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Phone upgrade time....what to get?

4K views 44 replies 12 participants last post by  Cassidy 
#1 ·
It's time for me to upgrade my Samsun Omnia at last! I shouldn't be too harsh on it. It's done its job very well. I've swapped ROMs on it plenty of times, some lite ones, some heavily 'cooked', to use the parlance. But it's not very powerful, and it's always had its flaws. So glad to be moving on.

Now comes the horrible choosing bit. With the race between companies being so close nowadays, it's difficult to settle on one and not feel you should have plummed for 'that other one you were looking at'. At least, that's how I feel. I almost get paralysed by choice. I find that they all have one or two features or functionalities over each other, making it a sort of 'rob Peter to pay Paul' type affair.

So, after spending most of my Sunday evening watching and reading reviews, comparisons and 'unboxings', I've nailed it down to three phones I'm choosing between. One of them is clearly the front runner, and I'm all but settled on it. But there are still concerns in Dude's head.

First up is the ubiquitous iPhone 3GS.
It's a tried and tested phone, and it does what it does very well. I've hardly played with one save for a couple of times, but they are incredibly intuitive to use.
In its favour are its construction and design, its ease of use, and the sheer number of developers working on stuff for it. It also integrates with your PC pretty well. Most of all, its multitouch-ability. This gives it an enormous edge over every phone that doesn't have this.
Against it is the slight niggle I have about contributing to the poncey Apple 'hip' thing (silly, I know, but so is the fact I secretly hope it is discovered to cause some horrible disease). It's also not the most powerful phone out there. It's also quite old technology. The camera is also terrible. Far too shite for a phone of its calibre and price. And its App Store is brimming, yes. But it's mostly with overlapping or even duplicate apps or frivilously rubbish ones.

Second is the Xperia X10.
This is surely a good looking phone. Its screen size and out-of-fashion hard edges make it look lovely. The cuved back looks like something from I, Robot.

In its favour is the screen size and design, its great 8mp camera, and it's very attractive GUI. Its media centre looks really nice, too. Everything all in one place.
Against it is the fact that half of the GUI is geared towards users of Twitter and Facebook, neither of which I use. Many reviews say it lags quite a bit with the fancy GUI, and that the keyboard is pretty terrible. The screen doesn't look super responsive, either. It's not currently multitouch-enabled and it's running Android 1.6. That's supposedly changing with an update in September, when it gets Android 2.1 and multitouch. But even if this happens, this may be delayed. I'm not sure if I can justify committing myself to five months with a sub-standard phone just because it's promised an update.

Lastly, and the clear front runner for me is the HTC Desire.
Not the nicest looking phone of them all, but it looks to be the most powerful, and seems to be a compromise, of sorts, between the previous two. The screen size sits between the two at 3.7inches. It has a 5mp camera, and it has multitouch. In fact, from what I've seen, it looks like the screen outdoes the iPhone for gesture recognition. Quite a thing. It doesn't look as good in direct sunlight, though.

In its favour is the fact it's multitouch, biggish screen, great gesture recognition and functinality. Its OS and GUI seem great, and the app store for Android is growing very, very quickly. It's also quite customisable (something I like about WinMo 6.5). It's lightning fast and apparently just doesn't slow down. It's very powerful, and games and videos look great on it.

Against it are its slightly uglier looks, and the fact I have a 5mp camera on my current phone. These being its biggest downfalls makes it my obcious choice. But I'm also wondering if I should hang on for the Windows Phone 7 phones. That GUI looks absolutely lovely, and very functional. The handset Windows are showing it on looks gorgeous. The Dell ones look very nice, too. But, again, this could be delayed, and I need a break from my Omnia.

Sorry for the long post. As you can see, there are a lot of strands in Duder's head. Lot of in's, lot of out's. Lot of what-have-you's.

So, does anyone have Xperia (hihi) with any of these three? I'm keen to hear if any real world users rave about the Desire as much as the reviewers did.
 
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#19 ·
If you can wait, wait for the iphone 4g, as it looks like it'll be a pretty powerful phone as well.
To my knowledge there has been no news of a new iPhone, only the OS4 which is a software update for both the 3G and 3GS. The iPhone has SO many problems and I wouldn't recommend it at all. 90% of my tecnhical/troubleshooting calls are from iPhones. They're expensive, they DON'T have insurance, so if you lose it, break it, or its stolen your basically stuck in a contract and have to either get a cheap Go Phone, or fork out the full $400+ for another iPhone.
 
#5 ·
I'd hold out for the phones based on Android 2.1, since I think it is going to solve a lot of the complaints people currently have about the 1.5 Droid phones. Plus, the new iPhone should be out soon, too, so you'll really get to see the best on the market very soon.
 
#13 ·
I've noticed the key to Droid (or all smartphone) battery life is turning off the networking features you don't need. I don't have an earpiece, so Bluetooth is always off. I rarely need the speed, so I also tend to leave WiFi off. If you're not concerned about having constant access to e-mails, then you can turn off the mobile networking and really conserve the battery.
 
#23 ·
Bringing the iPhone to Verizon would be a big deal, since they're such a consistent and reliable carrier priced competitively to AT&T. Verizon also seems to put less restrictions on their network, so you may see a lot of those video streaming apps get approved.
 
#36 ·
Lee, another comment about the X10, while it may be bogged down by its interface right now, custom roms WILL come out, no doubt, just like every other Android phone out there, and you'll be able to ditch that interface and take full advantage of the phone then. Just food for thought.
 
#45 ·
Well, I got a deal I couldn't refuse and got a Desire, too. Just two days ago. It really is a pretty fucking impessive phone. Google Streetview is simply first rate on it. It's one step away from being like a bloody video camera feed.

Gaming on it is fantastic - loads of 3D games that run very smoothly. It's almost PSP-like. Web browsing's super fast even when not using Wifi. Very responsive screen, perhaps even silghtly too 'capacitive'. It operates at light speed. The onscreen keyboard works better than any touchscreen phone I've seen. No lag on it at all.

Its only downside so far is that the handset and physical buttons are a little on the ugly side. Not terrible by any means. And it feels very well put together. But it's not going to win beauty contests against the pending Dell and Windows 7 phones. That's very minor, 'cause the gorgeous image quality draws your gaze.
 
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