Gofre's 2020 Smartphone Buying Guide (last updated November 2020)

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Thoughts on this deal for the G4? 310 for a decent flagship seems good and I like the removable better option and expandable storage. Seems like a better bet than the moto x play
http://www.ebuyer.com/718386-lg-g4-lte-32gb-phone-black-leather-lgh815-agbrld

The LG G4 may have a removable battery, but the X Play has a battery that can comfortably get through two days, so is less reliant on nightly charges than other phones. They're both excellent phones, I would choose the LG G4 if power and screen quality are more important factors to you, while I'd go for the X Play if you'd rather have huge battery life and Nexus-like software and update support.

Reply 81

username612415

Early November update time! Two new additions join the guide in the form of Motorola's newest X device, the Moto X Force, which takes the Moto X Play's spot in the 5.5" phone category give its superiority in virtually every regard (The X Play remains in the honourable mentions and in the High Value section as it's still a superb affordable choice), while the Nexus 6P is now in stock so it can join the 5.7"-or-larger category. With two high quality phones now offering a different take on high levels of durability, I've created a new category in the Specific Set of Skills section for rugged phones, with the X Force offering a hugely resilient display and the Sony Xperia Z5 being fully waterproof.

The Blackberry Priv, the company's first phone to use Android over their own operating system, makes it into the honourable mentions of the flagship section too. The hardware is great and they've now got a solid OS to match it, but Blackberry's tinkering with the software has some performance drawbacks and we've reached a time where a physical keyboard is a niche offering rather than a mainstream option, so I can't make it a primary choice.

As for phones on the horizon, there's nothing new to look forward to that hasn't already been mentioned really. The Z5 Premium, LG V10, and Lumia 950/950XL are all still hotly anticipated, hopefully this month will be when they get to surface!

Reply 82

The_Stig

The S6 series is the best phone of 2015, well done to Samsung. I think the One Plus phones deserve some credit on this list somewhere - not sure where. The team at OnePlus have set a new benchmark for value for money with the 1 + 2 and the One Plus X. Two of the best phones in the world in their respective price brackets.

Reply 83

username612415

Original post by The_Stig

The OnePlus One is in the High Value category :yep:

The OnePlus 2 is in the honourable mentions for 5.5" phones, it would be a primary choice but one of the criteria I set for a phone to make it into the top choices was that it had to be readily available to purchase in the UK from an authorised retailer. I'd love to recommend the OP2 more highly, but I can't justify giving it pride of place in a buyer's guide while it's still so difficult to buy. The OPX is only being produced in an extremely limited quantity and will probably never progress past the invite stage, so it will most likely not stay in stock long enough to even write a recommendation for, never mind for people to buy it after reading the recommendation!

Reply 84

e aí rapaz

I have a couple of OnePlus X invites, if anybody is interested?

Reply 85

username612415

Ooh the Panasonic DMC-CM1 is currently £500 on Amazon, so around the same price as any other conventional flagship. It would be quite up to the same calibre of raw performance, but if camera quality if your main priority and you don't mind a chunky phone, it's a fantastic deal right now!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00R3D8YJ6/?tag=ho01f-21

Reply 86

username612415

The long awaited Windows 10 flagship from Microsoft, the Lumia 950, has finally arrived but has failed to make a good enough impression to make it into my top choices and instead resides in the honourable mentions. All the stuff that looked impressive and promising on paper was marred by mediocre hardware or longstanding Windows Phone shortcomings to varying extents. If you're a Windows Phone fan who alrady accepts the platform's limitations then it's a great upgrade from any other Windows device, but its appeal won't stretch much further than that.

Reply 87

username612415

So I've just found some Sony products reps doing a product tour, and with them they had an Xperia Z5 Premium- the first 4K display phone on the market. I spent some time playing with it and was very impressed, the display was a lot better than the standard Z5 and not just because of the higher resolution given that most of the content it disolays is rendered in 1080p. However when you load up high resolution images and 4K video it pops into "4K mode" and the pixels do make them self known, with video in particular being particularly gorgeous. For day to day use I think I would still take the slightly more saturated display of the Galaxy S6, by a teeny margin mind you, but for heavy video consumption the Z5P's display is awesome.

Aside from that everything is just as rosey- performance is excellent and not hampered by the extra pixels, the camera is has already proven to be great in its smaller siblings, and it's very well built. I'm going to wait for reviews to come out to see what longer term testing reveals about heat and battery life, but if all goes well then it's definitely making it into the guide.

Reply 88

_Dreamville_

How is the 5X there but the 6P isn't?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 89

username612415

Original post by _Dreamville_

How is the 5X there but the 6P isn't?

Posted from TSR Mobile

The 6P is in the section for large phones, while the 5X is in Cream of the Crop section as the most accessible option- 5.7" is still too large of a phone for most people.

Reply 90

username612415

Happy new year everyone! The guide has gotten its first update of 2016, and it's a relatively minor one. Firstly the Xperia Z5 Premium has gotten a very warm reception and with no major concerns over its performance, it joins the 5.5" Borderline Beasts category. Next the Lumia 950XL has gotten a place in the honourable mentions of the Hulking Handsets for much the same reasons as the smaller 950 only got an honourable mention with the flagships- competent hardware and pseudo-desktop functionality don't make up for buggy software and abysmal app support.

It will be exciting to see what comes out of CES, I can't imagine there will be a huge amount but you never know, and then following that we'll start encroaching on Android flagship season.

Reply 91

Doones

thanks for the reviews. How waterproof in practice is the Compact Z5... specifically can the camera be used underwater?

Reply 92

username612415

Original post by jneill

@Gofre thanks for the reviews. How waterproof in practice is the Compact Z5... specifically can the camera be used underwater?

No problem :smile:

It depends on what you mean by "used". Yes, the camera will work underwater if it's recording, there's videos on YouTube of people doing it and the footage looks good (the standard Xperia Z5 uses an identical camera and has an identical water resistance rating, so footage from that will also be a good illustration). However while being able to survive underwater for much longer than other smartphones, the Z series phones aren't intended to be usable underwater, for example being underwater plays havoc with using capacitive touchscreens, and Sony do not recommend intentionally placing it underwater. If you're buying it with underwater photography/videography in mind and doing it often, you might be better off opting for a GoPro or some other action cam designed (or that includes a case designed) for this particular scenario :yep:

Reply 93

Doones

Ok cool - no it wouldn't be a regular thing - just wondering really... :smile:

I'll check out the vids.

Reply 94

Rk2k14

Is there a major difference between the S5 and the S5 Neo?

Reply 95

username612415

Original post by Rk2k14

Is there a major difference between the S5 and the S5 Neo?

It's got a slightly better lens on the rear camera and the front facing one is a higher resolution. The screen is also supposedly meant to have been improved, but the difference apparently isn't enormous. The new processor performs similarly for day to day tasks but isn't going to be as fast for more intensive tasks, with the most telling example of this being in the camera as it can neither do 4K video or 60fps video at 1080. Finally there's no fingerprint sensor, to the disappointment of dozens of people, and the USB 3.0 port has been replaced by a USB 2.0 port but it's also not got the flap covering it that the original S5 needed to be waterproof.

The S5 Neo was released as a slightly more economical version of the S5, as well as marking Samsung's decision to drop Snapdragon processors and move over to using their own chips exclusively. Back then the price difference made it a good option, but now they're priced within £20 of each other on Amazon. If you're a casual user who wants a good camera for stills, I would say it's definitely worth considering over the vanilla S5, however if you plan to do a lot of video or want to use more demanding apps, stick with the original.

Reply 96

username612415

I've just about managed to squeeze an update into February, so I can still declare the guide as being updated monthly :ahee:

But yeah, the higher bracket of affordable handsets has been overhauled, with the Moto X Play being the only phone to survive the culling. The LG G3 and OnePlus One have been switched out for their 2015 successors (surprisingly named the LG G4 and OnePlus Two), while the Galaxy S5 and Moto X 2014 have been replaced with the much newer Nexus 5X. Finally Apple get a recommendation added to the affordable category, with the 5S dropping into the required price band from enough retailers to qualify.

Looking forward, last week saw Mobile World Congress which means the first wave of 2016 flagships! Samsung have gone rather iterative with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, but having tried both of these phones earlier this week they definitely feel like they're a worthy continuation of the Galaxy S series. On the flip side LG have radically designed their newest LG G5, moving to a smaller screen and metal build more in line with the other brands, differentiating themselves with dual rear cameras using lenses with different angles of view, and more excitingly a modular system allowing users to add new functionality to their phone (currently announced are a camera grip and a high quality audio unit). Sony announced the retirement of their Xperia Z product line and the birth of its replacement, the Xperia X line (for those keeping count, we now have the Moto X, OnePlus X and Xperia X. Focus groups must really like the letter X), offering a bit of an aesthetic evolution while retaining Sony's trademark waterproofing and solid battery life. As we move further into March and towards April, odds are we'll see new announcements from HTC and possibly Motorola, as well as the long rumoured release of a new iPhone to complement the flagship 6S line. I'll soon be living on a very large boat with limited internet access, but you can bet I'll be trying to keep up with the news!

Reply 97

Aristotle's' Disciple

I have the option to have the Oneplus One or the Oneplus X for the same price. The X was released much more recently but spec wise seems to be even worse? Not sure which one to go for! Advice appreciated.

Reply 98

username612415

Original post by Aristotle's' Disciple

Internal specs are practically identical, the largest difference is screen size (5" for the OPX, 5.5" for the OPO). The only other differences that would be make-or-break for me are that the OPO can take 4K video while the X apparently can't, while the X has a micro SD slot compared to the OPO's larger internal storage.

Reply 99

username612415

March update time! To nobody's surprise, the Galaxy S7 was a massive hit and has replaced its predecessor in the Cream of the Crop category, with the S6 joining the Honourable Mentions as a more affordable option. The S7 Edge also joins the Borderline Beasts category, with the more rounded design addressing the issues of its 2015 equivalent. Whether or not the new models will supplant the S6 in the Camera category remains to be seen, as the new 12MP design is less of a linear improvement and a consensus has yet reached.