First Time Android User and Looking for a Phone. Need Advice/Help

[richard_c]

OK, so this is my first post here.

A little bit of background why I am looking to get an Android phone. I had an iPhone 4 for 2 years, first smart phone, it worked a treat, not a single problem. Got bored of the OS and decided to go for a WP8 Phone. Got the Lumia 620 and the OS worked a treat but I had to send it back for repairs last week. Now this has put me off Nokia phones a bit because its already had a hardware fault after 2 months. While my phone has been repair I have been using a old brick phone that can call and make texts and its made me realise don't miss my smartphone that much, I miss the useless things like checking the weather, travel news, cinema listings etc. So I thought maybe Ill sell my 620 and try an Android phone because I have never had a phone with Android before.

What I am looking for is a phone with a screen from about 3.5" to 4" (I don't like them any bigger as I have small hands and like to hold the phone in one hand, also I have a iPod nano so I don't want my pockets to get bulky.)

Ive been looking online and the phones I like the look of are the Sony Xperia Phones. The ones I have short listed are the:

Xperia U
Xperia Go
Xperia Sola

What I'd like to know is which one would be the best to get, do they run ICS smoothly? All Im looking to run is apps like, facebook, twitter, whatsapp, maybe a sat nav app. As for cameras I may take photos from time to time but its not that important to me. As for music, I have my iPod.

Would any of the above phone suit my needs and most important run smoothly? One thing I like about WP8 is that it was as smooth as butter. My only experience with Andoird is friends have also Android Phones on 2.3 with only 256MB RAM and they lagged with even simple tasks.

I am really a noob when it comes to Android and have done as much research as possible. I'm just trying to find a phone that isn't too big, that doesn't cost much ( I think the above phones are all under ?200) and that doesn't lag when doing simple tasks.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated

Cheers,

Rich

 

[npark2012]

OK, so this is my first post here.

A little bit of background why I am looking to get an Android phone. I had an iPhone 4 for 2 years, first smart phone, it worked a treat, not a single problem. Got bored of the OS and decided to go for a WP8 Phone. Got the Lumia 620 and the OS worked a treat but I had to send it back for repairs last week. Now this has put me off Nokia phones a bit because its already had a hardware fault after 2 months. While my phone has been repair I have been using a old brick phone that can call and make texts and its made me realise don't miss my smartphone that much, I miss the useless things like checking the weather, travel news, cinema listings etc. So I thought maybe Ill sell my 620 and try an Android phone because I have never had a phone with Android before.

What I am looking for is a phone with a screen from about 3.5" to 4" (I don't like them any bigger as I have small hands and like to hold the phone in one hand, also I have a iPod nano so I don't want my pockets to get bulky.)

Ive been looking online and the phones I like the look of are the Sony Xperia Phones. The ones I have short listed are the:

Xperia U
Xperia Go
Xperia Sola

What I'd like to know is which one would be the best to get, do they run ICS smoothly? All Im looking to run is apps like, facebook, twitter, whatsapp, maybe a sat nav app. As for cameras I may take photos from time to time but its not that important to me. As for music, I have my iPod.

Would any of the above phone suit my needs and most important run smoothly? One thing I like about WP8 is that it was as smooth as butter. My only experience with Andoird is friends have also Android Phones on 2.3 with only 256MB RAM and they lagged with even simple tasks.

I am really a noob when it comes to Android and have done as much research as possible. I'm just trying to find a phone that isn't too big, that doesn't cost much ( I think the above phones are all under ?200) and that doesn't lag when doing simple tasks.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated

Cheers,

Rich

First off, welcome to the forums!

Keep in mind the latest android os is 4.2.2 aka Jelly bean, and in about 3 weeks there will be a new version, if not then it will be 4.3.
There's not going to be a whole LOT of the size phones you are looking for due to the popularity of rising screen sizes.
And yes, the people with android 2.3 aka ginger bread, is going to experience serious lag. Jelly bean is on par with iOS smoothness now, so if you want smoothness go with jelly bean if possible.

As for phones, the only good phones I personally can think of with a small screen and with jelly bean, is the samsung galaxy s3 mini, motorola droid razr M, razr I aaaannnd iphone 5.

I know you don't want anything higher than 4inch screen but if you can get passed that, I would highly suggest to get the Nexus 4. It has a 4.7 inch screen. But it packs a pure android OS. No custom os like what samsung galaxy s3 has. Pure Android 4.2.2

I hope that helped, if you want to learn more about Android, feel free to PM me and I will do what I can do teach you.

 

[richard_c]

Would the Xperia P be a good choice has its just got the 4.1.2 JB update?

 

[npark2012]

Would the Xperia P be a good choice has its just got the 4.1.2 JB update?

If you like that phone then go ahead and get it. 4.1.2 isn't too bad. But make sure that it does everything that you want it to do. Just to be on the safe side.

 

[robsawalker]

I don't know about the others, but I have an Xperia U with JB on it, and it's a great little phone.