General 'Phone Chat

Chat about your smartphones (or even your dumbphones) here.

Created because I need somewhere to express how annoyed I am with the whole "upgrade to iOS 6" process. Not iOS 6's fault so much, but my Internet's: it cut me off halfway through upgrading, putting my 'phone into the comatose "restore" mode; then refused to update it for an hour last night, giving me -1 (firmware) errors whenever my Internet let me get to that stage; and only finally yielding after half an hour of bashing this morning, making me almost late for work!

Anyway, it's done now and Google Maps is downloaded, meaning I never have to use iMaps, which I hear is a joke.

It is, as in for me the map was the opposite like it would say the street is on the left where really it was on the right kind of thing.

Marvel managed to kill the comic apps for IOS due to them having a 700 free issue one sale which has kind of annoyed me 9or could be the update it had) as all my purchases are gone that I haven't downloaded to my iphone/ipad.

I miss webOS.

Curiosity is over. Peter Molyneux: genius or imbecile?

Honestly I think Meh

The battery life on my iPhone is now poor. It used to last for about two and a half days - now, I'm happy if it outlives a mayfly.

I've dropped my Lumia 820 a worryingly large amount of times over the past few days, but luckily it's held up. Really need to drop doing this though as I'll end up with a cracked screen...

Guys - getting a new phone in the next couple of weeks, recommendations?

JayMoyles wrote:

Guys - getting a new phone in the next couple of weeks, recommendations?

The HTC One is the best Android phone out there I'd say. Build quality and chasis design is stunning, and it has a slick user interface.

You can't go wrong with an iPhone 5, either.

Or if you want a Windows Phone, I'd recommend the HTC 8X, Lumia 920 or Lumia 925 running Windows Phone 8. The Lumia 620 is a pretty good buy too, and that currently sells for around £110 contract-free. Apparently the Samsung ATIV S has been going for £250 unlocked at Expansys and that's also a high-end Windows Phone 8 device.

I've been rocking an Android phone (Galaxy SII) for two years now, and I'm very comfortable with the platform. The restrictiveness of iOS turns me off, so I reckon an iPhone is probably off the table.

I'd definitely consider a Windows phone, but I'm still very geared towards Android at the moment. The S4 just hit the market, right?

Phillips wrote:

*thumbs up*

My BlackBerry won't last much longer, methinks. It's doing some very bizarre things at the moment and it's nearing its third birthday, which is a record for mobile phones for me. I'd love to upgrade to the BlackBerry Q10, but the handset price still cracks me up. Seriously! Are RIM trying to go bust?

*soldiers on with senile phone*

I'd love a Q10 too (BlackBerry 10 is the closest thing to webOS I've seen since HP killed that off), but as you say the pricing is silly. Apparently a cheaper QWERTY model, the Q5, is on its way though.

JayMoyles wrote:

I've been rocking an Android phone (Galaxy SII) for two years now, and I'm very comfortable with the platform. The restrictiveness of iOS turns me off, so I reckon an iPhone is probably off the table.

I'd definitely consider a Windows phone, but I'm still very geared towards Android at the moment. The S4 just hit the market, right?

I'd purchase an HTC One over a Galaxy S4. The HTC One is a refined, beautiful phone, with a gorgeous UI that fits in with Android's Holo theme (something Samsung's Touchwiz does not do well). The Galaxy S4 is cluttered, busy, tasteless (seriously, when will Samsung hire some actual designers?) and cheap-feeling. Slower, too, as Samsung's bloatware ruins the party and slows down the phone.

Still good, but not HTC One good, especially from a hardware perspective (built to a far lower quality than the One, with cheap glossy plastic instead of Aluminium plus polycarbonate, one crappy speaker at the back as opposed to dual speakers at the front, over-saturated colours from the AMOLED screen as opposed to natural, realistic ones on the One's SLCD3 screen).

I'm not saying the Galaxy S4 is bad, but I do urge you to seriously consider the competition. Due to spending massive amounts on marketing, Samsung's phones have reached iPhone levels of hype status, where people buy them simply because they are a Galaxy, without even looking at great phones like the Lumia 925, the HTC One or the Xperia Z.

If you don't like iOS you probably won't like Windows Phone. Here's why (and also why I am happy with the platform): http://jonchoo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/why-i-chose-windows-phone.html

I know it's not a phone but.......

What's the best iPad to go for? There's a few upcoming games (chaos reborn, shadowrun returns) that's I'd like to get.

Almost certainly the iPad 4, or 'iPad with retina display' as they call it.

The screen is eons above the iPad Mini and iPad 2, and it's a lot faster too as it has a brand new processor architecture and faster GPUs (identical to the one Vita uses). Though it might be worth waiting for the iPad 5 sometime this year, that's rumoured to use Power VR's new GPU architecture.

But yes, do try to get that model. The iPad Mini's alright but the 7" form factor isn't really that great, it feels like a compromise or a larger iPhone/iPod Touch. I saw why Steve Jobs despised 7" tablets after using one myself.

Cheers sporky

I'm looking into upgrading from my iPad 2 but also down sizing due to budget issues, so I'll be getting a 64gb Mini soonish.
(64gb mini same price as 16gb Ipad 3 so going the cheaper option and all I do is use it for reading digital comics for the most part)

sporkhead wrote:

I'd love a Q10 too (BlackBerry 10 is the closest thing to webOS I've seen since HP killed that off), but as you say the pricing is silly. Apparently a cheaper QWERTY model, the Q5, is on its way though.

I'll keep my eyes open for that. I love the look/feel of my current premium BB, but really I can't justify the expense of the Q10 when a Curve will handle email and Twitter just as effectively.

Had a Nexus 4 for a while now, and they're really good. Crazy good for the price, especially in light of the recent price cut to £159 for the 8gb. Battery life is, as always, a bit bleh - but a combination of low brightness alongside whacking it in aeroplane mode during long periods of non-use ( because nothing is that much of an emergency - ever  ) I can (usually) eke a full day out of the thing with a moderate pounding when I am using it.

My issue is mainly with Android itself - when the system updates install their little selves, all appears good. But, on more than one occasion I've done a heeeeeuge factory reset not long after the update to find the phone behaves even better than when the update applied itself.

The Chrome browser seems to have turned to crap after this last update too, so I may investigate Firefox.

Reckon I'll keep this phone 'til the updates to Android overtake my phone's ability to run them.

I like my new iPhone 5 but apparently my bank's app doesn't so any and all Bank stuff I have to do is now on my iPad which is kinda annoying

I never upgraded my S3 to a S4 when that came out.

But I'm looking at maybe getting the Note 3, has any one tried a phablet and what you think. The reason I'm looking as when I had my Samsung tab, I thought I'd use that at home to tweet etc but no still used my phone just found it easier and more convenient. So if i was playing a game on Wii U, it's easier to check a phone then a 10 inch tab for thing. But I just want something newer then S3 and Note 3 might suit my needs better then having a S4 & Tab (if i decide to buy another one, got a laptop instead now).

My iPad is generally a glorified comic and manga reader. I have movies and other crap on it but I mostly use it for yeah reading

I never got a Note 3 and any day now the S5 looks like it will be announced anyone excited like me.

So the event in Barca has been and gone with the S5 & Z2 being the two main phones announced,

anyone got any thoughts, I'm thinking after seeing them I might upgrade to the Z2

The Z2 certainly looks like the better phone hardware design-wise, though I'd play around with one in-store first, Sony's software skin on top of Android is quite divisive. Take a look at the HTC One M8 as well, that seems like it's worth considering.