New phone required - which one

[Sootchucker]

Hi guys,

I have for the last 6 years or so had various Iphone's though my work locked to Vodafone. I've just been told today that we are changing providers next week to Orange, and so I either need to get my 4s unlocked or they will allow me to either take one of their standard phones (which I think are basic HTC's), or allow me to purchase a phone outright (and put it on my expenses) of up to about £400-£450.

I've been hearing good things about android phones after the last few years, but having only ever owning an Apple phone, know nothing about them. Colleagues at work are saying that a Galaxy S4 will blow my 4s out of the water (but they could just be fanboys). My only real requirements are as follows:

Decent screen (as good as the Retina Screen on the Iphone) or better.
Decent Battery Life (get about 2-3 days with light use on my 4s)
Good reception (something that Vodafone are quite poor at where I live and work - one of the reasons we are changing).
8mp or better camera (take a lot of photos as part of my work).
Reliable (the apples for me have been great from that aspect).

Obviously I need it to work seamlessly with my GTD with the Discover Nav Pro head unit - but no advanced phone kit fitted.

Anyone any thoughts ?

[monkeyhanger]

HTC One? My wife has a Galaxy S4 and all round my HTC one wipes the floor with it (1080P screen, 2 days light/medium use on a charge, 21mp camera, 32Gb memory, beats audio etc).

[stuart.cameron]

iPhone 5C?

[noobmonkey]

as you are looking at top of the range, that pretty much leaves you with th galaxy S4, HTC one X, or Iphone 5S... (Give or take the odd lumia if you like the windows OS, and yes some people do )

personally i'm a galaxy fan, but the others all have huge benefits.

HTC One x - awesome screen.
Galaxy S4 - power, grunt and pretty good alrounder
Lumia (1020, i think) - 41mp camera, and to be fair, not a bad alrounder. Again, if you can enjoy the WIn OS.
Iphone 5s - simple, sowkrs... but annoyingly thin.


its more of an ecosystem thing though.

Itunes will work on i devices better, and your idock's etc. But now you can sync to android etc, and works really well.... My sgs3 talks with my tv, and controls my servers etc. so is fine for me.

so choose the eco system. (What type of device fits your current lifestyle, music, film, sat nav, physical connections)... and then choose a device after that

Good luck

[Jimble]

Strange you should ask this now, i've just (yesterday) ordered a Galaxy S4 to replace my current iphone 4s, i'm not very happy with ios7 so thought i'd give android a go, i haven't upgraded my contract though just buying an unlocked one off amazon so if i don't like it i can sell it on and upgrade to the 5s which needs a nano sim.

I'm curious how it'll work with the bluetooth also as i've read it'll show contact photo's? Not fussy about the music/mdi side as i just use a USB stick but will be getting a decent SD card for when the new car arrives, you'll probably need to make a decision before march but i'll let you know how i get on.

[monsta]

It depends on what you want from a phone.  iPhones are simple to use and suit a lot of people and the way that they protect the quality of Apps that can be installed they tend to be stable and reliable.

Android devices (I have an S3 after having Blackberry devices for years) are different, Samsung for example give you their own version of Android which adds in a slightly different user interface with things like S Planner (replaces Calendar) but I also think the performance of the phone can suffer with a variety of resource hungry apps installed.  I think you need to know what you're doing a bit more with Android over iOS.

Personally I would prefer a more pure Android experience so my next phone will be an HTC most likely.

Nokia Lumia is a great phone and Windows 8 works very well on it.  You are a little more restricted with apps though.

[JoeGTI]

How tied are you to Apple?

For me, I've had various iPhone's for years and I think I'd find it a massive pain in the ass to change to anything else now! I suppose Apple know this and lock us in! E.g. I have an iPad and the Apple TV and I love how all these devices are in sync and how easy it is to play a video or a song direct from the phone to the Apple TV wirelessly. The GF also has an iPhone (as do several mates) and I like the iMessage features from iPhone to iPhone.
I'd lose all that neat integration if I switched to Samsung.

[2014GTi]

Apple just works for me, but your right in that the eco-system can suck you in and its hard to get out of it and move to Android without serious faffing about with contacts etc.
Personally for me, the iPhone's do what I need them to and I rarely play games or run anything on them that makes me want something more bigger and powerful.
I am waiting for the iPhone6 next year, I gave the iPhone5/S a miss as I feel the build of the 4S is a lot more durable in the long-run.

I have own a HTC Desire in the past running the HTC Android and then I installed a MIUI ROM, it was a great bit of kit and I could do a lot more on it than you can on a iDevice, but once the novelty wore off I found that the iPhone is all I really need on a day to day basic.

It works without any fuss and ooozes quality. 

[Ginagee]

I'm a mac girl through and through. Apple iphone5 without question. Plus Orange is very good, been with them since owning a mobile!

[2014GTi]

I'm a mac girl through and through. Apple iphone5 without question. Plus Orange is very good, been with them since owning a mobile!

Nope Orange a uber Poo!