July 2011 Android smartphone buyers Guide Budget droids with HVGA screens

Since it release, the best budget Android phone in the market has been the LG Optimus One. As competition arrived, the prices of the Optimus One adjusted with the market, and more than six months after it was released, it is still the best budget Android. It is now selling for as low as Php9,800 with an official one year LG warranty.

The Optimus One has a 320 x 480 (HVGA) pixel resolution, which is improtant since this was the original Android reference screen resolution, which means good app compatibility.  The 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display is big enough and the 600MHz processor and 512MB of RAM make this phone fast enough. It runs Froyo (Android) 2.2, which is good enough even if not updated (and an update to 2.3 is promised). This allows you to install apps on the SD card making the low internal storage of budget phones less of an issue.

 

When the price went below 10K, we stopped recommending the 240 x 320 screen resolution budget offerings which we had been recommending. The 320 x 480 is well worth the additional 1-2K.

But our favorite budget Droid now faces some serious competition.

Cherry Mobile Cosmo. Get past the Cherry branding. Cherry is an ODM which sells phones manufactured by third parties under their own brand name. The Cherry Mobile Cosmo is actually a Spice Mi-310. These are the official Cherry Mobile Cosmo specifications:

• Android 2.2 (Froyo)
• Qualcomm MSM 7227 600Mhz
• 3.2" HVGA Capacitive Touchscreen
• ROM: 512MB / RAM: 256MB
• Dual Band GSM / GPRS / EDGE
• WCDMA / HSDPA
• 2MP Camera
• Portable Wifi Hotspot
• WIFI / Bluetooth / 3G / GPS
• FM Radio
• Standard Micro USB 2.0
• 3.5mm Stereo Audio Jack
• Expandable Memory up to 16GB

Priced a Php6,900 is has similar specifications to the Optimus One and is a very good alternative.  It is not as good as the Optimus One coming with only half the RAM, a smaller battery (1300 mAh instead of 1500 mAh) and a lower specification camera. It also apparently cannot handle 32GB MicroSD Cards, being limited to 16GB. But it is priced Php2,900 lower, roughly about 33% less.

Alcatel OT-990. Another new offering is the Alcatel OT-990. Specifications are similar to the Cosmo, but it comes with a larger 3.5-inch screen, a 5MP auto focus camera and can handle 32GB MicroSD cards. Price is supposed to be about Php10K. Basically, the OT-990 will have a larger screen and higher MP camera, with the Optimus One having more RAM and a larger battery.

At this price Optimus One looks like better tried and tested choice, but a 3.5-inch screen 320 x 480 screen is a big plus factor. That is the screen size and resolution is that of an Apple iPhone 3GS. 

Others. You also have two offering from Torque, dual sim Androids at Php7,999 at Php9,999... but those are honest to goodness "China phones" manufactured by companies who we cannot identify. One is a know-off of an HTC, the other a iPhone 4 look-a-like (down to the buttons). We will hold off on recommending these for now until we find out more about them.

The choice is yours, but it is great to have choices.

Update: The Alcatel OT-990 is available for Php9,999, but that is a temporary promotional price. The regular price is Php14,999, which is much higher than the Samsung Galaxy Ace which has better specs.

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Charting Android smartphone hardware development

HTC Dream

2008. The flagship Android phone in 2008 had the following specifications:

• 3.2-inch 320 x 480 screen
• 528MHz processor
• 192MB of RAM

The first commercially available Android phone was the HTC Dream released in October 2008. It had a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 resolution screen and was powered by a 528 MHz ARM 11 processor with a Adreno 130 GPU on Qualcomm MSM7201A chipset. The Dream had 192MB of RAM.

2009. The 2008 specifications remained standard for Android phones 2009:

• 3.2-inch 320 x 480 screen
• 528MHz processor
• 128MB-256MB of RAM
  

The first Android handset to become widely available in the Philippine was the HTC Magic, released by Smart Communications. The Dream was released in May of 2009 and became available in the Philippines early in 2010. The Magic had the same specifications as the Dream, minus the slide out keyboard and with more RAM at 288MB.  

By end of 2009 the typical Android Phone like HTCs Hero and Samsungs i7500 Galaxy and i5700 Galaxy Spica had a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 screen, a 528 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 130 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7200A chipset and 128MB to 288MB of RAM. 

By the end of 2009 higher resolution screens were released with Motorola Milestone ands it 3.7 inch 480 x 854 pixel resolution screen. It was powered by a 550MHz ARM Cortex A8, PowerVR SGX530 graphics and 256MB of RAM.

2010. 2010 saw the release of the first "reference" design Android and a significant jump in the specifications for a flagship Android phone. Typical specifications for a flagship Android phone in 2010 were:

• 3.7 to 4.3-inch 480 x 800 or 480 x 854 screen
• 1GHz processor
• 512MB to 768MB of RAM
  

January 2010 saw the release of the Google Nexus One with its 3.7-inch 480 x 800 screen, 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset and 512MB of RAM. Other manufacturers released phones with similar specifications in the first six months of 2010 with the HTC Desire, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Samsung Galaxy S. Notably, the manufacturers offered larger screens has started with the Xperia X10 and the Galaxy S with 4-inch screens. The Dell Streak and HTC Desire HD came out bringing the larger screen  5-inch and 4.3-inch screens to Android phones. The Desire HD also had a unprecedented amount of RAM for an Android at 768MB.

Before the end of 2010 Google brought out its Google Nexus S, but instead of being another leap in Android phone hardware it was essentially a Goolge banding of an existing phone, the Samsung Galaxy S. The Nexus S did make a front camera standard equipment for Android 2.3 phones.

2011. 2011 brought dual cores to technology, with the specifications for a flagship Android being:

•  4 to 4.3-inch 480 x 800 or 540 x 960 screen
• 1GHz of faster dual processor
• 512MB to 1GB of RAM

Examples of this are the LG Optimus 2x, the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S II.

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