Shopping for my next Android Smartphone

First off, my HTC Desire is still functioning well! After all the drops and scrapes over the last 3 years, the smartphone has proven the test of durability. Not just physically, I have installed several CUSTOM ROMS after the warranty expired (I am on Cyanogen Mod 7), and the phone still holds its own.

Anyhow, kudos to HTC Desire aside, I am back on the market for a android smartphone. This time around, I want a big screen, atleast 4.7″, Quad Core Processor, 2GB RAM, good battery and atleast 16GB internal storage. This brings me to a small list of available devices in no particular order within a certain price range of 300 – 400 AUD

1. LG Nexus 4
2. LG Optimus 4X
3. Samsung S3

All these phones have been exhaustively reviewed online and they all have their pros and cons. So, just quoting the most obvious and relevant ones here

1. S3 – excellent battery, great screen, SD Card Slot and multi-tasking
2. Nexus 4- 2 GB RAM, great screen, excellent battery
3. Optimus 4x – great screen, SD Card Slot, nice masculine design

I like the Optimus 4x for the nice lines and good to hold feel of the phone as opposed to Nexus 4 which is a bit too slippery. Leaving the design aside, battery is quite important, since I had to carry a spare batter for my HTC Desire. All the 3 phones listed here pretty decent battery, but I have to say that the S3 takes the lead here – I have seen my friend’s phones with over 70% battery at the end of the working day with moderate usage and all-day 3G on with active updates. The other 2 phones come close behind. In terms of performance, the Nexus 4 takes a significant lead with the 2GB RAM, the phone is blazingly fast. Although I cannot say that I have found a big difference for day to day use for these phone. But, running heavy applications and certain games work a lot better on Nexus 4. So far, no significant deal breakers. When it comes to screen sensitivity and screen size, the S3 takes the clear lead here – I am just not referring to the 0.1″ difference, but rather the significant difference due to the on-screen buttons on Nexus 4 which eat up quite a bit of real estate. Also, the AMOLED display sensitivity is much better on S3. The Optimus 4X screen size is quite good and the color reproduction is quite good. I am kind of starting to lean a bit away from Nexus 4 now. Moving on, these days applications hog more and more memory, that said, the Nexus 4 has 16GB with non expandable memory. However both the S3 and Optimus 4x have expandable memory. At this point, its safe to say that Nexus 4 is lagging quite a bit behind the other 2 phones. The only good thing about Nexus 4 is that it offers a better gaming experience and also generally more snappier. However I am not planning on playing heavy games on my phone, given the associated battery drain that accompanies it.

So, I am for now voting out the Nexus 4 based on practicality more than any benchmarks. The real contest is between LG Optimus 4x and S3. These phones are more or less equally matched, so I am not planning bring those up. However there is one aspect in Optimus 4X which puts me off; the phone speaker sucks big time – its just not loud enough to playback songs or even conversations on the phone. Also, there are more accessories available for S3 on the market. The only pro for Optimus 4X is that it is almost 100AUD cheaper than S3. Would I pay 100 AUD for a better screen, better speaker and availability of accessories? I am inclined to say Yes.

For now, I am going to go for the S3 3G version – hear the 4G version has battery issues.

Although I am not too excited about the display and the bloatware of Samsung, the device is just more practical. Oh yes, it is more practical than an i-phone 😉  !

_>Vijay