New Phone - Questions

[BlueTemplar]

Sorry for the non-descriptive title, but I have lots of questions:

So, I'm tired being left on the side of the road app-wise with my Nokia N95 (which is IMHO otherwise a great phone), and I decided it was time to upgrade. The current focus on phones (and for the foreseeable future) seems to be about apps. There are two leaders : Apple with iOS and Google with Android. Since iPhones are expensive and locked (I fancy myself as a power user, being able to customize my phone a lot), the choice is clear : Android.

But I have several questions before jumping head-in in the Android world :
- I've heard about "fragmentation" - If I understand it right, it means there are multiple versions of Android out there, some of which are more advanced than others, and since phones are not really upgradeable, the choice of the right version becomes very important. So, if I get a phone with Android 3.1 (are there multiple versions of this one?), how certain can I be it won't become obsolete for at least 2 years?
- Are there any good phones in the sub-300? range? (I'm in France.) Besides apps, I consider important for the phone to be able to take good quality photos (and have a flash). Also, after several tries I've found out that I could type with reasonable accuracy on a touchscreen, so a keyboard is not necessary.
- Tethering (using my phone as a modem for my pc) is important to me, but most carriers forbid it (or charge extra) - is there a way to get around the carrier limitations?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

 

[PvilleComp]

So here are some answers - others I'm sure will chime in as well.

Fragmentation is really a OEM issue not an Android issue per se. Some OEM's are better at upgrades than others. HTC and Motorola seem to be pretty good about upgrades, but as with any device there is only so far it can be upgraded. Smasung and Sony have the worst reputations for upgrades but they are getting better.

If you choose a current high end phone it will most likely get at least 2 upgrades. Th real difference between the phones are the "skins" the OEM's put on them, Blur (Moto), Sense (HTC), TouchWiz (Samsung) all give each OEM's device a "feel." I would take the time to go to a store that has live demo's and play with each for an extended period of time.

There are several 3rd party apps for tethering. There are also several ROM's that have tethering built in.

The beauty of Android is that most devices can be rooted, and you can load custom ROM's to do pretty much whatever you want.

Hope this helps!

 

[rwelsh09]

I am also looking into getting a new phone.

Can anyone please suggest what phone I should get?
I currently have an X10 and I love the camera on it.

 

[baseballfanz]

I came from the N95 also, great phone but Symbian was getting bored. Never looked back, on my second Android. Using Nexus One with CM7 Rom.
As for software, some company are better than others at updating.

 

[Moscow Desire]

Any phone will become obsolete within 6 months. There's always something new and powerful coming out.

As with camera quality, 5megapix seems to be the standard on the higher end phones. As for quality, I'm pretty happy with my HTC. After all, it's a phone, not a dedicated camera. If I were to buy a new ph today, I would look for one with a front facing camera for video calling.

As you stated you are a power user, and don't wish to be locked to a certain OS, I assume this means you plan on installing a custom ROM. In this case, you should choose a ph that currently can be rooted easily and has ROM's available. And once you do that, you won't be getting updates from your provider. You'll have to do that yourself, so the fragmentation issue is moot.

So my advice, is any new HTC model. Although Samsung has a sweet ph available in Europe (hasn't hit the states yet), I would still go for HTC.

 

[BlueTemplar]

I did not mean obsolete in that way - I meant obsolete how my Nokia N95 is now, because there hardly any new apps created for it.

Good quality brand new phones seem to be on the expensive side - what about the Nexus One? It's in the right price range for me (around 200 € refurbished), and can be upgraded to Android 2.3. There's also the more expensive Nexus S, but I'm not sure the higher price is worth it...

 

[PvilleComp]

Nexus One is a great phone, but it's almost 2 years old. It won't likely get Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the next version of the OS, because it does not have enough memory.

The S is also a good device. I think it's rumored to get ICS, but again memory may make ICS the end of the road for that phone. It too is almost a year old.

But if price is you main concern, the S would be the better choice between the two.

 

[NoSpin]

The Nexus One, while great, is very old news. If those two are your only choices you need to go to the Nexus S. Which carrier are you using? Since you're in europe, you should have access to phones like the Incredible S, Desire HD, Desire S... Check out those as well, the S family of phones by htc is supposed to be a little more easy on the wallet.

Sent from my T-mobile G2 using Tapatalk

 

[srkmagnus]

I'm with Pville. Go for the Nexus S if you can. It's newer and offers a bit more than the Nexus One.

Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk

 

[BlueTemplar]

Right now I have a very cheap virtual carrier - Zero Forfait, but I'll probably have to change - they recently made tethering impossible to use which is important for me... (though maybe there are ways to enable tethering by using the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot?)

I just started looking into phones... the Nexus One seems to have multi-touch and voice recognition problems, so I might avoid it...

Nexus one and Nexus S both have 512 Mb of RAM...