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Best budget Android Smart Phone?

M

M0RPH

Diamond Member
I won't be buying with a contract so I need a budget phone.

What's the best current or upcoming budget Android? Or even a non-current phone that was known to be great, that I could pick up used.

Also, are there any budget Windows 7 phones?
 
M0RPH said:
Also, are there any budget Windows 7 phones?
Click to expand...
They're all budget. 2009 hardware. 😉

Actually, Amazon has the Samsung Focus (probably king of the currently-available WP7 devices) new off-contract for $250. Considering that WP7 does well with such a now-dated SoC, that might be your best bet. For a comparable/better Android at a comparable price you'd either have to go secondhand or stick to Virgin (Triumph).
 
s44 said:
They're all budget. 2009 hardware. 😉

Actually, Amazon has the Samsung Focus (probably king of the currently-available WP7 devices) new off-contract for $250. Considering that WP7 does well with such a now-dated SoC, that might be your best bet. For a comparable/better Android at a comparable price you'd either have to go secondhand or stick to Virgin (Triumph).
Click to expand...

I don't follow phones much, what is it about the hardware that's behind? I saw this at Engadget:
Inside you've got a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and 8GB of flash storage. The screen is Samsung's well-loved Super AMOLED (the same you find in the Galaxy S phones), and of course is capacitive multitouch. The device also has that 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a GPS chip. We take a little issue with the fact that the device only has 8GB of storage -- Samsung has boasted about the fact that unlike other WP7 devices, the Focus has a microSD slot, but it doesn't exactly work as you'd expect.
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The screen sounds real nice, phone seems nice overall.
 
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Single-core Snapdragon. What's more, it's literally the same single-core Snapdragon design (with Adreno 200 GPU) that was in 2009's HD2. From about a year ago new Snapdragon Androids used the much faster 205, and from about six months ago single-core was pretty much medium and budget line only.

That said, the HTC and Samsung WP7 phones for the holidays are only up to the 205 transition, so it's the platform as a whole that's going slow on hardware, not the Focus in particular. It *does* have the best screen of 2010 (IMO).
 
For the time being WP7 are all single core, it doesn't support dual core at the moment. The OS is pretty optimized and performs well with just a single core, much the same as iOS did. If WP7 is what you want a single core snapdragon will work fine.
 
how about getting the HTC HD2 (gsm phone with sim card, not cdma like Virgin) and then install Android on it. im told it works great with android. that phone is about $150 now.
 
luv2liv said:
how about getting the HTC HD2 (gsm phone with sim card, not cdma like Virgin) and then install Android on it. im told it works great with android. that phone is about $150 now.
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$150 from where? Is that the phone that comes with the old Windows Mobile?
 
Speaking of budget phones, I see a lot of used iPhone 3GS selling for around $150. How easy/hard is it to unlock these for use on a GSM network?
 
The phone would be for someone in the Philippines. So it would need to be an unlocked GSM phone. I guess that's about the only requirement, other than it being low-cost.
 
A used nexus one should be the business. Everything is developed on it anyways so everything runs on it just fine.
 
s44 said:
They're all budget. 2009 hardware. 😉

Actually, Amazon has the Samsung Focus (probably king of the currently-available WP7 devices) new off-contract for $250. Considering that WP7 does well with such a now-dated SoC, that might be your best bet. For a comparable/better Android at a comparable price you'd either have to go secondhand or stick to Virgin (Triumph).
Click to expand...

I have a focus my self and would recomend it for that price off contract. With the mango update the phone is so silky smooth and I love the screen. The only negatives are battery life like every other smart phone and no LED notifications. You won't find a better phone for 250 dollars off contract.
 
M0RPH said:
Does off-contract mean that it's unlocked?
Click to expand...

Off contract as in non-subsidized. All those "Get X phone for $99!" deals that say "with new two year contract" in small print are subsidized (i.e. that same $99 phone is $300 if you buy it without a contract).
 
I paid $150 for my HTC EVO on Craigslist - activated it from the guy's house to make sure it wasn't stolen/etc. I love it.
 
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