Smartphone Newbie doesn't know what's the best...

[layarue]

Hello folks!
Yet again a newbie who needs your advice...

I've never had a smartphone/iPhone before, but now I want to buy one. Since I don't like Apple, I decided that I wanted one with Android.

I've already looked around a little, and the HTC Desire is the one that looked most promising to me so far, just there is one thing that blew it off: the camera quality. So basically, I really like the design of the HTC (round edges, rather big screen, ...), but a rather good camera is very important for me, and I've read that HTC is more or less the worst you can get if it's about the cam... I know I can't get the best cam there is for my poor budget, but at least I don't want to have the worst there is for the money I have.

So does anyone have advice for me?
I don't want to spend more than 280$ and I'll mostly use it for texting and internet. And it'd be great if the design was similar to the HTC Desire...
Thanks A LOT in forward, I'm really a little overextended with all the different types of smartphones...

 

[gunderscorewil]

Who is your carrier? Do you care to have 3g or 4G coverages? Is there anything else that is important besides the camera?

 

[Tslide91]

Are you planning on viewing the pictures on your phone or computer?

Reason I ask: htc cameras are just fine if youre viewing from the phone. However, on a computer at full resolution, itll suck. But there arent many cellphone cameras that are good. Most of them suck. Its just some suck more than others.

 

[layarue]

@gunderscorewil:
nothing important besides, no. As I said, I'd love a design similar to the HTC Desire and a good camera, that's all, I think!
Oh, and carrier is Simyo (german), and I think I only have 3G coverage, but don't know for sure.

@Tslide91:
I wanted to use an app similar to Instagram (little Photo or Fx Camera), so I'd upload them somewhere and see them on the computer, too... don't know if the effects of those apps hide the "bad" quality of the images, though.
Hm, but you mean basically the HTC isn't really that bad?

 

[ninja_reject]

Give us some of simyo's android choices. I've never heard of them, being from across the pond.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Give us some of simyo's android choices. I've never heard of them, being from across the pond.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think in Europe you buy your phone separately from your Carrier. So you pick and buy a phone separately from picking and getting a service provider. It's all GSM over there (I think) so the Carrier isn't as important. We here in the USA could only dream of options like that

 

[layarue]

That's right, yes
Although: Carrier-independent phones are more expensive than the ones that are locked to your carrier, so it isn't so great after all.

And well, the HTC Desire gains more and more of my favour... anyone there who wouldn't advice me to buy it?

 

[Domini_11]

Hey, if you have your heart set on the Desire you might want to consider its successor Desire S.

Over here, the price difference between the two was very little and the Desire S makes small but quite useful incremental changes from the original Desire, like more RAM, bit more memory, front VGA camera etc.

Design wise they look very similar with the difference being Desire S has got rid of the trackball and replaced the physical buttons with capacitive buttons. I personally prefer the latter. Desire S also come with gingerbread pre-installed, don't think android has starting rolling this out to the original desire yet. Might be wrong about this though.

 

[layarue]

Sup!
I've decided, the HTC Desire it will be
Thanks @Domini_11 for your tip - the Desire S looks really great and sounds better than the Desire, but with 480$ it's just too expensive for me (difference of 140$ to the Desire). Thanks for your help, everyone!