Group test: what's the best smartphone?

Comments

Couch said: To be Frank I have a Galaxy S3and have found that outside of its delicate build its by far that best smartphone Ive ever owned I had the iPhone 4Sand was completely disappointedespecially with the stupid all glass build Its bad enough I cracked my S3 screen while changing batteries and I had an Otterbox for it no less Arrrghbut I dropped my iPhone from 6 and it shattered What the heckI gotta saywhen I owned a Palm Pre it was ALL plastic and I dropped and kicked it all over the place and it never brokeand hardly scratched for that matter The touch screen worked great with plastic so Im at a loss as to why these companies insist on making these huge glass screens Oh waitI know Its so you have to keep buying new phonesduhAnywaythe cracks on my S3 are getting annoyingso Im gonna replace them and since the S4 doesnt have a 64gb version let alone 32gb theres simply no reason to buy it And while I would LOOOOVE to own a Note 216gb just doesnt cut it Its not cool that all the apps have to be stored internally unless you want to mess around and allow for flash memory cards to hold themthereby allowing the possibility of destroying your phone as many of the games are now 2gb and while you can delete and reinstall games download times are atrociouseven with wifiAnywayI think Ill just stick with my S3 since it really has everything one needsespecially with the last update giving Google Voice to be used for any typing needslike texting Thats cool The only problemmy S2 had a better grip on it than this slippery son of a gunCheersand I hope this gives people pause as to whats the best phones our there Ive owned most of themand only Samsung has impressed me

Matt Egan said: No the writer is not paid by Apple You are more than welcome to criticise but id thank you to take your libellous drivel elsewhere

OzzieBri said: The reason why so many people are having a go at the article is because it is so biased I cant stand this build quality nonsense as an example For starters the iPhone has hard uncomfortable edges and is NOT nice to holdso I hardly call that a premium feel You put your phone in a case if you have any sense so who cares what it is made out of Unless a phone is so poorly made that is breaks in your hand - It has no relevance whatsoeverI am waiting for the day a techie worth hisher salt makes a video showing the day-to-day tasks on both phones How you would jump around apps change settings adjust equaliser settings check email delete masses of emails at once etc The useful things we need to do daily Moving files from PC to phone and vice-versa Android wins hands down when you start looking at REAL WORLD usage Get used to the back and option buttons on an Android phone and you want to throw your iPhone out the window when you get back on that What about the JB 42 quick options page One swipe down from the top of the screen and you get about a dozen quick settingstoggle Wi-Fi GPS data screen brightness volume settings etcetc Android is just way more usable and quite frankly more user-friendly

justcod said: Daniel just a small point but the only thing iphone is universally compatible with is other similar apple products - they are not compatible with android MS or other os based hardware

Reuben Cooper said: Marry me

Syed_zhz said: Ok so you mean iPhone 5 is better than HTC One

Keith said: Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I own the Galaxy s2 and s3 iPhone 5 and now the Xperia z Without any doubt the Xperia Z is by far the phone that outshines them all It makes me laugh when iPhone users get the huff on because they dont like to think there are better phones available I would also put the Galaxy S3 ahead of the iPhone

John E said: It is a pitythat theignorant offensive and unthoughtful commentsthat have been posted here as part of a discussion are not very helpful foran ordinary person like me who is trying to decide on the phone which is most suitable for my needs I do not much care fortheApple business philosophybutI try to set my concernsaside when evaluating the technical aspects of their products Most people want to learn more about other peoples true experiences with and assessment of various phones without having to plough through bias prejudice and insulting languageEveryone is entitled totheir opinion but it is of greatest help to most of us if that can be supported by evidence and descriptions of experiences If people could post further details of what they find good or not so good about various models I would find that most helpfulI had a Galaxy S2 for about a year up to last December and found it slower than I expected It was somesmaller aspects of Android which irritated rather than any major technical defects eghaving to delete messages one at a time rather than being able to tick a list and delete in batches WhenI changed my phone in December I thought about going upto an S3 or even a Galaxy Note butI was persuaded to go for aniPhone 5 because of simple aspects such as the batch deleting I am slightly smaller than average and my fingers are no more podgy than most people butI do find the iPhone5 to be just that little bit too small for use as a smartphone I know several users of the latest Galaxy Note 2 who are delighted with its speed and general performance The iPhone 5is great as a phone which is small in the pocket but not really big enough when using maps Now that batch deleting has been improved in Android and also because of the quality of the Galaxy screen image I shall have to work out how to prioritise the functionality against convenience to see which is most important to me I suspect that the Galaxy Note 2 will win butit will be a difficult decision I shall also have to considerthe Sony Xperia Z very carefully To place my decision in contextI should also say that I am in my 60s and that quality and performance aremore important to me than design or non-technical featuresThe final point is that everyone should be very grateful that in the UK we are not like one Southeast Asian country I know very well where the four cellphone networks do not co-operate with each other Many business peoplecarry four phones one on each network since the cost of cross-network calls is so high Think of that when considering convenience

Matt Egan said: Just update your preferencesPeople who respond to a piece with which they dont agree by accusing the author of being corrupt do need to grow up

Nicholas said: Well thats finally decided me how do I remove my subs to this your emailsI read you latest comment and you have the nerve to tell someone else to grow up

Matt Egan said: Its a good phone but at that price it cant compete here

Adam said: 1 Nokia Lumia 920

Jjackson said: iPhone 5 baby wooooooo hands down kicks all others ass

Matt Egan said: Not everyone wants a small tablet for their phone The Note II is a cool product we just dont see it as of the best five

Jonny said: Why is the s3 up there but not the note 2

Lenin VJ Nair said: Yes and android and ios are the kings today windows phone needs a long way to go in terms of num of apps Also have you considered droid DNA and razr max hd

Matt Egan said: Now I feel badThis chart is probably due an update On a personal level my recommendations to friends would be get either the iPhone 5 Nexus 4 or Lumia 920 And if for some reason you dont like the latter two the Galaxy SIII or HTC Windows Phone 8X Then base your decision on the platform Ultimately its a personal subjective choice Oh and if money is an issue buy the Nexus 4 outright and source a SIM elsewhere It really is a great deal

Lenin VJ Nair said: Thank you Matt Egan I know you guys are not being paid by Apple Although I know pretty well how the site makes money And iPhone is definitely a hotselling product It does not mean at all that it is the best product in the market There are a lot of stuff that iphone doesnt have and doesnt supportAlso the scene of LTE in UK is rather bad I was looking through this articlehttpwwwtechradarcomnewsI believe Nexus 4 could be a good option for average phone buyers due to this reason But iphone at that high price and such low features I will never put it at the top honestly Albeit I like the phone indeedhtc one s specs may become outdated soon why would you ditch one x which has high end specs for this onerazr i not bad altho with single core processor it will not be exactly futureproofnexus 4 good recommendation considering lte sceneiphone 5 definitely not top spotPS I know u dont get paid by apple it iwas just to attract attention -

Matt Egan said: Dear Lenin Firstly welcome to PC Advisor - you appear to be confused as to what website you are visiting Secondly thanks for your comments Apple is most certainly not paying us that is a facile suggestion and one youd do well to keep to yourself We base our reviews on objective benchmarks and subjective opinion from our team of experienced smartphone reviewers The Lumia 920 and HTC Windows Phone 8X were both close to the top five but as yet we havent found a Windows phone that competes with the best Android and iOS phones With respect your comment would be confusing to an uneducated user 4G is available in only a few pockets of the UK at great expense And in our tests it makes relatively little difference to the user experience If lack of LTE helps keep the Nexus 4 at less than half the price of the Lumia 920 I for one am sold That my friend is an accurate recommendation

Lenin VJ Nair said: Of course PC world has become quite a bit addicted about iphones I think apple is paying them I would hate to see this coming so I love iphone myself but I know there are much better phones with more hardware features I would have loved to see one windows phone in the list too Nokia lumia 920 what is the problem with that one You made one x into the list and not lumiaAnd wihtout LTE why is nexus 4 in the list A consumer that looks at this list to purchase phones is definitely not going to get the accurate recommendationLenin