# What is the best fancy smartphone as of December 2013



## Errol's son (Dec 13, 2013)

I have decided it is time for me to get a fancy smartphone.

I can't be bothered listening to salesman chitter chatter and will just buy what Urban recommends.

So what is the best phone *in your view according to your own criteria *on the market at present?


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## Elvis Parsley (Dec 13, 2013)

some of those are phablets and there's no HTC One. so i'm not playing


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## ChrisFilter (Dec 13, 2013)

Note 3.


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## bi0boy (Dec 13, 2013)

Xiaomi Mi3


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## Maurice Picarda (Dec 13, 2013)

Vtech do a nice one.


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## strung out (Dec 13, 2013)

Nexus 5


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## Mojofilter (Dec 14, 2013)

Love my HTC One, best phone I've ever owned - even better than the iPhone 4 when it first came out.

Build quality and the speakers really set it aside from anything else.
Slightly let down by the camera but it's still decent - just not great.
Lack of SD card and removable battery might be an issue but the battery easily lasts a whole day - I rarely see it at less than 50% and I rarely go within 10Gb of filling the phone up.

That said, the Nexus 5 is supposedly a lot cheaper (I've not checked), so I'd be tempted with that if the savings were significant.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 19, 2013)

5s.


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## editor (Dec 19, 2013)

The vast majority of reviews put the best phone available as either the S4, the HTC One or the LG G2. If you're after the king of the cameras, then it's the Lumia 1020. 

Stuff mag has just made the G2 their phone of the year:
http://www.stuff.tv/gadget-awards-2013/gadget-awards-2013-lg-g2-best-smartphone-year/feature

Best value smartphones are easier to work out: the Moto G and Nexus 5.


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## marty21 (Dec 19, 2013)

Difficult to vote as to be really accurate you would have to own and use all of them

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 - it is a great phone - basically a small tablet (or Phablet as I have heard them described )


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## farmerbarleymow (Dec 19, 2013)

I've got a Blackberry Z10 and it's a great phone. You can add up to 64GB if additional storage on top of the internal memory - I've got lots of music on to while away the commute. Nice and thin and works extremely well. The Hub is great for organising all your emails and stuff which for me is important. And with the Blackberry service your data is routed through their network so you don't touch your contract data allowance. Decent camera too.


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## souljacker (Dec 19, 2013)

Dont buy a Samsung. They are cunts who treat their customers like shit.

If I was upgrading now, I'd get a Nexus 5 or whatever iPhone I could afford.


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## strung out (Dec 19, 2013)

editor said:


> The vast majority of reviews put the best phone available as either the S4, the HTC One or the LG G2. If you're after the king of the cameras, then it's the Lumia 1020.
> 
> Stuff mag has just made the G2 their phone of the year:
> http://www.stuff.tv/gadget-awards-2013/gadget-awards-2013-lg-g2-best-smartphone-year/feature
> ...


they're all wrong - it's the nexus 5


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 19, 2013)

If you want a "fancy" Android phone I don't really see the point of buying anything other than a Nexus. Great hardware, great price, no shitty bloatware on it.


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## Fez909 (Dec 19, 2013)

There is no single best smartphone so everyone above is wrong, except editor who recognised that different needs mean different phones are "best".

I'll add to his list by saying if you want a massive screen and a battery that will last 2 days, then you should get the Note 3. If you already have an Apple phone and have invested significant monies into apps, then you should probably get an iPhone although this is probably the most expensive option. The screen is still fairly small, though, so if you don't like big screens then again this is a good choice.

My personal needs are based on powerful hardware, as close to 4-inch screen as possible (increasingly difficult to find with high spec!) and running stock Android (or close to). I've got a Nexus 4 now but would consider a Moto G if I was buying a new phone as it's good enough for my needs and practically a Nexus. The Nexus 5 looks lovely but 5 inches is too big. I'd still have one though as I thought the N4 was too big when I got it but now it just seems 'normal'. I don't care about thin phones and I'm not a fan of the glass back on the N4. I'd go for thicker, rugged phones and bigger batteries any day. Sadly there are no phones which offer longer battery life without making the screen huge so they can stay thin, so I just ignore battery concerns for now


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## editor (Dec 19, 2013)

The LG G2 has the best battery life of any smartphone at the moment. Still not brilliant, mind. 


> LG made a big deal out of taking up more internal space by staggering its battery shape within the device. As the back curves, the battery staggers or pyramids a little in shape to take advantage of what would otherwise be empty space.
> 
> With relatively heavy use (e-mail, social network, phone calls, messaging and some gaming) and all push notifications turned on, along with GPS and Wi-Fi on most of the day, the LG G2 showed no signs of being anywhere near death by the time the work day was over.
> 
> ...


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## strung out (Dec 19, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> There is no single best smartphone so everyone above is wrong, except editor who recognised that different needs mean different phones are "best".
> 
> I'll add to his list by saying if you want a massive screen and a battery that will last 2 days, then you should get the Note 3. If you already have an Apple phone and have invested significant monies into apps, then you should probably get an iPhone although this is probably the most expensive option. The screen is still fairly small, though, so if you don't like big screens then again this is a good choice.
> 
> My personal needs are based on powerful hardware, as close to 4-inch screen as possible (increasingly difficult to find with high spec!) and running stock Android (or close to). I've got a Nexus 4 now but would consider a Moto G if I was buying a new phone as it's good enough for my needs and practically a Nexus. The Nexus 5 looks lovely but 5 inches is too big. I'd still have one though as I thought the N4 was too big when I got it but now it just seems 'normal'. I don't care about thin phones and I'm not a fan of the glass back on the N4. I'd go for thicker, rugged phones and bigger batteries any day. Sadly there are no phones which offer longer battery life without making the screen huge so they can stay thin, so I just ignore battery concerns for now


The nexus 5 is only very slightly bigger than the nexus 4. Bigger screen, nearly the same sized phone.

*Nexus 5*
137.84 mm (5.427 in) H
69.17 mm (2.723 in) W

*Nexus 4*
133.9 mm (5.27 in) H
68.7 mm (2.70 in) W


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## Fez909 (Dec 19, 2013)

strung out said:


> The nexus 5 is only very slightly bigger than the nexus 4. Bigger screen, nearly the same sized phone.
> 
> *Nexus 5*
> 137.84 mm (5.427 in) H
> ...



Fair enough. That's not a lot bigger at all is it!


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## PursuedByBears (Dec 19, 2013)

Nexus 5.

ETA it's the best value-for-money smartphone of its class if you're going to buy one up-front instead of on a contract.  The Nexus 4 is still a really good one too and you can get a second-hand one for around £150 on ebay.


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## ohmyliver (Dec 19, 2013)

A better way of approaching it would be to say what you want to use it for and then asking what's the best fancy smartphone for that.

*eta* 
For example
if you want buckets of apps then the iPhone 5s 
if you want buckets of storage for mp3s/films etc then the Samsung s4 and a 64mb microsd card 
If you want a really good camera then the Nokia lumia 1020

although people will probably disagree


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## RedDragon (Dec 19, 2013)

Because only the best is good enough...


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## Virtual Blue (Dec 23, 2013)

1st LG G2
2nd is Nexus 5.
Both are lightning quick and not bogged down by Samsung Services (my main concern with Samsung and their shockingly shit customer services).

iPhone 5s is a good phone but at that price, I'd rather purchase an iPad Air (which I did).


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## Virtual Blue (Dec 23, 2013)

ohmyliver said:


> A better way of approaching it would be to say what you want to use it for and then asking what's the best fancy smartphone for that.
> 
> *eta*
> For example
> ...



I did my calculations on overall abilities.


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## Bob_the_lost (Dec 23, 2013)

The phone i'd buy today would be the Nexus 5 or Moto G. The best phone is, as people have said, based on what you need. The Lumia's camera is amazing and the Notes are great if you have hands the size of small nation states.


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## stuff_it (Dec 28, 2013)

Fez909 said:
			
		

> There is no single best smartphone so everyone above is wrong, except editor who recognised that different needs mean different phones are "best".
> 
> I'll add to his list by saying if you want a massive screen and a battery that will last 2 days, then you should get the Note 3. If you already have an Apple phone and have invested significant monies into apps, then you should probably get an iPhone although this is probably the most expensive option. The screen is still fairly small, though, so if you don't like big screens then again this is a good choice.
> 
> My personal needs are based on powerful hardware, as close to 4-inch screen as possible (increasingly difficult to find with high spec!) and running stock Android (or close to). I've got a Nexus 4 now but would consider a Moto G if I was buying a new phone as it's good enough for my needs and practically a Nexus. The Nexus 5 looks lovely but 5 inches is too big. I'd still have one though as I thought the N4 was too big when I got it but now it just seems 'normal'. I don't care about thin phones and I'm not a fan of the glass back on the N4. I'd go for thicker, rugged phones and bigger batteries any day. Sadly there are no phones which offer longer battery life without making the screen huge so they can stay thin, so I just ignore battery concerns for now



I still love my Motorola RAZR i. Allegedly there can be problems if you update Android, but I've yet to find any apps that won't run on x86. I think the screen is 3.7 ins, the camera is banging at 8 mpx. External storage but no removable battery. It's also cheap as chips.

The Moto G looks like a good buy, and Motorola have really upped their game in the last few years.


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## editor (Dec 28, 2013)

I had a go on my nephew's Nexus 5. It's very, very good.


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