Smart Phone Recommendation

[Noob]

I've never owned an Apple product, not even the iPod. (I own a Sony Walkman MP3 and a Cowon)
I will NEVER own an Apple product!!

You can get an S2 now that the S3 launched, they should be a bit cheaper after the S3.
I think i'll skip the S3 and get the S4 (or whatever it's called), i'm waiting for a real upgrade with Cortex A15 and Next Gen GPU's.
My S2 is still pretty good.

[SoCalReviews]

Noob, I have heard the same "I will never own a product made by <blank>" so many times in the past that it's like a broken record or skipping audio CD. You could make the same statement about MS, Intel, or any major large company with significant market share. Going back to the Apple II and then the Mac computers Apple has always been the innovator that comes out with a novel way of doing things at first but then over time gets stuck in holding on too long to it's past innovations and it's own proprietary establishment. They are cutting edge at first but then they fail to advance to the consumer's new needs and desires while other companies copy the initial idea and then continue to evolve their products at a faster pace.

The iPhone and iOS has been showing that flaw in the last two years with their small screen and single product choice iPhone releases and the less customizable fixed iOS environment. The Mac computers, laptops, notebooks and OSX have sort have been the opposite. Not only are there a variety of products to choose from but their products with OSX haven't changed as much in the last few years as the PC systems running MS Windows have (XP, Vista, 7 and the new 8 in a five year span). This reason in addition to the popularity of the iPhone is possibly why Apple's desktop computer and notebook market share went from just over 5% market share (as I remember that is U.S. market share) a few years ago to over 10% market share and it is still rapidly growing.

We are in an era of fast development. For smart phones and smart touch pads fast change is ok because you replace them every 2-4 years anyway. You also don't lose much time upgrading phones and transferring apps and data. That pace of change may not be as good for desktop computing where the normal replacement cycle runs 5-8 years involves much higher costs for integrated hardware and software. In a fragile world economy technological stability is important to individuals and businesses.

For me its not an issue about this company or that company because they all play the same games. The real issue is about value, stability, support, reliability and present and future compatibility of the products I purchase. If I like OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion then I will upgrade. If I like Windows 8 when the final version is released in the Fall I will purchase it and install it on my same desktop machine without having to purchase all new hardware to run it and without having to sacrifice my old OS's that I used in the past. We live in a world with more choices than ever before if you choose the path of freedom.

[Noob]

Hahaha took your time to answer
Sadly im not so good at writing.
Anyways i'm sure what i said will be true unless Apple makes a product that is absolutely necessary. (Which i don't think it will happen since i consider gadgets just toys and there are many options out there to choose from)

[SoCalReviews]

Noob, You are an experienced "massive poster". You can handle the extra writing.

I like Android phones and my next upgrade could be a new Android but we will see what the iPhone 5 brings to the table when it's released. For the desktops and laptops I liked Windows XP and still use it but I am getting weary of the recent MS OS upgrade cycle...from XP... to Vista... to 7... to 8 ? What am I supposed do Purchase a new OS and new machines every two years?

Moving from XP to Vista required significantly more powerful hardware. From Vista to 7 required you go with 64bit CPU to get the full benefit of 4GB of RAM or more. A multi core processor is needed for the more feature filled versions of 64bit 7. At least 8 preview seems to be as efficient or more efficient as 7 but should we all be upgrading to touch screen desktop monitors when 8 final is released so we can take full advantage of the Metro interface? Riding on the MS Windows upgrade PC train has been expensive. All these changes to run the latest Windows OS have taken place only in the last six years! No wonder I stuck with XP for so long.

[ellison64]

Im not an expert on smart phones...in fact had my first a year or so ago,the humble HTC wildfire.What i find problematic with it though ,and maybe expert users of smart phones can chip in ,is the internal memory of these phones.Most of the apps that i use cant be moved to SD card and what with updates etc ,the internal memory is soon bogged down,so i either dont update or limit apps.Is this a problem with all smart phones or just android?

[The_ChamP]

Thats problem with the old android phones - to be specific mid range to low range phones
Now phones are coming with good internal memory that solve this problem - example galaxy ace plus/2

[farmerlee]

If i recall correctly it wasn't until android 2.2 froyo that apps were finally allowed to be installed on expandable memory. They did end up making an app called app2sd which i believe lets you install apps to an sd card on older versions of android.

[roger_m]

Originally Posted by SoCalReviews

For the desktops and laptops I liked Windows XP and still use it but I am getting weary of the recent MS OS upgrade cycle...from XP... to Vista... to 7... to 8 ? What am I supposed do Purchase a new OS and new machines every two years?

There is absolutely no need to upgrade your computer every few years. I purchased the main laptop that I use thee years before Windows 7 was released (and just before the release of Vista) and it runs Windows 7 just fine. Also there is no reason why it won't run Windows 8 as far as I know.

Windows 8 may be released late this year, and let's assume that Windows 9 is released 2 or 3 years later, and it requires more powerful hardware to run than what I have now. That would make it 8 to 9 years after purchasing my laptop that I would need to update in order to run the latest Windows - or I could skip Windows 9 and quite happily continue using Windows 7 or 8 on my aging laptop.

Sure I do realise that there were jumps in processing power for XP and Vista. But currently this is thankfully not the case - and also, Win 7 is less demanding on system resources than Vista.

Given the choice between a Windows or Mac computer, I would always choose Windows. I have used OS X and absolutely hated it.

[mack_guy911]

best is what is best for you so i guess you should take real demo of all and see youtube reviews .....etc and then make your mind

Originally Posted by mack_guy911

best is what is best for you so i guess you should take real demo of all and see youtube reviews .....etc and then make your mind

I think this is an excellent approach to help you in deciding which Smartphone is best for your own personal needs.

[Noob]

Yeah go out to a few cellphone stores and test them by yourself, although i might add that sometimes the experience could be crappy because since everyone have tested the phone it is usually all messed up.

[The_ChamP]

Originally Posted by Noob

Yeah go out to a few cellphone stores and test them by yourself, although i might add that sometimes the experience could be crappy because since everyone have tested the phone it is usually all messed up.

And most of the times its locked - mostly the pattern lock in android phones

[Noob]

Well at least here i've never seen them blocked but they all do seem kinda messed up, unless you restart the phone to have a smoother experience.

[DOSawaits]

I have zero knowledge about this matter. But what about microsoft's OS ? Do you have to register it whitin a certain timescale before your phone will self-explode ?

[Noob]

The last time i used a Windows Mobile smartphone it was 6.5 and it was really awful. Now i'm not saying they are horrible, since Windows 7 and on i've only heard good things about them.

[stapp]

I sometimes wonder if there are people like me out there for whom smart phones just don't seem to work.

Perhaps I have too much electricity in my body but I'm back once again using my little trusty 'old fashioned' Samsung which just works for me without effort.

When using a smart phone the phone sometimes ends up ringing someone out of my phonebook without me even asking it to. Calls will abruptly end or go onto loudspeaker mode when I am in a cafe or somewhere public.

I've tried being really, really careful not to place my ear onto the touchscreen, or hold the phones too tight, nothing seems to work.

Smart phones just don't seem to like me

I'm dreading Windows 8RT

[Noob]

Lots of new mid to high end smartphones nowadays have a proximity sensor so when you place the phone close to your face it deactivates and turns off the screen temporally to avoid unintentional contact.

[stapp]

Originally Posted by Noob

Lots of new mid to high end smartphones nowadays have a proximity sensor so when you place the phone close to your face it deactivates and turns off the screen temporally to avoid unintentional contact.

I'd just really like to have a smart phone, all my family have them but won't let me near them (although it's me they ring when their pc goes down !)

Last one I tried a couple of weeks ago was replaced by the provider as they said they could see from their logs that I was sometimes having 4 or 5 attempts to ring someone and all the disconections. When I got the replacement it did exactly the same, I just gave up again.

I will try another phone when I feel stronger

[Noob]

I'd say it's just bad luck.

[xM5]

what type of encryption is used for the email services?
what is the MSRP for the phone and what service will it be used with (in US).
i will probably buy this in the UAE or UK so it will be unlocked.
how is samsung support? apple support is pretty outstanding

[roger_m]

The the Chinese Zopo ZP100 seems to be an excellent choice for an Android smart phone.

4.3" Sharp ASV screen, 1ghz CPU, Sony camera and 4 gig ROM for just under $200 US and running Android 4 ICS is really cheap for a good quality phone. What's really good too is that you can get screen protectors and cases made specifically to fit the phone.

You can buy it from Zopo here: http://www.zopomobilestore.com

I'm thinking about selling my Star A3 4" Chinese phone which I only just bought and buying this one instead. Contrary to the belief of some people, there are some excellent Chinese brand phones being made right now - they are not all cheap garbage as some people think.

[SoCalReviews]

Originally Posted by roger_m

There is absolutely no need to upgrade your computer every few years. I purchased the main laptop that I use thee years before Windows 7 was released (and just before the release of Vista) and it runs Windows 7 just fine. Also there is no reason why it won't run Windows 8 as far as I know.

Windows 8 may be released late this year, and let's assume that Windows 9 is released 2 or 3 years later, and it requires more powerful hardware to run than what I have now. That would make it 8 to 9 years after purchasing my laptop that I would need to update in order to run the latest Windows - or I could skip Windows 9 and quite happily continue using Windows 7 or 8 on my aging laptop.

Sure I do realise that there were jumps in processing power for XP and Vista. But currently this is thankfully not the case - and also, Win 7 is less demanding on system resources than Vista.

Given the choice between a Windows or Mac computer, I would always choose Windows. I have used OS X and absolutely hated it.

Windows GUI got its inspiration from the Mac GUI which supposedly came from a object based Unix GUI shell. OS X is a Mac GUI shell on top of BSD Unix. So you are saying you hate the Unix GUI shell of OS X but you like the Windows GUI with the MS Windows core OS?

I prefer Unix design and security and will take it over a MS Windows core OS any day. However I do believe that the OS X GUI shell could use some improvements.

I won't have to upgrade the Mac Mini system hardware for a long time since its should be able to run Windows 9 in the future along with the current XP, 7 and 8 on OS X with VM.

[roger_m]

Originally Posted by SoCalReviews

So you are saying you hate the Unix GUI shell of OS X but you like the Windows GUI with the MS Windows core OS?

Yes - because of the GUI.