Title really says it all, I don't feel this will be a huge problem besides just figuring out my interests which are pretty small. However, I don't know too much about phones and all I read are how every phone is great (HTC, S3, Express), so a little help would be appreciated.
My budget is about 225 euros which is about $300.
I am looking for these features:
Skype
Google Maps with GPS
Google Translate
Long battery life
That's pretty much it as I am just using it to get around Germany. No contract as I am on a pay-as-you-go plan and just need to buy the phone separately. I was going to go with the S3, but perhaps there's a brand I missed.
The first 3 features you mentioned are pretty much standard these days. As for long battery life, what do you consider "long"? Compared to non-smart phones, all smartphones have terrible battery life, where you have to recharge every 2 or maybe 3 days (and with very heavy use, you may not reach 2 days).
Another major factor is the size of the phone. The S3 you mention is great (using it myself), but it's also rather big and quite a few people consider it to be just a bit too big to handle comfortably. Also, not sure if you can get the regular S3 for 225 euros.
I'm ok with big as long as it is the same size as my Cowon X9
I don't like smart phones because they slip through my fingers.
Battery life I consider 8 hours to of constant use to be great and 5 hours being a minimum.
No every use, it'll just be idle with Skype most of the time, that'll be it. I'm not a huge phone user so extra gadgets and games don't really matter to me.
i dont know if 225EU will be enough for a new phone. i can say though as far as comparisons to the S3, there's also the Nexus 4, and a handful of Sony Xperias.
I bought a galaxy S2 last year for 300$ with the S4 coming out this year they might lower the price on the S2. The S2 has all of the features you want, except I dont think it support skype video calls, but audio works fine. I currently have a nexus 4 which is a great phone, minus the fact that I cant upgrade the space it has because you need to unscrew the case and take it apart to add an SD card. I paid 350$ for the nexus 4 in canada from a not major provider so you might be able to get a better deal with a bigger provider. I would recommend either
I wouldn't get the S2 at this point. I had the S2 and it was definitely one of the top 3 releases in the last five years or so, but it's simply out of date now. It will have difficulty running the newest Android versions and loses out to anything released nowadays.
Nexus 4 is an extremely strong contender if you are still conscious about the price of things. It basically has the S3's specs but is a ton cheaper, and as someone else already mentioned, has the undeniable best custom ROM support.
If you aren't concerned about the price of things, the S4 and HTC One are the 'best' phones right now hardware-wise. You cannot go wrong with either of them. To choose between them I'd look at things like their build quality and the basic software interface, though keep in mind that the software can always be changed with a little tinkering. A lot of people like the premium feel of the HTC One, but some people prefer the lightness and simple nature of the S4.
edit: Reread the OP and saw you had a budget. Although I'm not familiar with the American market I'm pretty sure that won't cut it for the S4 or the HTC One. In that case I'd definitely consider one out of the Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 mini, etc.
edit 2: Just refreshed the page and lost my extra edits, so here goes again. I also noticed your list of features required and they are present in pretty much every simple Android phone right now. The only one I should warn you about is your mention of battery life. If this is going to be your first smartphone then you are in for a rude shock; your phone will be lucky to last a day on medium-heavy use. If this is something you simply cannot deal with then you should purchase a phone with a replaceable battery and carry a second battery around with you. This will rule out the Nexus 4 and the HTC One.
On August 25 2013 04:23 Torte de Lini wrote: What is considered heavy use? It won't be used beyond leaving Skype on, google maps and/or the occasional translation or google images.
I'm in Germany btw, I just converted the money in US to see what people would suggest.
Up till a recent release, Skype on Android was a notoriously bad application that took forever to load, hogged a lot of resources, and drained a lot of battery. They released a massive overhaul of the entire app a couple weeks ago which is certainly better by leaps and bounds, but I still have trust issues about leaving it on 24/7. There is certainly nothing wrong with turning it on to check messages sent to you while you're offline etc though.
Simply checking Skype isn't considered heavy use though, so if you're only going to be doing that then it should last you a day fine.
I mainly leave Skype and Google Voice (is that an app on a phone) because of work and potentially family, so it'd be during weekends and evenings if I'm not at home or work. That's probably the extent of my internet usage minus social media on occasion (to post tweets/images) and translation as I said before.
I checked out a quick video of the HTC One and S4 and it seemed like HTC One is way better + I like their interface.
If you don't manage your phone (leaving GPS, Wifi, or other features on 24/7) than you're going to have shitty battery life regardless of the phone you pick. If you want the best battery life performance, you're going to have to root.
HTC One doesn't have a removeable battery so...
S3 / S4 Mini are the smaller variants of the S3 and S4. Samsung is milking the Galaxy brand as much as they can while they're still on top. They're overpriced pieces of shit. The S4 Mini is $100 less expensive than the S4 but comes with like 4gb of usable memory lol, and not even a 720p display.
The problem with all these phones in Europe is that they're fucking expensive compared to the US. I'm strongly considering of bvuying one used if it is at all safe (in one way or another - suggestions for sites?)
Even the S3 and S4 go beyond my budget. Is the Samsung Express decent? I really like the HTC One thus far if price was no object. The UI on the Nexus looks a bit blocky.
They're expensive in the US as well and they're meant to be since they are flagships.
Nexus 4 uses stock android. Android is very customizable, everything can be replaced and changed to your liking.
One thing you'll quickly notice is that hardly anyone cares about non-flagship phones so you'll have an extremely hard time finding opinions on the lower end phones. I suggest going to xda-developers.com and looking through the forums, they have forums for all the popular phones so it's easier to find opinions there.
You may want to look at the upcoming Oppo R819 which is is $350.