I’ve had a problem finding a smartphone. Or rather, I found a lot of ones I want, but few in my price range. Also, because of some administrative issues (not enough :rolleyes: in the world for it, either) I couldn’t get one earlier and missed two fantastic sales on the Droid 3 and Samsung Galaxy S 2.
What I need:
3G coverage: My apartment gets a weak signal 9and usually none at all), so I don’t want to miss this. Fortunately, there’s hardly a smartphone today without it.
Android 4.0 ICS.: I don’t intend to upgrade for a long time, so having this means I should have a stable, supported platform for quite a while. It doesn’t matter if the phone has it this very second, as long as its coming.
*720p video recording at 30fps or more.
*4" or bigger screen.
I’d prefer to have a 4G LTE, a 4.3" screen and keep the phone under 50$ (with 2-year contract but before taxes et al.) I’m torn between Verizon and ATT, because the former has better coverage, but the latter has much more reasonably priced data plans. I also have a small but handy ATT discount rate , though it’s only about 10 dollars. They’re not getting a good signal to my place now, though that might be my mediocre old phone.
Have you checked T-Mobile? They have the best rate plans of all (in my experience). The only downside is that they don’t blanket the nation like the others do. But if you are in one of their 4G cities, they are great.
I don’t think there’s any way you can get what you want for that price.
There’s not many phones out right now with ICS. The Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S have it, and the Galaxy S II has ICS rolling out soon. A few new phones coming out will have it (HTC One series,) but all of those are more than $50.
Of those, the Nexus S 4G is cheapest, though it doesn’t have a 4.3" screen…I think it’s only 4"…and I don’t think it can do 720p recording.
ICS is in short supply now. Only the Nexus S has ICS for under $50. It has the 4" screen and comes in 3G and 4G flavors (though 4G is only Sprint). I don’t think it does 720p video recording though.
Don’t get a phone on the promise that it will have ICS “soon.” That word can mean a wide range of things in the Android world.
Also, don’t count on a phone upgrade to upgrade your signal. It may be your old phone, or it may be that your old phone has a pretty good antenna and is turning what should be a dead zone into something you can use.
My advice is to wait a few months. We’re right around the corner from the next generation. Wait for something with ICS on launch. The Galaxy Nexus set the new bar and standard for the OS, and it takes manufacturers and carriers to get to that bar. When they do, they exceed it by a long shot. The Nexus S came out and was the best Android for a relatively long time, but when the generation of dual core processors came out, it was left in the dust.
Does each service provider have its own network, and if so, shouldn’t the coverage vary from one carrier to another? This must have been true for in the EV/DO days, because changing from Verizon to AT&T a few years ago made a big difference.
Given that your requirements, I’m not sure how anyone can provide useful information:
Lot’s of phones have most of these, except ICS - only a few phones have this yet. But when you limit your budget to $50, the only specs you’re liable to find are 3G (ubiquitous these days) and a 4" screen (but the quality will likely not be very good compared to the more expensive devices.
My suggestion would be to go for an LG or Samsung budget phone, as most of these are on Android 2.3, which is a decent version (I’ve got it on my Samsung Epic 4g Touch - Galaxy S II variant). They have better screens than most, and Samsung is more liable to have 720p recording. But I haven’t done any shopping for budget handsets lately, so I can’t really recommend any specific models. I will say that ATT’s track record on releasing new OS’ to phones shipping with an older OS sucks - when I had a Captivate (Galaxy S) with them, it took forever to get Froyo, then when they released Gingerbread several months behind everyone else, I had significant issues that many other users were complaining about.
Well, there’s preference and then there’s need. Hell, I’d like to pay five cents and a smile, and that’s only because I have a nickel sitting on the counter right now.
Actually, I found a fantastic deal on a Droid 4… but then actually getting service just to buy it turned out to be impossible. sigh
When I was dealing with ATT several weeks ago trying to get a replacement for my out-of-warranty Captivate (that their software update just happened to brick), I saw that they were still selling the Captivate online to new customers for a penny (just not to me, despite 10+ years as a loyal customer - goodbye!).
Although I had problems with mine, my issues were only after installing the 2.3 update that ATT had provided, and it had borked half my apps and made anything but making a call terribly sluggish. I imagine that a fresh install on a brand new phone would be fine. Until I ran into issues, I loved it - it does indeed have 720p video (though no flash), has a gorgeous 4" AMOLED screen, and a decent, albeit single-core, processor. I doubt it will get ICS, and if it does, I recommend against installing it, since the phone probably won’t support it well, but it is a hell of a phone for $.01.
You might also want to look at factory refurbs - sometimes you can knock off quite a bit from the price of a higher-end phone.
Double check on the 720p for the Samsung Galaxy. I had the 4g Epic and I miss it horribly!! It was a great phone. I know you’ve decided against the Galaxy II. Stick to your guns, I hate mine.
Take a look at the HTC Rezound. It satisfies all of your criteria (it will be getting ICS), and is currently being sold at a discounted price of $50 through VZW.
Two damn hours of my life standing around. Holy hell. And then they finally did it, and the billing was screwed up so I just cancelled it on the spot and went to get some dinner, as I hadn’t eaten in too many hours.
Bah, I don’t care enough to try again for quite a while.
galaxy S 2. And then the billign was messed up so I had to use my brief lunch today to fix that, so now we’re close to three hours spent not getting a phone. (I found out about the Droid 4 issue; no idea what Moto was thinking)
I changed my mind, though. I think I will definitely wait on a phone, because I’m too sick to go get it. Work can simply suffer without 24/7 contact.
