Budget 20-25K Sony Xperia SP or Samsung Galaxy S3 or Moto G :P

[Corleone]

1. Budget?
A: ~ 20-22K
2. Preferred Form Factor(flip, bar, slider)?
A: Bar
3. Preferred display type?
A: TFT
4. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: Leaning towards the Sony as I like my wife's Xperia P
5. Preferred input method (Touchscreen, QWERTY, etc.)?
A: Touchscreen
6. Camera required or not? If required, please specify type like front camera/flash/etc.
A: Preferably 8MP, Front camera and Flash
7. Preferred operating system? (Android, Symbian, iOS, Windows Phone etc).
A: Android with surety of KitKat 4.4 update lined up
8. Preferred connectivity options? (3G, Wifi, Edge etc).
A: 3G & Wifi
9. What is your intended use for this phone(internet, camera, multimedia, mails, etc)?
A: Calling, Conference calls, Roaming, Emails, Messaging, Surfing
10. Any other requirements?
A: Must have superb Network Latching ability
11. If you have already considered a phone then please mention the model.
A: Xperia SP or Galaxy S3

The most important thing is ability to latch to networks (2g & 3g) without any issues and Call clarity (in ear & speaker) as I travel a lot and mostly talk on conference calls.

 

[Ksavai]

Pro for S3
- It was flagship phone for samsung
- best of its generation
- better custom ROM support

Pro for SP
- Newer model (not the latest)
- looks

Both are almost even I prefer S3.

 

[Onemufc]

Have a look at Nexus 4 also.

S3 is a clear winner here in that price point.

 

[sid1712]

A significantly better option would be to save up slightly more cash and plonk it on a better phone like the Xperia ZL (Costs 25k now)

 

[Corleone]

Will be difficult extend my budget. Max is 22K. In fact it is actually 20K). So you guys say it is S3 which better? I find S3 will be getting 4.4 kitkat update. Is that true?

 

[vigilante]

S3 has got the 4.3 update. Although unofficially there are reports that it would get 4.4 there is no official confirmation I think. But there are chances it might get the 4.4 as the last update.

 

[Corleone]

Okay. So you guys are of the opinion that S3 is a better option?

Offline when I spoke to a few people they said S3 has a habit of hanging randomly. Is that true?

Sony seems to have confirmed KitKat update for SP.

 

[vigilante]

S3 has 1GB of ram which might seem low if compared to newer phones but I haven't faced any issues running games like NFS MW of ME infiltrator.
I have rarely faced this hanging issue. I think as long as you keep the number of installed and running applications in check, you should be good unless you regularly play heavy games (btw I have NFS, ME and ShadowGun installed). Once in a while if I feel the phone is slow, I just clear the RAM and it does the trick. But for day to day usage, you should be good.

 

[Corleone]

S3 has 1GB of ram which might seem low if compared to newer phones but I haven't faced any issues running games like NFS MW of ME infiltrator.
I have rarely faced this hanging issue. I think as long as you keep the number of installed and running applications in check, you should be good unless you regularly play heavy games (btw I have NFS, ME and ShadowGun installed). Once in a while if I feel the phone is slow, I just clear the RAM and it does the trick. But for day to day usage, you should be good.

Great! You use S3 yourself?
I hardly play games. The phone will be mostly used for the following:

• Regular phone calls
• Conference calls
• Emails, messages, chat, Skype
• Roaming
• Productivity apps: Evernote, onenote

How is that signal reception - 2G & 3G? Any issues with that? Home circle & roaming.

Also, how is battery life?

 

[blr_p]

The most important thing is ability to latch to networks (2g & 3g) without any issues and Call clarity (in ear & speaker) as I travel a lot and mostly talk on conference calls.

Is dual sim necessary ?

 

[Corleone]

Is dual sim necessary ?

Nope. Single Sim will be fine.

Also, guys I find the 4.3 update makes the phone very buggy with numerous issues? Is that true? If yes, has Samsung fixed it?

 

[thrift]

Well i do not own a S3 but my roomie has one as I had suggested him to get an S3.Its almost 6 months now,He has started to report lag in the UI,minimal I would say.Apart from that everything works fine.

 

[blr_p]

Instead of S3 or SP , what do people make of galaxy grand 2 ? Price will reduce further in a month.

1.5GB RAM instead of 1GB but only 8GB (like the SP) instead of 16Gb on the s3. bear in mind only half or little over is usable and you can never have enough memory.

Heavier too (163 vs 133 gm) and no NFC.

 

[Corleone]

Don't know but, I don't find Grand 2 appealing and seems overrated.

 

[blr_p]

The grand is a solid mid range offering. Its a quad core whereas your s3 & SP are dual core, this means better battery life. It's certain to get 4.4, no biggie to offer a .1 OS upgrade, just don't expect any more. You won't have the option of roms if you do with a dual sim variant, not sure if they sell a single sim variant in india or not. Surprisingly they are offering a snapdragon version instead of exynos. Wonder why.

The only downside is the bulk & weight. But then you get multi-window operation with the bigger screen.

Suggest you check it out in a shop and compare. Screen is quite good. Just wait a month for the price to drop 10%.

 

[ankushv]

The s3 is a quad core phone . Using for more than a year . Never lags or hangs . I'm on android 4.3 stock unrooted . Super amoled and gorilla glass is awesome too . Sound quality is good in trains . Battery life is a day with 3g data on whole day .

 

[puns]

I have the SP. let me point our based on what you are looking for:
Regular phone calls - good but not too loud
Conference calls - speaker is not too loud.
Emails - default app is great.
messages - very smooth and fast.
chat - fb tango chat works fast. sometimes app crashes
Skype - on speaker, the voice barely comes through. app does crash now n then
Roaming - really good
Productivity apps: Evernote, onenote - work well. i have tried evernote.
Must have superb Network Latching ability - brilliant. switching between 2g/3g/wifi is smooth.

 

[mojo]

The problem with the Grand 2 is the screen. Its not Gorilla glass. So we should be careful enough with the handling.

 

[Corleone]

I have the SP. let me point our based on what you are looking for:
Regular phone calls - good but not too loud
Conference calls - speaker is not too loud.
Emails - default app is great.
messages - very smooth and fast.
chat - fb tango chat works fast. sometimes app crashes
Skype - on speaker, the voice barely comes through. app does crash now n then
Roaming - really good
Productivity apps: Evernote, onenote - work well. i have tried evernote.
Must have superb Network Latching ability - brilliant. switching between 2g/3g/wifi is smooth.

Thanks man for the detailed info. How is the battery life? I understand that battery capacity is more than s3 but, lasts less than the s3.[DOUBLEPOST=1391488797][/DOUBLEPOST]

The s3 is a quad core phone . Using for more than a year . Never lags or hangs . I'm on android 4.3 stock unrooted . Super amoled and gorilla glass is awesome too . Sound quality is good in trains . Battery life is a day with 3g data on whole day .

How is the ability to latch to different networks & transition? 2g/3g - home network & roaming

 

[vigilante]

^ Go for Grand 2 only if you want a large screen. Otherwise as I mentioned, 1GB of ram in S3 is quite enough for regular usage. And you get a sharper and sturdy screen with the phone size feeling not too big. Haven't used this phone too much on roaming, but for a couple of times I went outside state, did not face any network issues. For last so many yrs I have been using Airtel 2g (10 months on S3)and never faced too many issues. But couple of months back i switched to Docomo 3g (since airtel is not giving 3g in Mah) and I am facing frequent disconnections (after maybe 30-40 mins). I wonder if this is operator related.