Getting yourself a new mobile phone can’t just be a matter of looks. Even budget smart phones these days look sleek and fashionable. But there are so many different new phones on the market that choosing which one is right can seem impossible. You’re spending a fair amount of money, so you obviously want to make sure that you’re making a good purchase and not wasting cash. But more than that, you want to make sure that you have a good, reliable mobile phone. So many of us these days are dependent on the constant contact offered by a mobile, either for personal or professional reasons, that it is important to have a solid mobile. The best way to choose is by doing a mobile phone comparison. That involves going through the spec lists of the phones that you’re interested in and comparing all their different features so that you can see which is best. Unfortunately, spec lists are a little overwhelming for the average user, since they’re crowded with numbers and technical language. This is why we’re here to help with that mobile phone comparison. We’ve taken some of the best new phones on the market and put them to the test. We match up two new mobiles and see how they fare against each other so that you can see which is best. Today we’re looking at the HTC One Mini and the Sony Xperia L. Want to know which is the best buy? Just keep reading to find out.
Our Two Phones…
HTC are known for making some pretty high class phones, ones that are particularly popular with the business market. The HTC One is their current flagship model, and it’s a high powered model and one of the best on the market. However, it’s also pretty pricey. So, HTC have released the HTC One Mini which, as you might expect, is a slightly scaled down version of its older brother. It does sacrifice a little screen space and processing power, but it also gets a far lower price tag. The Sony Xperia L is the latest mid-range phone from Sony. The Xperia range is difficult to classify, simply because there are so many different models, from the budget Tipo to the luxury Xperia Z. But the Xperia L fits firmly into the middle of the series. All Xperias are good looking phones, with slim, minimalistic design, and the L is no exception.
How Much You Will Pay…
There’s a solid price difference between these two models. You can get the HTC One Mini on contract from various mobile operators for anything from zero to four hundred and eighty pounds, depending on the size of the contract you sign. The Sony Xperia L is available on contract from Vodafone and will cost between zero and thirty pounds, depending again on the size of your contract. If you don’t want to buy on contract, you can buy a brand new SIM free HTC One Mini for around four hundred pounds. The Sony Xperia L will cost you around two hundred and fifty pounds.
Their Similarities…
These are both 3.5G fully touch screen phones, and their screens are both 4.3 inches, which is a good size for a touch screen. They are also both Android phone running Android Jelly Bean, so they’re easy to use and easy to customise as well.
About the HTC One Mini…
The HTC is the more expensive phone, so you’d expect it to have some good advantages and it doesn’t disappoint. It runs the faster processor, coming with a 1400 MHz model over the 1000 MHz model on the Xperia, so it’s more powerful, snappier and more responsive to input. The screens on the two models might be the same size, but the HTC’s is much better quality. It gets double the screen resolution and around fifty per cent more PPI (pixels per inch), meaning that the display is clearer, sharper and nicer to look at, and it’s a pretty noticeable difference. You get double the internal storage on the HTC One Mini, it’s a 16 GB device whilst the Xperia has only 8 GB of internal memory. So you can store double the amount of music, photos and other data on your HTC. You also get a much better battery life. The HTC gets around forty per cent more stand by time per battery charge cycle than the Xperia, averaging twenty nine days versus just twenty one days. It also gets about thirty per cent more talk time per battery charge, averaging thirteen hours over the Xperia’s ten hours. So you’ll need to charge the HTC a lot less frequently than the Sony. The HTC One Mini is also a little lighter, weighing in at 122 grams versus 137 grams for the Sony, so it’s a little easier to carry around with you.
About the Sony Xperia L…
Just because the Xperia is cheaper doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a couple of advantages. Firstly, the in-built camera on the Xperia is far higher resolution. It’s an 8 MP camera versus the 4 MP camera on the HTC, so your pictures are much higher quality and capture more fine detail. Secondly, if you regularly use a Bluetooth device such as a hands-free set for your car, the Xperia is much better equipped. It runs the most recent Bluetooth 4.0 versus the far older 1.0 on the HTC. That means that you get much faster transfer of data between your devices and that your phone uses less battery when you’re connecting.
Which is the Better Buy?
Given the big price difference it’s not too surprising that the HTC One Mini turns out to be a better phone. It’s got the faster processor, bigger internal memory, the better screen and the better battery as well. However, that camera and Bluetooth support on the Sony Xperia L are not to be underestimated. These phones are both good devices, and considering the price the Xperia is a good buy. But the HTC does have the better features.
Sam Jones’s daughter had done a mobile phone comparison for a new deal. He checked up on sites like uSwitch to make sure that she really was saving money.
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