The Samsung Galaxy Nexus (720P screen), with stock, Android 4.2.2 ROM. This might satisfy you.
I have a personal experience with the phone. It's still, up to this date, buttery smooth, in menu and games aswell. It has a lot of support from developers at the XDA forum, so you will have a big selection of ROMs to choose from. And the big plus for it is that the phone has stock Android, wich means you will have the pure Android experience.
Now, if you have more money to spend on your phone, you can always get the LG Nexus 4, the predecesor of the Samasung Galaxy Nexus.
Here is the comparison between the two phones: http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4219&idPhone2=5048
Good luck in your choice !
They look ok I guess, but a 12mp camera or above would be nice;.
OK, give the amount you want to spend on your phone
£250
the xperia t would be perfect but its £50 more
so your point of origan is someewhere in europe?? can you narrow down your location a bit? and at $250 I dont think that you will get 12mp and HD
£ is a pound sign
........................england
and thats all im looking for, a good camera and a hd screen, I dont need an uber processor.
I might just take an extra £100 out my bank and get the xperia T or a xperia Z if I can get it
This is what I have to say about the phones in your price range. I repeat IN YOUR PRICE RANGE, we are not talking about the high end devices ( except for the Nexus 4 )
HTC - wonderfull UI, but after some time it gets laggy, and no HD screens. ( not good for a first Android experience )
Samsung - you have some nice phones like the Galaxy Nexus (HD screen) or the Galaxy S2 ( no HD screen ), with a simple and nice UI (TouchWiz) and verry nice performance.
Motorola - Nice looking and robust phones. Have good specs , but they don't ship alot of them in my country, so I can't say anything more than that.
LG - Same story except for the Nexus 4 (HD screen), wich is a brilliant phone.
I was looking at the new google x phone from motorola thats supposedly been leaked, it looks nice(ish) I might wait and see the price for that.
thanks for the run down stefan, I think im too picky for my price range :P Id like an sd card expansion slot, a 720p screen (if possible if its a phone with a screen big enough for that) and a 720p/1080p camera 8mp and up. I have £200 coming and im torn between getting a new phone, a sound card and keyboard, or a cpu liquid coler, mouse and keyboard. .-. im leaning toward a sound card or phone.
In that price range I'd look into the HTC One X. It's HTC's last year's flagship model. But that phone does have a 720p HD screen, at 4.7", and a great 8mp camera. Many reviewers have actually called the camera on the One X to be one of the best smartphone cameras of 2012. I've read many reviewers say the screen was the best 720p screen ever on a phone. It's under $400 on NewEgg, so that's just over £250. Although, I'm not sure how much it'll actually cost in the UK.
Other than that, I'd say check out the Nexus 4. The screen is also 720p, and the camera is also 8mp. But from all the sample shoots I've seen from various reviews, the camera seems to be pretty average. However, since it's running on the latest version of Android, the camera does have some software perks, like full 3D panorama shots (Photo Sphere), and HDR. I'm not sure if the One X has HDR.
That's my 2 recommendations, however, there are other factors I think should also be considered. The One X is HTC's last year's model, meaning they will mostly focus on their new model (HTC One) and updates to the OS will likely come very late, if at all. Neither the One X nor the Nexus 4 have removable back or SD card support. The One X uses HTC's custom UI called Sense. Some people hate the look and feel of the UI, others love it. Nexus 4 has a stock Android UI. Nexus 4 is running on the latest version of Android and will recieve major updates to the OS faster than any other phone becaus it's controlled by Google directly, instead of manufacturers and carriers. Nexus 4 also has better specs in general. One X is considered to be one of the best built phones ever, made out of plastic unibody shell, covered in soft-touch paint, making it very comfortable to hold. Nexus 4 on the other hand has a glass back which will scratch or crack withing weeks.
If I was you, I'd take the Nexus 4 based on what you're looking for and what you're actually getting. I personally hate the design of the Nexus 4 and the fact that it only comes with 16 gigs of storage, that's a no-buy for me.
HTC's TouchWiz. Seems legit.
Ehh, I forgot the name of it. I meant Sense. I've used only Nexus devices for the past 3 years - stock Android FTW!
iocean x7.
Chinese brand.
Has a fullhd screen and a 13 mpix camera.
The catch is that it's a b-graded panel so uneven backlighting and dead pixels might be an issue (although mostly minor in most cases).
Also, 135GBP.
I was looking to upgrade my hd mini to the nexus 4 and a came across a phone company called "CUBOT" the seem to be reaaaaallllly cheap. Does anyone know anything about these phones ?? Are they worthe the money after all you get what you pay for a lot of the times
Htc 8x or lumia 920
or nexus
Mi-Phone (MIUI), Huawei G600-series, etc... you don't have to invest in big brands, look for the top chinese smartphones. It's not like they last a lifetime, better to spend less and buy newer stuff more (and resell while nearly new and lose less money on it) than to spend more and spend the last 6 months before upgrading in utter frustration and getting next to nothing for your old phone.
One thing you have to know, most infrastructure hardware is Huawei, not HTC/Apple/Samsung/...
To be honest I haven't tried the new generation of Android phones or Google phones, however I had an LG, HTC Nexus One and a Samsumg back in the Froyo days and they crashed very frequently and were very buggy. I decided to try Apple for a change and bought the iPhone 5, I got to say I am very pleased with it, no bugs or crashes since I bought it and its been over six months now. If you are not sure about Apple, I would suggest a Google phone since they are fast and updated frequently, moreover the people who work on them know what they are doing.