15 replies to this topic

[Lister Of Smeg]

Hi Guys,

My brother will kill me, and dishonour me for this.... However, I like to play dangerously... lol

Joking aside, I am looking to in the future replace my phone. Dont get me wrong, I do love my Blade and still will... However I find it doesnt like me. With very few Apps its just too slow for me...

So I need summit that is....

1) UK Phone
2) Easy to unlock, either software mod or officially via network carrier
3) Be fast, decent spec
4) Be on a reasonable budget (same as Blade) summit mid/budget range
5) Most importantly, have a VAST Rom/Dev support....

So, nominations please...???

Thanks, Lister

[Lister Of Smeg]

I take that with no replies, means that our trusty 2x year old phone still is the best phone out there on the market then. There are no other better spec phones to date??

[hydo1]

I would have a look at either the Huawei Ascend G300 or a ZTE Blade III. The G300 already has a large community on MoDaCo. Currently it is easiest to get one from Vodafone and get an unlock code from eBay but Tesco and Asda have sold them in the past too.

The blade 3 is a bit of an unknown in the UK at the moment so if you want something you can take out of the box and hack straight away go for the G300 but bear it in mind that the G300 will be superceeded soon by the G330.

[Lister Of Smeg]

hi Hydo1,

Thank you for your post above, it is very useful to hear and know about those.....  My friend has the G300 (or more say, his mum does). Whilst he was setting up, before giving it to her... I did manage to get feast my eyes upon it, and it did look good. Good camera, display, seemed to be fairly fast too.... All in all, did see a worthy upgrade to the ZTE Blade (being 400Mhz faster). He managed to get his unlocked officially via Vodafone as soon as he bought it. Literally put £20 topup on, and called them for an unlock which they gave??? (not sure its suppose to be that simple???? knowing my luck it wont...).

I was thinking of sticking with the ZTE family..... However when looking at their phones last night, none of them seemed to offer much better spec wise. They all seemed to be about the same, only 200Mhz more, but everything else was the same...   So didnt think it would be much of an upgrade.

So its looking like the G300...  Which I think can be got for just under £100...   My main thing being does it have a lot of ROMs like the Blade has?? Thats the one thing I really enjoy about the Blade is the amount of different ROMs for it... even back in the old day of Gen1 roms (which I came in just as it was finishing).

I do love my Blade, but sadly anymore than say 6x Apps and the thing is as good as useless...   Takes 30 seconds before the screen responds and comes on, of which sometimes the caller cuts off...

So yeah, if anyone has a G300 let me know what you think of it in both speed, and community base (ROMs)...??

Thanks for ya advice also Hydo1 Much appreciated...

Thanks, Lister

[bladebuddy]

Very much like you as in ,I love my blade and still do.
I upgraded first to the ZTE Crescent in order to stay with the ZTE family, but unfortunately didn't see it as much of an upgrade.
Never used the front facing camera on Skype.
Didn't feel the phone was much faster then the blade and found the battery life terrible. Still a good phone though.
Now I have the g300 which has a bigger and decent screen.
Battery charges in 1 hour , and last 2 to 3 x longer then the blade.
Lots or rom's ,recovery versions , mods and tweeks.
At first I didn't find many rom's as quick as them on the blade buts that has changed with Dazz releasing CM 9/10/10.1, and faster ICS based rom's like stock+ and the new slim rom , nqow as quick if not quicker then the blade.
ARM7 support for flash and games.
Gorilla glass and nice build quality.
All in all a very worthy upgrade . Now I am glad I forked out £100 for it ,the same money as my blade but a lot better.
Unlocking can be done for free but I have never done this ,plenty have successfully.
In my opinion better to spend £5 with the plenty of folks online who will sell you a unlock code.
A no brainier go and buy it , as I sure you won't be disappointed.
There maybe newer faster phones being released but this is still a good buy and a quality phone for the money available here in the U.K.
J.

[Lister Of Smeg]

Hi BladeBuddy,

Thank you for this post, I think this may of just confirmed my actions now... As I too wanted to start with the ZTE family, as that was my first (and still is) my only Android phone to date. Bought after my brother had/still has one, and I saw the roms he had back from the Gen1 days... And now we are still going strong even with the Gen2 roms... But like wise, ZTE hasnt done anything with their phones, unless you pay more, which ya might as well go buy branded phones then... which defeats the point... All mid-range ZTEs still have the usual CPU, RAM and so on... maybe just different camera, but thats it.

The G300 looks impressive, and my mate had one (well his mums) and liked the look of it. He told me it was fast, compared to the Blade... which he also owned. As Apps just lagged on our Blades at times, where he showed FB was as fast as anything. The screen looked lovely too.... Although thats interesting, I didnt know it used Gorilla glass, which is now just another bonus to get one.. But the image was bright, sharp and clear...

My mate got his unlocked by contact Vodafone directly after buying it, and he said as long as he had £20 topup credit which he had to buy with the phone anyway, they unlocked it just like that....

I also didnt know the CPU was an ARM7 one either, so that should be fairly good for a while then?? Should run JellyBean just fine hopefully... And I am glade to see there are a series of Roms for it... Is there CM7 for it too...?? As I do still like Gingerbread at times, but do love CM10.1..... Also hope there is AOKP with it too??

Anyway, you sound mighty impressed with it, and seemed to have the same concerns and thoughts I did too... I think I shall see one in action again, and poss go shopping with my brother so we can both look at it.... and hopefully pick up this beauty....

Love the ZTE, always will.... Will keep it as a spare (we have 5x of them in our family... lol) but unfortnately I need summit that can cope with more than 5x apps before it struggles...

Talking of which, is the battery really that much better... As, as soon as ya start using the blade, ya just count the 1% drops rapidly... lol

Cheers, Lister

[bladebuddy]

3 of the ZTE blades in my family 2 amoled and a white tpt one.
Yes cm7 is also available on the G300 with the added bonus of running on the newest ICS baseband also the original GB baseband . This phone has really started to hit the spot when it comes to community and development. I am quite sure you won't be disappointed. Even watching Red Dwarf is better. J

[bladebuddy]

A crap photo of proof I am not blahing you. J

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[Lister Of Smeg]

Nice pic....   Meet the ZTE Blade family..... he he he...

Yeah, by the sound of things, I don't think I will be.... I am not too sure what ya mean by running ICS Baseband as a bonus means just yet, will check that in the G300 forum and see if I can pick up on it... If not, may need to come back here... for an explanation... lol

I know about Basebands on that rotten core, Apple products.... But yet to see/delve what BBs offer on the Android side of things... esp the G300

I think I shall get noising around on that forum for a while, see what ROMs and info I can dig up....  Thanks for all your help, much appreciated!!! Im sure there will be more questions, if ya dont mind answering them...? thank you.

Lister

[youngsta2010]

JiaYu G3 looks a good phone for the money, been looking at it myself. Anyone have one or can recommend reputable sellers? Or anyone have experience with aliexpress?

[bladebuddy]

Lister Of Smeg, on 26 February 2013 - 01:06 PM, said:

Nice pic....   Meet the ZTE Blade family..... he he he...

Yeah, by the sound of things, I don't think I will be.... I am not too sure what ya mean by running ICS Baseband as a bonus means just yet, will check that in the G300 forum and see if I can pick up on it... If not, may need to come back here... for an explanation... lol

I know about Basebands on that rotten core, Apple products.... But yet to see/delve what BBs offer on the Android side of things... esp the G300

I think I shall get noising around on that forum for a while, see what ROMs and info I can dig up....  Thanks for all your help, much appreciated!!! Im sure there will be more questions, if ya dont mind answering them...? thank you.

Lister

All ICS official rom's and JB custom roms are installed on what is the 2030  basebands. There's a different one for GB. Normally you would have to downgrade officially. Not by CWM but by a official Huawei update app to go back to the GB baseband. Now you don't have to , you can flash gb/Ics and JB on the same baseband. A little like flashing the original 2.1  rom only on gen1 but now available for gen2 if that makes sense. J

[Clitheroe1]

I think you may have to compromise on some of your requirements.  If your budget is the same as the cost of a Blade (around £100), you will be hard pushed to find a phone with significantly better specs and "VAST Rom/Dev support".  For the price, I agree with the suggestion of the Huawei Ascend G300 but you won't find anything like the level of development support that exist for the Blade. However, I think after a short while you might we disappointed with it's limitations as it's specs are not a major leap forward over the Blade.  You might need to consider upping your budget and getting a phone that can take full advantage of all the features of ICS or JB with a decent speed.  For example, you can probably get a Google Nexus 4 or a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S2 for about £200 more but with vastly better specs than the Blade and excellent ROM and development support.

Edited by Clitheroe1, 05 March 2013 - 11:48 AM.

[bladebuddy]

Show me a nexus 4 for £100 . I will buy it , if fully functional.
You're chatting s--t. End off.

[bladebuddy]

bladebuddy, on 05 March 2013 - 12:28 AM, said:

Show me a nexus 4 for £100 . I will buy it , if fully functional.
You're chatting s--t. End off.

Let me add to that as I didn't read you're post properly.
You're still chatting s*** at £200 for a nexus 4.

[Clitheroe1]

bladebuddy, on 05 March 2013 - 12:48 AM, said:

Let me add to that as I didn't read you're post properly.
You're still chatting s*** at £200 for a nexus 4.

The price of a Nexus 4 seems to have gone up to £239 but it's still excellent value for the specs it has:

https://play.google....?id=nexus_4_8gb

I considered buying a Huawei Ascend G300 but it just didn't offer a significant enough improvement in specs over my blade and felt that it wouldn't be long before I would want to upgrade again.  I eventually decided to up my budget and bought a Samsung GS2 for £200 and I've not regretted it for a minute.  It's fast, excellent camera, no problems running a fully functional Jelly Bean ROM and excellent developer support.

Personally, I would prefer to continue using my Blade, which is still an excellent phone, and save up the extra £100 to buy a phone with better specs than a G300.

Edited by Clitheroe1, 05 March 2013 - 12:12 PM.

[deksman2]

Seeing how I personally don't have the money to spend just yet... I will continue to use my San Francisco for a while more.
Besides, more powerful hardware is 'trickling down' in terms of cost, so I might end up getting something in the summer or by the end of the year.
Either way, if I can find something with substantially more powerful hardware that doesn't cost I don't know how much, it 'should' theoretically be enough to last for about 3 or 4 years down the line (but my main priority will be a new laptop ).