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P

PwnCakes193

Member
I still can't decide if I want to keep my Galaxy S3 or not. I would go back to my iPhone 4, which I'd rather not do. The Galaxy S3 feels like a toy to me and doesn't have a premium feel at all, and the device doesn't seem like it was put together well. I like everything else about the phone, but the build really does feel that bad.
 
B

BlueMagic

Member
I'm looking to buy a new phone. It has to be unlocked and not so expensive (200 us$ at most?). Does anyone have an advice? I was looking for a Nexus One or a Desire Z, but the latter doesn't support Argentina's 3G networks (also the seller must ship to Argentina). So I'll probably get the N1 unless someone knows of a better option.

Nexus One Link
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
I'm never going to touch an HTC again after they announce the Desire HD would not be getting ICS...

I bought 6 of them for my company like just over a year ago...and now no support?

I wouldn't mind if they had just said yeah no ICS for Desire HD but they actually said that they would release an upate for it...
 
G

gcubed

Member
BlueMagic said:
I'm looking to buy a new phone. It has to be unlocked and not so expensive (200 us$ at most?). Does anyone have an advice? I was looking for a Nexus One or a Desire Z, but the latter doesn't support Argentina's 3G networks (also the seller must ship to Argentina). So I'll probably get the N1 unless someone knows of a better option.

Nexus One Link
Click to expand...

you should be able to find a used Nexus S for that price, no? The N1 is just so incredibly limited.
 
T

tino

Banned
BlueMagic said:
I'm looking to buy a new phone. It has to be unlocked and not so expensive (200 us$ at most?). Does anyone have an advice? I was looking for a Nexus One or a Desire Z, but the latter doesn't support Argentina's 3G networks (also the seller must ship to Argentina). So I'll probably get the N1 unless someone knows of a better option.

Nexus One Link
Click to expand...


I would pick a new mid range dualcore phone that has popular rom support in your country.

For example one of these
http://www.expansys.com/android-smartphones/?filter=5|0|80-120
 
T

TheTowel

Member
F#A#Oo said:
I'm never going to touch an HTC again after they announce the Desire HD would not be getting ICS...

I bought 6 of them for my company like just over a year ago...and now no support?

I wouldn't mind if they had just said yeah no ICS for Desire HD but they actually said that they would release an upate for it...
Click to expand...

I'm sure they're working on a Rom over at xda but who roots 6 company phones.
 
K

kehs

Banned
BlueMagic said:
I'm looking to buy a new phone. It has to be unlocked and not so expensive (200 us$ at most?). Does anyone have an advice? I was looking for a Nexus One or a Desire Z, but the latter doesn't support Argentina's 3G networks (also the seller must ship to Argentina). So I'll probably get the N1 unless someone knows of a better option.

Nexus One Link
Click to expand...

I know your budget is $200, but try to find something a little newer, like at least Nexus S level, or something dual core.

-----

After about two weeks of having the n7/ns, I totally want a 7 inch padfone. You hear me asus?

Having two of these things with only a difference in screen size is total overkill.
 
T

tino

Banned
Copernicus said:
I know your budget is $200, but try to find something a little newer, like at least Nexus S level, or something dual core.

-----

After about two weeks of having the n7/ns, I totally want a 7 inch padfone. You hear me asus?

Having two of these things with only a difference in screen size is total overkill.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I have had many instants that I use two devices at the time. For example, watching video on the large screen; browse Gaf on the small screen.

Or when you are out, you listen to music on the smaller device; check map on the large device. You can do both on a 1 device but the earphone core will get in the way.

Plus soc is dead cheap nowadays, especially nvidia ones.
 
R

rozay

Banned
What 3G bands does Argentina or your current carrier use?

(choices being 850/900/1700/1900/2100)

tino said:
I would pick a new mid range dualcore phone that has popular rom support in your country.

For example one of these
http://www.expansys.com/android-smartphones/?filter=5|0|80-120
Click to expand...
Did you give him the wrong link? All the phones here have worse screens and CPUs than the nexus one, only one has a WVGA screen and the rest are HVGA/QVGA.

I think you should be able to get a Nexus S at or below $200 if you look carefully, but just be aware of a few things. i9020i is the European variant with 900/1700/2100 bands, i9020a is the American variant with 850/1900/2100 bands and there is another variant that has SLCD rather than the AMOLED screen. I would recommend going for the AMOLED even with pentile because voodoo apps can tweak the colors to proper levels.

I'll poke around for a dual core phone in that price range later, but if you had to get a single core phone, the nexus S is a little better than the nexus one, only real disadvantage being the nonexpabdable storage.
 
K

kehs

Banned
tino said:
I disagree. I have had many instants that I use two devices at the time. For example, watching video on the large screen; browse Gaf on the small screen.

Or when you are out, you listen to music on the smaller device; check map on the large device. You can do both on a 1 device but the earphone core will get in the way.

Plus soc is dead cheap nowadays, especially nvidia ones.
Click to expand...

The soc is super cheap, but the duplicity of all the functions is killing my mojo when I switch from the tablet to the phone and see all the same notifications I just cleared out in the other.

I don't know, I just don't need a bunch of devices all doing practically the same thing. I just want central thing powered by accessories.
 
B

BlueMagic

Member
rozay said:
What 3G bands does Argentina or your current carrier use?

(choices being 850/900/1700/1900/2100)


Did you give him the wrong link? All the phones here have worse screens and CPUs than the nexus one, only one has a WVGA screen and the rest are HVGA/QVGA.

I think you should be able to get a Nexus S at or below $200 if you look carefully, but just be aware of a few things. i9020i is the European variant with 900/1700/2100 bands, i9020a is the American variant with 850/1900/2100 bands and there is another variant that has SLCD rather than the AMOLED screen. I would recommend going for the AMOLED even with pentile because voodoo apps can tweak the colors to proper levels.

I'll poke around for a dual core phone in that price range later, but if you had to get a single core phone, the nexus S is a little better than the nexus one, only real disadvantage being the nonexpabdable storage.
Click to expand...

I believe the bands are 850/1900.

I get what you guys are saying, but it's quite hard to get a seller that ships to Argentina with those prices (I've seen a couple of used Nexus Ss with prices below 200 us$ but no one ships to Argentina). Also I forgot to mention the phone should be GSM. The reason I want to spend no more than 200 us$ is because there's (pretty much surely) gonna be a customs fine which will add up to the price depending on the price of the phone (that and the shipping fee).

Thanks to everyone who's helping btw!
 
R

rozay

Banned
I was using a nexus one up until may when mine broke. I'd still be using it if it worked, but you should be aware that the digitizer is funky and makes two-finger usage not worth it, 2.3 is the last official update it can get due to not having enough space for 4.0 and above, though custom roms exist, and the battery life isn't good. It's still one of the most attractive phones I've owned though.

There's no local phone marts where you can look for phones at this price, or are they all expensive?
 
B

BlueMagic

Member
rozay said:
I was using a nexus one up until may when mine broke. I'd still be using it if it worked, but you should be aware that the digitizer is funky and makes two-finger usage not worth it, 2.3 is the last official update it can get due to not having enough space for 4.0 and above, though custom roms exist, and the battery life isn't good. It's still one of the most attractive phones I've owned though.

There's no local phone marts where you can look for phones at this price, or are they all expensive?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I really like the way the nexus one looks. As for everything else, it's either that or keep using my good ol' G1 lol.

There are places where I can buy them here, but they are way more expensive than they should be.
 
T

tino

Banned
rozay said:
What 3G bands does Argentina or your current carrier use?

(choices being 850/900/1700/1900/2100)


Did you give him the wrong link? All the phones here have worse screens and CPUs than the nexus one, only one has a WVGA screen and the rest are HVGA/QVGA.

I think you should be able to get a Nexus S at or below $200 if you look carefully, but just be aware of a few things. i9020i is the European variant with 900/1700/2100 bands, i9020a is the American variant with 850/1900/2100 bands and there is another variant that has SLCD rather than the AMOLED screen. I would recommend going for the AMOLED even with pentile because voodoo apps can tweak the colors to proper levels.

I'll poke around for a dual core phone in that price range later, but if you had to get a single core phone, the nexus S is a little better than the nexus one, only real disadvantage being the nonexpabdable storage.
Click to expand...

Dude Expansys is only international store I know. Plus my link was for under 120 pound phones.

There are plenty of slightly off brand dualcore phone announced in China, you can even buy a quadcore Tegra3 4.3" phone for 999 rmb (=160 USD). I just don't know which model is available in his local market.

Nexus S is old old news.
 
R

rozay

Banned
tino said:
Dude Expansys is only international store I know. Plus my link was for under 120 pound phones.

There are plenty of slightly off brand dualcore phone announced in China, you can even buy a quadcore Tegra3 4.3" phone for 999 rmb (=160 USD). I just don't know which model is available in his local market.

Nexus S is old old news.
Click to expand...
I'm not really knowledgable on how to find those outside of china though, unless he stuck to one of the more known brands like ZTE or Huawei. Do the phones you're mentioning use TD-SCDMA, cause he's out of luck if that the case. eBay would probably be a crapshoot unless you knew exactly what to look for.

And yeah, the nexus S is old old news but we have to take into account his price range and the customs fees. Most of the dual core phones I can think of are in the 250-300 range used unless they're terrible. Wouldn't recommend an Optimus 2X for that reason.
 
T

tino

Banned
rozay said:
I'm not really knowledgable on how to find those outside of china though, unless he stuck to one of the more known brands like ZTE or Huawei. Do the phones you're mentioning use TD-SCDMA, cause he's out of luck if that the case. eBay would probably be a crapshoot unless you knew exactly what to look for.

And yeah, the nexus S is old old news but we have to take into account his price range and the customs fees. Most of the dual core phones I can think of are in the 250-300 range used unless they're terrible. Wouldn't recommend an Optimus 2X for that reason.
Click to expand...

My best suggestion is to check a local forum for best deal.

Huawei highend phones are good phones. I would recommend a Huawei P1 over the Nexus Galaxy. P1 is basically a Galaxy Nexus with sd slot and non pentile screen.
 
R

rozay

Banned
tino said:
My best suggestion is to check a local forum for best deal.

Huawei hulighend phones are good phones. I would recommend a Huawei P1 over the Nexus Galaxy. P1 is basically a Galaxy Nexus with sd slot and non pentile screen.
Click to expand...
I did an ebay search for cheaper asian phones, do you recognize any of these models?

(if the link doesn't work, it was just a search in cell phones for android dual core -atrix -lg -sprint. also, the motorola atrix and lg optimus 2x showed up but I took them out because they're not worth $200)

edit: eh, the hummingbird processor in the nexus S is better than a lot of the mediatek chips in these phones, regardless of the number of cores.

edit 2: all the phones in that link are garbage :(

edit 3: the SLCD nexus is i9023. if you go that route, you'll want to look for an i9020a, they should be plentiful and cheap as they didn't sell well here :p check the xda-developers marketplace, I'm sure you'll find that phone or a bargin on a better specced phone.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
BlueMagic said:
Yeah, I really like the way the nexus one looks. As for everything else, it's either that or keep using my good ol' G1 lol.

There are places where I can buy them here, but they are way more expensive than they should be.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Ebay? I'm sure you can find the Nexus S for cheap and they usually ship worldwide. Or do you need to buy from an official seller?
 
Bboy AJ

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Why doesn't someone here sell you their old phone?
 
B

BlueMagic

Member
Thanks a lot everybody for the advice. I have thought about buying a phone from a gaffer but there are not many offers in the buy/sell thread. And yes, I have tried ebay and with some good results. I'll probably end up buying this or something similar.
 
K

kehs

Banned
BlueMagic said:
Thanks a lot everybody for the advice. I have thought about buying a phone from a gaffer but there are not many offers in the buy/sell thread. And yes, I have tried ebay and with some good results. I'll probably end up buying this or something similar.
Click to expand...

That specific one is for Sprint btw. Sprint is CDMA and you won't be able to slip in a simcard.

Make sure you grab a GSM one.
 
jobber

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
PwnCakes193 said:
I still can't decide if I want to keep my Galaxy S3 or not. I would go back to my iPhone 4, which I'd rather not do. The Galaxy S3 feels like a toy to me and doesn't have a premium feel at all, and the device doesn't seem like it was put together well. I like everything else about the phone, but the build really does feel that bad.
Click to expand...

the hell?

Dude buy a case for the back and you don't have to feel the phone again

GS3 is the bees knees. You have the privilege of using Google Wallet which makes you an elite phone nerd. I used Google Wallet 5 times in the last 2 days and the cashiers were all jelly. I think they got aroused by the awesomeness of me just tapping my phone on their paypass for an easy transaction.
 
R

rozay

Banned
BlueMagic said:
Thanks a lot everybody for the advice. I have thought about buying a phone from a gaffer but there are not many offers in the buy/sell thread. And yes, I have tried ebay and with some good results. I'll probably end up buying this or something similar.
Click to expand...
That specific one is a sprint model which uses CDMA, won't work at all in other countries. You want the GSM model.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
jobber said:
the hell?

Dude buy a case for the back and you don't have to feel the phone again

GS3 is the bees knees. You have the privilege of using Google Wallet which makes you an elite phone nerd. I used Google Wallet 5 times in the last 2 days and the cashiers were all jelly. I think they got aroused by the awesomeness of me just tapping my phone on their paypass for an easy transaction.
Click to expand...

They basically went back to the GS1 design. It feels like all of the GS1 or the spinoffs like the Samsung Focus WP7 device. It's great in terms of lightness, but the thin clip in back does feel cheapish. It's hardly a deal breaker for most people, but when you compare it to say the Lumia series or the One X that have that unibody design there is definitely a big step down. Problem with unibody polycarb phones are they are unibody. So no removable battery.
 
R

rozay

Banned
Lightness is important for larger phones otherwise they'd be incredibly cumbersome, but at the same time it makes them feel a little cheap. My iPhone and nexus one have a nice hefty feeling to them, but somedays I just prefer the light feeling of my galaxy nexus to either.

just wish there was metal of some form on the body :(
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
PwnCakes193 said:
I still can't decide if I want to keep my Galaxy S3 or not. I would go back to my iPhone 4, which I'd rather not do. The Galaxy S3 feels like a toy to me and doesn't have a premium feel at all, and the device doesn't seem like it was put together well. I like everything else about the phone, but the build really does feel that bad.
Click to expand...

go back to your iPhone 4.
 
P

PwnCakes193

Member
jobber said:
the hell?

Dude buy a case for the back and you don't have to feel the phone again

GS3 is the bees knees. You have the privilege of using Google Wallet which makes you an elite phone nerd. I used Google Wallet 5 times in the last 2 days and the cashiers were all jelly. I think they got aroused by the awesomeness of me just tapping my phone on their paypass for an easy transaction.
Click to expand...

I bought a leather battery cover and an otterbpx. The entire device including the buttons feel like utter crap compared to even my old blackberry. I already have a jellybean ROM on it and I absolutely love it, bit I have some pretty heavy concerns about the phone physically. To be honest, the back felt fine to me as well, its the overall device that feels really..... bad.

I had the one x before this and was super frustratedbwith the battery life, terrible overheating, and only 2GB for apps. The build on that phone literally felt amazing, but the limitations were terrible
 
O

Old Gimlet Eyes

Member
Planning on going pre-paid when my Sprint contract is up in November. Hopefully the new Nexus will be out by that time. Any idea if Google will be selling the new Nexus right away on the play store? Also, any idea on how much it might cost? I can't imagine it will be the same $350 the current Nexus is....
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Old Gimlet Eyes said:
Planning on going pre-paid when my Sprint contract is up in November. Hopefully the new Nexus will be out by that time. Any idea if Google will be selling the new Nexus right away on the play store? Also, any idea on how much it might cost? I can't imagine it will be the same $350 the current Nexus is....
Click to expand...

Your probably looking at $600 depending on the hardware. It won't be super cheap that's for sure.
 
C

Cipherr

Member
Old Gimlet Eyes said:
Planning on going pre-paid when my Sprint contract is up in November. Hopefully the new Nexus will be out by that time. Any idea if Google will be selling the new Nexus right away on the play store? Also, any idea on how much it might cost? I can't imagine it will be the same $350 the current Nexus is....
Click to expand...

will probably be 499-599 or something. The current Nexus didn't start off at $350, it dropped there after like 6 months. noone knows exactly when it will drop though, although Novemberish is a good estimate.
 
R

rozay

Banned
quaere said:
http://www.merimobiles.com/Lenovo_A789_3G_WCDMA_Dual_Sim_Android4_0_CPU_MT657_p/meri4893.htm

$187.99

Memory 4GB ROM + 512MB RAM
CPU CPU:MTK6577 ARMv7 Cortex-A9 Dual-core 1.0GHz
GPU:powerVR SGX531 Ultra
Screen
4.0 Inch Capacitibe MultiTouch Screen
WVGA,480 x 800,16M Colors (TBD),TFT-LCD Capacitive Multi Touch Screen
3G Network WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ 1900/2100MHz
2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE:850/900/1800/1900 MHz
System OS Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0
Click to expand...
Not bad at all. What kind of support do these devices get? Kind of unfortunate that the rom is so heavily customized in bad ways, but at least it has 4.0.4.

Bluemagic, you said you're using an HTC G1, correct? Do you get 3G on it? As far as I know, all the produced G1 and dream models only supported 1700/2100mhz 3G, so if that's the case you would be able to get 3G with the lenovo phone.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
tino said:
You can do $200 new line+ $350 early termination fee.
Click to expand...

Depends on who gets the phones though and what bands they have. Case in point the current Verizon model sort of blocks you from doing this, and AT&T doesn't exactly sell this phone.
 
Z

zedge

Member
quaere said:
http://www.merimobiles.com/Lenovo_A789_3G_WCDMA_Dual_Sim_Android4_0_CPU_MT657_p/meri4893.htm

$187.99

Memory 4GB ROM + 512MB RAM
CPU CPU:MTK6577 ARMv7 Cortex-A9 Dual-core 1.0GHz
GPU:powerVR SGX531 Ultra
Screen
4.0 Inch Capacitibe MultiTouch Screen
WVGA,480 x 800,16M Colors (TBD),TFT-LCD Capacitive Multi Touch Screen
3G Network WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ 1900/2100MHz
2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE:850/900/1800/1900 MHz
System OS Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0
Click to expand...

Wow, there are some good deals on that site. Thought chinavasion was cheap. These are decent phones with dual cores, ICS, IPS displays. Just not sure about support and build quality on these.

This one looks pretty sweet for the price. 2750 mah battery!

http://www.merimobiles.com/JIAYU_G3_Dual_core_4_5_inch_IPS_Screen_1280x720_An_p/meri5684.htm
 
K

kehs

Banned
Anyonne know of any applications to pin point a rogue wake lock?

I haven't changed any apps between my GN and my NS, but my NS is awake nearly 80 percent of the time with android OS as the main culprit.
 
T

Toki767

Member
I would use Better Battery Stats except I have no clue what to do after reading the results. My Media Server service seems to be draining my battery currently while I'm not even listening to music or watching videos and I have no clue how to fix it.
 
A

Angst

Member
Toki767 said:
I would use Better Battery Stats except I have no clue what to do after reading the results. My Media Server service seems to be draining my battery currently while I'm not even listening to music or watching videos and I have no clue how to fix it.
Click to expand...

Manage Apps -> All -> Find "Media Storage" (or Media Scanner) -> Force Stop.

That makes the problem go away, at least until reboot.
 
B

BigJonsson

Member
Ever since I updated to jellybean I can't use my downloaded ring tones with the alarm clock =/


They appear to be in the right folders on the device.......it was working in ICS

Did Google decide we should all be limited to their default alarm tones?
 
A

Angst

Member
BigJonsson said:
Ever since I updated to jellybean I can't use my downloaded ring tones with the alarm clock =/


They appear to be in the right folders on the device.......it was working in ICS

Did Google decide we should all be limited to their default alarm tones?
Click to expand...

Try Gentle Alarm or Alarm (from Doubletwist). Both can play any mp3, although Alarm forces you to download Doubletwist music player.

Edit - can't you just move the mp3 you want to use to the Ringtones (or whatever it's called) folder?
 
T

Toppot

Member
I have a problem with my SGS2 4.0.4. Whenever I try to do a Google voice search, web or Play store, the application crashes. When I load the app again it has what I said saved as the last search though.

Any idea how I would fix this? I am an android noob.
 
B

besiktas1

Member
Xda told me to relock the boot loader and run something called RRU.exe which they gave me. It didn't work so now my phone is stuck on a white screen with which I control with volume keys.
 
T

Toki767

Member
Angst said:
Manage Apps -> All -> Find "Media Storage" (or Media Scanner) -> Force Stop.

That makes the problem go away, at least until reboot.
Click to expand...

I actually just ended up rebooting into recovery and clearing cache/dalvik cache and that seemed to have fixed the problem.
 
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