Upgrade: S3 or nexus 4?

bricky06

So I'm looking to upgrade my Desire HD and I am having trouble deciding between the two phones in title or waiting since there are a lot of 5"ish phones coming down the line since CES and MWC in a few weeks time. It will be a fair while before these are available in Ireland though right?

So my situation is;


haggled meteor girl down to €25p/m contract for s3 @ €250
nexus 4 8Gb in price range for €280
concerned about storage on nexus but cant quite afford 16Gb
also there's more screen to play with on s3
trying to sell my DHD to hopefully bring down price of upgrade


Any advice out there would be much appreciated.

Should I wait or should I go for one of these phones, which?

pickarooney

What, if anything is swaying you towards the Nexus? You've two pros to zero for the S3 there.

Ballyman

Don't forget the HTC One also. Great phone. I found the Samsungs to be a little plasticky compared to the HTC's

strandroad

Nexus is a beauty. But apparently S3's camera has an edge over Nexus's.

bricky06

yeah I should have fleshed that out a bit...

nexus pros:
stock android
updates
already on 4.2
it's beautiful!

TBi

I dislike android but I'd definitely get a nexus. Pure android is much better than any of the 'skinned' versions. Plus you know you'll get an upgrade, unlike Samsung.

bricky06

Ballyman wrote: »

Don't forget the HTC One also. Great phone. I found the Samsungs to be a little plasticky compared to the HTC's

i do like the One X - but meteor don't seem to be offering it any more and I can't afford it sim free unfortunately.

Dubwat

You can walk into any mobile phone shop and buy an S3 v. an 83 page thread on how to order a Nexus 4 in Ireland! It sounds like if you want one of these phones soon-ish, the S3 is your answer?

cgarrad

ARM Cortex-A15 phones coming soon which will render current gen near obsolete ;-)

bricky06

It's really not that complicated when you figure out what's going on, could order it right now if i decided to and there's a 1-2 week delivery time

bricky06

haha maybe I'll wait like 5 years to upgrade so I can get android 14.2

cgarrad

bricky06 wrote: »

It's really not that complicated when you figure out what's going on, could order it right now if i decided to and there's a 1-2 week delivery time

Can you give a one sentence way of getting a Nexus 4

bricky06

I would get my sister in the UK to buy it with a shipping address of my parcel motel a/c and pay her back.

Simples!

Gran Hermano

cgarrad wrote: »

Can you give a one sentence way of getting a Nexus 4

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=82077167&postcount=554 :rolleyes:

bricky06

Gran Hermano wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=82077167&postcount=554 :rolleyes:

yeah I was reading things like that in the forum but it was all very messy and I don't quite trust VPNs and credit cards so the process of my sister ordering it would be easier and it would work since it would be a UK card and UK address.

cgarrad

bricky06 wrote: »

I would get my sister in the UK to buy it with a shipping address of my parcel motel a/c and pay her back.

Simples!

You cant argue with that ;-)

Syferus

Was in much the same spot for ages after Christmas, a long contract S3 or bite the bullet and get an Nexus 4 up-front and save as much (if not more) on a better billpay plan. The Nexus coming back into stock (sorta) this week, the better build quality of it (Samsung don't make crap but let's be honest, the iPhone and N4 are a step ahead in terms of build quality and actual aesthetics) and the freedom of changing plans or opting for a new phone whenever I wanted really swung it heavily in the Nexus' favour for me.

The only thing that should give pause for thought is storage - if you want huge amounts of music or videos on your phone the upgradeable storage of the S3 could swing it. In my case the phone is for someone who isn't going to be lathering it in audio so 16GB was more than enough.

pickarooney

The Nexus 4 looks identical to every other phone out there in any photographs I've seen.
Plus you can't remove the battery, so rooting might be a problem, among other things.

aperture_nuig

pickarooney wrote: »

The Nexus 4 looks identical to every other phone out there in any photographs I've seen.
Plus you can't remove the battery, so rooting might be a problem, among other things.

What does one have to do with the other? Access to factory testing pins to put the phone in recovery mode or something like that?

G1032

aperture_nuig wrote: »

What does one have to do with the other? Access to factory testing pins to put the phone in recovery mode or something like that?

If something goes wrong during a custom ROM flash or whatever (Bootloops etc) you may well need to pull the battery. Can't do that on a Nexus

pickarooney

aperture_nuig wrote: »

What does one have to do with the other? Access to factory testing pins to put the phone in recovery mode or something like that?

I've only ever rooted a couple of phones but both needed the battery removed at points for Clockwork recovery to work.

BeanFlicker

I'm in the same situation myself, contract up next week and unsure what to decide on

Here's a comparison of both phones S3 VS N4 (PC Advisor)
S3 VS N4 (PhoneArena)

My personal Pro's & con's for each, and i'm still unsure what to go for

S3
Pro's:
Can purchase straight away in a b&m
Expandable memory
Removable battery
I have the Note 10.1 so would compliment well
Quality phone overall

Con's:
Tied into an 18 month contract
Can be slow for updates
S4 meant to be out in April

N4
Pro's:
Not tied into contract
Guaranteed quick updates
Something different than Samsung since I have the Note 10.1
Nicer build/design
Good reviews

Cons:
Made by LG (don't regard them for phones)
Crap dispatch times (however can get my sister in the UK to buy it for me)
Limited to 8/16 GB

(That's all I can think of at the moment)

Has anyone being using N4 for a while and what your opinions on it?

Syferus

The N4 is one of the most easily rooted devices, that's hardly an issue.

It's the flagship Android OS phone so of all things you can expect modding community support.

listermint

G1032 wrote: »

If something goes wrong during a custom ROM flash or whatever (Bootloops etc) you may well need to pull the battery. Can't do that on a Nexus

Well technically speaking you can...If you really wanted to

Bluefoam

Go into a carphone warehouse and get a one x+. The galaxy is a nasty plastic thing. The nexus is good but the glass on the back is nearly guaranteed to break. HTC all the way

Gran Hermano

Bluefoam wrote: »

Go into a carphone warehouse and get a one x+. The galaxy is a nasty plastic thing. The nexus is good but the glass on the back is nearly guaranteed to break. HTC all the way

How is the glass on the back guaranteed to break? Does that mean that the glass on the front of all other phones is also guaranteed to break?

HTC don't have a great record in releasing updates for hardware when they are more than 12 months old.

Bluefoam

There are a lot of reports of the glass on the back breaking. Have a Google or look on XDA.

Gran Hermano

Bluefoam wrote: »

There are a lot of reports of the glass on the back breaking. Have a Google or look on XDA.

I checked my own instead of reading the usual over exaggerations and after 5 weeks usage not a scratch.

evolutionqy7

Bluefoam wrote: »

There are a lot of reports of the glass on the back breaking. Have a Google or look on XDA.

There's no need to prove this. Look at every single iPhone 4/4S owner.

Id pick the S3 anyway. Its a great phone.

bricky06

OK I think I've decided on the S3... the phones coming down the line are going to annoy me either way but maybe I can sell and move on earlier than I have managed with my DHD.

bricky06

then a crafty Xperia Z came on the sceen and I'm back to square 1.

marko_polo1234

bricky06 wrote: »

then a crafty Xperia Z came on the sceen and I'm back to square 1.

Im in the same position as you now Sony Xperia Z vs Samsung GS3 v nexus 4 with an upgrade towards the end of the month!

bricky06

Yeah, it's not a great place to be in, I did some good research into the Z and that's pretty much what I'm going with now.
I managed to get a buyer for my DHD so I'm happy enough. Also there are decent headphones being given away with the Z if you pre-order so these would be nice, or at least worth a few quid to sell on and get back some cash spent on the phone.

2 concerns:
1. Meteor put an extortionate price on the Z.
2. I need to figure out how to reduce the size of those software keys taking up valuable screen real estate.

marko_polo1234

bricky06 wrote: »

Yeah, it's not a great place to be in, I did some good research into the Z and that's pretty much what I'm going with now.
I managed to get a buyer for my DHD so I'm happy enough. Also there are decent headphones been given away with the Z if you pre-order so these would be nice, or at least worth a few quid to sell on and get back some cash spent on the phone.

2 concerns:
1. Meteor put an extortionate price on the Z.
2. I need to figure out how to reduce the size of those software keys taking up valuable screen real estate.

Im on three, so hopefully i could get these too !

BeanFlicker

Another thing with Sony is that there terribly slow for releasing updates if you plan not to root your pone

And also, every new release is there flagship model

The Sony S (which I own) came out in March '12, since then atleast 5 new models have been released for example here

plus I'm still waiting on JB to be released

marko_polo1234

BeanFlicker wrote: »

Another thing with Sony is that there terribly slow for releasing updates if you plan not to root your pone

And also, every new release is there flagship model

The Sony S (which I own) came out in March '12, since then atleast 5 new models have been released for example here

plus I'm still waiting on JB to be released

I know that but this is the first sony smartphone to raise the bar in terms of competition and the critics are saying that this is real contender to the Galaxy S3/Note 2 for the title of best smartphone and I wouldnt be surprised if those handset sold by the millions and thus Sony would be forced to release updates for this phone

Riesen_Meal

marko_polo1234 wrote: »

I know that but this is the first sony smartphone to raise the bar in terms of competition and the critics are saying that this is real contender to the Galaxy S3/Note 2 for the title of best smartphone and I wouldnt be surprised if those handset sold by the millions and thus Sony would be forced to release updates for this phone

Actually this is the first Android phone of any manufacturer where Sony are actively working with the xda community and offering alphas of kernels and the like to bedroom hackers - there is a bright future in the modding community for this phone, more so than maybe even the nexus 4.....

BeanFlicker

marko_polo1234 wrote: »

I know that but this is the first sony smartphone to raise the bar in terms of competition and the critics are saying that this is real contender to the Galaxy S3/Note 2 for the title of best smartphone and I wouldnt be surprised if those handset sold by the millions and thus Sony would be forced to release updates for this phone

Hopefully anyways cos it's a contender for my next phone

Fieldog wrote: »

Actually this is the first Android phone of any manufacturer where Sony are actively working with the xda community and offering alphas of kernels and the like to bedroom hackers - there is a bright future in the modding community for this phone, more so than maybe even the nexus 4.....

Good to know, cheers

bricky06

I know I will eventually be rooting and changing roms but I would like to hold out for as long as possible because some of the baked in software like the camera app, the battery saving mode and the bravia engine look great. So hopefully updates don't take too long.

Does anyone here have any experience in changing the size of the navigation bar for phones with software keys?