[mdlug-discuss] Cell Handset Recommendations

[Michael Mol]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Peter Bart <petertheplumber at att.net> wrote:
> Hi All,
>         It looks like I'll finally be switching from Symbian to
>         Android, and I need a new handset posthaste. I have no love for
>         Nokia anymore and I can't wait for Jolla or the new Geeksphone
>         to materialize. I would very much like to get a Motorola Droid
>         Global for it's keyboard, but I don't see an easy way to get it
>         to work on AT&T's network. Barring that I'm thinking a Motorola
>         Atrix 4G because I can get it's extended life battery. I can't
>         really wait to see what Google does with Motorola Mobility
>         either, so I must pick from the current crop of handsets that
>         will work, or can be made to work on AT&T's or T-Mobiles GSM
>         networks. I'm not averse to Cyanogenmod firmware, and will most
>         likely root my handset and flash it if it's available.
>
>         Anyone have any thoughts?

They're not high-end, but my wife have both had a lot of success with
LG-509s (also known as 'Optimus'). You can get them from eBay for
~$100. I've had my hands on four. I botched one (though that might
have been a hardware failure), but the other three are in good shape.
One is mine, one is my wife's, one is my father-in-law's, and we're
going to get one for my mother-in-law, too.

They're pretty straightforward to root. Put on Titanium Backup, yank a
bunch of crufty apps from the ROM, reduce the screen brightness to
about 1/3 max, and suddenly your battery life is great with a decently
bright screen.

I find that mine remains charged while tethering my work laptop, and I
manage to get work done while on the bus.

Note: I haven't dealt directly with newer phones (though I do have a
Xoom running Jelly Bean). My only concern about newer phones would be
whether or not the apps and services I'd want to run on them consume
too much energy on them to allow me to use them while charging on USB.

Second Note: The LG-509 comes with Android 2.2 (Froyo). Gingerbreak
works on them. There is not (and will not be; their CPU and memory is
a little on the low end for it) a firmware for bringing Honeycomb, ICS
or Jelly Bean-derived firmware for them. But they're otherwise great
workhorses; I've wardriven half of West Michigan on one, and have
around two dozen apps installed on mine with the assistance of
Titanium Backup and memory card.

-- 
:wq