Smartphone Buying Guide [Work In Progress]

[ruggles]

Samsung:
very few & late updates.

You should be thankful that the updates at least come.
Better late than never.

LG:
community support & frequent updates.

LG's community support is nothing compared to HTC's and moto's. Frequent updates? As far as i know, only optimus one has got a proper OS update in time. Optimus 2x should have come shipped with GB.

Motorola:
good community support but lowend smartphones are mostly rebranded or poor design (eg: XT series & flipout/charm).

Agreed, will update

look its useful at the lower price points where a call between a defy and a wildfire is between call clarity and build quality, but if you are comparing the optimus 2x, the htc sensation and the SE arc, this guide will not really take you anywhere... it needs more pluses and minuses, and althouth the SE phone cams are pretty good, they are not the best at any price point, the nokias seem to be better at this
this is a tough terrain to navigate lol, im trying to figure this out myself

Thats why nobody tries to make such a guide even though it will be useful because they know they will get heavily criticism, so at least appreciate the attempt and effort.
Above SE cams, i said 'Above average quality camera', i never said 'Best in class camera' as i am well aware that it isnt.

^^ agreed with you. this guide only tells about a company as a whole & not about the mobiles they make.

Read the title first. It says smartphone manufacturer guide, not smartphone guide. And the aim of this guide is to make the users aware of what to expect from a phone from a certain manufacturer, so it is indirectly about the phone only. And points like 'Above average build quality', 'Above average quality camera' mean the build/cam quality of the phone right?
Or is it the build quality/cam quality of the company?

Nice list. @desiibond: I'm planning on to buy HTC Incredible S, but then there is Samsung Galaxy SII for just 4k bucks more, is it really worth the extra money? The major factor diverging me towards Incredible S from Galaxy S2 is the HTC Sense UI.


I seriously doubt that.

Isnt HTC the only co. which has updated most of its phones?
And never released and phone with outdated OSes?

 

[Anorion]

Used desiibond's list as a starting point, and ruggle's list to distill the choices between phones. then used gsmarena for a specs comparison, and some other choices.
trying to figure out a way to show exactly how important any feature on a phone is (perhaps the font size of the feature?) and this does not state the OS or till what version the OS can be upgraded.
feedbok plox
*i.min.us/jbMEx6.jpg
full size here

 

[sygeek]

^ Nice flowchart, but where do I start (and where is Incredible S)?

 

[Anorion]

^start in the middle, choose a price point
picked the phones in bold from desiibond's list, with a few best in category additions from gsmarena, so yeah the incredible S isnt here

 

[desiibond]

hey guys, was very busy with work and couldn't add anything extra to the tables. should be done in the next two days or so.

 

[ruggles]

I have realized that nobody bothered to appreciate the work ive put in that guide, you all are just criticizing and picking out what you feel isnt right within the guide. I am receiving a lot of likes and appreciation from another forum where i have posted it. They also give constructive suggestions and i update the post accordingly. But i dont think i have got what i deserved in this forum. Not a single 'thanks' or 'well done' about the 95 correct points out of around 100. Only criticism about those remaining 4-5 points which u felt were not perfect.
I knew that it wasnt perfect, but intended to make a start and update the guide according to the users' suggestions, but i am receiving nothing but criticism from here. And it is really discouraging to a writer, especially one writing for free for the benefit of other users to face this.
Hence, i have decided to delete the guide since i feel i dont want to continue to see my effort being mocked here. So, goodbye.

 

[azzu]

I have realized that nobody bothered to appreciate the work ive put in that guide, you all are just criticizing and picking out what you feel isnt right within the guide. I am receiving a lot of likes and appreciation from another forum where i have posted it. They also give constructive suggestions and i update the post accordingly. But i dont think i have got what i deserved in this forum. Not a single 'thanks' or 'well done' about the 95 correct points out of around 100. Only criticism about those remaining 4-5 points which u felt were not perfect.
I knew that it wasnt perfect, but intended to make a start and update the guide according to the users' suggestions, but i am receiving nothing but criticism from here.
Hence, i have decided to delete the guide since i feel i dont want to continue to see my effort being mocked here. So, goodbye.

+1 for this ........

dude it doesnt work that way here..
Repping , thanking....
i appreciate the amount of work u did...but
hoping u'll get rewarded by tons of thanks and reps(whch we dont have here) is out of the line....

 

[Anorion]

^huh? the internet is serious business, we are not mocking anyone's work here where did that come from? post it again, and criticism is just criticism it is not inherently good or bad, or with any kind of malicious intent, and why would you prefer appreciation over criticism anyway?

 

[ruggles]

+1 for this ........

dude it doesnt work that way here..
Repping , thanking....
i appreciate the amount of work u did...but
hoping u'll get rewarded by tons of thanks and reps(whch we dont have here) is out of the line....

I dont expect tons of thanks and reps, but not a single one? Instead criticism and only criticism? I didnt write the article for money here, just to help users.

 

[sygeek]

I have realized that nobody bothered to appreciate the work ive put in that guide, you all are just criticizing and picking out what you feel isnt right within the guide. I am receiving a lot of likes and appreciation from another forum where i have posted it. They also give constructive suggestions and i update the post accordingly. But i dont think i have got what i deserved in this forum. Not a single 'thanks' or 'well done' about the 95 correct points out of around 100. Only criticism about those remaining 4-5 points which u felt were not perfect.
I knew that it wasnt perfect, but intended to make a start and update the guide according to the users' suggestions, but i am receiving nothing but criticism from here. And it is really discouraging to a writer, especially one writing for free for the benefit of other users to face this.
Hence, i have decided to delete the guide since i feel i dont want to continue to see my effort being mocked here. So, goodbye.

So, you do the hard work just so it is appreciated, but not because it can help others/benefit the community. In plain words, that's selfish.

And just so you know, "thank you" and other BS two-wordies are not allowed. We rather prefer constructive criticism.

There's no like system here, but there's a rep system. This alt. system is not meant to be abused like the "Like system". But if there were a "rep-down system", I'd used that for you.

 

[ruggles]

So, you do the hard work just so it is appreciated, but not because it can help others/benefit the community. In plain words, that's selfish.

That sums it up! Now somebody calls me selfish! I did post it because i thought it will benefit the users, but that is the final straw i guess. No more. Bye.

But if there were a "rep-down system", I'd used that for you.

Cant believe you man. Im not coming back here. You sure know how to kick well wishers.

 

[desiibond]

Update in progress. Added more detail for best smartphones inside 10k. Have a look and let me if this is enough. Adding detail for 10k-15k phones.

 

[Soumik]

@desiibond - Really appreciate your effort in starting this thread and updating it. Its like a must have thread for so many ppl. When u get time, please put in pros and cons for each highlighted phone. That would be useful. No need for any extra description, one liner is enough, those are already available on google.


@ruggles - Nice work with your flowchart. I want to know how u created it. The guide isnt perfect and fool proof, but i appreciate the effort u put in, in creating it and distributing it. .
But wassup with the melancholy attitude man. Its not like ppl are ignoring you. Your guide isnt perfect, u know that, so y not accept all the criticism and pick up the ones which will help u better your flowchart.
Anyways, my suggestion for your flowchart - Avoid the phones which are not recommended. Only put a handful of phones which have USPs or are extreme value for money. There are just too many phones out there, it makes the user confused and difficult to follow the lines. And add more text with pros and cons for each.

 

[aroraanant]

@sygeek-if u r planning to go for Incredible S then go for it,I m sure u wont regret

 

[Anorion]

Just looked through the posts. The Nexus S or the Defy seem to be the only phones that make sense at all, for any price point.

 

[desiibond]

yeah. they offer terrific VFM.

 

[saurav0906]

hii frnds, i want to buy a mobile price upto 20k, which will be the perfect one android or symbian mobile, and which phone will be better having good functionality along with good camera and camera must be with autofocous.
wat r the problem with lg optimus black ,its review was not good in digit

 

[desiibond]

hii frnds, i want to buy a mobile price upto 20k, which will be the perfect one android or symbian mobile, and which phone will be better having good functionality along with good camera and camera must be with autofocous.
wat r the problem with lg optimus black ,its review was not good in digit

1. Nokia N8 (the best camera phone)
2. Google Nexus S

 

[coderunknown]

wat r the problem with lg optimus black ,its review was not good in digit

heard about reception issue & both highend Optimus (2X & Black) rom is far from perfect.

 

[Anorion]

we need to stop looking at phone model numbers as version numbers (windows 93, 95, 98 etc). This is like everyone just thinking about the BMW8 and ignoring all the others.
The S is better than the SII, the 3GS is somewhat on an even footing with the 4, with even the 3G being most suitable for many purposes... every single berry has only superficial differences, LG phones as well... In fact they get better with the lower model numbers, Not even starting on the Nokias as they are named strange. the new trend seems to be an postscript to the model number (+, pro, *-02 etc), or just a re-branded name (BB gemini lol)