Mobile Phone thread - please include links to good deals

[Yakumo]

I can honestly recommend the Sony Xperia ZL2. I've been using it for a month now and really happy with it. Fantastic screen, amazing camera and very long battery life. I can go 2 days easily without a charge. I'm quite surprised at how long the battery lasts. Oh yeah, it's water proof too so great for pool photos and underwater shots.

[briareos_kerensky]

I read that the Nexus 5 has no microSD slot, is that true?

[bash]

Yup, Nexus devices dont have memory card slots.

[Pezley]

I tried using android again recently.... just can't do it. I must be weird but I hate everything about it.
I can't understand the logic behind it's design, it's so powerful in what it can achieve but it seems it's never been designed for someone to actually use it. No I do not want settings, More settings and then oh, whats this.... more settings. I do not want my screen flooded with notifications if I haven't looked at my phone for a Few hours. I just find the whole OS too cumbersome.

Don't get me started on performance, all that GPU power to push out some amazing visuals yet texting away on the swipye keyboard and it stops responding. tap tap tap... nothing. Oh wait it's just caught up and spazzed out.

After iOS > Android > Windows > iOS > Android - I am now back to Windows Phone. Useless selection of apps aside, in it's core functionality it's sublime.

[PeteJ]

My Lumia 1020 updated to 8.1 the other day, the OS really is sublime. I much prefer it over IOS and Android, but yeah the apps really hold it back. I also got a trial 635 at work, for ?100 it's a staggeringly good phone,... hope it takes off so developers start taking the platform seriously.

[nonny]

I've been trialling a lumia 1520 with 8.1 developer for a few weeks now. I've never owned an Android device but mates of mine have Samsungs and Nexus models, then two of my mates swear by WIndows Phone. So a friend won this Nokia in a golf comp so I thought I would give it a go as I'm around 3 months till the contract on my iPhone5 runs out.

I've gotta say. Windows 8.1 is really rather lovely. It felt foreign as all hell initially but once it beds in it's a great OS. That said, I'm still not sure this is the phone for me. Firstly the general app options in WP8 hurt it badly. What is there works great but what isn't there is glaringly obvious.

No spotify free update as yet, no Flipboard etc... It's a situation I am aware is improving but it's still a way off the curve. Secondly the 1520 is a massive phone. With a 6" screen it has no right feeling so svelte in your hands. It's actually not as big as you think, but it's still probably bigger than you need. I've gotten used to its size but it's made me realise a 5-5.5" screen size is the sweet spot for me.

Worse still while 8.1 brings a wealth of options the biggest issue I have with the 1520 is the font size is too big. This is an issue with the OS fitting multiple sizes and this being the biggest but seriously it's like looking at things in 2x magnification. Especially web browsing in landscape, everything is too big. I'd rather smaller font and more screen.

Anyway it's been an interesting experiment for me and I'm now seriously tempted by the Lumia 930. Just want to try one out first.

[speedlolita]

Yup, Nexus devices dont have memory card slots.

Making them as bad as Apple devices.

[briareos_kerensky]

In the end I got a Sony Xperia Z2. Still getting used to the new interface (my old Samsung had Android 2.something) and I don't particularly like how it manages wallpapers, but the battery seems excellent.

[charlesr]

Making them as bad as Apple devices.

They have vast amounts of memory for the price so you don't really need memory cards and you can then install Samba server and drag and drop from your PC without plugging them in so not really anywhere near as bad as Apple on that side of things. imho.

[speedlolita]

In the end I got a Sony Xperia Z2. Still getting used to the new interface (my old Samsung had Android 2.something) and I don't particularly like how it manages wallpapers, but the battery seems excellent.

There is software that manages how you set wallpapers much better than stock Android. I've ALWAYS hated that too.

[shaffy_oppa]

Hmmm wasn't aware there were apps for that. I also have the Z2 and stuck with the stock wallpapers cos of the silly requirements...

[VR46]

You can use any photo on the phone as a wallpaper. Go to settings/personalisation/lock screen image or wallpaper and it should then give the option where to search, ie stock wallpapers/album etc. Works this way on my Z Ultra on 4.4.4 anyway.

[shaffy_oppa]

Oh I'm aware of that it's just if you use a personal image it scales it really stupidly. Gives basically a cross shaped box for you to fit the picture in.

[briareos_kerensky]

There is software that manages how you set wallpapers much better than stock Android. I've ALWAYS hated that too.

Yeah, tried a couple of those. My problem is that with my old phone I could set the same wallpaper for every "page", whereas the new phone (or Android build, who knows) doesn't allow for that. At first I used a 1080x1920 image, same resolution as the screen, only to be forced to crop it; digging into the stock wallpapers, I discovered they need to be 2160x1920 to avoid cropping, but it will always scroll when you flick through pages.
The programs I used weren't able to overcome this problem, which so far is the biggest I have about the phone.

[Colin]

I'm due a new phone, any news on the iPhone 6 yet?