HTC One vs Sony Xperia Z vs Samsung Galaxy S IV thread

Robbo · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:24

I thought we could have a thread to discuss the flagship 1080p Android phones without having small discussions dotted around the various device specific threads.

Obviously there is no word on the Galaxy S IV specs yet, but we should know what they are in 3 weeks or so.

So, the two current contenders:

Sony Xperia Z

http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/phones/xperia-z/

Specifications:

Reviews:

http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z-review-887.php

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/20/sony-xperia-z-review/

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/11/4084004/sony-xperia-z-review

Release date: February 28th, 2013

-------------------

HTC One

http://www.htc.com/uk/smartphones/htc-one/

Specifications:

Reviews:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/11/4086390/htc-one-review

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/htc-one-review/

Release date: March 29th, 2013

-------------------

Samsung Galaxy S IV

www.samsung.com/uk/promotions/galaxys4

Specifications:

Reviews: TBA

Release date: April 26th, 2013

-------------------

So, have the HTC One and Xperia Z impressed you enough, or are you waiting for the Galaxy S IV announcement?

Are you skipping this generation of phones altogether?

I personally am waiting for the announcement of the S IV, I think we could still see better things yet.

Can Samsung come up with a new design? That is the question.

m4rk84 · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:27

Have to say with the S4 only a month away it would be foolish to buy the One just yet. It seems the One has the upper hand over the Sony though. Which I hate... cmon Sony nail one pls!

A little further out and the X phone is coming, which is the phone I'm most looking forward to seeing.

Robbo · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:27

To respond to Nexus18's post from another thread:

Nexus18 said:
@robbo

Explained my point mainly in post above

HTC have some great phones for battery life, one S, one X+, one XL (which is better than the GS 3, and other one series phones), HTC DNA (the best out of their current phones so far) and the one should better it even more due to smaller screen, more PE chipset and bigger battery as well as sense V5 possibly being more PE..... There was a significant difference between the GS 3 and one X, but not the XL and S.

Yes a "complete package" does sound better, but doesn't necessarily mean that it is truly a better device due to it having more things on the whole, if a SD slot and removable battery is important then yes the GS 3/GS 4 etc. will be the "better" device for that person but if not and the design, screen (say someone hates SAMOLED pentile due to fuzzy text, over saturated colours) are more important then the htc one or xperia Z will be the "better" device for that person.

Assuming storage, removable battery aren't important:

- LCD screen
- sense (whilst touchwiz has some superb features, people still hate it and there are some that love sense)
- build/perceived quality (Samsung are very unlikely to use an aluminium uni-body and as we both know this can be the most important thing for some people i.e. TW fox )
- front speakers (assuming the GS 4 doesn't have FS)

I agree, the new sense looks poor and looks pretty ugly.

No phone is ever perfect!

Regarding the camera, the low lit shots/videos look fantastic (aside from being a wee bit jumpy), however, supposedly those aren't the final units and the camera on the final units are suppose to be better and will have to get some proper samples in order to properly judge, from reading about this camera tech. the big/main advantage of "ultrapixel" is for low lit shots and will far surpass any other phone currently and from the few samples posted so far, it looks like it. Essentially it is much like the lumia 920 with image stabilising etc.

I want to see Samsung take some design cues from the ATIV, they are capable of making something less naff looking:

Will they do it?

kona786 · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:33

Nice post Robbo.

Both seem to be great phones above.

I'll list my drawbacks of each:

Xperia Z -

Without being too picky its just the poor blacks and bad viewing angles that put me off this phone. Oh and some gash software tweaks like the multitasking UI!

HTC One -

dont like the front design, too tall and too much bezel and I prefer an all glass front. Next is no SD Slot and limited to 32GB. Then there's the god awful nav buttons. Then there's the STUPID tiny little Notification LED which isn't even RGB. Last but not least - Sense. Butchered AOSP multitasking panel and hate how they have messed with every aspect of AOSP Android - battery stats and notifications ETC

sarge78 · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:42

I'd still take a cheap N4 over the Xperia Z and HTC One by some distance. SGS4? Meh, it needs to be foldable or match the N4 in price.

What about the much speculated Motorola X? Or Nokia Pureview WP8?

[TW]Fox · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:43

Don't see the point in including the Galaxy S4, it doesn't exist.

Robbo · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:44

sarge78 said:
I'd still take a cheap N4 over the Xperia Z and HTC One by some distance. SGS4? Meh, it needs to be foldable or match the N4 in price.

There's absolutely no chance of a foldable screen being rolled out in 3 weeks time. Unless you know something I don't? How would you even work a battery around that!

sarge78 said:
What about the much speculated Motorola X? Or Nokia Pureview WP8?

Won't the X phone be end of year?

[TW]Fox;23799228 said:
An official thread about a phone that isn't even announced? Shall we just close every thread in this subsection that isn't ********** SUPER AWESOME OFFICIAL THREAD ********? It's getting ridiculous, it's almost as funny as the 00:01 1st of the month bunfight to be the first to post up the 'RANDOM JUNK YOU BOUGHT THIS MONTH' thread

No, two of three phones are announced and will be (and are being) discussed, so... :confused:

Surely the thread you should moan and whine in is over here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18442821

Sho · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:45

No ***Official***** on thread title...

Damn...

As for which phones, might aswell wait for the S4 specs to be released before making your minds up. I think i might ditch my iPhone 5 for the S4 or the One...

[TW]Fox · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:47

Robbo said:
Surely the thread you should moan and whine in is over here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18442821

Good point, I jumped the gun. That thread is amazing

Presumably it exists so he can fill it with Youtube Videos and copy/pastes from news sites?

Nexus18 · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:47

HTC one disappointments

- sense V5
- stupid button arrangement with htc logo
- possibly evil 3 dot menu button on bottom due to lack of buttons/gesture/tweaks
- design in the sense that it isn't as nice as the one S/X

Positives of htc one:

- front dual stereo speakers
- superb LCD screen
- aluminium uni-body
- 4.7" screen
- camera
- design overall especially the back

Xperia Z disappointments

- camera isn't much better than the last year phones if any better
- slightly washed out screen and terrible viewing angles as well as awful black levels compared to other LCD screens
- not ergonomic, which is annoying given the size

Positives of Xz:

- water proof
- design

All Samsung have to do is match or beat the htc one in camera, preferably have front speakers, battery life and most importantly have a nice design, as good or better than the xperia Z/HTC one and I am sold! (largely due to the SAMOLED screen :cool:

)

Software skins aren't really an issue for me these days as being android you can mod your phone so that it can look like sense, stock, touchwiz, iphone or windows

Although I love a good camera UI with plenty of features, the sense camera is easily the best I have used to date, hope to see other oem skins doe the same as HTC/sense.

BTW you need to create a wee part for the google/motorola X phone!

If the rumours for this phone are true, then screw the other 3!

Being announced at google i/o/ in May with supposedly KLP running

And yes! I would love to see that design for a GS 4 robbo, but unfortunately I can't see it happening, they just love to use glossy plastic for the android phones

manic111 · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:52

Aren't all of the release dates in the OP a year out?

snapdragon · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:53

Neither

I'll hold out to see what the S4 brings, I have a contract that expires in march but I may just hold on to my S3 LTE.

Robbo · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:53

[TW]Fox;23799252 said:
Good point, I jumped the gun. That thread is amazing Presumably it exists so he can fill it with Youtube Videos and copy/pastes from news sites?

He's not gone on the rampage in there yet!

Nexus18 said:
BTW you need to create a wee part for the google/motorola X phone! If the rumours for this phone are true, then screw the other 3! Being announced at google i/o/ in May with supposedly KLP running

My thoughts were to possibly add things to this thread as they're announced, so if we hear something about the X phone I'll stick it in the OP and get the title adjusted. If... (hope so!)

Nexus18 said:
And yes! I would love to see that design for a GS 4 robbo, but unfortunately I can't see it happening, they just love to use glossy plastic for the android phones

Yes, their strive to make things look like pebbles could take a turn for the (even) worse! :eek:

manic111 said:
Aren't all of the release dates in the OP a year out?

No?

[TW]Fox · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:57

Presumably the GS4 will be using the tried and tested Samsung plan of:

a) Take the best possible components and use them to make the most technically brilliant smartphone on the market
b) Encase the whole thing in a crappy plastic shell to make it feel like a £50 phone not a £500 phone
c) Market the **** out of it

I mean its worked pretty well the first 3 times

kona786 · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:01

MWC 2013 on Monday - let see what that brings. There's nothing I know of though.

Robbo · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:05

[TW]Fox;23799334 said:
Presumably the GS4 will be using the tried and tested Samsung plan of:

a) Take the best possible components and use them to make the most technically brilliant smartphone on the market
b) Encase the whole thing in a crappy plastic shell to make it feel like a £50 phone not a £500 phone
c) Market the **** out of it

I mean its worked pretty well the first 3 times

The Xperia Z has an SD card slot (but not a removable battery), any good to you? It's not plasticky at least.

sarge78 · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:29

Robbo said:
There's absolutely no chance of a foldable screen being rolled out in 3 weeks time. Unless you know something I don't? How would you even work a battery around that!

I'm not talking about those futuristic pieces of transparent OLED paper

They can fit a 6-7" foldable OLED screen inside the dimensions of a Lumia 920 right now, it's just a case of fancy packaging.

Like this cheap device but designed with a massive budget.

Robbo said:
Won't the X phone be end of year?

Well, they haven't announced anything for ages apart from Razr updates. It's about time we had something new!

toasteh · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:49

that folding phone looks like ass

kona786 · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:53

toasteh said:
that folding phone looks like ass

that made me chuckle

sarge78 · 20 Feb 2013 at 21:52

Yep, it does look like ass

OK, here's something more current.

(Samsung could make a phone like this right now. 12mm thick closed, 6mm thick open. 3000mAh battery spread over the two sections, simple clip hinge. We've been stuck in 2007 too long, time for a new form factor! Bring it on!)