Mobile phones & tablets thread

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Originally Posted by henners88

The S3 is an excellent phone and I'm surprised the S4 is being announced so soon. I suppose by the time it comes out it'll nearly be a year but you'd think Samsung would take note of how many people bought the S3 and are likely to be on 24 month contracts. Then again with it being announced Apple have dominated the market and overtaken Android of late with the release of the iPhone 5, its perhaps needed. How did Apple regain so much of the market? Wasn't their market share 37 or 38% back in the summer? That's massive growth for a phone many dubbed as a disappointment.

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I don't see why it's a big surprise. Apple have done yearly announcements for years now.

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Originally Posted by henners88

Samsung you mean? Or was that in relation to the market growth?

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No I mean Apple. They do yearly announcements, I don't see why it should be a surprise when Samsung do the same.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

In other news:

Samsung Galaxy S4 release date, news and rumours | News | TechRadar

I guess I'm happy with my S3 for another few years for now. The S4 so far seems to have things I'm not really interested in. Edge to edge display is not my thing, neither is flexible display. A 5 inch 1080p display would probably be too much for a phone, unless they can come up with a battery double the capacity of the 2100 mAh one in the S3.

As far as on the processing side, they're talking about an octo core chip! :eek: Now that IMO is just too much, as the quad core processors and current smartphone GPUs have all bases covered for now, and I don't see any blazing new graphic intensive games for Android or super HD movies being played on the phone right now or over the next two years. They're also talking about putting in a mini projector, which on a phone sounds gimmicky.

So well, based on the market right now and the tech forecast, Galaxy S3, HTC One X and iPhone 5 users can breathe a sigh of relief that their tech won't be outdated for quite a while. ;)

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With the caveat that the article is based on rumours, this could be the first time I've upgraded before my contract runs out. I'm finding that I'm already pushing my S3 to its limit and beginning to find its limitations - you don't realise that you'll use some features until you get the phone in your hand. I'm actually quite excited about the idea of a full-HD screen: I'm shooting videos of the little'un in 1080 and editing them on the handset, which is pushing the screen and the processor quite a bit, not to mention the potential for taking on the likes of the Wii U for portable gamine. I can't see the point of a projector, the ones built into other phones are utterly useless and the handset can already "talk" to projectors via HDMI or DNLA.

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Originally Posted by henners88

My advice would be to get a decent camcorder Dave. They are only babies for a very short time and you want footage of the best quality to view in years to come and not filmed on a phone with a crap lens (good for a phone no doubt). I know phones are more convenient but in my experience you end up regretting it. I went to Belgium last month and used my phone for pictures a little more than I intended. What I have are some very nice photo's for Facebook, but not pictures I could edit and print out. The sensor on most top end smartphones brags so many megapixels but its the glass that captures the quality. I look at some of the pictures I took and wish I had taken the time to pull my DSLR out of my bag. :\

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Sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you. Sorry, rewind: CLICHÉ KLAXON! Anyway, I pretty much always have my phone for those unexpected moments, whereas I tend to only take my SLR to special occasions. Yes my SLR obviously trumps the phone's camera, but the convenience wins far more often. The same would apply with a dedicated camcorder to the point where I doubt I could justify the cost, you'd be looking at the wrong side of 500 quid to make it a worthwhile leap in quality - the footage taken with my S3 is surprisingly good provided there's reasonable light (admittedly it's damn near hopeless in poor light). Then factor in the lack of features on a camcorder - I'd miss the ability to edit down clips to email, or to stream wirelessly to a telly.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Thanks for the offer, Henners. :) But I'll be flying down to Mumbai for Christmas and will get the phone repaired then.

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Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a new phone in Mumbai?

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Originally Posted by Mark

The Samsung S3 is already ahead of the iPhone 5 in many ways, the S4 has the potential to blow it away completely. Especially if the 5S/6 isn't out until late next year.

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I have acquired a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus s7500, and we have finally worked out last night how to answer a call.

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

I have acquired a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus s7500, and we have finally worked out last night how to answer a call.

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Is it one of these modern phones that can do everything except the phone part?

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Originally Posted by BleAivano

Is it one of these modern phones that can do everything except the phone part?

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Toanswer a call, I have to tap on the green phone then drag it sideways to the edge.
But yeah! it will do a lot, but I havn't figured out how to do it yet. :laugh:

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Originally Posted by henners88

To be honest my iPhone 5 is plenty powerful enough for most things people do on a smartphone. Even if I had an S3 or an S4 I'd still only be sending emails, surfing the net, looking at facebook, twitter, youtube, tapatalk, texting and calling people, pictures video's etc etc. It does all those things fast and has never frozen on me in the 2 or so months I have been using it. On top of that its a bloody nice looking phone. I think its been proven that spec means diddly squat as long as you are happy with your device and it does everything you have bought it to do.. That goes for any phone model people choose :)

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Maybe not for you henners, but for a lot of other people, specs do matter. Many people do a lot of hardware intensive stuff on their phones too. Smartphones have transitioned nicely into being used as potent handheld gaming devices, designing and editing tools as well. Phone companies won't be displaying benchmark testing results or even show specs at all if that weren't the case. Samsung, HTC and now Sony are battling hard in the specs arena for a reason. Apple was pretty much forced to raise the specs dramatically for the iPhone 5 under public scrutiny.

For the things you do with your smartphone, as you mentioned above, you don't need an iPhone 5. :D An iPhone 4 or a Galaxy S would be more than enough. ;)

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a new phone in Mumbai?

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Umm, no. Since I already have a Galaxy S3 (costs about $600), I'm not looking for a newer phone. Its screen is cracked, and since I go home for Christmas, would make sense to get it repaired for less.