Best Android Phone

[G-Stud]

So I'm due an upgrade soon and I'm thinking of moving from the iPhone to an Android. Anyone have any recoomendations? I'm torn between the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Sensation...

[eFestivals]

I've recently bought a 'Barcelona from Orange', just because it was the phone I wanted from the available options for a free upgrade (mainly for its querty keyboard; my fingers are too fat for accurate touchscreening at speed). It’s a rebranded Huawei Boulder.

It's the first Android phone I've had so it's taken quite a bit of getting used to. I'm just about at the stage now where I don't hate it.

I've found three things I don't like about it:-

1. it doesn't much want to play wma audio files. I've managed to get them to play once, but every other time it's given messages about wma's not being supported on all Android phones - which is of course odd, because the fact I've managed to get them to play once shows that they are supported on this phone at least.

2. there doesn't appear to be any way to delete apps that have been installed. But maybe that's me being a numptie.

3. it doesn't want to do internet if there's no 3G or wifi connection (my last phone would do internet on the weakest 2G connection, even if it was slow).

[the_hedge]

So I'm due an upgrade soon and I'm thinking of moving from the iPhone to an Android. Anyone have any recoomendations? I'm torn between the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Sensation...

Edited September 21, 2011 by the_hedge

[5co77ie]

Galaxy 2 is probably marginally the best option especially now they've updated their hub software, it has the best screen, battery life etc of the two there's a good YouTube comparison video somewhere, and as long as you haven't used HTC's Sense OS you won't miss it.

Neil get the AppRemover Android

[gedrulz]

I would wait a couple of months. The run up to Christmas sees some phones being released so is worth waiting, there is nothings worse than having a phone replaced within days of getting it.

That said these days there isn't too much difference between any android device. Bigger screens, slightly better cameras, faster processors. You need to think what you want from a device. If you aren't too fussed about speed (or fancy over clocking a device) get a single core device. If you are like Neil and find some touch screens fiddly get a bigger screen or a qwerty device (htc cha cha). If you use your phone as your primary camera get one with a better camera.

[5co77ie]

Cha Cha is for small fingers, why they stopped shifting the Desire Z I'll never know.

[G-Stud]

Thanks folks. I'm thinking of going for the Samsung Galaxy S2. Seems to be pretty great and will do everything and more that I need

[Leprekorn]

Start of October the HTC Sensation Xe Beats edition come out thats the phone to go for. Either that or wait a little longer for the Google Nexus Prime

[incident]

So I'm due an upgrade soon and I'm thinking of moving from the iPhone to an Android. Anyone have any recoomendations? I'm torn between the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Sensation...

[eFestivals]

1. Do you get the same problem with other Music players, or have you just tried the default? First thing I'd do is see if they consistently play in the trial version of PowerAMP.

2. Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. The precise naming might be different if Orange or Huawei have fiddled around a bit but it should be something like that.

3. No idea - I assume it's either a Orange or a Hauwei (artificial) limitation, haven't seen it before.

1. they defo won't consistently play in PowerAMP ... tho it might have been POwerAMP that they did play in one time. (I've tried a few players, so I forget now which player it was that worked the one time).

2. spot on! Thanks.

3. yeah, that was my guess too. I did try phoning Orange's helpline to ask, but the call dropped half way thru the convo and I haven't phoned back.

[Katster]

I have samsung s, bloke has samsung s2. His is waaaaay better than mine. I reckon if I were to get a new phone I would go for iPhone. I love my iPod touch which is pretty much an iPhone just without the phone.

[G-Stud]

I loved my iPhone but it's become reall unresponsive and it keeps freezing. That's why I want to move away from them. Also, the contracts are so expensive!

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

I have samsung s, bloke has samsung s2. His is waaaaay better than mine. I reckon if I were to get a new phone I would go for iPhone. I love my iPod touch which is pretty much an iPhone just without the phone.

[LondonTom]

I got the Galaxy SII (IN WHITE!!!), its amazing I was woried about the size and lack of real keyboard but the white appeal after HP announced no more webOS. Its speedy, battery has lasted me all day at work and then onto a night out (So we're talking about 9am til 11:30 which my old palm pre wouldn't do at all) while giving it fair use in a day. (Twittter/Email notifications and checking, foursquare even a few phone calls and drunk texts and actually even used the navigation app on it to get to the station at night . (I also had the brightness on full so if you can fiddle about I am sure you would get it to last a while).

Altough you do have the galaxy note coming out (5.3" screen, stylus) and maybe europe will get the 4.5" screen version that america recently got one on of their networks

Edited September 24, 2011 by LondonTom

[incident]

1. they defo won't consistently play in PowerAMP ... tho it might have been POwerAMP that they did play in one time. (I've tried a few players, so I forget now which player it was that worked the one time).

[eFestivals]

WMA isn't one of the "core" formats supported by the Android system (probably because Google doesn't want to pay for Microsoft patents), so it's up to phone manufacturers whether they add native support. Looking at the specs of your phone, I can't see WMA listed so you'll probably be relying on apps to provide software decoding.

I suggested trying PowerAMP because it's a bit more advanced than most players and in particular it falls back onto its own decoding engine where native decoding isn't available. If it doesn't work consistently then I don't know what will - A quick internet search turns up a few recommendations for a player called BoomBoxoid, but I've never heard of it before.

Thanks .... but if it* worked once, it should work again.

(* as I mentioned earlier, it might not have been PowerAMP that worked with wma's - but something did, just the once but not again).

[t8yman]

my mate got the galaxy s2 in white on friday, and I fingered it on saturday night. nice if you want something as flimsy as a calculator in your pocket, at the size of a "speak'n'spell".

dont get me wrong, its beautifully featured, the screen looks great, and it was nippy as fook, but I would be terrified of breaking it at least 6 times a day at work. I genuinely would'nt like to be carrying any heavy boxes (which I do all day) with it in my pocket.

if it was a little bit smaller, and a lot sturdier - I would covet it.

[the_hedge]

my mate got the galaxy s2 in white on friday, and I fingered it on saturday night. nice if you want something as flimsy as a calculator in your pocket, at the size of a "speak'n'spell".

dont get me wrong, its beautifully featured, the screen looks great, and it was nippy as fook, but I would be terrified of breaking it at least 6 times a day at work. I genuinely would'nt like to be carrying any heavy boxes (which I do all day) with it in my pocket.

if it was a little bit smaller, and a lot sturdier - I would covet it.

[Sawdusty surfer]

Motorola Defy. dustproof, shockproof, waterproof and jamesproof! i love it.

[Leprekorn]

Nexus prime coming soon

[pehaw]

3. it doesn't want to do internet if there's no 3G or wifi connection (my last phone would do internet on the weakest 2G connection, even if it was slow).

Edited September 29, 2011 by pehaw

[eFestivals]

Settings / Wireless & networks / Mobile networks / Network mode /[ make sure GSM / WCDMA auto is selected rather than just WCDMA only]

Might be slightly different location in the menu system...

thanks, but can't find anything remotely like that.

[5co77ie]

Motorola Defy. dustproof, shockproof, waterproof and jamesproof! i love it.

[pehaw]

thanks, but can't find anything remotely like that.

[eFestivals]

try this...

Settings / Wireless & networks / Mobile networks / Network operators / [ now wait for list to populate]

You may find that it is set up to use the Orange 3g network (will be something like Orange Ltd 3G selected) - if it is then change it to 'Select automatically' - which should allow it to pick up the 2g network when required.

thanks - I'll give it a try again later. I have tried already, but after an hour of the phone trying to pick up a network, any network, I needed to use the phone (which makes me wonder why it was still scanning for networks. Ho-hum).