Help me choose a phone please!

[Guest Sere83]

Posted a similar thread on XDA and thought i'd ask here too...

So I am contemplating getting a new android phone because I can't stand the slow speeds and general lag of my ZTE blade anymore.

I want to buy offline, am in the UK and looking to spend around £220 tops.

I would ideally like it to ship with close to stock ICS and have a decent camera (doesn't need to be amazing, just for casual snaps) and obviously be ARMv7. The main thing for me is software, I want a smooth experience, with a solid android build.

I really want a Xiaomi Mi One, but they are simply impossible to get hold of outside China at a decent price.

Now heres the dilemma....theres a great offer on the HTC EVO 3D at Asda at the moment for £207 all in. However I think it's ugly, 3D is a useless gimmick as far as i'm concerned and from what I hear it has terrible battery performance. I also hate Sense. However given the fact it has a QHD display, 1GB Ram and a dual core Qualcomm scorpion it is probably the best specd new android phone you can get for the price at the moment in the UK and there is a rumoured ICS upgrade.

The other option I had in mind was the Huawei honor which I could pick up for around £220 shipped from China. I like the styling, it has a huge battery and is shipping now with a close to stock pretty good 4.0.3 build. However it only runs a single Core 1.4ghz Qualcomm scorpion and only has 512mb Ram.

I had considered the LG Optimus 2X but have heard only bad things. Xperia Play was an option too as I thought a game pad might be nice but again, hate the Sony skin and clean stock ICS is not an option. Nexus S would be great but they still cost £250+ and I would ideally like expandable storage too.

If stock ICS is not a possibility I would like to run MIUI but can't be assed to mess around with all these half baked alpha/beta roms. Additionally most of the officially supported MIUI phones are either too much, or a bit underpowered. Also a lot of the normal ICS builds I've seen about for the EVO and other phones look buggy.

Just want some reasonable hardware with a smooth ICS experience with as few bugs as possible and minimal hassle.

Any help in deciding or any other options I may have missed out on would be appreciated.....

Edited March 11, 2012 by Sere83

[Guest hecatae]

you have only given options of 2011 devices, I would hold off and wait til everything that was announced in MWC has arrived.

what do you require the device to have?

The Evo 3D is confirmed as getting an ICS update:

[Guest Sere83]

Thanks for the advice. Thing is from what I saw of MWC most of those new devices announced were not near the £220 mark that I was hoping to spend. I also want to buy offline as I don't want a 2 year contract.

I have a link in China who said he may be able to help get me a Xiaomi Mi-One for about £265. Processing and UI performance are paramount to me really and the 1.5ghz dual core omap, 1GB Ram and the great MIUI will almost certainly outperform the EVO 3D, the benches I have seen have put it closer to Galaxy S II performance wise which is about £100 more expensive..

Another thing is because of the rarity of the Xiaomi outside China, the re-sale value is pretty good. Could always eBay it and pick something new in a few months if necessary.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Sere83