New phone: Camera and music

[iBrody]

Currently using a 4S, and tbh a little bored of IOS so was considering moving to a different OS.

With photography and a portable music player in mind, I am contemplating the Lumia 1020 (W8) or HTC One (Android).

However, as I have already spent quite a bit on apps for IOS, I will probably wait to see what the new iPhone will have to offer before deciding whether to take the plunge.

I am already aware of the camera abilities of the Lumia and HTC, but for audio, I read that the Lumia's have pretty good audio quality and was wondering if other phone manufacturers are as good as Apple's when listening via headphones (the HTC and Nokia in this case).

I couldn't see whether W8 offers IMAP support to sync Gmail folders?

Also has anyone has compared Lumia (920, 925 or 1020) or the HTC One's audio quality through a good set of headphones and made a comparison against the iPhone?

I read that the Lumia's have pretty good audio quality. Just wondering if other phone manufacturers are as good as Apple's when listening via headphones (not really bothered about the loudspeaker quality).

I don't know anyone with a recent Lumia model or an HTC One to make my own comparisons, unfortunately.

Cheers

 

[decafjava]

Welll when it comes to audio, the most important is not the phone but the headphones you use. Default are never that good, though I thought the earpods that came with my iPhone 5 were much better than the old buds-still don't hold a candle to my Etymotic hf-3 buds. What might be more important is how you organise your music as that might be more of a bother to change.

Camera wise, well yea I hear the Nokia phone are the best on the market now, but I am still quite happy with my iPhone's camera. then again, I recall my old cell phone cams which were a world apart in (lack) of quality.

 

[Merkie]

Currently using a 4S, and tbh a little bored of IOS so was considering moving to a different OS.

This is almost always a recipe for disaster. "Getting bored" of iOS imo is a good thing. It's not the task of an OS to be entertaining, it should be facilitating. And that's what it does.

For the rest of your questions, I think you should ask them somewhere else . This is an Apple community after all.

 

[Troneas]

i know little of the lumia 1020, but i can give you some insight on the htc one.

Currently using a 4S, and tbh a little bored of IOS so was considering moving to a different OS.

With photography and a portable music player in mind, I am contemplating the Lumia 1020 (W8) or HTC One (Android).

However, as I have already spent quite a bit on apps for IOS, I will probably wait to see what the new iPhone will have to offer before deciding whether to take the plunge.

this was a barrier for me too when i considered moving to android. i had over 80 apps and around $100 spent over two years in the appstore.

when i was convinced i really wanted a change, i made a list of the apps i really couldn't do without. to my surprise, out of all of those i had installed in my phone, there were only three in the list: whatsapp, soundhound and 1Password. the rest were apps i used very sporadically, or games i had already gotten bored of and hadn't touched in months.

with the pre-installed apps of the new phone, and replacing these three with their android version, i realise there is no app i miss i had before.

make a similar list and make sure the apps you really need can be found in android or in WP 8 and how much the transition will cost you.



I am already aware of the camera abilities of the Lumia and HTC, but for audio, I read that the Lumia's have pretty good audio quality and was wondering if other phone manufacturers are as good as Apple's when listening via headphones (the HTC and Nokia in this case).


I couldn't see whether W8 offers IMAP support to sync Gmail folders?

Also has anyone has compared Lumia (920, 925 or 1020) or the HTC One's audio quality through a good set of headphones and made a comparison against the iPhone?

I read that the Lumia's have pretty good audio quality. Just wondering if other phone manufacturers are as good as Apple's when listening via headphones (not really bothered about the loudspeaker quality).

the htc one with its stereo speakers is considered the best smartphone for music. some here will tell you stereo speakers are a waste of space or that the phone isnt meant to be a hifi system but if you watch videos on youtube or movies etc. it really makes a difference. again, i dont know about the lumia but the headphones that ship with the htc one are quite impressive considering they are "free". in my opinion, they are way superior to those that ship with the iphone.

I don't know anyone with a recent Lumia model or an HTC One to make my own comparisons, unfortunately.

Check youtube for comparative reviews of the two phones.

Cheers

my replies in red.


as for the camera, consider that the htc one comes with 4 "ultra pixels". without getting too technical, this means that htc has sacrificed extra mega pixels in its camera to decrease the noise of shots in dark environments. ive taken some really good pics with it and cant complain, but if you take a lot of pictures outdoors, you are well to consider a phone with a higher megapixel.

inversely, if taking pictures indoors is your thing, you will find that the htc one excels in low light environments.

 

[Troneas]

This is almost always a recipe for disaster. "Getting bored" of iOS imo is a good thing. It's not the task of an OS to be entertaining, it should be facilitating. And that's what it does.

For the rest of your questions, I think you should ask them somewhere else . This is an Apple community after all.

are you referring to the impressive multitasking capacity of iOS or the fact that you have to navigate 5 windows in settings to switch something off?


lol iOS is perhaps the most robust and user friendly mobile operating system because its really limited in what it offers. there are no fancy bells and whistles to set up. it just works out of the box. but to say iOS "facilitates" (i presume you meant productivity) is quite amusing.

 

[Merkie]

are you referring to the impressive multitasking capacity of iOS or the fact that you have to navigate 5 windows in settings to switch something off?


lol iOS is perhaps the most robust and user friendly mobile operating system because its really limited in what it offers. there are no fancy bells and whistles to set up. it just works out of the box. but to say iOS "facilitates" (i presume you meant productivity) is quite amusing.

Why is that amusing? Define productivity and please tell me how iOS limits users in that regard.

 

[Troneas]

Why is that amusing? Define productivity and please tell me how iOS limits users in that regard.

talking strictly about iOS 6 here, which is the official iOS version now.


apps dont work with each other. they dont communicate with each other. if you are doing someting on app A, you need to close it down to go to app B. and that usually entails pressing the home button, swiping through pages of apps and launching app B. OR, double pressing a home button, swiping through a list of opened apps and opening app B.

if you want to close background apps, you need to do it one by one in a tedious exercise of scrolling through 4 apps at a time and pressing the X on each one.

the settings app is a maze of toggles whereby you need to navigate countless different pages to turn something on or off. to make an example i got my old ipod touch running 6.1.3 and wanted to find where the rotation lock toggle was. i swear i cant find it! my intuition told me to go into settings>general but it wasnt there. i then scrolled back and forth through settings and still dont know where it is at. of course, if i really wanted to find it i would sit patiently and in 5 minutes i just might.

the lockscreen only allows a shortcut to 1 app: camera. want to launch your phone app from the lock screen? sorry, cant. want to launch whatsapp from the lock screen? nope. cant do.

want to reply to an incoming mail or message from another app or lock screen? out of luck. sorry.


the examples are endless why do you think people jailbreak?



check the most common tweaks people go for in a jailbroken phone and besides theming, its multitasking they want.



PS: to be fair, you can launch as many apps you want from the lockscreen with siri... but you need to open siri, wait for it to acknowledge you and talk to it... then wait until its done processing.

 

[iBrody]

Welll when it comes to audio, the most important is not the phone but the headphones you use. Default are never that good, though I thought the earpods that came with my iPhone 5 were much better than the old buds-still don't hold a candle to my Etymotic hf-3 buds. What might be more important is how you organise your music as that might be more of a bother to change.

B&W P5's - I want a phone that can drive headphones at least as good as the P5's (32 ohms impedance) with music ripped to 320kbps LAME mp3 and 256kbps AAC and still sound great.

Camera wise, well yea I hear the Nokia phone are the best on the market now, but I am still quite happy with my iPhone's camera. then again, I recall my old cell phone cams which were a world apart in (lack) of quality.

The iPhone's camera menu isn't very customisable

@Merkie - Just bored of the folders/layout - my opinion could change once IOS7 is released.

@Troneas - Thanks for your insight into the HTC One, appreciated.

I need a phone to be 64GB minimum storage, so I will be sticking with the 4S for the immediate future.

Cheers