Best outright smartphone on a budget?

[pfillery]

Does anyone have any opinions to weigh into this one? I want to buy my wife a new phone for Christmas or birthday (2 days apart). She has been using an old borrowed iphone 3 and now says she would not go away from a smart phone, despite the fact that she doesn't use it for emails at all or apps much except through wifi at home. The iphone is dying (works very slowly and drops out of signal) and with her promotion at work will be using it a bit more next year. Thing is, we are on a great deal where our calls are 15c a minute with no flagfall, no minimum spend, no monthly fees and no contract. There are no plans anywhere close to that so we want to stay on this deal. It means of course we need an outright phone, and a smart phone at that (or at least touch screen, camera, wifi internet etc).

Any good or bad experiences with any of the ones on the market at present? Any tips on stores that do great deals? We can't justify spending heaps as the volume of usage just isn't there. All advice greatly appreciated.

[Blknight.aus]

SWMBO and I have the Defy and the HTC desire

Im a fan of the HTC desire range and they can be had outright at $200ish from ebay retail stores and as imports. It does everything I need it to and apart from a couple of games that occasionally hang I havent had any issues with mine.

The motorola Defy can be had for about $150 and isnt quite as powerful as the Desires but its water and dust resistant and excluding when shes trying to do 3.14x10^nth things at once with it (she has no patients to just let it sit and think for a couple of minutes) its not too bad as a phone. I have heard some reports that "Its a stinking pile" but of the few of those that Ive managed to get my hands on the phone has been filled to capacity with crapplications and all of the auto updates and use all the bandwidth while draining the battery options have been turned on.

Im pretty sure that If I went to work and asked the same questions the young guys would all want to sell you on their brand new came with a gigaquadabite of data plan iphone 4S and the guys that are interested in the Tech of their phone would try to sell you on their brand for their own reason.

at work the phones fall into 3 brands that arent I phone

1. HTC desires evo and sensations
2. the samsung range, (not sure which models)
3. the motorolla defy

[d@rk51d3]

Had about enough of my Iphone, looking at the Samsung Galaxy S2 next.

Had a look at the defy, but from alot of reports it seems to struggle once you start putting a few apps on.

[Tombie]

Had about enough of my Iphone, looking at the Samsung Galaxy S2 next.

Had a look at the defy, but from alot of reports it seems to struggle once you start putting a few apps on.

Whats happening with your iPhone (and what model) to upset ya'?

[pfillery]

Whats happening with your iPhone (and what model) to upset ya'?

Ours is a first generation iPhone 3 at least 2-3 years old. Running really slow. In an app you hit the home button and it can take 10-15 seconds to respond. Plus the touch screen sensitivity is waning. Either doesn't respond or is slow. We googles possible causes and tried all answers but it is the same.

Ironically it will probably still sell for more on eBay as it is than a new non apple smartphone will cost. I haven't seen too many 3's selling under $200 and you can even get $10 for the empty box. Ridiculous.

[d@rk51d3]

32g 3GS.

Bluetooth has been crud, right out of the box. Wifi disappears for no reason, Phone signal strength is sub standard, calls hang the phone mid call, requiring a hard reset. Apples (expensive) proprietary cables always failing (and on our macs too), bound to itunes....

Just lots of little things that build up over time. Don't get me wrong, I've had some fun with the phone, but try as I might, I just can't warm up to Apple.

Still, I guess its "horses for courses".

[Tombie]

Fair enough but to be fair again..

A 3GS is how old? All droid based rubbish is pretty new..

And I havent seen any 'droid phones going more than 18 months later (to be fair most are owned by 14-25 yr olds and are worn out I think)

Never destroyed a cable in 20 years of owning Apple products.. Only phone cable killed was by our new puppy! Stop being so heavy handed!!!!! ;)

I still love iTunes, a very intuitive interface... Easy to sort, select and drag/drop easy. The store has plenty of free software...

I havent used a 'droid product that has even come close to swaying me away...

[sheerluck]

I can't recommend one, but can give you a couple to avoid.

SWMBO has a Nokia N8, which has to be the biggest heap of junk that I have ever seen. To give the whole story, she is now on her 3rd phone, the first 2 lasted about 4 months each, and both just stopped working.

Daughter number 1 has a HTC Incredible S, which is reasonable as smartphones go in terms of looks and overall functionality, but the signal and battery life are pretty poor. Compared to my old Nokia work phone, which has a battery life you can measure with a calendar, hers has a battery life you can measure with a stopwatch.

[jsp]

Cant really comment, personally hate iphones, hate itunes, its hard for me to work with in my environment. But thats just my situation.

I hand out 2 or 3 iphones a week, and maybe a HTC sensation a week, was handing out HTC desires. But for the budget line (and cheap managers) I have the displeasure of handing out HTC wildfire s's.

I would stay away from them, haven't had a single happy user from the dozen or so I have handed out. All different things from screen size, clarity, touch screen response, you name it, processor speed, the works.

Seemed ok for the 15 minutes I muck around with them before given them to users, but I don't live with them.

Luckily we are adding Samsung to our approved phones list and I am told there is some cheaper cut down galaxy models which are pretty good.

getting kinda annoyed with some people having accidents with there iphone 3's and then getting upset with me when I fix them and hand them back, they ask why didn't they get a 4, simple math, new glass for 3 $70, new iphone 4s $700.

But still i find the iphone 3g fairly snappy if you factory wipe it and turn off a few things.

[Blknight.aus]

Daughter number 1 has a HTC Incredible S, which is reasonable as smartphones go in terms of looks and overall functionality, but the signal and battery life are pretty poor.


Theres a patch for that.

my desire went from lucky to make an 8 hour day to makes about 40 hours with normal use between charges.

[Jeff]

I had a good run from a Nokia N97 Mini, good camera, good phone and internet stuff, QWERTY keyboard and small size, not huge like an iphone. Unfortunately they can't withstand a run through the washing machine :( so I am looking too. I don't think they do the N97 any more, so not sure what to replace it with.

Jeff

:rocket:

[Piddler]

HTC HD7
windows phone works great. Easy to operate syncs to computer if you are pc based is the go.
Cheers

[tailslide]

Work has just upgraded my old Motorola Q9 to a Samsung galaxy 2 S. Takes a bit of getting used to but I'm not handing it back.:D:D:D I had a choice of this one, an iphone 4 or a Blackberry.

Cheers
Ron

[woody]

I've had my HTC Desire HD for somewhere between 12 and 18 months now without problems. I use it for ebooks and pdf's for uni as well as the gps for incar navigation as well as topo maps for bush walking.

The android operating system allows me to have the same apps on most of my devices (so long as the gmail account is the same).

It's one of the first gen phones capable of running android 2.2 (originally 2.1) and is very happy on 2.3. Although on paper the newer phones with dual cores out perform it, at the moment there are very few apps to take advantage of the increased performance from these chips.

my main points I look for when choosing a phone are,


open source operating system
quality of third party apps
flexible, easy to use operating system
compatibility with current computer
ruggedness (or compatibility with otterbox defender)
reliable manufacturer

woody

[Tombie]

my main points I look for when choosing a phone are,


open source operating system So you can have more virus and malware?
quality of third party apps Again, Malware, Spyware etc...
flexible, easy to use operating system OK...
compatibility with current computer All smartphones are compatible with PCs
ruggedness (or compatibility with otterbox defender) No touch screen phone is rugged - Otterbox is the only way
reliable manufacturer And yet you went with HTC ??? :eek:

woody

Open source OS seems to be the modern equivalent of "Sticking it to the man"

Personally, the architecture of the Apple product, and the clarity of its iOS5 sways me back every time I consider a new phone...

After seeing the HTC and Samsung offerings - Well they are better than Ericsson ;)

Toe each their own :)