Choosing a new smartphone

[Panoramixe]

I've decided to change mobile carriers and this gives me the opportunity of a ~€200 discount on a new phone, so not going to miss out on that. (Yep that's how we roll in Belgium apparently) Due to this offer a Google Nexus won't be an option since it's not actually available for a decent price except from Google, who don't sell hardware here. iStuff is too expensive and limited for my tastes (die in hell iTunes). So those two obvious options are out.

I've used a rather small smartphone for a while (Sony Xperia mini), but would prefer a bigger screen now from 4 to 5 inch (more is quite unnecessary for me) and don't mind either Android or Windows Phone. I've checked my options and found 3 good phones for my budget/needs:

- Acer Liquid Gallant - free - 1 GHz Single core, Acer quality build (that's a minus )
- Samsung Galaxy SIII MINI - € 99 - 1 GHz Dual core, good overall specs, Samsung quality build (better than Acer for phones at least)
- Sony Xperia S - € 179 - 1,5 GHz Dual core, 12 MP camera, 32GB internal memory - look like amazing specs to me

What I'm going to test in a store and would like opinions on is:
- The quality of the screens
- The difference is processor speed
- Build quality

Any experiences are welcome, thanks in advance.

[Keller]

The Xperia would be the best out of that bunch but i'd wait for the upcoming HTC DLX/Butterfly. As far as build goes - Sony is definetly the clear winner here, their stuff is leaps and bounds ahead of what other manifacturers offer.(in terms of build and look) They just have Screen sizes that arent really all that great on top of rather crappy software with unimpressive hardware to back it up. I'd honestly wait until january if that was an option , if it isnt, definetly the xperia.

[Panoramixe]

I just looked up the devices you mentioned. Sadly it seems HTC isn't planning on bringing the Butterfly to Europe (and it might not even work on our 3G networks) and I find very little info on the DLX, but it does seem like it won't be coming to Europe either (HTC doesn't seem to love us)

So yeah currently the Xperia looks amazing, but I could wait 2 months and see which phones get released but most of the time the new stuff costs 200-300 euro more than the Xperia without that much benefit.

[Deleted]

I've decided to change mobile carriers and this gives me the opportunity of a ~€200 discount on a new phone, so not going to miss out on that. (Yep that's how we roll in Belgium apparently) Due to this offer a Google Nexus won't be an option since it's not actually available for a decent price except from Google, who don't sell hardware here. iStuff is too expensive and limited for my tastes (die in hell iTunes). So those two obvious options are out.

I've used a rather small smartphone for a while (Sony Xperia mini), but would prefer a bigger screen now from 4 to 5 inch (more is quite unnecessary for me) and don't mind either Android or Windows Phone. I've checked my options and found 3 good phones for my budget/needs:

- Acer Liquid Gallant - free - 1 GHz Single core, Acer quality build (that's a minus )
- Samsung Galaxy SIII MINI - € 99 - 1 GHz Dual core, good overall specs, Samsung quality build (better than Acer for phones at least)
- Sony Xperia S - € 179 - 1,5 GHz Dual core, 12 MP camera, 32GB internal memory - look like amazing specs to me

What I'm going to test in a store and would like opinions on is:
- The quality of the screens
- The difference is processor speed
- Build quality

Any experiences are welcome, thanks in advance.

Samsung Galaxy S3 mini SUCKS BADLY. Period. It's overpriced piece of junk, some might say similar to iphone except everything about it is bad. Head to gsmarena if you need to know more but S3 Mini has nothing to do with full size S3, literally all specs are much worse while the price isn't much different.

Sony Xperia S is a good phone for the price and I suggest going after it.

---------- Post added 2012-12-23 at 12:18 AM ----------

I just looked up the devices you mentioned. Sadly it seems HTC isn't planning on bringing the Butterfly to Europe (and it might not even work on our 3G networks) and I find very little info on the DLX, but it does seem like it won't be coming to Europe either (HTC doesn't seem to love us)

So yeah currently the Xperia looks amazing, but I could wait 2 months and see which phones get released but most of the time the new stuff costs 200-300 euro more than the Xperia without that much benefit.

You're wrong. HTC Butterfly is worldwide while DLX is America only and Butterfly J is Japan only.

[Keller]

Samsung Galaxy S3 mini SUCKS BADLY. Period. It's overpriced piece of junk, some might say similar to iphone except everything about it is bad. Head to gsmarena if you need to know more but S3 Mini has nothing to do with full size S3, literally all specs are much worse while the price isn't much different.

Sony Xperia S is a good phone for the price and I suggest going after it.

---------- Post added 2012-12-23 at 12:18 AM ----------



You're wrong. HTC Butterfly is worldwide while DLX is America only and Butterfly J is Japan only.

They're the same phone, the J butterfly just has a microsdslot, which is interchangable with the DNA. (As in spare parts interchangable, spare sim/microsd PCB can get you a Butterfly from your dna) . AFAIK the DNA works on 3g networks quite efficiently. The DLX is the presumed europeian version of the phone which will be the j butterfly in new skin.


The galaxy S3 mini is more like a followup to their galaxy ace series of phones, if anything, and one thing you should avoid doing is buying a phone that isnt meant as a highend device.

[Panoramixe]

You're wrong. HTC Butterfly is worldwide while DLX is America only and Butterfly J is Japan only.

I just read an article from Android World (Dutch) from two weeks ago and the PR department of HTC has stated they don't plan on bringing a version of Butterfly under any name to Europe (or at least Belgium/The Netherlands). There is an imported version, but it's uncertain how well it will perform on our networks.

The international part seems to be just China.

[Deleted]

The galaxy S3 mini is more like a followup to their galaxy ace series of phones, if anything, and one thing you should avoid doing is buying a phone that isnt meant as a highend device.

They're taking advantage of the 'familiar' name to convince people it's similar quality to actual S3 and to keep the price up which is way too high for such a bad product.

[vesseblah]

Shouldn't proper Galaxy S3 come pretty close to same price as the Sony with that discount?

[Deleted]

Currently rocking the XPERIA S, and all I can say is it's awesome. The resolution of the screen is amazing, the design of the phone (yes, I like the bottom part) is really nice and the general feel of it is really good. Only downside is that SONY is really slow on updates, still rocking Jellybean... =/ But, that's easily fixed if you have the will and knowledge

[Panoramixe]

Shouldn't proper Galaxy S3 come pretty close to same price as the Sony with that discount?

The S3 would be €299 with the €100 discount Samsung offers at the moment. Is it worth the €120 extra over the Xperia?