I am currently in the market for a new phone, I have been looking at the iPhone 4S because of its size and hardware mostly but i have been stacking it up against the Galaxy S2 4g it looks nice but it has a 1" larger display, not like thats a bad thing but im looking for something compact aswell and it seems most stuff on android thats worth looking at is 4.5" display or bigger I have been looking at the Samsung and HTC phones on android.
So give me some opinions on what you think is really good at the moment
My opininon is whatever had the longest battery life, because they are all good and do pretty much the same thing, but battery life is a complete ass with all these new phones, a reason why I just use an old Nokia for my main phone, I charge it and then forget about it, never run out of battery takes about 3 weeks :)
yea battery life is a big thing for me aswell, i need something that will play music and not kill the battery and I use public transport alot, so i cant have my phones battery halfway dead after and hour of music listening
I have a Samsung Note and with external battery... I can watch all the seasons of Supernatural throughout the day, until I come back home and recharge the phone and external charger
A lot of the misconception is that a more powerful phone will decrease battery life, this is untrue.
Apps like SetCPU, and Custom ROMS allow you to extend your battery well beyond that of a stock phone. My HTC EVO 3D couldnt idle, it was always draining, effectively giving me ~12 hours battery. However, after I rooted my phone, and installed a custom rom, I can now use my phone on a single charge for days at a time.
I use SetCPU to limit my 2 cores to 384MHZ when my screen is off, I use System Tuner to control what the OS does in the background. While doing this, I can have all my apps running, I stay connected to Steam (Stay Connected, not Push), My email is on push, in addition to GPS almost always being on.
Personally I would recommend an HTC One X, which is a really nice new HTC phone. In addtion to this, it has a version of my same custom rom. http://www.scottsroms.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=125
In addition to this, I carry around a second charged battery (they only cost $4) (Just ask ztrain).
It's a frickin' gimmick over all gimmicks. A phone isn't better with more cores. Just look at the brand new Snapdragon S4 dual core, benching just as good as the Nvidia Tegra 3.
AND when he says "hardware" it doesn't have to be the actual parts inside the phone, but it's the phone itself too. Build quality, build materials etc. The iPhone is a nice phone, but for me, it's too small and doesnt sit well in the hand, and I prefer Android in most ways when it comes to software.
I'd reccomend a Galaxy Nexus, or an HTC one x.
Mix those two phones (software from Gnex and hardware from Htc One x, and you have a DAMN fine phone. Not that the Gnexus hardware is bad, I absolutely love it, but it could be better. )
When it comes to battery, the galaxy nexus is so far my best phone when it comes to that. The first 2 weeks it seemed very weak, but after those weeks, it started lasting alot longer. I can easily use my phone a full day (use it often, not just laying idle) and go to bed, and it will still be 50-60% left of battery.
I agree with you to some extent. It really depends on what you use your phone for. My Tegra 2 in my phone isn't quite fast enough to do a good but of the things I wish it could, whereas my PS Vita handles(would handle in some cases) such workloads fine. In this case, I'm speaking about video decoding through SW. I also enjoy running QEMU and Emulating games, which would also benefit from more cores.
But, my good fellow, 2 more execution cores is NOT a gimmick. I did not say get Tegra 3, I said wait for quad-core and the Snapdragon S4 benches better than the Tegra 3 because of architecture and software optimization(possibly clock speed). If the same clockspeeds and architecture were applied to a quad core version of the S4, with proper optimization, it would be more powerful without a doubt. But again, get whatever meets your needs, as long as you don't fund that evil fruit company. =D
It might also be good to look into alternative roms for your phone. I use the forums over here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/.
The hardware is similar on a lot of these phones. If one has a rom that is twice as fast and lasts 75% longer (battery) it might make the phone well worth buying...
Do we need smart phone tutorials? I suck at this stuff but Maks and Wendell are pros.
I had a HTC desire HD and dropped it on the floor smashing the screen to bits. i thought to myself... hey ill upgrade to the new desire and ordered it through my service provider on the promise that its definately better than the old desire... on recieving the phone i realised HTC had pulled a dirty trick on me by changing all the names around. my new desire is just the equivelent to the older wildfire, and my 2 year old desire HD absolutely wipes the floor with it in every department. So my advice is dont buy a HTC desire. not that you was looking at buying one... i just felt like having a rant about HTC.
On the plus side i repaired my old phone myself for a small amount of cash, then sold the new one for a ludicrous amount, then spent the profit on parts for my old mans new pc! :)
Off on a tangent but can you get ZTE in the US? They have just started selling them here in the UK. Thing about these Chinese phones is that are real cheap. There is no issue about quality, heck iPhones are chinese. How they differ from the usual suspects is cost. A firend of mine picked up a ZTE Kis for £50 with a "pay as you go" sim. No contract, no strings attached, just locked to one carrier. If you were in the UK it would be a no brainer, pick up one of these phones real cheap, find the sim package you like the look of and you are home free, no long term contract, Sweet!
Just looking at the phone and playing some when I set it up for her I would guess the spec is a little advanced of my Samsung Galexy Ace. It's faster, smoother and the battery lasts an extra day.