M8 substitutes for now

OK, most of us who have been waiting for the M8 can't wait for it any longer or It's time to get a new phone and the M8 is STILL not out so you want to buy a Touchscreen phone (unlocked).

For the poll, please vote for the phone you would buy now with your budget and in the comments say what phone you would get regarding the price.

These are some phone I thought would be a good M8 substitute:

1. Unlocked Iphone: >$500
2. Samsung Tocco F480: $500
3. HTC Diamond: >$700
4. LG KE850: >$325

I cant think of any others but if you have any other phones, please comment them below. Thanks!

iphone, the most fun of all

N95, the HTC Diamond when it comes down in price. The XPERIA will be amazing.

Well, I would go for the HTC Diamond. I can afford it but I don't know if I could justify spending so much on a phone especially when I will probably replace it in about a year and a half. I reckon if I really wanted it I would buy it anyway though as long as I had enough money for it.

Well if I would be Korean I would go for the Samsung AnyCall Haptic...

Well I think I would go for the HTC Diamond, but I am still hoping that AnyCall Haptic will make it to Europe some day...

samsung i-900 omnia is good too

I prefer to have the HTC Diamond but I find it to expensive right now, so I'll choose the iPhone

Hi guys, first time poster long time lurker. I was waiting for the M8 for months but my Motorola died and I needed to find a replacement. My requirements were pretty specific and I had a lot of trouble finding the right model. I wanted a windows mobile candybar touch screen smartphone with Wifi, GPS, and EDGE (minimum preferably 3G) for <=$400. My preferred device was the M8, but it isn't available so I had to look around. I found some promising Chinese clones of the IPhone (Daxian X999 and X999+ and the Cect W500) but they were of questionable quality and very hard to find reputable resellers for. There were very few options until I stumbled upon two Taiwanese smartphones meant for the American market (and from reputable brands). These two phones are the Asus P827 and the Pharos GpsPhone 600 (also sold under its OEM brand as the ETen GloFish X500. The Asus I think is slightly nicer and has a lot more buttons (in case the touchscreen gets tiresome), but it was universally panned in reviews as being very very slow. The Asus can be had new for less than $350 if you look around and I got myself a brand new Pharos off of ebay for $370. I may sell it later if the next gen phones are far superior, but so far I'm pretty happy. Can't decide whether I should have gotten the Asus as all touch controls are a bit obnoxious, but the pharos is a zippy, small, and just all around awesome phone (comes with full fledged GPS software too).

the neo1973 openmoko phone (2.8", wifi, unlocked, lacks 3G) will be globally available starting July 4 for $399:

OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner available for order July 4, shipping July 7 - Engadget


might be interested in this, since i couldn't care less about overpriced and slow US data plans.

I've already heard about freerunner. It's cheaper because it uses openmoko linux which is opensource, so the software is free. And I think the development was also a bit cheap. Maybe it's a copyleft thing. I don't know much about economy though.

Originally Posted by SJanos

I've already heard about freerunner. It's cheaper because it uses openmoko linux which is opensource, so the software is free. And I think the development was also a bit cheap. Maybe it's a copyleft thing. I don't know much about economy though.

OpenMoko is a great concept, and great hardware....My biggest grief about it is the design: the size ratio between the device and its screen is not good, i.e. the screen is too small given the device size. The round top and bottom maybe stylish (I do not like it, but I guess this is just personal opinion), but it is just wasted space, no button, no camera, just the plastic shell. Big error for a portable device.
I understand that the size of the screen is probably not easily modified: they have a provider for this size, maybe the same as the HTC diamond BTW.
So they should shrink the plastic shell, I am sure it would be feasable even without
a big redesign ( i.e. keeping the electronic board almost as it is).
If they just forget about trying to have a funky round shape. For a portable device, the FIRST design goal is to be small, not to have an original shape.

Yeah... I seriously considered the openmoko neo freerunner as well... until I found it it doesn't have AT LEAST EDGE. I don't know about you guys, but if I'm going to carry around a phone whose functionality relies heavily on its available data connection options, I want it to be at least EDGE. GPRS is slower that dial-up (shudder).

Originally Posted by jmanjohns

Yeah... I seriously considered the openmoko neo freerunner as well... until I found it it doesn't have AT LEAST EDGE. I don't know about you guys, but if I'm going to carry around a phone whose functionality relies heavily on its available data connection options, I want it to be at least EDGE. GPRS is slower that dial-up (shudder).

I understand it could be a big factor for some...but not for me: I do not plan to use
any wireless data connection except wifi: data plans are too expensive and will not be covered by my company at the moment (while classic voice contract are covered 100%).
In fact, the concept of "everything online" pushed by iPhone and, I expect, android, is not good for me, not good at all .
Now, when my company start to offer data contract instead of voice contract, my requirements will change. I am sure the transition will be done eventually, but I am not sure it will be done short term (<2 years)...And even after this transition, "everything online" is still not best: I often change simcard to a local prepaid one when on holliday abroad (boss is not happy about the bill spike that roaming induce), and then of course, no data, and my phone would become useless.

So, in my case, I would consider buying a smartphone that is usefull mostly when online when roaming data service becomes cheap, almost as cheap as local voice service. Until then, a device with a lot of offline (or mix) applications is much much more convenient.
I do not expect to have roaming data service cheap before a few years, the phone compagnies are too happy to milk us for now (and that's why they heavily sponsor devices that force you to remain connected)

I just bought another iPhone to replace my broken one. Tocco and Diamond looked promising but a bit out of my price range ($350 for an iPhone 8gb). And LG KE850 is complete garbage functionality wise compared to iPhone. I'd rather save more and avoid the LG after watching some youtube demos.

Considered the N95 as well but still a bit more expensive, a bit large for my taste, and not a big fan of Symbian after having the N80.