Should i get this phone?

[Guest goldndelicious]

Morning all,

I've been reading quite heavily on the forum for the past few days, and it's full of some great info about the phone (some good, some bad)

So would just like some opinions.

Ideally, i would like a HTC Desire, the wife has one and it is great, but my contract runs out in february (currently have a nokia 5800) and i'm keen to cut costs.

My main uses for the phone will be....

- Email (both IMAP connection and Gmail account)

- Web Browsing

- facebook / twitter type stuff

I'm not planning on playing games.

My concerns are...

- The wifi issue (how annoying is this? i've read about the blade wifi fix which i will plan to do, but if i don't what does it actually mean? will emails still be pushed through via 3G? also, when i come out of sleep mode (with wifi having disconnected itself) when i then go to use the browser, will it just default to 3G or does it give you the option to then connect to the web? or do you have to manually connect to your wifi first? is it possible to get a little home page widget button that you can just press "Wifi on/off" so it is obvious what connections you are using?)

- Froyo - I'd quite like froyo on the phone, and happy to ROM it, but it doesn't look like there is a stable enough version (yet....) with the dialler battery issues etc - i presume this is jsut a matter of time before some clever person gets a decent version up and running?

- Flash 10.1 - i've read that flash won't support the ARM 6 processor - so is this every likely to happen?

To be honest, Froyo and Flash are probably more nice to haves than anything else, i can put up with the wifi thing (i think) i'm just curious as to exactly how annoying is it should you simply "put up with it"

Edited November 23, 2010 by goldndelicious

[Guest Azurren]

Flash: No (I would eat my hat we we got that :))

The wifi issue really only annoys those who don't have data plans (As it turns off when the phone sleeps and doesn't sync data through wifi) if you have a data plan then it really doesn't matter (2g/3g syncing is fine)

Froyo IS STABLE the battery life offered by froyo kinda balances out the dialler issue and if you are prepared to charge every night (Which I do with heavy usage just fine) then there is no issue. However, GPS (Satnav) just doesn't work..

Should you get the phone? Honestly. Yes :)

If you don't want flash and don't want to play games then you shouldn't notice much of a speed difference vs the desire.. No sense ui tho B)

Edited November 23, 2010 by Azurren

[Guest lilzad]

Morning all,

I've been reading quite heavily on the forum for the past few days, and it's full of some great info about the phone (some good, some bad)

So would just like some opinions.

Ideally, i would like a HTC Desire, the wife has one and it is great, but my contract runs out in february (currently have a nokia 5800) and i'm keen to cut costs.

My main uses for the phone will be....

- Email (both IMAP connection and Gmail account)

- Web Browsing

- facebook / twitter type stuff

I'm not planning on playing games.

My concerns are...

- The wifi issue (how annoying is this? i've read about the blade wifi fix which i will plan to do, but if i don't what does it actually mean? will emails still be pushed through via 3G? also, when i come out of sleep mode (with wifi having disconnected itself) when i then go to use the browser, will it just default to 3G or does it give you the option to then connect to the web? or do you have to manually connect to your wifi first? is it possible to get a little home page widget button that you can just press "Wifi on/off" so it is obvious what connections you are using?)

- Froyo - I'd quite like froyo on the phone, and happy to ROM it, but it doesn't look like there is a stable enough version (yet....) with the dialler battery issues etc - i presume this is jsut a matter of time before some clever person gets a decent version up and running?

- Flash 10.1 - i've read that flash won't support the ARM 6 processor - so is this every likely to happen?

To be honest, Froyo and Flash are probably more nice to haves than anything else, i can put up with the wifi thing (i think) i'm just curious as to exactly how annoying is it should you simply "put up with it"

the wifi is a simple fix with the wifi blade fixer. as for flash player if ypu download an app called skyfire it allows you to play flash video and the dialer issue is now fixed on 2.2 now i think and so is the wifi for 2.2. if this phone is better then the hyc desire i am not to sure about that but if it is a good fone.

[Guest goatee]

I love my SF, but have you looked at the Motorola Defy? It's similar, but with Flash, faster CPU, a much better battery life, and Gorilla (toughened) Glass screen.

Oh, GPS DOES work in Froyo on the SF, it's the coarse network location that doesn't.

Morning all,

<snip!>

Edited November 23, 2010 by goatee

[Guest finbaar]

OP - I came to the SF from the 5800 and have never regretted it, my contract does not end until next November. The Defy looks good but is a lot more expensive.

[Guest gambieter]

I love my SF, but have you looked at the Motorola Defy? It's similar, but with Flash, faster CPU, a much better battery life, and Gorilla (toughened) Glass screen.

Oh, GPS DOES work in Froyo on the SF, it's the coarse network location that doesn't.

The Defy is almost 3x more expensive, not a good comparison B)

GPS indeed works in Froyo, tested it with two SFs.

@topicstarter: it's a great budgetphone. I wouldn't have bought my HTC Desire if I would have known about the SF before. Still very happy with the Desire, but it is >3x better but is >3x more expensive :)

[Guest dizzytiz]

The wifi issue doesn't bother me, it's just a click away to turn it back on after it's gone to sleep. I have set the phone so that I have to manually turn on the 3G data connection if I want to use it. I am on a 500mb pcm plan so didn't want to automatically go over my limit. To be honest I mainly use it at home on the wifi for emails, twitter and FB.

I downloaded netsentry off the Market and it's handy little app which tells you how much data for wifi and 3G I use each month so I can keep track of it.

It's a great little phone and for the price I don't think you can complain...too much B)

[Guest Aranathos]

This is the best Android phone below £200, buy it.

[Guest popoyaya]

froyo is great on this phone. all issues (niggles really) have now been solved. go for it.

[Guest twatter]

wifi issue - simple fix - just download it from the market

Good fund phone for the money - 90-100 pounds - can unlock extremely easily to the choice of your net work

Nice display - does not play flash 10.1 (and may never)

Massively good community, good custom firmware B)

For a Business phone - run mile - (generally all androids and I Phones)

Business- From what people tell me - I Phones are generally seen as geeky, unless you into into interior design etc)

The choice is yours

Edited November 23, 2010 by twatter

[Guest kissofjudas]

if value for money is your thing and you can live with them and the compromises that accompanies budget constraints then hell yes it's a good value thing.

I saw an old advert for a Bell motorcycle helmet that said " if you've got a £10 head get a £10 helmet if you nvalue your head more get a Bell"

guess something similar applies here......

[Guest Polythene]

What is the current view on the best value sim for this?

I'm thinking of just going on tMobile pay as you go, and getting the £20 internet booster. I dont really need a huge amount of minutes or texts.

[Guest Aranathos]

The two best SIMs at the minute are:

£10 - Pay Monthly (1 month contract)

- Tesco Mobile : 500 any network minutes, 3000 texts, 512MB data

£10 - Pay Monthly (1 month contract)

- 3 : 100 any network minutes, 3000 texts, 1GB of data

[Guest Polythene]

Thanks B)

Also, are the wifi issues only present on Androidn 2.2?

I'm thinking of removing the Orange gunk and leaving it on 2.1 (for now :))

[Guest Aranathos]

The WiFi issues are present on any Blade, irrelevant of what ROM is being used.

'Blade WiFi Fix' works a treat though, go for it. The only issue I have now is GPS.

[Guest Polythene]

What is the issue with GPS?

[Guest goldndelicious]

BOUGHT!!!

phoned orange, gave them some spiel about having a payg sim that had expired but wanted to upgrade to a new phone as previously i only ever used a company mobile and never my own phone. didn't even ask for the old phone number and got the £20 off! bargain!

Should be here friday!

[Guest Aranathos]

What is the issue with GPS?

I think it's different for others, but my problem is that it shows me as being on the mainland (I'm in Northern Ireland).

[Guest Polythene]

So in general, the GPS is useless?

[Guest Aranathos]

For some, yes.

[Guest Polythene]

That sucks! have people had any luck getting handsets replaced if the GPS isnt working properly! i was kind of relying on decent GPS (mainly for tmessing around with on regular train journeys, but possibly for google navigation in the future)

[Guest Aranathos]

Let me clarify, the GPS issues are only with the Froyo 2.2 beta. There is no issue with the GPS hardware, it works perfectly on any 2.1 ROMs (including the stock Orange).

[Guest Polythene]

Thank you!

You've been a great help B)

Although this phone seems to be the best Android phone availiable (for the value) there are a lot of things to understand!