Lava Xolo A500 or Huawei X5 U8800

[creative420]

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.

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

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 But too outdated no?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

So go on. Rain me with your suggestions and opinions.

 

[sasikanth8]

Get the nokia 100 or 101.

 

[DarkAngel]

If just talking and SMS are the requirements then I would say stick to the monochrome Nokia 1280. The Nokia 100 and Nokia 101 color screen have pathetic viewing angles.

 

[creative420]

If just talking and SMS are the requirements then I would say stick to the monochrome Nokia 1280. The Nokia 100 and Nokia 101 color screen have pathetic viewing angles.

Thanks Darky. She'll only use it for talking and listening to FM. (Our old Boombox also gave away) So I thought let me look for a wireless FM. Any pointers on that? Any wireless fm on sale by nokia and samsung? I know samsung used to have one such phone about 3-4 years back.

 

[DarkAngel]

Thanks Darky. She'll only use it for talking and listening to FM. (Our old Boombox also gave away) So I thought let me look for a wireless FM. Any pointers on that? Any wireless fm on sale by nokia and samsung? I know samsung used to have one such phone about 3-4 years back.

The Nokia 1280 doesnt come with headphones OOB. So you have to consider that too.

And yeah Samsung's older model E1160 and Nokia 5030 express radio phones had wireless FM. Not sure which of the current models have them. Have to search a bit. You can get a quicker answer by approaching any near by big mobile showroom and asking for a phone with this option.

 

[The_One_Eyed_Dude]

I have tried finding Huawei Ideos X5 Pro in the market for the past 2 weeks to no avail. Shop Owners in Kolkata have quoted "out of stock" and no timeline of when it will be available. same is the story for flipkart (the only one which ships to my location) and other sites :/ Now Im thinking to go for alternatives. How is lava xolo a700 in same price bracket? ( Never gonna buy the overpriced tipo)

 

[DarkAngel]

I have tried finding Huawei Ideos X5 Pro in the market for the past 2 weeks to no avail. Shop Owners in Kolkata have quoted "out of stock" and no timeline of when it will be available. same is the story for flipkart (the only one which ships to my location) and other sites :/ Now Im thinking to go for alternatives. How is lava xolo a700 in same price bracket? ( Never gonna buy the overpriced tipo)

Guess Huawei has phased out U8800 Pro.

The Xolo A700 can be bought from ebay for as low as ~7.4k using the 7%/7.5% off coupon issued this week.
Has the MTK6577 SoC + 512MB RAM + 4.5" qhd IPS + ICS which are pretty good considering the price on offer. I would rate its a good VFM buy in the ~8k category.

 

[The_One_Eyed_Dude]

@DarkAngel, thanks for your immense inputs in this thread. I had the chance of playing with the Xolo A700 a bit as one of my friends has bought it this past week and suprisingly he's facing a few major issues with the phone like heating up at the back portion near camera lense and poor battery backup. After scouring the net a bit I came to know that this issues are common in most of the A700 Phones. so Im a little skeptical now about the xolo.

On the other hand, the original Huawei X5 is still available at Flipkart. ( Huawei Ideos X5 U8800 - Huawei: Flipkart.com)

Im thinking to go for it If I fail to find the pro on my final visit to chandni chowk this week. Can you help me by providing your personal feedback/hands on experience about the non pro version? Thanks in advanced

N.B.- I plan to root it and install custom roms so the outdated os wont be much of a problem.

 

[The_One_Eyed_Dude]

Bought the u8800 pro this week off flipkart and loving it there is only a small issue which is I can find any cover/case anywhere for this phone. I live in a dust-prone area and need a case desperately.