Which phone for insurance replacement

[RobTi]

Hi I have to pick from the following and am lost so what would you pick
Galaxy S3 mini
Nokia Lumia 625
Nokia Lumia 820
LG P720
Blackberry Z10

This is to replace a Xperia arc so will be paying £50 excess

Thanks

[jimborae]

Depends if you want to stick with android or not. If not I would probably go for the 820 as Windows phone 8 is now meant to be quite good although still lacking in apps compared to Apple and android. The S3 mini is only an S3 in name, the specs are nowhere near as good as an S3 which is also old hat now but still a good phone, where as the S3 Mini is not.

[TheDutyPaid]

It's the apps that make a phone, so I would pick the S3 mini even over the LG P720.

[jimborae]

It's the apps that make a phone, so I would pick the S3 mini even over the LG P720.

I get what you're saying but I dont whole heartedly agree with that, there are many crap android phones which can still access most of the apps one the Play store but they will still be crap phones.

It depends on how the OP uses his phone, if he just uses if for essential apps and is not wholely invested in the Google/android ecosystem then WP8 could make sense. If however Google services and android apps/games are essential to his daily life then an android has to be the way to go.

[deejayburnout]

i would go for the Z10.

Blackberry is dead i know, bit it will allow you to load android apps in it.

[scaryjim]

I'm on a Q5 and love BB10, but my wife tried one and hated it, it's a bit of a marmite thing. Might be worth heading to a Carphone Warehouse or such and actually trying a hands on with some of the phones to see what you think, particularly if you're coming from Android but might consider WinPhone or BB.

My experience with LG (a couple of years with an O2X) is that they make nice hardware but are very poor with software updates. BB10 will run Android apps but there's no guarantee they'll work properly, as there are certain libraries it doesn't support. There's reasonable community involvement in checking which apps will and won't work, but it's not entirely straightforward. And of course the Z10 doesn't have a physical keyboard, which is the thing BB are really known for.

The other thing to consider is whether you want 4G or not. Neither android phone there has it, but the others do...

[watercooled]

I'm use an Android phone myself (Nexus 4) but recently had the chance to play with a Z10 and I *really* liked it TBH. There are obviously a few differences in the UI, but I picked it up really quickly. I also think it's excellent value considering it's a well-built and fairly well-spec'd phone.

I've also played with an S3 mini and Lumia 820 and personally wasn't keen on either but for different reasons (but I'll keep this short). I went in just as blind to WP8 as I did BB10, and personally wasn't keen on it, but I know people who love it so YMMV of course. If possible, it would probably be worthwhile playing with the various OSes for a short while to see which you like. The hardware itself seemed solidly built, although that particular phone ended up having connection issues (losing connection frequently IIRC, but it didn't seem like a common issue when I researched it) so the owner ended up getting an S3 mini instead, which I also played with.

The S3 mini? Well it's a Samsung Android phone. The Touchwiz UI has some differences to stock Android, some like it, some don't. However that screen... Again, it's something you'd probably be best trying yourself but personally I wouldn't want to put up with the strong "Pentile effect" I observed. And that leads on to my next point really - if you're offered all of those phones for the same price, you'll probably get (possibly much) better hardware specs with the WP or BB phones vs the Android ones offered.

Unless there are a some apps you really want/need which are only available on one platform, I certainly wouldn't rule out the others. Most of the popular apps can probably be found on any platform now, or at least decent alternatives. But it's something worth checking in advance if you're unsure.

Out of the ones listed? I probably go for the Z10 too, but that's just my opinion.

[keats]

I would go for Z10. S3 mini is nowhere to the point of S3, which has already been obsolete now. Lumia is so so, limited apps. and no comment for LG.

[RobTi]

Thanks all for the helpful replies ended up taking £222 less £50 excess just to close the claim, couldn't be bothered as they would not budge on the list of replacements, will probably go for a moto G till the iphone 6 comes out and see if any deals on the go then

Robert

[jimborae]

Good choice, the Moto G is a great phone for the money, look for PAYG deals on at Tesco then unlock it for a couple of quid to use on the network of your choice.

[Smudger]

Windows phone 8.1 should be out very soon, it might be worth waiting until you can get a play with a handset with that on, it's supposed to be pretty good...

[RobTi]

Thanks had a lumina 520 on 8.0 I think sold it last week didn't seem to be anything wrong, at the moment will buy a cheap one and keep my giffgaff sim and see what the summer brings