Papa Pear Saga comes courtesy of King, the designers of the enormously popular Candy Crush Saga, and the current kings (heh heh) of Facebook gaming. Like Candy Crush Saga, Papa Pear Saga’s concept skirts closely—too closely, some might argue—to a hit game idea that’s already been done. Whereas Candy Crush Saga is a take on PopCap’s Bejeweled, Papa Pear Saga adapts Peggle, another casual classic by PopCap. However,Papa Pear Saga makes a few key adjustments to the formula, and it’s these adjustments that save the title from being damned as a mere imitator.
How To Use Papa Pear Saga HACK:
1. Connect your iOS or Android device to computer using USB. (Papa Pear Saga Hack must be installed and running with Internet connection.). 2. Run [Papa Pear Saga HACK] 3. Login 4. Complete items you want to generate! (Choose and turn on from the Hack Tool Features) 5. Press [GENERATE] button to start adding the items to your game app. 6. Enjoy!
2013 iPhone buyers guide: How to choose between the iPhone and other phones, including Samsung Galaxy, HTC One, Moto X, Nexus, Nokia Lumia, BlackBerry, and more!
Apple has released the brand new, top-of-the-line, flagship iPhone 5s and less-expensive, colorfully fun iPhone 5c. But is either of them the right phone for you? While everyone here at iMore certainly believes the iPhone is still the best phone for most people, most of the time, we're lucky that every major platform now has one or more great phones for us to choose from as well. The iPhone may have the best overall user experience, the highest quality apps and games, the widest range of services, the biggest selection of accessories, and the best customer support, but there are also things the iPhone doesn't offer that other phones do, like much larger screens, physical keyboards, high power cameras, greater hardware options, or simply no Apple about them. How do you know which one is for you? Keep reading!
Most delightful interface and experience
Apple prioritized iPhone user experience from the get-go. It didn't have as many features as other phones of the time, but it had an interface that made every other phone look obsolete by comparison. From slide to unlock to pinch and zoom, it became a mainstream sensation. Over time, Apple's built on that with everything from FaceTime for incredibly easy video calls to Siri for incredibly engaging voice control. A lot of other companies throw a lot more features at the wall, hoping something sticks. Apple's focus on the best, more coherent, most usable features. iOS 7 makes it even better. They re-built the entire interface on top of a game-style physics and particle engine, so it's even more discoverable, playful, and powerful than ever before.
Plus, with the new iPhone 5s, you get Touch ID, a breakthrough fingerprint scanner that lets you unlock your iPhone and buy from the App Store and iTunes Store without having to enter any long, difficult passwords. Simply touch your finger to the Home button and you're in. And it can recognize up to 5 distinct fingerprints!
Apple is neck-in-neck when it comes to sheer number of items in the App Store, but they're still way ahead when it comes to the quality of items in the App Store. Sure, every platform has more than its fair share of junk, but the best of the App Store is still unmatched. There's a simple reason for that: Early iOS developers came from the very design-centric, experience-centric Mac developer community. That set the bar very high. Likewise, some of the biggest and best gaming franchises came to the iPhone early, and still come to the iPhone first. While you can get a lot of name brand apps on multiple platforms now, many of the boutique apps are still iOS exclusive, including Tweetbot, Fantastical, Drafts, Screens, Twitterrific, Vesper, Launch Center Pro, Infinity Blade, Tiny Wings, Letterpress, and more. That's not even including Apple's own apps, some of the best in mobile, like GarageBand, and iMovie. Other platforms are attaining breadth. iOS has kept ahead on depth.
When you get an iPhone, not only do you get instant access to all of Apple's great services, like iCloud backups, and iTunes in the Cloud re-downloads, but you also get access to pretty much all of Google and Microsoft/Nokia's best services - like Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Google Drive, Google+, Hangouts, Outlook, SkyDrive, Bing, Skype, Here Maps, and BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) coming soon, and to the best third party services like Dropbox, Box, Spotify, Songza, Pandora, Netflix, Amazon Kindle and video, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and many more. Apple doesn't offer their stuff on any other phones, but almost everybody offers everything on iPhone.
Biggest selection of accessories
From protective to decorative cases, to macro and wide-angle camera lenses, the choice of iPhone accessories remains the best of any phone on the market. Part of that is due to the iPhones popularity. Part of that is due to Apple releasing new designs only once every couple years, and keeping designs on the shelf for 3-4 years. That means accessory makers can sell the same accessory for a lot of phones, for a long time, which is the best thing in the world for them - and for iPhone owners. Instead of worrying about making something for a wide range of phones, they can concentrate on making a wide range of things for the iPhone. No matter what kind of case you want, what capacity battery charger, what kind of photo mount or lens, what type of Bluetooth accessory, chances are you won't only find it, you'll find several different options to choose from.
If you have an Apple Retail Store near you, there's no point choosing any other phone. Apple will not only sell you an iPhone, but they'll help you set it up and show you how to use it, give you free lessons on all the main features. More importantly, if anything goes wrong, they'll fix it for you or swap it for a new phone, usually while you wait. You can make a Genius Bar appointment, walk in with a broken iPhone, and thanks to Apple customer service and iCloud, walk out half and hour later with a replacement phone containing all of your stuff, that's essentially a clone of the one you walked in with. No one else comes close to matching Apple's level of customer service. Appallingly, no one else even tries.
Even though the iPhone's user experience is unmatched, the app, accessory, and services unequaled, and the customer service the best in the business, there's still more you may need. That's where iMore comes in. We'll help you get used to your new iPhone, help you figure out which are the best apps, accessories, and services for you, and help show you all the things you can do with it, like photography, music, and more. And when you're ready, we'll help you upgrade to your next phone. Whether you keep up with us on the web, with our iPhone app, or via RSS, Twitter, App.net, Facebook, Google+iMore, YouTube, or iTunes, or some other way, you'll quickly find out the iPhone doesn't only come with great stuff, it comes with a great community!
Who should get the iPhone?
If you want a phone that just works, and that has all the great user experience, app and game, accessory and services, customer support and iMore community benefits, then the iPhone is for you. It's smaller than many competitors these days, doesn't have a hardware keyboard, and there's no giant camera bolted on, but it remains the single best phone in the world at what it does, and what it does it does very, very well.
Unless you have a very specific set of requirements or use cases that make something else a better option for you - see below - get an iPhone. You'll be glad you did.
If you absolutely need a bigger screen, anything from 4.3-inches all the way up to 6-inch "phablets", you should get Android instead. Apple probably won't make any iPhone that size until 2014 at the earliest, so if you need something between a phone and a tablet, and can't afford both, or if you need something that emphasizes the computing device more than the mobile phone aspect, you'll have to go elsewhere. Both the 4.7-inch HTC One and the ironically named 4.3-inch HTC Mini are great phones with excellent build quality. Samsung isn't quite as well made, but the 5-inch Galaxy S4 and the 6-inch Galaxy Mega are extremely popular and very large respectively. Google's Moto X provides a big screen in a small package and includes highly customizable back plates. LG's Nexus is the best option for those who want a big screen and a stock Android experience.
If a physical keyboard and a focus on communications above everything else are a deal-breaker for you, then Apple's iPhone will never fit your needs. BlackBerry, however, is phenomenal at hardware keyboards. They also rebooted their operating system, bringing them fully into the era of modern smartphone. The BlackBerry Q10 is currently the latest, greatest high-end keyboard BlackBerry. The BlackBerry Q5 is lower-end but still terrifically tactile. If you simply insist on being old school, a few BlackBerry 7 devices remain on the market as well.
Windows Phones come in a variety of screen sizes and price points, and all run Microsoft's elegant Metro (sticking with it!) interface and experience. The biggest reason to go with Windows Phone - literally - is the amazing camera available on the Lumia 1020. It's almost like they grafted a dedicated point-and-shoot onto the body of a phone. It's also got a big screen and some of the best build quality in the business.
If you're still not sure about the iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c - or even the still-on-the-market iPhone 4S! - jump into our iPhone discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out. If you're not sure in general, head on over to your local big box or carrier show and ask to try them out. Don't settle for dummy phones, ask to use demo units, and ask a lot of questions. Then dive into Android Central, Windows Phone Central, and CrackBerry and the experts there will help you make a final, fantastic decision
Today I Am Back With Good News For MTNL Mumbai Customers.
MTNL Launched Unlimited Economy Internet Plan For Rs.299 Per Month Under It's narrow Band (Internet Speed 256 KBPS) Promotional Scheme For Low End Customers.
MTNL's This Plan Comes At Rs.299 Per Month,
Unlimited Internet Access With Downloading And Uploading Speed Upto
I'm very glad to hear the Linkedin is the latest company that boosts the security with the Two-Factor authentication. Few days back, Twitter enabled the two-step verification to thwart hackers.
Are you searching for the guide to configure the 2-step authentication? You are at right place. Here is the guide that will help you to configure the linkedin two-step verification .
Before getting into the actual steps, let me explain what 2-step auth is.
Two-Step Verification: A security feature that prompts you to enter a temporary secret number sent to your phone whenever you log into your account.
Why you should enable this feature? I believe this is best security feature. Let us assume, someone has stolen your login credentials via keylogger or phishing or any other method. If the hacker try to log into the website with your credentials, he will asked to provide the secret number sent to your mobile. Fortunately, you have your mobile with you ;) . So hacker can't log in to your account. Also you will come to know that someone is trying to access your account.
How to configure the Linkedin Two-factor authentication?
Step1: Login to your account and go to the settings page:
Step 2: select the "Account" tab and click the " Manage security settings " option.
Step 3: Now Here , you can see the "Two-step verification for sign in " option and it displays the feature is currently "off". To turn on the feature , simply click the "Turn on" link.
In next step, you will be asked to enter your phone number.
Step4 :
Once you enter the phone number, you will receive a security code. After entering the security code sent to your mobile number, the feature will be turned on. Hurrah, Now you are protected :)
Next time, when you try to log in, you will be asked to provide the secret code :)
UpdatedThe ultimate shootout between the world's best smartphones
So, here we are. The big phones of 2013 (well, the first half of it at least – we've still got the iPhone 5S / iPhone 6 to land at some point) have all landed and you're probably wondering which is best.
Well,
it's not as easy as usual, as we have three stand-out contenders for
the throne of best smartphone. Luckily for you fancy people we've spent
weeks with all three and have put together this in-depth test to show
where the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z have strength and weakness.
So,
onto the battle… it's not going to be pretty, but at the end you'll be
able to know which is the best smartphone on the market right now as it
comes stumbling through the smoke and into the daylight.
Having killed the other two, in case that wasn't clear.
Design
Design-wise,
there's a big disparity between all three devices on show here, as each
has a different take on how the smartphone should look. The Samsung
Galaxy S4 is using a similar construction to its predecessor, which may
be polycarbonate but looks and feels rather cheap in the hand. It weighs
practically nothing, which is a real plus point, but there's no
doubting that it doesn't justify the cash in overall feel.
It does have one design win though: while maintaining the same
footprint as the S3, the Galaxy S4 now has a 5-inch screen that pushes
much closer to the edge of the handset, which gives a much more
immersive feel.
That said, the Sony Xperia Z is really struggling
to show it's worth the cash as well, with a very plastic shell and one
that sounds really cheap when tapped on the back - it's got a very
hollow ring to it and doesn't scream that you've bought a phone worth
the best part of £500.
However there's a fairly good reason for
the cheap-feeling design: the Xperia Z is both waterproof and dust-proof,
with seals around each port to stop water and other nasty stuff
affecting the use of your new smartphone.
The most impressive on test is the HTC One, with its full aluminium
shell. It's something of a masterpiece in terms of design, with it
feeling more like a sculpture than a smartphone.
It also took years of
work to understand how to make something out of aluminium to this degree
while still letting you make calls and stuff.
Sure, aluminium
isn't as durable as plastic, but hold all three in your hand and we
challenge you not to fall a little in love with the HTC One.
Ease of use
The Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One both share a
common operating system in the shape of Android 4.1. It's an excellent
OS, but one that's bettered by the Galaxy S4's Android 4.2 offering.
Both are called Jelly Bean, but the latter does come with a larger amount of bells and whistles.
But we're not talking about the features here - it's how easy each
phone is to use. From that perspective the Samsung Galaxy S4 is in third
place. That's not to criticise it too much, as it's an excellent OS and
one that really rewards the user the more you dig into it.
But
if you're after an operating system that allows you to pick it up and
just get to grips with all the functionality, the other two are streets
ahead.
The Sony Xperia Z isn't too far removed from core Android,
and by that we mean the layout and extra features are both pretty
simplistic, sticking relatively close to what Google wanted when it
created the OS. And when things get more technical, the phone is fluid
and intuitive, automatically giving you information on your music and
movies from the web which creates a really nice effect.
But we
love the fact there's a superb effort on the HTC One to make the
smartphone more accessible, from the reduction in apps on the grid
(which HTC says is the direct result of research into finding out what
barriers consumers are finding to smartphone purchase, although you can
extend this) to the more helpful tutorial screens that litter the phone
when you turn it on.
The blend of simplicity and power here is
what makes us feel that handing our grandmother the HTC One will be the
least difficult experience... providing she doesn't go into BlinkFeed,
that is.
Performance
There are two ways of looking at
performance: either real life use or by trotting out a number of
benchmarks to see how strong a phone is when it comes to raw grunt.
In
both cases the Sony Xperia Z comes last - its attempts to show that its
quad-core processor can mix it with the big boys showed there's still a
little way to go in terms of making a smartphone that just works
without flaw.
In terms of benchmarking, the Z is far behind its peers, seemingly
the result of Sony finding its feet as a full smartphone brand. It also
has a few bugs in the software causing it to pause and flicker on a
couple of apps – it's nothing major but it's also not a problem we're
seeing in the other devices.
In terms of performance, there's very
little to choose between the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. The
latter nudges it in the Antutu Android test, but it's honours even in
the browser benchmarking tests, showing that there's not much to choose
here if you're going to raw power.
Neither will falter even under heavy use, which is great news for the smartphone users of the world.
It's
just a shame that Samsung didn't unleash the octa-core version of its
phone onto the UK and US – apparently that thing is shredding up
benchmark charts the world over…
Value for money
When it
comes to value for money, it's hard to argue the case for any of these
phones, as each is at the top end of the scale when you're thinking
about the monthly fee to fork over.
However, there is a slight
disparity between the three, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 comes at the
wrong end of it. It's available for £580 SIM free, where the other two
can be nabbed for £530 and £490 respectively. This is less of an issue
when it comes to contracts, where the S4 is £1 more expensive per month,
and carries a higher upfront cost to boot.
None of the three really cost over the odds though - £35 is the rough
marker we'd expect to be paying per month for a top end smartphone (if
you want a decent whack of minutes and internet allowance) and all three
manage to sit in that area.
But there's no doubt that the Galaxy
S4 offers less value for money than the other two, simply because it has
arguably the lowest design values and the highest price. It's got some
decent internals, but there's a worry that the South Korean brand is
getting a little too much like Apple in its high-end price strategy.
It's
a hard choice between the HTC One and Xperia Z in the value for money
stakes: the Z is cheaper, but comes with half the memory. That said, you
can add a memory card into the Sony version to expand the memory, and
for less than the £40 difference between the costs.
The HTC One
could be considered the best economically, as it has the best feature
set and design combination while not taking the mickey when it comes to
price either – but the lower price and high feature set of the Xperia Z
mean it should get the value for money title.
Features
The
feature set on most of today's smartphones are immense - there's very
little you can't get information on already, and with the smorgasbord of
apps, it gets a little bit frightening.
All three of the devices
on test here have a lot of attempted innovation on board, although some
are more impressive than others. Let's start with the Sony Xperia Z, a
phone that promises a lot from the revamped brand.
Our favourite features on the phone from the outset are the Smart
Connect and the Xperia Link. These two are clever as they take away all
those unnecessary key presses the blight our daily lives, inching us
ever closer to fat beings that sit on floating chairs all day long.
Smart
Connect lets you set an 'event', be it plugging in the charger,
entering a location or even a time of day, and sets the phone to do
something automatically. So whether that's open the alarm, turn on music
or just going into silent mode, it feels very intuitive.
Xperia
Link allows you to use the phone's internet connection to other devices.
That's a familiar feature, but you can remotely set it to function from
another device, without having to dig it out of the pocket on a
commute. Nice.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is probably the most
feature-rich of the three, with a whole heap of 'innovation' on board.
Be it scrolling with your eyes, waving your hand over the phone to move
through photos or internet pages or just keeping track of your peepers
to maintain screen brightness, there's a lot going on here.
The
latter feature aside, a relic from the Galaxy S3, none of it works
though. That's not completely true: it works, but is utterly pointless.
Scrolling with your head or tilting is a very poor relation to just
using your finger, and the same goes with Air Gestures. When forced, we
can think of reasons to use these (having no hands, for example) but
really it just shows that Samsung needs to go back to the drawing board
when flinging new ideas on the consumer market.
Or at least making them infallibly amazing, and not bettered by incumbent methods.
If
Samsung was looking for an approach to ape, we'd heartily recommend the
HTC way of doing things. The One has loads of filler features: be it
the UltraPixel camera that can take low light pictures, the BoomSound
microphones that prevent distortion when recording at high volume, or
the simple user interface, there's a lot here to love.
HTC has
gone for the physical when it comes to innovation, and for the most part
it completely shines through, making it a really solid purchase, while
the other two scrabble around to make their ideas work.
Camera
The
camera on all three phones is excellent - but there's a big difference
between the three. Well, not so much the Sony or the Samsung option, as
both are rocking a 13MP sensor, but when it comes to the HTC One, you'll
have to make do with a 4MP option.
The Samsung camera is the most
powerful of the three, as while it packs the same resolution as the
Xperia Z, it manages to come up trumps when trying to frame the perfect
shot. You can get almost flawless macro shots instantly and without
having to coax the phone to take them; it also has a wide range of
features that are presented in a really easy to use interface.
The Sony Xperia Z is also a contender here, as it builds on a rich
cameraphone heritage to take some rather lovely pictures. The
Intelligent Auto mode is strong, and often came up with the best quality
of picture during our testing of random scene types. Be it indoor or
out, we were often surprised and impressed at the richness of colour on
offer, as well as the overall detail.
The HTC One takes things in a different direction, and that's not
necessarily a bad thing. The 4MP UltraPixel camera is probably one that
most of you are familiar with, but here's a quick overview: a 4MP sensor
can have bigger pixels, which let it more light for an overall brighter
photo - excellent in lower lights where you don't want a flash.
It can also capture and process them more quickly, as there's less
information to chug through, and you can take some really clear and in
focus shots. The downside is the resolution is noticeably lower and
while the subject your aiming at is generally clear, the rest of the
picture can be noisy and a little fuzzy.
Another new feature we
like: the HTC One lets you capture Zoes, which are 3.6-second clips
instead of a photo. These not only automatically make highlight reels of
your night out or holiday, but also let you do really cool things like
sequence shot and object removal much more easily than with the Samsung
Galaxy S4.
Samsung promises excellent low-light snaps from the S4
as well, but it simply cannot take on the might of the HTC One when
trying to get the photo in even near-darkness.
The HTC
One is best for day to day shooting, which is really important on a
cameraphone, but it really depends on what you're intending to use your
phone for. The good news? If you're after a decent cameraphone, you're
going to get something more than decent from any of the options here.
CPU / RAM
All
three phones are pretty similar here: the One, Z and S4 all pack 2GB of
RAM to help power things along, but as you can see from the
benchmarking graphs, Sony is struggling to keep up with the other two.
Its
results are surprising, given that it's packing a 1.5GHz Krait chip
from Qualcomm that's also supplemented by an Adreno 320 GPU (which is
also present in the other two). However, it performs markedly worse than
the competition, which you can put down to the lower clock speed.
HTC
made the decision to move to Qualcomm Krait, and despite being slower
than the Galaxy S4 (coming in at 1.7GHz clockspeed) manages to match it
blow for blow in the benchmarking tests. It also performs nigh-on
flawlessly even in the heavy lifting.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is
much the same in terms of interface, but raises the bar to 1.9GHz in
speed terms. As we mentioned, this has very little effect when it comes
to benchmarks, but it does impress given the battery life isn't impacted
massively.
We're going to give this one to Samsung for just
edging it in terms of pure specs. Sure, it matters what you do with it,
but it seems the South Korean brand has managed to be a bit kinder on
the battery. We just wish that we were allowed to buy that octa-core
version…
Screen
This is such an important part of the
smartphone experience, and all three offer something different in
display terms, although Full HD resolution has been packed into each
handset.
We'll start with the Sony Xperia Z, which has the poorest
screen on test. A standard TFT LCD, it's certainly crisp but really
suffers when viewed from any other angle than straight-on. We would have
thought this wouldn't be an issue, but the amount of times we were
really surprised at the washed-out screen when looking at it from the
side was much higher than anticipated.
The
HTC One has the brightest screen, but the Galaxy S4 has a much more
balanced tone with the Super AMOLED (which has been set to the most
neutral colour mode) when viewed normally. The Sony Xperia Z has the
best clarity, but that comes at a price as it's also the most noisy.
However,
it's interesting to note that at the higher magnification, the S4 has
the most jagged edges and obvious pixels, showing the HTC One has a very
high-class screen.
The HTC One also uses LCD technology, but
opts for Super LCD3 as a display and as a result performs so much
better. It helps that its peak brightness is much higher (although
beware of this munching your battery), but it also packs such an
improved contrast ratio as well - far more than we've come to expect
from an LCD screen.
(For the uninitiated, the contrast ratio is
the distance between the full black part of the screen and the white
elements - the further apart this is, the better the display, especially
when used in high brightness areas).
The Samsung Galaxy S4 uses a
Super AMOLED Full HD screen, which is a whole new type of technology.
This allows an almost infinite contrast ratio, as the black parts of the
screen are true black and not slightly grey while masking the backlight
needed to light up the screen.
The difference between the One and
S4 is negligible to some people, but when it comes to watching video or
browsing the internet, we can't help but love the S4. It's got a lower
peak brightness than the One, but doesn't need to be as bright as the
better contrast ratio makes everything look sharper and clearer.
Its
screen packs a very slight greenish tinge when viewed at full
brightness though, meaning when placed side by side with the One it can
look like some sort of washing powder ad. But that hue does make
watching the screen a little easier on the eyes, which is far more
important.
We challenge anyone not to be a little bit wowed when
looking at the 5-inch Full HD screen crammed into such a small device,
but if you prefer things brighter, then the One is for you. The S4 is
better on all around performance though; we simply cannot stop watching
all manner of things on that glorious AMOLED display.
Media
We
know this is verging on a broken record, but once again all three
phones pack a real media punch, and for different reasons. The Sony
Xperia Z draws on some really powerful heritage in this space, using
things like the Bravia Engine to improve the quality of movies.
HTC has drawn in Beats audio enhancement and combined it with its new
BoomSound technology to create an even better sound, and the Samsung
Galaxy S4 has the best sound quality of the lot - plus it's got the most
intelligent audio and video monitoring of the lot to ensure
consistency.
The HTC One is the only device currently sold with a
32GB internal capacity, which makes the price impressive. However, it
lacks a storage slot for increasing the memory, which is rather
irritating as it can fill up with music, video and photos rather
quickly.
The Sony and Samsung offerings both are offered in 16GB
versions (although the latter will be available in a 64GB flavour) and
come with the memory card slot we love, which makes them very easy to
upgrade.
When it comes to out and out video performance, you'll be
able to tell that we like the Samsung the most if you check out the
screen section above - and on top of that it's got the most options for
altering the quality of the video on screen. It also has the best video
player offered by default (HTC doesn't even HAVE one) and will auto-play
thumbnails of the clips in your library too.
Sony offers
Gracenote identification for each movie, so when the info is downloaded
you'll get official information about your films if you've nabbed them
from a hard drive. It also uses the aforementioned Mobile Bravia Engine
2, which really does well to improve the performance of an otherwise
uninspiring screen.
And the HTC One is good when it comes to
watching films without headphones, as the Boomsound speakers offer a
really crisp and punchy sound for a mobile phone.
On the audio
front they're all excellent, with intuitive players, sound enhancement
and a rich UI that makes it easy to find your content. The Galaxy S4
only lets itself down in this area by having the weakest music player
widget, but that's a really small criticism compared to the might of the
playback.
Although it's horrendously tight, the Samsung Galaxy S4
just feels so much more professional in the media stakes and builds on a
nascent heritage at making mobile media manageable, meaning we find
ourselves reaching for that one when wanting a marathon music session.
Battery
What's one of the most important things a smartphone can do? Not to lose all its power when doing nothing in the pocket.
It's
very difficult to talk about how strong a phone's battery is, as so
many people use it for different things. Any phone is going to crumble
in hours if you do a lot of video streaming, and using the camera loads
(with all the processing going on) will similarly chuck the juice out
the battery door.
In our tests, we found that the HTC One and the Xperia Z both did the
best at the video playback test, with both of these only losing 19%
when playing back a 90-minute video.
The Galaxy S4 only dropped
another 2%, with 79% juice left at the end, so it's not a big problem at
all. And it should be noted that we brightness corrected the test, so
all had the same lumen output during the video playback. However, the
Galaxy S4 uses algorithms to boost the brightness and colour
reproduction up when playing back video, and with the same output
managed a much, much better picture.
So like for like, the S4 lost
the test, but if you want to enjoy your movie then you'll need more
brightness from the One and Xperia Z, and battery life will suffer
accordingly.
In real life usage, we found the Xperia Z to be the
poorest. We played video and took photos on all three, then playing
music and browsing the internet intermittently. Even with Stamina Mode
turned on (which is supposed to save battery life when the phone is not
in use by switching off mobile data and stopping apps syncing) it still
only lasted until 7PM.
The HTC One managed to get to nearly 9PM,
but the Samsung Galaxy S4 kept right on chugging until nearly midnight,
when it still had around 10% of its juice left.
It's worth noting
that all of these phones have excellent sleep modes though – if you're
planning on only having them for email, a quick bit of app or internet
browsing and perhaps some music on the commute, you could get up to two
days' use between charges, which is a real step forward for battery
management.
Verdict
So - down to the main reason you'll have come here: which is the best mobile phone on the market right now and why?
Sony Xperia Z
The
Sony Xperia Z is a darn good phone, there's no two ways about it.
There's a really crisp screen, the waterproof shell, a strong effort at
making usable media apps and a quad core processor under the hood.
It does need an improvement when it comes to battery life though, as
we noted some real issues there. It's also got one of the most unwieldy
designs, with a blocky exterior only helped by the fact it's able to
withstand life's knocks and lumps.
Samsung Galaxy S4
This
is Samsung's best phone ever, without a doubt. We were worried that it
would be something a little iterative from the S3, and while you can
argue that's the case for the design, what's underneath is a new animal.
The
Full HD Super AMOLED screen is fantastic, it's breathtakingly good at
doing things like browsing the web and playing media, and it comes with a
bunch of new ideas to play with.
The problem is those new ideas simply don't work. For all the hard
work making it a decent phone, the moves from the S3 really comprise of a
slightly more solid design, an uprated camera, a boosted processor and a
better screen. It's still a really nifty set of changes, but it's not
enough for us to recommend it over the HTC One.
HTC One
The
One is a masterpiece from HTC. The build quality is superb, and
enshrines a really top-notch screen that really takes the fight to
Samsung. BoomSound and Ultrapixels are novel and useful concepts, and
the Zoe functionality brings a twist to cameraphone use, if not being
the most needed of things on a phone.
It may run into some issues when it comes to the onboard storage, and
heavy use will push the battery a little hard, but this is a smartphone
that fuses art with power.
Winner: HTC One
The
HTC One is the winner nobody would have seen coming last year, but
we've got to take our hats off to the Taiwanese brand for making
something so usable and well designed.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a
powerhouse, and one that we like to use day to day a lot, but it's
definitely all evolution without much in the way of revolution in
smartphone terms.
The Sony Xperia Z feels like a great step
forward for the electronics giant, if not the handset to scale the
smartphone peak just yet. It's chock-full of great ideas, but needs some
design and interface work before it can be considered a true great.
So if you're short on time and have to make a snap decision, go for the HTC One. We promise you won't regret it.
