MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
New phone time, I can get a free Sony Xperia SP or a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. My current HTC has been crap the past 2 years so looking for something reliable that just works and doesn't slow down/crash/freeze every 5 minutes.
As usual mixed reviews for both, but does anyone on here have either?
Have had all three brands at one time or another as I worked in the mobile phone sector.
Historically we saw more issues with Sony, or as they were then (2012) Sony Ericsson, due to lots of additional gubbins that SE would add to the standard Android UI. Every time a new model came out they would always say "we have made it better" but the response from customers tended to say otherwise. Admittedly I left after the first purely Sony handset came out but the launch of three flagship handsets in a year or so suggests that they are still clunky.
Samsung has a cleaner look and feel and much more reliable / less returns.
No doubt there will be some who have had no issues with either brand and like the look and feel of their respective handsets. The only phones I have kept since leaving have been my HTC's as I have found them to be trouble free and I like the UI.
On that basis you might like the Sony 😉
Haven't got the models you mention, but I have got an Xperia T. It's pretty good, but there are a few niggles with the software; just stupid stuff like if you turn data of and back on, it tells you every time that this may incur significant charges from your provider. There is no tick box to say 'do not show again' as with other warnings.
Aside from that, battery life isn't amazing, but it is quite powerful with a large screen so perhaps to be expected and while the screen looks really good from straight on, contrast drops quite quickly if it's tilted slightly.
I'd probably have another Sony though, depending on what else is around at the time I wall looking to replace.
The Samsung's I have played with in the past all work ok, but just be aware that the s3 mini isn't just a smaller s3. Have you looked at the reviews on gsmarena?