Hi guys, i decided to make a guide about phone manufacturers, regarding the general advantages and disadvantages of each manufacturer, focusing more on popular smartphone manufacturers.
Its aim is to give a rough idea of what you should expect if you buy a phone of that manufacturer, considering the past, and present trends of manufacturers.
Although many advantages and disadvantages are model-specific, there have been some abilities some manufacturers have been blessed with, and some cons which they simply cannot seem to get rid of.
I have tried to include points which i can recollect, and please suggest more points to add to make the thread more useful. I do not have a hands-on experience with all phones of all manufacturers, but instead, this is based on what i have learnt in the past few years. No information is copy/pasted from any site or other source, if it seems to be, then it is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Thank you!
1. HTC
+ Good build quality
+ Good, original UI (Sense UI)
+ Above average software support
+ Excellent community support (for example, most HTC phones have CM support, more than half phones having CM support are of HTC)
- Premium pricing
- Sub-par battery life
- Sub-par camera
- Non-existent lower end segment phones
Minor - Depends totally on Qualcomm chipsets
2. Samsung
+ Exclusive manufacturer of class-leading displays like Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED plus, Super Duper AMOLED plus minus
(couldn't resist making the last one up
)
+ Wide range of smartphones, covering the entire range, from lowest end to highest end of the spectrum
+ Consistently remains the manufacturer with phones having the most powerful hardware among all
+ Wide availability and service network
- Poor pricing of phones in mid-range segment (like Ace, Galaxy SL etc...). In many cases, other phones offer better features at lower price, yet no price cuts on such models.
- TouchWiz is a ripoff of the iOS UI, and i feel that even the stock Android UI is better than it
- Flagship phones have a plasticky feel
Minor - Poor GPS
3. LG
+ Decent pricing
- Very small lineup of smartphones
- No stand-out feature
- Laggy UI
4.Motorola
+ Excellent call clarity
+ Effective price cuts
- Relative disinterest in the Indian market (Milestone 3, Droid X2 have been announced, still no Milestone 2, Droid X in India),
no phones with similar specs either. The most powerful Moto phone in India is just a mid-end phone.
- High launch prices of phones (Milestone 1, XT800 etc.. launched at 30k. Any takers then?)
- Sub-par software support, tend to favour updates to US phones, neglect other countries
(Droid 2.2 update came out months before milestone 2.2 update, some phones which got updates in the US, retained on old android versions in other countries)
- High SAR value
5. Sony Ericsson
+ Above quality average cameras
+ Above average quality design
- Hilariously poor software update history
( X10, X10 mini, X10 mini pro, X8 came with donut when eclair was out 4 months ago, got eclair update when gingerbread was out)
- Offers poor value till price cuts after many months (Xperia X10 launched at 35k, Play at 31k, when better phones were cheaper)
6. Apple!
+ Good build quality and design
+ Excellent community support
+ Timely software updates
+ Largest collection of apps
+ 1 year international warranty, good after sales service
+ Unmatched reputation
+ Excellent touch responsiveness from screen, now has unmatched pixel density, fluid interface
- Relative disinterest in Indian market
- Only 1 phone, refreshed only once a year
- Lacks basic features such as file copy, paste, delete, download, bluetooth file transfer etc..
- Same old UI(will it never change?), i got bored of it soon (on ipod), same old slide-the-finger homescreen-cum-menu, hides the beauty of wallpapers too
- Studied opposites in school? Of course!
Lets revise it again then, shall we?
Big x Small
Good x Bad
Tall x Short
and finally..
Value for money x Apple
(i hope you got the point!)
In India (at least), Apple iPhones are meant for
1. Rich adults
2. Kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth
3. Die-hard fanboys
(No offense to exceptions )
Not for the lower, middle class users
6. Nokia
+ Glorious past, reputation is still good among loyal users
+ Gets the basics right (Call quality, pricing etc..)
+ Largest dealer and service network
Minor + Above average build quality, design
+ Excellent value for money in lower segment
- The OS issue:
* Symbian is dying, has totally been abandoned by other manufacturers like Samsung, SE etc...
* Meego looked (and still looks) promising but we now know that N9 will be the first and last Meego phone from Nokia, and that it is just like a distraction while Nokia is readying its WP7 phones
* WP7 was a very poor choice by Nokia as its major future OS, something we all know. It is mainly for higher end phones and has some strict, and unmeaningful requirements such as:
1) Strictly 3 hardware buttons on the front, not less, not more.
2) Only Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
* In addition, its shortage of apps, OS cost (paid to MS), different UI(though quite nice), may not be well accepted.
- Except the N900 and upcoming N9, all other phones have yesteryear processors. The fastest processor on a Nokia device, except the two above phones is an old 628 MHz ARM 11 processor, which is outdated, and otherwise only used on low end phones by other manufacturers in the era of blazing fast processors.
- Even the screen, although AMOLED, having deep blacks and overall good quality has the least pixel density among all smartphones. A 4" display with a 360x640 resolution does not quite excite a user. (Except N900 and N9 again)
Minor - Tending to favour fixed-focus cameras nowadays
Just after giving us the best camera on a mobile phone(N8), Nokia has been on a fixed-focus spree, using 5MP, even 8MP fixed focus cameras in phones ranging from the low-mid end segment (E5), the mid-end segment(C6-01, C7), all the way upto the flagship model (E7). Although image quality is quite decent, an autofocus camera would have been much appreciated (Ah, the good old Carl-Zeiss optics!)
- Tumbling reputation and sales are a worry, not only for the company but also for its users, since a user realizes that if the company stocks, sales and reputation are tumbling it can only mean lack of quality in the product.
8. Blackberry
+ Blackberry messenger
+ Built for easy messaging (email, IM) with an optimized portrait QWERTY keyboard
+ Good build quality, can withstand drops from average heights easily without loss of data
- App store is sparsely populated compared to Android and iOS stores, shortage of free apps
- Hardware is not that good for what you pay, well below the average standards
- Blackberry OS is not well optimized for touch (Sub-par quality UI)
- No video-calling camera on any model
THE END
Please feel free to make suggestions for addition, deletion of info above. I have little knowledge of things like music quality, ease and speed of messaging, etc..., so suggestions on those matters will be useful. If i have made a large error, then constructive criticism, rather than abusing and yelling (if you feel like doing that, just spare a moment and think about the effort put into this), would be appreciated. And although most of the info above may feel basic to an experienced user, it can help newcomers to the smartphone platform. Let us work together to make this the definitive guide .
Its aim is to give a rough idea of what you should expect if you buy a phone of that manufacturer, considering the past, and present trends of manufacturers.
Although many advantages and disadvantages are model-specific, there have been some abilities some manufacturers have been blessed with, and some cons which they simply cannot seem to get rid of.
I have tried to include points which i can recollect, and please suggest more points to add to make the thread more useful. I do not have a hands-on experience with all phones of all manufacturers, but instead, this is based on what i have learnt in the past few years. No information is copy/pasted from any site or other source, if it seems to be, then it is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Thank you!
1. HTC
+ Good build quality
+ Good, original UI (Sense UI)
+ Above average software support
+ Excellent community support (for example, most HTC phones have CM support, more than half phones having CM support are of HTC)
- Premium pricing
- Sub-par battery life
- Sub-par camera
- Non-existent lower end segment phones
Minor - Depends totally on Qualcomm chipsets
2. Samsung
+ Exclusive manufacturer of class-leading displays like Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED plus, Super Duper AMOLED plus minus
(couldn't resist making the last one up
)+ Wide range of smartphones, covering the entire range, from lowest end to highest end of the spectrum
+ Consistently remains the manufacturer with phones having the most powerful hardware among all
+ Wide availability and service network
- Poor pricing of phones in mid-range segment (like Ace, Galaxy SL etc...). In many cases, other phones offer better features at lower price, yet no price cuts on such models.
- TouchWiz is a ripoff of the iOS UI, and i feel that even the stock Android UI is better than it
- Flagship phones have a plasticky feel
Minor - Poor GPS
3. LG
+ Decent pricing
- Very small lineup of smartphones
- No stand-out feature
- Laggy UI
4.Motorola
+ Excellent call clarity
+ Effective price cuts
- Relative disinterest in the Indian market (Milestone 3, Droid X2 have been announced, still no Milestone 2, Droid X in India),
no phones with similar specs either. The most powerful Moto phone in India is just a mid-end phone.
- High launch prices of phones (Milestone 1, XT800 etc.. launched at 30k. Any takers then?)
- Sub-par software support, tend to favour updates to US phones, neglect other countries
(Droid 2.2 update came out months before milestone 2.2 update, some phones which got updates in the US, retained on old android versions in other countries)
- High SAR value
5. Sony Ericsson
+ Above quality average cameras
+ Above average quality design
- Hilariously poor software update history
( X10, X10 mini, X10 mini pro, X8 came with donut when eclair was out 4 months ago, got eclair update when gingerbread was out)
- Offers poor value till price cuts after many months (Xperia X10 launched at 35k, Play at 31k, when better phones were cheaper)
6. Apple!
+ Good build quality and design
+ Excellent community support
+ Timely software updates
+ Largest collection of apps
+ 1 year international warranty, good after sales service
+ Unmatched reputation
+ Excellent touch responsiveness from screen, now has unmatched pixel density, fluid interface
- Relative disinterest in Indian market
- Only 1 phone, refreshed only once a year
- Lacks basic features such as file copy, paste, delete, download, bluetooth file transfer etc..
- Same old UI(will it never change?), i got bored of it soon (on ipod), same old slide-the-finger homescreen-cum-menu, hides the beauty of wallpapers too
- Studied opposites in school? Of course!
Lets revise it again then, shall we?
Big x Small
Good x Bad
Tall x Short
and finally..
Value for money x Apple
(i hope you got the point!)
In India (at least), Apple iPhones are meant for
1. Rich adults
2. Kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth
3. Die-hard fanboys
(No offense to exceptions
)Not for the lower, middle class users
6. Nokia
+ Glorious past, reputation is still good among loyal users
+ Gets the basics right (Call quality, pricing etc..)
+ Largest dealer and service network
Minor + Above average build quality, design
+ Excellent value for money in lower segment
- The OS issue:
* Symbian is dying, has totally been abandoned by other manufacturers like Samsung, SE etc...
* Meego looked (and still looks) promising but we now know that N9 will be the first and last Meego phone from Nokia, and that it is just like a distraction while Nokia is readying its WP7 phones
* WP7 was a very poor choice by Nokia as its major future OS, something we all know. It is mainly for higher end phones and has some strict, and unmeaningful requirements such as:
1) Strictly 3 hardware buttons on the front, not less, not more.
2) Only Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
* In addition, its shortage of apps, OS cost (paid to MS), different UI(though quite nice), may not be well accepted.
- Except the N900 and upcoming N9, all other phones have yesteryear processors. The fastest processor on a Nokia device, except the two above phones is an old 628 MHz ARM 11 processor, which is outdated, and otherwise only used on low end phones by other manufacturers in the era of blazing fast processors.
- Even the screen, although AMOLED, having deep blacks and overall good quality has the least pixel density among all smartphones. A 4" display with a 360x640 resolution does not quite excite a user. (Except N900 and N9 again)
Minor - Tending to favour fixed-focus cameras nowadays
Just after giving us the best camera on a mobile phone(N8), Nokia has been on a fixed-focus spree, using 5MP, even 8MP fixed focus cameras in phones ranging from the low-mid end segment (E5), the mid-end segment(C6-01, C7), all the way upto the flagship model (E7). Although image quality is quite decent, an autofocus camera would have been much appreciated (Ah, the good old Carl-Zeiss optics!)
- Tumbling reputation and sales are a worry, not only for the company but also for its users, since a user realizes that if the company stocks, sales and reputation are tumbling it can only mean lack of quality in the product.
8. Blackberry
+ Blackberry messenger
+ Built for easy messaging (email, IM) with an optimized portrait QWERTY keyboard
+ Good build quality, can withstand drops from average heights easily without loss of data
- App store is sparsely populated compared to Android and iOS stores, shortage of free apps
- Hardware is not that good for what you pay, well below the average standards
- Blackberry OS is not well optimized for touch (Sub-par quality UI)
- No video-calling camera on any model
THE END
Please feel free to make suggestions for addition, deletion of info above. I have little knowledge of things like music quality, ease and speed of messaging, etc..., so suggestions on those matters will be useful. If i have made a large error, then constructive criticism, rather than abusing and yelling (if you feel like doing that, just spare a moment and think about the effort put into this), would be appreciated. And although most of the info above may feel basic to an experienced user, it can help newcomers to the smartphone platform. Let us work together to make this the definitive guide
.
