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

[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 :D
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself :)

I can't put up with them personally; HTC have had the upper hand with build quality for quite some time and it keeps me going back.
 
One big feature that would definitely tide me towards the htc one is slow motion recording, it is unbelievably cool! :cool: Great if you have pets i.e. cats or/and dogs. I use it more than 1080P recording.

The note II has it, however, for some strange reason I don't think the GS 3 has it :confused:

Also love all the other camera features of sense/one series phones i.e. the built in effects, however, these can be applied easily enough via editing apps from the market.

Will severely miss the option of having 16.9 widescreen photos as I look at the photos on my monitor quite a lot and then when putting them on the big TV down stairs it is much better.


The only real serious deal breaker of the htc one for me is the lack of menu button/gesture/tweak thus the 3 dot menu button on the bottom :(
 
Robbo said:
I want to see Samsung take some design cues from the ATIV, they are capable of making something less naff looking:
Click to expand...
IMO that phone looks horrific compared to the S3.

Between the One and the Z, the One is miles ahead imo.
 
Em3bbs said:
The Ativ feels just like an S3, it's just it has fake brushed metal on the plastic case on the rear.
Click to expand...

Yes, the materials still aren't great which is disappointing but the silver (not blue) brushed metal effect without the 'hyperglaze' aka gloss looks much better.

That's not to say I think the Ativ looks awesome, it's not nearly on the level of some of the more premium feeling phones, but Samsung could do with taking a step away from the pebble-plastic designs. I mean, who would actually think that's a negative move?
 
Yup the perceived quality would still suck but at least it looks much better. IMO the gs3 is a very girly looking phone especially the blue model. Ativ looks a bit more professional and manly :p
 
kona786 said:
No the whole thing looks different and crap. Take a look at a nexus and an S3 to see how it's supposed to look.
Click to expand...

?? Purely an asthetic on the multitasking menu? Looks great to me actually.

Personally I prefer the stock Android and therefore the Nexus however the Sony is second because of its light touch changes to stock. Touchwiz (Samsung) and HTC's efforts butcher the android OS.
 
Touchwiz is easily sorted by applying the Domination AOSP Theme. Do Sony phone's have this?

Aslong as you like it that's great for you - I think Sony are 'special' as they actually spent time and money on making something that was perfectly fine, worse.
 
Nexus18 said:
Yup the perceived quality would still suck but at least it looks much better. IMO the gs3 is a very girly looking phone especially the blue model. Ativ looks a bit more professional and manly :p
Click to expand...

The gs3 is deliberately girly because Sammy already had us with the stat line so they could go well into the feminine with the design choices they made without men leaving, thus all the folk of both sexes with gs3's, all those girls would be using under gunned Sonys or apples if Sammy gave us the design we want, that's why I'm not overly hopeful of gs4 design though I do have hopes for the Note 3 as fem uptake is low cos of their tiny hands.
 
thep02 said:
The gs3 is deliberately girly because Sammy already had us with the stat line so they could go well into the feminine with the design choices they made without men leaving, thus all the folk of both sexes with gs3's, all those girls would be using under gunned Sonys or apples if Sammy gave us the design we want, that's why I'm not overly hopeful of gs4 design though I do have hopes for the Note 3 as fem uptake is low cos of their tiny hands.
Click to expand...

I knew women would be to blame for this! :mad: :p
 
kona786 said:
Touchwiz is easily sorted by applying the Domination AOSP Theme. Do Sony phone's have this?

Aslong as you like it that's great for you - I think Sony are 'special' as they actually spent time and money on making something that was perfectly fine, worse.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about Kona? Sony's multitasking add on is no better or worse than Samsung's attempt. Both look like **** but at least they didn't mess up functionality like Sense 4 :p It's quicker to press home and select the app you want rather than find it in the multitasking menu... (fixed for Sense 5)

HTC-One-X-Multitasking-640x426.jpg
 
It doesn't look pretty sony's skin/UI IMO but it does the job. Has a nice enough unified feel throughout and the stock apps are good enough, besides it is for the best that they didn't use any/much black due to the poor black levels :p

Touchwiz is closer to stock android for the MT window and some other things, however, almost everything else about it is awful imo, the colour scheme and apps I can't stand, no unified feel throughout, cartoonish colour scheme, disorganised apps but it has the best implemented features i.e. smart stay, smart alert, smart rotate, multi-view (granted you can get the majority of these as apps now though). However, if you root you can flash a stock android theme i.e. JB domination as kona said, which improves it a lot! AFAIK there isn't anything similar for sony phones, with HTC, there is a similar theme for the one X but not quite as good and unfortunately there is nothing for the one S :(

I love sense V4, the only things I hate about it, are; new battery graph in V4+, white colour scheme. The stand out features for me compared to other skins is that it has the best unified feel throughout, apps are nice looking and functional and the camera app is the the best overall as well as the browser (text reflow is what makes it so good combined with improved quick ICS controls and flash, also find it to be the fastest and smoothest browser) The multi-tasking window is poor, but functional enough I find, from photos/screenshots it looks like you have to slide to the app you want in order to select but you don't, can just tap either of the 3 shown on screen and it switches to whatever you chose.

Motorola's new skin is very good, without a doubt the closest to stock android, have a few neat features implemented (not to the same level as Samsung, HTC though) and again, has a very good unified feel throughout. Also, use mostly a black colour scheme, which is a huge plus for SAMOLED screens.

Stock android is great, best theme/colour scheme without a doubt and also has a somewhat unified feel, not to the same level as sense and motorola's skin though. The apps look nice but are very limited compared to other skins apps especially the camera. Shame they dropped the stock browser for chrome :(



Not that it really matters too much anyway as being android you can do whatever you want :p i.e. stock android without having to root etc.

Nexus18 said:
Might as well post this in here too.

Want to try and achieve a stock android look (mostly), however, without rooting?

well this is how

stock android keyboard
stock Alarm clock
Stock SMS app
Dialer with this theme
Stock calendar
stock Gallery
Stock camera
Nova launcher prime with the built in stock android icons
Lock screen (can get the stock lock screen theme/UI)
Stock (CM10) calculator

Then there are apps to replace the notification bar i.e. omega, status bar +, super status bar, however, they are a bit buggy!

And everything to do with sense, touchwiz is either disabled or hidden via nova
Click to expand...

The only things that you would see on my one s currently, which are sense related are; the camera, gallery, notification bar, multi-tasking window, browser and settings menu.
 
Last edited:
kona786 said:
Touchwiz is easily sorted by applying the Domination AOSP Theme. Do Sony phone's have this?

Aslong as you like it that's great for you - I think Sony are 'special' as they actually spent time and money on making something that was perfectly fine, worse.
Click to expand...

?? So the Samsung is fine because you can apply a theme to remove their skin, whilst Sony is in the 'wrong' for applying their own skin?! Are you serious?

Sony is by no means perfect but what you are saying makes little sense. What is clear is that stock android is great, the further away you get from this = not good. Sony is the closest to stock of the non stock manufacturers, which is partly why I prefer Sony over others (at the moment).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom