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Help choosing a smartphone

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  1. #1

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    Help choosing a smartphone

    I dont have one, need to get one as I'm feeling left out.
    Since Samsung seems to be a well used & recomended brand I looked at it carefully and found one that I liked.

    Samsung Mega -- big screen, decent processor, reasonable price (just below 3K) and fairly decent reviews. There are others that are much better (and much more expensive) but this seems to be good enough for what I need it for. I need a phone, a bit of surfing&email, decent battery and play a few games now and then. Will definitely watch a few movies too.

    Should I be looking at other brands with similar specs? I know there are a lot of knowledgable people here and I'm looking for pointers to other brands&models with similar characteristics so I can go do some more homework before finally buying one.


  2. #2

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    First thing - what's your immigration status?

    No, but seriously a few questions:

    - Budget
    - What do you want to use it for?
    - How "techie" are you?
    - Do you have a favourite brand or a brand you will refuse to use?
    - Do you require 2g/3g/4g?
    - How much data do you think you will use?
    - Will you stream?
    - Will you watch movies / tv shows from the phone?


  3. #3

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    If you are going for a biggish screen size and a good battery life, also consider the HTC Butterfly.

    Sent from my GT-N7100 using GeoClicks mobile app

    HowardCoombs likes this.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by HowardCoombs:
    I dont have one, need to get one as I'm feeling left out.
    Since Samsung seems to be a well used & recomended brand I looked at it carefully and found one that I liked.

    Samsung Mega -- big screen, decent processor, reasonable price (just below 3K) and fairly decent reviews. There are others that are much better (and much more expensive) but this seems to be good enough for what I need it for. I need a phone, a bit of surfing&email, decent battery and play a few games now and then. Will definitely watch a few movies too.

    Should I be looking at other brands with similar specs? I know there are a lot of knowledgable people here and I'm looking for pointers to other brands&models with similar characteristics so I can go do some more homework before finally buying one.
    very large screen 6.3"but 720p (720 x 1280), not very high resolution, 720p super sharp on 4"to 5", but anything bigger, it's not that decent, at best ok, especially viewing high resolution photograph or hd films, even watching 720p looks better on a 1080p ( called supersampling), but at HK$3600 is ok price (but the downgrade on cpu and screen res is the compromise), the snapdragon 400 is also ok,, well, not blistering fast, but it's fast enough for average user.

    http://www.price.com.hk/product.php?p=153345

    if you can upp the ante, you get Full hd resolution 1080p (1080 x 1980) and super fast cpu at snapdragon 800 for HK$5000 which is twice as fast as snapdragon 400

    htc one max, premium luxury aluminium case phone, slightly smaller screen, sd card, but it's snapdragon 600 is fast, but not the fastest compared to bottom 2 phones

    http://www.price.com.hk/product.php?p=162493

    or the sony xperia z ultra, HK$4880
    waterproof, control the entire phone with tv remote ( with sony mhl adaptor) and watch movies,change track for mp3, even ps3 controller support as standard, sd card as well

    or galaxy note 3 , super vivid oled screen, ultra fast usb 3, 5.7"phone at HK$5000, sd card support as well
    Last edited by imparanoic; 14-11-2013 at 11:03 PM.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    First thing - what's your immigration status?
    No, but seriously a few questions:
    - Budget
    - What do you want to use it for?
    - How "techie" are you?
    - Do you have a favourite brand or a brand you will refuse to use?
    - Do you require 2g/3g/4g?
    - How much data do you think you will use?
    - Will you stream?
    - Will you watch movies / tv shows from the phone?
    I'm a PR jelous of the PRs in Macao.
    Budget : 3-4K is fine.
    Use : Very little phone,a lot more comminications (Skype/Whatsapp), a bit of gaming, very little music, an hour per day of video, mostly doing emails & social media
    Techie : I can be but prefer not to. I like Apple's model (it just works) but I dont like Apple nor its prices.
    Brand : Dont really care too much but I prefer a big name so its easy to search for solutions to common problems&annoyances. I've never done Android so I will have a lot of dumb questions that I will need answers for.
    Speed : 2-3g will be fine. 4 is luxury but not essential. Most of the time, I'll be Wifi
    Data : not much, very little streaming (a youtube video here and there), no downloading.
    Movie/TV : I have a central media server. I will load up phone with shows from my collection.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Proplus:
    If you are going for a biggish screen size and a good battery life, also consider the HTC Butterfly.

    Sent from my GT-N7100 using GeoClicks mobile app
    but why consider butterfly s when the htc one max is only HK$200 difference, also when the one max is almost an inch bigger and the one max is better build quality

    http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3...&idPhone2=5704

  7. #7

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    In that case, why not keep your existing phone and get an ipad mini to go with it?

    Sent from my GT-N7100 using GeoClicks mobile app

    East_coast and INXS like this.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by HowardCoombs:
    I'm a PR jelous of the PRs in Macao.
    Budget : 3-4K is fine.
    Use : Very little phone,a lot more comminications (Skype/Whatsapp), a bit of gaming, very little music, an hour per day of video, mostly doing emails & social media
    Techie : I can be but prefer not to. I like Apple's model (it just works) but I dont like Apple nor its prices.
    Brand : Dont really care too much but I prefer a big name so its easy to search for solutions to common problems&annoyances. I've never done Android so I will have a lot of dumb questions that I will need answers for.
    Speed : 2-3g will be fine. 4 is luxury but not essential. Most of the time, I'll be Wifi
    Data : not much, very little streaming (a youtube video here and there), no downloading.
    Movie/TV : I have a central media server. I will load up phone with shows from my collection.
    Would you consider the Moto G? Will be super cheap, under HK$2k. Excellent mid range specs for the price. Will be out within a month or so.

    Or else, for the price you can get the Nexus 5. Top range specs, mid range price.

    In both cases though, no expandable memory.

    In both cases, very close to a pure Android experience as possible.

    I think the HTC One is probably the best non Nexus Android phone out there at the moment though. But might be a bit over your budget (however I saw someone advertising a new HTC One on the other site's classifieds for HK$3.5k, which is a bargain for that phone).

    However, if you do want a "dumb" smartphone, i.e. something that is easy to use, I would suggest you do have a look at the iphone 5c.
    Last edited by pin; 14-11-2013 at 11:08 PM.
    imparanoic and HowardCoombs like this.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Proplus:
    In that case, why not keep your existing phone and get an ipad mini to go with it?

    Sent from my GT-N7100 using GeoClicks mobile app
    ipad mini is 4:3 ratio, nasty huge borders when watching films and tv (, not the best for video, but 4:3 ratio is better for internet browering and ebooks

    if the tablet is being considered 16:9 ratio would be ideal for films and tv, ie, nexus 7 or lg g pad

    also ipad mini is only avalible at 16gb, mini retina is expensive at 32, 64gb very expensive esp when you can get 10"tablets for same price

  10. #10

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    What do you guys think of the Xiaomi mi3 with snapdragon 800 processor? Will probably be released next month. For 1999 rmb it's very attractive.

    East_coast and mrdollars like this.

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