I used to be pretty good with my tech knowledge but the last few years have whizzed by in a blur and I’m a bit out the loop.

I have had an iPhone 4 on three for the last 2 Years and its been fine but I’m getting a bit bored of it – already have iPad and I use macs at work and home and although iPhone 5 is obvious choice am I missing out by not having something like a galaxy s3.

I’ve invested a fair bit on apps but will still get the use of them with iPad.

Anyone have any opinions on iPhone 5 Vs “alternative phone”

Cheers

If you remain with Three then go with something that will support LTE as they have said it will be no fee to upgrade to LTE when they deploy it.

http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/02/11/our-ultrafast-commitment-2/

If you like the iPhone platform, would a 4S be a more cost-effective choice perhaps? The 4S and 5 are essentially ‘more of the same’; if you’re an advocate then it’s the obvious choice, if you’re a bit bored and want a change then they won’t scratch that itch.

OH had the same dilemma recently, went from a 4 to a Galaxy SIII. It’s been a learning curve and she says the app store isn’t as good, but she prefers it overall.

That new Sony phone looks good

am I missing out by not having something like a galaxy s3.

Only if you want a MASSIVE phone.

Unless there’s something really compelling about Android (or Windows Phone) for you, just buy an iPhone 5. Anything else will probably drive you insane and whatever any fanboy tells you, iOS is still the premier development platform for apps. Anything good gets released there first, with Android maybe later if they can be bothered.

If you don’t want a massive phone, get an iPhone 5?

..oO

Oh, come on – the SGS3 is a good deal chunkier, bit taller overall and much wider.

If you don’t want a massive phone, get a slightly less massive one.

Sony Experia Z looks good water proof and dust proof sorted for the bike

Don’t upgrade and fill the void in your life. If you are ‘bored’ with a phone, try getting yourself a hobby.

If you remain with Three then go with something that will support LTE as they have said it will be no fee to upgrade to LTE when they deploy it.

WooHoo! I’m on Three with an iP5. And it’s already faster round here on 3g than BT Broadband. (Actually it’s about double BT) 🙂

The mythical beast of a phone that is the S3 seems a bit bigger for about 5 mins then it’s just about right. Nice light, bright fast plenty of decent apps – just waiting for flickr & bbc sport but the current ones/web pages are fine.
Other plus points is you can start with 32gb and add another 64gb for £20 if you want it.
The battery is good and it lets you know whats eating battery & data so you can manage that if you need to (especially with LTE coming online)
The latest update has just added some more nice to have features and polished a few more things.

For me it’s the total integration that google has with the web/cloud stuff but thats more an android thing. That really wins especially with work using google apps.

A few months ago I switched from HTC Android to iPhone5. In my opinion Android is nicer. I especially like the widgets and the way the OS works, both make the iPhone feel like stepping back a few years.

I don’t regret swapping though. I love airplay for music to airport expresses plus music and video to apple TVs and a Raspberry PI.

In your position I’d stick to the iPhone to go with the rest of your gear.

You’re heavily invested in apple which makes sticking with apple kinda sensible. You’re not missing out on much with the 4 vs the 4s or 5 though so if that was my chosen route I’d wait to see what iPhone 5s/6 brings. If you want to swap to the future then it’s nexus 4 time (I’ve just swapped from an iPhone 4)!

the thing I liked most when I upgraded from my iphone 4 to a 5, was that I plugged it in and ten minutes later, had everything from my old phone up and running in a thinner, lighter, shinier package.

but then I don’t mind being bored by phones, they are just a tool.

I was in kinda the same situation recently – bored of iPhones but nothing else wowwed me me.

So I got a 5 simply because I could switch it on, log-in using my Apple ID and it was just all there, running as before, all synced and apps loaded up.

And I gave my wife my 4 (same steps for her).

Then sold her old 3G for £115 on Ebay.

The most time consuming bit of the whole process was queuing in the post office to send off the 3G.

I’m generally an iPhone user – have an iPhone 5 att he mo. I’m not a big fan of Android – too many different ways of doing the same thing! I’m sure if I used it more I’d probably get used to it, but I’m all to familiar with iPhones to bother!

However, been playing with the new BlackBerry Z10 recently – and I like that a lot! It’s great for email (as you’d expect), and generally just pretty solid. The keyboard is very impressive! No Strava yet… but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time!

Nick

If I had an iPhone 4 I really wouldn’t see any reason to upgrade to a 5. It’s plenty fast enough and it’s got the retina display. Doesn’t have Siri but I don’t know anyone who has it that actually uses it (after the novelty has worn off in the first few days.) iOS is getting a bit tired and is horribly cheesy in places, falling way behind hardware in design stakes, badly needs a refresh. Some of the stupid restrictions Apple put in place (even though they can mostly be worked around) are quite annoying.. I could go on about that all day!

Android still looks and feels a bit hobbyist to me.

I’d be tempted to look at Windows Phone’s as the interface does look fresh and clean, but I hear the app store isn’t great yet compared to Apple and Android.

LTE, I’d probably want a compatible phone if I was buying now… but I’m not sure why. If I’ve got decent 3G there isn’t really anything I’d want to do on my phone that I can’t at the moment. 3G is quick enough to stream video (when the app and network allow it) even though that can get expensive quickly! If I could just have a good reliable 3G service I’d be happy.

Edit: forgot about blackberry. Amazed they are still going. The press have been predicting their demise for a couple of years now but they seem to be hanging on in there. No idea who is buying them. Corporates no longer seem to want them. I think it’s just BBM that keeps them going.

I have an iPhone 4s and like it, wife has a Galaxy S3 and she likes it.
If I were to get a new phone soon I would be very tempted by the new Blackberry Z10 .

A reason not to buy apple…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2208298/iPhone-5-Apple-adds-authentication-chip-charger-cable-stop-parties-making-cheaper-versions.html

I bought one from Ebay and it works. Cost me £2.99 I think.

But I did have to file the edge slightly to make it fit.

without question i’d buy a nexus 4 from google then combine it with a sim only deal from a network provider. best value around at the moment and most flexible.

I bought my 5 from Apple and use it on GiffGaff (£10 a month).

Given that our 5 yr old 3G has just sold for £115 I think the Apple still takes some beating for lifetime cost of ownership.

EDIT: £88

I didn’t think the Galaxy S3 was that big at all (Note 2 owner)
(which is superb, but big)

Nexus 4 or S3 mini? The quick setup on apple through your account is exactly the same as what happens on android. Of course you need the android/Google account in the first place, but changing between ‘ecosystems’is always going to be a bit more work than changing phones within one.

As for airplay etc, I’ve got a £2 app on my nexus that lets me stream stuff from my nas to my TV/tablet/phone. The apple equivalent might do more (?) But you pay for it.

If I had an iPhone 4 I really wouldn’t see any reason to upgrade to a 5

they phoned me and offered to send me one the next day for no cost, dropped my monthly price and gave me an extra GB of data.

TooTall – Member
Don’t upgrade and fill the void in your life. If you are ‘bored’ with a phone, try getting yourself a hobby.

Harsh! 😉

However, why not go to sim only until the next iPhone comes out. I’m finding these days that there’s not much point upgrading till you’re getting two or three leaps of model. I wasn’t so sure until I looked into it and am now “saving” myself around £40 a month on a rolling 90 day contract.

Hehe – yeah I thought it a bit harsh too…. playing guitar and riding my bikes is plenty enough hobbies for me thanks….. and being self employed and married with 3 kids ensures theres no void in my life…..but back to the phone – a tool for helping me run my business and keep on top of my personal life!

I guess it makes sense really for me to go to the iphone 5 and nothing i’ve seen or heard seems to make anything else out there seem much better.

Remember the days when (after 12 months) you upgraded to the latest and greatest phone and it seemed like a quantum leap in technology? iOS has barely changed since launch really although it is pretty polished and does do what its supposed to I guess…. just nice to have something “cutting edge” every now and then.

Self-employed here too OP. cost savings per month were more attractive than not much of a leap in terms of tech.

Remember the days when (after 12 months) you upgraded to the latest and greatest phone and it seemed like a quantum leap in technology? iOS has barely changed since launch really although it is pretty polished and does do what its supposed to I guess…. just nice to have something “cutting edge” every now and then.

Yep the rest of the world is moving on apple know that in the end you will go I’ve had one it worked i’ll just play safe and have another one….

For years certain sections of the media have told us that a 3.5″ screen was the correct size, anything smaller was “tiny” anything larger was ridiculously large, remember the guffaws when the Desire HD was released? In reality a 4.7″ screen is absolutely fine unless you’re a hobbit.

All the major phones/software have drawbacks

Android can be a bit flakey and is fragmented across devices plus you get Google and a lot of apps spying on your every action – naff off Google

iPhone – weirdly for the standard bearers and democratisers of smart phones they seem a touch old fashioned, maybe a bit rudderless since SJ karked it. Yes it all works (except the laughable maps) but you have to do things the Apple way, oh and of course the Apple tax. I don’t really get the form factor change either – what does it add, seems small these days.

Windows – well WP8 – all looks fresh seems to get good reviews but limited and expensive hardware, small ap store, currently only shipping about 3% of all smart phones (although more in UK) – are windows as “spy-ey” as Google dunno.

Blackberry – dunno never really used one, all the teens love em.

In your situation an LTE iP5 seems the easy choice to make, there really isn’t anything much you’re missing out on with Android other than big screens and customisation, depends how much you like to fiddle

Personally got a Nexus 4 which seems ok and a dirt cheap sim, I’ll look at getting a Ubuntu or Mozilla phone when the Nexus gets tired.

Personally got a Nexus 4 which seems ok and a dirt cheap sim, I’ll look at getting a Ubuntu or Mozilla phone when the Nexus gets tired.

I think you can drop the ubuntu onto the nexus (which maybe why I want one to play with)

I think you can drop the ubuntu onto the nexus (which maybe why I want one to play with)

Interesting, thanks. I’ll look into that.

http://androidandme.com/2013/01/smartphones-2/first-ubuntu-phone-os-download-for-galaxy-nexus-to-be-available-in-february/
http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

Yep the rest of the world is moving on apple know that in the end you will go I’ve had one it worked i’ll just play safe and have another one….

😆

There’s a surprise.

For me it’s the apps.

Long story short bullet point style
* Irrational hatred towards Apple, had an Android phone
* Wished to buy tablet, better support for OS on Apple stuff than Android (had to resort upgradring to custom roms to upgrade Android phone as Motorola are useless)
* Purchased an Apple iPad due to higher quality apps IMHO
* Grew tired of Android apps being flaky in comparison
* Swapped the Android phone for an iPhone 4
* Result = happy with phone and not bothered nor tempted by the 4S or 5

Avoid the Sony phones as although they seem good out of the box, Sony are very much way behind in terms of offering software updates in order to keep the phones up to date…..they have so much potential but are let down by woeful technical support from Sony
had mine for 15 months, my niece has had hers for 9 months….both of us very frustrated with how the phones have performed in the long term…..
cant wait for the contract to finish so i can get another Samsung…

If it were your first smartphone I’d recommend a Nexus 4, but as you’re upgrading from an iPhone 4, and have a full Mac setup… no brainer: the iPhone 5. Learning how to use Android when you’re used to iOS would be a pain, and you’ll have to buy all your apps again. Same applies to WinPhones or Blackberry.

Whens the next iPhone version coming out ?
overdue an upgrade time on both iphone 4, is it worth going to a 5 or waiting for the next iteration ?

6310i cannot go wrong. just do all the other crap at home on the laptop, I have a Galaxy 3 now, its cool but when it crashes and in a hurry to so stuff and battery life crap, the 6310i still is the best tool for the job.