subject: How Can I Connect Using My Android Phone [print this page] Android has built-in support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It supports 802.11n, currently the fastest Wi-Fi standard, though your devices hardware wont necessarily support it. Wi-Fi standards are backwards compatible, however, so you should have no problems connecting to networks that support the older 802.11b/g standards. Unless you encounter any specific issues with a particular home network set-up, there really is no need to worry about the different Wi-Fi varieties, as they generally all coexist quite happily.
You may also have 3G and 4G web access via your SIM card and mobile data provider, useful for when you want to access the web and Wi-Fi isnt available, but depending on your contract you may have a data limit (see Signing up for a contract) or be charged extra for using this service.
If your carrier allows it (and unfortunately, many dont), you can also use your cheap Android phone to supply Internet to other devices, via USB tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot mode, or the new Wi-Fi Direct mode.
Why does the display on my device look different from the ones in this guide?
In Androids early days, Google left the user interface at a fairly rudimentary level and actively encouraged handset makers to add their own customizations. This has resulted in a degree of fragmentation in terms of the way cheap Android phone looks and behaves on different phones. HTC, for example, has its own Sense interface, while Sony Ericsson has Rachael, and Samsung has TouchWiz. With future releases, however, Google aims to improve the native user interface with the hope that handset manufacturers and carriers will no longer feel the need to create their own. While Ice Cream Sandwich seems to provide all the necessary bells and whistles for this to take effect, at the time of writing its difficult to predict how manufacturers will respond to the new look, but it seems as if most of them have become rather attached to their proprietary user interfaces, and are likely to continue with them for the time being.
The same version of Android running on three handsets, Although they look very different, the basic functions are more or less the same. If you find this guide talking about a feature that varies from what your own device offers, check the user manual to find out if theres a way to achieve the same thing on your model.
