In today’s economic climate, most of us are tightening our belts and doing without some of the little luxuries of life. And yet, a good mobile phone isn’t really a luxury item any more. With so many people giving up the expense of a home land line phone, and so many professions requiring the kind of constant contact offered by a mobile phone, a good device is somewhat of a necessity. And with so many mobiles on the market, choosing between them can be pretty tough. It can be tempting to try and save money on your purchase, but what exactly will you be sacrificing in order to get that lower price tag. The only way that you’re going to know is if you closely examine the spec sheet that every phone comes with which details its features, and then compare sheets for the phones that you’re interested in. Unfortunately though, these sheets are fairly inaccessible for most people, given that they’re laden with technological jargon and unfathomable numbers. But we’re here to help you. We’ve taken some of the newest phones on the market and taken a close look at their features. We then matched the phones up in head to head battles to see exactly how they compare and which one is better. Today we’re looking at whether or not it’s really worth spending more on your phone by taking a look at how the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and the Nokia Lumia 720 match up. Want to know which is better? Keep reading…
The Two Competitors…
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is the little brother of the high powered and bestselling Samsung Galaxy S4. Since Samsung had what was widely considered to be the best phone of 2012 with the Galaxy S III, the launch of the newer S4 was a widely anticipated event. And the S4 didn’t disappoint, it is one of the biggest and best mobiles on the market. But it’s also one of the most expensive. Samsung released the S4 Mini as a scaled down version of the regular S4. It lacks some screen space and processing power, but it gets a much cheaper price tag. The Nokia Lumia series is a collaboration between Nokia and Microsoft to produce high quality Windows devices. The Lumias tend to be high quality, high featured and high priced too. But Nokia has recently decided to make Windows devices more available on the budget market. The Lumia 720 is one of their new budget phones, and it’s bright and flashy as well as very affordable…
The Price You’ll Pay…
If you’re in a position to sign a new contract with a mobile operator and want to buy your phone that way, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will cost you between zero and six hundred pounds, depending on the size of your calling plan and the length of your contract. The Lumia 720 will be between zero and three hundred pounds. If you want to buy a brand new SIM free hand set, then the Galaxy S4 Mini is going to run around four hundred pounds, whilst the Lumia 720 is a mere two hundred and fifty pounds.
What They Share…
Both of these devices have relatively large 4.3 inch touch screens. They also both have an 8 GB internal memory, giving you plenty of space for storing music, photos or other data.
About the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini…
As the more expensive device, you’d expect the Galaxy S4 Mini to be the better phone, but just how much better is it? It is a 4G device, so you get great mobile phone coverage including super-fast 4G mobile data speeds, as long as your operator has such a network. The Galaxy does run the faster processor, coming with a 1700 MHz model over the Lumia’s 1000 MHz model, so it’s far more powerful and responsive. The screens might be the same size, but the Galaxy definitely has the edge. The Galaxy’s display is a Super AMOLED screen rather than the older LCD type screen seen on the Nokia, so it’s brighter and has much better colour reproduction. It also has around forty per cent higher screen resolution and about twenty per cent more PPI (pixels per inch), resulting in a display that’s crisper, sharper and has better definition. The in built camera is also higher resolution, since it’s an 8 MP device versus the 6.1 MP camera on the Nokia. That means that your pictures will be better quality and will capture more fine detail. The camera also shoot full high resolution HD video, whilst the one on the Lumia does not. If you’re a regular user of Bluetooth devices such as hands free sets for the car, the Galaxy has much better support for you. It runs the newest Bluetooth 4.0 version instead of the older 3.0 version seen on the Lumia, meaning you get faster data transfer between devices and that your phone uses less battery power when connecting. Being an Android device does mean that you get much better app and game options, since the Android App Market has around seven and a half times more apps available than the Windows Phone Marketplace. The Galaxy is also around ten per cent smaller than the Lumia, and about twenty per cent lighter, weighing in at a mere 107 grams versus 128 grams for the Nokia, so it’s more portable and easier to carry around with you.
About the Nokia Lumia 720…
Really the only thing to say about the Lumia is that it does have a better battery life. It gets around seventy per cent more stand by time per battery charge cycle, averaging about twenty two days versus twelve and a half days on the Galaxy, so there’s less frequent phone charging.
Worth Paying For…
Whilst it might be tempting to try and save on your mobile purchase, you obviously get what you pay for. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is a far better phone, with bigger features that are more than worth the extra price that you’ll pay for them.
Sam Jones’s daughter complained about the mobile phone coverage in her area. By checking online using sites like uSwitch she found that some providers did not have adequate coverage in her region.
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