[womanonwheels]

well said VW2010. I am using a samsung note from last three weeks and absolutely adore it. great screen size, fast processor and browsing and gaming experience is too good. Doesnt feel plasticky or heavy due to the size or build. I was torn between note and iphone 4s. I definitely made the right choice and wont exchange it even if an iphone 10 comes out and is offered to me for free.

[Speed.Demon]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Guys I am looking to get the HTC Explorer. I really like the looks of the phone especially the back with the metal thingy. Wanted to ask if it is good buy. I have never ever used an Android.

EDIT: I intend to keep the phone for a veryyyy long time and this will be my first HTC. Please Help.

Hi there,

I too am planning to buy an Explorer as my first Android. I am currently on the ancient but still reliable Symbian platform which I have been using for 3 years.

I am planning to keep my new phone for at least 2 years and do hope that HTC doesn't let me down.
A friend of mine tells me that the Explorer is prone to problems with the screen, ie the touch will eventually stop working. Is it true??

And yes, 9.3k is a ripoff for the Explorer, you can get it for 8k from tradus.in.

Linky - HTC Explorer Mobile Phone, Price, Features, Specifications, Reviews | Tradus

[F150]

Originally Posted by womanonwheels

well said VW2010. I am using a samsung note from last three weeks and absolutely adore it. great screen size, fast processor and browsing and gaming experience is too good. Doesnt feel plasticky or heavy due to the size or build. I was torn between note and iphone 4s. I definitely made the right choice and wont exchange it even if an iphone 10 comes out and is offered to me for free.

Yeah waiting for the S3, so that the prices of note go down. I am currently using a i9003 without the softkeys. I am using softkeys app for now.

Coming to the plastic covers, the get scratched very easily and for some reason doesn't give that premium feel. The back cover on the S2 is flimsy to say the least. I haven't seen the note yet, mostly it is covered in the pouch

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Guys I am looking to get the HTC Explorer. I really like the looks of the phone especially the back with the metal thingy. Wanted to ask if it is good buy. I have never ever used an Android. I have been using a nokia 5230 for a while. I will be getting a HTC Titan 2 in a couple of months so this will not be my primary phone. What do you guys think?

P.S: They are asking for Rs.9300 for the explorer. I feel its a little on the higher side. Eh??

EDIT: I intend to keep the phone for a veryyyy long time and this will be my first HTC. Please Help.

If you want something that performs a bit better get the Optimus Net instead. AF cam, 1500 mAh battery are the main advantages. Won't comment about the proccy despite clock speed of Net being higher by 200 MHz, as they both use different chipsets. Net also seems to have a scratch resistant screen. Not sure about the Explorer. Display quality of the Net also seems bit better than Explorer. However, if build quality and outer looks are more important, go for the Explorer.

Try Buytheprice and Tradus (in that order) for lower prices. 9,300 is way high as everyone has mentioned.

[HappyRoadie]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Guys I am looking to get the HTC Explorer. I really like the looks of the phone especially the back with the metal thingy. Wanted to ask if it is good buy. I have never ever used an Android. I have been using a nokia 5230 for a while. I will be getting a HTC Titan 2 in a couple of months so this will not be my primary phone. What do you guys think?

P.S: They are asking for Rs.9300 for the explorer. I feel its a little on the higher side. Eh??

EDIT: I intend to keep the phone for a veryyyy long time and this will be my first HTC. Please Help.

If you dont want to go for Sony Walkman Live then explorer is good. It is even faster than Wildfire S as it has latest ARM v7 processor. And the HTC sense is awesome. One of my friend has Explorer and I have used it and thats why I am asking you to go for it. One biggest con in Sony Walkman is lack of Smart dialing. And screen resolution of Optimus Net and Explorer is same.

[sups]

Originally Posted by F150

Yeah waiting for the S3, so that the prices of note go down. I am currently using a i9003 without the softkeys.

What is your feedback in i9003 model? Presently, I have an offer to buy 10 month old i9003 model at 12K from a very trusted friend. Is it a worth buy in today's market? As per the specs, i9003 is quite good. It has got 2.3 update as well.

[F150]

Originally Posted by sups

What is your feedback in i9003 model? Presently, I have an offer to buy 10 month old i9003 model at 12K from a very trusted friend. Is it a worth buy in today's market? As per the specs, i9003 is quite good. It has got 2.3 update as well.

It is a pretty decent phone, does all my online tasks. I personally prefer the SLCD on this phone to a Amoled. The colors are too saturated on the amoled.
Only grouse is that it lacks codecs from samsung, hence it cannot play any hd video formats.
Once out of warranty, you have to be very careful. My soft keys have gone bad. Contacted the service center and was told, the entire touch screen had to be replaced which costs 6k.
For now I am using soft keys app from the market as a workaround.

[Parthasarathig]

Originally Posted by F150

. Contacted the service center and was told, the entire touch screen had to be replaced which costs 6k..

Sir have you tried getting it serviced from unofficial service centres. These touch screens with the soft keys are pretty cheap. Probably should cost around 1k or so. If you can source them from outside or from ebay it will come cheaper. And its easy to replace the touchscreen. All use connectors so no problem or hassles opening or reassembling touch screens. Further i guess only the touch panel has to be replaced and not the screen in its entirety.
So my advice would be to source the touch panel and then have it replaced yourself or buy some local shop. The precision tools for this wont cost you more than 120bucks.

Regards

[F150]

Originally Posted by Parthasarathig

Sir have you tried getting it serviced from unofficial service centres. These touch screens with the soft keys are pretty cheap. Probably should cost around 1k or so. If you can source them from outside or from ebay it will come cheaper. And its easy to replace the touchscreen. All use connectors so no problem or hassles opening or reassembling touch screens. Further i guess only the touch panel has to be replaced and not the screen in its entirety.
So my advice would be to source the touch panel and then have it replaced yourself or buy some local shop. The precision tools for this wont cost you more than 120bucks.

Regards

Are you sure ? The service center guy opened the phone and showed me the screen, there are no serviceable parts, it is entire assembly and the screen is connecting to the motherboard, no others connectors could be found.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by F150

Are you sure ? The service center guy opened the phone and showed me the screen, there are no serviceable parts, it is entire assembly and the screen is connecting to the motherboard, no others connectors could be found.

The touch screen connects to the motherboard through a simple socket. The bad thing is that the touch screen will have glue which needs to stick to the phone.

Its better to use the original part since any little gap will allow dust to enter upon the LCD below and will ruin your everyday use.

[Parthasarathig]

Originally Posted by F150

Are you sure ? The service center guy opened the phone and showed me the screen, there are no serviceable parts, it is entire assembly and the screen is connecting to the motherboard, no others connectors could be found.

Yes sir. The screen will detach from the front touch panel aka bezel which is made of gorilla glass or other material.
Do note your screen isnt touch sensitive. There is a panel on top of the screen that is configured to interprete the haptic interactions. Im no mobile engineer but after having dissected quite a few of my mobiles I did come to this conclusion.

And your touch panel plus screen should combinedly cost around 3000 at the most. You can search online with the keywords
"Samsung i90003 touch panel". You'll get many online stores that will tell you the prices. You can also search amazon and ebay. But im not so sure amazon will sell them.

My knowledge is the phone is configured in this way
Motherboard-> screen and Motherboard->touchpanel.
Atleast for the capacitative screens it is like this. Ive never had a resistive screen.

My samsung phone had fallen in the water and I had to disassemble it completely to get everything dried. The touchpanel wasnt working. My local guy got it done for 600bucks which means it probably cost him 150 to 200 bucks. (although later i did figure out the water servicing part)

Hope this helps you out. Dont waste 6000 bucks on an already old phone sir.

[phamilyman]

Any coupons for letsbuy? Need to buy asap.

As for 6k samsung touch screen, the defy costs only 2k in comparison. Still waterproof btw. So much for people who trash motorola service without using it.

Dear sups ,
Buy a new defy or Omnia or Sony in 15k. 12k for an out of warranty handset... No way

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by F150

Are you sure ? The service center guy opened the phone and showed me the screen, there are no serviceable parts, it is entire assembly and the screen is connecting to the motherboard, no others connectors could be found.

The glass panel isn't touch-capable.there is a digitizer glued to the screen that recognizes touch.its the digitizer that connects to the motherboard through a ribbon like thingy.

Now either the service center employee is stupid enough to not know this,or its trying to fleece you, you just need to have the digitizer replaced.It wont cost you more than 1K and you can do it yourself by ordering a replacement off the internet.

[ethan3686]

The problem with S2 is that samsung uses conventional plastics. Which makes it look cheap. They should be using polycarbonate which is another form of plastic but is of better quality and looks good on mobiles eg. NOKIA LUMIA, HTC one X etc.. Even the upcoming S3 looks so dissapointing because of the use of conventional plastic.

[Saanil]

Hi guys..Need some help. I want to buy an android phone for my father. Budget is 16k-20k and is flexible. My dad is open to other OS but he really wants an Android - all his friends have android. He will be installing some apps but nothing big. He won't be multi-tasking a lot but the phone should not be slow in doing basic things-more the RAM better it is. I went to Croma to see what choices I have in that budget.

First was HTC One V. It is a pretty compact phone with ICS in built. But I found the screen to be very small. Also the phone just froze upon opening contacts - not sure why that happened (less RAM?). The back button was also not functioning properly. All these things have made me wonder whether it is worth 17.5k.

Next I tried was Sony Ericsson Neo V. I was fine with the looks and build quality. But again I found the screen size to be small. Note that my father is currently using N78 so he had no issues with the screen size but since I am a S2 user, I was just not happy with the screen size. Again, the phone was a bit slow in doing basic things. I felt this because probably I was basing it against S2.

Next was Samsung Galaxy S Plus. I did not get to try this as Croma sales person said Samsung has discontinued it. But Flipkart had it. I know this phone is quite old now but this has the biggest screen of them all. I went to another dealer and he quoted Rs 20.8k for this but was open to bargaining. He told me it had 2GB memory only and an 8GB one (Transcend) would cost Rs 300. I want to ask whether I should go for this phone. – If yes what price should I quote for this?

Sony Xperia U has also come to the market –However I have not yet tried it. Has anyone here tried using that phone? Looks are brilliant but again I am concerned about the slowness of the phones in this price range. Flipkart is also showing Galaxy S Advance on preorder for Rs 24k. I am completely confused as to which phone I should go for. Any kind of help/advice is appreciated.