UKC

My Samsung S3 has developed a major issue over the last wee while which can't seem to be resolved or repaired, and I'm expecting to be offered a replacement handset before too long. I'd be reluctant to go with Samsung again given my recent experience, so the main alternatives I might be offered seem to be the HTC One or Sony's Xperia Z.

Does anyone have any comments on either of these phones which I should consider when making my decision?

FWIW, I loved the S3 when it worked but if it's unreliable, it no use to me whatsoever and I can't give it serious consideration.

In reply to Fraser: I like my sony more than quite alot of the sex I've had.

In reply to shaun l:

Thanks, but without knowing you, I'm not sure if that's a ringing endorsement for the Sony or not!

In reply to Fraser:

HTC One gets very good reviews, if they had better marketing they would put Samsung in the shade.

In reply to Fraser:

Is the Z1 an option over the Z? I've had my Z1 for a couple of months now after ditching my old S2 and I've been very impressed.

In reply to Fraser:
I've got an older HTC 1 and it's a bit slow (net searching). have a go with both of them in a shop?

In reply to Fraser:

For me it would be the Sony every time, especially as it is a lot more water resistant than other phones

Get another Samsung.

Why put yourself through the pain of getting used to a different phone if you choose the S3 originally. It's unlikely you'll have the same fault just because of your last one.

In reply to Philip:

I would have said that. I have a Samsung when previously I had an HTC. The Samsung is technically superior, but the HTC interface was beautiful. I very much miss it. I have seen the Sony and it too has a beautiful interface.

I prefer HTC, my wife has an samsung ace 2 and I think it's a crap interface, but if I liked Samsung I wouldn't switch to HTC.

In reply to Fraser: that was the two I narrowed it down to, similar price at the time so I went with the HTC one as it's just slightly better in every way apart from the camera and not having upgradable memory. Having said that the HTC cam works unbelievably well in low light and that's way more use than extra pixels.
Perfectly happy with everything else, battery life is awesome, can finish the day with over 60% left if I'm not using power hungry stuff. Screen is great, interface is easy to use.

In reply to Sharp and others:

Thanks very much for the useful comments, they're really helpful.

I did likme the S3 a lot. The screen and camera are brilliant and I liked the interface a lot too, but it's probably a case of once bitten twice shy. I'll certainly have a play with both other options in the shop but I think it was an S3 mini or S4 mini they might 'do' on the same monthly bundle (£32-ish/mo. for unlimited everything)

I'm pretty sure '3' were suggesting just the Xperia Z as an option, asuming I was able to get out of my contract with Virgin. I'm sure that in itself would be hard, even though they have given me an atrocious service for the past 3 months!

In reply to Fraser:

I got a HTC One as a replacement for a One S a month ago, and its very good.
I like the HTC Sense interface a lot, i find the standard android very clunky compared to this.
I do have to say that i have only ever owned HTC smart phone myself so have not used a Samsung or any other android phone much.

In reply to Fraser: If you don't get an iPhone you'll get bullied

In reply to Fraser:

A couple of friends have the HTC One and it's a very slick bit of kit. Doesn't seem to suffer any of the lag and stutter that some Android phones seem to suffer from. The quality of the music playback is great too. I'm even tempted to get one myself as I'm due an upgrade from my iPhone4s.

Is it just me or have things with mobile phones hit a bit of a plateau? For the first time in years I've got to upgrade time and don't feel particularly inclined to get a new phone. My 4S has been bombproof and the iPhone5c/s doesn't look like a tempting prospect and not a huge leap up from what I've got just now. Most phones seem to be much of a muchness with the main difference now being screen size.

In reply to Oliiver:

That's still not a good reason to get one. They're nice, but their screens (both size & quality) just aren't as good as the one on my S3 is. Or was!

In reply to Fraser: What's the fault with the s3? I have one too so curious. Dropped and smashed the screen the other week and fixed it myself so I have a pretty good idea of the repairability of this phone atm.

In reply to FreshSlate:

I don't want to jinx it by saying 'it's *ixed", but I got it back this evening and it's working...so far. Ssssh!

The problem was for the past 3 and a half months, the mobile data connection has been switching itself off at random. Initially it was only every so often, but for the last 3 weeks, it was continuously, and whenever you tried to make a call or surf. Virgin finally relented and took it in for repair 2 weeks ago. I got it back a week later and despite them saying it had been fixed, as soon as I switched it back on it displayed the same old problems and had no connection. Swapping the SIM into an old HTC handset sorted the issues, so it wasn't the SIM card or the reception. I'd told them this several times on the phone to the "help-desk" <insert choice words here>, and finally they took it back again at the beginning of this week. Got it back a couple of hours ago and so far, so good.

There were a few other problems too, in that it sometimes thought 'flight mode' was activated when it wasn't, but I still couldn't make a call. When I tried to activate 'mobile data connection' it told me to insert SIM card, even though one was already in. The weirdest one was an error message that would appear at random saying: "RESET_BY_IPC_TIMEOUT. Please get ril log/data/log/dumpstate_Reset by IPC timeout_date.log"

The 2nd line response tech guy on the help-desk had to resort to googling this and found some site in Spanish referring to it. He proceeded to ask me if I could translate!

Not sure what they've done or found this time, but fingers crossed it's going to last. As I said before, when it's working it's a great phone.