No longer feeling the need for "latest and greatest" handsets?

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Going back several years, it always used to be the case that I couldn't wait till my contract renewal - the next phone was always leaps and bounds ahead of the last, and it would be such a step up.

It seems now, that's no longer the case. I'm currently using a Galaxy Note 1 that I got about 18 months ago, and I've been looking at what's available in advance of my upgrade in a few months, and to perfectly honest, there doesn't seem to be anything that screams "get me!".

The Note can do pretty much anything a newer phone can do - sure it may have a slightly slower processor, lower resolution screen, but features wise, is it actually missing out on anything to justify the £400+ or signing up for a new 24 month £36 contract?

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I missing out on any great features that newer phones have?

Maybe I'm just getting old and set in my ways! :p
 
Since getting my Lumia 920, I did look around the latest and greatest. Even when compared to the astonishing 1020, I'm actually not feeling the fuss of changing.

Unless something comes up in summer 2014, I'm sticking with my current and go PAYG for £10-£15, save the rest I'd pay for the next range of latest for the house deposit...
 
Note 3 just does things a lot better than the Note 1 - no real ground breaking features.

Here's what I like about the Note 3:

Lovely sharp+bright screen with best colours yet for SAMOLED
Awesome crazy battery life
Finally smooth TouchWiz
3GB RAM - great for keeping apps in memory, fast switching
32GB On board storage (great for games) + sd slot = excellent
USB 3 - v.Fast transfers to internal storage
1080p60 Video recording for lovely smooth video
Great aesthetics and design - that back is a big improvement over the N2 + GS4.
Great audio quality with headphones
S-Pen, which I don't really use thus far.
Fast 2 Amp charging


Depends on how picky you are about phones. People could call you flashy as you've got a Note and their still stuck on a HTC Hero :p

All relative.
 
kona786 said:
Note 3 just does things a lot better than the Note 1 - no real ground breaking features.
Click to expand...

This is what I figured, improvement of several features but nothing really new :p

Will see what changes in the next few months, but I guess the technology has hit a bit of a plateau
 
It depends on what type of user you are, but i find camera improvement alone year on year is enough to justify buying a new phone, if you manage to sell your old one at the right time. there's also major improvements across the board usually, I now have a 1080P screen, slightly larger screen, better cpu, etc, etc.

I have never had a contract phone, this is where the problem lies, people locked into 18-24 month contracts, by the time it comes up for an upgrade, your phone is now essentially worthless, compared to upgrading every 12 months.

I think I got around £200 for my nexus 4, which made upgrading to the nexus 5 cost just over £100.

£100 to upgrade your phone every year imo is worth it.


Or if you go for budget champions you can usually upgrade for next to nothing as selling your old phone pays for the new one.

e.g. moto g costs £89 after using a voucher at tesco

in 6 months time you could sell it for £100 on ebay and buy the next budget king for £100.

then 6 months after that sell that and buy the next budget king.

that means free upgrades for life and the moto G is no slouch and would be a pleasure to use for anyone i imagine.
 
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Felt that for a while. Ip4 is still going fine, lumia 520 is also fine.

Its not that i dont wont latests and gratest, they're just focusing on things im no longer interested in. Im not interested in screens with any more resolution, not interested in massively faster socs, unless a need arises.

I am interested in screen scratachability, screen readability in bright sunlight(nokia so so), battery logtivity, battery charge time (can some one for the love of god use Toshiba SCiB batteries, 10min charge time and a life span many many times that of standard lithium ion)
Speaker volume and clarity, haven't found a phone with speakers loud enough yet or with clarity. Camera (nokia is doing well here), waterproof(sony is doing well here).
 
Glaucus said:
Felt that for a while. Ip4 is still going fine, lumia 520 is also fine.

Its not that i dont wont latests and gratest, they're just focusing on things im no longer interested in. Im not interested in screens with any more resolution, not interested in massively faster socs, unless a need arises.

I am interested in screen scratachability, screen readability in bright sunlight(nokia so so), battery logtivity, battery charge time (can some one for the love of god use Toshiba SCiB batteries, 10min charge time and a life span many many times that of standard lithium ion)
Speaker volume and clarity, haven't found a phone with speakers loud enough yet or with clarity. Camera (nokia is doing well here), waterproof(sony is doing well here).
Click to expand...

well iphone uses original gorilla glass does it not? whereas the new android sets use gorilla glass 3.

i imagine the 2 generations newer gg is a lot better for dealing with scratches.
 
kona786 said:
have you demoed a HTC One?
Click to expand...

Still not there, we need a spec fight. They need to ditch screen res now and move on to the others. At least a fair few phones now have stereo speakers on the front which is a big improvment.

Psycho Sonny said:
well iphone uses original gorilla glass does it not? whereas the new android sets use gorilla glass 3.

i imagine the 2 generations newer gg is a lot better for dealing with scratches.
Click to expand...

Also not there, can I pay the extra £19 it would cost for a sapphire screen over the gorilla glass, almost impossable to scratch and extremly hard to smash. And when you're talking 400+ for a top end phone £20 is nothing. ( apple has opened a saphire manufatcuring plant, so maybe if ip6 gets it others will follow)

Other than that the next big step is flexable screens, but not the rubbish like the curve phone. But fold up or roll out phone displays to convert to tablet like size.
 
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I'm still using my GS2. :p A bigger screen, faster processor and better camera would be nice but it still does everything I want it to.
 
I just cannot imagine using a flexible screen or phone.

I mean surely that is a pipe dream or even if it is possible, wouldn't it be all floppy? How would you call with it?
 
Psycho Sonny said:
well iphone uses original gorilla glass does it not? whereas the new android sets use gorilla glass 3.

i imagine the 2 generations newer gg is a lot better for dealing with scratches.
Click to expand...

Actually I'm pretty sure it's gotten a tiny bit softer or at least stayed the same but is now thinner etc.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
I just cannot imagine using a flexible screen or phone.

I mean surely that is a pipe dream or even if it is possible, wouldn't it be all floppy? How would you call with it?
Click to expand...

They allready exist as protoypes.

What do you mean how do you make a phone call? Like any other phone.

As to floppy, all depends how its packaged. If it was in the middle of a phone and just folded in half. So like a clam shell, when you open it up, screen would be twice the size and its backed by the body of the phone so wouldnt be floppy at all.
 
I'm perfectly happy with my S3 now it's running 4.4.2.

My contact runs out in March/April so I'll just be going on a rolling contract!
 
When I got my HTC Sensation I got it on the troll 12 month TalkTalk contract so that I could get something shiny and new once that ended in a year...

That was September 2011, and I still have it. Once you step back from the spec numbers, shiny screens and random headline features you barely use in real life, there just isn't any need to upgrade.
 
I'm still using a samsung galaxy S2.

Still mint after 2 years, but I have an itch to upgrade it though.

To what? If I do it's going to cost me £300-400 to get what I want.

I may just treat it to a new Anker battery instead.
 
chief barker said:
I'm still using a samsung galaxy S2.

Still mint after 2 years, but I have an itch to upgrade it though.
Click to expand...

That's the thing though - it's almost a case of wanting to upgrade just to have something "new and shiny", not because of the actual want/need to have the new phone.

The only thing I would really consider upgrading it to is the Note 3 (or 4 if it's out by then), but as kona786 already posted, all it has over the Note 1 is that it does everything the same a bit faster...

I'll probably just save the money and get a PS4 instead :p
 
kona786 said:
have you demoed a HTC One?
Click to expand...

Unless you end up with an iPhone or want a larger screen still (always makes me wonder why - but some of you do :p), get one.

I've had a lot of iPhone users impressed by how good my phone looks and works. It may take pictures that are 4MP, but HTC have got it spot on. The speakers are spot on too, and i'm a right pain when it comes to sound. Really impressive bit of kit and happy to say that I own one, even though I'm after better Apple integration. :rolleyes::p
 
Haggisman said:
That's the thing though - it's almost a case of wanting to upgrade just to have something "new and shiny", not because of the actual want/need to have the new phone.

The only thing I would really consider upgrading it to is the Note 3 (or 4 if it's out by then), but as kona786 already posted, all it has over the Note 1 is that it does everything the same a bit faster...

I'll probably just save the money and get a PS4 instead :p
Click to expand...

PS4? you know what you have just struck a cord with that statement mate, what can I buy with £300-400?

That much on a phone seems ridiculous doesn't it :eek:
 
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