Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The most exciting and compelling phone I've seen so far this year is the Xperia Z2.

I have to agree, it is a very nice looking phone. The build quality looks great, and its incredibly thin and light. In addition, it backs a ton of power and is waterproof. I feel like the Z2 is the Galaxy S5 plus a lot more. If I were interested in a new flagship in the next few months I'd be looking at Sony.
 
It's still a top phone but people who expect crap loads of improvements on all the flagships are in for a surprise. this update is abit like the 5 to 5S. It's damn tough to make big improvements.

If these are the type of improvements that come with the note 4 I will be happy...will be interesting what they do with the note 4. I love my note 3 so there doesn't need to be loads of changes.

seeing as samsung always bring out something MORE than they do for the S line I expect we will see something bigger than what we saw here.
 
It's still a top phone but people who expect crap loads of improvements on all the flagships are in for a surprise. this update is abit like the 5 to 5S. It's damn tough to make big improvements.
I agree with you here. We've had 3 years of manufacturers really pushing the boat out in terms of features and improvements, but with any industry it will slow down once in a while. Most of these flagship devices have features most average people don't find a use for and it got to the point where I felt they were coming up with new features for features sake.

The positive here is that the phone people buy will feel in date that bit longer.
 
I'm disappointed with the design and TouchWiz elements. BUT otherwise it's a solid upgrade.

My feeling, however, is that the Sony Xperia Z2 looks like the better option.
 
Solid upgrade from the S3 in some ways which is what I think this phone was intended for anyway. That and new users. But if you already have a 2013 flagship phone you're going to be underwhelmed as we all are. It's not a bad phone but it's just not revolutionary. As I have a feeling most early 2014 phones are going to be. I am doubtful the next HTC flagship will bring anything compelling to existing 2013 flagship holders and instead will be more towards this with a 2012 device or older looking to upgrade. And again new users.

The most exciting and compelling phone I've seen so far this year is the Xperia Z2.

I might skip the S5 and get the Z2. After seeing the pictures and video of the Z2 it has a ton of features and style. Except for those bezels. :(
http://www.xperiablog.net/2014/02/24/xperia-z2-unveiled5-2-inch-display-20-7mp-camera-2-3ghz-quad-core-and-3200mah-battery/
 
I didn't particularly like the Z2 bezels either but the camera was a show stopper and enough to make it the leader of the pack. I also won't switch over from the Note 3 as I don't see a compelling reason at the moment. I'll have to wait for the 2nd quarter slate of phones to see if anyone is going to wow the industry.

As for the S5, I'm fairly disappointed. 2 gigs isn't enough to remedy the touchwiz choppiness, unless Samsung slimmed it down considerably.
 
Will all the S3's and S4's out there in the wild get the Touch WIZ upgrade and the health apps and what not??
 
I have to agree, it is a very nice looking phone. The build quality looks great, and its incredibly thin and light. In addition, it backs a ton of power and is waterproof. I feel like the Z2 is the Galaxy S5 plus a lot more. If I were interested in a new flagship in the next few months I'd be looking at Sony.

At 158 grams it's rather heavy IMO. It's also nearly as tall (.17" shorter than a Note 3) and features a glass back. I personally don't like it.

Edit: Sony's site listed the Z2 at 158 grams yesterday. I just went and looked and now it states 163 grams. That's 5 grams less than the Note 3. Yikes.
 
Last edited:
Watching several videos of the S5 I still see touchwiz on the heavy side, slowing slightly the system and the animations. Hate that.

Love the Z2, but maybe it's too big. It's as tall as the Note 3, and that's too much for me.
 
Glad I went with the LG G2 rather than waiting around for this 'round' of flagships.
 
If I was going to buy a 2014 flashship I would be scratching my head right now. Don't know which way to go.

I'm partial to smaller devices so if I was in need of a phone now, I'd probably take a long hard look at the Z1 Compact--large bezels aside, it has top notch specs (CPU, camera, reliable waterproofing), lighter OS skinning than most of it's competitors and Sony finally is using good displays. If I didn't mind using a larger device, it would probably be the Compact's new big brother, the Xperia Z2.
 
I'm partial to smaller devices so if I was in need of a phone now, I'd probably take a long hard look at the Z1 Compact--large bezels aside, it has top notch specs (CPU, camera, reliable waterproofing), lighter OS skinning than most of it's competitors and Sony finally is using good displays. If I didn't mind using a larger device, it would probably be the Compact's new big brother, the Xperia Z2.

Personally love the Compact. I've never owned a sony phone, but it is updates that scares me. For whatever reason AOSP (even sony's 'official' aosp builds) tend to break the camera and unlocking the bootloader can do irreversible damage to the camera in some models. If you are totally fine with whatever Sony update schedule looks like, it looks fantastic.

I'm very confused why their phones have these issues, considering they are probably the most developer friendly 'open' second to moto maybe. I may be ignorant, but I'm scared of non GPE sony.
 
I think its moreso that the majority don't know any better. If they could choose between stock (better performance & without freaking knox) and TW, it would be interesting to see the results.

The nexus isn't really sexy enough to aggressively market. Google edition versions of these phones would be nice if they were featured in carrier stores, though.
 
The nexus isn't really sexy enough to aggressively market. Google edition versions of these phones would be nice if they were featured in carrier stores, though.

I wish Google would make Android more modular. If I could easily replace the dialer and notification shade, I'd be ok with TouchWiz. I thought that was the direction they were going with KitKat, but then nothing ever come of it.
 
I think the overall consensus is disappointment

I think it has more to do with this:

A few years ago apple was so far ahead of the competition. In the last few years android has made GIANT leaps (jellybean and later). Now that apple and android are pretty much on par, you are going to start seeing these marginal upgrades. People often critize Apple b.c they feel the iphones do not change that much, but there is only so much that can be done b.c of technology limitations. Both companies are hitting that point. The one thing Apple has over android is they can still make a larger phone to entice people.
 
I think it has more to do with this:

A few years ago apple was so far ahead of the competition. In the last few years android has made GIANT leaps (jellybean and later). Now that apple and android are pretty much on par, you are going to start seeing these marginal upgrades. People often critize Apple b.c they feel the iphones do not change that much, but there is only so much that can be done b.c of technology limitations. Both companies are hitting that point. The one thing Apple has over android is they can still make a larger phone to entice people.

Right on the money......They lack the wow factor until Samsung comes out with a bendable or foldable phone/tablet.
Apple is going to be able to provide the wow factor later this summer if they release a larger iPhone.
 
Right on the money......They lack the wow factor until Samsung comes out with a bendable or foldable phone/tablet.
Apple is going to be able to provide the wow factor later this summer if they release a larger iPhone.

I don't think Apple really provided any wow factor past the ip4 days when they had that incredible front/back glass hardware. They just excel at making things work in synergy and not having to tweak or dig around settings to get things to work. While Android has made incredible leaps and bounds it still has a lot of what I like to call "turds" that come up every now and then that need to be ironed out, turds which affect functionality and cause frustration IMO. That's why I still use an iphone as my main phone because I just need to get things done with no messing around. Of course I also carry around a Note 3 as my "play" phone, for tablet use, consumption, tweaking, etc.

A larger screen iphone is going to be seriously powerful in today's consumer market. Samsung and others need to step up their game and introduce something very novel because a large iphone is really going to eat their lunch. I can't see the S5 really competing very well as it doesn't really have anything really "wow" about it. It's a nice phone and it certainly hits all the checkmarks for a flagship, but I can only see it competing in price IMO.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.