Looking for a great 3.7" - 4" phone to replace HTC Desire
My trusty ol' HTC Desire is starting to show nagging limitations - the sparse internal memory is a constant problem.
So - I'm looking for a high-end phone with a lengthy future, that is not bigger than 4 inches. The battery should be replaceable, as I probably intend to install Cyanogenmod on it.
Any suggestions? Or should I wait a bit for a better option under the horizon?
Chester, how about a One S? It has a 4.3" screen but it's a great phone.
If you're concerned about battery pulls while installing ROMs, a long press of volume+power simulates that. (it's what I do on my Nexus 7 if I ever have bootloops)
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Chester, how about a One S? It has a 4.3" screen but it's a great phone.
I read somewhere that you can't expand the One S - so it's limited to 16gb. Is that correct? If so, that to me sounds like a problem in a very near future.
Thanks for pointing out "long press of volume+power" - didn't know that. Is that the case for all HTC phones? Also, thanks for chipping in!
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Looks like HTC has a lock here. On Verizon you can look at the Incredible 4G LTE. My wife has it and it's a really good phone for her. I don't know about the developer community support, but stock is a good little phone.
Looks like HTC has a lock here. On Verizon you can look at the Incredible 4G LTE. My wife has it and it's a really good phone for her. I don't know about the developer community support, but stock is a good little phone.
Pretty sure CyanogenMod has developed a ROM for it. Otherwise i would also agree that it is a good phone, i had the first incredible and loved it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chesterr
I read somewhere that you can't expand the One S - so it's limited to 16gb. Is that correct? If so, that to me sounds like a problem in a very near future.
You are correct. The One S does not allow you to expand on the 16GB of storage. I was about to get it until I realised this limitation. 16GB max is a deal breaker for me.
One S does not have an SD Card slot.
However, the One V does. It's a bit of a step down in specs, but still a very capable phone. Not sure about its availability where the OP lives.
Stuntman, HTC Desire X sounds like the right phone for me! Thanks for pointing it out - wasn't aware of that one. And thank you everyone for responding.
The Razr i is decent phone, it's 4" but the display is almost edge to edge, it's single core but its using intels atom cpu at 2GHz so it's still very quick.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chesterr
I notice none of you have mentioned the Samsung SIII mini. Is there a reason for that?
I recommended an HTC phone since it would be most similar to your old phone which was also an HTC. I went from a Desire Z to an SGS3. For a high end phone like the SGS3, I can put up with the things that I missed about my old Desire Z and HTC Sense UI. I thought that you may like to have a similar experience to your old Desire. Depending on how much Sense specific features you use, you may or may not like Samsung's TouchWiz UI over HTC Sense.
As a Desire owner I'd have a look at the RAZR I (or M, depending on where you are). You get a 4.3" screen in a phone the same size as the Desire, which seems rather neat to me.
Only thing is I don't know how good root/ROM support is, since you mention CM. Be worth checking if that's important.
I think about the Desire HD, 4.3" screen but amazing once you put a custom rom on it. It seems quite powerful to me. I would definitely look at something with the dual-core Tegra chipset.
Last edited by Sharmy; December 7th, 2012 at 02:36 AM.
The battery should be replaceable, as I probably intend to install Cyanogenmod on it.
I imagine since hes planning on installing Cyanogenmod to his phone then getting a HTC phone wouldn't be a priority, since he won't be using Sense ha. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any high end android phones out right now with screen sizes of 4inches or smaller... The majority of people want their monster screens so OEMs are making their high end phones with screens larger than 4.3 inches. Its just good business practice. Why spend a lot of development money designing and manufacturing a new high end phone with a small screen that isn't going to sell well?
It seems the only "high-end" phone you can buy with a 4inch screen size might be that smartphone with the picture of fruit on it...
I've now tinkered a bit with both the HTC Desire X and SIII Mini in a local shop. I have to say that I think both seemed rather nice - the SIII seemed a bit faster / smooth I think.
1)
I haven't been able to find the Motorola Razr I, which seems quite promising. However, I've read that this phone isn't compatible with apps made with the "Android NDK". I'm unsure how compromising this is. Would that worry you?
2)
Also, I see that Cyanogenmod supports none of these phones. If you would guess, which seems most likely to receive support in your opinion?
Razr I, higher resolution screen, faster processor(Single Core), better camera, better battery life, 4.3" screen however because it's almost edge to edge size is comparable to a phone with a 4" screen.
Thanks, but what about the fact that it doesn't support Android ndk? Does this mean that the Razr I won't work with a lot/most older apps? Do you know?
Thanks, but what about the fact that it doesn't support Android ndk? Does this mean that the Razr I won't work with a lot/most older apps? Do you know?
Should run most apps on the market, no guarantees everything will work though but that can be said for any device.
If you want to check if certain applications work ask on a Razr I forum, I'm sure users would be able to confirm any known issues for you.
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Looking for a great 3.7" - 4" phone to replace HTC Desire
