A look at the best smartphones of 2012
A recent survey commissioned by Google found 80 per cent of smartphone owners will not leave home without it. Given the important of these pocket-sized computers in our lives, how do we decide which one to get? The following is a look at some of the best smartphones of 2012.
iPhone 5
Called ‘Gadget of the Year’ by Time Magazine, Apple’s iPhone 5 is a serious piece of hardware. Along with its powerful new A6 chip, iPhone 5 works on 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. At just 7.8 millimeters thick, it is also the thinnest smartphone in the world, says Apple. The back now sports aluminum making it lightweight and less prone to damage. It is equipped with hundreds of features, easy navigation, smooth synchronisation with iTunes and iCloud, access to the App Store and more than 700,000 downloadable apps.
Samsung Galaxy S III
The Samsung Galaxy S III is a true smartphone with stunning 4.8-inch display, fast LTE speeds or versatile Android operating system. It has advanced wireless features including S Beam, which lets you place two compatible devices back-to-back to wirelessly share photos, music, videos, and more. The AllShare Cast beams your photos, videos and games to a compatible big-screen television. Finally, Samsung’s Pop-up play feature lets you do two things at once — such as watch an HD video and e-mail or text at the same time.
Nokia Lumia 920
It has a colourful Start screen with ‘live tiles’, familiar Microsoft apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote; and a People hub that aggregates all your contacts into one page per person. This phone sports an eight-megapixel rear-facing Pure-View camera. Under the hood, it has a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, high-speed 4G/LTE connectivity, near field communications technology for mobile payments and wireless charging placed on a compatible battery dock.
HTC Droid DNA
Protected by Corning’s uberdurable Gorilla Glass 2 technology, the Droid DNA’s five-inch 1080p HD screen was built for video, games, e-books and web browsing. Other specifications include eight megapixel rear-facing camera and two megapixel front-facing cam. It has quad-core processor, 4G/LTE connectivity, great camera and the latest flavor of Google’s Android platform—plus a tonne of internal memory, at 64 gigabytes, and is expandable via microSD cards.
Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD
Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD delivers up to 32 hours of performance between charges. It can handle up to 13 hours of straight video playback, eight hours of web surfing or 21.5 hours of continuous talk time. The 4.7 inch Android phone is built with premium composite materials, while its slender 9.33mm frame is thinner than most other 4G/LTE smartphones. The free SmartActions app intelligently automates your everyday tasks and suggests ways to personalise your phone and make life easier. Other specs include a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of internal memory and more.
Samsung Galaxy Note II
Its largest screen is ideal for reading e-books and digital magazines, watching video, playing games and web surfing. As with its best-selling predecessor, Galaxy Note II also ships with the S Pen. Powered by the latest Android 4.1 platform, Samsung’s Galaxy Note II gives a number of familiar Google apps and one tap access to Google Play to download more than 700,000 apps. Under the hood is a hefty 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 4G LTE connectivity and dual HD cameras. It gives you there options when it comes to internal storage capacity — 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB model.
— Agencies
