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Help choosing first Android

S

Situation

Lurker
I'm travelling to the States through January and I was planning to buy my first smartphone... but I require it to be unlocked so I can use it back in my country.

I was looking at the Nexus S, and it looked like the perfect fit... until I discovered it does not have HD video recording. Since I don't have a camera, I'd rather get something more versatile... even if the Nexus S looks fantastic and would otherwise have been the best phone for me.

What Android phones are out there being sold unlocked, with HD video recording, and a nice battery life?
Do you think the Optimus 2X will be out before I go back home at the end of January?

I might just go with the Nexus S because it looks "good enough", but then I start thinking I could just do an iPhone and get all the features I wanted.
 
i own a nexus one.. and let me tell you, pure vanilla android is worth not having HD video recording lol... not waiting forever for updates is priceless... also some apps just dont work with some skins, like sence or motoblur

edit: beside, if you are into rooting, im pretty sure a developer will bring hd recording to a nexus s rom some day

Situation said:
I'm travelling to the States through January and I was planning to buy my first smartphone... but I require it to be unlocked so I can use it back in my country.

I was looking at the Nexus S, and it looked like the perfect fit... until I discovered it does not have HD video recording. Since I don't have a camera, I'd rather get something more versatile... even if the Nexus S looks fantastic and would otherwise have been the best phone for me.

What Android phones are out there being sold unlocked, with HD video recording, and a nice battery life?
Do you think the Optimus 2X will be out before I go back home at the end of January?

I might just go with the Nexus S because it looks "good enough", but then I start thinking I could just do an iPhone and get all the features I wanted.
Click to expand...
 
macprv said:
edit: beside, if you are into rooting, im pretty sure a developer will bring hd recording to a nexus s rom some day
Click to expand...

so you think the capability is locked instead of just hardware incompatible?

if thats the case, I would buy the phone RIGHT NOW.
 
Giving up the nexus cause it doens't have hd recording is like giving it up because it doesn't have a kickstand. Well maybe i exaggerated a little bit but still, it's not worth giving up such a beautiful device just because of that, theres SO much more the nexus s can do that other phones can't, giving it up because of the camera is foolish.
 
I'm all for high-quality vids, but before recommending 720p add-ons to a phone without the ability to add an external high-speed SD card like the Nexus S, I think it's well to ask the simple questions:

Situation - How long are you expecting in recording times? How many of these vids might you envision storing on your phone before off-loading them somewhere? Will all of your vids be shot in higher light conditions?

I'm no expert on this - but the 720p Android vids I've seen are MPEG4-type - read: older codec that really requires a very high bitrate (and therefore file size) to achieve decent video quality. (Case in point - I expect the many phones with superior 720p recording to the crappy quality built into mine to more than the double the file size per minute of video.)

I've found that the 480p H.264 video completely dominates the 720p MPEG4 videos from my phone where quality is concerned, not by a little bit, not even close.
 
Not to burst your bubble, but that second vid is clearly sharper and nicer looking than the first one qhich you say you prefer. Just my opinion, of course.
 
Must be your connection - guarantee if you download 'em both, you'll see the 720p is choppy and color shifted. Not arguing for the sake of arguing, but saying because we were there when the new codecs were introduced and lots of bitrates were being played with.

Maybe this thread is also helpful for its vids on this, with the caveat, this is for the Evo - some phones such do much better on 720p vid than ours - but - using the older MPEG4 codec, all they're doing is increasing the bitrate by another 2/3 or more from ours. H.264 is simply the follow-on video compression codec for MPEG-4 optimized for motion.

Here's the thread, I'm starting at page 3 - note the kernel tuning at the time for different bitrates and codecs, it goes on for several posts, just check the vids is ok -

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/127093-forget-30fps-cap-fix-our-video-camera-first-3.html

My contribution is that the guy behind the camera matters more than the camera itself. ;)
 
First of all iPhone isn't unlocked with you buy them in the US. You can buy unlocked iPhones on other countries but they cost so much you might as well buy an unlocked, no contract, no subsidy Samsung Galaxy Tab. Heck, or even an iPad with 3G and 64gb.

Nexus S has no HD recording but in my experience, its video recording is more than good enough. I find the camera surprisingly good, even for a Samsung. In my impression, its the same camera on the Galaxy S but they may have improved it.

Overall, the Nexus S is one, if not currently, the most beautiful phone in the market, just from its sheer looks and impression you get from it. Looking at it, it just blows your mind. Using it, its fast and its a joy. I do think its a very good choice for a first Android.
 
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