my first android phone

[kwilliby]

I want to buy my first android phone. I use my phone mostly for phone calls, light text messaging. And would love to have maps, gps, access to my yahoo email, weather etc. I like to carry my phone in my pocket and don't want a pouch to carry on my belt.

I've looked at lots of phones. I considered some with a slide out keyboard. They seem a little bulky to me. I think I want a touch phone and will just try to get used to the touch keyboard.

I narrowed my selection to phones that are $100 or less with my Sprint upgrade. Some of my selections are;

All of these prices are form Best Buy. I have included a few notes on each phone.

LG Marquee $49
extrememly light! no 4G...not that i care at this point. amlost as big as the Photon with a smaller screen.

Motorolla Photon $99
has about everything i want. nice display, a tad bit bigger than i wanted, but feels nice in my hands. lots of memory, good processor. I don't know what Motoblur is or if i care.

Samsung Conquer $49 or $99 . don't remember
nice size. display is not so great. smaller screen makes the keyboard a little cramped. but i like the size.

HTC evo 4G with sliding keyboard $99
kinda like the keyboard. but makes it bulky. size is nice width wise and fits my hand pretty well. display is pretty good but not as good as some of the others.

I'm leading heavily toward the Photon. It seems to have lots of current features. dual core processor, 1gig ram, 16g onboard memory, very nice display. size is acceptable, maybe a little on the larger side but still feels good in my hand. I don't know what this Motoblur is only that it's something like Sense? i'm not a power user so i'm not sure it matters to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

And yes, I did briefly look at Iphone 4S. But that ain't happening.

Thanks in advance.

 

[swoogie]

Was there a reason you didn't look at the Nexus S 4G? If I was to go to Sprint, I would get that or the Galaxy S II but I know you said you don't want a big screen size so the SGSII wouldn't work out.

The Nexus S 4G is now only $50, comes with stock android( pure google, no MOTO Blur or HTC Sense etc), and NFC.
But of the ones you listed, I would prolly get the Motorola Photon. Its a nice phone.

 

[kwilliby]

I did look at the Nexus S. It looks like a very nice phone. But I read a review on one of the forums....don't remember which one (phonescoop, cnet etc.) and they said the call quality wasn't too great. as in the persons voice on the receiving end wasn't too great. I use my phone a lot for voice calls and was concerrned about this. I know you have to take these ratings with a grain of salt sometimes. but i don't have much else to go on since i'm a novice at this stuff.

And yes, the SII is a little larger than I want. I wish it had just a little smaller screen and size. it's also $199 when i looked which is $100 more than i really wanted to spend.

thank you for the suggestion. i may stop and look at the Nexus S phone again.

 

[Robbzilla]

The Nexus S is a great phone! I'd do some more reading about the sound quality. I've never personally heard of anyone griping about the call quality, but one review isn't enough to put me off ofa phone entirely. That being said, the Photon is a worthy consideration,.but the screen isn't quite as nice,.imo.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

 

[Angrygimp]

From the choices you have listed I'd get the Photon, personally I got the Nexus S 4G when I had that decision to make a couple of months back. I haven't had any call quality issues with it, nor any other problems. Love the phone and can't wait to get my next Nexus in a couple of years.

 

[kwilliby]

I bought the Photon last Saturday. there was an update from motorola available. the third one in about two months i think. they are trying to fix some reboot issues and some 'sleep of death' or whatever they call it. well, i tried to install the update 5 times. it failed every time. took it back and sprint says the phone is faulty and it needs to be replaced. i bought it from best buy and need to take it back. that doesn't leave me feeling very good about this phone. normally when i have problems with something, it only gets worse. AND when making calls my voice sounds like it's reverberating in the phone . or like hearing myself in a can. it's really anoying. for those two reasons i think i'm going to get a different phone.

i'm now considering the Nexus S 4G based on some responses above. I love the screen, the size and shape, weight . only drawbacks; 1. fixed on 16G memory. probably not an issue for me since i'm a light user of music and pictures. 2. a few reports of call quality. but real world experience counts a lot and a couple of replies in this thread said it is not a problem.

i actually considered an older EVO 4G. (not the 3D). its being discontinued but i can still get one at Best Buy. its been around for a long time so i would hope the bugs are worked out. cons: 1. display not as nice as newer phones. 2. battery life issues? have they been resolved? 3. not sure if there are any others.

suggestions are welcome.

and thanks for your replies!

 

[jleliekelly]

I have had a rooted hero, an EVO 4g, and a few here or there phones (still android). I just bought the Photon due to Sprint discontinuing the EVO. I don't like knowing if I need a new phone because of issues that there never is a choice other than refurb. you got a bum phone. I don't have any of the boot or sleep issues at all.....the updates are fixed. Def don't give up on the photon. I've been able to remove bloatware and download apps that are meant for rooted phones. It is quite impressive thus far and I haven't even started to play with it yet just my opinion....

Rolled out from from my Photon via Tapatalk

 

[ajonesma]

I would go for the Nexus S or one of the HTC EVO's. Either EVO 4G, EVO Shift, or EVO 3D. I had the EVO 4G and it was pretty awesome I really miss it actually.

 

[kwilliby]

i think best buy will just give me a brand new phone. i'm going to check with them.

other than the issue with getting the update i only have one complaint. When i'm talking into the phone making a call, i hear myself, like its reverberating back into my earpiece. drives me nuts! do you notice that? could that be part of a bad phone?

Everything else about the phone is AWESOME. I find it easy to use, navigate around, customize etc. And I'm a newbie at these phones. (i don't know what rooting a phone is) .

If the issue with the reverberating while i talk can be fixed i would keep it in a heartbeat.

thanks

 

[kwilliby]

I would go for the Nexus S or one of the HTC EVO's. Either EVO 4G, EVO Shift, or EVO 3D. I had the EVO 4G and it was pretty awesome I really miss it actually.

I looked at the EVO 3D. i don't like or have use for the camera.

I did like the EVO 4G. Seemed like the things I want. Display is not so great these days, but not bad.

Only concern on the EVO 4G is battery life. Are the reports of this because of the way people use it? Or is it just the small battery and the fact it's a smart phone?

thank you

 

[jleliekelly]

No echo of voice with mine...

Rolled out from from my Photon via Tapatalk

 

[kwilliby]

that is encouraging. one of the reps at best buy has a photon. maybe i'll try making a call using his phone and compare. if the problems doesn't exist i may give a new phone a try.

thank you very much.

i put more faith in real world experiences than some of the reviews on the internet. you can tell some of these guys are biased toward one brand or the other. Or android vs. Iphone for that matter.

It's funny. This is my first smart phone. i was concerned about ease of use. after only a few days i find it very easy to use. i played with an Iphone while waiting for my phone to be diagnosed, i didn't like the interface as well myself.

thanks again!

 

[jleliekelly]

I hope it works out for you because it is (thus far) a dream. My battery life is at least twice of my EVO and I use my phone for both work and personal so I run everything off of it! Good luck

Rolled out from from my Photon via Tapatalk

 

[descendency]

2. a few reports of call quality. but real world experience counts a lot and a couple of replies in this thread said it is not a problem.

Google probably has fixed that. I own a Nexus One and was very happy with with the response time of Google fixing issues with the phone.

 

[kwilliby]

I would go for the Nexus S or one of the HTC EVO's. Either EVO 4G, EVO Shift, or EVO 3D. I had the EVO 4G and it was pretty awesome I really miss it actually.

I stopped and had drink on the way home tonite. the bar tender had an EVO 4G. I played with it for awhile. it seemed pretty nice. the display indoors was very good. response time was great. overall i liked it a lot. one thing that seemed odd to me. i would like to use MAPS on my phone. when i brought up a local map on my photon vs. the EVO 4G the detail on my Photon was much better. and what surprised me was the photon showed more detail for highways etc. i would think both phones would use google maps and display the same data. not a huge thing, but something i noticed was a lot different.

i'm going to best buy tomorrow and talk to them about my situation. not sure what i'm going to do.

i like the photon but if i get a new phone and it has the same reverbertation making voice calls i will not like it. but i would think motorola would have fixed that. and others here don't seem to have that problem. the photon specs wise is heads and tails above the EVO 4G. but i won't use most of those features...at least not now.

the EVO 4G would be fine for what i do. just concerned about battery life.

the Photon really is an awesome phone if a GOOD one doesn't have the reverberation issue that mine has.

decisions....decisions...

thanks to everyone for helping me out.

 

[jleliekelly]

Maps on Photon is so far above EVO. I found battery life is better as well. I hope you can settle the phone feedback issue because even if you can't use all the features now -if you have them you will play with them.....lol....it just works that way sometimes. I loved my EVO please don't take me wrong, it's a great phone. Happy phone hunting -because aside from car shopping it's my other favorite activity!

Rolled out from from my Photon via Tapatalk