Need new Android phone. Budget less than 12k. Also a pair of decent earphones.

Hi,

I am going to go to college this august and won't have a laptop so I have somehow convinced my parents to get me a smartphone. I currently have a Xperia Mini which I will try to sell locally.

My requirements are good dev support (and I should be able to root it the day I buy it) and good music quality. I will buy a decent pair of earphones so please suggest that too. Combined budget shouldn't exceed 14k.

I have confused between the Xolo q800, Q700 and ~~Lumia 520~~ (decided against it). Are there any other decent phones in this budget?

I heard new stock of q800 has same chip as q700. Xolo actually downgraded the internals of the q800 in the new stock. So I don't think Q800 matters that much. Q700 is both cheaper and comes with Android 4.2. However, there is not much dev support for that phone.

So, please clear my confusion and suggest other phones if I missed it.

Forget all these indie phones if you want good quality and good developer support.Go for Galaxy S Advance.It has good specs and good dev support.Also the phone comes with good earphones already as samsung earphones seem to be good out of the box.

mohit9206 said:
Forget all these indie phones if you want good quality and good developer support.Go for Galaxy S Advance.It has good specs and good dev support.Also the phone comes with good earphones already as samsung earphones seem to be good out of the box.

If I ignore the dev support requirement. Then?

papul1993 said:
If I ignore the dev support requirement. Then?

Then Lumia 520 is best.

mohit9206 said:
Then Lumia 520 is best.

+1

But its better to get S Advance

For headphones, use the in package headphones(samsung) for few months, collect money & buy new headphones afterwards

What is really wrong with Xolo? I am hearing good things about it.

mohit9206 said:
Then Lumia 520 is best.

Nope. Windows OS is too restrictive and doesn't have the apps I need.

Q700 is a bang for buck, a VFM product. Moreover, its jst 10k

Pantech burst

Costs 7k and has good dev support

What is the cheapest I can buy Xperia L for? Using coupons and such.

anupam_pb said:
Q700 is a bang for buck, a VFM product. Moreover, its jst 10k

I am thinking of that too. But worried about reliability. Phone should last at east 3 years. There is no dev support. But I guess I can live with that. Can it be rooted? That is an absolute MUST for me.

samsung advance S or lumia 520..

ShankJ said:
samsung advance S or lumia 520..

Can't buy Lumia, sorry. OS too restrictive and does not have the apps I like. As for the Samsung, I am leaning more towards the Xolo Q700 because of its quadcore chipset and 1 gig of RAM.

papul1993 said:
Can't buy Lumia, sorry. OS too restrictive and does not have the apps I like. As for the Samsung, I am leaning more towards the Xolo Q700 because of its quadcore chipset and 1 gig of RAM.

and no future assurance.. you said that you wanted it for min 3 years..

@OP - If u wanted a phone for 3 years then don't look for anything less than 2 gigs of ram, snapdragon s4 or pro

Or go for Nokia 1100 - No issues for 20 years for sure... lololol :))

Go for Xperia E/Galaxy Fame or upcoming Htc desire 200 if reliability is important. Otherwise Xolo Q700/Pantech Burst are good options.

papul1993 said:
Nope. Windows OS is too restrictive and doesn't have the apps I need.

You can't expect a future-proof phone (in your case, 3 yrs) with low/mid range phones.
Who knows there maybe future phones with 3GB RAM too!

And, What are the apps you need?

papul1993 said:
Can't buy Lumia, sorry. OS too restrictive and does not have the apps I like. As for the Samsung, I am leaning more towards the Xolo Q700 because of its quadcore chipset and 1 gig of RAM.

You buy what you want, no issues, but WP8 has almost all apps people need. Nowadays, even an Instagram alternative is there.

It's not half as restrictive as you make it sound. Supports drag and drop to transfer files, which is not the sign of a restrictive OS. Android phones inevitably begin to lag after six months at most, something WP will not do for much longer.

Many of my friends are happy with Lumia phones, and many others are stuck with laggy Android phones.

Krow said:
Android phones inevitably begin to lag after six months at most, something WP will not do for much longer.

Many of my friends are happy with Lumia phones, and many others are stuck with laggy Android phones.

I don't agree with that. I'm using my S2 for the past 7 months, current ROM for the last 3 months. It doesn't lag. Moreover my old Galaxy Y(which my mom uses) still lags as much as it was earlier lagging. A new phone will surely be lag free. After u install apps, it will become a bit slow but still I must say that Android 4.1 is very smooth. You may get reduced battery life(if coming from ICS), but its lag free.

Frankly speaking, my S2 lagged sometimes(very rarely), when it was on ICS(after 3-4 days of using the phone). Now on JB, no lags

If u want to use the phone for 2-3 years, then get something from reputed companies. Get S Advance

anupam_pb said:
I don't agree with that. I'm using my S2 for the past 7 months, current ROM for the last 3 months. It doesn't lag.

he was talking about stock rom filled with bloatwares and crazy themes. custom rom usually offer lag free experience on highend mobiles.

wait for Xperia M.. Pricing may be close
dual core Krait + Adreno 305 is tempting...

Gearbox said:
You can't expect a future-proof phone (in your case, 3 yrs) with low/mid range phones.
Who knows there maybe future phones with 3GB RAM too!

And, What are the apps you need?

System level Ad blocker
Ability to listen to Pandora using proxy
PowerAMP alternative

These are just a few I remember now. I also try out things related to anonymity, encryption and stuff that are only available for Android first and hardly come to other OS.

Krow said:
You buy what you want, no issues, but WP8 has almost all apps people need. Nowadays, even an Instagram alternative is there.

It's not half as restrictive as you make it sound. Supports drag and drop to transfer files, which is not the sign of a restrictive OS. Android phones inevitably begin to lag after six months at most, something WP will not do for much longer.

Many of my friends are happy with Lumia phones, and many others are stuck with laggy Android phones.

I am still trying to decide among them. I will try and see the 520 in a store and see how it is. Also check out the Xolo q700. If any new phone launches in the next month I will have to reconsider. I will buy a phone by July 25th.

anupam_pb said:
Android 4.1 is very smooth. You may get reduced battery life(if coming from ICS), but its lag free.

Frankly speaking, my S2 lagged sometimes(very rarely), when it was on ICS(after 3-4 days of using the phone). Now on JB, no lags

I agree. But installing Android ROMs is tough and needs a lot of patience. I found the experience of installing CM 7.2 on my Dell XCD 35 to be far from hassle-free. I was forced to do it because I accidentally deleted my calendar app. Since then, I've never felt like trying out new ROMs because installation is a big pain. I consider myself to be fairly tech-savvy and am still unwilling to suggest rooting and custom ROMs to anyone due to the hassle involved. A small percentage of Android users install custom ROMs, and most complain of laggy stock ROMs. It is unfair to compare your usage to the general public.

Nerevarine said:
wait for Xperia M.. Pricing may be close
dual core Krait + Adreno 305 is tempting...

Already available in L520..
OP- If possible, go for galaxy s advance if you want to go for an android os..

Krow said:
I agree. But installing Android ROMs is tough and needs a lot of patience. I found the experience of installing CM 7.2 on my Dell XCD 35 to be far from hassle-free. I was forced to do it because I accidentally deleted my calendar app. Since then, I've never felt like trying out new ROMs because installation is a big pain. I consider myself to be fairly tech-savvy and am still unwilling to suggest rooting and custom ROMs to anyone due to the hassle involved. A small percentage of Android users install custom ROMs, and most complain of laggy stock ROMs. It is unfair to compare your usage to the general public.

I was not advising to install a custom ROM. I'm just saying that Android 4.1+ offers lag free experience.

S Advance has official 4.1.2 update. So its a great phone.

Same goes for Q700/Q800 which has 4.2/4.1 out of box

Did you check LG l7 II. I wouldn't suggest you to get a xolo ****. They may work and they may not work. And when problem comes up, you are going to suffer. Also these cheap models have very less shelf live and getting accessories and spare parts in the future will be a mega headache

desiibond said:
Did you check LG l7 II. I wouldn't suggest you to get a xolo ****. They may work and they may not work. And when problem comes up, you are going to suffer. Also these cheap models have very less shelf live and getting accessories and spare parts in the future will be a mega headache

Actually these small desi companies were crap, but now have improved their quality considerably. A year ago too MMX was crap, but now its good. My uncle has MMX Canvas 2 from past 6 months, no problem at all, till now. He has dropped the phone many times too....
Still I won't expect these phones to run for more than 1-1.5 years... Get a new phone after a year....

ShankJ said:
Already available in L520..
OP- If possible, go for galaxy s advance if you want to go for an android os..

So ? Xperia M has 1 GB RAM, Camera with Flash, Android 4.1, NFC, and tonnes of Apps being android.. Pricing should be 2-3k more at max..
and why the heck are You are suggesting S advance over Xperia M at this point of time, when S advance is going extinct..
A little bit waiting is worth it.. trust me

I am trying to sell me Xperia Mini locally for about 5k. If I can do that, I will add my existing 10k and buy the Xperia L.

That you have a phone already, I advice you have it till Xperia M is available and should be available for 15k at release (Xperia L is already < 16k at many places). Also a MediaTek chipset Xperia C is also coming, though that is 3 months away.

Here L is available for 15k locally so.. :shrug:

If you are on a budget...look at the xperia series..you will get a good one under 15k...make sure it's upgradable to jb...

I need a new phone by last week of July.