After a certain point, I had a different thought every day, which would make this thread look like a twitter feed, and I decided not to post to this thread until I made a decision. So for the sake of closure, I will tell you that a couple weeks ago, I saw a mint Galaxy S Blaze for $208, at least $42 cheaper than I could find previously for a non-mint one with an unscratched display, and jumped on it. It doesn't meet all of my original requirements, but it meets a lot of them. I couldn't really find a S II in decent shape for much less than $300$250. I had no resistance to putting ICS on it via Samsung Kies program, and there were no issues. I am not using it as a phone yet, I am waiting until I can get it in a decent protective case, but I am installing apps like crazy as well as an offline version of Wikipedia (via Aard Dictionary).

I plan on using it on T-Mobile for at least a couple months (it can take advantage of HSPA+ 42, which in my hometown is faster than Verizon LTE) and probably longer. After two months, my understanding is that T-Mobile will unlock it for me, and then I will still probably stay with T-Mobile, but it will be international 2G and 3G (2100Mhz) ready if I need it (not that there is any urgency to that). There are a few T-Mobile MVNOs emerging that look interesting, including a prepaid data one. I'll probably go with $30 unlimited data + 100 minutes talk plan + Google Voice or something similar. That's all I really need.

Battery life is so-so, but at least it is removable. If I go somewhere, I may get a charging case for it. The Super AMOLED display is very clear, but visibility in direct sunlight is nothing special, about the same as my iPod Touch. What I was looking for as far as visibility in direct sunlight may not be possible, at least not in my price range. But I think everything else meets my revised specs in the original post.

I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer :-*

-f0dder (February 22, 2011, 01:08 PM)

I use that with my Android phone just fine, so that opens a load more phone choices for you in future.

-Eóin (February 22, 2011, 02:55 PM)

Since this thread is a year and a half old, I am reopening it to ask if either of you have installed MyPhoneExplorer (the desktop client) lately. It is the subject of my first ever Google Play review

Malware alert: avoid like a sharp stick.

To use this app, you will need to install the desktop client. It also installs at least two unwanted programs: snap.do and InfoAtoms. After having spent the day cleaning this up, I re-downloaded the Windows client to run the setup again twice to make sure there was not a custom install option where I might have avoided it. There definitely is not a custom install option, but when the Terms of Service comes up, you are actually seeing the InfoAtoms TOS. I believe most users will expect MyPhoneExplorer's own TOS to come up at that point, and just click Agree. If you click Cancel, you will get another TOS prompt for TranslateGenius. If you cancel that one, the install continues. So possibly you might be able to install MyPhoneExplorer for Windows without installing "potentially unwanted programs," but this was enough to keep me from trusting the software.

InfoAtoms puts ads everywhere, even Wikipedia and YouTube. If I had not been giving AdBlock Plus, a break, I might not have seen it. snap.do hijacks the browser's home page and default search. TranslateGenius, to my knowledge, did not get installed, and I have no opinion of it.

In fact, InfoAtoms put 3 ads inside of f0dder's post on this forum, and I'm still not sure it didn't insert the words "nice unbloated" and the  :-* in f0dder's post.

And yes, I am admitting to not reading Terms of Service (I guess End User License Agreement is a better phrase -- I'll probably change that in the review) when installing software.