Which Android phone do I want?

May 13, 2012 5:27 AM

I have a HTC Wildfire S, which I like a lot and does everything I want except with one big caveat: the inbuilt memory on the phone is pitiful. The inability to move some apps to the SD card is proving to be a pain. I have reached the stage, after only a handful of not-preinstalled apps, of having to constantly uninstall/reinstall apps as I need them. So, can someone suggest to me another phone that might suit me better?

The main requirements are:
1) At least 1 GB of internal memory (even 0.5 GB would be massive improvement over the 150MB I have at the minute)
2) It should be an Android phone. I am a heavy google user and I prefer the Android integration. I am also like the configurability of Android.
3) It should be of a similar size to the Wildfire. I don't really care for large screens, as I have my iPad for movie watching or serious on-the-move web browsing. The Wildfire is a perfect size, as I can slip in my shirt or trouser pocket and not have to think about it.
4) Ideally it should be fairly cheap (£200-ish for an unlocked, sim free phone), although I am willing to push the boat out for some thing that is highly recommended.
5) HTC would be preferred, since I am use to the Sense UI, but, again, if the other requirements are satisfied, I am happy to explore alternatives.

I'm in the UK.

posted by oclipa to Technology (7 answers total)

I had a normal HTC Wildfire and had the same issues with it that you're having with your Wildfire S. After quite a lot of research I bought a Samsung Galaxy W which, at the time, cost £200 from here. It has gone up slightly now. It's ever so slightly longer and thinner than the Wildfire, but no way near as big as, say, the Samsung Galaxy S2. I haven't had any of the trouble I had with my Wildfire and find the Samsung interface just as easy to get along with. The screen is much better as well.
posted by lizabeth at 6:13 AM on May 13, 2012

Most newer phones should have 1GB by now, but I'm not sure how many will have screens as small as the Wildfire's. You're probably better off getting something a bit bigger (3.7" is popular, about the size of an iPhone screen), but you don't have to get the HD phones. If you're willing to spend a little extra, I'd go for something that's a little future-proofed or able to be made so with a little tinkering.

That being said, my suggestion would be the brand spanking new (as in it just came out a couple weeks ago) HTC One V. It's probably pretty fast compared to what you have now, it comes with the latest version of Android with the latest version of the Sense UI, it has 1GB of app storage+microSD slot (2GB card included) that can take up to 32GB extra, and a pretty decent camera that can do HD video). The reviews areOK, not ecstatic, but that seems mainly because they're comparing it to mid- and high-end phones IMO. It's available from at least one retailer for £200+VAT, SIM free and unlocked, but you obviously should check around to see if you can get better deals.

As for hackability (if that makes a difference), HTC has been a little difficult on bootloaders and rooting, but it looks like it's been achieved. You'll want to check places like XDA if you want to get into that, usual disclaimers about messing with software apply.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:51 AM on May 13, 2012

There is an unoffical port of Cyanogenmod for the Wildfire S. So if you're prepared to root the device and install your own ROM then that is an option, I don't know how good or complete that port is though.

I had the same problem as you with my HTC Desire (Bravo). Once you have a custom ROM you can format a portion of your SD Card as a linux file-system and mount it over the top of where the phone expects to find its applications. This has allowed me to fool my ancient Desire into thinking it has 4GB of internal space for apps.

The process is imperfect and requires a lot of hacking. But if you're interested in delving into your phone's internals it may save you having to pay for a replacement...
posted by samworm at 9:40 AM on May 13, 2012

Because you're asking the question this probably won't help but .... I too have a Wildfire S (I also really like it !) and I recently got pushed an update to Android to take the Android version used by the phone to 2.3.5 . This version of Android does allow the Wildfire S to save to the SD card - I hadn't had the phone long at the time but I believe that prior to that version it was not possible to use the SD card on the Wildfire.

I'm on Vodafone NZ and I don't know how this stuff works on other carriers but you might enquire whether such an update is coming before considering changing phones ?
posted by southof40 at 3:23 PM on May 13, 2012

I had the same problem with my HTC desire, so I rooted it with Cyanogenmod. I didn't bother with all the formatting stuff because that seemed way too complicated, I now just make liberal use of Link2SD and other similar apps to move most things to the SD card.

Caveat: widgets shoudn't be moved (although I did), and some apps don't save logins when they are on the SD card - eg Twitter never remembers my details.

Rooting didn't take that long, and it means that I will probably be able to keep my current phone for at least another year or two.
posted by wingless_angel at 5:01 PM on May 13, 2012

Is it possible that the issue you're having with phone storage is the (known) problem(US wireless company link, but should apply to HTC phones, period) with HTC's partitioning of app data? It seems unlikely that your phone truly has only 150MB of internal storage - what's more likely is that you're getting bitten by the fact that HTC only allocates 150MB for app data on their phones, no matter how much total storage is available. For instance, I have 8GB internal and another 16GB in an SD card in my HTC Incredible. Doesn't matter; I can only squeeze in a handful of apps, because 150 MB is all they're willing to give me for that. Short of firmware (is that the right word? the "software" that drives the OS, I guess I mean) upgrades, which some wireless companies are starting to push out, your only option while you have one of these phones is to root it, which lets you reallocate partition space.

Before buying a new HTC phone, if that's what you end up selecting, you should confirm that the new phone does not have this issue - google up some research on how much storage the phone allocates for app data/installation.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 9:45 AM on May 15, 2012

Thanks for all the help. In the end I went and bought myself an HTC One V and am now wallowing in the acres of space I have to play with (I've reinstalled all my apps without even having to think about moving anything to the SD card). The size of the phone is a little larger than I would have liked, but I am sure I will get used to it (how do people manage with >4" screens?!).

In response to some of the questions raised previously:

1) southof40: Yes, I did upgrade to the most recent available Android build distributed by HTC, however, even though this did in theory allow apps to be moved to the SD cards, in practice this has to be enabled by the developer and a lot of apps do not have this enabled. Also, very little (none?) of the pre-installed HTC stuff can be moved.

2) badgermushroomSNAKE: I believe 150MB is the actual spec of the Wildfire S; this space is shared with the pre-installed stuff. I can't speak for the HTC Incredible, however the HTC One V certainly seems to be letting me make full use of the 4GB internal storage.

I'm off now to download some more apps, just 'cos I can...
posted by oclipa at 7:00 AM on May 16, 2012