iPhone 4 or HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S

[Expiry]

The contract on my iPhone 3 is almost up and I'm looking for a new phone. I know there are issues with the reception on the iPhone 4 AND everyone seems to have an iPhone now, so I fancy a change.

You guys are experts on everything, so if you can offer any insight into any of the above models - or any other that I've missed - I'd be grateful.

 

[Domski]

The contract's coming to the end on the love/hate relationship that I've had with my Nokia 5800 so I've been doing a bit of research as I'm seriously thinking about buying a phone outright and going for a sim only deal.

Quite a few of my friends have jumped on the iPhone 4 bandwagon and most love it in a quite disturbing way. I think a lot of the reported problems are over hyped and in general it's an excellent phone. I won't be getting one though as I don’t think it's as good as the Desire (or possibly the Galaxy) and the cost of buying one outright or on contract is more than I can justify paying.

The HTC Desire which a couple of other friends have got is probably the best of the bunch. It just seems to do everything really well, even better than the iPhone. My only problem with it is the size as it’s a bit of a beastie and won’t exactly sit comfortably in my pocket along with all the other crap I carry on a night out. On the plus side I’ve found some contract deals for around £25 which I could live with although the price to buy outright is still high.

I know little about the Galaxy as I’ve not seen one in the flesh but from the reviews it sounds like another iPhone beater.

I’m also seriously looking at the Sony Ericcson Experia X10 Mini Pro. It’s got some really good reviews and as long as they keep to their part of the deal of updating it from Android 1.6 it looks very tempting. Whilst I like a lot of the extra bells and whistles that come with the more expensive and powerful smartphones I don’t really use half of the features that they have. As long as it’s got email, maps, internet and a music player then I’m a happy bunny. I’ve found it for £200 which with the £70-£80 money I’ll get for recycling my Nokia means I can have a really cheap sim only deal I can get out of at any time and not have to worry about a contract again.

This might interest you:

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone...desire-vs-iphone-4-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-702739

Dom

 

[yytsunamiyy]

I have my Sony Ericson W890i for almost 3 years now - it's got everything I need -email, 3G-internet (HSDPA) and through that google maps, a decent MP3-player, bluetooth that allows synching with Outlook, even a half-way decent Camera - all I really need. It doesn't have a fancy touchscreen and the screen is a bit poxy for reading websites, but I got used to that. The only thing I am actually missing is an build-in GPS module. I wont be shopping for another smartphone anytime soon.

 

[Domski]

I have my Sony Ericson W890i for almost 3 years now

Another few months and it'll start going up in value again as it reaches antique status

The only reason I change my phone often is I have a rather bad habit of breaking them. The last one went for a swim with me in a mountain lake and was never quite the same afterwards and many others have been the victim of similar unfortunate accidents.

Dom

 

[RoryA]

FWIW, I upgraded from the iPhone 3G to the 4 and I love it. Have not experienced any signal issues and it's so much faster than my old one it's unbelievable. More importantly, from my point of view, the cost of the upgrade was almost entirely offset by the amount I could get as trade-in for my old one (difference was about £20 in the end).
I should add that I generally hate Mac users for their blinkered "Apple can do no wrong" views, but I do still generally believe that Apple's products make a lot of sense for the technorami in my life...

 

[sulakvea]

an HTC fan here - so you may not wanna listen to my biased opinion, but i would recommend HTC over iPhone, hands down.

the only bad thing about Evo is it's way too big. an excellent multimedia device, but wont fit in your pocket easily. there are a few other options out there (anything that uses snaprdagon 1ghz or equvalent) would technically be in the same "class" as iP4 or Evo (4G capability aside, obviously). includes droid, couple samsungs, etc. the rest is a matter of preference - whether you care about camera, provider, having a slide out qwerty, etc.

 

[Von Pookie]

FWIW, I upgraded from the iPhone 3G to the 4 and I love it. Have not experienced any signal issues and it's so much faster than my old one it's unbelievable.

Ditto that. It actually took me a few days to get used to the speed.

As far as the signal issues are concerned, I haven't had any that are phone-related. I think a lot of it simply comes down to how good your signal is to begin with. Everyone seems to complain about AT&T but we've had no problems with our phones. The only place I've ever been where my 3G turned absolutely useless was down in New Orleans during Mardi Gras this past Feb.

Our service at home has no problems. Of course, we're not in a huge area (ie Chicago, New Orleans, etc), either. We've been having some spotty service at home lately but that's on both my iPhone and my husband's Nexus One, so it's not the phone(s).

 

[Colin Legg]

My better half has an HTC which is very cool, but I'm going to get an iPhone 4. I've been (cautiously) holding off until all this signal business has died down...

 

[sous2817]

My wife just got the Motorola Droid X and loves it. From what I've read in terms of reviews it's on par with the iphone in terms of the actual phone / features.

 

[RobMatthews]

HTC Desire here. Love it. But then everyone is going to say that they love their own phone. I had another play around with an iphone the other day, and hated it just as much. There just seems to be so much more flexibility and speed to Desire. Plus multi-tasking, and expandable memory (up to 32Gb), and replacable battery, std MicroUSB port, etc.