Smartphone to get?

kingduqc

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
180
Hi [h]

I am here because I need your advices, I'm currently looking to get my first phone and I was wondering what Smartphone should I get.

-y top priority would be a fast web browser to watch videos on youtube or anime in streaming (over the Wifi at school/bus station or at home)
Second one would be a good screen, 720p would be great if I ever have to watch a movie and have the native resolution for that (Also a big one, I've used my friend's Ipods/iphones and they kinda small when you try to type for me)
Battery life for 1 day of heavy usage.

Price dosn't really mather, they are all about the same in the high end spectrum. Also any recommendation for a carrier? (I'm in Canada btw)

and advices?
 
Well it depends on which OS you're comfortable with. Some people like the ease-of-use that comes with Apple's iOS, so the most obvious choice would be an iPhone 4S if you're one of them.Also if you like android go for samsung galaxy S2 or note.

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dørspion
 
You have a lot of choices with that criteria except for this piece:
Battery life for 1 day of heavy usage.

I don't think any phone will last a full 24 hours with heavy usage (I classify heavy usage as the screen being on over 90% of the time that the phone is off the charger). The closest thing to that is going to be the Razr Maxx or the iPhone 4/4S. The Razr Maxx isn't really anything special outside of its battery though. The screen is horrible compared any other OEMs flagship phone displays. I'm not even sure if that's available to you in Canada though.

I would go with the Galaxy Nexus or, if you can get one, a Galaxy S II HD. Battery life won't be that great on them, but it's certainly not bad, esp. the GSM versions. The only thing that sucks about the GSM Galaxy Nexus is that you can only get it with 16GBs of internal storage and there's no SD card slot for expansion. If Verizon didn't offer the 32GB Version for me in the US, then that would have been a deal breaker for me.
 
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You have a lot of choices with that criteria except for this piece:


I don't think any phone will last a full 24 hours with heavy usage (I classify heavy usage as the screen being on over 90% of the time that the phone is off the charger). The closest thing to that is going to be the Razr Maxx or the iPhone 4/4S. The Razr Maxx isn't really anything special outside of its battery though. The screen is horrible compared any other OEMs flagship phone displays. I'm not even sure if that's available to you in Canada though.

I would go with the Galaxy Nexus or, if you can get one, a Galaxy S II HD. Battery life won't be that great on them, but it's certainly not bad, esp. the GSM versions. The only thing that sucks about the GSM Galaxy Nexus is that you can only get it with 16GBs of internal storage and there's no SD card slot for expansion. If Verizon didn't offer the 32GB Version for me in the US, then that would have been a deal breaker for me.

Eh, with extended batteries 1 day of full blown usage can be gotten 3G/WIFI...but yea. Not going to happen on most stock 1500-1700mAh batteries.
 
Eh, with extended batteries 1 day of full blown usage can be gotten 3G/WIFI...but yea. Not going to happen on most stock 1500-1700mAh batteries.

Shoot, I only get 5-6 hours of screen-on time with my (CDMA/LTE) Galaxy Nexus on WiFi with the 2100 mAh extended battery. That's considered "good" battery life with these phones too. Some people only get 2-3 hours of screen-on time. The displays on these phones suck juice like no other and cell radios aren't far behind.

But since I got the extended battery, I have the stock battery as a spare, so that's nice. So I would recommend, regardless of what phone you get, to get spare batteries or at least one of those 4000 mAh+ mobile battery chargers that are universal for every type of phone or mobile device. I was able to get spare batteries for my old Droid for literally $1/piece on Amazon. So far the cheapest I've seen for the G-Nex is $20-$25, which is still relatively cheap.
 
Shoot, I only get 5-6 hours of screen-on time with my (CDMA/LTE) Galaxy Nexus on WiFi with the 2100 mAh extended battery. That's considered "good" battery life with these phones too. Some people only get 2-3 hours of screen-on time. The displays on these phones suck juice like no other and cell radios aren't far behind.

But since I got the extended battery, I have the stock battery as a spare, so that's nice. So I would recommend, regardless of what phone you get, to get spare batteries or at least one of those 4000 mAh+ mobile battery chargers that are universal for every type of phone or mobile device. I was able to get spare batteries for my old Droid for literally $1/piece on Amazon. So far the cheapest I've seen for the G-Nex is $20-$25, which is still relatively cheap.

Display tech has gotten much less power eating, especially on the more recent phones. Heck even my 2600mAh on my EVO4G lasts a full work day of non-stop wifi surfing and then some under CM7.1 with Tiamat.
 
I had a Seido 3500mAh extended battery for my Evo 3D- I used it for one week. I hated having a humpback phone- nearly tripling the thickness of a phone is one hell of a bad compromise to get through a day.
 
Your not going to get a full day usage from any android phone, especially if you end up using 4g. I have never got over 6 hours of usage on wifi with any android phone. Leaving the screen on will tank the battery no matter which phone you get.
I don't know what qualifies as a whole day of usage for you but you wont get 24 hours out of any smartphone for sure...

I havrnt used a iphone in years do I can't comment on the battery life on those but I have heard it is pretty good. You don't want a extended battery if you care about the thickness of the phone because it will make your phone twice as thick guaranteed...

Good luck in your search.
 
Display tech has gotten much less power eating, especially on the more recent phones. Heck even my 2600mAh on my EVO4G lasts a full work day of non-stop wifi surfing and then some under CM7.1 with Tiamat.

Not really. The power the display uses on something like the Galaxy Nexus is massive. AMOLED only uses less power in theory - it doesn't actually. And as screen sizes have trendy towards getting bigger, the display has slowly been using *more* power over time.
 
I havrnt used a iphone in years do I can't comment on the battery life on those but I have heard it is pretty good.


The 4S' battery life isn't what it used to be back in the 3GS days from general consensus. I had a 4S for a couple of weeks and the battery life was a little bit better than some of the androids i had but nothing really that spectacular. With heavy usage (by my standards) it lasted about 6hrs, which seems to be on par with most of the reported iphone users.
 
BGR has an opinion piece that states with some impressive Android phones coming out it's not the best time to get one. You can't go wrong with an iPhone or wait for the HTC One or Samsung S III. IMO the upcoming new screens are worth the wait.
 
BGR has an opinion piece that states with some impressive Android phones coming out it's not the best time to get one. You can't go wrong with an iPhone or wait for the HTC One or Samsung S III. IMO the upcoming new screens are worth the wait.

Meh, now is always the worst time to invest in any constantly evolving tech. Given, I sat on my upgrade (with my totally obsolete OG Droid that was annoying the crap out of me) for 7 months waiting to get the Galaxy S II or Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. But Verizon had a pretty mediocre line-up for the first half of last year. The Thunderbolt, Revolution and Charge weren't that great compared to the Atrix, Galaxy S2 and some other phones that were out at the time. Right now though, they have some of the best phones on the (US) market. But I'm not sure what's available to OP in Canada or if he plans on getting the phone subsidized or unlocked, so I can't really advise him best on what to do.
 
Meh, now is always the worst time to invest in any constantly evolving tech.

Well, now actually is a particularly bad time. We already know what the next gen CPUs will perform like, and they destroy the current gen ones (~2x faster at the same clock speed - and not that fake 2x from doubling the core count, actually 2x in single threaded benchmarks). We are months away from an architectural jump - which happens every couple of years or so. Next gen GPUs are coming this year as well.
 
Your not going to get a full day usage from any android phone, especially if you end up using 4g. I have never got over 6 hours of usage on wifi with any android phone. Leaving the screen on will tank the battery no matter which phone you get.
I don't know what qualifies as a whole day of usage for you but you wont get 24 hours out of any smartphone for sure...

I havrnt used a iphone in years do I can't comment on the battery life on those but I have heard it is pretty good. You don't want a extended battery if you care about the thickness of the phone because it will make your phone twice as thick guaranteed...

Good luck in your search.

Uhhh I get a full day with my Galaxy S2 everyday... More than a full day.
 
With the iPhone ... oops, you can't swap batteries :)

Get something like the Galaxy S II and then spring $20 for 2 extra batteries plus charger through Amazon or eBay. That way you can stream to your heart's content.
 
We already know what the next gen CPUs will perform like, and they destroy the current gen ones (~2x faster at the same clock speed - and not that fake 2x from doubling the core count, actually 2x in single threaded benchmarks).

The problem with this- as others have pointed out- is that often times the US lags in releases, so while these new devices might be out globally within the next 6mo, we might not see them available here for another 9mo. For me, I'm pretty much able to do anything I want on my phone now- navigate websites smoothly (and load them quickly), watch videos, etc... i'm honestly not sure what I would do with 2X more processing power... that's not to say I wouldn't like to have it, but I think it would be wasted on me... I think this is the first time I've ever said "I don't need more power" in regards to my smart-device-

Palm IIIc (overclocked!) -> iPaq 3600 -> iPaq 3800 (with VZW data card- 9600baud) -> HTC Touch -> HTC Mogul -> HTC Diamond -> HTC Touch Pro -> HTC Touch Pro2 -> iPhone 4 -> Evo 3D -> Nexus S -> Galaxy S2 -> Galaxy Nexus

With the exception of the S2, the Galaxy Nexus has done everything/anything I've wanted it to... will that stop me from buying a Krait device when it comes out? Probably depends on what the Nexus rumors are at the time...
 
I don't know how helpful I can be in terms of battery life -- I literally just got the new galaxy nexus about 12 hours ago (loving it so far)

Came from an HTC Evo 4G with the extended 2600mAh battery - with some modding and custom kernel you could easily get a day out of it as long as you were not on WiMax. I think my record was about 72 hours before I needed a charge (this is running on wifi only) and only a few phone calls/texts

Sad fact is - with 4G LTE, 3G, and powering 2 cores, and a big 4+ inch screen, you will be lucky to see 6 hours with HEAVY use.

I really really like having a "normal" sized (thickness wise) phone again. While an extended battery is awesome and all that, I'm realizing it's nice to be able to fit the phone in my pocket without looking like I'm carrying a book.

I 100% reccomend the Galaxy Nexus - I have the verizon version and am loving it so far. the AMOLED LED screen is *beautiful* never seen a screen with blacker blacks. Has a 4.65in screen. And LTE (if you want it)

Battery life won't be the best with the stock setup, but if you are [H] then you will root the phone and throw a more efficient rom/kernel on it. Either get an extended battery (they have many levels of them) or just carry a spare in your wallet (they are pretty damn small/thin) If you went with the latter - I've seen a few charging bases on amazon that let you charge in a dock and also charge a battery at the same time so you wouldn't have to do any swapping except for the 1 minute you switch the battery while out and about.
 
Humm that's great, but what about near futur? I'm getting a phone after this summer (summer job héhé) so wondering what's upcomming.

Windows 8 phones seems around the corner, same with a galaxy S3 from samgsung or the Iphone5 (they release it in October right?)
 
No, Galaxy 3 will propably be released before Olympics, so Samsung can reap profits from advertising that in London and making people buy their phone ;) - most rumors I heard point at April / May release.

iP 5 was supposed to be in October, according to Apple 12 months plan, but recent rumors point it at June. Though, I'd love to see Razr MAXX release outside the States. I'd get that phone just for it's awesomest 330 mh battery ;) I can live with tad worse s-amoled then Galaxy S2.

Also there will be LG 4X in June, with it's amazing HD IPS screen - and if the samples I seen in Barcelona will work same when the phone hits retail, then this screen owns S-Amoled in color reproduction (less saturated, more real), power savings, angles of viewing and such.

So basically it will come to 4X vs Galaxy 3. I've seen 4X, toyed with it a bit, and it's blazing fast. Tegra 3 does her job nicely. Galaxy will be using their quad core Exynos with built-in LTE chip - 4X will be standard 3G model.
 
my galaxy s2 stock battery CM7 runs 2~3 days light use, ~4 hours playing games on it or 8 or so hours web browsing. just dont run the lcd at maximum brightness, theres a huge difference in power consumption at 100% compared to 60% but only very slight visual difference. I imagine there will be even better power with newer phones. You got to play the screen size vs power consumption tradeoff tho... your screen is your #1 killer
heres another question, you asked for a full day of use... who wants to use there phone literally all day? if im going to be idle that long ill go bring my thinkpad with me.
Normal use for me my phone easly lasts me all day, two days sometimes and charges up near fully in about 2 hours on wall plug charger
 
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I don't know how helpful I can be in terms of battery life -- I literally just got the new galaxy nexus about 12 hours ago (loving it so far)

I really really like having a "normal" sized (thickness wise) phone again. While an extended battery is awesome and all that, I'm realizing it's nice to be able to fit the phone in my pocket without looking like I'm carrying a book.

You can barely tell a difference between a Galaxy Nexus thickness with or without a extended battery.
 
My case didnt. Only ones that will are the hard plastic ones that are really tight fit.

Same here. My Cruzer Lite case fits perfect with the extended battery. I think it adds like .5mm to the thickness of the phone. Pretty negligible IMO (along with the battery life gain of the extended battery :().
 
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I thought the capacity grew pretty good. It went from being dead in 6-8 hours to being dead in 10-11 hours. Only drawback i noticed was it takes quite a bit longer to charge.
 
LG Optimus 4X AND htc oNE x

Both look so similar, what's your tought on em? got any news?
 
LG Optimus 4X AND htc oNE x

Both look so similar, what's your tought on em? got any news?

Having a quad-core in a phone is simply stupid on the manufacturers part. That and being brand new handsets, rooting support and ROMs won't exist for several months. ICS runs better on slower hardware than Gingerbread, no need for even a dual-core. Heck my 2-3 year old EVO4G single core runs ICS great in terms of performance.
 
so..... More core = less performence? wtf are you saying?

That will actually be true when these Cortex A9-based quad core phones start being phased out with A-15-based dual core CPUs in the next (next) generation phones.

I think that would be a step in the right direction too. Software would benefit a lot more from higher-clocked single-core CPUs than lower clocked multi-core CPUs. Because then devs wouldn't have to keep updating their software to take advantage of multiple threads/cores. The performance improvement would increase across the board on everything without the software being coded specifically for it. This is exactly what Intel is doing with its upcoming Medfield mobile CPUs and I hope other TI, Samsung and other OEMs follow their lead.
 
The same thing happened with pc's. For a long time a higher clocked dual core cpu was better for most tasks and games than the newer more advanced quad cores. With phones I expect the idea of an 'extra' low power core that's only used for background tasks becomes universal since phones spend most of their time in an idle power state.
 
The same thing happened with pc's. For a long time a higher clocked dual core cpu was better for most tasks and games than the newer more advanced quad cores. With phones I expect the idea of an 'extra' low power core that's only used for background tasks becomes universal since phones spend most of their time in an idle power state.

Yeah, that's Nvidia's approach with Tegra3 and while I feel that's a good implementation of a mobile processor, I still think it would be better to just have a 2-3 GHz single core CPU than a ~1.5 GHz quad core, even if it has that low-power companion core. That would be the equivalent to the single core CPU throttling itself (using less power) anyways.

I maintain that this concept would also be better in desktop CPUs. Since we've hit a 3-4 GHz (stock) wall with PC CPUs, they just decided to tack more cores onto it to increase performance (when software is coded to take advantage of it). If we could have a 10 GHz CPU in our desktop as opposed to a quad-core at ~4 GHz, I think you would notice an improvement with the higher clocked CPU more than you would the lower clocked multi-core CPU.

I don't have a PhD in Computer Engineering though, so I'm sure someone will be able to dispute this somehow. I'm not sure what technical limitations are keeping CPUs from clocking higher than they have been the past several years. I'm also well aware that clock speed has little to do with overall performance nowadays as CPU architecture continually advances and works more efficiently while retaining the same clock speeds as their predecessor models. I would actually like to be enlightened on it though, so I wouldn't mind if someone has evidence to contradict that theory. I'm just following the logic that I've come up with on the subject.
 
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