funky_ace

I don't think this plan is available on GSM any longer. Relaince pulled it off couple of months back. Gonna check the speed on CDMA and then I might just go for it.

MIUI is a massive RAM hog. My cousin got this phone recently so I was able to get my hands on it for a while. The highest amount of available RAM I saw on it was around 400 MB. I know it would be different for different people depending upon the number of apps installed and other things. But no matter how many times I closed all the running apps I couldn't go beyond 400 MB. I am not bad mouthing Xiaomi, its just MIUI that's at fault here. Another noticeable drawback is the camera which It is sub par at best. I will update this post again if I get my hands on it again.

I saw the commercials for MTS Ultra and Tata Photon Max and at first it seemed to me that they are using Rev. B but now I am a bit confused. Tata Photon Max(with inbuilt WiFi) is giving a maximum down rate of 6.2 Mbps, exactly double of Rev. A while MTS Ultra is somewhere around 9.8 Mbps. As far as I know Rev B is supposed to provide 14.7 Mbps down rate. So what kind of technology are these two using? And will Reliance follow suit?

That's different Motorola you are talking about. There is a difference between Motorola Mobility(owned by Google) and Motorola Solutions(which develops high security devices).

You are missing one point here. Pen Drives\Mermory Cards\SSDs have limited number of read\write cycles. After that they just die, don't even develop bad sectors. Normally, I think, you can read\write a million times approximately. It may sound a lot but when you are consistently downloading stuff, which requires simultaneous read-write, then your device won't last long

Will it switch to RCDMA automatically in case GSM drops down really low?

The best thing a user will experience when moving from 3G to 4G is the latency drop. Before 4G LTE was launched, it was believed that it would give latency comparable to ~5m. Practically you can get around 60ms average where in 3G you get above 100ms in same conditions. This will depend on number of users, tower distance.... blah,blah,blah. But overall the latency drop is noticeable. The speed gain is prominent too but since it is a wireless system so sustaining speed is rather difficult. Not gonna give figures here cause again they are dependent on lot of factors plus the ISP cap speed too. Overall lower latency, better speed. I hope you get the point. Do I need to summarise 2G->3G too?

iPhone's call quality is really great but the only one that will fall into your budget is iPhone 4. Most people prefer to buy current gen Android rather than buying two gen old iPhone. Beyond that its personal preference. I knew about GN2's signal strength but I didn't recommend it knowing that it wouldn't fall into your budget. There are phones out there carrying far better radio than GN2 but recommending you those won't do you any good cause they are really expensive. I would suggest you to stick with Droid Razr series, I suppose its M that is making news. You can also go for iPhone 4 but again, think carefully before making such a decision. One more thing, ask around about GSIII signal strength and call quality. Don't know much about it, maybe it is comparable to GN2. A used one will fall into your budget too.

Agreed. Motorola has the best radios among all smartphones. So signal strength won't be a issue. For voice clarity buy a phone with secondary noise cancellation mic. I suppose both Photon and Bionic fit your budget. Edit: Misread your post. I thought your budget was 10k-12k. If you can go up to 20K then I think you can get something from Droid Razr series too.

When you say Stock ROM, which version does that mean? As far as programming Sprint Version is concerned you don't necessarily need FC12 radio. I programmed mine on FH05 radio. For using 1X and EVDO you will need FC12, but you shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Do the basic programming for Voice and Text first and then think about Internet.

Voice over 2.3 GHz spectrum is not a great idea. Many people prefer CDMA because of signal strength and voice quality and both are lost once we move to such a high frequency. I would rather prefer them to launch LTE alongside our normal CDMA and GSM network like Verizon\Sprint and At&T respectively.

There is a app called Sprint Diagnostics specially developed for toroplus(Sprint Gnex). With this you can read MSL\SPC and do a whole lotta more things like write PRL(only thing I can remember from the top of my head) and more. Just make sure it works with your build. Its the best app if you like to falsh PRL on the go, MSL reading is its secondary function.

I am getting 2-3 signal bars on an average for the past four-five days when at home. Outside it is worse. I used to get full signal before. Wonder if there is something wrong. Don't have time to lodge complaints or talk to CC. I hope it gets sorted out soon.

What do you mean by not starting in any mode? If it means that it is not starting at all then it is bricked, hard bricked. You have messed up the bootloader and you need to get it fixed using the JTAG procedure. For future reference, don't forget to compare the md5 of downloaded and source pit file. It is the culprit in most cases. The whole repartitioning procedure is kind of complex. Here is the link to the specific JTAG thread http://www.rimweb.in/forums/topic/35270-jtag-bring-back-hard-bricked-boot-dead-phones/

Epic 4G is not that thick compared to the other phones the OP has listed. 0.02 inch difference isn't that much when you are getting nearly double the specs. If weight is the issue then I suppose you can go for others.