Which phone? S3, 8X, OneX, Lumia 920?

[papaketchup]

Hello guys, this is my first time in brighthand.

For now, the odds are in the favor of the Samsung GS3 since it's provided here in the Philippines for like P2,000/mo (Approx. $50)
Though I am not sure if it's 4G LTE though.

Any thoughts on the Lumia 920, HTC One X, 8X and S3?
Not sure when the 8X and 920 comes out though.

I've got this question, I love music so I'm trying to find some articles about the sound quality of these phones right here and I failed to find them. :|

Some say, Beats Audio is just a gimmick and it's just an equalizer and it isn't worth it. What's your say?


Thanks in advanced!

[r0k]

I agree Beats audio is mostly a gimmick. My son is a music major and asked for Beats Audio studio headphones for his birthday. I went to Guitar Center to ask what headphones they recommend for mixing and they said that while the Beats headphones were good quality, competitors like Shure offered the same or superior performance for less money.

I like the look of Windows Phone 8 but that's about as far as it goes. I would expect the GS3 to provide you the best user experience of all the models you mention. Although MS has some excellent development tools, a major factor that attracts developers is market share and WP7/WP8 simply doesn't have it right now.

You didn't include iPhone on your list, but if you use Apple computers, iPhone provides a more seamless experience.

[papaketchup]

I agree Beats audio is mostly a gimmick. My son is a music major and asked for Beats Audio studio headphones for his birthday. I went to Guitar Center to ask what headphones they recommend for mixing and they said that while the Beats headphones were good quality, competitors like Shure offered the same or superior performance for less money.

I like the look of Windows Phone 8 but that's about as far as it goes. I would expect the GS3 to provide you the best user experience of all the models you mention. Although MS has some excellent development tools, a major factor that attracts developers is market share and WP7/WP8 simply doesn't have it right now.

You didn't include iPhone on your list, but if you use Apple computers, iPhone provides a more seamless experience.

Thank you for your reply.

I am currently using Bose IE2 earphones. And they're great! I read several reviews and they're better than Beats plus the warranty is incredible.

I didn't include iPhone 5 because that'll be too expensive for me. That's probably around $800? While the GS3 is around $550-650 here.
I'm still waiting for the GS3 LTE version w/ different colors though, no idea when that is coming out.

[Mitlov]

Windows Phone 8 is coming out at the end of October or the beginning of November. Pricing has not been released for either...the 8X was only first unveiled two days ago!

The lack of apps is overblown nowadays. There are over 100,000 apps in the Windows Marketplace. Unless you're an Instagram fanatic and will not use any of Instagram's competitors, I wouldn't worry about app selection.

As for "best user experience," that's a very personal decision. I've used iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, and I'm not convinced any of them are "best" for everybody. I personally find that Windows Phone delivers the best experience for me, but others may feel differently.

I haven't heard any detailed reviews of the audio on the Lumia 920 and the 8X. The Lumia 920's reviews have largely focused on the screen (it's awesome), the camera (despite an advertising "oops" in America, it's awesome), and the case (it's awesome-looking if a bit heavy). There haven't been a lot of third-party hands-on with the 8X yet, but those I've seen have also focused on the screen and camera and case, not the sound.

Personally, if it turns out to be within your budget, I'd go for the Lumia 920. It really does look like a breathtaking phone. The 8X is profoundly competent, but it doesn't push the envelope of phone development in any way. The Lumia 920 is ground-breaking in multiple respects (largely related to the screen and the camera). As just one example, this video hit YouTube yesterday, and it blew my mind. Never mind if you don't speak Russian; it's easy to see what's going on:

[Varjak]

I haven't compared them directly; but most audiophile reviews of Beats headphones (not the same as the tech in the phones necessarily) haven't been that positive. They do look good though.

[Drillbit]

I would go with the S3. Google Play is a sure bet in the Philippines, including local payment in peso for paid apps. There are 650,000 apps in Google Play and the list is rising higher by the month. While there is a big question mark about Windows Phone 7 app compatibility with Windows Phone 8, and many apps in that store are only regionally restricted. Your peso payment options are not clear either. As far as my personal experience in the Philippine mobile scene goes, Windows Phone is dead and isn't getting support. Seriously, I've been to the Nokia stores in Makati and the mood was pretty dreary.

Pricewise I would go with the One X or the S3, both are well discounted now, easy to find in the range of $500 to the low 600s in Asia (price variations may arise from internal GB size). Both are due to get Jellybean starting October too. For the S3, pebble blue and white versions are the ones being discounted, but the red version still seems high priced for now. We may see pink and black versions in the future, but note as anything new, the price will be initially higher.

Another device of interest is the Galaxy Note 2 and the One X+. The One X+ is a slightly spec'ed up One X (by 100Mhz to 1.6Ghz) and comes with Jellybean off the box.

[weegie]

Beats is bass boosting via software, the S3 has a quality stand alone Wolfson DAC, it has far better THD and S/N ratios than HTC's gimmickry.

The HTC has the best screen I've ever seen on a mobile though.

[weegie]

Just to add, I had a quad core HTC One X for a month and found the battery run time unacceptable as it would only last around half as long as my Galaxy SII, the Galaxy SII is broken beyond cost effective repair now and I've got the One XL on order which uses the more power efficient Qualcomm chipset. I was very undecided what to get as nothing really ticks all the boxes for me between the HTC One X, One S [amoled screen but my fav aluminium body design] Galaxy SIII, in the end the One X screen and much nicer design won out over the SIII's advantages of better video recording, proper sound hardware and removable storage.

If audio is your main requirement of your device, the only recommendations from me would be the SIII or an iPhone which also use dedicated DAC's [not sure about the iPhone 5]
GSMarena has fairly good audio technical breakdowns of the devices they review

[Varjak]

True enough Weegie. It's very frustrating that there's nothing out there that's really killer. I feel the same way. Every major top-tier Android and iOS phone (the two that I care about for the moment) has at least one major failing. Apple charges an arm and a leg for storage (and no memory card), most Android phones are aesthetically displeasing and there are so many models, many limited to specific carriers. It makes the shopping experience so unpleasant. It also seems why so many threads here on phone recommendations devolve (usually and logically) to either the iPhone or the Samsung SIII because they are available on most major networks and are good, solid phones.

[webbjames]

I bought HTC One X two days ago and found it is a super smartphone. It is fashionable than the Samsung galaxy s3, and htc sense 4.0 is beautiful. Compared to the camera, it is obviously that the htc one x is better.