In a sea of options and plenty of other fish out there, which smartphone is the right one for me?

A quick guide for a first time smartphone buyer or potential buyer, with a few handpicked handsets and a little background story to get them started. 

If you’re a digital castaway, lost in a sea of smartphone choices and brands, and platforms and stores and all those numbers and features that make no sense to you.

A) Breathe…

B) Go get some pop corn, coffee or something — or not…

C) After you read this, you will a clearer vision of what you may or may not want and hopefully a few more things will make sense to you.

I will be describing 3 main categories, of phones and their users, feel free to scroll through as it is a long article.

1. Techies or Premium Devices

2. Regular users or Mid-Range Devices

3. Social or simple users or Mid-lower range Devices

In the era in which we live in, there are still people that refuse to trade their Paleolithic dumb-phones with physical buttons for the sleek screaming-edge technology touch screens.

Living most of their lives surrounded by analog controls i.e.: buttons, levers, and switches is hard for them to accept a virtually intangible action to take place. I find it frustrating, to be honest, and quite hard to understand. If the reasons are financial, it’s understandable. On the other hand, many people don’t do this just because they’re afraid of new technology. That which is unknown to them and they don’t quite know how to operate they don’t buy. When in reality ; the main point of a smartphone is to aid the user, be as easy to use as possible, safe to operate without fear of messing it up in any way and a generally a pleasant device to carry around. Sadly, though, these devices — to those less aware of them — are complex and unnecessarily over-functional electronics.

Your old Nokia :)

Part of this issue and perception, however, is also partly fault of the lower range manufacturers. Some people are curious and buy a cheap “higher end” phones and soon find themselves with a laggy, unresponsive, hard to use device and end in a cycle of unclaimed guarantees and frustrating store trips.

For others, the switch to a smartphone comes with a few surprises here and there, for instance something I hear often: “ My battery life is really bad! It only lasts a day, maximum two…” Well… Your previous phone literally was just a phone, touchscreens suck a lot of power off your battery, internet, background services and many other factors change the way consumption is affected. So, don’t expect your new shiny toy to last 9 days, like that old Nokia you had. “It feels weird to not have buttons…” It just takes some getting used to, plus, phones, computers and other devices are manufactured with less and less buttons as time goes by so better start getting used to not having a keyboard now.

Personally, I have fallen in love with all the 32 phones I have had so far. I remember myself in every occasion to sit down in front of the computer to read reviews, to compare specs, to watch all the YouTube videos and spend some two or three weeks fixated on which phone to buy. When the time came to finally crack that piggy bank and go for it, I was never disappointed.

I’ve had my fair share of experiences with all sorts of phones starting from TDMA technology.

In hopes of making this experience, not only mine, but everyone else’s pleasant too and attempt to minimize the burden of the decision I wrote this to you.

Things to consider when you start entertaining the idea of a new smartphone:

If you live in the US, or any other country that has phones locked to certain operators, you might want to make sure that you can switch devices at no cost, and or that you are able to buy your own phone and use it with the operator’s settings.

Mobile phone operators could have your phone locked only to their network and can’t be used anywhere else.

Who are you? What do you want/expect from your device?

When choosing a phone most people make the mistake of wanting to get the best, most expensive over-featured phone, when in reality that’s far from their needs. Phones are tools, as any other tool they need to be appropriate for the job.

First of all, you need to determine what’s the purpose of you trying to purchase this phone.

Do you want to snap a few shots here and there and post them on Facebook, check your email, play a few games and text? Are you in for business and need productivity apps and efficient and responsive tools?

If you’re one of these two AND you’re not interested in how it works, how to customize it and make use of every single feature one can imagine, you’re probably an iOS person. Generally speaking, iOS is fast, efficient, visually appealing and easy to use. The set up process of these devices barely takes a few minutes, and assuming you’re on wireless you’ll be ready to go in no time.

iOS is the easiest form of usability in a smartphone. iOS 6 and new iOS 7 side by side.

If you already have a Mac at home, you’ll enjoy the bliss of compatibility features it offers with the rest of its environment, as well as the latest features of Apple’s AirDrop and sync options.

So… Why don’t all of us just get iPhones and iPads and enjoy comfortable numbness and default automation?

Because it’s boring (for some of us, at least).

While for some, it’s great if something works right out of the box with minimal input, and little to no thinking. In the safe garden of no risks or hassles and a perfect atmosphere of Apple’s products you lose the freedom of experimentation. Some others prefer to have it more complicated with the rewards of higher power-user benefits, but we’ll get to that later.

The other problem is that, despite other phones having the same or better hardware, that little glowy Apple icon will cost you a pretty penny. Apple devices are expensive, if they break down chances are you’ll need a new one or a very expensive repair. Also, Apple being the sole seller of their products, you can’t “hunt around for better prices” or catch a deal… Nope, not even in Black Friday…

But… Don’t despair.

Assuming you do in fact want a piece of the Apple but you’re not willing to sell a kidney, or a retina for their “retina”, you can always buy an older model. A decent iPhone 4 or even a 4S could set you back a more reasonable amount of money. Online you can still buy new units and even in Craigslist you might be lucky and find a nice one in mint condition.

iPhone 4 and 4S packaging.

Beware, however, if you’re not in the US or you’re on a different network than the one the used phone was on, you want to make sure that the phone is unlocked (preferably from the factory) before you get it or you would be stuck with an aluminum and glass brick. Sure, you could unlock it, but if your chosen model is relatively new it could be harder to unlock or close to impossible.

Another plus side, is that the App Store has more than 900,000 apps at the time of writing this post. There is an app for mostly anything that you could want, need or imagine. However, honestly, at least 890,000 of them are useless looking at it with very positive eyes. Still, the offer is great and there’s a bit for everyone.

There’s an app for everyone, for everything, everywhere.

How about Jailbreaks? What is it? Why would one do such thing?

Jailbreaking is to iOS what rooting is to Android.

I won’t get too much in depth as it is a huge topic on its own already, but it’s basically an action you take that gives you elevated privileges in your phone and lets you install apps that aren’t on the market, themes and extensions. Warning, though: Jailbreaking IS NOT unlocking so even if you can Jailbreak your phone, this doesn’t unlock it for other networks if it is locked.

Moving on…

Instead of jumping straight into Android (which will take a while) I’d like to touch on a constantly improving platform: Windows Phone 8

Microsoft increasingly has been improving their software to be more sleek, agile… Mobile.

If your work, or general routine requires you to use Microsoft Office, or other Microsoft products you will find a very nice sync environment that is being built around the Office suite, Skype, and Skydrive. If you have constant meetings through Lync, that is also a feature that you will enjoy.

Office integration into the Windows phone 8 platform is brilliant.

The app environment is not quite at the level of Google’s or Apple’s, but little by little all those recognizable apps are slowly starting to appear here and there. The offer is better and better and with no doubt it has become a real competitor to the dominating platforms.

The hardware also has amazing offers like the current Lumia lineup from Nokia with outstanding cameras phones all the way to cheap yet fully-functional devices.

Nokia’s devices coped with Windows Phone 8 are smooth and do not stutter to respond to your input regardless if it is a higher end version or a lower end phone. The phones in general feel solid such as the Nokia 920 (built like a tank), the 925 (built like a stronger tank) and the amazing 1020 with 42mpx camera. They all come with a variety of color selection (maybe except for the 925 as it is aluminum).

Lumias come in all sizes, colors and wallets. Amazing hardware and solid build quality, they just lag behind on apps but definitely a competitor — a serious one.

There are a few missing features such as a centralized notification center or the ability to assign different ringtones to third party apps, however, with time this should be solved and if you are not so picky about those little details, or you’re just entering the smartphone era, this is definitely something you want to check out and try.

Of course, my favorite by miles: Android

Android versions often have names of sweets, our latest version at time of publishing is 4.4 Kitkat

Androids come in all shapes, sizes, prices, colors and flavors. Regardless which is your interest, casual usage for emails, news and games, passing through heavy texters, social network addicts, snapbugs or business men and/or women there HAS to be a device for you. Undoubtedly.

The phone’s essential OS is manufactured by Google, but being an open source platform, many manufacturer’s may use the code and modify it accordingly to their needs and or desired specifications. This gives them a lot of headroom when it comes to pricing and it lets you in turn to shop around.

Android’s versatile platform lets you do anything you can possibly imagine, customization options are endless and countless and if you root your phone (root user privileges to access system files) you can even install customized ROMs and modify system files to change basically anything you want. At a price. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might want to sit with some coffee in front of your computer and research on your particular model before doing these things, as you may brick your device (make the device unusable because it is unable to boot the system). However, without the need of being rooted, it is possible to make many of these customizations and still get away with a lot.

Some other advantages that come with an Android device is the early adoption. For example: While NFC is and has been available on Androids for a while, iPhones don’t have it and most likely won’t for a while. (Near Field Communications, phones within certain proximity may exchange data without needing active user input)

They have different specifications from model to model which gives you an ample variety to choose from.

They’re ambitious early adopters, therefore they include the newest and greatest in technology as it becomes commercially available. Finally as they are many manufacturers there’s a healthy non-monopolized *cough… Apple* market so there’s price variation depending where you buy it, which storage version and technology variant you get (LTE, just 3G and such).

For the more advanced users, or tech saavy there’s other benefits like the usage of Tasker which is an extremely powerful app that acts based on conditions and executes actions on and from your phone as you configure them. I will also make a post and some tutorials on Tasker as well in the future for those interested.

So, which one?

I will not be telling you how many cores, nuclei architecture, gamma corrections or any other technical terms since I believe if you’re reading this, they’re only meaningless numbers for you. So, this is not a technical review, just feature overview. I will however, where available, add a list of main highlights at the end of each summary of each one of these phones and a short video review to have all in one place.

Alright, so let’s make three main groups:

1. Techies or Premium Devices

2. Regular users or Mid-Range Devices

3. Social or simple users or Mid-lower range Devices

None of these phones have keyboards, as this is no longer an option offered by manufacturers, only BlackBerry, which I won’t cover since it’s a ship that has been sinking for about 5 years now. Also, lower end, cheap phones are not covered as they often result in the frustration of their users, and nobody likes a bad first time ;).

If you’re an addict to gadgets and devices i.e. geek: Your current options at the time of this post would look something like this:

1. Samsung Galaxy Note 3: It is ridiculously loaded with features with it’s TouchWiz UI (Samsung’s custom software arrangement) that could take you more than an hour to configure, and at least a few days to fully discover. The screen quality is superb, and the content creation functions are just miles and miles ahead of any other phone. Needless to say, it’s a very powerful and pretty much future proof (for a few months at least) phone. A pretty decent battery life considering the size of the screen and functions and it’s just a handful — literally.

• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• Dual shot and dual video recording, Drama shot, Shot and sound
• 32GB/64GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• microUSB 3.0 port with USB host and MHL 2.0; Backwards compatibility with microUSB 2.0
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• IR port for remote control functionality
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Barometer, thermometer, hygroscope
• IR gesture sensor for Air gestures
• Smart gestures: Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 3,200mAh battery with great endurance
• Smart volume and Adapt Sound features for the music player

Samsung Galaxy Note III

PhoneDog Review (video)

2. HTC One: This is as close as you would get to an iPhone in the sense of premium feel. The phone is made of aluminum, and has a very solid feel in the hand. The glass panel is bright and very easy to read in all lighting conditions. It has two speakers with a jaw dropping quality (for being a phone) which point forward to amplify your sound and direct it towards you. HTC, as well as Samsung, have a load of features and software optimizations that make the experience far above standard Android. The camera is more than pretty decent and with an interesting hardware-software bundle make it a great cameraphone as well, although it is much more than that. There is a Sense UI version (HTC’s customized software version) and a Google Play Edition which gives you a pure android experience at the expense of a few features.

4.7" 16M-color 1080p Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen with 469ppi pixel density

• Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0
• 4 MP autofocus “UltraPixel” camera with 1/3" sensor size, 2µm pixel size; LED flash
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• HTC Zoe
• 2.1 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• 32/64GB of built-in storage
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Aluminum unibody
• Front-mounted stereo speakers with BoomSound tech
• Class-leading audio output

HTC One shown here in it’s Google Play edition, meaning it has no Sense UI installed and lacks proprietary software features. Runs pure Android.

PhoneDog review (video)

3. LG G2: This is a very interesting phone, at least as far as hardware goes. The buttons are not located on the bezel as usual but rather on the back of the phone. This may or may not suit your taste, however it’s very original and it’s quite handy once you get used to it. The phone has other nice features such as knock to turn on the screen, which means you can have it sitting on the table and knock twice on the screen to switch it on. The UI has options to customize the permanent soft buttons’ arrangement and functions such as color, position and which buttons go where and do what. The icons can be switched around and even you can customize the icons straight out of the box. On other interesting notes, it also has a better-than-average sound system with software optimization that will just blow your head off with the right uncompressed sound files. Rock on!

5.2" 16M-color 1080p True HD IPS Plus FullHD capacitive touchscreen

• Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display protection
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean; LG Optimus UI
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, geotagging, Intelligent Auto, optical image stabilization, Time catch shot, smart shutter and VR panoramas
• 1080p video recording @ 60fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound; HDR mode, Dual recording, optical image stabilization
• 2.1 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• 32GB of built-in storage, 24GB user-available
• microUSB port, USB host support, USB on-the-go, SlimPort TV-out
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Voice commands
• Multi-tasking with mini-apps and optional transparency (QSlide)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Non-replaceable 3000mAh Li-Po battery
• IR emitter for remote control of home appliances
• Quick Window cases available at launch

LG G2

PhoneDog review (video)

4.Samsung Galaxy S4: Same story as the Note 3. Endless features, amazing specifications, gestures, camera, screen technology… Beautiful device. Of course, many have complained about it’s plastic body frame and lightweight construction. However, I personally don’t see it as a problem. Why would you want a heavy device anyway? The phone still feels good in the hand, it is smaller than the Note lineup and it does not look or is cheap by any means. The feature of double camera shot, and other breaking ground features (gestures, eye tracking, accelerometer interactions) made it a huge leap forward in phone technology. This is my personal daily driver and I surprisingly don’t feel urged to change it any time soon. Although I’ve been flirting around with that Note 3 quite a lot in my head…

5" 16M-color 1080p Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 3

• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
• 2GB of RAM
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash,1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• Dual shot and dual video recording, Drama shot, Shot and sound
• 16GB/32/64GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• microUSB port with USB host and MHL 2.0
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• IR port for remote control functionality
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Barometer, thermometer, hygroscope
• IR gesture sensor for Air gestures
• Smart gestures: Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 2600 mAh battery with great endurance
• 7.9mm thickness
• Smart volume and Adapt Sound features for the music player

Samsung Galaxy S IV

PhoneDog review (video)

5. Sony Ericsson Xperia Z Ultra: This is the last one for the tech-oriented people. This is a great phone (phablet, actually — it’s HUGE (6.4 inch)) it has a bright vivid screen with the Bravia Engine software (Sony’s imaging technology) and tons of features, specially for multitasking. It lets the user open “windows” to take notes, open the calculator, calendar, and so on while you’re working on different applications at the same time. This phone, has something the other ones does not have, it is splash and impact proof. (Warning: It is resistant to water and shock, not indestructible or a submergible.) It has amazing benchmark test results are very high, amazing hardware all around. Battery life is really good, plus the power saving features will easily get you through a day.

• 6.4" 16M-color 1080p capacitive touchscreen Triluminos display (344ppi pixel density); X-Reality engine
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with custom UI
• 8 MP autofocus camera with geo-tagging, HDR
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• IP 58 certification — dust resistant and water resistant
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 16GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Gorgeous design and impressively slim waistline
• Ample 3050 mAh battery

Phablet Sony Xperia Z Ultra

PhoneDog review (video)

Again, this is just a ROUGH overview of the features of all these phones, by no means there are any technical details, for more data I recommend you to visit GSMArena. Usually feature phones have great, very detailed reviews, and most of the phones I mention here are flagship devices. Also, note that, PhoneDog, Erica Griffin, Android Authority and Pocketnow on YouTube have very enjoyable and in-depth reviews of most of these phones too.

For the average Joe (users that just want a phone that does what it does, without missing out any feature AND keeping a decent budget).

These phones are not bad at all, by any means. They are just equipped with a more modest set of features and hardware but very well live up to standard.

1.Nexus 5: This is Google’s brand new device running the latest version of Android (4.4 KitKat at the time of writing) it is designed to be a budget friendly phone without sacrificing much. It has a decent camera, active Google Now listening on the homescreen which is a very handy feature to access the devices functions without need of having to touch it. The phone has most LTE bands for 4G connectivity in most places in the world so for the business traveler and the heavy roamer there should be no issues. Gorilla glass protects the screen against dings and cracks, however one must remember that the added rigidity of the phone’s glass does make it prone to cracking in the event of a strong shock or impact. Finally, the camera is a great improvement over the previous Nexus 4 with better software correction and overall hardware.

• Penta-band 3G with HSPA; LTE cat3
• 4.95" 16M-color 1080p True HD IPS Plus FullHD capacitive touchscreen
• Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display protection
• Android OS v4.4 KitKat
• 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash, geotagging, optical image stabilization, photo sphere, 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound; HDR mode, Dual recording, optical image stabilization
• 1.3 MP front-facing camera
• 16GB/32GB of built-in storage
• microUSB port, USB host support, USB on-the-go, SlimPort TV-out
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Voice commands
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• 2300mAh Li-Po battery, wireless charging

Nexus 5, with a heavily imprinted, sharp industrial design.

PhoneDog review(video)

2. Motorola Moto X: This is a quite simple phone with understated characteristics. At the time of launch it was not clear why Google had gone for such simple characteristics and hardware, however, for a very specific market sector it is a great option as it is subtly understated, comfortable and solid. The phone has amazing, easy to use features such as Active Listening, which lets you operate the phone without having to turn it on or unlock it. Some gestures such as a wrist motion to switch on the camera or saying OK Google makes the experience very futuristic and pleasant.

• 100Mbps LTE with a second dedicated antenna
• 4.7" 16M-color 720p RGB AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 316ppi pixel density; Gorilla Glass
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with stock UI
• 10 MP autofocus ClearPixel camera with LED flash
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 2 MP front-facing camera with 1080p video recording
• 16/32GB of built-in storage; 2GB of RAM
• microUSB port with MHL and USB host
• Bluetooth v4.0 LE
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Dual-microphone noise cancellation
• Touchless Control, Active Notifications
• Ambient light; accelerometer; proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Superb handling and overall ergonomics
• Moto Maker user customization program
• 50GB of free Google Drive storage
• 2,200mAh battery

If you live in the US, you can get it from their website and literally customize it with whichever combination of color you wish. Buttons, back front and camera trim.

PhoneDog review (video)

3. Samsung Galaxy S3: Granted, it is an older phone, but for the price you get a very similar set of features to those of the current flagships and it does not fall short by any means from the other phones. It has a great camera, eye tracking to keep your screen on while you’re reading it to not let it go dim, great battery performance and it has been updated regularly and you won’t be left behind… For a while.

• 4.8" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of HD (720 x 1280 pixel) resolution; Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Android OS v4.0.4 with TouchWiz launcher (updated already)
• 8 MP wide-angle lens autofocus camera with LED flash, face, smile and blink detection
• 1080p HD video recording at 30fps
• 16/32/64GB internal storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port with USB host and TV-out (1080p) support, MHL, charging
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio with RDS
• Great audio quality
• Super slim at only 8.6mm
• 2MP secondary video-call camera
• Full Flash for the web browser
• NFC support
• Document editor
• File manager comes preinstalled
• Extremely rich video and audio codec support
• Impressively large 2100 mAh battery

The SIII comes in plenty of colors and special editions.

PhoneDog Review (video)

Finally, for the casual socially adept users and those who just need the phone for access to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vyne… etc. still want to remain with relatively new equipment but don’t need the fancy bells and whistles of their elder brethren:

1. Samsung Galaxy SIV Mini: This is a downsized, downpriced version of the S IV, however, this is not something to look down on. While this version has lost a bit on the premium software and hardware side, it still is a more-than-decent device. The S4 has another two brothers, the S4 active and the S4 Zoom, one for active people, or sporty people if you will, and the other focused on the camera respectively. The S4 mini has a less powerful mid-range processor, as well as a screen with lower resolution (qHD 540*960). The camera has gone down from 13mp to 8 but the pictures are still great. Enough of the downgrades — This device is still great, it’s smaller than the S4 as you may have guessed by the name, but it still has all the great features expected in a modern smartphone like NFC, GPS, great camera, radio, the Jellybean 4.2.2 out of the box, and LTE connectivity. This is a true value for your money for less than the full price of the full S4.

• 4.3" 16M-color qHD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen; 256ppi
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
• 1.5GB of RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 1.9 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• 8/16GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• microUSB 2.0 port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC
• IR port for remote control functionality
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Ample 1,900mAh battery; user replaceable

Looks a lot like the regular S4, but only when you put them side by side you see the size difference.

PhoneDog review (video)

2. HTC One Mini: Some say, it is a lot better than the S4 mini in terms of comparison S4 features lost to the S4 mini vs HTC One lost to the HTC One Mini. Maybe. Depends on your taste and requirements. The HTC One Mini has retained most of it’s premium features from the HTC One. HTC’s Zoe which is a piece of software that can take videos and images from your camera and add a soundtrack to them while it shuffles a personalized slideshow of them in sort of a movie kind of way. It still has that premium, solid aluminum body, Jellybean 4.2.2, LTE connectivity and a brilliant screen protected by no less than Gorilla Glass 3. It did however lose NFC, MHL and some image stabilization features that made the HTC One special. Nevertheless there’s still plenty of features and great specs out of this small device.

Premium aluminum unibody

• 4.3" 16M-color 720p Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen with 342ppi pixel density; Gorilla Glass 3
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0
• 4 MP autofocus “UltraPixel” camera with 1/3'’ sensor size, 2µm pixel size; LED flash
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• HTC Zoe
• 1.6MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• 16GB of built-in storage
• Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Front-mounted stereo speakers with BoomSound tech
• Class-leading audio output
• 1,800mAh Li-Po battery

This is the black version of the HTC One Mini

PhoneDog review (video)

3. Oppo Find 5: The reason why I placed this phone on this list and not on the premium devices or tech-oriented list, is because this brand is very little known other than for some home electronics such as Blueray players. Though, this phone was launched to compete very well with all the flagship devices of this year. It has a 5” 1080p display with eye-popping colors and an pixel density of 441 ppi. A 13 mpx camera capable of HDR video and up to 120 fps video (in vga mode, but still) makes it a pleasure to take some shots. It does have MHL and NFC and even comes with NFC stickers (2) to be able to get the user familiarized with the usage. This phone is definitely something you should check out, unless LTE connectivity is an issue to you, since it does not pack LTE radio.

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

• 5" 16M-color 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 441ppi pixel density
• Android OS v4.1.1 Jelly Bean with custom UI
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging, HDR
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound; 120fps HFR mode
• 1.9 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording
• 16/32GB of built-in storage
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• NFC; two NFC stickers in the box
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; Dolby Mobile sound enhancement
• Voice dialing
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• 2,500mAh battery

Oppo Find 5 in Black and White

PhoneDog review (video)

As a disclaimer, this is just my own point of view on which options a first time buyer could have in mind as of November 2013, things change quite fast in mobile technologies so the list could be outdated if you read it a few months ahead. I always invite you to check out specific reviews on GSMArena, and watch great reviews on YouTube by Android Authority, Pocketnow, PhoneDog, and Erica Griffin. These are always well explained and cover all possible aspects, hopefully all this aid will make this decision no harder than it should! :)