Top 5 Smartphones

Buying a new phone in today's technology filled market can be a chore, but with our top five smartphone guide, it should be a doddle!

Generally when buying a product, especially a phone, you look at it's main features, such as it's design and aesthetic appeal, its ability to take high quality photo's or the usability and quality of sound playback for the music buffs among us.

Samsung Galaxy SIII 

We'll start with the infamous Samsung Galaxy SIII (Widely viewed as the best phone on the market)

The Galaxy SIII In All It's Glory!

If you're solely into gadgets and tech, then the SIII is you're choice, it has an unprecedented amount of cool tricks that place it among the best out there, things as simple as swiping your hand across the screen to take a screenshot. With the added availability of an upgradable memory card slot, which most users will find very helpful to store all of those 500,000 apps available on its Google Play store, or one of the others downloadable to the handset.

Most notable about this handset however, its is impressive screen size, with a staggering 4.8" screen size, accompanied by a 1280x720 display resolution, making for crystal clear quality images and video playback. Along with its 1.4Ghz Quad core processor and 2GB Ram, this makes the SIII extremely nippy.

HTC One X+

Now onto the HTC One X+, similar in size to the Samsung, with a 4.7" screen, this phone isn't small by any means. The HTC Boasts a resolution display the same as the Samsung (1280x720) and a built in 32GB Storage and 1GB Ram at it's disposal, it's certainly a forerunner for the best phone around.

The White HTC

One of the main features with the One X+ is it's camera, boasting a whopping 8MP back camera, also featured on The Gadget Show, receiving a 5G Rating for its camera use, as well as recording in Full HD and the ability to take photo's simultaneously, this is one cool feature which impressed upon reveal.

The HTC's other main features, include, Beats Audio, anyone who's anyone knows what Beats Audio is, these Fashion icon's/musical genius's stylish over ear headphones took the music industry by storm, offering an extremely impressive sound quality similar to those of the high end music industry's toys, although these do come at a cost, but you pay for quality in this day and age!

Each HTC One X+ Handset has built in Beats Audio, no matter what headphones you use, you'll have the ability to use the built in Beats Equalizer settings, thus improving the sound quality even with cheaper headphones, we of course recommend that you purchase Beats for the best sound quality when listening to music however!

Another added bonus with the purchase of a HTC, you'll receive a 25GB Allowance to Dropbox - www.DropBox.com DropBox essentially is a cloud based piece of software that will upload your stored data to a server remotely, instantly after taking and saving a photo you'll have it stored in another location for safe keeping. As well as the feature of uploading, you can download this stored data at any other location you wish, and not just with you're HTC! Oh no, you can download it via PC or even another phone handset!

The Iphone 5

Not a personal favorite of mine, but still a top contender, with Apples recent updates, nothing has changed with the only handset model they make, you could say they only make one type because the one they have is good enough. Apple's main feature is it's appealing looks, its more of a fashion statement then a smartphone, not really adding anymore technology or features onto its latest handsets since its Iphone 3 release. They have made small improvements on the screen size whilst still further reducing the width and weight of the phone.

The Iphone 5 - In Black or White

Unfortunately, they've still had trouble making the handset more sturdy and smash proof, this may be because they want more accessory sales from buying a case for the handset, many people in recent times since buying Iphone 4's have dropped there handset from only a small height, to find a smashed front or back screen, still usually being able to use the phone just the same however, which in itself is impressive.

The Iphone 5 has a mere 4" screen size, however it's relatively non exist ant in weight and depth to the others on the market, it's 8MP back camera is it's main feature, boasting some quite high quality images, along with the added use if Icloud and Itunes for syncing, this makes this phone more connective then most especially with the use of a Mac.

With recent updates from Apple to its OS, IOS 6 is now available across the board, enabling the Iphone 5 to be 4G Compatible, boosting its connectivity out and about above and beyond most other handsets of today. Apple do have different storage sized models available, 16/32/64GB options, which unfortunately are not removable storage, meaning customers will need to splash the cash on the higher end models.

The Motorola Droid Razr HD

With a 4.7" Screen and a 8MP Back Camera, this phones certainly following suit, one notable difference is with the connectivity, this handset allows tethering, tethering is a process which allows other devices such as phones computers or tablets etc, to connect to you're device and use your connectivity to gain internet access! This particular handset, actually allows 8 simultaneous devices to connect and use it's 4G service WOW!

The Motorola Droid Razr HD - With it's stylish carbon fiber look

With a mere 12gb usable internal memory, this somewhat lets the phone down, although a Micro SD can bump this up to 44GB usable memory, this is more appealing, but at more of a cost. It's 1.5Ghz Quad Core CPU does however bring it back into the light, making it one of the quickest handsets available.

This new handset from Motorola, does have a stylish side to it, something many car enthusiasts and gadgeteers will find attractive, especially over Apples sheen white or black gloss effects, with its Carbon Fiber look, it not only appears robust, but the adverts would suggest it could stop a lift door closing without damage! 

One thing this handset does have, is a scratch resistant material and screen, as well as a splash proof resistance yes, that's right, splash proof! Waterproofing for a phone! Many people have accidentally spilt liquids onto there handsets and wiped it away frantically, now you'll not have to worry as much, you'll be protected by the latest inventions!

HTC 8X - Windows Phone

Now onto our final member of the Top Five, and by no means the least! This phone is definitely one of the top out there, especially if you're a social media lover! With the revolutionary new Windows 8 platform recently released, this phones connectivity has only one other contender, and that's Apple! In my opinion, time allowed, Windows 8's platform to platform abilities and connectivity will outshine those of Apple's. As the OS can be used in a multitude of different devices, especially within Tablets as well as home PC's and mobile handsets, this allows for infinite connection possibilities.

All of you're social media in one place, this phone does everything you could need, you're emails are synced via Windows Live or any other service you may use, and automatically synced to you're other devices you register with, as well as you're social media accounts, thrusting itself into the social networking scene by allowing notifications and messages/emails to appear in the inbuilt messaging section of the handset, putting all of your messages into one convenient place.

Gaming you may ask? Yes, this phone has it, as many will know, Microsoft, that company behind Windows? They also run Xbox, they have cleverly incorporated Xbox 360 content with their OS, allowing multi platform gaming, something rarely seen today, which James Cordon clearly enjoyed from the advertisement. 

Onto the specs of the handset, not just the software, it's 4G capable, has a 1280X720 resolution, the same as the HTC and Samsung, and a 4.3" screen size, making it's size very user friendly. As with other HTC models, this handset has Beats Audio built in, enabling users to not only enjoy social networking and gaming, but also high quality sound! Obviously you'd expect the camera to be top notch, as with all HTC's, and this is no let down, it's 8MP rear camera with 1080P Recording and autofocus @30fps is certainly impressive for a mobile handset. It also features a spectacular 2.1MP front camera, which is impressive as most other handsets don't feature more then 1.5MP.

Unfortunately this handset only has a 1.5GHz Dual-Core CPU, which may seem a little sluggish upon reading to most viewers, but, with the added bonus of having Windows OS's inbuilt, the power behind this phone is amplified due to the streamlined coding built by Bill Gates's army of geeks, moral of this story, don't be fooled by numbers, its more powerful then it looks. 

Just to top it off, HTC's gone above and beyond with user friendly options, they've only gone and made it available in different colours! Not just you're standard black or white options! Yes, California Blue, Graphite Black, Flame Red and Limelight Yellow are all available for purchase.