The Battle of the Baby Driods

[tsk1979]

I have been hunting for an Android phone for quite some time.

Requirements were simple

1. GPS

Dedicated GPS required. I am going to install brut maps, and cache the maps on local storage so that I can use GPS without data connection, I do not intend to take data plan for GPS. So a requirement is that GPS should work in "flight mode" also

2. Accelerometer

There are some aps which can time 0-100 and G forces while cornering using the inbuild accelerometer. Some games also make use of it

3. Andoird 2.2

Need this for ability to store apps on SD card. So the phone should come with Android 2.2, or should be upgradable to 2.2

4. Geotagging of Images using inbuilt GPS

5. VGA video recording. 30fps preferrred. But camera is not a big deal for me

6. Okay LCD screen - I am not too hot about having the latest and greatest screen. Anything acceptable will do.

7. Good battery life - A 1500 mAH battery will surely help!

Now my budget was in 20-25K, but when I was looking around, I discovered, that I need not spend that much. The baby droids will fulfill my requirement. This means spending 10-15K not more. Of course I will get a 600MHz processor, but I have a laptop, and I won't be running very CPU hungry apps, just using phone for WIFI browsing, and limited data browsing(Opera)

This threw the HTC Desire HD, Samsung Galaxy S (its not available anywhere, now that Nexus S is coming), Sony X10 out of the window. Due to silly policies viz rooting, motorola is not even in the picture.

So in came the baby driods. I am not sure which of these can be upgraded to 2.2 Android 2.2 is a must

The Candidates

1. LG Optimus One P500

It costs 11000RS with warranty in Noida, and comes with a 2GB memory card. Runs Froyo out of the box.

Has great battery life too. But I am not sure about how good is the GPS. I do not want to stand and dance with phone pointed towards the sky just to get GPS reception.

2. Garmin Asus A10

Reviews say this is the best navigation phone. It comes with a 4GB memory, and will cost around 13500.

My doubts. Are the Navteq maps stored in phone, or downloaded on the fly. If its the latter, its useless. I hope I can use other mapping apps like oziexplorer also when I need offroad navigation

Other than that availability is an issue, and I also wonder how good or bad is batter life

3. HTC Wildfire

Its a baby desire. But I am hearing reports of poor GPS chip inbuilt, requiring A-GPS for a cold fix.

At 13000 its not bad.

4. Dell San Francisco (X35 or something)

At 13000 approx, this also looks decent. But not many reports of how good or bad it is

5. Videocon

Surprise pacakge for 9000 approx. Runs 2.1, and Videocon tech support says 2.2 coming soon. Has a qualcomm arm 600MHz, so performance is going to be decent. But no idea about how good is the battery life. It comes with a spare battery standard. I cannot make out whether its good thing or bad thing.

6. Samsung Galaxy 3

I do not have much idea about this phone either

7. Sony Ericsson

I am vary of all things sony. I dunno what they will put in ROM just to rob me of my freedom.
So what do you think? Any phones I missed? What are your suggestions

Remember

1. Phone should be upgradable to 2.2

2. GPS should work in flight mode too without data connection. I intend to use brut maps and other third party software should the stock software require data connection

3. Accelerometer is needed.

4, Geotagging is needed

 

[laemo]

You do realize that your first requirement is flawed, right?

Maps and GPS are two different things. I am not aware of GPS on ANY, let alone Android phone that works in flight mode too. GPS requires an active cell phone + (possibly) data connection. You can load maps without any of these, no problem, but GPS to point out where you are won't work.

Geotagging and accelerometer are present in any basic Android phone. And most of the Android handsets are upgradeable to 2.2 I would suggest go for either LG Optimus One (my pick), Dell XCD35 (or ZTE Blade from UK for about 8.5k) or Galaxy 3. Don't look beyond these. Wildfire is also decent, yes, but not worth the money IMO. Videocon and the likes are utter rubbish because they have 0 experience in manufacturing Android handsets, have poor customer service and their phones simply cannot compete with those offered by others.

And I don't know what policies you're talking about but Motorola Milestone at 17k is an absolute steal at the price.

 

[tsk1979]

You do realize that your first requirement is flawed, right?

Maps and GPS are two different things. I am not aware of GPS on ANY, let alone Android phone that works in flight mode too. GPS requires an active cell phone + (possibly) data connection. You can load maps without any of these, no problem, but GPS to point out where you are won't work.

I think you are confusing GPS with A-GPS. GPS stands for Global Positioning system, and the GPS receiver receives a Time stamp from the satellites, and then simply writes out a NMEA/SIRF sentence which is basically saying. Hello, I am at this Latitude, Longitude and Altitude. This information is outputted every seccond and its job the the mapping software to figure out speed etc., and plot the point on a map. Default google maps require Data connection to get a quick fix via A-GPS, and then to download maps.

If you use BRUT maps, and enable caching you do not need a cell phone signal. however, switching of GPS receiver while in flight mode may be a conscious decision on part of the software

Geotagging and accelerometer are present in any basic Android phone. And most of the Android handsets are upgradeable to 2.2 I would suggest go for either LG Optimus One (my pick), Dell XCD35 (or ZTE Blade from UK for about 8.5k) or Galaxy 3. Don't look beyond these. Wildfire is also decent, yes, but not worth the money IMO. Videocon and the likes are utter rubbish because they have 0 experience in manufacturing Android handsets, have poor customer service and their phones simply cannot compete with those offered by others.

And I don't know what policies you're talking about but Motorola Milestone at 17k is an absolute steal at the price.

Motorola has an inbuilt check in the hardware which won't allow the phone to boot up if you installed a custom ROM.

 

[laemo]

Thanks for clarifying

Appreciate it! This is something that is new to me!

Well, ummm, I guess your best bet would be to buy a baby android that is widely supported by the dev community. Galaxy 3 isn't, however Wildfire and Optimus One are. I wasn't aware that you cannot install a custom ROM at ALL on a Moto phone, they only had locked bootloaders. On a quick look at: Motorola Droid Android Development - xda-developers it seems there are workarounds, but I'm not quite sure.

Optimus One/Wildfire both have pretty decent active dev community. And so do a lot of Samsung phones I reckon.

 

[tsk1979]

thanks. I am actually going to go for Optimus One, as the screen is slighty better.

Feature for feature, both the Galaxy 3 and Optimus One make great sense, and their price is also similar.

I guess since Optimus has bigger community, getting hacks etc., would be easier.

At 11000, its easy on the pocket, just like the Samsung.

Another good thing is that it comes with ndrive maps for India preloaded.

Anyways, I plan to download mapdryod too, and experiment with different stuff. I guess I will fill the 2GB card pretty soon!