I'm looking for a new mobile phone because my HTC Wildfire S has been dying slowly and painfully. It has to be Android, and my budget is a maximum of around 250€-300€, not more, although prices will vary by country.

Any ideas? Just not the S4 because It's too expensive and all my friends have it. I want a new experience. Thanks.

What is actually going on with your phone? Maybe you don't actually need a new phone per se but a root and new ROM? I say this because my Nexus was acting weird and I thought it was time for a new one but then I ulocked/rooted it and installed a new ROM and I've not had any issues.

But, if you are dead set on a new phone I'd say the Samsung Note 2. I wanted the S4 but after messing around with one in the store I decided the OS that is on it is too..."heavy", as in it's too slow and feels clunky whereas the Note 2 feels much smoother and faster.

What's the prices of the Nexus phones over there?

Websites of what phones are available for you in your prices?

Everything man. Battery, screen, slow as a snail. I just want to get rid of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is ace...but it's too expensive for me. It's around €580 in Malta. Still, I don't mind good suggestions because perhaps I may find the phone much cheaper on ebay.co.uk for example.

Asus Google Nexus 7 between €250 - €300 (do you want me to convert to $?). Samsung Nexus (didn't know there were 2 different Nexus) are between €500 and €600.

Some websites (not sure if you can view prices in all of them):

http://www.phonebox.com.mt/Products/mobiles

http://www.cellulartechmalta.com/index.php/

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=index (cheapest in Malta but you have to have a login to view prices)

To give you an idea of the prices from the cheapest place:

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=206 - €400

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=95 - €380

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=34&products_id=218 - €350

(Too expensive)

Cheaper ones within my budget:

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=232 - €280

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=89 - €275

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=258 - €260

http://www.directvisionmalta.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=186 - €215

Although I could try and find them cheaper from ebay.

Thank you.

Seriously, I was in the same position as you. Phone started acting weird and I was like, that's it. I'm getting rid of the Nexus and getting something else then I rooted it and put Cyanogenmod 10.1 on it and I've been loving the phone again.

In fact, I just did a clean install of CM 10.1.2 on the phone yesterday and it's lightening fast again; I'm about to do a dirty flash of CM 10.1.2 W/ HALO so I can get HALO on it though. I digress...

Maybe start looking into rooting the Wildfire. It's a lot cheaper than buying a new phone. If you are out of warranty you don't really have anything to lose. Plus, you can actually see if it's the phone or bloat. But if you don't want to do that maybe try looking at used Nexus phones or something. You can find them fairly cheap on Ebay since they are a few years old now.

The Nexus 7 (7" tablet) cost me $200.00, purchased directly from Google. If you want the phone it is the Nexus 4 (4" phone), about the same price me thinks.

You're right that it's cheaper. Maybe I'll root it for the heck of it (if there's a ROM available or what's it called, a few months ago it wasn't available), but I still want a new phone now since I got bored of it (bought it ~2 years ago).

Nexus is on my list. The phone that is. I already own a tablet.

Here's a good place to start for rooting your http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2262345. I'd read as much as I could before tackling it. Every time I root a phone (and I've only ever done two; LG Ally and Galaxy Nexus) I've spent months just reading about it.

There are several ROMs for the Wildfire too, AOKP_Light and ParanoidAndroid are two I've seen. CM also has http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2248654 if you are running Android 4.2.2.

My recommendation would be Cyanogenmod 10.1 (it's what eventually put on my phone; I tried ParanoidAndroid and didn't care for it). But, before you jump to rooting I suggest reading and reading and reading and reading and reading until your eyes bleed.

I'm about to jump from CM 10.1.2 Stable to 10.1.2 w/ HALO "Experimental" because I want to try HALO and all I've done for the past few days is read about it. I've downloaded it to the phone but have not run it yet.

Cheers my friend! I'll probably try it during my shutdown week in August.

Asus's Nexus 7 isn't a phone.

The Nexus phones to consider right now are the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung and the Nexus 4 by LG.

I could only view prices on the first one. What amazons/ebays can you purchase from?

Honestly, I'd save up another 50 euros for the Nexus personally. That said, of the phones I saw, I only found two I'd consider in your price range:

The Galaxy SII and the Galaxy SIII Mini. Neither of which would be my first pick. If you can get a standard Galaxy SIII from amazon or ebay in your price, you'd be golden. (reason being the SII, while a solid phone, is showing its age in the Gingerbread partitioning scheme dept. The SIII Mini's dev community just never really took off)

I added a link to the CM10.1 ROM to my post above.

Thanks guys. Sorry I'm on my phone so I'll have to keep it short. So you wouldn't suggest any HTC phones DEFRON? And the nexus you suggested, what's its full name please? They usually have some numbers after the name e.g. i920510

None in your price range at least. The Desire X isn't terribad, but still behind other picks.

The Galaxy Nexus as well as the Nexus 4 are the full names. The numbers you're referring to (when there is more than one) signify regional and frequency band differences.

My order of picks would probably be:

1. Samsung Galaxy S III
2. Nexus 4
3. Galaxy Nexus
4. Samsung Galaxy S III Mini
5. Samsung Galaxy S II
6. HTC Desire X

Last 3 are pretty close together though. It's a tradeoff for each one, so which one of those fits you best would come down to how you use your phone.

Why no love for the S4?

It's not that expensive with a contract, and there's quite a few nifty (if useless) features if you know other people who have the same phone.

Well I'll start looking for the Nexus, maybe I can find it cheaper from ebay (shipping etc included). Also, which HTC phones do you consider worthy picks then? Apart from the Desire X, although "is not terribad" doesn't inspire much confidence. And thanks.

I don't use contracts since I only spend something like €5 a month (I use Whatsapp exclusively for messages) and there's no contract which comes close to being so cheap (not taking the cost of the phone into consideration).

I know it's a really good smartphone, probably the best, but I've used it so much that if I buy it it will feel like I didn't get anything new.

EDIT: I'm looking at the Nexus 4 right now. Galaxy Nexus too but it's a year older.

I bought the 16gb Nexus 4. It was between this and the SIII, but since I've used the SIII and S IV a lot in the past I wanted a phone I've never seen. So thank you all for your suggestions. Once it arrives I'll root my old HTC to see it's performance.

Some questions:

1) Can I change a SIM card to a Micro SIM myself? How?

2) Can I use any micro USB to charge my phone? On gsmarena people were saying you should use only the LG charger, but seems a bit weird.

3) Know any good and sixy phone cases?

Thanks!

Don't. I have nothing but bad experiences from buying hardware on Ebay (computer RAM), and just some month ago a friend of mine did a really poor phone purchase on Ebay (it was broken).

Cut it into the right shape. Not that hard to do.

Haaa I was going to say the S3, be retro!

Besides that I know little of smartphones and such.

If you use a charger that isn't meant for your phone it will slowly degrade its battery life.

I don't think that's true. I've used Motorolla Chargers on my Samsung phone and the battery life has never changed. LG chargers however, will not work on my phone at all.

Do you mean when plugged to a socket only? Or does it also apply when you connect the smartphone to a usb port (e.g. laptop)?

My Motorola phone's battery just crapped out after about a year and a half possibly because of it.

Don't know, I just know that is a warning they put on the charger's sticker thing.

Edit: I read it is because of the voltage the charger lets through it, so for older chargers you can be waiting pretty long for your phone to charge, while one too large could potentially ruin the battery.

However, there are smart chargers in the market which should be okay if they fit the miniusb port.

Interesting. For my HTC I've used various Samsung USB cables to charge it on different laptops. I had no idea this was harmful to the battery!

For some devices it is true. Just read the manual/papers that come with your device. I can say for sure the Nexus 7 requires it's own special charger.

I'll make sure to read the manual when it arrives.

As for charging batteries in general, should I keep it charged when at work, and should I let my battery die completely once a week or so and then charge it completely? Everyone gives me different opinions when it comes to charging a smartphone.