I’d nearly written an essay on this, but this may be better:

Phone choices:

Apple iPhone 4s – If only for a few apps I want to use (that aren’t available on Android). Already dated though, so would I want it for two years?

HTC One or One mini – If you read the reviews it’s supposedly the best phone out there! Really?

Sony Xperia Z – Looks good on paper but I’ve heard about problems about the screen cracking (I guess that could be said about the iPhone too).

Samsung Galaxy 4 in some form or another – Not sure why this isn’t higher up the list.

I can get any of the above phones for a similar monthly fee, with unlimited mins, at the same price as my current phone…my phone is supplied to me, so I can’t go over that amount.

Cheers for any advice. 🙂

Go play with some. Like the HTC the missus has and like the s3 that I have. I’d guess there are equivalent apps available for what you want?

Generally iPhone if you like how Apple do stuff and are happy to stick with it. And you want to own an iPhone.
But, 4S is now two phones old…..and people are still considering it?!

HTC One has been around for a fair while too. My Bro-in-Law has one and loves it.

Xperia Z is supposed to be very nice. EDIT – waterproof to an extent too….
I have an Xperia T and my main gripes are battery life isn’t great and the screen contrast really drops off if you aren’t looking directly at it. I didn’t think this would be an issue, but there are occasions when it’s annoying. But, saying that – when looking at it normally it is a bloody nice screen.

Galaxy S4 – not had experience of, but quite a few people I know have S3’s and they are nice phones. Perhaps a bit plasticky, but excellent screen and features. I imagine the S4 would be even better.

One thing to consider is that the HTC, Sony and Samsung all have a lot bigger screens, so are quite a lot larger in size. Might be worth getting your hands on them to see if you think that are too large.

I initially thought my Xperia T was a bit too big, but now it seems fine and I don’t really notice the size. My old HTC desire looks like a little toy compared to it (but at the time, I thought the Desire was a bit big!!).

Cheers Mike, I think that’s what I’ll have to do. The app I want is the ‘RØDE Rec app’, I can use the mic I want on other phones, but there is supposed to be more hiss on non-iPhones, with other apps (only going off what I’ve read).

Stumpy – Thanks for that. The size issue is a good point too, I’ve a Blackberry at present and can’t imagine having anything much bigger.
Regarding iPhones, I’ve never had one…I can get the 4s for nearly £20pm less than the newer 5 models too.

I’ve recently moved from an iPhone 4 (which I quite liked), to an HTC One and am absolutely chuffed to bits with the move. I think it’s a great phone. Android works really well and you’d be fine with what comes out of the box but one of the beautiful things is if you don’t like it, you can change how it works. For example, I don’t like the launcher, so I changed it, it’s great now.

Little things like that make it excellent. Nice big, clear screen, great sound, does everything I want it to. If I had any complaint it’d be a lack of confidence in the app store. Everything on there looks suspicious to me (I do work in IT security though so it’s classic paranoia) .

It’s also the only Android phone I tried that felt as solid as an iPhone. proper metal case, really well put together.

Galaxy S3 here for a year and very, very pleased

I have mine in an Otterbox “clumsy ****” case and its size is prob as big as youd want, however when its naked its pretty easy to lug around
This time of the year it easily fits into a jacket or coat pocket, its OK in jeans if you dont want to carry much else in the pocket and although I was wondering how Id get on with it in summer the reality was it easily fits into the pockets of cargo shorts

The screen is superb and I wouldnt want to go back to a smaller handset TBH

Apple vs Android is always going to be a personal decision

cheers

I dropped my trusty S2 in te bath a while ago ans as a result of network related problems on my new network, I recently had both an HTC one and a galaxy s4

For the stuff that I do with my phone, web browsing, vnc-ing and telnetting into work, listeninng to music and playing the odd game, I realised that I didn’t actually need an all singing, all dancing massive phone. My “old” S2 was more than able to do everything a phone needs to, and can do.

You end up paying a huge premium for something that is in reality only fractionally better than what’s come before. To my mind all top end phones have more computational power than the operating system underneath can hope to utilize, so its ultimately wasted.

I settled on an xperia sp in the end and don’t regret my choice. Its not the largest, or has the fastest CPU , or the most memory, but apart from the camera being a bit poor, its coped with everything I’ve thrown at it without stuttering or stalling.

Having a larger screen was nice, but the bulge in my trouser pocket and the nuking of the battery life just wasn’t worth it.

The money I’m saving on my contract is going to something much more worthwhile… shiny bike bits! 🙂

As always – don’t discount Windows Phone. Nokia Lumia 925 is as nice as anything out there and the OS is lovely to use.

App support is massively improved from a few months ago and as Windows Phone is only a couple of % points behind iOS in the UK and most of Europe this will continue to improve.

At least have a play with one…

Thanks for all the info…off to the phone shop I go!