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Question

Help required in choosing a smart phone

Jul 22, 2012 5:01PM PDT

Hi All,

I am planning to buy a smartphone. Following are my requirements as of now.Please add the list if I missed any important ones.

1) OS Android.

2) Primary Camera with flash.

3) Front facing camera for video calls.

4) Connectivity :

a) 3G
b) Wi-Fi
c) TV out - via mini HDMI or MHL
d) Bluetooth
e) USB support

5) Entertainment :

a) Video player should play HD movies,MKV,WMV,Divx,avi etc
b) FM radio support

6) Document viewer/editor for Word/Excel files.

7) Capacitive touch

Cool GPS support.

9)Better battery backup.

10) Budget Max 500$

The model under consideration as of now are

1) Samsung Galaxy S 2
2) Sony Xperia S -- un removable battery Sad

Please help me to choose one.Please update the lits with other models.

Thank you all in advance for your valuable suggestions.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Which cellular cattier ???
Jul 22, 2012 9:38PM PDT

That would help in finding you a phone. There are several online "phone finder" tools that allow you to specify your phone requirements. Try phonescoop.com for example. There are other sources, but that will be of some help in your search.

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Answer
I wouldn't buy a Samsung Stratosphere...
Jul 26, 2012 9:33AM PDT

but if you do, send me a request and I'll give you my battery. After 6 months, I tossed the thing against a wall. Battery is probably still fine, though. Good luck with Android. If you use Verizon, good luck there, too.

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Answer
Don't go for an HTC
Aug 27, 2012 4:45AM PDT

I wouldn't go for an HTC, they become slow and fairly unreliable after a while

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Have to disagree with you....
Aug 27, 2012 5:14AM PDT

Never had any such problems with my HTC when I was still with At&t. I had the phone for almost 2 1/2 years and did not experience any reliability issues.

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No problems here.
Aug 27, 2012 7:29AM PDT

I do see many androids get loopy as the users load up the apps. Seems easy to fix by ejecting all that.
Bob

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Don't go for an HTC ?? Why
Aug 27, 2012 12:46PM PDT

I have had the HTC EVO for almost 2 years, what problems am I supposed to be having? Love the phone, has been good for me.

@ Bencilal: The Samsung is a great phone and should suffice for most anything you want to do. I admit battery doesn't last the longest, but no smart phone has a long lasting battery. I bought a spare extra strength battery and charger. Bought it at Radio Shack with warranty: went in twice and said battery wasn't holding up and got two spares. I now have the original battery, two spares and one extra strength one. I never have battery problems I can't handle.

When I load up with a bunch of apps and install them, yes then it slows down. So do all the other ones including Apple. I load a normal number of apps, thirty to forty, and have no slow downs at all. It has never failed me when I needed it, and even when I didn't. If you had problems with yours, you should have taken it in to your carrier for service. Sometimes, upgrading the software will help in this situation also. I know a lot of people that purchased the EVO, and none of them have had a complaint. Every manufacturer is going to have a few bad ones out in the real world, but it should get taken care of by the carrier.

If your phone is slowing down and it seems nothing is working, try this tip: Take out your SD card, back up your apps to your computer. Double check that you have backed up your apps and they are all on your hard drive, now delete everything on your SD card(making sure everything was backed up). Now format the card, make sure you don't use one of the old commands that installed the old DOS system on it(you won't need it) LOL. After the card has been formatted, now reinstall you old data and programs. Doing this is like the defragment command for the hard drive. I don't really recommend using that on the SD card, wasn't created for that. But the formatting and reinstalling the data and apps will put everything in order and should speed it back up for you.

What ever you decide I wish you luck.

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Thanks for this.
Aug 28, 2012 1:43AM PDT

This is exactly what I'm seeing today. Install a ton of apps and the phones slow down.
Bob

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Answer
Samsung
Sep 11, 2012 5:28PM PDT

I think you should choose Samsung Galaxy S3

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Answer
Samsung S3 is a good choice
Oct 7, 2012 4:23PM PDT

I think Samsung S3 is a good choice

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Answer
recommendation of Samsung smartphones
Oct 9, 2012 4:40PM PDT

I have been using Samsung since July of 2012,with my great experience. I had Iphone before,But to tell you the truth, I prefer the Samsung. My samsung type is I9070,that is dual-core by the way. @Bencilal