Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide
by Vivek Gowri on December 4, 2010 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
- Mobile
Unlocked/International
We realize that a significant portion of AnandTech readers aren’t located in the USA, and to that extent want to also cover some of the international and unlocked phones that are potentially on smartphone shopping lists this holiday season. It’d be completely disingenuous if we had a myopic, USA-centric world view, and we’re actively working on getting a more international spread of devices whenever possible that’s of interest to everyone.
With companies like HTC, most of that is pretty easy. The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer generally spins a particular piece of hardware in multiple varieties for specific markets, keeping the general reference design unchanged. For example, we have the HTC Desire, which is almost the same as the Nexus One, and the HTC Desire HD, which is a mildly updated version of the HD2/HD7/EVO 4G.
The most prominent international smartphone carrier of course is Nokia. Our top picks there are the N900 which can be had unlocked for around $330 unlocked, which runs Maemo 5 and MeeGo. We reviewed the N900 and loved the freedom of having real Linux running on a smartphone. The other awesome choice from the Finnish smartphone powerhouse is the Nokia N8, which we’re currently in possession of and in the process of reviewing. Although we’re not finished, the hardware itself is awesome - anodized aluminum all over, 12 megapixel camera with real Carl Zeiss glass optics, and a pentaband UMTS baseband. Though Symbian is showing its age, the N8 is an otherwise awesome device, and can be had for $530 unlocked. We’ve also looked at the Nokia E5 previously, but it looks like a sidestep from its excellent predecessor, the E72. You can find the E72 for less than the E5, so if you're looking for a Symbian-based BlackBerry alternative, the E72 is probably the way to go.
If you’re on a budget and want an Android 2.2 phone, the other option which has seen a lot of success recently is the LG Optimus One, which we also have and are in the process of reviewing. The Optimus One is a solid little device, packing a 3 megapixel camera sans flash, Android 2.2, HVGA capacitive display, and one of Qualcomm’s newer SoCs with an Adreno 205. Though it isn’t the speediest hardware on the block or the most flashy, the Optimus One is an admirable mass market device with a lot of potential, and we can certainly understand why they sold more than a million in the first 40 days.
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DigitalFreak - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Forgot to mention that there is also a dock coming, with HDMI out, USB and an Ethernet port.VivekGowri - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You can still sideload apps, so it's not a huge deal. You can seriously just go download the .apk from the internet, toss it onto the SD card and install off there. The problem with that is that some of the apps don't work too well - I couldn't get Angry Birds to run properly for some reason.Just IMO here - the stock software is NOT okay. It's basically ruining the device, for me at least. It's such a slow UI....I can deal with UI skins that don't lag down the system, like on the Galaxy Tab or the HTC Sense stuff, but man, this thing is slow - I've got dual A9's and it feels slower than the freaking ARM11 phones.
XDA is awesome, I've been looking at their section for the G-Tablet recently. I'll probably have a performance preview up within the next couple of days, but the full review is going to have to wait until after the Galaxy Tab review, so I'll probably look into TNT Lite.
The G-Tablet really does look like the hackers dream, but I've got a question, am I the only one that thinks it has a pretty woeful screen (especially next to the iPad)?
strikeback03 - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Haven't seen one in person, but based on the preview hands-on over at androidcentral I have to agree, horrid viewing angles on the screen and lag that could be measured in multiple seconds in interacting with the OS. And apparently it was even more unusable with the first shipping software revision, IIRC there have already been updates.jonup - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Guys, while I understand the noise around the flagships of the major phone manufacturers/brands is there a chance that we will see reviews/recommendations for some smaller, lighter and more elegant phones? I just picked up X3-02 and so far I am loving it. (I wish I didn't have to work 60+ hours and getting ready for some finals :( ) I paid for it more than some of your higher end offerings just because I don't want to hoe all the extra weight. Maybe you can review even some Vertu phones!?That said I understand it is a niche market and most people on the street would not care because they have not been bombarded with countless commercials everyday, but for those of us that care about looks, texture and quality of materials, we still want to get a feature rich device as much as the physical dimensions allow for. It will be nice to know how they stack up against the big phones.
p.s. I also prefer Longines to Breitling ;)
DanNeely - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
They're less fashionable, but feature phones still make up roughly half the phones sold, so a reasonable case could be made to cover some of the higher end models.G-Man - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
"It’d be completely disingenuous if we had a myopic, USA-centric world view, and we’re actively working on getting a more international spread of devices whenever possible that’s of interest to everyone."You have no idea how awesome Anandtech is for realising this (no sarcasm). So many other sites forget this. Thank you.
Hrel - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You guys REALLY need to start getting some Archos hardware in shop to test out.AuDioFreaK39 - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Excellent article Vivek and Brian! I just spotted one apparent issue with a technical specification. On the very last page regarding tablets, the BlackBerry Playbook was announced to feature a 7-inch 1024x600 screen, not a 10-inch screen. Hopefully this can be corrected, thanks in advance.VivekGowri - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
Riiiiiight. My bad, thanks for catching that!Galcobar - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Actually, the PlayBook is a 16:9, 7" screen, device itself is 5.1" x 7.6" x 0.4" (130mm x 194mm x 10mm).