Android at the moment.

 

Getting sick & tired of Samsung's poor battery life, the SGS 6 is a poor device with non removable (upgradable) battery, no expansion slot & no FM (or DAB) radio.

 

I won't have an iPhone, because of the issues with Bluetooth and the lack of ability to transfer files easily between phones, the lack of expansion slots, I use around 60Gb of storage currently (memory card & internal memory). The screen resolution is non standard too.

 

Considering a Microsoft Lumia 1030 as the next one for the 50mpx camera & FM radio or Xperia Z4 (Specification dependent), I may even give up using mobiles altogether as I don't use them much (I don't have any true friends that I want to call), other than as a diary, camera & mp3 player 

Thanks guys theres some interesting view points. One of the things I had thought about was car integration though my Roomy when it gets here only has an aux input, dont think itll do any more than that anyway.

Got to say my experience with my S3 has been a very poor one, iphones are very costly and I really dont want another contract if I can avoid it.

Just had to replace my s3 battery as it was draining, then started shutting off at 40%.

Got an Anker battery for £10 + delivery from Amazon.

Never had an iPhone, currently on Windows Lumia.

Thanks guys theres some interesting view points. One of the things I had thought about was car integration though my Roomy when it gets here only has an aux input, dont think itll do any more than that anyway.

Got to say my experience with my S3 has been a very poor one, iphones are very costly and I really dont want another contract if I can avoid it.

 

TBQH, I would always buy a phone outright. The reason being that if you buy it on contract and then lose your job, have issues with the network you're on or even run into financial troubles you're stuck with the phone & a contract which these days is usually between 18 & 24 months.

 

Buy it outright and more importantly SIM FREE, it means you're not locked into a long term contract, so if you do then lose your job, have issues with the network you're on or even run into financial troubles you're not going to stuck with the phone & a contract that could be financially crippling.

 

I always buy outright, because even though I'm in a pretty secure job, I don't trust my employer one inch and they could if they wanted to get shot of me for something stupidly small & trite and so I always take out a 30 day rolling contract, so if the worst were to happen, I could terminate it with just the cost of £20, instead of £100 or more! It also gives me the flexibility to change networks easily and I'm not locked to a certain network.

 

It has now been proven that the best way to own a phone is to buy it outright as you're not continually paying for both phone & connection, which you are with a contract.

 

GSMR arena is quite a good place to look for new & upcoming mobiles & you get some quite good, detailed reviews as well, just remember to ignore the gibberish & wibble of the comments sections, as it seems that a lot of the comments come from those who couldn't string a grammatically correct sentence together if they tried or have English as a second or third language! 

Now that also what worries me too, exactly the same reasons.

iPhones and iPad for me every time ,so easy to use ,Bluetooth sync easy with the Columbus got a new 4s under £150 payg not too big to carry,lots of plus points only slight downside is the battery life but my main needs are for the phone and camera so nothing exotic required.

+1 on sim free.

Works out so much cheaper. Only killer is the price of some flagship models - especially if new/just launched.

Went with an open mind at renewal this time, now that Apple have finally increased their screen size.

 

Test drove both apples in store, then "borrowed" a family members 6 for the afternoon.

 

Was not impressed at all with either of the 6's.  And then when you factor in the cost v spec its just crazy to pick them over a cheaper more powerful alternative.

 

Stuck with android, a LG G3 , this time.  Plus got a great renewal deal making it over half the cost of a basic 6.

I've had iPhones since the forst one in 2007 and have little experience of anything else.

 

In that respect I feel unable to comment on Android or Windows phones.

 

Nuff said.

iPhone = overpriced underspecced and too restrictive for those that want to be abel to 'control' thier own phone themselves.  However they do work and are good for technophobes

Android = easy to use, expandable, hackable and unrestrictive.  However not always as easy to use as and iPhone and potentially more prone to problems.  Also many come with unnecessary user interfaces.

 

Hence I'd favour vanilla Android.

A guy in work has been slagging me for being an Applephile but  as a technophobe I now won't get anything else. I have an iPhone 6, iPad and iMac. You just take them out the box, switch them on and off you go. I like my music and the ease of transferring CDs to my phone (via my iMac) is a winner in my book.

A guy in work has been slagging me for being an Applephile but  as a technophobe I now won't get anything else. I have an iPhone 6, iPad and iMac. You just take them out the box, switch them on and off you go. I like my music and the ease of transferring CDs to my phone (via my iMac) is a winner in my book.

 

But is that with a cable or via Bluetooth? I can do both & via card reader and USB memory stick as well. 

But is that with a cable or via Bluetooth? I can do both & via card reader and USB memory stick as well. 

In English please ?

Being a bit of an android fanboy. That's one of the good things about iPhones, if you have other apple products, they sync together wonderfully and there's very little messing around.

 

I would much rather my Nexus 5 over any apple product however but that's the beauty of it, each person has completely different requirements for what they need from their phone.

 

The only real way is to use both phones yourself, see which one you prefer, don't be overly swayed by the Apple phones having lower spec, since the software is optimised for the hardware much more than on android the apps still run great - even if some of the free android apps are paid for on the app store.

 

Swings and round-a-bouts, depends completely what you want/your circumstances are.

 

Source: Work in a phone shop

 

Mike

But is that with a cable or via Bluetooth? I can do both & via card reader and USB memory stick as well.

The Apple products can sync over wifi or Bluetooth as well as by cable and it would appear that Android phones will lose those SD card slots now that Samsung has taken the leap, with HTC trying before that too. Whenever I've had large amounts of data on SD cards I find it amazing the amount of errors that appear in the data so I can't understand why people love them so much, give me a larger SSD any day, regardless of the OS.

As mcornall said it just comes down to personal preference. When I've tried Android phones such as the HTC M8 I loved the phone it's self but I don't find play store as good and the apps aren't as optomised as Google isn't as stringent on applying set standards across the apps. I also miss the compatibility across platforms iOS & OS X, so if I leave my phone downstairs and use the iMac upstairs I can sync new songs etc to my phone, or notes, or if I get a call I can answer on the Mac and same with the texts without actually needing to get my phone. So for me it's the entire ecosystem that stands the Apple products apart because it make MY life easier. If that's not what others look for then Android my be the product for others either way you get some great tech and with HTC and now Samsung you can get that little bit of extra quality too.

Samsung are one of the last to ditch SD slots and removable batteries.  Given how cheap 128gb chips are now, it's hardly surprising.

 

As for Syncing, you can do what you do with Apple with Android as well.  I can load something on the PC, and sync it over to my phone wherever it is - I do this between phone, tablet and PC all the time.

Question for the iPhone mob.

 

How can you sync an iPhone with a PC? Cable or Bluetooth? 

 

If Bluetooth, how come because you can't normally link anything other than a Mac to iPhone wirelessly.

USB Lightening cable using iTunes installed on your PC

So no using Bluetooth to transfer anything across then. They really do need to get that sorted out PDQ, it's one of iPhones biggest stumbling blocks & foibles and one that puts a lot of potential customers off.

 

That and not having an FM/DAB radio built in. If they were to build an iPhone with full Bluetooth connectivity & a FM/DAB Radio in, I'd have one. Albeit a 128 GB one! 

At the end of the day pc to apple is cross platform. They fully support cloud sync between apple devices though, been reading up. That said Samsung have Kies that syncs via wifi as well as usb and thats cross platform isnt it.

Everyone is dropping FM receivers as the majority of users stream music now

Never used the FM radio on my S3 the whole time Ive had it because when ever I do try it Im warned about needing the headset plugged in so lose interest at that point.

Everyone is dropping FM receivers as the majority of users stream music now

 

Which is fine if you live, work & never leave a large town or city!

 

It's a crap idea if you live in the countryside, only go to town for work & travel in the countryside for your work & holiday. An FM/DAB radio gives you the option and it can be useful if you're at a football match or for news/weather & travel.

 

The mobile networks in the UK are TBQH crap, there's simply too many black spots for streaming to be of any use unless you're basically a townie who never leaves town, in which case you're missing an awful lot! 

Depends on the network.

Vodafone is diabolical and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. O2 comes a close 2nd for poor service.

Personally comparing both against my personal EE run phone, there are now very few places I can't get a signal or data connection slower than H. Anywhere I can't get a signal, none of the others can either.

Depends on the network.

Vodafone is diabolical and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. O2 comes a close 2nd for poor service.

Personally comparing both against my personal EE run phone, there are now very few places I can't get a signal or data connection slower than H. Anywhere I can't get a signal, none of the others can either.

I agree totally on Vodafone - I can get 20% off with them but even that wouldn't tempt me back.