Opinions on new smartphones

[kingdingeling]

Hey chaps, hows it been without me? Some might remember me, others might think who's that weirdo with a BMW in his avatar and some old PC rubbish in his signature?

 

Anyhow, that's all besides the point. I'm currently in the market for a new smartphone, let me outline my history first:

 

1.) Nokia 6110

2.) Nokia 5140

3.) Original iPhone 8GB

4.) iPhone 3G 16GB

5.) iPhone 4 16GB

6.) refer to #4

 

I recently lost my iPhone 4 in a taxi here in Hongkong, so I'm back on my old 3G that my brother had in between, and it's driving me nuts. It's slow as hell and the camera is rubbish! So yea, basically I want to get a new phone, price is not the first issue though. I'm in Hongkong until December, prices here are a bit cheaper considering there is no taxes on the phones, and they're all unlocked, which is a win for me, since I travel a lot between Holland and Germany.

 

The iPhone 5 is coming out soon, there hasn't been that many details of it yet, but it's being presented on the 4th of October, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. Having said that, I'm no iPhone / Apple fanboy, I used to be a right overclocker geek and whatnot, but the iPhone just did what I wanted my phone to do, and did it well. Also, I quite like the typing system on the phone, but I'm open to anything. I've been out in the stores, tried a Nokia X7 and a HTC Sensation (the newest one, 4G I believe?), but I wasn't really convinced by either of them. I'm sure there's all the apps and whatnot on Android and Symbian as well, but the typing system just made me type so many mistakes. I guess that's something to get used to, but that was just shocking compared to the iPhone.

 

Now, what do you guys recon? Please don't post ZOMG ANDROID FTW iPHONE IS T3H SUCK! or some rubbish like that, I don't care about the fanboyism of forums, but tell me why you like which phone and for what reason

[Hyper Threaded]

I've seen a number of the HTC phones in person and tried them out, they seem to have the best build quality and screens. They do have a decidedly chunky and heavy feel to them. You may consider Samsung, if you want something lighter.

[Psywar]

HTC has a nice line of phones. Stay away from the Thunderbolt though.

I currently have the HTC Evo 4G. I got it last year in June the day it came out and I really love it.

I will tell you though from my experience you want to find a phone with 1GB-RAM I think this has like 512MB and even with the Apps2SD I find myself getting the Low Space error every now and then.

It ticks me off to see that HTC is still only making phones with the 512MB internal. After the system install there is not a whole lot of room left.

 

 

Honestly if I had to pick a phone for myself right now I would be grabbing the Samsung Galaxy S2. So that would be my choice for you! lol!

 

If your gonna stick with Apple, I would just wait a few months. The iPhone 5 should be dropping either by the end of the year or the start of next. (I would assume anyways)

[Nerm]

ZOMG ANDROID FTW iPHONE IS T3H SUCK!

 

 

 

 

I haven't played with it yet personally but the Motorola Droid Bionic looks good on paper.

[Stonerboy779]

HTC has a nice line of phones. Stay away from the Thunderbolt though.

I currently have the HTC Evo 4G. I got it last year in June the day it came out and I really love it.

I will tell you though from my experience you want to find a phone with 1GB-RAM I think this has like 512MB and even with the Apps2SD I find myself getting the Low Space error every now and then.

It ticks me off to see that HTC is still only making phones with the 512MB internal. After the system install there is not a whole lot of room left.

 

 

Honestly if I had to pick a phone for myself right now I would be grabbing the Samsung Galaxy S2. So that would be my choice for you! lol!

 

If your gonna stick with Apple, I would just wait a few months. The iPhone 5 should be dropping either by the end of the year or the start of next. (I would assume anyways)

 

As much as I love the 1ghz snapdragon in my x10 I got ages back te thing that annoys me is lack of ram. However if you get android in the end first thing you need to get advanced task killer free from the marketplace.

 

The best thing you can do is to go instore and try out quite a few different phones to find the one that feels right for you. Have a look at these phones Evo 4g, Galaxy S2, Droid X2, Xperia Arc and of course the iPhone 5 too. I am interested to see if it will have the 8mp camera that has been in Sony smartphones for a while now. Apparently deals where made but we shall see.

[Onion]

ZOMG ANDROID FTW iPHONE IS T3H SUCK! YOU REALLY MUST BE THE KING OF THE DINGALINGS TO BUY THEM!

 

Seriously though, I've used a couple HTC phones, and they're pretty nice. I currently have an iPhone 4 16 GB, and I like it a lot. However, if Apple does with the iPhone 5 what they did with the iPhone 3GS, then it's probably not worth getting it unless you really want an iPhone. If it were up to me, I'd definitely go for one of the better droids. HTC and the like.

[tkrow21]

Try out a Windows Phone in store. It's a great improvement over Windows Mobile 6 and has a lot of pleasant surprises. If you don't like it though, it's no big deal, go with an Android phone!

[bishop245]

I have the HTC surround win 7 fone and so far I have regretted buying it, as every thing it does gets done better by my samsung captivate. Without having the zune software which I am still not sure if its better than itunes which I have hated every version of that software

[kingdingeling]

I just looked up the Droid X2 and that seems to be a good phone, however it doesn't have a SIM slot, neither is it available in Germany or Hongkong. So basically, that's the end of that idea.

 

What I'm really hesitant about is the typing on the Android phones, I've had a few HTCs in hand, as well as a Samsung Galaxy S, but somehow I kept mistyping over and over again. How long did it take you guys to get used to the new screen and keyboard layout?

[kingdingeling]

Ooook, so the new iPhone is a bit of a let-down for me personally... I don't really see the benefit considering the price. Yesterday was a public holiday here, so I went down to the Vodafone store and spoke to one of the geeks there, who said that 9/10 customers who walk in wanting to buy a high-end Android phone bought the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the other one bought a HTC Sensation. I tinkered around with both of them for a bit, they're both quite nice phones and I'm sure I'll get used to them in terms of typing and software and whatnot. However, and this is a big one, the Samsung just doesn't seem very sturdy to me. I've always liked my phones to be able to withstand some bashing around, simply because I am not very careful with them. My 2G iPhone quickly had a dent in it, worked perfectly, the 3G that is not falling apart spent 2.5 years in my pocket with some keys etc, it's scratched to bits but everything still works and nothing's fallen off just yet. The iPhone 4 with the dual gorilla glas setup was also quite sturdy if you didn't exactly drop it onto a rock.

 

The Sensation comes with a semi-metal backplate, which in my opinion is the better setup, but the Samsung had me more convinced in terms of performance and that screen... the colours are just excellent! What's your opinion on this? They're both stupidly expensive here in Hongkong, the Samsung at 5300$ and the HTC at 5000$ (divide by 10 for Euros), but my parents are coming to visit me in Hongkong next week and I'd just have them bring it from Germany (HTC = 392 Euro, Samsung = 420 Euro).

[Black64]

Iphone 4GS

[MJCRO]

I'd say iPhone 4S because it's literally a week away, but also if your considering a Nokia, check out the N9, it's running the new 1.2 Harmattan OS, and it really does compete well with the other OS's right now.