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Nokia N9 ICS or go straight for android?

post #1 of 12
4/4/12 at 9:30am
Thread Starter 
Hey Overclockers!

I'm planning on buying a new phone now or in the next few months, preferably before the summer ends. I've done some researching and I found out that the Nokia N9 runs Android ice cream sandwich really well. It also has the Meego interface that I really like. Android is just amazing due to the awesome tweaking abilites, and it's awesome set of apps. I could get the N9 for about 220 Euros. It has an awesome amoled screen, but my only grudge is the relatively mid-end hardware. It has a 1 ghz A8 with an SGX 530, even worse than the iPhone 4.

On the other hand I could go for a phone like the ZTE Era, which has a 4.3" TFT qHD screen, and the tegra 3 processor and GPU. The performance is way better than the N9. The specs would be awesome, but then again the overall quality won't be even near to what the N9 brings. The price will also be about 250 Euros...

So, what should I go for? The quality and design of the N9 or the perfomance of tegra 3? I really like mobile gaming, so will the N9 give good performance for 3d games etc?

Thanks! biggrin.gif

And yeah, if you have any suggestions, go for it! tongue.gif
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post #2 of 12
4/4/12 at 9:55am
Personally, I've been in a similar situation myself. I currently own an HTC HD2, which is a phone that natively runs Windows Mobile 6.5 if you're not familiar with it. I bought it with the intention of using Android mostly and trying out Windows Phone 7/7.5, as it's able to run both "well".

Unfortunately, I don't think I'd recommend someone to buy a non-native Android phone with the intention of running Android on it. Whilst you can watch back a video of someone using it and see it running apparently like a native device, in reality there are often a lot of smaller issues that exist in my experience with the HD2.

I don't know anything about the Era myself, but if it has a Tegra 3 et al and it can be had for just €30 more than the N9, I'd say it's worth it, even if the build quality is inferior. After having played around with different operating systems on my phone, it's great that you have the ability to try them all out on one phone, but in reality I've found myself wishing I just bought a native Android device from the start. I think I'm going to sell my HD2 soon in favour of a Sensation.

Of course, your mileage may vary and there are loads of people out there who still love their HD2s despite running custom OSs on them and the hardware being relatively outdated (single core 1GHz processor as well).
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post #3 of 12
4/4/12 at 1:54pm
N9 is quite a crappy phone for what you're saying you're going to pay for. Like you said it's got medium specs. The only reason why you'd consider it is for the meego swipe software, however you're saying you're looking to augment it with icecream so it doesn't look like it's the logical choice.
Oh and the battery life is atrocious.

But man swipe ui is just so awesome.
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post #4 of 12
4/6/12 at 2:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellis View Post

Personally, I've been in a similar situation myself. I currently own an HTC HD2, which is a phone that natively runs Windows Mobile 6.5 if you're not familiar with it. I bought it with the intention of using Android mostly and trying out Windows Phone 7/7.5, as it's able to run both "well".
Unfortunately, I don't think I'd recommend someone to buy a non-native Android phone with the intention of running Android on it. Whilst you can watch back a video of someone using it and see it running apparently like a native device, in reality there are often a lot of smaller issues that exist in my experience with the HD2.
I don't know anything about the Era myself, but if it has a Tegra 3 et al and it can be had for just €30 more than the N9, I'd say it's worth it, even if the build quality is inferior. After having played around with different operating systems on my phone, it's great that you have the ability to try them all out on one phone, but in reality I've found myself wishing I just bought a native Android device from the start. I think I'm going to sell my HD2 soon in favour of a Sensation.
Of course, your mileage may vary and there are loads of people out there who still love their HD2s despite running custom OSs on them and the hardware being relatively outdated (single core 1GHz processor as well).

i also have an HD2 although mine just died a few days ago so im on a htc G2 now, ive never run windows on mine so i cant comment on that, but android on HD2 has its little bugs, but for the most part works great, for being mostly hacked together, i used dorimanx rom/kernal on mine overclocked to 1.5ghz, and later i was using tytungs cm9 android 4 port again at 1.5ghz, that ran great too, only thing wrong with it was the camcorder didn't quite work right, but the video once uploaded or viewed on a pc worked fine.
id say if you can deal with little bugs like that go for it, if not then get a propor android phone.
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post #5 of 12
4/6/12 at 3:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhat_ownage View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellis View Post

Personally, I've been in a similar situation myself. I currently own an HTC HD2, which is a phone that natively runs Windows Mobile 6.5 if you're not familiar with it. I bought it with the intention of using Android mostly and trying out Windows Phone 7/7.5, as it's able to run both "well".
Unfortunately, I don't think I'd recommend someone to buy a non-native Android phone with the intention of running Android on it. Whilst you can watch back a video of someone using it and see it running apparently like a native device, in reality there are often a lot of smaller issues that exist in my experience with the HD2.
I don't know anything about the Era myself, but if it has a Tegra 3 et al and it can be had for just €30 more than the N9, I'd say it's worth it, even if the build quality is inferior. After having played around with different operating systems on my phone, it's great that you have the ability to try them all out on one phone, but in reality I've found myself wishing I just bought a native Android device from the start. I think I'm going to sell my HD2 soon in favour of a Sensation.
Of course, your mileage may vary and there are loads of people out there who still love their HD2s despite running custom OSs on them and the hardware being relatively outdated (single core 1GHz processor as well).

i also have an HD2 although mine just died a few days ago so im on a htc G2 now, ive never run windows on mine so i cant comment on that, but android on HD2 has its little bugs, but for the most part works great, for being mostly hacked together, i used dorimanx rom/kernal on mine overclocked to 1.5ghz, and later i was using tytungs cm9 android 4 port again at 1.5ghz, that ran great too, only thing wrong with it was the camcorder didn't quite work right, but the video once uploaded or viewed on a pc worked fine.
id say if you can deal with little bugs like that go for it, if not then get a propor android phone.
I think part of it also might be that I only bought my HD2 6 months ago, so I guess I never really saw it at its prime. Now the hardware is starting to show its age, and developers and users seem to be quickly moving on to more capable phones hardware-wise. When you take into account the fact that the HD2 is over 2 years old and was never supposed to run Android, and then look at how well it does run Android, there's no doubt that it looks awesome. But when I compare it to how well the Sensation runs Android, and the price that the Sensation has dropped to now that the One S and One X have been announced, it doesn't shine as much anymore. Still, I'll be sad to see it go.

Anyway, back on topic OP, this is very very much a case where your mileage may vary. Personally I'd say that given your situation, it sounds as though it's worth spending a little bit extra in order to get the faster, more recent, phone that natively runs Android. You might, however, love the N9 to bits should you buy one. Your call at the end of the day.
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post #6 of 12
4/6/12 at 4:19pm
off topic: Ellis, if and when you do sell your hd2, please keep me in mind biggrin.gif
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post #7 of 12
4/6/12 at 4:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhat_ownage View Post

off topic: Ellis, if and when you do sell your hd2, please keep me in mind biggrin.gif
I will do, but don't forget that it would need to be shipped across the pond which would cost a fair bit more I'd imagine. It's my birthday in less than 2 weeks and so I might be looking at selling around then. It's in great condition though, boxed with accessories etc.

This is so off-topic, sorry OP. To be fair though, Nafedz hasn't replied since his first post. tongue.gif
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post #8 of 12
4/6/12 at 4:38pm
lol yea kinda hijacking his thread tongue.gif

UK band HD2's are very hard to come by here in the states, and i have a friend who has been wanting to try an hd2, but the us hd2 only has 1700/2100 bands for 3G so you really cant use it without wifi or t-mobile service,
and it shouldn't cost much more than 12-15 quid to ship it here, ive send ram to the uk and it cost somthing like $18us.
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post #9 of 12
4/7/12 at 2:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by redhat_ownage View Post

lol yea kinda hijacking his thread tongue.gif

UK band HD2's are very hard to come by here in the states, and i have a friend who has been wanting to try an hd2, but the us hd2 only has 1700/2100 bands for 3G so you really cant use it without wifi or t-mobile service,
and it shouldn't cost much more than 12-15 quid to ship it here, ive send ram to the uk and it cost somthing like $18us.
Ah right, I thought about that and because I don't know exactly how al the bands etc. work in the US I didn't know why you might want an EU one. Anyway, I'll let you know in a bit. I need to wait for my birthday so I know I'll have the cash to pay on top of my phone's sale price to get a Sensation, otherwise I could be without a smartphone for way too long tongue.gif
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post #10 of 12
4/26/12 at 8:13am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, thanks for the contributions. So, the ZTE Era it is biggrin.gif I tried my friends N9 for about an hour, and it's a solid device, but the meego isn't good for people like me. The app situation ( on meego), and it's not great for modders either. Ill get the ZTE and hack the heck out of it, make it my own phone biggrin.gif I always knew android was for me, and I wanna be sure that I know what Im getting.
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