The Android Army in India

I have seen many on tech forums asking information or advice in buying new Android smartphones. Well, some start with asking about Symbian smartphone and end up with Android phone. So, to make things simple, I thought of making a proper list of Android running phones available in Indian market (official channels only)

Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700:

*img685.imageshack.us/img685/3358/i5700front.th.gif

This is the cheapest Android device that was ever available in Indian market. The only problem is that this phone is almost extinct. This was the phone that brought Android to the masses. Available at a retail price of 12.5k-13.5k, this phone broke the price barriers that were built by HTC. Notable features of this phone are

price
Android 2.1 (Éclair)
3.2” TFT LCD with resolution of 320x480
800MHz processor
great build quality
out-of-the-box DivX playback

This phone may not stand a chance against the might of Milestone or Galaxy S, but it’s available for less than half their price tag. This phone was a boon to those who wanted to use Android and cannot afford 20k+ rupees. It could do everything that a higher priced andorid phone could do but what it masters is DivX playbakc. This phone is in an elite league of phones that can play DivX videos out of the box. And most importantly, it was one of the early crop of phones that got Eclair (android 2.1). Rumour says that this phone might even get Froyo.

Not so good:

weak camera
128MB RAM only
not so great aesthetics
immature Samsung customer service.
no multi-touch

Status : not available in the market now.

Samsung Galaxy i7500:

*img692.imageshack.us/img692/1551/i7500front.th.gif

This phone can be called as the ugly duckling. Like i5700, this phone is really hard to find these days. Most of the dealers say that Samsung has stopped production of this phone. Hardware wise, this phone is really good. It has got a stunning 3.2” AMOLED display, 11.9mm thin, 5mp camera with LED flash, 8Gb of internal memory, sturdy and sleek design, very good battery life. But it runs Donut (Android 1.6) and has very weak 528 MHz processor. This created serious imbalance between software and hardware. Donut runs slower than Éclair and putting a slower processor is like adding fuel to fire. This phone died a sad death in the market when Samsung announced that they are not interested in releasing any updates for this phone (neglecting updates is an act that Samsung does a lot with their phones).

Status : not available in the market now.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini:

*img18.imageshack.us/img18/5291/sexperiax10minipr4308rg.th.png

Probably, the only Android running phone that looks cute, this phone is the smallest Android phone and is kind of a sister of Xperia X10. The second picture shows how tiny this is. I was so much used to 3.2” and 3.5” touch phones that when SE released an android phone with 2.55” touch display, I felt as if they shrunk the phone more than necessary. This phone is currently sold for around 15k rupees. Thanks to the lower resolution and smaller display, even though this phone has 600MHz processor and 128MB RAM, the UI is snappy even with TimeScape UI. But the major problem is that Android is not meant to run on such small devices and you can feel it when you try to browse internet or try to chat with someone. The tiny display just can’t accommodate good keypad and chat window not is a good experience to play 3D games.

The good:

TimeScape UI
extremely cute looking design
sturdy build quality
fluid UI with no lag
88gms weight
5mp camera with LED flash
600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor

The bad:

doesn’t come with qwerty keypad. due to small display, only standard numpad is provided and text addicts can struggle a lot with this phone.
really tiny for an Android OS
128MB a deal breaker who install Apps
still runs Android 1.6 (Donut)
low talktime of 4hrs on 2G network
non-replaceable battery.
app compatibility problem. some apps doesn’t support the lower resolution

Who should buy this phone:

strictly for females
those who are not interested in huge display but still need a capable OS

Status : available in the market for 15k

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro:

*img13.imageshack.us/img13/6318/x10miniprotyping.th.jpg

X10 mini pro is nothing but X10 Mini with landscape qwerty keyboard. though the keyboard is a nice addiiton to this phone. And guess what, though the phone is tiny, SE has managed to put in a very vey capable keypad. typing using the keypad felt really good and thanks to SE for making the battery user-replaceable. This phone should cost around 17k-18k which is not so good price given that you can get Samsung wave for same price or few few more bucks, you can get HTC Legend.

The good:

TimeScape UI
extremely cute looking design
sturdy build quality
fluid UI with no lag
88gms weight
5mp camera with LED flash
600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor
highly capable landscape keypad

The bad:

really tiny for an Android OS
128MB a deal breaker who install Apps
still runs Android 1.6 (Donut)
low talktime of 4hrs on 2G network
app compatibility problem. some apps doesn’t support the lower resolution

Who should buy this:

texting addicts who doesn’t care what the OS is
female users
SE lovers

Status : available in the market for 16k-17k

HTC Hero:

*img692.imageshack.us/img692/8430/heroallangles.th.jpg

This was the phone that truly lived up to its name. This phone stood apart in the world that was dominated by iphone and symbian phones. This was the first phone that came out with HTC SenseUI, which is still the best custom UI ever designed for Android (YouTube - HTC Hero - Video Preview). For the first time, Android users had experienced something that nobody else had. The amount of customization that was available through SenseUI was never seen before. It has familiar angular chin design, a super accurate trackball, gorgeous display, multitouch, ample amount of RAM and what not. I had a feeling that this was the real beginning of Android era. HTC showed the world the real power of Android. Comparing the earlier video with the video on HTC magic’s UI (YouTube - HTC Magic - New Product Tour) showed the amount of customization that can be done to Android.

The good:

Sense UI
Gorgeious diplay
trackball
breathtaking design
Updated to Éclair
Decent Qualcomm 7200A processor @528Mhz and 288MB of RAM

The bad:

no camera flash, no FM.
not good in multimedia.

Status: Not available in the market now

HTC Legend:

*img59.imageshack.us/img59/8462/legendallangles.th.jpg

After the huge success of Hero, HTC introduced the successor named Legend (YouTube - Introducing HTC Legend). While Hero turned out to be a great in terms of UI, Legend turned out to be Legen –wait for it- dary, Legendary. From the outerbody to the UI, everything was so impressive that it is really hard to neglect this phone. Made from single sheet of aluminium, Legend is the strongest of all the current gen phones. While HTC Sense UI on Hero was innovative, the improved SenseUI on Legend’s 16M color AMOLED display is truly stunning and looked out of the world. Still, there I no other UI that can match Sense UI in ‘awesomeness’ and ‘customizability’. And the result is that this is one of the top selling phones in the market right now. One thing that I can say is that one who gets used to the SenseUI in this phone will never look at any other UI. It is truly addicting.

The good:

Rock solid and stunning aluminium unibody design
Gorgeious AMOLED diplay that can take your breath away
Improved Sense UI
Éclair
384MB of RAM and 600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor
great multimedia features. videos look stunning while audio is crisp
USB tethering without the need of PC client

The bad:

average talktime
metal body tends to get hot causing irritation to the ear while on call for long time
No video calling
No dedicated camera key
average FM radio reception

Who should buy:

recommended for everyone with budget less than 25k INR.

Status: available in the market for 22.5k-23k

HTC Tattoo:

*img85.imageshack.us/img85/2921/tattooallangles.th.jpg

This was HTC’s first shot at midrange Android segment and sad to say that it was a failure. The main problem with this phone is that it came with a 240x320 resolution display and not many apps were optimized for this resolution. Add to that the lack of apps for Android 1.5 (was at a time when Android was building up). While it has few good features like good build quality, decent multimedia performance, it was torn to pieces by the Galaxy phones. Spica was available for cheaper price and offered lot more and that resulted in doom for Tattoo.

The good:

decent build quality

The bad:

average talktime
nonstandard resolution
slow UI
No dedicated camera key
average FM radio reception
bad multimedia performance
bad camera and no flash

Status : Still avialalble in market for 13.5k to 14k.

Who should buy:

Nobody. this phone is not worth it’s price tag.

HTC Wildfire:

*img9.imageshack.us/img9/6816/wildfireallangles.th.jpg

This phone is not yet released in India and is one of the most awaited phones. Set to replace Tattoo at midrange, this should be HTC’s proper entry into midrange phones. But still, am a bit sceptical on the phone’s low resolution TFT display. 240x320 resolution on a 3.2” display can make the display look dull and is non-standard too for Apps. The design of the phone looks strikingly similar to HTC Desire and Nexus One which means that the phone should have very good build quality.

The good:

Strong bulid quality
384MB RAM and Qualcomm 7225 528MHz processor.
Decent multimedia options

The bad:

average talktime
nonstandard resolution
no wireless N

Status : yet to release

Who should buy:

those looking for midrange Android based phone

Motorola Milestone:

*img52.imageshack.us/img52/7803/motorolamilestone.th.jpg

Motorola, before the release of Milestone was pluging into abyss. Their recent phones failed big time and their operating system was seriously outdated. Thanks to Sanjay Jha, Motorola turned to Android when it needed fresh start and that paid off really well. This phone played major part in turning Motorola’s mobile phone business back into profits. This phone didn’t have a fancy UI like HTC Hero nor it was low priced like Samsung Galaxy Spica. This phone was targeted at a different audience. Sporting a gigantic 3.7” display, this phone was instant hit among those who loved to have hard qwerty. Hardware wise, the phone has powerful ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz CPU and PowerVR SGX530 graphics (same as what N900 has). And if I remember properly, this phone was one of the first to Éclair (android 2.1) update.

The good:

Superb bulid quality
Very slim taken into account the landscape qwerty
powerful CPU and GPU
Very good 3.7” TFT display
Great camera
Landscape qwerty
great multimedia performance

The bad:

average talktime
no FM
flat qwerty keys not everyone’s cup of tea
no video calling
only 256MB of RAM

Status : Available for 28k-29k

Who should buy:

heavy users of keypad
big screen lovers
Multimedia (movie watching is a pleasure)

Samsung Galaxy S:

*img819.imageshack.us/img819/3953/galaxys.th.jpg*img9.imageshack.us/img9/9046/samsunggalaxys.th.jpg

Well, this is without a doubt the best mobile phone that I have ever tried. Even the superb Legend looked like an el-cheapo phone before the might of Galaxy S. While the 4” Super AMOLED is truly stunning, the combination of Cortex A8 Hummingbird CPU and 512MB of RAM makes the phone zippy. Touchwiz UI 3.0, though has impoved a lot, still is behind SenseUI. 720p recording, 16Gb internal memory, 802.11n, wifi access point capability, video call camera, the list is endless. If one had a budget of 30k, this is undoubtedly the phone to get and there is no need to give a second thought. To add fun, Samsung has inbuilt Swype text input which is real fun to use and many report that it is faster to type using swype than the traditional way (Swype | Text Input for Screens)

The good:

Stunningly beautiful Super AMOLED display
4” of real estate
Touchwiz 3.0
DivX/Xvid/MKV supported out of the box
1Ghz Hummingbird CPU (ARM Cortex A8)
512MB RAM, 16Gb user memory
Great multimedia performance (superb video quality, great audio quality, good FM reception)
it’s just 9.9mm thin
Swype text input
decent camera with 720p recording
great talktime
super light yet grips well.

The bad:

body is fingerprint magnet
no camera flash
Kies PC sync application is really bad, doesn’t work on mac and linux.
buggy PC sync drivers on windows 7
Should’ve come with Froyo preinstalled

Status : Available for 28k

Who should buy:

looking for the best android device
big screen lovers
Multimedia
can make iphone owner’s cry with envy
heavy multitasking

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10:

*img18.imageshack.us/img18/4188/xperiax10.th.jpg*img94.imageshack.us/img94/5707/xperiax101.th.jpg

Early 2010, this phone was the most anticipated phone of the year. First, It’s an Android phone and it’s SE’s first shot at Android. The initial demos created lot of craze. It has powerful hardware like 4” TFT touch display, 1GHz Snapdgragon, 8mp camera, 384MB RAM. But then it got lost in the barrage of devices like HTC Desire, Nexus One, Moto Milestone. The reason was simple. This phone was still running the slower and older Android 1.6 while everyone else moved to much faster and feature rich 2.1 (Éclair). Even to this day, this phone run 1.6 when Nexus One has moved to Froyo and other brands like HTC have lined up to move their phones to 2.2. SE designed TimeScape UI is a pleasure to use. It’s easy on eyes and looks fresh but thanks to Donut, there is a lag and a serious thumbs down to SE for not being able to utilize the potential of underlying hardware. Thanks to Donut, the display is stuck at 65k colors even though the LCD is capable of 16M colors and the resulting display quality is nowhere near to what Legend and Galaxy S provides. Now that phones like Galaxy S, Droid 2, Droid X, Evo are coming out, there seems no need to get this phone unless you are after the brand name.

The good:

Timescape UI
4” of real estate
great talktime
8mp camera
1Ghz Snapdragon CPU
very good build quality
superb audio quality

The bad:

Still on outdated Android 1.6
No FM
no video calling
no multi touch yet

Status : Available for 26k-27k

Who should buy:

Purely for SE loyals.

LG GW620:

There is nothing to discuss about this phone. It’s a pathetic implementation of Android. If you see this phone outside, don’t touch it. And this is how the phone looks like:

*img94.imageshack.us/img94/2193/lggw620black5.th.jpg

Here is a brief comparison of specs of all these phones. I will be updating this post as new phones are added to the Andorid arsenal in India:

*img821.imageshack.us/img821/3202/37547994.th.png

Very useful post. Thank you desibond. If I were to pick a android phone from the US, what would it be ?

How is google nexus one ?

Nice composition!

thanks guys

@pulsar_swift, just wait for Droid X's GSM Version. If it's mightily urgent, then check these:

1) Droid X (CDMA) and need to get this unlocked
2) HTC Incredible (CDMA) and need to get this unlocked
3) Samsung Captivate (GSM). Galaxy S tied to AT&T but need to get this unlocked
4) Samsung Epic (GSM). this is Galaxy S with a landscape qwerty and 4G data. need to get this unlocked

The best bet among unlocked phones are these three:

1. Galaxy S (4" display)
2. HTC Desire (3.7" display)
3. Nexus One (3.7" display)

Err.. I have a question. Why was the processor in "The legend" highlighted to be some extraterrestrial warrior "600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor" and the X10 Mini/Pro was simply given as 600 Mhz? You know right that both of them have the same processor?

Secondly, the Timescape is not a UI. Its an app. The UI is termed "UX" in the Xperia.
The Motorola Milestone doesnt have motoblur. It is a google experience phone.
And i really dont get you. You term the Milestone and Desire for multimedia enthusiasts while the X10 to be for SE lovers? You have any clue what you are writing? If you have to be biased, just paste a note alongside the X10 and tell people that I am an anti-fanboy so i pulling the X10 down. Rubbish.

And please change the mistakes.

dreamcatcher said:
Err.. I have a question. Why was the processor in "The legend" highlighted to be some extraterrestrial warrior "600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor" and the X10 Mini/Pro was simply given as 600 Mhz? You know right that both of them have the same processor?

thanks for the info. extra info added.

motorblur : sorrr for adding this. changed it on my blog but forgot to change here.

your rants : am least bit bothered!

Any news about the launch date of DROID X GSM ?

Nothing yet buddy. Should be out by September unless Verizon wants exclusivity on that phone.

Good post desibond.
Very informative for prospect buyers....
Google is all set to promote Android in developing countries. Hope it happens soon and people get to know about this OS.

My uncle ws looking for a phone in 25K budget. I did more than what a HTC sales guy can do....
I wanted him to buy Legend.(So that I too can use it for few days

)
But He ws so obsessed with Nokia that He don't want to look any beyond and adding to it ws that dumb cell world sales guy who says "HTC is not as half as good as Nokia saar... battery probs hain saar" .argh! ( We all know that they have higher margins on nokia)

Finally no surprises he settled with N97 mini. I couldn't help either

vulpine said:
Good post desibond.
Very informative for prospect buyers....
Google is all set to promote Android in developing countries. Hope it happens soon and people get to know about this OS.

My uncle ws looking for a phone in 25K budget. I did more than what a HTC sales guy can do....
I wanted him to buy Legend.(So that I too can use it for few days )
But He ws so obsessed with Nokia that He don't want to look any beyond and adding to it ws that dumb cell world sales guy who says "HTC is not as half as good as Nokia saar... battery probs hain saar" .argh! ( We all know that they have higher margins on nokia)

Finally no surprises he settled with N97 mini. I couldn't help either

Haha. Like I used to say, that generation is stuck at these things:

Margo
Clinic Plus
Maruti
Parachute
Godrej
VIP
Nokia

LOL really its very difficult to make some people buy anything other then Nokia...
Recently I too tried my best to make my uncle purchase Samsung Spica but ultimately he got Nokia 5530

Great thread Desibond...

G

good info

wat phone u hav desibond

gopi_vbboy said:
good info

wat phone u hav desibond

Thank you. I have htc legend.

---------- Post added at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------

sujoyp said:
LOL really its very difficult to make some people buy anything other then Nokia...
Recently I too tried my best to make my uncle purchase Samsung Spica but ultimately he got Nokia 5530

Great thread Desibond...

What? He got 5530xm? Isn't that kne of worst phones in that segment? Except for wifi, I think its inferior to 7.5k rupees 5230

pulsar_swift said:
How is google nexus one ?

Awesome phone! One of the phones that receives most frequent updates. Most of the N1s are already on Froyo.

desiibond said:
Haha. Like I used to say, that generation is stuck at these things:

Margo
Clinic Plus
Maruti
Parachute
Godrej
VIP
Nokia

Add IE6 too to that list

.

using the xperia x10 for the last 1 month , purchased on 6 th june 2010 , kolkata for 31.2k.

Seriously speaking.....awesome...accepted runs 1.6-no multi touch-no FM.....etc etc....So i purchased MW600, to keep the mouth shut for those who say no fm. Honestly....SE is far better than HTC , any question ??? can say about 12-15 stories about HTC from personal experience.....X10-16M:4' screen (android 1.6 Support 2M) with 1 ghz core , rocks....

If u really want to thrash x10....there are only 2 reasons.
1> Poor loud speaker
2> Android free games sucks ( except few like toss it,falling ball,throttle copter and few puzzles)...other than that U have to pay nd that sucks.

timescape and mediascape are not UI its an app , and honestly its too good.

old OS , just forget about it.......i am happy with 1.6 , end of Q4 2.1 will come out....and honestly i am happy with that.i am not at all disappointed.Multitouch-yes SE confirmed that long back it wont support due to hardware issue, but honestly u wont feel the need of multitouch a lot of time ( Till date : iPhone is the kind in this zone, hats off to its zooming feature.)

bundled software were good,standard and android keypad is good ( prefered standard),overall sleek 8.1 day light image is at par.shutting down data&gps (i use airtel 98 plan in kolkata) battery sticks for 1.5 days with moderate use...(1500mah battery).

in box hands free is awesome, in short i spend the money and i am satisfied . Its definetely woth it...Trust me....I used samsung-nokia-samsung-htc-nokia-sony.

one suggestion , dont blame x10 un necessarily unless u USE IT !

I am not a sony fan (Nokia to be honest) but this beauty stole my breath .

for those who complain x10 : please sit beside me, use my phone , then write your review.

Rating : 8 out of 10.

(coz of the sound & worthless games in free android market )

fatalcore said:
using the xperia x10 for the last 1 month , purchased on 6 th june 2010 , kolkata for 31.2k.

Seriously speaking.....awesome...accepted runs 1.6-no multi touch-no FM.....etc etc....So i purchased MW600, to keep the mouth shut for those who say no fm. Honestly....SE is far better than HTC , any question ??? can say about 12-15 stories about HTC from personal experience.....X10-16M:4' screen (android 1.6 Support 2M) with 1 ghz core , rocks....

Read clearly. Did I trash it? Compare it to GS and GS wins in these areas:

1) Display
2) storage
3) CPU and GPU, memory
4) radios
5) audio and video playback
6) Operating System
7) Document editing
8) battery life

The only areas where X10 score are :

1) UI
2) camera
3) build

Also, not to forget that in benchmarks, it lags behind inferior Legend, thanks to it's old OS.

Like I said before, X10 was a good phone till phones like Desire, GS, Milestone came out. And given that a whole new crop of phones are coming like Droid X, GS Pro, Incredible, Evo, Is there any need to consider this phone? And it's evident in sales too. See how many discuss about GS/Legend/Spica and how many discuss about X10 in the forums like TDF and TE and XDA.

PS: I may change my opinion once this phone gets proper updates.
PS2: am going to ignore posts from a troll with green logo as avatar

Please dude. Dont waste your time on this guy. He has no idea on anything he is saying with useless info. He hasnt even tried any of the phones he is said to be reviewing and is totally ignoramous of the market state.So leave him.

@fatalcore- I have an X10 too. Did you update the software? I get a batt life of more than 3 days now.

Its R2ba023 and its available through SEUS and OTA. Also pm me for the link to rckplayer where you can play divx/xvid.

@desibond- I dont see where storage comes into the picture. The GS uses an inbuilt SD which is sloww!! Cram it with media and it starts crawling like a snail.First hand experience.
CPU?- There are no performance increments with the hummingbird CPU. The 45nm core saves power but doesnt provide much of a performance boost. The GPU however is the best in the market.
Audio and video playback?
Document editing? The officesuite in the x10 can edit documents. So wheres the advantage?

Oh and please dont talk about sales. The X10 sold 1,20,000 phones in japan alone in a week and was the top selling phone in the uk for 3 months. And you are comparing the x10 to th legend/spica? Nuff said troll!!

^^ & ^
Hey desibond, its good to hear from u after so many days !

@ dreamcatcher : I did upgrade the Initial release and battery life and the bass quality did improve , as for rckplayer is concerned , its not available in the market , i had another copy from the net but it soon expired .

@desibond : Bro , i personally used the milestone , nexux one , and HTC .

Here is an review for you

Sony Ericsson launched the Xperia X10 Android smartphone in early April through the NTT DoCoMo network. The X10, simply known as Xperia in Japan, has gone on to become the quickest selling smartphone in DoCoMo’s history according to a Barclay’s Capital report.

Figures show that the Xperia sold 120,000 handsets in less than three weeks beating the HTC Android (model unspecified) that sold 80,000 units across 10 months. It was the best-selling phone on the network in April, scoring even higher sales than the 32GB iPhone 3GS. It all makes for impressive reading. Click through for an excerpt of the report.

Barclays’ Capital note on NTT DoCoMo:

“Last week we upgraded DoCoMo to Buy to reflect our increasing optimism that the company could be the big beneficiary of smart phone proliferation in Japan, given their high quality network and evolving philosophy.

DoCoMo’s new smart phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, has sold about 120,000 units within its first three weeks on sale; Tsusaka’s data shows that the initial 100,000 unit shipment to distributors sold out in 10 says, but another 50,000 units delivered in mid-April, and a third set of 30,000 units is apparently scheduled for late April.

Stores which open on weekdays are mostly sold out. Sales of over 100,000 units make a positive contribution to the company’s net increase in subscribers, so it looks very likely NTT DoCoMo will again have a top share of net add in April.

You can see that the Xperia handset is enjoying unprecedented demand compared to previous smart phones on DoCoMo’s network:

Xperia sales versus DoCoMo’s previous smart phones

Xperia 120,000 in 20 days
HTC Android 80,000 in 10 months
Blackberry Bold 60,000 in 14 months
Toshiba Windows Mobile 60,000 in 10 months”

I didn't mean to hurt u , but facts are facts . In terms of android nexux one is very very good , clean and fast . I dont like HTC because of its quality in india (Kolkata). HTC phones sucks.Starting from servicing till ur phone just chashes....

And if u check the app , Nothing stands better than timescape and mediascape , U show me something better right now in the market & I will throw away my X10

Thats a bet.
Ha ha ha .....

Bro please dont feel bad about your post , i didnt mean to harm you , but i purchased X10 after using Nexux,milestone,droid,legend.

To spend 32K on a phone you need some guts ! I will suggest you to go somewhere and check out in real. Because what you disclosed is second hand results and views and what i said is first hand experience.

As far radio is concerned , go and check out MW600 , I prefer to turn off my phone at night and play my radio.

When we come down to updates , i hardly understand why people shout 2.2 ? Boss ver3 is under construction. Just chill , I will wait for 1 year more to get ver3 with mediascape and timescape.

fatalcore said:
^^ & ^

I didn't mean to hurt u , but facts are facts . In terms of android nexux one is very very good , clean and fast . I dont like HTC because of its quality in india (Kolkata). HTC phones sucks.Starting from servicing till ur phone just chashes....

And if u check the app , Nothing stands better than timescape and mediascape , U show me something better right now in the market & I will throw away my X10 Thats a bet.
Ha ha ha .....

hmm. <<out of words>>. Really!

PS: by radio, I didn't mean FM. God!

I have had enough headache from one SE X10 owner going ga-ga everywhere. And I can't have another headache. If you think that X10 is the best phone, please go ahead, write a review, let us know what you think. That would be a better way than what you are doing now, accusing that HTC is waste, X10's UI is best etc etc when clearly, that is something that nobody except the other guy with green logo accepts.

and FYI, GS sold 200,000 in 10 days in Korea alone.

^^dreamcatcher

Desiibond is a very good and nice person , and for your information he do knows a lot.But i am afraid he made mistake with his bias thinking in android market, we all make mistake.So lets not fight over it .

@desiibond : Bro , when i used the word "trash it" it was perfectly from my perspective and not from yours.

Ne way i am looking for a good car game for my x10,if u have something please do send me the link....I am too bored playing puzzles and card games.

Motorola Ftw.... I have Milestone and i'm Lovin it , Running on Custom Pulsar 1.2 ROM and never felt lack of any feature

(except videocalls)

desiibond said:
PS: by radio, I didn't mean FM. God!

That cracked me up :rofl:

Do you listen to AM then? What else do you need a radio for then?

amitabhishek said:
That cracked me up

haha. right. by Radio, I meant bluetooth, wifi. I pity that genius troll for not knowing this

I have never heard anyone describe Bluetooth and Wifi which are generally termed as wireless protocols for connectiviy as Radios. Anyways, perhaps its the norm for some people, n00bs to be more precise.

Radio handle phone's connectivity with the cell phone network. An incompatible radio with Android version can result in marked deterioration in call quality. There are different radios for Cupcake & Donut. However Donut onwards (for Magic & G1) the radio has remained same. Needless to say different phones models use different versions of radio. For. e.g. I cannot use a Hero's Donut radio on Magic. Few handsets were never designed to run anything beyond Cupcake. One such handset was G1 but thanks to modders such Haykuro. His radio enabled Donut and Eclair on even G1.

This radio has nothing to do with AM or FM radio stations.

Wireless Protocol is just a set of rules.

Bluetooth uses a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum, which chops up the data being sent and transmits chunks of it on up to 79 bands of 1 MHz width in the range 2402-2480 MHz. This is in the globally unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz short-range radio frequency band.

Wi-Fi uses both single-carrier direct-sequence spread spectrum radio technology (part of the larger family of spread spectrum systems) and multi-carrier orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) radio technology. The deregulation of certain radio-frequencies[by whom?] for unlicensed spread spectrum deployment enabled the development of Wi-Fi products, Wi-Fi's onetime competitor HomeRF, Bluetooth, and many other products such as some types of cordless telephones.

Source : wikpedia

This is the reason why these are also termed as radio.

also, GSM, CDMA, GPRS, EDGE are all under radio networks.

thanks desiibond...that was enlightening...

OMG

please dont make it more complicated...when I say 3110 have radio in it I dont mean it have GPRS and EDGE and its GSM or CDMA...but plainly it can play radio fm...

Its better to term Wifi and GSM as Wifi and GSM not radio..please :chucks:

sujoyp said:
OMG please dont make it more complicated...when I say 3110 have radio in it I dont mean it have GPRS and EDGE and its GSM or CDMA...but plainly it can play radio fm...

Its better to term Wifi and GSM as Wifi and GSM not radio..please

Hey. sorry. don't get confused. This is the reason why I used terms like FM Radio, Wireless N in the post. I used the term 'radios' in reply to those two geeks using X10.

---------- Post added at 11:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:21 AM ----------

gagan007 said:
thanks desiibond...that was enlightening...

you are welcome

BTW thanks for the info :mrgreen:

Desibond

Excellent thread desiibond! Kudos to you for taking out the time and writing such a detailed review of so many handsets!

To all wondering about radio, yes, it *is* the correct term to use in the context desiibond used it for. Some people think they are over smart and when they are proven wrong, they cry fowl..

^^^@ dessibond :

Thanks for describing the term " RADIO " .

I wonder what the spod desiibond uses and how many phones he has personally handled before calling geeks to me ? This hurts !!! I know u know a lot,but that doesnt confirm that u know every thing , as u had to visit wikipedia

to explain RADIO ! ha ha ha

Neway As ^^ its trully a great effort of compiling such a review on android phones .

For those who uses the Acer Liquid : congrats Eclair 2.1 update is available officially , The system update is available as a download in the support sections of the regional Acer websites.

Enjoy !

---------- Post added at 08:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------

^@kalpik

To all wondering about radio, yes, it *is* the correct term to use in the context desiibond used it for. Some people think they are over smart and when they are proven wrong, they cry fowl..

Well everybody is not a pro like desiibond and technically so sounded . There is no question about

smartness

, go out in street and ask

What do u understand by Radio ?

and 98% people will understand it as FM , any doubt ?

THANKS TO NOKIA,SAMSUNG and OTHERS "RADIO" button , which specifically triggers PN511 CHIP.............. I wonder why ???

Anyway, Then desiibond should know that the "RF's" are really strong in X10,and the phone lacks "Radio" [ Precisely AM & FM ] .

Study Radio from same source WIKIPEDIA

Radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and next time i would suggest you to use "RFs" instead of "RADIO".

kalpik said:
Excellent thread desiibond! Kudos to you for taking out the time and writing such a detailed review of so many handsets!

To all wondering about radio, yes, it *is* the correct term to use in the context desiibond used it for. Some people think they are over smart and when they are proven wrong, they cry fowl..

Thanks for the complement da.

@fatalcore, I am not a 100% knowledged person but I don't go after everyone who doesn't support a product that I use. I own HTC Legend but I don't suggest it to everyone who asks for a recommendation and I don't go after everyone who decide not to buy it.

Still, I am saying, the phone that you own doesn't stand a chance before other top end Android phones and it's a harsh truth to accept. And you should've followed your brain than guts before paying 32k for your phone! Atleast you should've asked me or other fellas at TE and TDF. Getting X10 when GS was just around the corner is a serious wastage of money. No pun intended. You should have really really asked us.

And enough of this ruining the thread. You want to advertise about your phone, please do write up a review and we will be glad to read it.

, Ne way i must say.....I went ga ga 3 year back when i saw HTC Touch diamond for the first time....Spent 30,000 & a proud owner at that time in kolkata......Although i could use it more than 7 months , i still treasured the device in my showcase above my bed.....I just wish an android os running on that particular set......Never ever seen an elegant set like HTC TD till date...........(PS : Plz forget its features and everything...Just feel the set in your palm.I love it.)

fatalcore said:
, Ne way i must say.....I went ga ga 3 year back when i saw HTC Touch diamond for the first time....Spent 30,000 & a proud owner at that time in kolkata......Although i could use it more than 7 months , i still treasured the device in my showcase above my bed.....I just wish an android os running on that particular set......Never ever seen an elegant set like HTC TD till date...........(PS : Plz forget its features and everything...Just feel the set in your palm.I love it.)

And I just hope history won't repeat itself

Offtopic, what happened to Touch Diamond?

L

dreamcatcher said:
I have never heard anyone describe Bluetooth and Wifi which are generally termed as wireless protocols for connectiviy as Radios. Anyways, perhaps its the norm for some people, n00bs to be more precise.

---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------

also write bout android porting projects

Well, honestly i purchased X10 due to timescape and mediascape and the integrity of social sites in one place.

If u ask me personally , NOTHINGS Better than nexux , its a raw flavour of android...

In kolkata (Specifically) the HTC service is horrible....I purchased the HTC Touch diamond approx 2.7-8 years back....and mumtazuddin personally complained to HTC sets ....

I am personally looking forward for the Nokia N8 or iPhone 4 late this year...As i will replace the second set with N8 or iPhone 4.

Honestly..... MW600 was a nice addition to my primary set.

However I said i am not a big fan of SE X10.....Coz of its build qulity

Take out the back cover and u can chew that like a chewing gum !

Visit market and practically worthless games for free....Switch on the flash.....and it stays on forever [ What a crap - i use it during power failure

]....ever view the one and only default blue theme.....No smart dialing.....

I am listing a overall feature of the X10..

XPERIA X10 comes with top-notch hardware to meet its software demands. Here is the impressive specs sheet along with some potential drawbacks.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
4" capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 854 pixel) resolution and scratch-resistant surface
16M-color ready (65K effective colors under Android OS v1.6)
Android OS v1.6 with complete Sony Ericsson UI customization
Timescape and Mediascape UI
Excellent social networking integration
Excellent build quality
Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU, OpenGL ES 2.0 support; 384 MB of RAM
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, touch focus, image stabilization, geotagging, face and smile detection
WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) video recording @ 30fps
Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
1GB storage, microSD slot, bundled with an 8GB card
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
Document viewer
Li-Po 1500 mAh (BST-41) battery
Great audio quality
Main disadvantages
No DivX and XviD video playback
No smart dialing
Limited storage available to the user on the system partition (you are left with only 512 MB for installing apps)
No secondary video-call camera (or videocalling whatsoever)
No free GPS navigation solution
No Flash support for the web browser
No FM radio
An extra xenon flash would’ve made the very good camera perfect
Feeble loudspeaker

My recommendation : Try iPhone before selecting this set....(Honestly)

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:50 PM ----------

I had a strange problem with the loud speaker in HTC TD , when talking after say around 10-15-20 sec....the loud speaker would suddenly turn on...and more pathetic it wont stop unless disconnected.....this happened after approx 2.5 month...after servicing.....after 4-5 months....my battery dies out super fast.....would only last for approx 4-5 hours a day...and then after 7 months it died completely....i was told it was a user fault...later on mumtazuddin confirmed that it was some what a common problem ... and has happen ed earlier.....

fatalcore said:
Well, honestly i purchased X10 due to timescape and mediascape and the integrity of social sites in one place.

If u ask me personally , NOTHINGS Better than nexux , its a raw flavour of android...

umm. Milestone too runs vanilla Android and is the best of the rest when it comes to updates. Rumour says that it is going to get Froyo really really soon.

L

DoCoMo’s new smart phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, has sold about 120,000 units within its first three weeks on sale;

if sales were any indicator then Jets 2 million pre orders would have made it awesome

BTW, I don't know how many of you have got a chance to play with GS, but the Facebook and Twitter integration in the contacts app is simply awesome! @desiibond, check it out if you haven't already

kalpik said:
BTW, I don't know how many of you have got a chance to play with GS, but the Facebook and Twitter integration in the contacts app is simply awesome! @desiibond, check it out if you haven't already

yes. I do remember. Configure twitter and facebook id for each contact and the updates are pushed to contacts app . fing awesome.

@desiibond: That's a nice compilation for quick reference before buying. All the essential details are there.

Also, I don't why people cry about Android versions. As long as it's not 2.2; 1.6 or 2.0 or 2.1 hardly is any different from each other for me. 2.2, yes I would anyday buy a phone with that given a choice amongst all; but anything under 2.2, it's all the same for me; no big deal

infra_red_dude said:
@desiibond: That's a nice compilation for quick reference before buying. All the essential details are there.

Also, I don't why people cry about Android versions. As long as it's not 2.2; 1.6 or 2.0 or 2.1 hardly is any different from each other for me. 2.2, yes I would anyday buy a phone with that given a choice amongst all; but anything under 2.2, it's all the same for me; no big deal

yes. it does matter. 2.0/2.1 are the versions that gave Android the boost it needed

Android (operating system) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

read the changelog from here or from Android's home pages.

There are not so subtle differences:

What is the difference between android 1.5 and 2.0?

amitabhishek said:
There are not so subtle differences:

What is the difference between android 1.5 and 2.0?

Android 2.0 Feature Review

watch the video in that page.

1) performance (makes use of hardware acceleration)
2) multiple accounts
3) exchange support
4) multiple screen sizes supported, which means, apps can work on different screens unlike apps designed for 1.5/1.6. (HTC Tattoo running 1.6 was not being able to utilize many apps (especially games) that were designed for higher resolution and larger screens. This shouldn't be a problem with 2.x versions)
5) quick contact (this feature used really well in Galaxy S, see Kalpik's screenshots in GS thread)
6) multi touch
7) better use of bluetooth API (not sure how much useful this was)

desiibond said:
yes. it does matter. 2.0/2.1 are the versions that gave Android the boost it needed

Android (operating system) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

read the changelog from here or from Android's home pages.

I'm not taking about some documented changelog or readme or anything. I'm talking about first hand user experience. 1.6+ until 2.2, I don't find anything revolutionary or out of this world.

infra_red_dude said:
I'm not taking about some documented changelog or readme or anything. I'm talking about first hand user experience. 1.6+ until 2.2, I don't find anything revolutionary or out of this world.

1) Multiple gmail accounts sync with unified inbox : I have three gmail accounts and I prefer to use all of them in my phone for updates, contacts etc. This was not possible with 1.5/1.6.
2) Multi touch : This helps a lot when browsing, viewing pictures etc.
3) 16M color display : Thanks to better color support, the color look vibrant and also videos are crisp. Add to that the superb quality that AMOLED brings in.
4) performance : apps open faster, UI is snappier, multitasking is better, more fps in games.
5) quick contact : you should really see how much this helps. try phones like Legend and SGS
6) Improved keypad : with multitouch support, typing is lot faster and apps like swype make it easier.

with 2.2 you get these native features:

1) wifi hotpost
2) tethering
3) superb performance boost for mid to high end phones, making better use of underlying hardware.
4) Improved exchange functionality

@Infra

Most of the developments that have been made are under the hood. But when you compare a vanilla Cupcake with an Eclair you will notice a lot of difference. Right from app. launcher to Music to Gallery. In terms of usage perhaps the greatest improvement that i have seen is browsing. Browsing seems to be a lot snappier.

Though I am on 2.2; the devs have disabled JIT (dalvik VM still around for me) so I hardly notice any performance boost.

J

@desiibond : good information. Thanks for your time and efforts to put it all in a single post. I am sure this will help a lot. May be we can try and more and more handsets as they come.

Cool Stuff!!

jetboy said:
@desiibond : good information. Thanks for your time and efforts to put it all in a single post. I am sure this will help a lot. May be we can try and more and more handsets as they come.

Cool Stuff!!

Thank you. and I will be updating the post as new models come along (even if it's shittty models like Lemon blah blah blah)

. You can also check 'bandla.wordpress.com' for updates on the same

F

nic compilation . Although I'm still angry that you didnt include htc Magic :-x

. Lol j/k. Nice review sheet. SHould help anyone who needs a quick comparison between all of them. As for the rest please try to keep the thread on topic

.

Cheers.

N

sujoyp said:
LOL really its very difficult to make some people buy anything other then Nokia...
Recently I too tried my best to make my uncle purchase Samsung Spica but ultimately he got Nokia 5530

Great thread Desibond...

Great thread desi..amazing information for Andriod lovers !!
@sujoyp- well said my friend !! There are so many Andriod phones in the list..and they keep on increasing but I'm still waiting for N8

PS: sorry mod-@offtopic !! This should be sticky !!

desiibond said:
1) Multiple gmail accounts sync with unified inbox : I have three gmail accounts and I prefer to use all of them in my phone for updates, contacts etc. This was not possible with 1.5/1.6.
2) Multi touch : This helps a lot when browsing, viewing pictures etc.
3) 16M color display : Thanks to better color support, the color look vibrant and also videos are crisp. Add to that the superb quality that AMOLED brings in.
4) performance : apps open faster, UI is snappier, multitasking is better, more fps in games.
5) quick contact : you should really see how much this helps. try phones like Legend and SGS
6) Improved keypad : with multitouch support, typing is lot faster and apps like swype make it easier.

with 2.2 you get these native features:

1) wifi hotpost
2) tethering
3) superb performance boost for mid to high end phones, making better use of underlying hardware.
4) Improved exchange functionality

amitabhishek said:
@Infra

Most of the developments that have been made are under the hood. But when you compare a vanilla Cupcake with an Eclair you will notice a lot of difference. Right from app. launcher to Music to Gallery. In terms of usage perhaps the greatest improvement that i have seen is browsing. Browsing seems to be a lot snappier.

Though I am on 2.2; the devs have disabled JIT (dalvik VM still around for me) so I hardly notice any performance boost.

The only thing that matters to me is the multi-touch in 2.0. Nothing else matters as a consumer, trust me. Most of the "so-called" features are just an eye-wash. 2.2 is the only version I consider revolutionary.

And if I say something, I don't talk in thin air. I say it because I work at Qualcomm. I've played, fiddled, dissected every piece of hardware and it's corresponding OS before anyone here got a chance to even smell about it through some tech-rumor blog/website!

infra_red_dude said:
The only thing that matters to me is the multi-touch in 2.0. Nothing else matters as a consumer, trust me. Most of the "so-called" features are just an eye-wash. 2.2 is the only version I consider revolutionary.

Merit of a feature depends upon individual needs. For me its native Exchange support. For someone else it would be Bluetooth 2.1, likewise. So saying that apart from MT everything else is an eyewash may not be entirely correct.

amitabhishek said:
Merit of a feature depends upon individual needs. For me its native Exchange support. For someone else it would be Bluetooth 2.1, likewise. So saying that apart from MT everything else is an eyewash may not be entirely correct.

totally agree to this point.IMO the progression of Android in past couple of years has been phenomenal...a person who spends 25K+ on a handset is not a noob but most of such people are tech savvy and feature hungry and if the feature list of 1.6 and 2.2 are compared anyone can tell the difference.

Off-topic:When iPhone was launched (in those initial days) everybody who purchased it immediately started looking for ways to forward sms and record video.

I am sure those who are on Android 1.6 now, when they get chance to move to 2.2 they will be thrilled to see loads of added features...

J

desiibond said:
Thank you. and I will be updating the post as new models come along (even if it's shittty models like Lemon blah blah blah) . You can also check 'bandla.wordpress.com' for updates on the same

Wow thats a great site my friend...Kudos to you on that

Interesting read.

What do u understand by Radio ?

Transistor/Those old-style music players (Cassette Player+FM/AM Player) :mrgreen:

amitabhishek said:
Merit of a feature depends upon individual needs. For me its native Exchange support. For someone else it would be Bluetooth 2.1, likewise. So saying that apart from MT everything else is an eyewash may not be entirely correct.

Totally agree. I like the factors like multiple gmail account sync and 16M color support and am not much concerned much about exchange. Working in Qualcomm and having the possibility of testing every single phone (having qualcomm chipset) doesn't justfiy this quote (by ird):

I've played, fiddled, dissected every piece of hardware and it's corresponding OS before anyone here got a chance to even smell about it through some tech-rumor blog/website

And if I am right, in case of current gen smartphone platforms, it's the developers that make it click more than end users and they are happy with 2.x builds

---------- Post added at 10:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 AM ----------

thank you

Liverpool_fan said:
Means of Transistor/Those old-style music players (Cassette Player+FM/AM Player)

Let's not drag this thing further

amitabhishek said:
Merit of a feature depends upon individual needs. For me its native Exchange support. For someone else it would be Bluetooth 2.1, likewise. So saying that apart from MT everything else is an eyewash may not be entirely correct.

That is exactly what I said in first place!

infra_red_dude said:
Also, I don't why people cry about Android versions. As long as it's not 2.2; 1.6 or 2.0 or 2.1 hardly is any different from each other for me.

But you guys started giving me links....!

desiibond said:
Working in Qualcomm and having the possibility of testing every single phone (having qualcomm chipset) doesn't justfiy this quote (by ird):

Dude, I'm not boasting here. You asked me to "try" out phones thinking that I 've never seen those phones and I replied that I've played around with every phone (yes, even those that don't have Snapdragon; coz somewhere inside almost every Android phone there is some Qualcomm chip). I don't "test" phones. I design GPUs for Embedded SoCs.

I made the comment coz 75% of the people I know do not use any of the new features and yet crib about how their phone doesn't have the latest version of the OS. And trust me, when I say the hardware and the drivers were always there, they were always there; but a lot of things were disabled (yes, just disabled) in the OS... for the sake of incremental updates. I won't (and can't) name anything, but apart from multi-touch there is no revolutionary progress in Android, of course, until 2.2 comes out.

I still stand-by my statement that this is a very nice compilation for people looking to buy Android phones