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Which new phone?
tjbantam
Posts: 1,330 Forum Member
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I am due for upgrade next month and have looked at all the available options and come up with a shortlist of 3 handsets.
Which of the following would be the best choice:
Samsung Galaxy S5
HTC One 32GB
Nokia Lumia 1520
Anyone got any of these handsets, and if so are they any good?
Thanks in advance!
Which of the following would be the best choice:
Samsung Galaxy S5
HTC One 32GB
Nokia Lumia 1520
Anyone got any of these handsets, and if so are they any good?
Thanks in advance!
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With a different launcher it makes it lightening fast (not that it was that slow with Touchwiz as it's a lot better than it use to be) and also there is so much more customization (you can add an extra row of icons which I think makes it a lot better than the standard layout with the larger screen and also change the transaction effects between swiping between screens).
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575089390&toolid=10001&campid=5337503602&customid=main&mpre=http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Mobile-Smart-Phones-/9355/i.html?_from=R40&LH_ItemCondition=1000&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&_udlo=200&_udhi=&_nkw=galaxy+s5&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1
Just to throw a curve ball in - if you dont mind paying a lump sum you could buy a nexus 5 and then get an all-you-can-eat-data tarrif for about £15 a month. Bigger initial outlay but smaller monthly payments
If not then out of the three above I'd probably suggest the s5. The HTC One is the previous model. Can't say I know much about the Nokia.
The comparable Nokia to the S5 and the HTC One M8 is the Nokia Lumia 930 which is now available for sale.
HTC One M8 - main pro is beautiful design, main con is camera
S5 - main pro - decent all rounder, main con is plastic body, touchwiz
Nokia 930 - Pros: pureview camera, wireless charging, good launch deals, cons - windows phone has fewer apps, older SoC than the android phones.
You should also take a look at LG's G3 as another kitchen sink phone like the S5. Main pro - latest SoC for performance, light skinning to Android, main con - battery life takes a hit due to screen.
You got a few decisions to make as below:
1. Android vs. Windows Phone
2. Importance of camera?
3. Importance of design?
If its the HTC one m8 (not just the one) then I'd change my vote and go for that
Always had a soft a lot for HTC (loved my old HTC desire) and sense is much prettier than touchwizz IMHO
Ash
Warning - there is an issue with some SD cards (level 10 mostly) not working.
make sure you can use sd card ok before buying.
I won't be buying, it'll be contract upgrade, so price isn't an issue.
The LG never cropped up as if i deal with Vodafone direct, i get 20% off through my work's scheme and they don't show the LG on their website.
I like the S5 as i have an S3 so should be easy enough to get used to the new phone.
The others i'd shortlisted through user reviews on Vodafone's website and on Reevoo.
Check how it looks and it has excellent specs too.
http://www.doi-toshin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Nokia-Lumia-930-leaked-image.png
I hate to be pedantic but you can't get rid of touchwiz simply by installing a home launcher, it is baked into the OS and by definition it cannot be any faster, the difference is purely imagined.
Out of the OPs choices, assuming the HTC is an M8 that would be my choice out of those.
No, you don't get rid of touchwiz by installing a different launcher.
But a different launcher can be faster purely by being better written/optimised. So the difference is not imagined.
It is primarily down to personal preference. The S5 and HTC will be close on performance. 1520 probably has the better camera.
Its not imagined. When TW is disabled, its not running hogging all the resources. Hence why its faster.
Hi there,
I was like you going for Vodafone on my last contract as I got 20% off for working for my company, but I found the data getting so bad along with many failed/dropped calls recently.
I always swore by O2 and Vodafone for many years, but I see especially Vodafone the worst at the moment.
I tried Three and have never looked back and even the contract I have is around the same price I would have paid with Vodafone even with the 20% off.
I can recommend Three and the only reception issue I had was at home, but this was soon resolved by giving me a free booster box for home, but there is an app for the phones now that you can make calls/receive texts etc over a wireless network.
The difference in speed is unbelievable and I find myself constantly tethering my works Vodafone mobile and laptop (Vodafone dongle) to my own one on Three to update calls on our system.
Also a couple of other people mentioned the LG G3 - it would be worth looking into this phone as well as it looks nice.
I can't believe that on the S3 or the S5 that I have had (especially the S3).
There was the odd judder with the S3 and not so often with the S5 and I never notice this when Nova was used instead.
Once again, you cannot just "disable" touchwiz. The home launcher is only one part of it. All of the icons, notifications, apps, underlying code, camera, everything is touchwiz, all of which take resources. You can stick a home launcher on it all you want, which may or may not be more responsive than TW launcher, however, TW launcher and the rest of touchwiz continue to run in the background, so if anything you're using even more memory.
The only way you can truly get rid of touchwiz is to install a custom ROM on it which is based on AOSP (vanilla) android.
Trust me I've owned lots of samsungs, used lots of custom ROMs, there is a HUGE difference between a vanilla ROM with no touchwiz and a touchwiz phone with a custom launcher.
To be fair, I also never felt that the touchwiz launcher was slow either, it was much of the rest of it that didn't impress me. Saying that I'm used to vanilla droid which is WAY faster than anything Samsung can produce with their horrid take on android.