Best DUAL SIM android phone?

[auktionadm]

The ZTE-U960 is still the only dual sim Smarphone powerd by a powerfull Qualcomm SOC, and is still the only phone with a true dual radio.

I thought the General Mobile DSTL1 has got DSFA too.

 

[The Solutor]

I thought the General Mobile DSTL1 has got DSFA too.

A 2g smarphone powered by a stone age built CPU and 128MB of ram, released three years ago ?

Poor me, I missed that

 

[auktionadm]

Poor me, I missed that

You're right. ;-)

I prefer the ZTE U960 too.

It's the best Dual-SIM-device I've ever seen yet. As SGS+ but with Dual-SIM-Full-ACTIVE-feature.

 

[peterru]

hey guys (first post btw)

I have been reading all your previous comments and I have a question for you, as I did not manage to come across a clear answer:

Which would be a nice dual sim android purchase (I am replacing an N86)?

My needs: 3G in one SIM, front camera for videocall, nice back camera for the ocasional photo, wifi, gps, flash (!) not flash lite, but flash 10/11 support, nothing bigger than 4'' as I want it to fit in my trousers pocket. Any suggestions?

Additional question... I am going to Hong Kong/Shenzen in a few days. Do you know any place I could buy it and avoid the etotalk shipping cost?

Thank you very much for your support

Hello, the best dual from HTC is HTC T328W (4.0 inch , only 118mm!MSM 7227A) OS 4.0, 5.0Mp, 400*800 16M colors 360usd (taobao)
and Zopo 200 280usd taobao

 

[The Solutor]

Hello, the best dual from HTC is HTC T328W (4.0 inch , only 118mm!MSM 7227A)

I hope that specs are wrong or it would mean another underpowered phone (there isn't any official flash support for arm v6 CPUs and the 7227 is an arm v6 one).

The Zte u960 needs some competition.

Edit :

The consideration above is wrong.

I missed the trailing A on the CPU number, and this little letter changes anything.

While the MSM7227[t] are old ARM V6 SOCs, the MSM7227A is a way more modern Snapdragon S1 chip.

It's still not powerful as the MSM8255 that powers the U960, (which is Snapdragon S2), but is way better than the ARM V6 cousin that powers the Motorola Xt532 and a lot of cheap clones.

Sorry for the misleading message.

 

[pwel]

This is not surprising at all.

It's a cheap phone meant to be just slightly better than the average featurephone.

It's appreciated by the people who never touched a true smarphone, but is surely disappointing for anyone else.

So what is a true smartphone?
I use a smartphone for many years now and the xt532 works fine. It just depends what you want!
If you want a bigger screen you get a bigger phone. For me the resolution works well (much better than galaxy y duos) and the black screen has been solved.
In the latest ROM I haven't had one!
For me it is true!

 

[The Solutor]

So what is a true smartphone?

You can find many definitions, what I mean here is that a nowadays a smartphone should be powerful enough to clearly differentiate itself from a featurephone.

My Sonyericsson p800 was the first real smartphone: had a 208x320 display, a vga camera, a 160 Mhz CPU, a gprs connection, no GPS, no accelerometer...

But was the AD 2002, TEN years ago.

The average phone of the time had a three row BW display, no packet data, no BT, no installable SW, and so on...

And Internet was completely different: the pages were mostly static, the weight of a web page was ridiculous.

Compare it with a (say) Sonyericsson W995 released in 2009, it has the accelerometer, the gps, 8GB of storage, a 320x200 display, a 8Mpixel camera, the push mail function, the activesync support, HSPA connection and so on...

And it has the java support, that means you can install a turn by turn navigator, operamini, a lot of games, a youtube client...

But is not a smartphone. we are in 2012 and internet is changed, the world is changed.

So, for me a "true" smartphone is something which is definitely more powerfull/featured than the mentioned featurephone.

And "definitely better" mean flash support, a decent resolution, video play w/o any conversion process, an offline navigator, a qwerty keyboard...

And frankly the XT532 doesn't meet a lot of those requirements, and (as you said) the galaxy Y is even worse, at least looking to the specs.

If you want a bigger screen you get a bigger phone.

The bigger screen could be a requirement for some people, and surely is not an unwelcome addition, but a decent resolution will change the experience, and a good amount of RAM and CPU power makes the phone usable in any situation.

And keep in mind that the U960 I own, is just an average smartphone (it's comparable with a 2 years old Desire HD) it's the king just because the lack of competition, not because it's the best smartphone ever.

 

[RoamingHawK]

Well said Solutor.

I'm opting for the HTC though, as for flash support, I don't really need it, and if I did, you know there are some Flash versions ported for the ARM architecture.

The ZTE U960 dual active feature is a unique feature, and indeed it's unbeatable. But having ICS, the "HTC" name, smaller size and lighter , Super LCD on one hand, and dual active on the other, for me I'll go for the first hand, and in any way, this would be rather an improvement from my XT532, won't compare to my Note, but still.

And quite frankly, I don't like the looks of the ZTE U960. I know it maybe the most powerful Dual-Sim phone right now, but it looks like a cheap phone.

 

[The Solutor]

Well said Solutor.

I'm opting for the HTC though, as for flash support, I don't really need it, and if I did, you know there are some Flash versions ported for the ARM architecture.

I edited my earlier message, about that problem. In short the problem is not existent.

The ZTE U960 dual active feature is a unique feature, and indeed it's unbeatable. But having ICS, the "HTC" name, smaller size and lighter , Super LCD on one hand

I agree about the size, less about ICS, which is IMO a sorta of vista of android (I have it on my droid 2 global), and the definition of "Super LCD" on HTC phones is just misleading, it's just marketing to justify the switch from AMOLED to LCD on the Nexus ONE.

I had a Desire Z, equipped with a "Super" LCD and its screen was not on par with the Milestone 1/2 panel, nor with the "no name" LCD present on the ZTE.

And quite frankly, I don't like the looks of the ZTE U960. I know it maybe the most powerful Dual-Sim phone right now, but it looks like a cheap phone.

Surely is not designed by Pininfarina or Giugiaro, and isn't that hard to find a better looking phone, but I can't consider it ugly

 

[kingcedz]

have just pre-ordered the HTC t328w from taobao.com directly, the phone seems to be scheduled for released on 20Apr, so i guess it ll be early May when i got it in U.K.

I have been using the Moto Xt532 for a few months now. overall, I m pretty satisfied with it. Also have the ocassional black screen problem which gets on my nerves, but other than that, the xt532 does the job very well. I bough the Hong Kong version, so all the google apps came pre installed and there was no need for me to fiddle with it much.

The HTC t328w seems to be for domestic chinese market only, therefore I dont expect stock android market to come pre-installed. But given the large market presence of HTC in China there should be a decent solution soon after release. In fact, I wont even be surprised if the t328w will be able to sport MIUI at some stage, given all the other HTC android phones have MIUI custom Rom support.

 

[pwel]

I have been using the Moto Xt532 for a few months now. overall, I m pretty satisfied with it. Also have the ocassional black screen problem, which gets on my nerves, but other than that, the xt532 does the job very well.

Why did you not install the new ROM? It helps you to relax your nerves

 

[kingcedz]

Why did you not install the new ROM? It helps you to relax your nerves

can u point me to where the new ROM is? I have been using the stock XT532 so far as I mainly use it as a travel phone.

 

[pwel]

can u point me to where the new ROM is? I have been using the stock XT532 so far as I mainly use it as a travel phone.

see xda-developers - View Single Post - Any idea- Motorola XT532 rom

check if it is correct wrt phone type (using Rdslite you can see the os version you have it should match)

 

[khdd8198]

Thanks to The Solutor for the info on the CPU's it seems it's not as simple as mere CPU speed as the A750 T328w and U960 are all 1Ghz. It inspired me to have a bit more of a dig around and I found an interesting link that compares the Lenovo A750 Cpu MTK6575 with the HTC T328w Wind MSM7227A.

Photo: '000 Mobile CPU contention MTK6575 MSM7227A contrast - Technology News

Personally I would prefer the HTC just as I'm aware of the brand but price and this article seem to be pushing me back to the Lenovo A750.

I had a look but couldn't find any comparisons of the MTK6575 and the U960's MSM8255 does anyone know of any benchmarking thats been done between the two?

 

[Cecilsoares]

I've had it for 2 days only and I'm fairly satisfied. As I said some time ago I needed a dual sim with qwerty because I just can't get used to typing on touch screen. The screen't sensitivity is quite good and the tracker actually helps solving the problem on the small screen, because you can use it to chose smaller buttons on apps and navigating on the web. One bad thing is that because the screen has a size that is kindda od for android phones, some apps actually appear size-down on the screen, like you had rotated your phone, only you didn't. Not impossible to use, you just rotate the thing, only a bit annoying.

the only real downside of this phone is internal memory. only 160 Mb. didn't expect it to be much of a problem because I thought i'd install all on the SD card but I found out many apps will not accept it. Haven't tried to root it yet.

I'm also having some problems with the phone reading the few apps I actually managed to install on the SD card, but I don't believe it's a general thing, just my bad luck, because it hasn't been reported widely.

I dunno about dual active... I really don't bother that much about that feature and I haven't tried. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Some updates on my opinion:
1) figured the problem I was having was the SD card I was using; changed it and the problem was gone.

2) the phone is dual stand-by; only, as I said, that is not an issue for me, so I'm still satisfied.

3) after a week of use, I can tell that the battery life is quite ok, like most android I have to recharge everyday but when the night comes I still have some battery left, and I let the 3g on all the day long.

 

[kingcedz]

Thanks to The Solutor for the info on the CPU's it seems it's not as simple as mere CPU speed as the A750 T328w and U960 are all 1Ghz. It inspired me to have a bit more of a dig around and I found an interesting link that compares the Lenovo A750 Cpu MTK6575 with the HTC T328w Wind MSM7227A.

Photo: '000 Mobile CPU contention MTK6575 MSM7227A contrast - Technology News

Personally I would prefer the HTC just as I'm aware of the brand but price and this article seem to be pushing me back to the Lenovo A750.

I had a look but couldn't find any comparisons of the MTK6575 and the U960's MSM8255 does anyone know of any benchmarking thats been done between the two?

CPU speed is one thing, but it depends greatly on how manufacturers optimized the hardware for the OS.

ICS unlike previous versions of android supports hardware acceleration, and from what i gathered so far in other HTC phones, Sense 4.0 + ICS has been very well rendered to utilize the hardware acceleration. This probably means that little MSM7227A should work it's ass off, assuming HTC is not dropping standard for this "Wind" series.

MTK6575 is probably a slightly better processor than MSM7227A in most tests. However, Lenovo A750 was released with Android 2.3. Not that I have anything against Gingerbread, but I would assume the hardware utilization in A750 will not be as good as the HTC's latest units simply because it was not released to sport ICS at launch. Similarly, that 1GHz in U960 will probably not be as efficient as the HTC t328w.

The HTC unit should be launched on 20Apr, I ll run some test once i got this phone. I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Moto XT532 so will test against those two.

 

[RoamingHawK]

CPU speed is one thing, but it depends greatly on how manufacturers optimized the hardware for the OS.

ICS unlike previous versions of android supports hardware acceleration, and from what i gathered so far in other HTC phones, Sense 4.0 + ICS has been very well rendered to utilize the hardware acceleration. This probably means that little MSM7227A should work it's ass off, assuming HTC is not dropping standard for this "Wind" series.

MTK6575 is probably a slightly better processor than MSM7227A in most tests. However, Lenovo A750 was released with Android 2.3. Not that I have anything against Gingerbread, but I would assume the hardware utilization in A750 will not be as good as the HTC's latest units simply because it was not released to sport ICS at launch. Similarly, that 1GHz in U960 will probably not be as efficient as the HTC t328w.

The HTC unit should be launched on 20Apr, I ll run some test once i got this phone. I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Moto XT532 so will test against those two.

Eagerly awaiting those tests and your review, you own a Galaxy Nexus which is a good phone, and you own the XT532 which in my opinion is a disappointment.
http://androidforums.com/4214008-post1271.html

So I'm interested in hearing what you'll say.

Thanks.

 

[chamaruco]

Why did you not install the new ROM? It helps you to relax your nerves

it's true..experienced

 

[The Solutor]

Thanks to The Solutor for the info on the CPU's it seems it's not as simple as mere CPU speed as the A750 T328w and U960 are all 1Ghz. It inspired me to have a bit more of a dig around and I found an interesting link that compares the Lenovo A750 Cpu MTK6575 with the HTC T328w Wind MSM7227A.

Indeed interesting link, thanks

Personally I would prefer the HTC just as I'm aware of the brand but price and this article seem to be pushing me back to the Lenovo A750.

Lenovo is a way bigger and older brand than HTC but HTC has is experience focused only in smarphones, ZTE is also a cellular network builder.

So is a good fight between the three.

I had a look but couldn't find any comparisons of the MTK6575 and the U960's MSM8255 does anyone know of any benchmarking thats been done between the two?

I bleliev would be relatively easy to find a comparison between A snapdragon S1 and a Snapdragon S2.

Btw keep in mind that a smartphone is not just a pocketable computer, is also a phone and a battery.

Now we are aware how the ZTE is performing on those sections (very well), but the power consumption, the signal sensitivity, the audio quality are still open question for both lenovo and HTC phones.

For example many HTC phones including the Desire Z and the Nexus one I had had poor sensitivity and weak audio.

Keep also in mind that since today the ZTE is safely overclocable to 1.4Ghz
(the 8255T level,and maybe more), while no one was able to overclock the old generation of MTK SOCs.



For the record this is the quadrant result given by the phone at 1.4Ghz

 

[catty62]

this is my last quandrant result

 

[kingcedz]

just realized the HTC t328w (and other 2) are marketed under the "Desire" brand series name and at the same time it's also called "Wind" in Chinese and code named "Dragon", a bit odd and confusing since HTC said they are unifying everything under the "One" brand globally.

Anyway, here is the model list in case anyone else is looking for specific handset.

Desire VT: HTC T328T, Single Sim, GSM/TD-SCDMA, Custom Made for China Mobile.
(Don't get this one, TD-SCDMA is useless outside China.)

Desire VC: HTC T328D, Dual Sim, GSM + CDMA2000, Custom Made for China Telecom.
(Don't get this one unless you are only using it in CDMA enabled country. Even if you do, there are many other much more powerful GSM+CDMA2000 dual sim out there.)

Desire V: HTC T328W, Dual Sim, GSM + WCDMA, Custom Made for China Unicom. This is the version to go for.
(China Unicom is also the vendor for Lenovo A60 and A750, therefore we could expect some consistency.)

 

[RoamingHawK]

I'm waiting for a learned Brave soul to test the new T328W phone and compare it to existing phones before I get it.

I've upgrade the XT532 to the newest ROM, I haven't had a black screen issue or signal drop after I've upgraded, and actually I feel the phone became more responsive.

I would like to ask the U960 owners, what are the drawbacks of the device?

 

[cybermall]

just realized the HTC t328w (and other 2) are marketed under the "Desire" brand series name and at the same time it's also called "Wind" in Chinese and code named "Dragon", a bit odd and confusing since HTC said they are unifying everything under the "One" brand globally.

Anyway, here is the model list in case anyone else is looking for specific handset.

Desire VT: HTC T328T, Single Sim, GSM/TD-SCDMA, Custom Made for China Mobile.
(Don't get this one, TD-SCDMA is useless outside China.)

Desire VC: HTC T328D, Dual Sim, GSM + CDMA2000, Custom Made for China Telecom.
(Don't get this one unless you are only using it in CDMA enabled country. Even if you do, there are many other much more powerful GSM+CDMA2000 dual sim out there.)

Desire V: HTC T328W, Dual Sim, GSM + WCDMA, Custom Made for China Unicom. This is the version to go for.
(China Unicom is also the vendor for Lenovo A60 and A750, therefore we could expect some consistency.)

I took a look at HTC T328W indeed the specification, size and look seems
good to me, and it comes with ICS. Only question is whether this phone
have the same problem like other dual sim phone, when SIM1 online data
access can SIM2 accept incoming call or not

 

[kingcedz]

I took a look at HTC T328W indeed the specification, size and look seems
good to me, and it comes with ICS. Only question is whether this phone
have the same problem like other dual sim phone, when SIM1 online data
access can SIM2 accept incoming call or not

Not sure if I shared ur worry on this, I ve never had problem with any of the dual sims I owned in the past regarding data connection on 1 sim and calls on another.

If u are talking about sim 1 on a call and sim 2 will be disabled, then I m pretty sure this is the case for T328W as the phone only has 1 radio.

 

[catty62]

Not sure if I shared ur worry on this, I ve never had problem with any of the dual sims I owned in the past regarding data connection on 1 sim and calls on another.

If u are talking about sim 1 on a call and sim 2 will be disabled, then I m pretty sure this is the case for T328W as the phone only has 1 radio.

I have had a B63M and I can say that on that phone when you are with data connection on on sim1 the second sim is unreachable ... If the T328W has only one radio module I think that is the same for it ...