite as good, sure, but it doesn't look bad by any standard.

But why are you bothered about the look of part of the phone you'll rarely see? Personally when I used my phone I'm looking at the screen, not the back or sides, so I want it to be as good as possible. The screen on the SGS just looks so much noticeably clearer, sharper, better colours, brighter, and higher contrast ratio than any other phone I've ever seen, including the Evo, Desire, and iPhone 4, and the screen takes up 95% (guess) of the surface area of what you can see on the phone.

Sure, it's not up to the elegance of an iPhone 4 with it's glass front/back and titanium band that makes a really crappy antenna, but it's really not bad. Why not go to a phone store and see it for yourself?
 
Well, have a look for yourself. There's loads of videos of the SGS being used out there: http://www.theunwired.net/?item=videoview-samsung-galaxy-s-touchwiz-3-and-software-walk-through

The image above shows the phone with the application drawer open. All Android phones would look very similar to the picture above like that.

In general, it's the same as standard Android, but instead of the app drawer scrolling up and down it scrolls left/right a whole screen at a time. It has 7 home screens instead of the standard 3 or 5 or whatever. Other than the 4 customizable but persistent icons at the bottom of the screen, the homescreen looks the same as standard Android. It has a bunch of nice looking widgets for various things, similar to how SenseUI has a bunch of nice looking widgets.

TouchWiz seems to replace far less of the standard Android UI than SenseUI does. I found myself in what appeared to be standard Android stuff most of the time.
 
Regardless you should be able to put say, ADWLauncher on it and get a close to stock Froyo feel that is extremely customizable. Samsung said they would get 2.2 to the phone but, we're talking about the company that promised 2.0 for the Behold 2 but had to be threatened by a law suit to release 1.6 for it! I don't think I could ever support Samsung's terrible business practices. On the other hand HTC has huge community support and even the Cyanogen team is porting for it, meaning excellent support. Hardware wise, with the exception of a flash and notification light, the Desire is totally outclassed but, my money is on HTC over Samsung for device support any day.

Sent from my Nexus One using Android Community App
 
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