First Smartphone purchase

E

Emil

Skilled
Questions:-

1. Q: Budget?

A: <10k

2. Q: Preferred Form Factor(flip, bar, slider)?

A: Bar

3. Q: Preferred display type?

A: No special preference but decent enough resolution to use maps.

4. Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.

A: None.

5. Q: Preferred input method (Touchscreen, QWERTY, etc.)?

A: QWERTY is essential either as a hard key or softkey

6. Q: Camera required or not? If required, please specify type like front camera/flash/etc.

A: Camera quality not important but a front camera is desirable though not essential.

7. Q: Preferred operating system? (Android, Symbian, iOS, Windows Phone etc).

A: Android but anything that supports the few applications I need to run will be acceptable.

8. Q: Preferred connectivity options? (3G, Wifi, Edge etc).

A: WiFi essential, 3G desirable.

9. Q: What is your intended use for this phone(internet, camera, multimedia, mails, etc)?

A: GPS, Whatsapp, OBIHAI, Skype, guitar tuner.

10. Q: Any other requirements?

A: Dual Sim is desirable though not essential.

11. Q: If you have already considered a phone then please mention the model.

A: Dell XCD35 and HTC explorer

As mentioned, this is my first smartphone purchase. Guess it will also be my last (I am in my mid-50s) so reliability is important. I am attracted to the display resolution of the XCD35 but am wary of future support for a obsolete product. The Explorer price seems to have come down quite a bit and Tradus has it for 8.5K at which price point it looks very attractive.

What do you guys think?
 
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Galaxy y pro for 9800 at flipkart fulfills almost all your requirements.

Only bottleneck is 384 MB ram but again it won't harm to run couple of apps together.

its dual sim Android with QWERTY by Samsung.
 
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Get the LG Optimus net. It seems to be a good choice. The Explorer's screen resolution is very undesirable. The galaxy y is way to 'budgety' choice. Also another option i think you should consider is to get a used power horse! (Like Defy, Galaxy SL, HD2). The experience these phones can provide is almost double the fun of a new sub 10k android.
 
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Yeah I don't much care for the Galaxy Y either but as far as I can see the Explorer and Optimus Net both have 320x480 px resolution so why is the Optimus Net a better choice?

One thing about Explorer is the 90 MB memory but some reviews say it doesn't seem to affect its performance.

I see that the Defy is available as low as Rs 12999/- at Timtara and a further Rs 2000/- discount can be applied. Seems a good buy except that I am not keen on rooting and modding. Appears that this is needed because it does not come with Android GB.

One more point, would my requirements be better served by Nokia 500 or something like that?
 
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Emil said:
Yeah I don't much care for the Galaxy Y either but as far as I can see the Explorer and Optimus Net both have 320x480 px resolution so why is the Optimus Net a better choice?

One thing about Explorer is the 90 MB memory but some reviews say it doesn't seem to affect its performance.

I see that the Defy is available as low as Rs 12999/- at Timtara and a further Rs 2000/- discount can be applied. Seems a good buy except that I am not keen on rooting and modding. Appears that this is needed because it does not come with Android GB.One more point, would my requirements be better served by Nokia 500 or something like that?
Click to expand...

Your GPS requirement will be completely fulfilled by the offline Nokia maps feature which any phone in that price bracket lacks.

Go to any Store which has demo handsets on display and check for your self the look and feel of the handset and the functionality of the OS then decide what you want to buy.
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But as far as apps and games are concerned Android is a far better option.
 
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There has been no comment on the XCD35 mentioned in my thread starter post. I am attracted by the display size in proportion to the cost. Is it worth buying now? Where is the best deal for it?

How about the Idea Blade at Rs 7500/-? What are the disadvantages of getting the Idea Blade? There is some talk of the memory unlock not working on it?
 
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The XCD35 is no longer available easily. The Idea blade is the XCD35 itself. I would suggest you to get the Explorer if QWERTY is not your primary concern. Else, the Nokia E5 with offline Nokia maps is a good option. On an extended budget, you can look at the E6.
 
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Neo-N said:
The XCD35 is no longer available easily. The Idea blade is the XCD35 itself. I would suggest you to get the Explorer if QWERTY is not your primary concern. Else, the Nokia E5 with offline Nokia maps is a good option. On an extended budget, you can look at the E6.
Click to expand...

E5 has some reception issues...I have one...so if connectivity in your area is weak, it could be a problem...
 
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As I said in the first post, The QWERTY doesn't have to be a physical keypad if the touch QWERTY is good enough in actual usage.

What are the pros and cons between the explorer and the optimus net? I have a slight bias against LG. But if this is good I will consider it. For that matter, I have seen failures in quite a few of my friends' HTC phones too. I am not a frequent phone dropper
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but I would shy away from a fragile phone.

There was a suggestion in post #4 to consider Defy. What would be the issues with Defy if I do not root/mod it?
 
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Go for defy. Even if you don't mod it, there won't be issues but its doesnt take a lot of time and improves usability A LOT. I think even a beta version of ICS is out.
 
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i have used sony/motorola and samsung and more or less service of all are at the same level.It took me an average of 14-30 days to get a phone submitted and fixed, but yes, you get it in the end of the day.

Motorola did try to deny the claim for my ZN5 as they initially said it was water damaged, but then I escalated to the supervisor and he ended up accepting it as there was no proof of water damange on your part.

As far as HTC goes, I had once submitted the HTC p3450 for service and they took around 45-50 days to replace the phone as the motherboard had conked out. This was in 2009 when htc p3450 was being still sold.
 
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bitsandpieces said:
i have used sony/motorola and samsung and more or less service of all are at the same level.It took me an average of 14-30 days to get a phone submitted and fixed, but yes, you get it in the end of the day.

Motorola did try to deny the claim for my ZN5 as they initially said it was water damaged, but then I escalated to the supervisor and he ended up accepting it as there was no proof of water damange on your part.

As far as HTC goes, I had once submitted the HTC p3450 for service and they took around 45-50 days to replace the phone as the motherboard had conked out. This was in 2009 when htc p3450 was being still sold.
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Thanks. That was valuable info.

How about the cons of Defy?

I remember reading about poor battery and also about the red/green lens issue but I don't remember what the issues were now.
 
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Motorola's service is average. battery life is not that bad by android standards.

AFAIK, the red/green lens issue affects only whether you can flash the leaked GB release, I don't know if that's been solved or not. the 720p recording patch for the green lens was already released.
 
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I can assure you, DELL XCD 35 will be a good choice.

Atleast its better than Explorer/Optimus net in term of Screen Resolution.

The only concern i can see is the camera, which isn't great and battery (which is only 1200mAH)

Idea Blade is same as DELL XCD 35.I would prefer Dell, simply because of its repute.
 
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rad0 said:
I can assure you, DELL XCD 35 will be a good choice.

Atleast its better than Explorer/Optimus net in term of Screen Resolution.

The only concern i can see is the camera, which isn't great and battery (which is only 1200mAH)

Idea Blade is same as DELL XCD 35.I would prefer Dell, simply because of its repute.
Click to expand...

Thanks. This phone is really VFM and very attractive from that perspective. I am a very light user so I suppose if the battery lasts through a day + it should be fine. And I really don't care about the camera quality. I almost never use my phone as a snapper.

The Idea Blade is easily available but somewhere I read that the unlocking of memory to 512 MB does not work with the Idea Blade but only with the DELL XCD35. Is that information incorrect?
 
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