Recommend me a smartphone

Calneon

Calneon

Calneon

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Joined
17 Nov 2008
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I've spent long enough with my current call/text mobile phone, it's about time I moved to a smartphone. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up with mobile technology at all, the only ones I have hands on use with are iPhones. I don't have any bias towards one brand or another.

I'm looking for a smartphone to (other than for communication) play games, browse the internet (flash would be great, dunno if that's standard on the latest smartphones), listen to music (32GB would be nice, 16GB minimum). I don't know the difference between 3G and 4G (I assume 4G is just faster?) I don't know how much I'd expect to pay, or whether it would be better to get a contract or buy outright.

Looking at the front page of this forum, it's clear the top runners are the Galaxy Note II, Nokia Lumia 920, Nexus 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? I'm leaning towards Android over Windows 8, because I work for a game developer and we don't develop for Windows 8.

Thank you for any advice!
 
It comes down to the Nexus 4, Galaxy S 3 and Note 2 really.

If you find the size of the Note 2 acceptable, that could possibly be your best bet. Go and have a play with them in a phone shop and see what your first impressions are, then read some reviews.

The Nexus 4 is really only limited when it comes to storage, I doubt you'd have much of a problem with the other aspects of it. It's also quite a lot cheaper if you're buying it SIM free which is quite a huge plus for it also.

4G is faster than 3G (and it also has a more penetrating signal), but really 3G is quite fine in most cases. Having 4G means you have to most likely have a more expensive plan and it limits your phone choice somewhat as well.

As for the iPhone, well, you either like it or you don't, the iPhone 5 is an excellent phone but it's going to cost the most.

Keeping it very brief, the Note 2 has a considerably larger screen, a stylus, and far better battery life.

The Nexus 4 has stock Android, technically superior internals, costs half as much but is limited to 16GB of storage.

If you have any more specific questions about things like the camera, I (or others) can go into more detail I'm sure.
 
Nexus 4


/thread.

The others are fantastic (inc phones like the Xperia T, iPhone 5, 8X, One S and One XL etc) but the N4 is much faster, much cheaper and runs stock Android with guaranteed lengthy updates. (the others will be lucky to get 2 years support with bloated crapware in comparison :p)
 
If size isn't an issue, the note II, if it is then look at the following:

- nexus 4
- HTC one XL, X+ and one S
- GS 3 LTE

Screen is personal preference.

LCD

pure whites, natural colours, sharper/clearer, more power efficient on bright colours

VS

SAMOLED

true blacks, saturated colours and better viewing angles overall, more power efficient on dark colours
Click to expand...

Design is personal preference.

Software skin is personal preference.

Build and perceived quality in order of best (IMO)

1. one s (aluminium uni-body)
2. One X+, XL, (polycarbonate uni-body with a nice finish like the nokia lumia)
3. nexus 4 (glass front and back)
4. note II, GS 3 (glossy brushed plastic)

Storage:

Note II and GS 3 have 16GB internal storage and a SD slot
One X+ has 64 GB internal storage and no SD slot
One XL has 32GB internal storage and no SD slot
One S and nexus 4 have 16GB internal storage (which is really about 10-11GB for music, videos etc. and 2.21GB for apps) and no SD slot

Hardware:

1. nexus 4
2. one S, XL and GS 3 LTE along with the note II
3. one X+

The nexus 4 use the quad core S4, which is superior to everything else overall and has 2GB RAM.

One XL and one S use the dual core S4, which is very good and overall better than the exynos quad chipset used in the note II and GS 3, but the note II and GS 3 LTE have an extra GB of RAM

One X+ uses tegra 3, which is well.......pretty poop in comparison :p But good enough for most tasks.

Camera:

All more or less the same, some perform better in certain scenarios where as the others would perform better in other conditions. The 1080P recording is much better on the GS 3 and note II in terms of smoothness and light metering. Camera UI and features is better on the one series. Nexus 4 does look good and certainly better than the galaxy nexus camera, in some scenarios it performs just as good as the Samsung and HTC phones, if not better!

Audio:

They are all more or less the same, unless you are an audiophile I doubt you will notice the difference :p

NLED:

The nexus 4, note II and GS 3 have a far better NLED over the one series.

Battery:

The note II is the best by a good bit! followed by the XL, S and then the GS 3. Not sure about the X+, but it would be more or less the same as the GS 3.

The nexus 4 is pretty poor at the minute due to poor software/driver optimisation but once you turn certain things off etc. it is as good as the XL, if not better and once google sort out whatever the issue(s) are/is, it will only be beaten by the likes of the note II, RAZR HD MAXX etc.

Also, the note II and GS 3 are the only phones mentioned here that have a removable battery.

Price

Nexus 4 is the cheapest buying outright followed by the one S and iirc then the One XL, GS 3 LTE, one X+ and then the note II.

Contract prices for all except the one S will be more or less the same.


The main advantage of the nexus 4 is that is supported by google so will get updates fast and be guaranteed to get them.

I personally wouldn't worry about 4G, 3G is still more than good enough.


Best to just have a play with all yourself and decide.
 
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Thanks for the amazing replies, looks like the Nexus 4 is the way to go. I have no idea where the best place is to get one though...
 
You went through through a list of spec points and missed out the Note II in the hardware section. You mad?

Quad core 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM. It's possibly the fastest thing out there!
 
Unless you are going to be using tonnes of minutes, I would recommend a 16gb Nexus 4 and go with 3 or giffgaff on a non-contract £10 a month. Cheapest and most flexible option. The nexus 4 is a really great phone. :)
 
I'm looking more at the HTC One X, as I don't really want to be waiting 6-7 weeks for a Nexus 4, and IMO the One X looks a lot better. Any recommendations for which provider to go with? 3 have what looks like the best deal, £29 for unlimited internet, is there a catch?
 
Calneon said:
I'm looking more at the HTC One X, as I don't really want to be waiting 6-7 weeks for a Nexus 4, and IMO the One X looks a lot better. Any recommendations for which provider to go with? 3 have what looks like the best deal, £29 for unlimited internet, is there a catch?
Click to expand...

I would try buy the Nexus 4, some people with 4-5 weeks ended up getting it in a few days, things are crazy with Google right now.

If your getting the One X I would recommend the X+, found some half decent contracts on t-mobile if you would want them. Its much better phone with a bigger battery, more storage, faster SoC.

http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/Brands/HTC/b509/n447/p144856.aspx#tabsAnchor

Finally, 3 have no catch just you cant tether unless your on the One Plan.
 
I've decided on the Nexus 4 after having a look at it and the HTC One X+ in person. I'll have to make do with 16GB. I hate the idea of a 24 month contract, so I'm going to go with either Virgin Mobile or 3's sim only monthly contracts, and buy the phone sim free. Does anybody have any advice on which network to go with? The other possibility was GiffGaff but they use O2 which I've read is pretty bad (Virgin use Orange/TMobile which are meant to be the best).

Currently deciding whether to risk it and save £110 and buy the phone from Google, or get it right now from CFW (and probably also get the contract from them).
 
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