I should be so lucky, sigh.

Clearly you’re not a Gmail user so you’re loosing out on Google’s email, calender and contacts sync which MOST Android smartphones do, smoothly and beautifully.

Except the brand new one i just bought off eBay. The vendor says to “….download the app” off Play Store but clearly does not understand how the Google ecosystem is designed to work; being a China made (anti-Google) device – go figure! – they’ve disabled these crucial Google internal tools!

I have 4 other branded and no-name-brand Android smartphones which all sync with Google mail, contacts and calendar out of the box. No more worrying about backing anything up as the source for all this is already your Google account online (not your phone). And when I add modify a contact or calendar entry on my phone, it’s shown automatically on my desktop PC and iPad within seconds.

As for your problem wanting to NOT use a Google account, it should be possible if your email is on a MS Exchange service – it’ll sync exactly the same way as a Google account with your emails, contacts and calender both ways; just select Exchange when you setup your phone.

You’ll still need a Google account to use Play Store; it’s no different on the Apple platform if you want an app off the iTunes store.

Cheers,