Yes! New company smartphones! ... But I don't WANT one

Agreed

I am precisely the same situation from a personal point of view.

For years I have replaced my phone with a new shiney smart thing and I'm currently on a Note 2 with a contract that's almost up. But the handset is so good, and there has been so little advance since that I don't feel the need to part with it.

My phone history is:

Phillips BT Easylife (a large rubberised affair)

Nokia 5510

Nokia N95

O2 XDA IIs

O2 XDA Mini S

Nokia N95

Nokia N900

HTC Desire Z & Xperia X10 Mini

Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Some small and some large generational leaps there. But now my Note II is coming due for renewal I'm feeling rather disinclined to bother and am seriously thinking about switching to PAYG or SIM only contract for the savings I'd make on either.

The only realistic option that would be an upgrade is the Note 3 (maybe the Xpera Z1 but I'm not a huge fan). But the gap between them and the Note II in terms of performance you can actually feel, and benefit from is so negligible as to not be worthwhile. The Note 2 is in fact so good, that I haven't needed to modify/replace the OS at all, as I did with my other Androids.

I think I shall be saving myself some money monthly on my tariff for a year or more.

Maybe when the Note 4 or 5 come around it'll feel like an upgrade. The only thing that'll make me upgrade sooner is if a decent manufacturer release a phone with Galaxy S4 type specs but with a physical QWERTY keyboard that slides out, and it becomes readily available in the UK.

The Big Question

Throughout the article, I often found myself asking "What do you want a smartphone to do today that it didn't do yesterday?".

What are the new, extra or amazing features that you are looking for / require ?

Or have you arrived at the end of the "Feed me with smartphone wowness" stage of life...

I would surmize that either

a : Trevor is getting old and the geek is fading into the darkness.

b : Someone needs to bring out handheld holographic devices, "today", in order to satisfy the waning geekness.

c : The smartphone market has simly reached peak smartphone, fallen into complete banality and we, as a race, need to move on to newer grounds.

Smart, but useless

> from the standpoint of a business owner and end-user ... use for hours every day.

How is that possible?

I have a Samsung smart-something or other and it's screen is far too small to use for anything but the most trivial tasks. Certainly nothing of the complexity or intensity that would qualify as "work". Typing on it is a nightmare - keys are far too small and at best you can do one-fingered "pecking" with continual interruptions for SHIFT and SYM functions. Plus, the amount of information you can display on the screen at a readable font-size is miniscule. And in daylight, is zero due to its shiny unreadability.

I can understand how a user might spend hours every day using one, but personally I'd prefer a system with a big screen and normal sized (and featured) keyboard/mouse that gives me the productivity to achieve the same amount in a few minutes.

I would suggest that instead of "stove-piping" and looking at (smart)phones as a single item, and making a selection purely on the basis of their cost/features/lifetime/sexiness, you take a step back and see how to improve the working environment of your employees, as a complete integrated approach. And where a phone - smart or otherwise, would fit into that strategy.

Battery FFS

Battery that lasts Friday 5pm to Monday 9am.

Micro SD slot. Jebus - its a nightmare without one.

Good screen, android blah blah blah. I'm sick of smartphones that arent smart on battery life. I dont want 3D gaming and a 4k h264 megafiles. What is wrong with manufacturers?

If you want answers

about BB10 etc then go to crackberry and have a read then post a couple of question.

the members there are fans of BB so know a hell of a lot but are also honest and not afraid to point out problems.

to be honest I would have a BB over an android or apple phone for business any day. Android app loading is easy and most of them work perfectly on the BB10 OS,only intergration with google account on a few are a problem, oh and any app you bought already can if it works be loaded onto the BB at no cost.

I'm in exactly the same situation with the personal phone. Contract is up in a few weeks, so I can upgrade now. Having been through various Windows phones then moved onto iPhone I've currently got a 32Gb 4S. At the moment it works fine, but I'm conscious that battery life is just starting to deteriorate so in that respect it may be time to change.

Not that keen on the Z series BBs (got a Z10 as the work phone and whilst it has advantages I wouldn't want it for my personal one). The iPhone 5S is just too darned expensive and if I'm going to have to change connectors I want to go to Micro-USB so that's out.

I'm not convinced by the current Windows Phone - not mature enough and not sure where MS are going with it.

That really leaves Android. Don't mind the O/S (running a Nexus 7 so I know what it will and won't do). But then that means all new apps (and at least one of my current ones isn't available), transferring all the data from the iPhone, etc.

Good points

It's starting to be hard to add bells and whistles that are "must haves". And so, battery life and familiarity become the important part. The good news for alternate systems like Blackberry (how the world has changed) is that they can catch up to iPhones and Androids simply because there isn't much more that can be added to smartphones. Or at least, anything that users are actually interested in.

"Apple has to be the first smartphone manufacturer anyone considers."

Apple is always the last manufacturer of anything I would consider.

Looks like you're not alone!

Had to pack in BB OS6 after problems with Exchange 2013 (only 2 of us).

I now have a Nokia Lumia 520 (cheapskate), my wife has a Q10.

I like the 520, but every time I pick up the Q10, I fall in love with the amazing keyboard. Renewal in October. Will either go SIM only and stick with the 520, or go for another Q10.

Moto G

I am surprised you wrote off motorola so quickly. The moto g is a very capable android business device. Can be managed by google apps (if that is the MDM of choice) or exchange. It's very cheap in the UK and has a brilliant battery life for a smart phone.

Phone and Tablet

It may be a little ungainly but I have just switched to the Asus PhonePad 7 ME372G all the advantages of a phone with a 7 inch tablet screen. MicroSD card and tablets data is handled by the phone so no seperate data tarrif needed.

Major advantage is that as it is 3g the tablet works anywhere without a wifi signal...

Moto G is the new Desire

I reluctantly gave up my Desire (with latest cyanogenmod) last month and plumped hard cash down for the Moto G. At £130 for the 16MB version it wasn't that much of a stretch.

You need to revisit your comments on unlocking - 2 quid and 5 seconds work for an unlock code.

Yes there's no micro SD slot which I hate, but Airdroid gets around that problem.

Battery life - 4-5 days standby at least. Talk and play around with it all day and you get home late evening with 45% battery left.

Ok it hasn't got the Camera and CPU to match the 400 pound phones but it isn't those.

it does have naked KitKat (apart from 2 Motorola utils one of which is the awesome migrate tool) and it's not too big to hold in one hand.

For me, it's the 2013 Desire. 4 of my friends and their friends bought one within days of seeing mine. There's no better praise.

HTC One is very good. Battery life isn't a problem and if you get the Google edition then you're OS update woes are gone.

You can't really take any reports about HTC on forums seriously as Samsung pays people to leave bad reviews. I'll stick to technology websites with reviewers I know have some sort of track record.

Lets also not forget the benchmark fiddles Samsung uses.

HTC suprise

I'm surprised that HTC One was discounted because of poor battery life. It was the one thing I was concerned with about switching to HTC but have actually found that I can easily last a full day of heavy use, a couple of days with medium use and if I'm away for a weekend with no power then activating the power save mode means I can last from Friday to Monday.

I also really like the forward facing speakers - makes a big difference when you are playing music or watching youtube and you don't spray the sound out the back.

The Sony Experia Z1 Compact is close to the ideal corporate phone, although sadly at corporate pricing. If you are looking for an Android equivalent to the iPhone 4S then this would be it.

"design decisions forced upon users by fiat."

$ollars ot Italians?

Welcome Nokia

Theyve just announced a forked Andoird today at MWC, Nokia X.

How about it then, guys?

The only question is , why didnt they adopt this model earlier?

Best of both workds, and at very good price points, I guess.

Easy customisation? No Sale

In my experience the ability to change the OS on a business phone is usually the reason why thety are not offered.

IT see the phone as an extension of their domain so like to lock the phone down tighter than Scotsman's wallet. This is one of the reason why Applie phones remain popular. So the ability to update to cyanogenmod may look attractive to the user, IT will use that as a reason not to offer it.

In fact any customization ability will be seen as a threat, even if the changes improve your productivity

Quite a quandry!

Its time for me to upgrade my phone too.

I went for the Xperia Z1 as an upgrade to my very battered and on-its-last-legs Note 2. We will see if it measures up, its battery life is meant to be good, screen is good too but I liked it because its solid and should last the 2 years I need to keep it, unlike my dying Note 2.

I've had many, many phones over the years and I am actually using a Lumia 625 waiting on the Z1 to arrive. Have to say I am VERY impressed. Smooth, functional, battery lasts ages, Nokia should make a phone that size, with a better spec screen and processor etc.

Had a look into Sailfish/Jolla and I think they could be on to a winner. Last mover advantage anyone?

Just my $0.02

Just replaced mine.

My previous phone was a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S. Right size, ludicrously thin, and using "Link2SD" to circumvent the storage issues.

While still working reliably, it was becoming a shade long in the tooth and beginning to have trouble with some of the newer stuff.

So my checklist included thinness, expandable storage[1], more RAM, a decent amount of internal storage, newer OS versions available, as near "stock" Android as possible and enough grunt to handle everything I can throw at it. Price was also a major consideration. I don't do long contracts as I have no idea where I'll be in six months' time.

Huawei Ascend P6. Unbeatable for the money, fits nicely in the paw and built like a tank too.

[1] Dear Google. If you really must do away with SD card expansion, the minimum internal storage on such a device is 32Gb and ideally it needs 64. That writes off all your flagship devices at a stroke.

I had to replace my BB9700.

I needed a phone below £200 unlocked. (I was given about £160 insurance payout).

Nokia - no chance, ever, I loved my N8 (apart from text input, hence my having a BB too.) To abandon such a good phone before it was properly finished. Grrr. (Didn't even need WP to put me off, which would do the job too.)

I needed either a keyboard, or a huge screen.

All the likely candidates were too expensive, but the Asus Fonepad was in budget, so I seriously considered it (the processor was what put me off), but then I found a Q5 for £185 unlocked on Amazon, so I took a gamble.

I am happy with the phone, it looks great (best looking BB yet, much nicer than the Q10) a decent keyboard, no BIS, (used to be of benefit due to the price, but now with standard access as cheap, the limitations are a show stopper). Works well with Bria for VOIP (and Skype too). Nice media replay facilities (flac for example). I have just installed Amazon App store, which works. (not as smooth as the Native system, but not annoyingly sluggish). It even has a torch function built in to the UI.

There are a few niggles. cursor keys would be nice. The email editor is not as good as on BB6, nor is the keyboard layout support. Hopefully these will be fixed in future versions.

My suggestion would be to try and find a cheap BB10 device (Q10s look a bargain, for those who don't mind lack of keyboards), and give it a try.

(And I got a second hand playbook for £50, which works well with it, had they bothered to put BB10 on them, I think they would have been worth closer to the price they tried to sell them for.).

I believe the primary driver for smartphone upgrades is not battery life, but screens :)

I was going to be quite happy with my S2 for another year or two. I'd just replaced the battery for a whole £6, so it could last the entire day again. Then I dropped it on the wooden floor one time too many and the screen finally gave up :(

I've now got that mix of "shiny toy!" and "where's all my stuff?" that comes with toting a new device (a Note 3, in case you were wondering).

Shout that from the rooftops!

Battery life matters more than manufacturers are willing to admit, while style and "thickness" don't matter nearly so much as they think.

I think most phone users would agree, but the twits that write about phones in shiny print-magazines are always banging on about style and thickness, so that's what catches the attention of the marketing people at the phone manufacturers.

I personally think we'd have a richer marketplace and more choice were it not for the fact that every new technology -- such as the Palm Pre range (before HP gobbled it up) and the new Blackberries -- has been dissed into oblivion by hasty and ill-informed comments dwelling more on style than substance from the shiny-comic writers before being given a fair chance in the marketplace.

Swiss Army Smartphone..

I've been running an HTC Wildfire, not even an S, for three years. The biggest reason for sticking with this small phone is it fits in a belt holster\pouch without jabbing me in the ribs and breaking when I sit down or drive.

It does everything I need and loads more, from a torch, a really good calculator (RealCalc) an Fm Radio, online banking, Alarm Clock, Bluetoothing music or calls to the car\mini speakers, GPS toys, E-Reader etc etc The contacts database is very flexible and auto syncs with google contacts and the call quality is fine.

The battery could be better but it is physically a small phone and a charger on the bed side table solves that.

Haven't tried using it to get stones out of horses hooves yet..

WP8

I understand the argument in the article regarding WP8. But in my case :

- a few hundreds of smartphone users, many of them paid by the company

- sim only contracts all the way

- heavy investment in the MS ecosystem

- phones are on average smarter than the users

Based on those, it's simple here. SIM contract is company paid, if you want the same for the device then you'll get a nice company-supplied Nokia Lumia 52x or 62x. Cheap, and I always have a few spares if there is a problem. If you want something high-end : please, by all means, BYOD (and wallet). If you want the bling and get an iPhone, we'll support it if you have problems (hardware excluded). If you choose Android, no problem, but... If you want support : check with the vendor, or google it.

I understand Trevor's position, but I would like to know what he recommends to his customers. From my POV, WP8 is the cheap and supportable one to beat.

Peak Mobile

The smartphone market has basically reached it's own version of peak oil - the maximum rate of extraction after which there is terminal decline. Like the writer says, there's nothing particularly gripping around any more, to anybody who had a decent device in the last two years or so.

I have an original Samsung Galaxy Note. I've had mine for two years and it was launched about six months before I bought mine. Compared to the Sony Ericsson Satio I had before it, it was a dramatic difference. The large, HD screen (1280x800) meant that it was great for watching videos, it was useful for the web and the chips inside meant it had the grunt to do stuff, whereas much as I loved Symbian, the Satio was comparatively underpowered by the end of it's life.

At this point though, I'm still finding my Note to be very useful. The stylus was a novelty for a long time, but now that I'm doing things like occasionally using RDP or VNC on the Note, it's become a properly useful tool and that puts me off something like the HTC One Max, which I quite liked the look of previously. The Note is now running Android 4.2, so although not the latest and greatest, it's modern enough. I don't play that many games, so couldn't tell you how FIFA 107 is on it, but Candy Crush works fine...

I look at the Note 3 and I think, "yeah, that looks great, bigger, faster, some more features" but then I realise that it's not going to let me do things I can't already and it's going to cost me the price of a cheap foreign holiday over the course of a year to actually get it. And I'd rather drink my body weight in local beer and burn on a beach than have a higher definition screen and faster (and more invasive) Facebook.

So like my Core2Quad desktop before it, I think the Note is good enough. And a lot of people are now at that stage with their phones, so I expect to see even longer mobile contracts coming out soon. For those that had an HTC Desire or similar, you might benefit from an upgrade, since it was so close, but not quite.

But 2011 Samsungs... they were the smartphones that were Good Enough.

faulty premise no.1

that because there's an upgrade month - that you need to upgrade.

The money for that upgrade has to come from somewhere, presumably higher monthly rental.

If the phone is still doing the job, why change and suffer the administration overhead of doing so.

Fair enough if the phones are knackered after two years use. But wouldn't it be nice to have the option of (eg) a hundred quid knocked off the bill for each line and pay only for new handsets where needed?

Just got myself a Nokia C3-01

(Second hand from my M-in-Law) Why?

Because it has a battery that will last for a decent time (nearly 24 hours now and it's still reporting 4 bars of 4).

It does HDPA (3.5g) data connectivity, and when I paired with my Nexus7 the tablet has a "use this device for internet access" checkbox - it just worked.

So I now have a phone that sounds good as a phone (as in everyone I've spoken to on the phone has said it sounds better before they knew I'd changed the phone), and provides me with a data connection for my actual smart device.

What issues do I now face?

- SMS sync to Gmail - I've found that useful over the past 3-4 years

- Data usage counter - I'd like to find a decent counter to ensure I don't blat my allowance

(I should note that I have WiFi practically everywhere, so my data allowance is small - but easily adequate for my modest needs)

New shiney thing!

Looking for a new phone for myself & the missus.

Have the following short list:

HTC One

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Sony Z1

Trying to shake the urge for a removable battery since the other phones are so shiney!

Anyone have personal experience with these?

Blackberry Queries...

"I have a whole bunch of applications I've bought on Google Play. Will those be available (and usable) on a Z30"

Not as such as Google Play isn't. If it's a free app, and you can get via Amazon App store it's dead simple, you can also use various other methods like Snap to get Android apps on. Other apps work generally well too. Some exceptions apply but generally it's pretty good.

"or will I have to repurchase them?"

Probably. Same as switching to Apple etc - although despite owning many smartphones, I have paid for very few so it's a non issue to me.

"What are the native apps like?"

Variable. As with any other platform. The good apps by good developers are good, and the ones written by clueless half-wits exactly the same... But if you actually mean are "good blackberry 10 apps any good" then absolutely yes. Fast, slick and functional.

"What is the battery life actually like?"

I have a Z10 which has a poorer battery than a Z30 - every software update makes it better (after a couple days for the caching, indexing to rebuild) - mine lasts all day and is heavily used.

"How badly does using Android versus native apps affect battery life?"

No idea - mostly because I haven't noticed enough of an issue to difference to register there is a difference. I suspect a tiny difference but insignificant - frankly most apps I want are native anyhow.

"Will Blackberry (the company) be around long enough to see the two year contract through?"

Yes

"This being Canada, "bring your own phone" doesn't give you much of a rate discount"

Amen brother! Although having had smartphones in both the UK and Canada, it seems fair to suggest much of your headache arises from being in Canada. The selection of handsets available is pretty poor, all things considered, and the 2-year minimum contracts (recently reduced from 3) means there's little incentive for the carriers to entice you with newer handsets.

I look enviously at the choice available in the US, and in Europe - multiple versions of Sony's Xperia; Samsung Galaxy S4 widely available, and you can upgrade to it in less than a year; all sorts of Android, Windows and iOS devices in a range of sizes and colours.

Mind you, the underlying problem is broadly the same. Windows phones are uninspiring; iPhones are ubiquitous, and Android is pretty variable in execution and reliability...

the geek in me is dead

I have a S4 and it is a great phone, it really is...

I use it for work email

texting ( but only because the kid has a phone and is preferred method of contact)

looking stuff up

maps

that said, I could live happily without any of those things I can read a map, I grew up in the 80's where we used real phones or shock horror! were out of contact for a while when we did something outside the home!

I can read a map/road signs, which are water proof and does not go flat

I might miss the ability to easily tap the boobytubes for information on the fly, which means I would have to commit most facts to memory instead of indexing where they are and pulling the full details up later, but that is a small price.

there is nothing that has been released since I first got a blackberry that has impressed me enough to be excited about a new model from anyone.

in short if my job did not require me to have a phone, and supplies one, I would not have one.

** I still write with a fountain pen and paper ( or pencil when required)**

Nexus 5

Getting a Nexus 5 for my daughter. It's in BC now so we should get it in the next day or two.

Bought direct from Google: they have some in stock now so it makes no sense to pay over the odds on Ebay.

My daughter had a fiddle with one in the phone shop and liked the nippiness of the display.

Spec for spec it is on a par (if not a bit better) than the equivalent Galaxy and is actually quite a bit cheaper. Looks like a solid build.

The contract is with Fido but their charge of a locked/branded version of the Nexus5 is $150 more than buying it direct from Google. Figure that one out :O

We'll see. It looks like a cool phone though.

If you're happy with what you have now

Can you still get those exact same models from your carrier?

Don't laugh, older phones are probably going to be "free". Since 18 month old Android devices have little resale value, you could either keep the used ones around as a backup in case something happens to the new ones, or give them to family members who aren't restricted to a corporate plan and could save money with a BYOD plan.

reliability?

Amen about battery life. But also, reliability!!! Between me and the rest of my family, I've had at least 5 phones that lasted just long enough to be out of their warranty, but were far short of the 2 year (US) service commitment. Which left me scrambling to find affordable working phones for me or a loved one out of contract.

Samsung counted for three of the above cases (out of 5 Samsungs total; I sure hope my daughter's current S4 lasts the full 2 years). And this wasn't physical damage, it was electrical problems: my educated guess is failing power management chips in two of those cases. Motorola? Lost me years ago when they refused to replace two flip phones where custom connector clips bent and would no longer hold the cable in to recharge. Those were even under warranty, but they refused to honor the warranty for the connector problem. I personally don't do Apple because I don't like their business practices, but I've always been of the opinion that they do quality engineering. Up until the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco. More recently, the number of people I've seen suffering along with iPhones with shattered glass (front and rear) is astonishing, because the glass broke and they can't afford to fix or replace out of contract.

I've settled on Nokia, partly because I like Windows Phone and it does what I need, and partly because I've always had great reliability with Nokia hardware. I just hope that Microsoft doesn't manage to screw up the Lumia phones like they've done with almost everything else they've touched in the last few years.

Oh, and the new cameras (on Lumia 1020 and 1520) are excellent, and contrary to a prior post, they do offer real image quality that can equal many point-and-shoot cameras.

Sys admin lets users root phones?

This article was nicely written, but seemed strange from the stand point of a sys admin.

1) The employees get a choice??

2) You disregard a phone (Moto) as they cannot root it and load whatever they want on it?

Sounds like a pretty forward thinking company

Speaking as the guy responsible for sourcing our phones for my company. the selection criteria goes something like this:

Does the hardware allowance from the network cover new phones for all, at the smartphone level. If yes pick best phone for the job that the IT team can support.

If no, will CFO stump up the difference?

If No, what phones do our heavy road warrior users NEED (not want!), and will the budget have enough left to get all other users usable phones, with some smart features (eg Galaxy minis and not full size ones).

That's it for me!! Other elements are less important, as road warriors have car chargers and laptops, so battery life should be less important a consideration.

Yeah, I'm feeling this.

I'm in a similar pickle right now ... I really like my HTC Desire S as an overall package, and the things driving me to upgrade are, for once, external factors. Rather than doing it for the techno-joy of gaining new features or shoving a terrible operating system for the promise of a better one, or grabbing the best ad-hoc replacement I can because the previous phone was broken/stolen, it's more the matter of replacing something that's good, but a bit worn out and no longer able to entirely cut the mustard. Like an old laptop once it's been upgraded to the hilt, or an otherwise perfectly good car which has failed its MOT and can't be economically repaired.

The screen's cracked (but I can deal with that, and would have had it replaced by now if I couldn't), the casing is all scratched and worn and bruised (battlescars, m'boy!), the battery is shot (that's a £10 replacement, really), the mSD card is a bit pokey (I could still double its size if I wanted, and take a more rigorous approach to spring cleaning)... but moreover the OS is out of date and can't be upgraded, which means I can't connect through authenticated proxy servers and is even starting to affect app compatibility, the CPU isn't quite strong enough to deal with 2014's multitasking requirements (it was fine in 2011), and the internal RAM and Flash is horridly overloaded. All of those things in combination spell "may as well replace it".

But the form factor, the sheer usability of the OS, the ruggedness, and the ease of switching battery/card/SIM (and repairing genuinely broken bits) are all just fine by my standards. The camera could be better, but it's not a critical point. And any connectivity problems I've had have always been down to signal strength rather than download speed, so I couldn't give a stuff about 4G / LTE / Wimax or whatever unless they meant I was more able to get a reliable connection, rather than a faster but still patchy one, in places with borderline RF field density.

What I'd really like to do is have something just the same as it was when I bought it, but with refreshed internals. Scads more working memory and system flash, faster dual core CPU, newer OS, and optionally a better camera and more pixels on the screen (and, if it can be arranged, greater touch precision so I can use a really thin-tipped stylus and have at least as much control over the result as I had with my trusty old Palm IIIe). Keep everything else as is.

Seems that the "give me a Desire S with updated circuitry and firmware" scores a big "hahaha no" on the "what manufacturers want to offer the customer" front right now though. Bit of a problem. Every single handset misses the mark in one way or another. It's either too big ... or too primitive / not actually advanced in any measurable way ... or too limited (locked-in battery, no card slot...) ... or has shockingly poor battery life right out of the box ... or is goppingly expensive (I got the DS *free*, on an £18pcm 24-month contract...) ... or uses a horrible OS (I want Android, so I can bring my apps and cloud data with me) ... etc, etc, etc.

What to do, other than buying something with a hopefully small enough PCB and doing a frankenstein job to wedge it in the existing frame?

Too much selection...

Looking at the current offerings, albeit from an end/personal user I can understand Trevor's position. Being a 4s user I've got locked into the iTunes/iOS app ecosystem so changing would be difficult but not impossible. I've been very happy and to be honest, apart from the lack of storage (yes I'd like more than 64Gb) and my use case changing towards needing a bigger screen (I mainly use it as a small portable tablet with a phone attached) a slightly larger screen would help. Given that it would be a single device a large phablet (e..g Sony Xperia Z Ultra) would be too large; 5" would probably be sufficient.Other than that there's nothing currently out their that has a compelling case for me to change; even if it breaks, a 4s from fleabay, where I got my corrent one from, would be the obvious choice dependent on 5s availability/cost. I don't really see a compelling vision to move to the Android ecosystem.

As others have said, the win pc/laptop market lost traction as it got to maturity with functionality broadly similar with very little differentiation other than the case, badge and screen size. I suspect that the handset is getting to a similar position much quicker and I can't really see what the next big jump will be.

Z30 is...

...720, not 1080 - yes, it's got one extra row of icons but still runs in 720, check the specs.

Nevertheless the whole article misses the main point: BB's Hub clearly MOPS THE FLOOR with anything I've seen so far on Android and I DID spend months hunting (and iOS7 does not come close to even Android, forget BB10 in terms of communication or multitasking, it's downright pathetic how far Apple has been left behind while "Sir" Ive was tinkering with his 'fabulous' color wheels and typefaces...)

Now that BB10 comes with a full-blown Android inside I'm looking forward to either a price drop on Z30 or a new, updated high-end BB10 phone and I'll get one (though I will also hold onto my Xperia Z Ultra for certain work situations, its 6.5" display allows me to NOT have a tablet and not to carry my 12" ThinkPad everywhere, not to mention the morning greatness of reading the new under the shower, thanks to its waterproof nature.)

ah HTC Desire... how i love thee. We all knew this was the smartphone to buy. It has been my trusty companion for 4 years and hopefully will be in my pocket for many years to come. OK the memory is a bit tight (even with the Runnymede AIO rom) but those where the early days. The battery is still going strong so I see no compelling reason to replace it.