Exciting times are afoot if you’re coming off contract soon. Australia’s first 4G phone (the Velocity 4G) arrived yesterday, alongside the Samsung Omnia W, our first second-gen Windows Phone. Then there are upcoming phones like the HTC Titan II, Sony Xperia S, Nokia Lumia 900 and the Asus Padfone. Here’s how these upcoming beasts compare.
UPDATE:
Click here for the most recent version of Gizmodo Australia’s mega phone spec comparison table.
light487
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:12 AMIf I was out of contract today and had only the above choices I would likely go with the Focus S or the Lumia 900. I am leaning more and more in the direction of the Windows Phone these days. The Omnia W isn’t really of much interest.. but the Omnia 7 might be ok..
I’ve not fully researched any of the phones above, other than the Samsung Galaxy S2 and comparable phones that were out when I started my SGS2 contract, so just going off the basic stats here and the O/S they run.
wsDK_II
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:22 AM+1 for WP7
overtaking iOS as we speak :)
(sorry James, i didnt comment on the moneybags article before)
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/01/apple-sells-37-million-iphones-15-million-ipads-in-monster-moneybags-quarter/#comment-234626
Splintex
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:30 AMA lumia for sure.
maddogeco
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:35 AMWhat is the appeal of a WP7 every work with has them and really like them but they dont know why. i have a N9 and i love it. there are so many things it takes long to do on a wp7 compaired to the N9. i love the shape of the N9 and lumia 800/900 but id rather go open source, not Google’s idea of open source
light487
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:39 AMYup.. I won’t know until I fully explore the options.. I’m just leaning that way right now.. I would love to be fully integrated with my entire house of PCs, Laptops, Xbox 360.. when Win8 comes.. I’m hoping that owning a WP will achieve that goal.. if not, then there is always Android :)
MDolley
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:09 PMThis probably isn’t the best place for such a discussion, but I’d be interested in what you are after in the way of ‘integration’ that you can’t get with other platforms.
As a Windows Phone user I have actually found the integration to be fairly minimal. Most of it is based on cloud services which can be accessed by other platforms.
wsDK_II
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:32 PMthe integration i have with my WP7 is amazing.
XBOX 360 controller + LAN controller (i can choose to stream media to my phone or my TV through my media center on my home PC). I can game using my phone on my XBOX 360.
Full integration with my 8 hotmail/live email accounts + seperate integration for work email + contacts + calendar (i can seach the corp. list of names to find someone’s phone and call them through the ‘people hub’).
full backup for my skydrive account, as well as facebook. every image i take is auto uploaded (incase the cops bust me taking an image of them doing the wrong thing for example, they cant take my phone AND my proof :D)
it also works amazingly well with the Zune integration for my office, home and skydrive music files.
the ONLY thing that is missing from my WP7 experience is grooveshark integration :(
p.s. i am with Telstra so my network experience is probably alot better then most, which might slow things down if you do alot with a data connection.
MDolley
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:42 PMI found the Xbox controller app to be a bit of a gimmick. Not sure why I’d want to use my phone to control my Xbox. I also found it had too much lag. The Xbox app for iOS allows you to send messages and see who is online and that would be enough for me.
I have found the Skydrive backup of photos to be a little limited. The online copies are pretty low quality. While it’s not automatic, there is a skydrive app for iOS.
Barry
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:55 PMBacking up to Skydrive doesn’t do a complete backup, I’m hoping it does one day very soon, like the old MyPhone that Microsoft had for their Phone version 6 or 6.5. MyPhone was great, worked great everytime and backed up sms, MMS, numbers, pictures…basically the lot. Skydrive should have this soon I hope.
TSH
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:25 PMhaha yeah, I don’t know many WP7 users but they all love it! For me, I like the integration of services and apps into the OS and Hubs; the interface is slick; and Zune kicks iTunes arse.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 4:27 PM“… really like them but they dont know why”. Surely that is the greatest compliment of all? It has certainly served Apple well for many, many years.
Jubbing
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:34 PMLike what? I reviewed a N9 to a WP7 device, and I found that it was pretty much worse at everything.
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:52 AMDo you have a lnk to Omnia 7? Only Omnia 7 I could see was an old phone. Cheers!
light487
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:12 PMYup, it’s the old phone. Sorry for the confusion.. I didn’t mean to imply that it should be up there in the list… just that I would probably buy the Omnia 7 over the W if I were given the choice of the two (sticking to that series)… but given that the Lumia 900 is better all round, I’d probably go with that instead…
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:19 PMGotcha, thanks!
Dave
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:35 PMI swapped my iPhone4 for an omnia7 Love it. Def Getting another windows phone soon. maybe one with Next G ability
Sicarius123
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 5:18 PMOmnia 7 is only $249 outright from Optus stores now. Got one for my mother.
Dave
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 10:33 PM$180 from Mobicity.com! or some site like that :D
Steve
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:23 AMHTC Titan looks nice! I have made do with a iPhone 3G and been out of contract for a few years now, but I still like the phone – its just a bit slow. I was going to get an Samsung Galaxy S2 when they were free on a $29 contract, but the S3 should be out soon.
ThePengwin
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:31 AMMWC is a month away, why would you buy a phone now?
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:51 AMExactly. And I mentioned MWC in the story.
ThePengwin
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 4:07 PMMy apologies. the table loaded and my TL;DR sense kicked in. Speculation on the GS III is really sketchy though, I wouldn’t trust a single person who has said something on it, as you could guess what they say by looking up the improvements in the Exynos core line or current trends in Android smartphones. I’m sticking my fingers in my ears about it until MWC.
Dionysus
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:38 AMNo Sony Xperia S???
I would prefer buying a 4.5″ + phone over a tablet, but for the purpose of a phone itself I don’t understand buying anything greater than 4.2″..
Serious question, if your going out on Saturday night wearing some nice jeans and shirt where do you store a 4.7″ HTC?
Can someone also inform me the purpose of buying a phone that big?
light487
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:49 AMYer I have 4.3″ and it’s just perfect for me.. as for the Galaxy Note, I can understand that as a notepad/phone because it comes with a stylus etc.. A little like the original HP iPAQs only much better. The other phones, without the stylus.. I’m not sure.. :)
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:51 AMXperia S / Ion listed
Dionysus
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:07 PMI’m confused why you list both RAZR and Maxx separatley but list the S and Ion as one phone when it has more differences.
Chris
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:42 AMI don’t want a screen >4″ !!! It’s bulky and annoying.
light487
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:50 AMReally? My 4.3″ fits easily into my pockets, doesn’t feel bulky at all.. I was, I admit, a little scared of it when I took it out of the box for the first time but months of using it have gotten me over that.. anything less than 4″ would be way too small for me now.. :)
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 4:30 PMYeah, I’m with you. Every smartphone is much too big, but you have to have one so I want mine to be as small as possible. The Omnia W looks the goods to me and it is cheap as chips.
TSH
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:06 PMBigger is always better when it comes to screen, it’s just that a bigger screen usually means a bigger device. I’d love to get a Lumia 900, but I’m not willing to go with the extra bulk so Lumia 800 looks just about right!
Azza
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:15 PMGood stuff, could have used this when shopping around for phones a month ago (ended up with galaxy nexus).
I foresee this list getting extremely messy. Have you guys thought about a ranking system? I know it will be controversial amongst the fanboys, but it does help people narrow down their options.
Nord
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:29 PMTo those saying that anything bigger than 4″ is too big are you by chance midgets or do you just wear skinny jean? Chicks carry their phones in handbags and blokes should be able to have a subtle scratch of their bollocks through their pockets which means there should be enough room for a 5″ phone at least. I’ve got a galaxy s2 but most of the time i wish it was bigger.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 4:32 PMWhy? I’ve never had that thought with my 4″ Focus, or even my 3.3″ ZuneHD.
Abz
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:36 PMMy 4.65′ Galaxy Nexus fits in my pocket easily because I don’t wear women’s jeans, and I absolutely love the screen, nothing else compares. Watching videos and browsing the web is amazing on it. And sure it’s big, but it’s so slim and sexy I don’t mind at all, and I barely even notice it anymore. :D
Barry
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:48 PMOne thing you have to remember is WP7 and Apple are designed to work on a min spec and work great on them, Android phones don’t have this yet which is why you are getting dual or quad cores coming out or coming out soon. The way Microsoft is doing the WP7 is the right way I think. They won’t go to dual core until they have worked out the power consumation which is the right thing to do. This goes with LTE and other issues with hardware that pull more power than it really deserves.
Go WP7, great phone, it works and works great. Quick and is a great business phone. Can’t wait until the Nokia phones hit Australia
Steve
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:59 PMWill be steering well clear of any phones marked as a ‘Facebook phone’. I do not use it and want nothing to do with it – just want a great smart phone without the gimicks.
KzD
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:12 PMSamsung Galaxy S III.
/end
teaman
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:16 PMSamsung Galaxy S II not listed as dual core?!
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:23 PMFixed
Greg
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:26 PMSo no comparison of rated data speeds, HSPA, HSPA+ or LTE?
An interesting omission since this is pretty important to many people.
Barry
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:41 PMI’m not sure speed is really a huge factor at the moment as LTE is only just now hitting Australian shores. With LTE, it is possible to reach up to 40Mb per second and in some case just over 50Mb per second.
Kram
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:40 PMI have a Galaxy Nexus already for personal use but am tossing up on whether to go Lumia 800 or 900 or stick with Blackberry & go the 9900
Barry
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:42 PMGo the 900 because of the front facing camera.
illogical
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:57 PMwould have been nice as an excel sheet in which we could have sorted the values
sammyl
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 2:20 PMNokia N9 64GB
brent3000
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 2:21 PMNokia Lumia 900 for me :) Cant wait for it!!!! Else the Samsung S. Them are my options..
Cameron
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 3:15 PMSo what options do you have for Telstra 4G? There’s only 1 phone listed, and that’s a stupid HTC 4.5″ monster.
Danny Allen
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 4:48 PMThat’s it for now. More devices coming: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/01/htc-velocity-4g-out-today-more-4g-devices-on-the-way/
Amit K
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 5:14 PMAnyone know if the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket available from mobicity is compatible with the Telstra 4G network in Australia?
Amit K
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 6:25 PMignore that. the answer is on the mobicity site:
“Please note: This device is not compatible with any existing 4G networks in Australia.”
Mark
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 6:19 PMwoah, i would never of guessed that Nokia let alone WP 7.5 to be a sought after phone.
Ive been waiting for a top tier Windows phone for close to 2 years after experiencing how good WP7 was when it was first released here.
I cant wait to get the Lumina 900 and be all hipstery among my friends by owning something unique and classy looking.
Dale
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 6:33 PMAndroid 4.0 coming out for Samsung Galaxy Note
warcroft
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 7:26 PMGood to see it still holds true. . . ANYONE who actually holds a WP7 in their hand and plays with it instantly falls in love with it.
iPhone, although good, is dated and out of fashion.
Android really is a garbage OS. Its clunky and broken. It only has the market share because its on every every price ranged phone.
Geeks brag about their high spec’d Android phones but they still get smoked by Windows Phone. I wish I could find the clip of the Galaxy vs WP7 boot times. WP7 was switched off and restarted to a usable state four times in the time the Galaxy did it once.
WP&, especially Nokia, have been selling like crazy in the European countries. Its the number one requested phone, has the highest customer satisfaction, highest rated phone with dealers, etc etc. . . this year is WP7!
Charles
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 9:44 PMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted
aaron
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 10:12 PM+1 for WP7. You just have to try it to understand. The whole UX metaphor just makes so much sense. It’s like someone’s actually thought about how a smartphone should work for the first time.
WinPhone 4 the win
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:23 PMI spoke to an optus sales person today and they said lumia 900 will be out soon, very exciting!!!