Phones Which new phone?

[Bigmac]

I've had two htc phones, both have failed, so that for me ruins the brand.

I've seen various reports about the screen, case issues on the s3, however I've not met anyone who has actually had these issues. As with all new phones a lot of teething issues which we'll probably never get confirmation from samsung on, and a lot of scaremongering. (not discounting that your's clearly had an issue though).

One thing I'd say is that the s3 and all the other android top end handsets are very thin, an iphone is thick and durable compared, and it's much easier to damage the top end android handsets through pressure or drops.

I've dropped my S2 without a case 3 times and there is not a mark on it. All my friends have iphones and all of them have dropped them at least once and everytime the screen or the glass back has cracked. Maybe thicker but definitely not more durable.

 

[soze]

Maybe because the iPhone has edge to edge glass? I have not dropped mine but without a case the glass on the edge seems like trouble.

 

[Ch3tan]

I've dropped my S2 without a case 3 times and there is not a mark on it. All my friends have iphones and all of them have dropped them at least once and everytime the screen or the glass back has cracked. Maybe thicker but definitely not more durable.

You aren't talking about a top end android handset though, the s2 is not comparable, is s big chunky phone.

 

[Lamp]

I dropped my S2 on Friday while I was picking up dry cleaning. The screen hasn't got a mark on it but there's a tiny fleck of black paintwork chipped off near the headphones socket.

 

[Tilda]

How accurate is the stylus when it comes to handwriting? Eg if I want to put a dot in the corner of a square, does it hit the mark, or miss it by half a cm? Can you alter the sensitivity / accuracy? Any issues with them sticking the stylus at the bottom of the device? Does it ever fall out?

Stylus is pretty accurate, probably if you're careful to a 2-5pix area. Handwriting isn't amazing simply because its not paper, but its certainly possible and there are plenty of programs out there for stylus note-taking (ie that give you a big area to write, and each word shrink it down to normal text size).
The accuracy can be trained but not altered, its at max sensitivty. One of the drawing programs apparently uses the full range of pressure sensitivity or something.
Never fallen out of the bottom, its got a nice "click" to fit it in.

 

[PLightstar]

Went with the One X this time after my HTC Desire. Love this phone, once you get used to the size its fine. My mate went with the S3 and we compare every now and then, but we are both glad with the phones we choose. Will wait a little bit before changing from Sense to a Custom ROM. I do like the fact the S3 has expandable storage and a removable battery, though it hasn't become a problem with me yet. The thing that sold it for me was the HTC media centre, that can send things from the phone to a little plug in HDMI wireless box in the back of the TV. Everything sent to the TV is in at least 720p and uses the TV's speaker system for sound, so sharing Youtube or video/photos on my phone is easy for all to watch.

 

[MYstIC G]

How accurate is the stylus when it comes to handwriting? Eg if I want to put a dot in the corner of a square, does it hit the mark, or miss it by half a cm? Can you alter the sensitivity / accuracy? Any issues with them sticking the stylus at the bottom of the device? Does it ever fall out?

My dad has a note, personally when I've tried it I found the stylus to be fucking useless. It doesn't fall out of the phone though. I think it's personal preference though and possibly because the last stylus device like this I used was my dad's old Palm which was brilliantly accurate (shame the rest of it was shit).

 

[Raven]

Had a fiddle with a mates S3 at the weekend. Very nice indeed.

 

[old.user4556]

Had a fiddle with a mates S3 at the weekend. Very nice indeed.

Didn't you think it was plastic tat? Really does feel cheap to me .

 

[dysfunction]

Didn't you think it was plastic tat? Really does feel cheap to me .

Thats what everyone said about the S2 but it is tough 'plastic tat' as you put it.

It may feel cheap but it makes the phone light and easy to put in your pocket without bulking your pockets.... but you may need that!

 

[Tuthmes]

Sony Xperia T looks promising if they can keep the price down.

 

[Ch3tan]

Sony Xperia T looks promising if they can keep the price down.

Every Sony phone looks promising. Unless you really like Sony though they fail to live up to the hype.

 

[Tuthmes]

Every Sony phone looks promising. Unless you really like Sony though they fail to live up to the hype.

Yah. But one should never give up hope! Anyways it's why I added if they can keep the price down. Just a dual core cpu, old software, but a very nice and fast camera.

I really couldnt care less about the specs of my phone, nor if the software is old. But it's got to have a good camera, long battery life, radio player and be able to connect to any computer without beeing a bitch software wise (bye bye Apple).

 

[Ch3tan]

To be fair, android handsets really come down to whether you like the manufacturers interface to android or you are going to root. The hardware specs are fairly similar.

 

[wolfeeh]

I recently pulled the trigger and got an sgs3 having been an iPhone user for the last 4 years. Decided I fancied a change and currently am very ticked off with apple over a couple of things so decided not to wait for the new iPhone. I do however type this on an iPad 3 and for all my new found android love, no tablet can touch this... Other phones on the other hand are catching up on the iPhone fast and in some respects overtaking it.

For what it's worth I feel the salient points in a sgs3 vs iPhone argument are thus:
iPhone has a more durable and luxury / quality feel. What it will survive drop wise is highly variable, I killed a 4 from a 12 inch drop onto concrete, so far the sgs has bounced down every step on my staircase before impacting at high speed and with some force on a concrete floor and then bouncing into a wall. It has a tiny gouge on the band around the edge but the screen has not a scratch despite the impact and sliding on the rough concrete floor.

From a physical use point of view I struggle to use the sgs3 one handed as I have very small hands but if using two hands the sgs is a pleasure far exceeding the iPhone. The flat slim nature of the sgs3 makes it more pocketable than you'd think but the iPhone is still more pocket friendly.

Large screen is lush for Internet browsing, videos etc

Apple app store and iTunes combo canes the android marketplace into the ground. To me the android marketplace is the one huge disappointment.

Replaceable batteries and memory cards are a massive plus for the sgs3. I can have an 80gb sgs3 for £250 less than an iPhone Simfree.

 

[Aada]

I recently pulled the trigger and got an sgs3 having been an iPhone user for the last 4 years. Decided I fancied a change and currently am very ticked off with apple over a couple of things so decided not to wait for the new iPhone. I do however type this on an iPad 3 and for all my new found android love, no tablet can touch this... Other phones on the other hand are catching up on the iPhone fast and in some respects overtaking it.

For what it's worth I feel the salient points in a sgs3 vs iPhone argument are thus:
iPhone has a more durable and luxury / quality feel. What it will survive drop wise is highly variable, I killed a 4 from a 12 inch drop onto concrete, so far the sgs has bounced down every step on my staircase before impacting at high speed and with some force on a concrete floor and then bouncing into a wall. It has a tiny gouge on the band around the edge but the screen has not a scratch despite the impact and sliding on the rough concrete floor.

From a physical use point of view I struggle to use the sgs3 one handed as I have very small hands but if using two hands the sgs is a pleasure far exceeding the iPhone. The flat slim nature of the sgs3 makes it more pocketable than you'd think but the iPhone is still more pocket friendly.

Large screen is lush for Internet browsing, videos etc

Apple app store and iTunes combo canes the android marketplace into the ground. To me the android marketplace is the one huge disappointment.

Replaceable batteries and memory cards are a massive plus for the sgs3. I can have an 80gb sgs3 for £250 less than an iPhone Simfree.

What the hell were you doing to make it bounce on every step of the staircase?

Honestly i would be absolutely fucking fuming with myself if that happened to me, never dropped any of my mobile phones ever, I'm very careful with my kit my wife drops her's all the time and i don't know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

 

[Lamp]

This is the one thing that disappoints about Android: the apps are hit & miss. There are so many Android phones, running all different versions, from GB to JB, on different firmware, some running stock, some custom ROMs. Every time an update to an app is released there's a fairly healthy chance of it making the app worse on your device, which is a shame if you've paid for the app, and means you either have to live with it, or go back to an older version. Also because of the sheer number of apps and different firmware versions, its virtually impossible for an app to interract with another one of your apps in a way you'd want it to (eg suppose I want to copy and paste something from one app into my favourite notepad app: chances are the app won't even detect the existence of my notepad app, and I have to do it manually). Smartphones should be smarter, and this is where Apple wins. With only a few handsets, a single OS, its dead easy to code cross-app compatibility.

TBH its going to be easier for Apple to bring out a parallel OS which is highly customisable (multiple home screens, widgets, etc), then it is for Google to even contemplate third-party app compatibility.

I'm supremely happy with Android, but if Apple brought out a 5 inch phablet with a stylus offering widgets, multiple homescreens, removeable external SD, 2GHz+ quad core, a normal sized SIM card, a brilliant GPU, SGS3-type Gorilla glass, and looks to die for, I'd maybe switch.

 

[wolfeeh]

What the hell were you doing to make it bounce on every step of the staircase?

Honestly i would be absolutely fucking fuming with myself if that happened to me, never dropped any of my mobile phones ever, I'm very careful with my kit my wife drops her's all the time and i don't know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

Trying to carry an iPad a 2000 page hardcover textbook, my phone, car keys, a bottle of ginger beer and a pile of clothes and it slid out of the pile. I'm not overly happy about the drop myself, I love to keep my stuff immaculate, but on the other hand i'm very impressed it survived relatively unscathed. I guarantee my iPhone wouldn't have survived it

 

[wolfeeh]

I think the differences between the android OS and iOS warrant another post to be honest as that's where a lot of the user experience is, so in no particular order, some observations:

The most epic thing about android? When I go on xhamster I have the option of downloading the streamed porn so I can have a local copy on my phone. Legendary feature. A reason to buy an android phone in and of itself. Obviously a physical aspect but also the availability of large screen phones makes a massive difference for watching porn / videos on your phone.

Android hides all of your apps away in a separate view, meaning that you only add shortcuts you want to your home screens. Neater, smarter appearance, I would have loved this on iOS.

Android AppStore doesn't require you to enter your password a hundred million times to download free apps. Apple have taken note of this and apparently this issue is addressed in iOS 6.

The phone and phone book aren't as straightforward to use on android as on iOS but there's scope for better contact management of large numbers of contacts via groups etc. I miss the iPhones ability to tap one. Phone number on a website and have the ability to dial it quickly. Sometimes you can't even copy and paste the number from the browser on the sgs3

As a side issue of using the phone features of the sgs3; I use headphones / hands free kit the vast majority of the time. The supplied sgs3 headphones are loud and clear but uncomfortable and look shit. I'm contemplating some third party headphones with mic but not sure what to look at, ideally i'd like something with ribbon style cable, ala beats on tour ( unless someone tells me otherwise I'm gonna assume that beats on tour are as shit as other beats headphones ).

When you need to edit text the sgs3's cursor movement thing is far superior to the magnifying glass thing iOS uses, but that said the predictive text on iOS is vastly superior and rarely makes a mistake for me anymore. The galaxy on the other hand absolutely refuses to learn from any mistakes, you don't wanna know the hassle I have typing the step-kid's names when I need to.

The stock alarm clock on the sgs3 is significantly superior to the iOS one.

location lock indoors or out, anywhere within 2 seconds on the sgs3, using a combo of cell and network info, gps and glonass. Pretty shit hot to be honest. Also, built in sat nav capability, not just mapping. On the subject of mapping though, google maps is so far ahead of iOS mapping it's practically on another planet. I use mapping features pretty much every day, and from next march I could potentially be using it dozens of times a day

 

[Wij]

Hehe. S3 wins because of xHamster. Nice analysis

 

[Fast]

The Nokia Lumia 920 was launched yesterday. No full reviews yet, i'm waiting for techradar's. A few key points are wireless charging and a camera that boasts it takes better pics than most SLR's.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ndsets--share-price-immediately-plummets.html

The share price drop doesn't put me off I'm bored of Android and I think this platform has a lot to offer.

 

[wolfeeh]

Hehe. S3 wins because of xHamster. Nice analysis

Seems as good a criteria as any to judge a smartphone on

 

[Wij]

How wipable is the screen?

 

[Bodhi]

If my Xperia S is anything to go by I would recommend the Xperia T, my S has been bloody superb. Build quality is great, surviving two drops onto concrete without a case, the screen is lush with realistic colours and the highest dpi currently available, call quality is unmatched and Sony's android skin is super easy to use. What's mire its just been added to the Android Open Source Project, so I'll be getting updates direct from Google if I so choose.

I would ignore the dribbling aids filled haters on here and give it a try, you will be pleasantly surprised. Plus, if it's good enough for James Bond......

Sony seem to be seriously getting their act together after a dodgy few years, you would be a complete fool to discount them. The new Tablet S looks a cracking bit of kit too.

 

[Aada]

If my Xperia S is anything to go by I would recommend the Xperia T, my S has been bloody superb. Build quality is great, surviving two drops onto concrete without a case, the screen is lush with realistic colours and the highest dpi currently available, call quality is unmatched and Sony's android skin is super easy to use. What's mire its just been added to the Android Open Source Project, so I'll be getting updates direct from Google if I so choose.

I would ignore the dribbling aids filled haters on here and give it a try, you will be pleasantly surprised. Plus, if it's good enough for James Bond......

Sony seem to be seriously getting their act together after a dodgy few years, you would be a complete fool to discount them. The new Tablet S looks a cracking bit of kit too.

I wouldn't expect anything less than a 5 star review from you.

 

[Fast]

The S3 has wireless charging capabilites already built in. I didn't know this, wonder how much the Mat's will sell for.
http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Blog/Wireless-Charging-The-Future-For-Smartphones/ba-p/5687144

 

[Aada]

The Nokia Lumia 920 was launched yesterday. No full reviews yet, i'm waiting for techradar's. A few key points are wireless charging and a camera that boasts it takes better pics than most SLR's.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ndsets--share-price-immediately-plummets.html

The share price drop doesn't put me off I'm bored of Android and I think this platform has a lot to offer.

Been using WP7 since launch, it's a real nice UI very tidy looking screens the Marketplace is only let down tbh it's clearly not as populated than Apple/Roid.

 

[Fast]

Been using WP7 since launch, it's a real nice UI very tidy looking screens the Marketplace is only let down tbh it's clearly not as populated than Apple/Roid.

I can cope with that. I was trying to think of an App I couldn't live without, and I couldn't. I've had a quick play with a Lumia 900 and it's smooth, clean and simple an absolute pleasure.

 

[Aada]

I can cope with that. I was trying to think of an App I couldn't live without, and I couldn't. I've had a quick play with a Lumia 900 and it's smooth, clean and simple an absolute pleasure.

That's the thing with WP7 it doesn't ever look cluttered or untidy, I like having MS Office on the go as well handy for editing documents without pulling the laptop out on the train.

Overall though I've enjoyed my time with WP7 my wife also has WP7 after seeing me use one for several months.

Not seen a UK release date though for the WP8 devices.

 

[wolfeeh]

I'd heard about the forthcoming wireless charging, tbh, it's not really clear why this isn't an option at launch, it's not like the tech hasn't already existed for a few years, and to be honest, wireless charging mat would be a godsend for me.

on the apps front i'm just about coping with android, but there are a couple of work-related apps + the oxford english dictionary that i really really miss. also a to-do list app as good as Things on the iPhone wouldn't go amiss. Also wouldn't mind some of my big-name games for the droid.