Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide
by Vivek Gowri on December 4, 2010 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
- Mobile
Sprint
When Sprint launched the EVO 4G in June, they had a runaway success on their hands, so naturally, it makes sense to start there in our Sprint holiday picks. I bought an EVO on launch day, after standing in the cold and rainy weather that Seattle passes off as early summer (when in fact, it bears no resemblance to the word summer at all). It was totally worth it. When I wrote up my first impressions bit, the word “beast” came up more than once, and for good reason - it was a monster device, not just in a physically imposing sense, but also just for the number of technologies it housed. It was the first mainstream American WiMAX smartphone and by far the most impressive Sprint device in years, making it a worthy choice if you’re in the market for a high-end slate.
If you want a physical keyboard, Sprint’s other 4G phone, the Samsung Epic 4G, is what you should be looking at. It’s almost as big as the EVO and has the same problems with battery life, but it’s faster due to the Hummingbird SoC inside. It’s the only Galaxy S device with a hardware keyboard and WiMAX, so its a definite step up from the Fascinate, Captivate, and Vibrant. Unfortunately, like all of the other Galaxy S devices, it doesn’t have the greatest build quality in the world, but the extra performance makes up for that. At $249.99, it’s $50 more than the other high end devices, but over a two-year contract with data, that’s roughly 1.8% total additional cost. If the hardware keyboard is important to you, that’s definitely worth it.
On the lower end, Sprint has a motley collection of weird smartphones, with the Samsung Intercept and Transform, Sanyo’s Zio, the old school HTC Hero, the non-WiFi Palm Pixi that we all know and, well, not love, but still. Again though, we find ourselves turning to LG’s new Optimus One (the Optimus S on Sprint). Even with a slower processor, it’s a great deal with Froyo and a pretty solid feature set. And it’s free on contract. This is a free Android phone that doesn’t suck! Easy choice for a low end phone. Did I mention that it’s free?
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jalsa777 - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
i do not know your visitor's demographics...But i am preety sure a lot of visitors are from outside the USA.
The article would be much better off if the phones were divided by segment or price band.
StormyParis - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Agreed. I dropped the article when I realized the structure made no sense to me.Brian Klug - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Hey Jalsa777,Definitely see page 5 - we do realize that a huge percentage of readers aren't from American markets and are really trying to get a more global spread of devices in coverage as well.
The LG Optimus One is probably our first real international device, and we've got an N8 review coming too. I know we have assets moving into place in the UK to start covering devices in Europe as well, so it's definitely happening. ;)
-Brian
Pataling - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
The Palm Pre 2 should have got a mention in the unlocked/international section. Won't Anandtech be reviewing it anytime soon? It is a "developer's phone" after all.jordanclock - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
I found it strange that it was only mentioned in the ATT section. Since it isn't available through ATT, it really should have been put in the Unlocked/International section, unless for some reason it can't do any frequencies except for ATTs.Rick83 - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Yes, there are no cell network versions, but at their price points they offer quite a lot, and beg the question how apple and samsung end up charging the ridiculous amounts the do, for their hardware (which should be cheaper than netbooks, not more expensive...yay status-symbol-markup)It is them that also, more than a year ago, put one of the first Android Tablets on the market (my Archos 5 IT is a year old now....) and now they even made the move to capacitive touch screens (though I still prefer resistive....).
Anyway, their 70 and 101 models should be at least worth a mention, as they are actual products, and probably enjoy a bigger market share than the ViewSonic.
And not even listing Archos with the "also ran"? That's really questionable...
So anyway, if you're looking for a tablet for serious work, and not as a status symbol, give the Archos 70 a good look....USB host available via cheap adapter, priced low, connects via standard USB cable, HDMI out, micro SD.... Though apparently you give up 3g (...well, mifi is an option, or BT tethering to your cellphone) and GPS (that might hurt if you plan to use it for navigation...though 7 inch is a bit large for that kind of thing anyway.
Oh and there's a 10 incher as well, for a similar price.
Skott - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Yes, I don't understand why they didn't look at Archos as well. Perhaps because they are not as big of a company as the others? That new Archos 101 (10.1) just released recently and if anything has a chance of matching or surpassing the iPad it would be it. It uses the newer version of FROYO 2.2. At $299 its very competitively priced.VivekGowri - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You actually can't get the 101 or the 70 in the US yet, but yeah I did forget to mention them. I was really determined not to mention the Archos 9 PCtablet, since I've played with that a few times and found it a major disappointment (performance and resistive touchscreen, amongst other things). I'll probably add in a mention of the 101, cause that does have a really good price on the low end (the 16GB ends up pretty close to the Viewsonic, which is a lot more powerful.)Roland00Address - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Make sure you do a mini review before and after you root the device. I am just wondering how useful the device will be with no app support.DigitalFreak - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
I bought a Viewsonic G tablet this past week. The stock software is ok, but not great. The latest update includes the Handigo app store, which is better than nothing but not anywhere near the Android Market.Where this device really shines is with the alternate roms. TNT Lite seems to be the best at the moment. It replaces the interface with the stock Android UI. There's hack that gets you the full Android Market and Flash support as well. Unfortunately, Android 2.2 doesn't support multi-core, so you're stuck using 1/2 the processing power of Tegra 2. Hopefully 2.3 will add that. Even with 2.2, it's still a fast device.
If you plan on keeping the G tab stock, then it's merely ok. If you like tweaking though, it's definitely worth the money. XDA has an forum dedicated to it.