Which Smartphone?

Casterina

Casterina

Casterina

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17 Nov 2011
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I'm looking for a smartphone which has,

* Fast Processor & GPU and other components
* Good Camera
* Good For Playing Music
* Good For Games
* Long Battery Life


I'll be using it daily to surf internet, Facebook, Games and Music, my budget is £300,

Thanks
 
For that price, options are:

- nexus 4
- HTC one S (although it might be a bit over your budget....)

Nexus 4 has the better CPU, GPU, RAM and screen.

HTC one S has the better camera, battery life (for now), audio.

Both phones are more than good enough for games.

In real world, the performance will be more or less the same, even more so once the S gets JB (should be soon).

EDIT:

Could maybe try to get second hand GS 3 or a one XL from ebay, although they will still be over your budget.



If you aren't bothered about having the best camera, audio and battery life (it should get better with updates) then there is no beating the nexus 4 for £280 (16GB), it takes good enough photos (although 1080P recording looks poor) and the audio is good.

EDIT:

However, the nexus 4 won't be available to order till the middle of December........
 
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Nexus18 said:
For that price, options are:

- nexus 4
- HTC one S (although it might be a bit over your budget....)

Nexus 4 has the better CPU, GPU, RAM and screen.

HTC one S has the better camera, battery life (for now), audio.

Both phones are more than good enough for games.

In real world, the performance will be more or less the same, even more so once the S gets JB (should be soon).
Click to expand...
My main concern about the Nexus 4 is the memory space which the maximum is 16GB with no MicroSD slot

Nexus18 said:
Could maybe try to get second hand GS 3 or a one XL from ebay, although they will still be over your budget.
Click to expand...
I've a Samsung Galaxy S3, used it quite impressive but don't like the shape of the phone as the hand grip isn't really good

Nexus18 said:
If you aren't bothered about having the best camera, audio and battery life (it should get better with updates) then there is no beating the nexus 4 for £280 (16GB), it takes good enough photos (although 1080P recording looks poor) and the audio is good.
Click to expand...
How's the N4 camera compare to the S3? Audio quality must be good as currently I'm using a iPod Touch for music and the battery life is the same as S3?
 
a dedicated mp3 player will always have a better battery life than a mobile phone :) a lot of phones battery goes to "waste" just by keeping the signal and if you're in bad signal area it will take even more battery trying to keep you connected to the 'world'

s3/note2/n4/ones all have good batteries but don't expect them to last the same or outlast your mp3 player :)

if i was you i would get an s3, note2 is clearly out of budget :) n4 has space limitations which you seem to find problematic and same with ones :)

so out of all them s3 is the "best" bet in my eyes - you can get one from hong kong brand new etc for around ~370 so adding 70 quid extra will actually get you better phone :)

and with some time you will get used to the shape and it will feel comfy! tbh all devices i play with feel weird at first but then you get used to it! :)
 
You have a GS 3......then don't bother changing! :p

Buy a rock quicksand case for it, makes the phone look better, plus adds a lot more grip.


The camera looks average in comparison to the GS 3 for most scenarios (there are some shots where it looks just as good but on the whole there is no doubt the GS 3 is better) especially the 1080P recording. The camera is better than the GN and some people who came from the GS 2, have said it is just as good and others that it is better.

Audio isn't as good, especially the loudspeaker, however, with a good set of earphones, I doubt you will notice a huge difference between them unless you're an audiophile :p

16GB isn't really a problem unless you intend on keeping your entire music collection on the phone, on my S (10GB for videos, photos etc. and 2.21GB for apps) I still have 3GB for videos etc. and 1.28GB for apps and this is with over 1000 photos including 1080P and slow motion recordings, wallpapers, icon set, N64, genesis ROM emulator files etc. and over 80 apps installed including a number of games like dead trigger, dead space, angry birds SW, where's my perry/water etc. and I just use google music for my 2GB of music :p I could easily clear about 5GB up too as I backup all my photos/videos to my PC daily.

At the minute, the battery isn't as good as the GS 3, however, the battery drain on the N4 is due to poor software optimisation, which should be fixed in a few updates and once it is, in theory it should be better than it. When will that fix happen, no idea, could be a few days, weeks or months......



You would be downgrading 3 out of the 5 factors you mentioned if you went from the GS 3 to the N4.
 
grudas said:
a dedicated mp3 player will always have a better battery life than a mobile phone :) a lot of phones battery goes to "waste" just by keeping the signal and if you're in bad signal area it will take even more battery trying to keep you connected to the 'world'

s3/note2/n4/ones all have good batteries but don't expect them to last the same or outlast your mp3 player :)
Click to expand...
Good battery life to me is that it will last for 2-3 days without charging as my current Blackberry Torch won't last a day

grudas said:
so out of all them s3 is the "best" bet in my eyes - you can get one from hong kong brand new etc for around ~370 so adding 70 quid extra will actually get you better phone :)
Click to expand...
The S3 price have dropped abit, I got mine for £440 White, 16GB and Unlocked, don't know if that's a good deal but got it when it came out

Nexus18 said:
You have a GS 3......then don't bother changing! :p
Click to expand...
I will keep the S3, the S3 is still the best smartphone around as there are oither smartphone released and thought it would overtook the S3 with specs

Nexus18 said:
Buy a rock quicksand case for it, makes the phone look better, plus adds a lot more grip.
Click to expand...
I will have a look on eBay, having a case will make the S3 feel abit better as without a case, it feels like cheap plastic and the grip will be better

Nexus18 said:
The camera looks average in comparison to the GS 3 for most scenarios (there are some shots where it looks just as good but on the whole there is no doubt the GS 3 is better) especially the 1080P recording. The camera is better than the GN and some people who came from the GS 2, have said it is just as good and others that it is better.
Click to expand...
In my opinion the S3 camera is quite decent as I have taken photos with it on holiday and the quality viewed on the computer is really good

Nexus18 said:
Audio isn't as good, especially the loudspeaker, however, with a good set of earphones, I doubt you will notice a huge difference between them unless you're an audiophile :p
Click to expand...

All my music are 320Kbps so it should sound good, I don't really use the loudspeaker as I always have earphones in

You would be downgrading 3 out of the 5 factors you mentioned if you went from the GS 3 to the N4.[/QUOTE]
I have 16GB internal memory and a 32GB MicroSD so memory isn't the problem with the S3

I have a o2 contract with only 100MB a month, will it be enough if I only use for surfing the internet, Facebook?

Also where can I get my o2 sim card cut for free so it can fit in the S3?
 
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Yup, the rock quick sand case is the one you want, costs about £6-10

At the minute you would definitely not be getting more than a day from the n4, but it will improve with software updates.

100mb is very low, you will have to be very careful with what you browse, it will do you for that stuff but just don't be using it all the time. Of possible always use Wi-Fi instead.

Go into the o2 shop and ask them to do it or maybe car phone warehouse, they might charge you but it shouldn't be any more than a few pounds.
 
Nexus18 said:
100mb is very low, you will have to be very careful with what you browse, it will do you for that stuff but just don't be using it all the time. Of possible always use Wi-Fi instead.
Click to expand...
I know 100MB is very low, using 3G will use more bandwidth? As I use 2G on my Blackberry and it won't go over 100MB because 3G drains the battery life on the Blackberry

Nexus18 said:
Go into the o2 shop and ask them to do it or maybe car phone warehouse, they might charge you but it shouldn't be any more than a few pounds.
Click to expand...
I'll try that
 
3G is just a faster connection, which you need for browsing at acceptable speeds, 2G is fine for sycning emails etc. and yes 3G will drain the battery life quicker than 2G, more so if you don't have a strong enough signal for 3G.
 
The difference in 2G and 3G bandwidth can be vast, especially if you can get 3.5G.

On a good day you could probably get 100Kbit/s but 3G will hit easily ten to hundred times faster than that.

If you think 3G drains your battery, you should see what 4G can do!
 
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