My first smartphone -To be decided

[jfreak_]

Hi guys.. Long time since I have posted..

This is my current phone

And I am thinking of getting the Lumia 800 for around $350 from my home in south asia. What do you guys think? I know its a one year old phone which is not going to be upgraded and I cannot afford the latest and greatest phone. All I need is to listen to music, play the occasional mini-game,keep track of football scores and trawl through wikipedia and 9gag and most importantly integrate my workplace official outlook account into my phone (is this possible?) Calling and carriers are no concern since I travel A LOT to very diverse countries and I need to get a separate phone there anyway. Also don't care about 4G, LTE or any of the newfangled wireless connections which is not available in my home country.
Also FYI, the S2 costs $450 and Lumia 900 costs $500 which is out of my range anyway.
The 3.7" screen is a bit worrying, I would have preferred a 4" but can't find anything comparable in my price range. I have no clue whatsoever about HTC phones.
I also do not care about app store size, since I guess the commonly used apps will be there on all platforms.
Also I don't care about front camera. The back camera should be just decent enough as I have a top of the line point and shoot camera.
Yeah, I don't pirate music so Nokia's free music for a year scheme is attractive (I understand its DRM free now.. I think).

There so what do you think, good choice or not or you have alternate suggestions? I connect to my Ubuntu system only when I am home (which is rare) so Ubuntu compatibility is not a deal breaker.

[thomasw_lrd]

I had an HTC phone, and I really liked it. I believe it was the Inspire 4G. It was a little buggy, but I never was sure if it was Android or HTC's interpretation thereof. Everything worked well, but occasionally the camera software would crap out, and I would have to restart the phone to get the camera to work.

[mamamia88]

I had an HTC phone, and I really liked it. I believe it was the Inspire 4G. It was a little buggy, but I never was sure if it was Android or HTC's interpretation thereof. Everything worked well, but occasionally the camera software would crap out, and I would have to restart the phone to get the camera to work.

same phone i had until i dropped it in the toilet. actually ordered another and should be in tommorow. good phone no front facing camera and bad battery but it's easy enough to slip an extra fully charged battery in my wallet if needed. check out cowboom.com for decent deals on phones.

[aysiu]

I've owned only three smartphones, but the best has been the HTC Glacier (MyTouch 4G). I had to give it up because I switched carriers, and the phone is tied closely to the carrier in the US.

[IWantFroyo]

The cheapest option (if you can buy a plan from a GSM provider):
http://www.amazon.com/HP-P160-Unlock...ywords=hp+veer
It was discontinued, and is IMO a good phone. The software works nicely, and you can install homebrew easily for patches.
It isn't a good idea if you want a big screen, though. It's screen is tiny, although the operating system it has works well on small screens.

[mamamia88]

The cheapest option (if you can buy a plan from a GSM provider):
http://www.amazon.com/HP-P160-Unlock...ywords=hp+veer
It was discontinued, and is IMO a good phone. The software works nicely, and you can install homebrew easily for patches.
It isn't a good idea if you want a big screen, though. It's screen is tiny, although the operating system it has works well on small screens.

don't reccomend anything with palm os since it's basically dead

[Merrattic]

HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy SIII

[jfreak_]

HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy SIII

Like I said, out of my league. Remember that I cannot buy phones on contract, can get them unlocked.

Funny, no one has commented on the old Lumia.

[thomasw_lrd]

Like I said, out of my league. Remember that I cannot buy phones on contract, can get them unlocked.

Funny, no one has commented on the old Lumia.

Isn't that Windows phone?

I heard of them, but I've never seen one in the wild.

[CharlesA]

Isn't that Windows phone?

I heard of them, but I've never seen one in the wild.

Does it really matter what OS a phone is running?

@OP: Are you going to be using the phone in a specific area? The OP mentioned Asia. I've got a phone from Boost, with no contract, but I believe it is limited to the US only.