Want The Absolute Minimum That Is Workable

[Gaccha]

I want a nice but cheap phone.

I only want it to run two devices: the Paiboon dictionary app and the Anki app.

I want Android.

The Paiboon specs require at least Android 2.2 and:

"Because our app includes more than 18 hours of high-quality sound recordings, we require about 380 megabytes (380MB, or 0.38GB) of free space on your device's SD card. To see how much storage you have available, run the Settings app from your device's home screen, then choose the option containing the word "storage" (e.g. "SD card & phone storage"), then look what it says under "SD card...Available Space." This must be at least 380 megabytes (380MB, or 0.38GB). Due to a limitation of Google's Android operating system related to keyboards, the tiny 6 megabyte (6MB, or 0.006GB) core of our app must be installed on your internal storage, not your SD card, so you need a small amount of internal storage as well.'

The Anki appears to have no special specs:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ichi2.anki&hl=en

Phones

My price is around 5,000 baht (if you tell me 7,000 baht with a good argument then ok).

I was thinking an HTC since the Samsung seem awfully expensive and the 5,000 baht Galaxy has an inadequate memory for the Paiboon app.

What would you recommend?

Would you recommend buying second hand, and where?

Is there anything else I should know?

Thank you very much in advance. I appreciate there have been close questions to this, but I have anxiety over the exact nexus of the need for a certain Android system, the specific SD memory size and the internal storage. I have not found a way to check these pieces of data out with certainty.

[4evermaat]

If you use ais sim card, The samsung galaxy mini should be sufficient... 5000 baht in tesco. but the wellcom A99 or gnet/imobile variety is worth looking at. The a99 and most wellcoms will have all 3 3g bands 850/900/2100 so you can use all of the 3g services.

Btw, i use the paiboon android thai-eng dictionary and it is fantastic. It needs more common english question-phrases and the dictionary can have improved english definitions, but their approach is the best paid version i've seen so far that fits on your phone. I use the galaxy cooper. 2.3.4.

To answer you other question, if you long press the home button, it will bring up a list of recent programs opened, with an option to open task manager. The "summary" tab tells you the size of the ROM (internal app storage memory) and sd card (if inserted). the RAM tab tells you how much ram you have. Not too important if you do not do too much multitasking.

To check the android version #, you go to the applications menu » settings » about phone for firmware stats of phone.

stock microSD cards that are shipped are usually at least 2-4gb. You should be able to get an 8gb sd card for 300 baht otherwise.

"2nd best time to plant a tree is today." Sent from TV android app.

Edited March 4, 2012 by 4evermaat

[Gaccha]

That is very helpful. I have an interest in HTC phones. Would you recommend any of them within the requirements above?

Also, what effect does the AIS Sim card have...? Is it related to the internal memory capacity or something like that... or is it becuase it is cheap?

Edited March 4, 2012 by Gaccha

[4evermaat]

That is very helpful. I have an interest in HTC phones. Would you recommend any of them within the requirements above?

Also, what effect does the AIS Sim card have...? Is it related to the internal memory capacity or something like that... or is it becuase it is cheap?

no specific htc recommendations, but there is not reason why most HTCs which came native (first release) with Android 2.2 or higher could not do the job. Making sure the phone has wifi and correct 3g radio for the phone carrier are the two most important things to check.

AIS/DTAC/True Move have a lot to do with what band 3G you can use. AIS uses 900Mhz, TrueMove uses 850mhz. DTAC i think is also 3G. TOT uses 2100mhz, but limited coverage. AIS may have roaming agreements....not sure. The point is to check your phone specs and verify that you can use the 3G radio.

Anyway, phone manufacturers are pushing their own de-facto form of carrier locking by limiting many of their lower/midrange smartphones to dual-band 3g radios only. The radio itself is not expensive at all, but it forces consumer to purchase a higher end phone.

Personally, all smartphones should come with a minimum of tri-band 3g functionality. I feel (almost) the same way about offering dual-sim functionality.

[wana]

That is very helpful. I have an interest in HTC phones. Would you recommend any of them within the requirements above?

Also, what effect does the AIS Sim card have...? Is it related to the internal memory capacity or something like that... or is it becuase it is cheap?

I feel (almost) the same way about offering dual-sim functionality.

dual sim has al but died on hi end phones for a couple of reasons ,mainly due to the fact that running two sims drain the battery twice as fast and also because the networks i think dont want people to avail of dual sim phones because they can take advantantage of seperate pricing and promotions etc

will notice that nearly all the phones that can take 2-3 sim cards are made by unknown companies in china

strange that nokia ,htc samsung ,apple etc havent capitalised on this market unless the networks are against it

[MJo]

dual sim has al but died on hi end phones for a couple of reasons ,mainly due to the fact that running two sims drain the battery twice as fast and also because the networks i think dont want people to avail of dual sim phones because they can take advantantage of seperate pricing and promotions etc

will notice that nearly all the phones that can take 2-3 sim cards are made by unknown companies in china

strange that nokia ,htc samsung ,apple etc havent capitalised on this market unless the networks are against it

Emmm no, Nokia has few dual sim models and they are selling very well in developing markets like India and Africa. I just got myself Asha 200 and battery life is excellent, it's spare phone and keeps standby several days. Second sim is hot swap so easy to switch. They just introduced new versions in Barcelona end of last month.

Granted these are all lower end phones as that's where the market is. Dual sim mainly sells in developing markets and low income bracket. People buying higher end phones are not going to bother to change sim card based on the person they are calling, They just pay the higher rate or subscribe to post paid plans where it does not matter that much.

Other group is people like myself that travel for work and have numbers in more than one country with need to keep them standby all the time.

I used to use chinese cheapos before but problem is to keep your contacts up to date. Very usual that only way is to manually input all contacts. Even with cheap Asha i can connect to Nokia suite and sync from my outlook. It also takes back-up. The new version will have exchange active sync so does corporate emails. Pretty good for a phone that cost couple of thousand baht and has full qwerty keypad.