Christmas is approaching and many people all over the world will be looking to buy smartphones for loved ones, or even for personal use. But with so many phones on the market and what is basically a shifting hierarchy every few weeks, what are the best Android smartphones to get this holiday season? Well, we can help with that.
To help cut down the criteria that we’re looking at today (otherwise we’ll be hear till Easter), we’ll just be looking at low-end, mid-range, and high-end smartphones, based on their price brackets. So without further ado, This is the Smartphone Holiday Guide 2013, according to me.
Best low-end phone
To a lot of Android purists and enthusiasts, ‘low-end’ is synonymous with garbage phones, equal to ‘dumb’ phones and aren’t worth their time. But most interestingly in the last month or two, the low-end market has come to life with a series of impressive offerings, offerings that even we would consider for our primary phones.
The competitor that has most captured our attentions is the Moto G, Motorola’s latest phone that has wowed us with its entry-level cost and performance that outstrips its price-tag. Although it possesses a ‘lowly’ Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, many reviews have been surprised with how much punishment the phone can take while still speeding along. Reviews have also praised the screen of the device, giving 720p performance on a 4.5-inch screen for a ppi of 329, protected by Gorilla Glass 3. While it may not be quite a cheaper Moto X, it is an incredible great value phone that is well worth gifting to others this festive season.
Winner: Moto G
Best mid-range phone
This category looked like an easy win for Google’s latest Nexus phone, the Nexus 5, until last week when Motorola announced it would be dropping the off-contract price of the Moto X to $349.
While the Moto X is slightly older and looks a little uninspiring on paper, it did surprise in reviews with how well it performed on its basically stock Android software. It did lack the high performance grunt required to play intensive game applications, but as a phone, particularly with its touch-less commands and innovative gesture commands, it offered an experience that still remains one of the most unique in the Android community today. That might have made the Moto X our pick for the best mid-range phone to close out 2013, narrowly beating out the stellar Nexus 5, except for one technicality; the Moto X is only available in America.
While that is all well and good for our American friends, that’s no good to our readers around the globe. For our international friends, the Nexus 5 is far and away your best mid-range phone. This isn’t to say that you should feel cheated that the Moto X isn’t available in your region; the Nexus 5 is a fantastic phone that gives you the performance of a flagship phone without the flagship price-tag. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor gives it performance and power-saving abilities that will only be available to a handful of phones before the end of 2013, meaning the Nexus 5 would likely outpace the Moto X is most performance categories, including gaming. And for all that, it still only costs $349 for the 16GB version and $399 for the 32GB version. Depending on your region, you might be able to get a Nexus 5 before Christmas, but there should be no doubt that on an international scale, the Nexus 5 is the best mid-range smartphone you can get.
Winner: Nexus 5
Best high-end phone
This is surely a category for hot debate as we close 2013. Many people will still say the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, favourites from the first half of 2013, should be considered in this category. Others will say that the Nexus 5 should also be part of the discussion. The Nexus 5 is definitely worth a mention in this conversation seeing as it is far and away the best value Android smartphone on the market right now. However, for all its amazing performance and value, the cost-shaving measures that went into the phone have resulted in slightly mediocre hardware, namely the camera and speakers. And while there is definitely a case for stock Android in Android communities, it lacks features applicable and desirable to the average consumer.
The obvious choice then is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Compared with the only other contenders in this bracket, the LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z1, all have very similar hardware and thus very similar performance, however, the Note 3 has the other two beat convincingly in the feature category. Its stylus is the root of its advantage as Samsung have taken the Note 2’s stylus and improved its feature-set multiple-fold. Air-draw, a quick menu and contextual writing are only part of what makes the Note 3 a dream to use everyday and it really does put the phone ahead of the pack. You might not like the size of the Note 3 or its price-tag, but for every penny you pay, you get the features to match, making the Note 3 your number one present to get if you have the cash to burn.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3
So there you have it. Those are my picks for the best Android smartphones to get in the low-end, mid-range, and high-range brackets to close out 2013 and hopefully this helps you choose what phone to get. If you disagree or just want to let us know your 2 cents, let us know in the comments!
Happy Holidays!
