Smartphone... which of these 2 ? ( Galaxy S III --- HTC One )

[Alpha]

Ok... So the Wife finally decided she wants a smartphone (I don't really care honestly) but true to form now that she since she decided she wants it NOW.   I had the pleasure of hitting every kiosk in the mall and Best Buy x 2.   It looks like I get to upgrade as well so the choices are (price does factor in so that's how she narrowed it down to these)....

1)   HTC One-- She likes the Metal Case & so do I but best of all it's buy one get one free so... 2 phones = $200.

2)  Galaxy S III -- Most of her friends are either just getting the S4 or the Iphone 5 but SHE decided she didn't want to spend that much money (fine with me) Best Buy was running Galaxy S II for $50 / phone.

Anyway...   I'd expect pretty typical usage from both of us..    Any recommendations?   

[UOMaddog]

Not sure which carrier you're with, but often times you can get even better deals online from the carrier's website (and sometimes wavied upgrade/activation fees also). I debated quite a lot between the HTC One and the S4, and picked the S4, but my wife got an S3 and loves it. If I could have it my way, I'd take the guts of the S3 or 4 and put it in the body of the HTC One.

I personally don't like the skins that HTC OR Samsung put on their phones, so I always install Nova Launcher and make it look like stock Android, so I threw out all the extra "features" that come with SenseUI (HTC) or TouchWiz (Samsung). If you plan on keeping their skins, then you can consider those features. I'd personally lean towards the HTC One, but that's just a personal preference. I do love my S4!

[ximan]

Yeah, sometimes picking the carrier is most important part, though most allow you to bring your own device now, usually they push models and you can't get a better deal.  You can get a Galaxy S III from Sprint right now for free.  My wife and I have them, like them alright (not too fond of our carrier T-Mobile though).  Here's a link showing the technical differences between the S III and S 4:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/14/samsung-galaxy-s-4-whats-changed/

http://www.versus.com/en/samsung-galaxy-s4-vs-htc-one

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_iii_vs_galaxy_note_ii-review-830.php

The S 4's newer camera and full HD resolution would be nice, but not enough difference for me to run out and pick one up.  The Note II seems pretty unwieldy as a phone (too big)- though if someone had poor eyesight and planned to do a lot of browsing it might be nice (the PPI on the S4 , S III , and Note II are  441, 306, and 267 respectively).

[UOMaddog]

Oh I should mention, I'm not impressed with the quality of the camera on the S4. Most would say that you'll get much nicer pictures out of the HTC One's camera.

[Alpha]

Hmm...  that's AWESOME Info.   Specfically that the individual carriers sites can have such a different price for the same phone(You'd think checking that would be obvious but I hadn't done it yet!).  Currently we have verizon & we are considering Sprint bc of the unlimited Data aspect.  The network coverage seems pretty good for Seattle / North Seattle and in the areas we frequent in Eastern Washington.  It also helps that my wife's employer gets us a 23% discount @ Sprint & 22% at Verizon so atm I'm re-evaluating the NEED for unlimited Data vs say a Family Share 4 GB plan.  I'll have to rethink a lot of this because yesterday the wife was willing to spend a couple of hundred bucks & it looks like the Galaxy S4 through Sprint is a possibility at that price IF we are willing to change carriers etc.   I'll have to eyeball the various phone prices / Monthly Costs per Carrier & COVERAGE of course and see what she wants to do.   If I had to guess Id say two Galaxy S4's wouldn't be a bad way to go at all & I highly doubt we will exceed 4 GB / month since I'll be able to link into my work Wifi when it's slow which is how I kill my time.   I still like the Metal Case of the HTC ONE and a straight clean Android System without the added UI sounds appealing (just bc I'd guess it's cleaner /faster)..    Anyway THX all more research to do!

lol... WALL of TxT ftw !

[TrailMyx]

Though I love HTC, I can't vote for it.  The camera just isn't sufficient, and the battery/memory aren't removable.  Not allowing for upgrades is a major NO-NO in my book.  We already have Apple for that.

I'll wait for HTC to pull their head from their buttocks.

[Bookwyrm]

I have the Galaxy S 3 through sprint and have been more than satisfied with the phone. My carrier however, not so much.

[Crome969]

I own HTC One X and its fine (but 1,5 years old now). Camera is good, the embedded Battery and the integrated memory space is ok but nothing impressive. Next year i may will choose a new htc or the next model of samsung, depending what comes first\is better.

But so far i can do all what i want with my current phone, stream hd movies , play almost all games. But recharging comes quiete often. I need to recharge every evening over night.

[Alpha]

Yea right now I'm taking a closer look at the carriers and since it's so close to Labor Day I'm hoping there is a sale of some sort that just make it easy to decide.  Good point about the battery but I'd expect to have to charge it every night if I started using my phone the way I use my tablet.

[Crisis]

I have the S4 and my wife has the S3, both through Sprint. We have always had good luck with Samsung phones and no problems with Sprint. We have the family plan with unlimited data and 1500 minutes a month but to be honest we rarely use more than 500 minutes. Sprint calls are free between cell phones of any carrier so you actually only pay minuted when calling landline phones. I hope this helps.

[Alpha]

I have the S4 and my wife has the S3, both through Sprint. We have always had good luck with Samsung phones and no problems with Sprint. We have the family plan with unlimited data and 1500 minutes a month but to be honest we rarely use more than 500 minutes. Sprint calls are free between cell phones of any carrier so you actually only pay when calling landline phones. I hope this helps. Smiley

 

Yea a Sprint Rep. mentioned the 1500 minutes for non-cell phone calls plan and apparently my wife's 23% discount applies to a $110 charge in that plan and only applies to the $60 for 2 lines of unlimited Data in the Unlimited My Way plan.  So 1500 min plan would save us some money but atm I've apparently got a potential hook-up for T-Mobile so if that pans out it looks like the way I'll be going.   Someone I work with has a relative in the T-Mobile store that has a whole sale contact which means Galaxy S4 for $150/phone.   It sounds too goo to be true but now that I'm looking there's 5-8 people where I work carrying around brand new S4s from this guy.  It also doesn't hurt that all the research I've done puts T-Mobile better than Sprint in Coverage / Speeds in my area.   Now it's just a waiting game to see if $300 makes this happen or not lol.