Ten iPhone 5 challengers It’s that time of year again when the Autumn leaves begin to fall and a young man’s thoughts turn to a shiny new iPhone. Or perhaps, this year, something running Windows Phone 8? Redmond's new baby is also just about to be thrust mewling and puking 'puting into the world and thus anyone shackled to a recently inked two year …
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This post has been deleted by its author
From the Three website:
"If you're on The One Plan you can use the internet when you're out and about with other devices including laptops, tablets and games consoles, just by connecting them through Wi-Fi or USB to your phone. You can tether on all our One Plan tariffs including our one month rolling SIM plan."
However, When I signed up for this I was clueless about the tethering and mentioned that I had a 3 MiFi dongle. The girl offered to see if that was due for an upgrade. Luckily it was still a few months off, cause if it had been due then I would have signed up for another 2 years on that!
Now I know better
Something along the lines of "10 Samsung GS3 challengers or HTC challengers" (what ever was released first) as Apple is late to the party and the iPhone 5 is a catch up phone as they have almost no innovation (compaired to what has already been released this year) in this model ...
I was genuinely surprised that Apple didn't have a real WOW feature or 2 for the iPhone 5.
Android makers have been playing with stylus, screen dimming based on your eye position, NFC et al.
Not saying that Apple necessarily needed to use *those* features, but I expected something innovative.
I agree. I mean, the idea of the article is okay - given how much hype Apple unfairly get, it's good to give some to the other platforms. And anything targetted at trying to convert sheep waiting for the next Apple feature phone is fine by me.
But "challenger"? It implies that Apple's is the best, which is pure opinion, and not really supported when you look at the evidence, as you say. And if they mean in terms of market, then the Iphone has never been the number one platform; nor has Apple ever been the number one phone company. The mainstream media have been spinning that myth for years - but I'd hoped better from the Reg!
Is you can turn off Sense. No SD card slot in this day and age is a crime, really is a shame HTC dropped the ball on that, but Samsung picked it up. The S3 should be an editors choice but at least you were honest in saying you like and are bias to HTC.
I like them, but this one (desire HD) will be my last in a long line. Sense is just bloaty and horrible now.
".....Sense is just bloaty and horrible now." Yes and no. I like our HTC phones but I have removed Sense from mine, but my wife asked me to put it back on her phone as she preferred it. A quick check amongst friends, colleagues and family seems to show that techies want to remove Sense whilst non-techies are quite happy with it. So it seems HTC can win both camps as long as they keep Sense relatively easily removeable, and the non-techie camp seems to be a much larger target market than the techie one.
I don't know about the other phones listed, but I'm under the impression that at least the Galaxy S3 and the Xperia S allow USB On The Go (USB OTG), if you want to order an appropriate cable. Making your own is possible, but varies in difficulty depending on how much glue the makers of your spare microUSB cable have decided to use at the male end. Short pin 4 to ground, solder it to a female USB A, and you're good to go.
Okay, it isn't elegant, but arguably more versatile than just a microSD card slot, in that you can use card readers and USB thumbsticks. Keyboards and mice, too.
As cool as it is to plug my phone into a powered hub and a 3TB hard drive is, it's just not as practical as having more internal storage.
Although it's nice that Android vendors don't get in the way of this kind of thing too much. A 128G thumb drive is awkward but still doable.
Upgradable storage is too obvious to even be a point of contention with any other bit of consumer electronics.
Yet for iPod wannabes it seems somehow more tolerable. There's really no reason for it.
Expandable storage means that someone that is not that adaptable to begin with can continue using the device they've already gotten used to because a device is less likely to become obsolete.
Expecting people to constantly adapt to new devices every time their requirements change or tech changes marginally. Now that is silly.
Sure some users are more demanding. They are also more likely to be Android users.
While it is nice to see Nokia slowing down their march into oblivion by producing an Android phone, the offering is a bit lame:
- 1.3GHz ARM11 CPU is an ARMv6. This is the same generation CPU that is found in the R-Pi and budget phones.
- 4in 360 x 640 screen is also something I'd expect to see in the phones in the budget range, not something that aims for the higher end of the market.
On paper at least, there is nothing there at all to justify the price tag of 4x the likes of ZTE Skate or Blade.
I think you've missed the point. This phone is all about the camera. It's a truly remarkable little imaging device, the most innovative thing to be seen on a phone in a long time. In many respects it's better than the vast majority of compact cameras, and it's certainly the best snapper on a mobile phone ever.
It's lamentable that they'll not be putting this to good use in an Android device, and that even the WP8 version is crippled by comparison, but that doesn't take anything away from their achievement in developing the thing in the first place.
Nokia PureView 808 Vs Lumix LX-5 - comparison:
http://asia.cnet.com/shootout-nokia-808-pureview-vs-panasonic-lumix-dmc-lx5-62216561.htm
They give the nod to the PureView. Heck.
Nokia would have a great product if they ditched the phone part and packaged the tech to compete with ruggedised 'action sports' type compact cameras- the sort you might take up a mountain. Its surely easier to protect a camera with no moving optics against shock and dirt ingress.
"When the new Nexus arrives in a couple months Apple will look even more pathetic."
Possibly not, if the article below is anything to go by. I'm hoping that is just an alternate Galaxy Nexus (like how there were SLCD and AMOLED Nexus Ones.) They're usually announced/released around November time and my Nexus S contract is up in Feb, so plenty of time to find out.
http://www.sammobile.com/2012/08/21/are-these-the-specifications-of-the-new-nexus-gt-i9260/
I've had two HTCs in a row:
1. Ye olde Hero (custom ROM to keep it up to date, sill in use by with friend),
2. HTC Desire S. Which was an okay phone, but HTC cuts some corners with the hardware, and had gone too far with their built in apps, such as essentially hard coding the button in the contacts list that normally will launch maps or navigations apps (whatever you have installed) to their own Navigation app, which you have to pay for!
My contract was up, so moved to a Galaxy SIII, and very happy with the phone.
I would say I have the same comments the reviewed had regarding the Home button and the case. Why have a hardware home button when the menu and back buttons either side are touch and light up? odd! And the case, the back at least is a bit too shiny, so can get a little slipy and attracts fingerprints like mad.
But the rest, the performance, including battery life, the OS etc. Very happy with. (2.5 days per charge on average for me).
I also disagree with the reviewer with regards to the Samsung tweaks to the OS and apps. I've had no issues whatsoever in switching from HTC to Samsung, and all the apps I've used so far have been fine, so much so I've not replaced any of them yet, unlike on the HTC. In fact I'd say Samsung do less harm to the OS than HTC does, their efforts seem a lot more subtle that HTC are.
Ah well... I guess the release is a bit far off (Oct?) and for some reason people want to call the Notes "Phablets".
It seems to me that the Note is about as big as you can get and still put it in your pocket so, to me, they are phones - although maybe I have big pockets. I'm saving all my pennies for the Note II.
Tried the iPhone but too limited for me (and pisspoor at making/receiving calls in my rural setting).
My main issue with the term is that all phones these days have tablet capabilities - indeed for years, phones have just been handheld computers with additional phone. "Phablet" is perhaps therefore a better term, but we should be using it for all phones, not just the Galaxy Note. (And there were older smaller phones with styluses too - the main difference now is that we're seeing the rise of capacitive screens that also support styluses, rather than them being resistive.)
A very stupid name, but an IP57 rated handset with a 5" screen.....
I'd seriously like one of those as my boaty phone. The sinking feeling you get when you are standing up to your waist in seawater, and you remember which pocket your Galaxy Note is left in, is not one I want to repeat.
Very true, but my original Motorola Defy has survived a couple of dunkings.
The drowned Note, was solely due to me getting excited about getting onto the water, and forgetting to transfer the SIM into the Defy (Which I duely packed into a waterproof flare type box). I cried like a gurl.
Also as my boss like to remind me, I'm employed to be avaliable 24/7/365 so I can have a handset at the helm, and the odd bit of spray / rain doesn't bother it.
As I'm already rapidly going off topic. My fanboiism for life, to the first company that uses inductive charging and Stereo over Bluetooth to provide a proper smartphone (W8, Android, anything else) that can survive depths of 5 meters for an hour.
nothing here that excites as much as the hardware specs would lead you to believe.
i think i've officially lost interest in "smart phones". andriod, symbian, windows phone, and after suffering the recent round of hype over the next device apple have released, i just don't care anymore.
nothing inspires, no inovation, no new ideas. just a revamp of the usual spyware and information gathering bugware that the general public have accepted as part of their personal 'information revolution' that everyone vaguely intelligent went trough in the late 80's/90's, before people became the products that kids now accept as the default settings for their lives.
fuck this, where's my nokia 6310? track me now you cunts.
My first foray into the world of post-iPhone (as in phones that released since 2007) smartphone was a HTC Desire.
It put me off Android for life. Six months into the 2 year contract the phone came with I sold it to envirofone and put the proceeds towards an iPhone 4.
The particular phone I got was a lemon and cooked its logic board, but I'm prepared to put that down to a bad batch that isn't typical of HTC build quality.
The battery life was terrible but I'd have considered another Android device with a better battery.
Except Android is fucking horrible if you're partially sighted.
The Desire's font was microscopic and the lines were painfully thin with almost no contrast against the retina-searing white background. Worse, you couldn't change it. It made the phone basically unusable unless I carried a magnifying glass around with me as well.
The iPhone OS, on the other hand, lets you three-finger tap to zoom in, even if the app developer was thoughtless enough to not bake zooming into his app so you could at least use it (albeit rather awkwardly compared to an app that did let you zoom). It also has a bolder default font, screen invert so you can make the text white on black if the eye strain is getting too much and all kinds of voice-navigation options if your eyesight happens to be even worse than mine. In fact it's the only smart phone I could imagine a blind user being even remotely capable of living with.
Unless Android has undergone massive improvement from an accessibility standpoint since Froyo (has it? I've ceased keeping up with Android developments since ditching the Desire), I'm never going near another Android phone. Apple seems to be the only company that gives a damn about my needs as a partially-sighted user.
Yes it has undergone massive improvement as you put it. I too, am partially sighted, and am glad I shifted from Symbian to Android.
One of the many reasons is that since Gingerbread the accessibility features (from a PS persons point of view) have improved by leaps and bounds.
Install your own fonts, text whatever size you want, audio transcription, various contrast schemes, you name it.
Take another look comrade, you may be plesently surprised!
Did some research regarding your claim here, and I honestly can't find any proof that Android has gotten significantly better with accessibility. In fact the articles I've found blast Android for its lack of accessibility.
I'd only ever look at an Android handset again if there was genuine progress made in this area.
Android's developers or the OEMs that use it don't care about my accessibility need, Apple does, so purely on pragmatism Apple wins.
I had the one x for about a week, tried someone else's s3 and decided it was better than the one X.
Contrary to the reviewers opinions, I find HTC a bloated implementation of Android.
On my old HTC desire, I slapped Cyanogen mod on it just as soon as I could and the speed increase with a stock standard Android GUI was very noticable.
Samsung have stayed far truer to the the stock standard Android UX - it's more intuitive and above all, at least keeps with a standard for Android devices. In other words, I feel it is HTC that have messed with Android, not Samsung.
I'm not biased either way - had my HTC desire for 24 months and it's now a very capable second phone for my wife - albeit with Cyanogen mod running on it!
...did I miss something but I couldn't see any mention of 4G / LTE compatibility. The iPhone 5 supports one of the standards.
If these phones don't support at least one of the 4G / LTE standards then the claim that these are equivalent iPhone 5 alternatives is incorrect. Preferably for them to have a real edge over the iPhone I think they should support the same standard that the iPhone 5 supports AND the other standards -- for when O2, Vodafone etc. eventually catch up with Everything Everywhere in offering 4G / LTE faster mobile broadband.
(Not an Apple/iPhone fanboi, a HTC Desire Z owner)
There are loads of phones (Android included) that are 4G / LTE capable, including the S3 and Galaxy Nexus. The main catch is that so far the 4G versions haven't been sold in the UK, and this won't happen here until the 4G networks start up. But this certainly isn't something Apple have any lead on, on the contrary, once again they're late to the party.
Let's say that you want to convince your iPhone-toting brethren to jump ship to Android. In other words, escape the walled garden. Are there any resources that can help them make the switch?
People with long memories will remember when Linux fans used to post lists of alternatives to Microsoft packages to help people switch, eg. http://www.kmfms.com/alternatives.html. That would be useful, as would comments on how mere mortals can convert as much of their music as they can from their iTunes library to whatever Android has.
Any tips?
"Converting" the iTunes library?
Assuming they don't have a pile of DRM encumbered books, audio books, and movies they can just copy their music files to their phone. Just plug it in and Drag & Drop.
The fact that Apple likes to scramble things can make is more complicated though.
Content with Apple DRM only plays on Apple devices. If you have been an Apple-only media glutton then you're kind of out of luck. Apple has helped turn something like a VHS tape into something that would keep you trapped with a single hardware vendor.
Assuming they don't have a pile of DRM encumbered books, audio books, and movies they can just copy their music files to their phone. Just plug it in and Drag & Drop.
One can do, but intelligent syncing offers quite a lot. The Apple ecosystem may be a walled garden, but it is actually nice in there. Drag & drop works fine for largely static music MP3s, but not so well for listen-once podcasts, contacts, calendars and photos.
Folks forget, but iTunes began life as SoundJam, which was the WinAmp for Macs. iPhones and iPods have at the root of their DNA a sync conduit to a really good media library app.
My mobile is a Blackberry, and has been for many years, but I don't use it as a media player. I carry a separate iPod Touch for that, because it's far and away the better device for such things.
With the iPhone 5 I'm considering dropping the BB for the first time. Partially because RIM seems to have imploded, and partially because carrying two devices instead of one seems daft. I hesitate only because I like physical keyboards (and BBs have the best).
I considered going to an Android phone, but I can't find a real reason to do so. I use a Mac as my primary machine; I keep my contacts in Apple's Address Book and my schedule in Apple's iCal. I use Apple's Mail, and iTunes. I've used other versions of all of these apps, and Apple's versions work at least as well, and often better. So, in that case, why wouldn't one move to an iPhone rather than an Android phone?
It's such a shame then, that iTunes has become such a bloated hog with hideous GUI making it damn near impossible to use as a music library.
It used to be really good, but they destroyed it with so many changes, it has suffered a death by a thousand cuts.
Now I don't even start it up, and I simply uninstalled it last time it wanted to update. It went from slick and useful, to nagging utter crap in a few short years.
Whilst at first I was a bit surprised that my Galaxy Nexus didn't come with any PC software, the point is that it supports the open standard of MTP. So you can drag and drop, but if you prefer software that syncs, you can do that - using any software you like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol has some details. So you can use Windows Media Player to sync for example, and I'm sure there's plenty of other software if you don't like what MS offer.
As far your last question, I don't see why one should have to buy everything from one single company. Unless you like locking yourself in. Why wouldn't one move to Android like most other people, rather than an Apple phone?
> One can do, but intelligent syncing offers quite a lot.
No it doesn't. If your library is larger than your device then you are stuck with an interface that is shockingly primitive for what it needs to do. It's pretty much a crude 80s style file manager that insulates you from your actual files. This yields something that is unsophisticated and inconsitent with interfaces the user may be familiar with. It also yields something that is less flexible and needs to be "hacked" around.
Non-Apple products in general handle photos better because they don't try to second guess your sense of organization. The rest represent an outdated notion of what mobile device is. They have no real place in iTunes anymore.
So iTunes becomes this bloated monstrosity suffering from feature creep standing in the way of alternate approaches.
It's the least Unix thing you could possibly come up with.
If I can't manage a device myself that also means that developers can't do it for me either. There is no escape from Apple mediocrity or the community group think that tends to shout down more creative uses.
iTunes is a dinosaur from a time before when a mobile device could fend for itself. The first versions ran on hardware LESS powerful than current devices. The gatekeeper/crutch role no longer makes any sense.
> One can do, but intelligent syncing offers quite a lot.
Like I said. The rest of us aren't Shallow Alto Hipsters.
Most people haven't drunk the Kool-Aid, never mind swimming in it. They're like the youth of today. They don't get platform wars. They don't even get platforms. They don't even view Windows as special or distinct. Never mind Apple products.
The more you use Apple products, the more you are trapped by them.
Well, yes, the garden is nice, but some of us are just contrarian. Mrs. Zongo has a NAS with 100,000 songs on it ranging from archaic wavs she ripped in 1998 to mp3s to aacs and god knows what else. I just want a system that lets me, the consumer, choose what program to use to view, organize and play this monstrosity.
Perhaps there is no alternative but to spend a weekend playing with a dozen winamp clones and whatnot. Ah well.
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