U8800 - is it a good idea to buy it?

[Guest XphX]

Hey there,

quite some time passed since my last visit on modaco (and on xda-developers too). Back then I was customizing my WinMo-6.5-phone, a samsung omnia which I still have. Now I finally have some money to spend on a new phone; the omnia really isn't that great anymore because of the os being simply old. Modaco looks very different now... I remember spending weeks on customizing and I really got tired of doing that in the end. now i want to start flashing again etc., i can't wait to start. i am not a developer and therefore won't be able to help much, but I will at least have a look at this forum every few days and help if I can.

At first I was not sure if I should go for the Motorola Defy or the U8800 - sadly all the Defys seem to need to be replaced sooner or later, i guess you know the story. I just do not want to buy a phone that will probably need to be replaced within the next few weeks. it will be my only phone and I depend on it. Also the screen seems to break easily.

What do you think about this? Next week I will wait for a few ebay-auctions to finish and if that does not work out, I'll just buy it at amazon for 230 euros (that is the maximum i can spend, and the phone will have to do for the next 2 years at least).

I can see that there is already a android-2.3.4 version available for the u8800, the Oxygen-ROM. I think i will try that out first. I want to have a very minimal configuration and then start looking for all the programs i might need - i never had an android phone before and it sure is going to be fun to find out every little detail of android and the u8800.

Just wanted to share my thoughts with you,

XphX

PS: Is there even one average citizen who bought the u8800? I bet not :D

[Guest darkado]

i paid just that, 230 euros for mine and i couldn't be happier. go for it!

[Guest Cirno]

I am happy with mine and it looks like the community is growing, not as fast as ZTE blade's but similar !

[Guest Tripov]

I am happy with mine and it looks like the community is growing, not as fast as ZTE blade's but similar !

I'm also considering move to this phone from my Blade. It's now being sold in Portugal for 149 Euro (network locked, but you can buy it for 199,99 Euro unlocked by the operator).

[Guest That-Guy]

Well worth getting! I upgraded from the Blade and think it was the right choice :)

[Guest XphX]

Alright, at the end of the week I will buy it (right now Amazon tells me it might need 2-4 weeks to ship...). I am not sure if the community really is growing though (I do not understand why it is not at least as much of an insider's tip as the ZTE Blade).

It seems realistic to me that the community grows much larger, especially if the price of the U8800 drops (it came out in March, right? then it's still very new).

Question: Should I install Superboot? I do not know what modifying the kernel means and I do not want to run into problems when using the Oxygen-ROM. Also: Why is there the kernel not updated with the ROM? Is there a kernel and the ROM?

Can't wait to play with my new toy!

XphX

/Edit: Hey That-Guy, your Guide is really helpful to me right now, thank you very much sir!

Edited July 25, 2011 by XphX

[Guest darkado]

wow, we all upgraded our blade with u8800 :)

[Guest NeostarNeko]

Yea except I came from the days of the feature phone, been using an Nec N411i for over 5 years, actually I still do.

But I've been testing and fiddling with various phones for a while now and since I knew my way around people always asked me to help them with rooting and jailbreak. This gave me a good insight on what's good out there. And so with limited cash I chose this phone the Huawei U8800, it's not the best but it's adequate and has support for the Adobe flash plugin.

Edited July 26, 2011 by NeostarNeko

[Guest XphX]

people always asked me to help them with rooting and jailbreak. This gave me a good insight on what's good out there

I do it the same way; people know i am the tech-guy and if they need a new phone or they need help with something I help them if I am in a good mood.

I repeat the question: Is it recommended to install the superboot? I'd rather install the recoveryprogram and the the custum ROM, without using superboot. As far as I can see my phone will be rooted automatically as soon as the Oxygen-ROM is installed.

[Guest That-Guy]

I repeat the question: Is it recommended to install the superboot? I'd rather install the recoveryprogram and the the custum ROM, without using superboot. As far as I can see my phone will be rooted automatically as soon as the Oxygen-ROM is installed.

If you pick a ROM that comes pre-rooted then you will not need SuperBoot :)

Have a play with a few ROMs before choosing one, FLB Custom ROM is by far the most stable in my opinion and is based on the latest B137.

For more info on FLB Custom ROM look - HERE My Theme I created for it - HERE

Hope this helps :)

[Guest XphX]

Alright, I will try out Oxygen and the FLB Custom ROM. I want the system to be as stable and as lightweight as possible. I guess Oxygen is not pre-rooted (i misread the description), so I will install Oxygen, wait until the 1st boot is finished and install Superboot afterwards. I think that's the right order..

Hope this helps :)

It does!

Edited July 26, 2011 by XphX

[Guest That-Guy]

Alright, I will try out Oxygen and the FLB Custom ROM. I want the system to be as stable and as lightweight as possible. I guess Oxygen is not pre-rooted (i misread the description), so I will install Oxygen, wait until the 1st boot is finished and install Superboot afterwards. I think that's the right order..

Just Remember Oxygen still has a few bugs too:

Known to be Not working:

Wifi hotspot

Video recording

Hardware video decoding

FLB is fully functional :)

[Guest XphX]

Well that is okay as I will only use it for phone/sms/receive mail/gps for my bike/sometimes internet and gaming when I am bored. As long as the ROM is stable.. and I think that Oxygen is built on the latest Android-version. I just thought that I might want a ROM based on the newest Android. I do not know which new features were added or why the new version is better; I simply want to have the newest version, can't be bad I guess.

Also I just read that the Froyo-ROMs drain the battery faster than the ROMs based on the newest version.

...Amazon did not send the phone yet, I hope I receive the package on friday; because this week-end I am not too busy.

Edited July 26, 2011 by XphX

[Guest Simon O]

Well that is okay as I will only use it for phone/sms/receive mail/gps for my bike/sometimes internet and gaming when I am bored. As long as the ROM is stable.. and I think that Oxygen is built on the latest Android-version. I just thought that I might want a ROM based on the newest Android. I do not know which new features were added or why the new version is better; I simply want to have the newest version, can't be bad I guess.

Also I just read that the Froyo-ROMs drain the battery faster than the ROMs based on the newest version.

...Amazon did not send the phone yet, I hope I receive the package on friday; because this week-end I am not too busy.

Latest doesn't mean it's the best. Oxygen/CM7/MIUI are all built by the same people and they all have the same bugs at the moment. Stick with a Froyo ROM for now if you want full use of the phone. And where did you read that Froyo ROMs drain the battery faster?? That absolutely does not happen on my phone.. on Android 2.2.2 I can quite easily get a couple of days out of the battery. If I play any games then I'll get a day.

[Guest XphX]

I got my U8800 today and I already wasted almost the whole day by installing apps etc. I am very impressed with the build quality. One thing is annoying: The light sensor always sets the brightness too low, so i have it on 70% all the time.

I installed Oxygen (Android 2.3.4) and decided to stick with it. There is a FM-Radio-App preinstalled which does not work, that is the only error. I do not need that so it is okay. I had a quick look at the camera which is disappointing. It performs as badly as my windows-mobile-phone-camera from 2007. Again, I do not need this and I expected the camera to be bad.

Suprisingly the sound quality is okay, even though it is not great. In comparison to my mp3-player it sounds a bit muffled, but I think I can live with that. That would be the first phone besides the iphone 3gs/4 which has an acceptable sound quality (I did not try out much, I just remember the Galaxy S and a few HTCs performed badly).

Oxygen runs as stable and fast as I wished it would. I am absolutely stunned by the speed. At first I was worried because I only have around 100MB RAM left after using the phone for the whole day. The memory management seems to be good, I did not run into any troubles.

I am very satisfied and will regularly have a look at the forum here and at xda-developers for the next few weeks until I have finished customizing everything.

Edited July 29, 2011 by XphX