Which phone do you have - and would you recommend it?

[Martina Wade]

This week news came out that apple and android between them have 96.3% of the smartphone market - strikes me as a crazy high figure although I'm not all that surprised..

What do you think? And what phone have you got, and why? Would you recommend it?

 

[ExplorerBDM]

Apple iPhone 4S.

Whatever anyone says, Apple are still the best.

As for a former major 'player' in the market, have you ever tried using a Blackberry... awful!

 

[SangDuong]

iPhone 5s

100% Apple.

Even the Gas Engineers for British Gas use iPhones and I am sure they dont even need smartphones.

 

[ParcelBright]

I'd always opt for an Android phone because:

• They are cheaper for the same tech
• More control to the user
• Replaceable battery/parts
• Compatible with all the free Google services
• Non-proprietary accessories and software

I have owned an iPhone 1, iPhone 3G, HTC Dream, HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S3, and now I've got a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

I'd highly recommend the Note 3. It's a "phablet" sized phone, and might be intimidating at first - but after a few days, you won't notice it's size and will find other phones too tiny.

It really is a much better experience.

If you must indulge in fashion, the the iPhone 6 Plus is the next best option.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Snom 300. Yes, would recommend.

 

[The Byre]

I have tried them all. I tried a hydrophone, but nobody could understand what I was saying, as I had my mouth full of water. Then I tried a headphone, but it was just too quiet. Then I used a polyphone, but the feathers kept getting up my nose. A sousaphone was no use either, as was a saxophone - they were loud enough, but neither made much sense. The xylophone was just too awkward for mobile use.

Then I tried a telephone.

Much better and no feathers!

 

[sirearl]

9 quid Samsung from Tesco,does all a phone is supposed to do.

 

[Jeff FV]

I'm with Earl on this one. I have a 10 quid Nokia from Tesco that makes calls, receives calls and has a battery life of little short of forever.

 

[Nuno]

£35 Cubot running Jelly Bean. Does what I want, send, receive, text, email on 2 numbers with different tones so I know who is calling: Mum or Mrs Nuno. Cards top up £10 month from Gifgaff and if I lose/break/throw away the phone it is cheap enough not to give a monkey's. This one is 15 months old so far.

 

[simon field]

£35 Cubot

Ah but did you get one of these badboys with it?

 

[tony84]

I have an android - hate the thing and cant wait to get back to a blackberry - roll on October.

 

[Martina Wade]

Thanks all! I have an iPhone myself after going through nokia, samsung and sony ericssons.. The latter two laste under a year each - the nokia served me well for 7 years. But don't think I'll go back, my iPhones have also proven to last me for ages - had a 3Gs for 4 years, which I replaced mainly because the screen was cracked (my own fault) and it was getting a bit slow. Have 4s now - have had it for 3 years, still going strong.

 

[S Isaac]

Samsung S4, have had it a little under two years having come from an iphone 4.

Would never go back to over-prived and overly restrictive apple again.

A perfect example was dropping my phone in water a week or so ago, £7.29 part from ebay later and it's all fixed.

Had it been an iphone I would not have been able to take the battery out quickly and most likely be looking at several hundred pounds to repair/replace it.

 

[Dan Izzard]

iPhone 5s at the moment - although I find the screen too small. It's the first iPhone I've had - it's been ok but I do find it restrictive. Yesterday I tried emailing a video to someone and couldn't unless it was compressed. Then I tried plugging in the USB and it tried to make me download iTunes to do anything. Then I gave up...

@ParcelBright - I did have a look at the Note 3 the other day and the Galaxy S6 Edge does look great.

As with the 'Is a Macbook a suitable work laptop' thread, I wonder whether most people need something with more ram than your average office PC. Saying that - I reckon I could do an entire days work on my phone if I really needed to.

Apps that I use and couldn't do without are:

Gmail - the entire office runs on Drive
Twitter - managing multiple accounts
Drive - accessing documents in meetings/remotely
Camera - Always suprises me how much I need it as a back up at events for a quick panorama shot for Twitter etc.

Apart from that, I've only got 100 mins included in my contract and barely reach it... Is it a phone anymore?!

 

[sirearl]

I wonder whether most people need something with more ram than your average office PC.

Er probably because the phones are used mainly for playing games.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Google Nexus 4 ....nice phone (paid £125 for it about a year ago), I never buy the latest & greatest ...that's for those who want to keep up with the Jones's

 

[john1989]

I have a 5S and agree with Dan's analysis. I do like the easy navigation and simplicity that Apple offer though.

My girlfriend has just got the 6 which seems to be ok. However, when we were at Carphone Warehouse I was playing with the Samsungs - the screens were really responsive and clear. I will be looking at them when the time comes for me to upgrade.

 

[MASSEY]

I'm not joking, this is my current phone and has been for 3 years

Best phone i've ever had.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Lol, I recently had a problem with the earpiece of my Google Nexus 4, so pressed my aged nokia into play....loved the battery life (which was about 12 days!)...& love it as a phone.

then I had to make a text ...it was like the 1990s all over again...about 15 minutes to write a sentence!

 

[MASSEY]

Lol, I recently had a problem with the earpiece of my Google Nexus 4, so pressed my aged nokia into play....loved the battery life (which was about 12 days!)...& love it as a phone.

then I had to make a text ...it was like the 1990s all over again...about 15 minutes to write a sentence!

Battery life is a dream.

I will have no choice but to go back to smartphones soon, i need internet access on the go.

The good thing about cheap phones is that you can treat them like shit and they still work. I dropeed this one down the stairs about 10 times since i had it.

 

[smo]

Samsung Galaxy Alpha, love it, great phone

 

[Morrjo]

iPhone 5, Ive been happy with it but do feel like I need a change, just for the sake of it. I would like to try a OnePlus One, seems like an interesting company and their first phone got really good reviews everywhere. And costs a fraction of an iPhone or Samsung by the way.

http://print24.com/blog/2015/03/oneplus-says-its-expanding-beyond-smartphones-but-whats-next/

 

[Pish_Pash]

I wish they could invent a hybrid...i.e. one that most of the time just acts as a great basic phone with a massive standby battery life, but with the option for smartphone features when needed...it seems most smartphones sump power even when in standby. Most of the time I just need a phone that's charged...but occasionally may want to send a text & have become quite partial to using voice to send a text (which needs CPU processing power)....I certainly couldn't go back to texting using old style phone buttons.

 

[StevePoster]

I own an Samsung android phone and i find it very useful and multitasking unlike i-phones that has restrictions and limitations mostly on sharing.

 

[Ian J]

I have had a Samsung S3 for a couple of years which is about due to be upgraded. The obvious upgrade will be the S6 in a couple of months but it depends on the price as I don't intend to pay any more than the £34 per month that I'm currently paying as I'm not a technophobe and couldn't care less about most of the whizzy things that these smartphones can do.

Apart from basic phone calls, messaging and the occasional photograph the only apps that I ever use are TripAdvisor when I'm abroad and Google maps has also been useful when I got lost in Spain last year.

Having moved to Android from Blackberry I do find that the latter is better for a number of things including email handling

 

[Nuno]

Technophile.

 

[Ian J]

Technophile.

Whoops

 

[kevinof]

Motorola X 2014 with Android Lollipop.

Why Android? The "Share with" option! Let's me share anything to anything which is a real time saver when you get documents, messages etc from so many different sources.

 

[afishinsea]

Iphone 6 here, expensive but I would recommend it - upgraded from a 4 at beginning of year. We have a device library for app studio testing and this is the one I always went to first to check off bug lists - as it seems quicker and pics / fonts normally render as intended. Wouldn't change it now. I try and switch it off when home tho - spend to much time connected as is!

 

[S Isaac]

Following my previous post, it looks like the Samsung s6 will not have an accessible battery or micro sd expansion slot, it also won't be as 'waterproof' as the s5. basically making it as bad as an iphone!

They seems to have gone backwards......................

 

[CWT2k1]

I use an iPhone and love it. It works great because I have a MacBook Pro and iPad, and it all syncs together. I have all my calendars and contents and everything else on all units. It's so perfect and all made to work seamless together

 

[digital way]

I've just switched from iPhone 4s to Galaxy Note 4 and very happy to be honest - handwriting recognition with the stylus is quite cool. My eyesight is naff so just wanted a big phone with decent battery - my old iPhone 4s just looks so tiny now. Think i just got bored of the iphone as it never really changed that much.

 

[Reivop]

An iPhone 6. Very intuitive and easy to use. But the battery life sucks, needs a additional battery. iCloud is convenient. It is particularly convenient with the apps, because they all work the same way, and you can change a few parameters easily.

I used a Sony Xperia Z1 with Android before. Couldn't understand how it works and it had to many bugs. I was very wary of the phone getting viruses so I was unlikely to leave my credit card info in my phone. Concerning the apps, that is the messy part of the phone. They all work differently, so you do not know what you are doing some times. For example, one app can be closed by just clicking on one button, but an other one can require you to click twice on a button and then confirm. When you use a lot of apps in a day, a headache comes soon.

 

[Earplugsprotection]

Blackberry Z10, little fiddly but thats more about my fingers . Apart from that, love it

 

[Cromulent]

Google Nexus 4. Best phone I've ever owned.

I'll only upgrade it when a version of Android is released that won't run on it. At the moment I'm quite happily running Android 5.0.1 on it which works a treat. I suppose at some point Google are going to stop supporting it so when they do I'll get the newest Nexus phone available at the time.

I stay away from handsets made by Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

 

[David Griffiths]

Motorola Moto G, which I bought outright a couple of years ago. Never had an iphone. Had one Blackberry - comfortably the worst phone that I have owned but I do't change that often.

Would I recommend it - yes. Only gripe is that there are loads of pre-installed apps that I will never use but can't uninstall/

Contract is £6 per month and I've never run out of minutes, texts or internet.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Currently have an S5 for personal use and a Blackberry Q10 for business as can't beat a proper keyboard.

 

[mit74]

If you dont mind paying well over the odds for hardware that has very limited shelf life, that has less functionality, higher priced apps and generally you don't understand technology or how to work computers then Apple is for you.

 

[StaffingAgency]

Currently have a Galaxy Note 2, and upgrading next week to the Note 4.

Love the size, S-Pen features, etc.

The size was a bit of a factor for the first few days, but you quickly get used to it. Think I would find find it hard to go back to a smaller phone now.

I do currently use a PAYG Blackberry Torch for business use. But looking to use the Note 2 for this once I have upgraded.

 

[Martina Wade]

As someone else also has said - the way apple devices work together is great. iCloud sorts everything out.

And I would disagree @mit74 - I had my macbook pro for 6 years, my first iPhone for 3 (main reason for replacing it was a cracked screen), and I still use that as a backup or when Im abroad. Currently on 3rd year of second iPhone - 4s.