Lava Xolo A500 or Huawei X5 U8800

creative420

creative420

Adept
Questions:-
1. Q: Budget?
A: 7k

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

3. Q: Preferred display type?
A: TFT

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

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

6. Q: Camera required or not? If required, please specify type like front camera/flash/etc.
A: Required a 5MP camera. Flash.

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

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

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

10. Q: If you have already considered a phone then please mention the model.
A: Lava Xolo A500 or Huawei X5 U8800 or HTC Explorer

The phone is for one junior in our team who is about to finish his probation period. He's a very talented guy so my partner and I want to give him a phone along with his confirmation letter. I've always seen him looking at my partner's Xperia P with big eyes and have heard his wish to switch to Android phones from his basic Nokia phone (Nokia 100 or 110 I guess). We cannot exceed our budget as we don't make much monies anyway as of now. :p

Now I really love Huawei u8800 and it has a decent community support and all that jazz, but today only I came across XOLO A500 - XOLO: Flipkart.com which looks very tempting. I know Lava is never going to get the community support like Huawei. But I also know that this junior won't get into modding the phones. Well, not for a year at least considering the amount of work I'm going to load him up with :p

I also considered HTC Explorer which I use. It's a great device for the money spent. But too outdated no? Heck, the irony is that I feel like switching back to basic Nokia phone. Maybe I can give him HTC explorer and take his Nokia :p

So go on. Rain me with your suggestions and opinions.
 
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I tried the Xolo A700 in a shop more than a week ago. It's one sleek device with good features to boot at a really good price. The only difference between the A700 and the A800 is the camera, I believe. The A800 has an 8MP sensor with backlight illumination. Not sure if this will translate well in real world scenarios, but the A700's display looked pretty good to me. 4.5 inch qHD translates very well and the processor is no slouch either. Should be a good first smartphone for your junior.
 
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I compared X700 with my Pantech Burst. The screen colors of Xolo looked washed out in comparison. The processor is way slower than Burst, and memory is half. 8.3k for pantech and 10k for A700... No brainer.
 
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harryneopotter said:
I compared X700 with my Pantech Burst. The screen colors of Xolo looked washed out in comparison. The processor is way slower than Burst, and memory is half. 8.3k for pantech and 10k for A700... No brainer.
Click to expand...

The Burst competes with the likes of the Nexus S, O2X, Atrix 2 and such. There is no comparison with any of the Indian sub 10k phones. Also, any LCD will look washed out when you compare it to a super AMOLED panel. Although, I do agree with your suggestion. The Burst makes most sense in the sub 10k range if warranty is not a concern. Its 1GB RAM itself is enough to choose it over anything else.
 
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harryneopotter said:
Better CPU (Dual core 1 Ghz vs Single core 800 Mhz)
Bigger Screen
More Storage
Newer OS
Click to expand...

Not really. My friend has the Karbonn A9+ which is identical to the A500 and has the Qualcomm Cortex A5 dual core + Adreno 203. It stutters in games likes temple run and subway surfers once you reach the really fast end of the game.

It is incapable of HD video recording and struggles with 720p playback but its smooth in the U8800/U8800 pro thanks to the Adreno 205.

The U8800 has a Scorpion (Similar to Cortex A8) and a much better Adreno 205 GPU.
I have a U8800 and have rooted it and installed Aurora ICS. CPU automatically OCed to 1GHz.(Stable) Its much better compared to the Karbonn A9+.
Nenamark 2 score is 36.9 fps which is better than any other device in the sub 10k range. Even better than the Mediatek dual core ones.

If OP is not comfortable with that he can prefer the U8800 pro model which has offcial GB and a beta ICS from Huawei IINM.

Only issue I am facing is that dust seems to have entered the panel and is seen on the screen. (Like the LG O1 issue) But I am currently in a dusty place and also not using a pouch.

Another concern is that it has only 2 touch points and it might be an issue with some games.mBut I have played almost all casual games and not an issue with any of them.

If he is interested in learning modding and stuff the U8800 Pro is the best entry level phone to get now. User available RAM is around 180MB-200MB initially. Even otherwise its a decent buy from a reputed international manufacturer than rebadged phones.

The U8800/U8800 Pro has a light sensor and automatically adjusts the brightness which is very handy as I dont have to fiddle with brightness. The screen quality and brightness is also excellent for the price on offer.
 
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habunath said:
DarkAngel, can the Huawei Ideos pro run games like Temple run 2 , dead trigger etc? Im confused between Pantech burst and Huawei pro. the burst looks tempting but its void of any warranty.
Click to expand...

Temple Run 2 - yes. After the recent update its pretty smooth even at very high speeds.
Dead trigger - I havent played yet. Might install in the next couple of days. Will let you know.
 
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DarkAngel said:
Temple Run 2 - yes. After the recent update its pretty smooth even at very high speeds.
Dead trigger - I havent played yet. Might install in the next couple of days. Will let you know.
Click to expand...
Dead Trigger works pretty good with a SE Neo V and an HTC One V - both of which, like the U8800, use an Adreno 205. I'm sure you'll have no problems with the game.. I've tried the game on both the phones I just mentioned.
 
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Damn. Forgot I had started this thread. BTW...so as it stands, I've exchanged my HTC Explorer with my Junior for 2 weeks. He's liking the fact that there's so much you can do with a smartphone, but hates it for the battery. I told him see if you get used to it. And I'm using his Nokia 110. And folks, I think I might be going back to feature (Dumb) phone. There's just so much peace all of the sudden. No checking work on phone. No researching for things before going to sleep. No more taking the phone to the loo. I'm back to using the news paper. Well, this maybe the booty-honeymoon period, so lets see how things change. And what phone do we get for him. Nothing interesting has launched in this price bracket no?
 
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creative420 said:
Damn. Forgot I had started this thread. BTW...so as it stands, I've exchanged my HTC Explorer with my Junior for 2 weeks. He's liking the fact that there's so much you can do with a smartphone, but hates it for the battery. I told him see if you get used to it. And I'm using his Nokia 110. And folks, I think I might be going back to feature (Dumb) phone. There's just so much peace all of the sudden. No checking work on phone. No researching for things before going to sleep. No more taking the phone to the loo. I'm back to using the news paper. Well, this maybe the booty-honeymoon period, so lets see how things change. And what phone do we get for him. Nothing interesting has launched in this price bracket no?
Click to expand...

Micromax Ninja A89 ~ 6.2k. Has the Mediatek MTK6577 dual core processor + PowerVR SGX531 GPU (Same as the A110 Canvas 2)
512MB RAM + ICS+ 4" WVGA screen.
Plays 720p files

It can play almost every game in the play store. Its absolute value for money if you are ok with the brand and the okish build and poor camera. The U8800 has some compatibility issue with few of the popular games (high end ones) in the play store.
 
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DarkAngel said:
Micromax Ninja A89 ~ 6.2k. Has the Mediatek MTK6577 dual core processor + PowerVR SGX531 GPU (Same as the A110 Canvas 2)
512MB RAM + ICS+ 4" WVGA screen.
Plays 720p files

It can play almost every game in the play store. Its absolute value for money if you are ok with the brand and the okish build and poor camera. The U8800 has some compatibility issue with few of the popular games (high end ones) in the play store.
Click to expand...

Reviews say that Its battery backup is very poor even for a dual core and most likely there wont be a community support for it ( I would immediately buy it instead of Huawei X5 if it were not for these two major issues). MMX almost got it right with this model :/
 
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habunath said:
Reviews say that Its battery backup is very poor even for a dual core and most likely there wont be a community support for it ( I would immediately buy it instead of Huawei X5 if it were not for these two major issues). MMX almost got it right with this model :/
Click to expand...

Yes you would be stuck with ICS but hey its a low end 6k phone from an Indian company. Its one of the few phones in the 6k range with ICS. (Re branded white box item)
The battery yes. But if you take the charger to office I dont think that will be so much of an issue unless one frequently travels long distances.
 
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habunath said:
Reviews say that Its battery backup is very poor even for a dual core and most likely there wont be a community support for it ( I would immediately buy it instead of Huawei X5 if it were not for these two major issues). MMX almost got it right with this model :/
Click to expand...
haye ram! its not that utterly poor. I've used it. with moderate usage it will get you through the better part of the day. Read my review here - Quenching Your Tech Thirsts: Micromax A89 Review
@DarkAngel - the build quality is also decent. Its not spectacular by any means but it is not shabby either. There's absolutely no creaking whatsoever. The back cover is glossy so you can expect some smudges but apart from all of this it feels absolutely okay
 
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So I finally got my phone (HTC Explorer) back from my junior. He did not like having a smart phone at all. In fact, he said he was getting too distracted by it. So he'll continue with his basic Nokia 110. One funny (but a very true) thing he said: "Earlier when I used to have time during sitting on the pot or traveling to work or while taking a smoke break I used to call up my mom and brother and speak to them, but ever since I got hands on this phone, I stopped talking to them. Dead trigger or Whatsapp or Temple Run shouldn't take their place. And since I'm a designer, I guess it's better to have my head looking at real things for inspiration, not the mobile screen" Smart chap! So I gave him a bonus cheque instead :) Let him recharge as much and talk to his loved ones.


OT + P.S: In other news, my mom called up saying her Nokia 3310 is finally dead and she's looking for a basic suitable replacement. What should I get her? She''ll frown if she sees an MRP of anything more than Rs.1500. And on top of that she said she'll only like to have Nokia as the replacement. NOTHING ELSE! So guess with this budget my options are Nokia 1280 vs Nokia 100: Compare Mobiles: Flipkart.com Should 1280 suffice or should she graduate to the non-monochromatic world of mobiles with Nokia 100?
 
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