Android phones recommendation

[Nu-Eclipse]

I hope they roll out Kitkat for the N4 at some point too.

They will do. N4, the Moto X and the Google Play editions of the HTC One & Samsung Galaxy S4 will all see their stock Android OSs updated to KitKat in due course. Only the Galaxy Nexus misses out due to the chipset no longer being produced by Texas Instruments, thus killing support for driver development. CyanogenMod looks likely to be the best bet for KitKat on a GNex, which would ironically undermine the Nexus concept, but hey!

Personally, I'll probably trade in my 16GB Nexus 4 and use the money from that to get a 32GB Nexus 5 before the year is out. Not in a rush right now as my N4 is good enough but it would be nice to have more space and the option of LTE as I'm starting to look towards a tariff with 4G data bolted on. Besides, I've never really gotten to grips with the ergonomics behind smartphones with 5-inch screens and part of it seems like overkill, although the N5 looks very slim.

It would be interesting to see more reviews on the N5. The Verge reviewed it yesterday and scored it lower than they did the N4, citing poor camera software and inconsistent battery life amongst their main complaints.

[charlesr]

I recommend Google Play Music! I love Android. A spoken word CD, ripped to FLAC with EAC and then dragged and dropped to my phone, immediately plays without converting to anything else. Such a pleasure!

[BaronSqwelch]

Just ordered a white Nexus 5...time to retire my wheezy 3GS and bid farewell to my years of Orange contracts...Android and Giff Gaff is the way forward for me!

My only concern is that it is hilariously large...was looking at the mini versions of the other phones though and they seemed so under specced in comparison.

[Kit]

Picked up an Xperia Z. Wasn't expecting it to be the size of a basketball court.

[speedlolita]

That's the average size of a decent Android phone these days it seems. My Note still dwarfs most of them though - except the Mega.

I decided the Mega is toooo big though.

[bash]

Yeah the Mega looks like one just another Samsung's crazy tactic to just make every kind of mobile phone.

[Baseley09]

Got an Xperia Z1 t'other day and it is laaaaarge, but ooh does it feel high end. Scratches easily though, already put a scratch on the screen protector & took a chunk out of the bezel.

Replaced a Galaxy S2 which I can safely say was one of the best handsets I ever used except for a memory issue towards the end.

[EJG1980]

Besides, I've never really gotten to grips with the ergonomics behind smartphones with 5-inch screens and part of it seems like overkill, although the N5 looks very slim.

My only concern is that it is hilariously large...was looking at the mini versions of the other phones though and they seemed so under specced in comparison.

I've got small hands so I was a bit apprehensive about switching to something as big as the Nexus 5, but it's not too bad thus far. Doesn't fit in my hand perfectly like the iPhone did but I'm getting used to it and I think it should be alright long term.

Maybe gripping it one handed will stretch out my hands and make them a little bit bigger

My most difficult experience so far was trying to reply to a text one handed while holding a bag of shopping in the other. Piece of cake on the iPhone but I had to stop and do it two handed with the Nexus 5 last night.

Oh, can anyone recommend a decent (but not too expensive) pair of in-ear earphones with volume & playback controls that will work with Android? Tried my Apple ones last night and they would only pause and skip forward, volume didn't work.

[Brad]

The Galaxy Notes have some enhancements for one handed use like being able to shrink the keyboard a bit and whack it to the left or right of the screen. Maybe you can get something similar for the Nexus 5?

[Nu-Eclipse]

Looks like GPlay are currently out of stock of the Black 32GB N5.

[EJG1980]

The Galaxy Notes have some enhancements for one handed use like being able to shrink the keyboard a bit and whack it to the left or right of the screen. Maybe you can get something similar for the Nexus 5?

Cheers, that's a clever feature, I'll have a look and see if I can find something on the play store.

I did find Headset Button Controller which should mean I don't have to buy a new set of headphones. One of the reviews specifically mentions apple headphones so it should be safe for me to part with my ?1.99.

[wakka]

That's a good shout EJG. My earphone controls also don't function on the Nexus so hopefully that should fix it.

I'm looking forward to the launchers being updated to 4.4 so I can install an icon pack. I hate how the Android icons are so inconsistent, to be honest it looks completely sh*t. Do Google not even have guidelines for this type of thing? All the apps I've installed have iOS style rounded squares, but they're in completely varying sizes and resolutions. What's that all about? And then you have the built in OS icons, which are all different random shapes. Bleh.

I know I could install a launcher and an icon pack now, but I don't want to lose the 4.4 niceties.

[speedlolita]

Need to grab a new ROM for my Note. Wonder if any 4.4 stuff will be produced.

[EJG1980]

That's a good shout EJG. My earphone controls also don't function on the Nexus so hopefully that should fix it.

I'm looking forward to the launchers being updated to 4.4 so I can install an icon pack. I hate how the Android icons are so inconsistent, to be honest it looks completely sh*t. Do Google not even have guidelines for this type of thing? All the apps I've installed have iOS style rounded squares, but they're in completely varying sizes and resolutions. What's that all about? And then you have the built in OS icons, which are all different random shapes. Bleh.

I know I could install a launcher and an icon pack now, but I don't want to lose the 4.4 niceties.

I downloaded Headset Button Controller and can confirm it works brilliantly with my apple in-ear headphones. Loads of options in the app to get things working exactly how I want (stuff like stopping playback when you take the headphones out, restoring volume to a pre-set level when you plug them in, etc). Shame it couldn't get the physical volume buttons working, but the various methods for changing the volume with one button are pretty good.

After using iOS for the past five years or so, Android does look less polished, less consistent and rougher around the edges in some areas. Kind of like going from Mac OS to using Linux (although I haven't used Linux for many a year so many that comment is out of date ).

[BaronSqwelch]

My nexus arrived pretty fast! Soooo much faster and shinier than my 3GS was! The size is going to take a lot of getting used too tho!