Mixam

I want an Android phone. I specifically want the Nexus one, but I'm in France right now and although my relatives live in Canada and I have someone coming to visit me soon, the price is too high after tax and shipping are added in. It would be hard enough to convince my wife to let me spend $530US on a phone let alone $620+.

So I'm now stuck between choosing between the Acer Liquid A1 for 115 euros plus say 40 euros for a 16Gb card so 155 euros, or the Iphone 3gs 16Gb for 265 euros. Both are on the same 1 year plan. Now the reason I'm leaning towards the Iphone 3gs right now is that since I'm in France, after 6 months I can get them to unlock the phone for me for free. I'm thinking that after 6 months I will be able to sell the unlocked Iphone 3GS for enough to buy myself a Nexus One. Hopefully it will ship directly to France without VAT or shipping costs by that time or something better will be out that I can buy with my 3GS sale money. I doubt that I will be able to make as much money selling the A1 unlocked since it's not that expensive to buy it unlocked to start with.

The other reason I'm not too sure about getting the A1 is that it does not use stock Android, so it may be quite awhile between updates. Such as the current wait to get Android 2.1 This is the main reason that I want the Nexus one and probably part of the reason Android isn't doing as well as it could. Most of the phones on the market are running old versions of the OS. If all the companies who sell Android phones updated right away it wouldn't be such a problem. If the A1 already had Android 2.1 on it I would be more willing to buy it, but it's not out yet. Although from searching the forums I have seen that it is supposed to come out soon.

I believe I would enjoy the Iphone 3GS, although I would much prefer a Nexus one. I'm not sure however how the A1 will perform running 2.1 (if it ever gets it) with only 256mb of ram.

What do you guys think of the A1 vs the 3GS in general? If price wasn't an object, because I'm pretty sure I can recoup the difference in cost when I sell it.

I hope someone can help me make up my mind fast, I need to buy one or the other within a couple days.

Thanks,
Mixam