The smartphone market is heating up once again as Microsoft and Nokia finally have a hero device to push the Windows Phone platform, and it’s priced quite competitively. Plus the handful of Android devices announced at CES and MWC are finally seeing the light of day.
In the near term, the US smartphone market is shaping up to be a three-horse race. The iPhone tops the sales charts on every carrier, which is quite a feat, considering it has some formidable competition. Android devices from Samsung and Motorola have been selling well — notably the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note and Razer — while the Lumia 710 briefly broke into the top three at T-Mobile. Nokia is hoping to repeat that feat with the Lumia 900 on AT&T. Blackberry devices have recently failed to impress, so you’ll notice that they’re all absent on this update.
Without further ado, check out our pick of the most popular devices currently available (or those just weeks away from release). Each phone is listed from latest to oldest along with its feature highlights, specs and prices. To help you make a well-informed decision on your next purchase, we’ve added Metascores from our product finder with links to reviews on each phone plus.
Samsung has officially taken the wraps off the long-awaited Galaxy S III smartphone. The new flagship handset packs a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor and a GPU that’s said to be 65% faster than the chip found inside the Galaxy S II, along with a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen (1280 x 720 resolution) ) with. A 306 ppi density, 1GB of RAM, an 8MP rear shooter, a 1.9MP front camera, and storage options in the neighborhood of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
There’s also a removable 2,100mAh battery, a micro-SD card slot, support for Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi Direct, DLNA and NFC. Samsung included a Siri-like voice assistant as well as a technology called Smart Stay to detect when you’re reading the phone’s screen and prevent it from sleeping. The phone will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz layer on top.
The HTC One X, the successor to the popular HTC EVO 4G released in 2010, has a doppelganger coming soon to AT&T. It has the same 4.7-inch HD Super LCD 2 screen, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 8MP camera and Android 4.0 with Sense UI.
However, HTC has put in a few extras that make this device stand out. These include anodized aluminum from the One X’s plastic body, the familiar Evo kickstand, a dedicated camera button, an improved battery, a microSD slot, and dual microphones to support Sprint’s new HD Voice feature, which helps reduce background noise. promises. Provide the best possible audio quality. The pre-orders for this phone are starting from May 7.
87 71 reviews HTC’s new flagship smartphone features a beautiful 4.7-inch, 720 x 1280 resolution display and single-piece polycarbonate body that’s unparalleled in the Android world. It will ship with the latest Ice Cream Sandwich release of Google’s mobile OS and a refreshed Sense UI on top.
Keep in mind that the recently announced European phones and the US There will be some key differences between the upcoming phones. Most notably, the AT&T model will have a Qualcomm processor instead of a quad-core Tegra 3 chip and supports LTE.
83 56 reviews The One S has an ultrathin (7.8 mm) single-piece aluminum body, a 4.3-inch QHD (960 x 540) AMOLED display, an 8MP camera, and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core SoC. 1.5GHz. It roughly matches the US version of HTC’s One X flagship in terms of specs, save for the lack of LTE (it supports T-Mobile’s faster 42Mbps HSPA+ network), lower-res display, and a slightly smaller size. Battery. The device will ship with Android 4.0 and HTC’s latest Sense UI.
80 50 reviews The Lumia 900 is one of the most affordable flagship devices AT&T has sold so far, which is reportedly a major investment from Nokia and Microsoft. It has a 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, 1.4GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera lens, high-capacity 1830mAh battery, and a sleek single-piece polycarbonate body. The phone comes with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 OS and is compatible with AT&T’s LTE network.
If you prefer a smaller 3.7-inch display, the Lumia 800 has everything left for a 4G radio in the 900. However, at least in the US, it’s only available without carrier subsidies as part of an expensive (~$899) bundle deal in Microsoft Stores.