Call to tech gurus on this smartphone: Is it worth it?

[the_antithesis]

Ok, those who may remember some five years ago I was thinking of getting a smartphone. I didn't get it because the only one that interested me was the Xperia Play from Sony because it had physical game controls similar to the PSP Go, but it was unavailable by the time I stopped hemming and hawing. Probably for the best. It was a mid-ranged phone when it was released and a bit dated by the time i started looking at it.

So now those lovable Chinese have been making android devices with physical controls. So, now there is the JXD S5800.

So, I'm interested. But I'm not completely sure if it's a decent phone. There aren't many review around. The review says the camera is shit, but I do not care about that. As long as it's not worse than the 3DS cameras, I suppose. And the review says the speeds on T-Mobile weren't 3G but that may be the service more than the phone. If I drop the hammer on this, I'll use Straight Talk or one of those other low cost services. I don't really use a phone that often, anyway. I never had a smartphone and would like to try, though. Hence this whole topic. It's about $135 buck from the JXD website. I could probably find it slightly cheaper if I looked around.

I'll CTRL+C CTRL+V the phone's specs in spoiler tags. Any opinions would be useful.

[spoiler]S5800 Specifications
Chipset    MTK6582, Quad-Core Cortex A7, 1.3GHz
Display    5-inch IPS Bright LCD, Resolution: 960*540 pixels
Touch Panel    5 point Capacitive Screen ( G+G )
Communications    3G (WCDMA: 850, 2100) Calling+2G (GSM: 850,900,1800,1900) Calling
Network    Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), built-in 3G (WCDMA)
RAM    1GB LP DDR2
ROM    8GB Flash, support external TF card up to 32GB
OS    Android 4.2
Games Support    Android games, 16 Emulator games (PSP, NDS, PS1, N64, aFBA (CPS1/CPS2/CPS3/IGS), Mame, GBA, GBC, SFC, MD, FC, WSC)
Games Control    5-point capacitive touch, perfect buttons control and gravity control
Buttons    Direction buttons, ABXY, Dual LR, Dual analog joysticks, select, start, Vol+/-, Reset, POWER, Home, Back, Menu and Mode switch button
G-Sensor    3 Axis Gravity Sensor
Bluetooth    Support
GPS    Support
Camera    0.3MP Front Camera, 5.0MP Rear Camera
Battery    Built-in replaceable and rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charge with 5V 1A Micro USB charging (slow)
Sound device    Speaker, phone receiver and MIC
I/O    USB2.0 High Speed
OTG: Connet Keyboard, mouse, U disk and Hard disk
3.5mm Stereo earphone mini jack,Micro TF card slot, max 32GB
TV out    WiFi-Display
Language    Multi-languages
Operate Environment    

WindowsXP, Windows 7 or above
Color    Black, White
Size    Length: 198mm  Width: 88mm   Height: 15.6mm  Weight: 259g
In the box    Unit device, user manual, USB cable, power adapter, battery, earphone. Fuck me, an earphone! Sign me up! Where has this deal been all my life![/spoiler]

[kilodelta]

I'm not a smartphone guru at all. But, the lack of 4G would be a non-starter for me. I use my phone for a ton of e-mails and document reading.

I could probably accept the larger size for the physical buttons used for games. I absolutely hate touch screen games. (I have stupid fingers.)

[the_antithesis]

The difference between 3G and 4G is that big?

I'd likely not even notice since I haven't had one, although others might chide me for having a slow phone. But then, I have no friends, so no chance of that shit happening.

[kilodelta]

Well, when I'm impatient for a download, the difference between 3G and 4G seems big. It's probably not.

I'm going to keep an eye out for a similar phone as I plan on replacing mine within the next year.

[the_antithesis]

I'm going to keep an eye out for a similar phone as I plan on replacing mine within the next year.

Not a lot of choice for physical game controls. Might want to keep an eye on that manufacturer. They have a tablet with physical controls that appears to be reviewing well. They may make a new phone with more G or whatever it is. That phone is almost a year old, turns out.

[kilodelta]

I'd like to get a tablet. But, I think holding a tablet up to my ear while walking down the street would just be yet another new trend that I start. I hate that I'm responsible for all these damned trends already.

Honestly, if they were to port Final Fantasy Tactics to Android, I'd consider buying one of the controller attachments to regular smart phones.

[trdsf]

I'm generally speaking Luddite on smart phones; I don't see the point.  If I want a palmtop computer, I'll get a tablet.  I just want my phone to be a phone.  I'd say just find something compatible with the controls you like.

Probably not especially helpful to the query.  :D