Android phone to replace iPod. (Good music quality)

Does the type of phone actually depend on audio quality? I love my music as well ( Beats headphones and .flac songs) but i never knew the phone would depend. On my Nexus S i use PowerAmp. Sounds pretty darn good to me.

 

I have an Atrix 4G and the sound coming from the external speaker and using wired or wireless head phone, sounds really good. I have separate preset equalizer setting for the head phone jack and speaker.

 

I won't call myself an audiophile but IMO, using good third party headphones plus a music app with an adjustable EQ and high quality music files should be good. So I think you do not need to limit yourself to phones that are marketed to audio enthusiasts. Good sound output can be replicated easily by most of the phones available.

 

Look for a cheap Galaxy S on ebay, they were great for audio quality.

 

Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman review: Droid's got talent - GSMArena.com

Basically, avoid the Xperia Ray since you plan on using headphones but the Live Walkman seems decent.

To my untrained ear though, both sound the same. My headphones aren't really all that good, either.

 

I like samsungs's music player in the GS2. Though I still use an iPod because they can be smaller and lighter and cheaper for working out with.

Also iPods are far more durable than smartphones so they can be abused more without risk.

 

Galaxy Ace is phased out.

Go for Galaxy W: 1.4Ghz proc, Adreno 205 GPU (same as Xperia Play), 3.7inch screen, DNSe hardware for audio quality enhancement. Its basically better than all 4 phones you listed as your choices.

 

You can get a Sony Ericsson Live Walkman at around the same price as the 8GB iPod Touch. As for durable, the iPod Touch isn't really that durable. If you want durable, there's the Xperia Active (basically an Xperia Mini made more rugged). Would even withstand getting dunked in water.

Far as I'm aware, no Galaxy W in the US. If he gets one, it would have to be int'l so no 3G support.

 

I would think any mid to high end phone would suit your needs. An operating system is an operating system. Just get a large capacity sd card.

If you like wireless headphones, I recommend the Jaybird in ear stereo bluetooth headphones. They're pricy but D#MN they sound great and come with different fittings to keep em in your ears. Oh, and they're sweat proof and water resistent! The battery life is about 6 hours and the bass is out of this world.

The quality of your music will only be as good as your headphones, wireless or wired.

If you're a music fan like me, don't by cheap headphones for your android! Spend the money and get a great set.

 

Like these bad boys?

Spoiler

 

I sold my iPod. Didn't see the point of keeping it.

 

The Xperia Play (yes, the "PlayStation" phone), Xperia Ray ST18a/i, Xperia Mini Pro SK17a/i and Live Walkman WT19a/i all feature the same 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB RAM. The only differences are form factor, features (e.g. 8MP camera on Ray vs 5MP on Mini Pro) and screen size/resolution. That means you can expect these phones to perform more or less the same.

In terms of audio quality, it appears the Live Walkman and Mini Pro are on par with each other with the Ray doing worse when headphones are attached (not that I've noticed any difference).

The Galaxy Ace is the least powerful of the bunch. Any of the Sony Ericsson phones you mentioned will beat the Galaxy's Ace butt when it comes to performance.

 

I stand corrected. The Galaxy W apparently did make its way to US shores as T-Mobile's Samsung Exhibit II 4G ($200 w/o contract). Alas, it didn't make its way unscathed. CPU dropped from 1.4GHz Snapdragon MSM8255T to 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 (same as the one found on the Play, Ray, Mini Pro and Live Walkman). The camera was also another casualty dropping down from 5MP to 3.2MP.

@OP
Should have asked this first. What carrier will you be using and do you need 3G? The US versions of the Sony Ericsson phones all work with AT&T's 3G bands. The Exhibit II works on T-Mobile's 3G networks and would probably work with AT&T 3G in some areas (where 850MHz is used). Alas you'll need to unlock it.

 

Gotcha. Was confused since the prices you seem to be quoting are in US$. Are phones cheaper in the US than in China?

 

Side note would be to be wary of the processor on that cheap android you might pick up. I dont know the specs of any of the xperias, but if you get a low powered processor, i find that Poweramp, and presumably WinAmp (if you use that) will have trouble playing flac songs. My 1 gb processor sometimes stutters on parts. Of course my poor little phone is also tanking everything else running on its system but be warned!
Good luck on your quest~!

 

But the problem with bringing a phone in China to the US is that it may not work on 3G.

 

Hmm, haven't noticed any issue with Poweramp and FLAC on any of my Xperias. The CPU on the 2011 Xperia are comparable in performance to the CPU on the Nexus S and Galaxy S. Curious, what phone are you using that's giving your stutters?

OP is buying a phone in the US to bring to China. Just checked the carriers he will be using and one is GSM only (China Telecom) so that's covered. The other is 3G 2100 (China Unicom). Both the N. American (SK17a) and international (SK17i) models of the Xperia Mini Pro support the 2100 3G band.

Xperia Mini Pro SK17a: 850 / 1900 / 2100
Xperia Mini Pro SK17i: 900 / 2100

 

My Nexus S. Every so often the player will just repeat a couple milliseconds of a song and then resume. It never happens on loud speaker, and it just did it to me then
I contacted Poweramp about it, and they said it was a settings problem. My theory is that the rom I'm using is optimised for the current action. I think it was called BCF? Codename droid 1.5.5 bcf,If my memory serves me correctly. Basically the rom is designed to focus the CPU on the current app, and less on background apps. I should go find that other rom actually just to see if it is the problem.

 

I listen to music a lot - my family actually gets annoyed because they think I want to ignore them and most of the time it is true.

I got a 35 buck headset (bluetooth) from Walmart and Galaxy S2 - and let me just say I actually have bass in my headphones. The eq needed a little adjustment but that seems to be on everything.

Also my headset allows me to answer phone calls so I am very satisfied - the headset if interested is the Arctic P311.

Also I have an Ipod too but I chucked it a long time ago so I don't have to carry anything except my phone around. I am all about efficiency so I guess that is where my opinions come from but hope to have helped a little.

 

No issues with a Nexus S here on stock Gingerbread. Hmm, still wondering whether I want to upgrade to ICS. Kinda don't want to lose USB Mass Storage support. MTP just doesn't work as well.