Best Android Phone for €150ish PAYG

JHet

Heys Guys,

Just wondering if you have any recommendations on the above. My primary reasons for changing:

1. My old phone is on its last legs!
2. In the process of building a HTPC. Since I need a new phone anyway i figure i might as well get one that can install the XBMC remote app.

My current provider is Vodafone.

Any help or guidance would be much appreciated as I have no clue about Android phones or what makes one good or bad!

Thanks

Hecklar

The Galaxy Europa is a brilliant little phone for the money. I think its 120 in Vodafone. It'll come with 2.1 on there as standard but a quick update to 2.2 and you'll be able to install apps to the SD card as well as a few new features, tweaks etc

JHet

Thanks man......the Android 2.2 is nice bonus. Looks perfect for what i need actually!:)

Khannie

If you can get your hands on one (trip up north or a relative in the UK somewhere) the orange san francisco is a super phone for the money. Significantly better than the europa.

JHet

haha.......was just looking at the thread of this, this morning. Seems like a savage phone for the money. Wouldn't mind doing a bit of tinkering aswell!!!

Thanks

MC_G

Khannie wrote: »

If you can get your hands on one (trip up north or a relative in the UK somewhere) the orange san francisco is a super phone for the money. Significantly better than the europa.

Agreed, the san francisco was money very well spent and is a amazingly solid performer for the price even on one of the more vanilla 2.1 ROMs available.

Jhet wrote:

haha.......was just looking at the thread of this, this morning. Seems like a savage phone for the money. Wouldn't mind doing a bit of tinkering aswell!!!

If you fancy a bit of tinkering, this would be the phone to get!! It's really fairly simple if you're so inclined and there's a large community of really smart devs and plenty of documentation to get you going.

Chardee MacDennis

Hecklar wrote: »

The Galaxy Europa is a brilliant little phone for the money. I think its 120 in Vodafone. It'll come with 2.1 on there as standard but a quick update to 2.2 and you'll be able to install apps to the SD card as well as a few new features, tweaks etc

i got this at xmas, 90 on meteor online PAYG, handy little phone although the screen is crap! there is no multi touch even though it is a capacitive screen and it can be very unresponsive. I cant play angry birds on it for example as the birds just start firing without me releasing my finger.

The screen is too small for a browser too, since their is no pinch to zoom it's unusable imo.

I bought it to develop on so it isnt my main phone but besides the screen I have been impressed with how a 90 euro phone can keep up!

Chardee MacDennis

Hecklar wrote: »

The Galaxy Europa is a brilliant little phone for the money. I think its 120 in Vodafone. It'll come with 2.1 on there as standard but a quick update to 2.2 and you'll be able to install apps to the SD card as well as a few new features, tweaks etc

how do i update to 2.2, do i need to root it? i thought it wasnt available for the europa yet?

JHet

Thanks guys......managed to do a bit more research into the Blade today (slow work day!). Some of mods and hacks available sound fantastic.

Theres a certain joy to be had in buying something that is relatively cheap and making it do things that it really shouldn't be able to do for its price! ......thereby allowing it to compete with much more expensive opposition. If the ZTE Blade was a Premiership team who would it be???.....not Man City anyway!!!......far too much money spent! )

Simply awesome!

Notorious97

BastardPrince wrote: »

how do i update to 2.2, do i need to root it? i thought it wasnt available for the europa yet?

Same, im new to the whole Android thing myself, some Apps recommended on here i can never find in the market, i want to stay away from Rooting unless its necessary (i jailbreak ipod touch always but this seems a bit more complicated???)

Would be interested in knowing how to upgrade my new Samsung Galaxy Europa from 2.1 to 2.2 if its official and stable?

Cheers

Ste-

JHet wrote: »

If the ZTE Blade was a Premiership team who would it be???.....not Man City anyway!!!......far too much money spent! )

Simply awesome!

[Offtopic] Blackpool!!!! Playing great with a shoestring budget. [/Offtopic]

Will be in London soon and am thinking of picking one of these up as the price is very tempting. As a backup to the Galaxy S.

Khannie

Notorious97 wrote: »

some Apps recommended on here i can never find in the market

Android is different from the apple app store in that the market isn't the only place to get apps. There are several markets for example. Anyway android apps are packaged in .apk files. If you can get your hands on the .apk you should be sorted. What app in particular were you looking for?

Notorious97

Khannie wrote: »

Android is different from the apple app store in that the market isn't the only place to get apps. There are several markets for example. Anyway android apps are packaged in .apk files. If you can get your hands on the .apk you should be sorted. What app in particular were you looking for?

See i didn’t know that haha, so what do you save them to your SD card and upload onto phone? Im good with all Apple stuff, this just has me trying to figure it all out so any help is appreciated.

Im currently on Samsung Europa with 2.1 (Eclair im assuming?) and wondering if i can load apps onto SD card on 2.1 or do i need an upgrade to 2.2? Also if i need an upgrade how do i go about this.

Troxck

Notorious97 wrote: »

See i didn’t know that haha, so what do you save them to your SD card and upload onto phone? Im good with all Apple stuff, this just has me trying to figure it all out so any help is appreciated.

Im currently on Samsung Europa with 2.1 (Eclair im assuming?) and wondering if i can load apps onto SD card on 2.1 or do i need an upgrade to 2.2? Also if i need an upgrade how do i go about this.

How do you upgrade to:p 2.2

Khannie

Notorious97 wrote: »

See i didn’t know that haha, so what do you save them to your SD card and upload onto phone?

I'm sure there are lots of ways. Here's what I do: Download the .apk to my computer, then I'll hook the phone up with a usb cable and copy it over.

Notorious97 wrote: »

Im currently on Samsung Europa with 2.1 (Eclair im assuming?) and wondering if i can load apps onto SD card on 2.1 or do i need an upgrade to 2.2? Also if i need an upgrade how do i go about this.

You can run apps off the SD card on 2.1. There's an app for that. Not sure what it's called tbh. Installing them wouldn't require that though. You'd just need a file manager of some sort. Still learning about android myself. How you upgrade is beyond me. I used a tool called clockwork which allowed me to install from a downloaded rom file. For others I think you get the update from your network provider. I've no idea how this works to be honest as I've never had to do it.

Notorious97

Khannie wrote: »

I'm sure there are lots of ways. Here's what I do: Download the .apk to my computer, then I'll hook the phone up with a usb cable and copy it over.




You can run apps off the SD card on 2.1. There's an app for that. Not sure what it's called tbh. Installing them wouldn't require that though. You'd just need a file manager of some sort. Still learning about android myself. How you upgrade is beyond me. I used a tool called clockwork which allowed me to install from a downloaded rom file. For others I think you get the update from your network provider. I've no idea how this works to be honest as I've never had to do it.

Thanks for the reply, do you use kies or you havent a samsung? im sure i can use that but i wasnt aware you could run apps from sd card on samsung europa, never gives me an option to save them there but il look into it! any good
places recomended for downloading apps to the pc? Im only aware of android market god i hate being a newbie to new systems lol