best competitor circa 300?
 

Now I think I'm gonna treat myself with a new device sometime soon. I'll tell you what is a choice and what's not. Note: My N900 doesn't go anywhere, it's been my internet tablet from the start and it's gonna stay that way until it rips apart (or maybe (nokia|lg?) surprises us with the meego device)
So I'm starting with devices I would like on the list but still aren't for various reasons

1. Another N900 -- Still expensive around here, and ok I already have one
2. Dell streak -- A little out of reach, pricewise, android 1.6 and small resolution (for a fiver)
3. HTC Flyer - I fell for it's stylus but the price tag fell on me like a brick

On the other hand, devices I'm considering

1. Galaxy S -- love Samsung's AMOLED's (since the i8910) and I found one for less than 300?
2. HTC HD2 -- I know, dreaded windows mobile, but I checked and it's one of the most hackable devices around, they've even got meego on it (dysfunctional though). I like the big screen too.
3. Palm pre -- this just occured to me, but I like how it looks (in the photos) and noone has one around here. And it's got a keyboard.
4. Nokia N8 -- small res but I love that camera and chassis, also I like symbian for a phone, and ovi maps makes up for the price difference
5. HTC Desire -- I think I prefer the Galaxy's screen, and for sure the processor, so maybe it's not a choice after all
6. HTC Trophy 7 -- Don't shoot, but I haven't got my hands on a WP. It is not the os of the future (even with the addition of multitasking and copy paste) but it sure looks nice, and it's cheaper than the others (and with less impressive specs, but anyway)

Disclaimer:

It's not a production device, I wanna hack it, slash it, learn from it, maybe try code for it. If I like it too much maybe it can replace the N95 as my phone.

So you know the facts, start voting!

Re: one for fun
 

dell streak is running froyo :) DJ Steve ported it.. :D
i have HTC Desire and i love every bit of it :) a bit of modding but its pefect... N8 is slow i believe . 680mhz processor :(
Galaxy S - if you have money then buyy this haha

Re: one for fun
 

How about Nokia E7. Looks great and I hear the Symbian is improved?

Re: one for fun
 

E7 is waaay too expensive. It sure looks nice though.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Try HD2, I think it is the best among all the windows phone.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Troll harder bro.

Remember nokia are to make their Meego announcement at some point. Also, android sucks dry ***.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Have you thought about the Nokia E6? Being on the same boat as you, I was looking mainly at the pre3... but when I saw the E6 I fell in love. It's not as fancy as a big-***** slate device, but the new symbian Anna looks veeeeery interesting, it has a very nice keyboard and stuff like USB host mode, freakishly long battery life etc. Plus it looks pretty good.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

The E7 is a neat package. But Symbian obviously is a dead end - also the pyromaniac Elop put it on fire and it's offshore with no hope of rescue and still fully manned, all kinds of nasty stuff going on. I'd stay away.

Lately, analytics think Windows 7 and Android are going to be the big two, somehow. Don't know how they figured that out. Anyway, if you want your Farmwille success, you have to go in early. If you want to catch it while it's still young you have to go for Windows 7, cause that sure hasn't reached Android's popularity. Yet?

Personally, having no such delusions of making a code sniplet of financial win, I would not touch ZunePhone with a hot stick. I'd rather have an end-of-cycle Maemo, MeeGo, Android, or even Windows Mobile phone than a Windows Phone phone, at this place in time.

I'd go with Android. Infact, I already did. Since Android is so inferior compared to Maemo, I went with cheap, though. I have a ZTE Blade (aka Orange San Francisco, aka T-Mobile Blade) which has some decent reviews. Bang for bucks and all that. Zyanogenmod Gingerbread. It's pretty Meh.

From your options, I'd say that the Galaxy S is the only one I'd expect to be able to keep my disgruntledness on an acceptable level. But I don't know anything about the Palm Pre, so maybe I'd take a look at that, just to be different.

Re: best competitor circa 300?
 

I don't think he trolled. The HD2 is essentially the same phone as HD7 and Desire HD and look at the price tags. And android (which is not perfect but it's an ok os for me) is fully functional on it.

Also I don't think the meego device will qualify the price range anyway as much as I wanted it to.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Here's something different for your consideration:

Kyocera Echo Dual-Screen Smartphone Exclusively from Sprint Announced

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...510456638.html

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

I feel the MeeGo announcement is just going to be another Iphone clone anyway. In Maemo, they dropped MMS. Now, under Elop, Copy & Paste will be two $1.99 nAppstore applications. Since Nokia de-opensourced Symbian (OMG!) , I can't honestly say I believe Nokia will release an MeeGo phone without purposefully sabotaging it.

Re: best competitor circa 300?
 

I like all those damned to fail super mechanical solutions. They remind me of this and this and this and, it's not mechanical but you know what I mean (this)

I will check it out!

Re: best competitor circa 300?
 

That's a ppi I wanna see :)

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

And here I was, thinking the HTC Diamond2 had an interesting ppi.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Well, the closest analog is the iphone 4's screen. I 've seen it up close, and it's REALLY impressive. That should put the "omg symbian is pixelated" comments out for good.

Re: best competitor circa 300?
 

I don't know if MSFT is shelling out it's cash so that the WP handsets are competitively priced but both LG optimus 7 and HTC 7 trophy were just under 200? last week and with a 123? euro subsidy it was just too tempting. So I am posting from a very nice looking Ghz 'i wanna be iPhone' device. Very sexy UI, fast, excellent keyboard, dreadful ie.
Market is not available in my region and though after some failed attempts I got in the UK market, I can't buy anything cause my credit card address is of course non UK. Antialiasing is horrible on ie, text is more readable on the 360x640 i8910 than on the 800x480 optimus. These are my first thoughts, it will be my primary phone for a while and I will post how is life with it.
P.S. Maps look nice but functionality is limited, and I like the spell checker. Oh and there is no Greek input...

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

If you don't need to use it as a phone, how about the Viliv n5 (or s5)? I got a Viliv N5 off ebay for 410 USD (with an additional battery). I should get it in a few days, and I am very excited about it.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Has it arrived? How is it? Can you put meego on it?

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

I'm actually thinking about getting an Motorola Atrix. I'm up for a new plan with AT&T and it's $100 right now... for a 1ghz tegra2, qHD screen, 1gb ram...

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

I don't get these operators "cheap" deals. Now only for $100, but don't forget send us $20 or something monthly for 2 years :rolleyes:

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

A co-worker with an iPhone 3GS asked me why I paid $650 in early 2010 for my N900, when I could've had a better phone with the 3GS at $199 (AT&T with 2-yr contract, with data $60-70/month). I swiftly proceeded to correct the notion what is "better" while pointing out that my month-to-month with T-Mobile plus $650 is in fact, better.

Win and win.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Yeah, our 2-year contract system is ridiculous. Well, actually North American mobile services are horrendous in general.

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

Only it doesn't HAVE to be that way. I have been using pre-paid T-Mobile cards without any problem for the last three years. After I got my smartphone* , I use pre-paid unlimited data/text/talk for $50/month. I can go back to my old plan anytime (I used to pay roughly $20/month with moderate use).

There is no excuse complaining about the 2-year lock-in or the bad telcos when you can actually DO something about it. Had more people chosen T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom may not have sold it...

---
* - one with a proper 4+ inch screen, $400 yet missing from the poll

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

@Sopwith: thanks for reminding me of the pre-paid option. I often forget that before Virgin Mobile et al showing up to the market, the prepaid "phone cards" were really kind of a shiite deal, but not any more. I've been wondering what should be my next wrt provider/contract, and prepaid might just be it!

Re: best competitor circa 300€
 

I just wanted an unlimited dataplan and that is about 30 eur/month for one year, with a 123 subsidy. Prepaid data is out of the question. About 1€/mb or something.

By the way, I use now my WP7 as a day to day phone without data. I have the data card on my N900 (As I always did. I use it only as a tablet - had a N95, moto milestone XT720, Samsung i8910 etc for a phone alongside it).
It's a nice little phone. LG's are fortunately easy to unlock (no external software is needed, not even pc connection) so I installed a registry editor, and fiddled with the (excellent, I will say it again and again) input method so now I have a native Greek keyboard. I noticed some values in the registry (nearMiss, barelyOn etc) that point to the assumption that it isn't only size that makes the VKB awesome.

I adore the simplistic user interface even if it takes up screen space. IE still sucks (only 6 tabs which get replaced without warning when you click on new links), but I'm waiting for Mango. There are some nice apps and they all look pretty good partially because the development process is somewhat restrictive. The battery lasts so much that I forget when I last charged it, and the phone doesn't need a reboot ever (unlike previous WM's) But the good things pretty much stop here.

I won't talk about the lack of multitasking, nor about the idiotic copy & paste (I still don't understand what is the gesture that enables selection, I just tap several times on the screen and chances are the handles will appear). I will talk though about the remnants of WM that are really annoying. First thing is the inability to communicate with my vehicle's bluetooth kit. It does not find it. Period. And I have used it with all the phones above plus some se dumbphones, a nokia n-gage and a T39.
The other thing is that when you search call history, the algorithm is doing a nice fuzzy search (treating latin chars the same as their counterparts in Greek for example) but this does not happen when searching for contacts.
Next is that when you click the omnipresent search button in messages, bing shows up!
And now the dealbreakers top 3
3. No usb mass storage. I have 16GB in my pocket and I can't do squat. (Ok, you can if you have zune but the point is -- you know...)
2. It published my location to windows live without my permission! (had location turned off)
1. After you answer a call it requires about 2 seconds to connect, so the other party never hears the hello. It is ultimately annoying, embarassing and sometimes anti-social. That is the reason I will go back to symbian and to the i8910.

bottom line. It's not a mobile computer of course (I didn't think it would be), but it is fundamentally flawed as a phone too. It is not difficult to fix though, and maybe after an update or two, it will be a nice phone to have.