{"id":23769,"date":"2017-03-14T07:43:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T23:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=23769"},"modified":"2024-09-29T13:20:14","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T05:20:14","slug":"smartphones-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2017\/03\/14\/smartphones-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphones 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many technology enthusiasts here look forward to a special occasion every 2 years – expiration of our mobile phone subscription contracts! When that happens biannually, we get to shop around for a new smartphone to go along with contract renewals. Oh, it’s possible to be on a mobile plan without being tied down to a two year contract, but who would pass up an opportunity to renew with a new phone? And one nice thing about Singtel -is that its customers are eligible for re-contracting after 1 year 9 months and not 24 months without having to pay an early recontract fee.<\/p>\n

My current plan with Singtel is ending in a few months. Funnily, and for the first time since I’ve been on biannual mobile contract plans, I actually don’t feel a particularly strong compulsion to upgrade this time. It’s a nice opportunity to that I’ll likely still take up. But the Samsung Note 5<\/a> I’ve had for coming to two years now still looks as pristine as it did at purchase – a characteristic that we routinely associate more with Apple products than other manufacturers’ products. Specification-wise, the Note 5 was as high-end as one could buy back then, and it still holds its own today: Quad HD and Super AMOLED screen, still decent battery life, RAW support for its camera, 4K video recording etc. Incredibly, the Note 5 is still sold on retail in large part I suspect because of the Note 7 fiasco<\/a>, and its prices haven’t dropped by too much either.<\/p>\n

\"\"
From last year’s post – the Mi Max with the Note 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, it’s a chance for a new phone – so why not. The Mi Max<\/a> – which has only been lightly used since picking it up last year – might had been a suitable replacement were it not for the fact that I prefer my main day to day device to have a Quad HD screen – the full HD screen on the Max struggles against its 6.4″ huge screen – and better video\/imaging abilities. And so:<\/p>\n

At least equal or larger than the Note 5’s 5.7″ display;<\/p>\n

Either 64GB built-in storage or support for a microSD card expansion. I’m not a smartphone gamer, but the phone does triple-up duty as a video recorder and also MP3 player, functions which gobble storage space.<\/p>\n

Decent imaging<\/a> that’s on par with the Note 5’s;<\/p>\n

4000mAh battery or higher. Those huge displays suck juice;<\/p>\n

NFC support for mobile payment systems.<\/p>\n

And of preferences:<\/p>\n

Quad HD screen;<\/p>\n

Stylus support;<\/p>\n

Thumbprint scanner;<\/p>\n

Dedicated capacitive physical and not on-screen buttons.<\/p>\n

Looking at what’s currently out there:<\/p>\n

Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro<\/a>: huge 6″ AMOLED screen + thumbprint scanner + dedicated buttons + NFC + crazy 5000mAh sized battery + microSD card support + dual SIM- hooray! Full HD screen only though, and no 4K video recording. Slightly cheaper than the others below too.<\/p>\n

Huawei Mate 9<\/a>: almost a bumped up version of the A9 Pro above – large 5.9″ screen + thumbprint scanner + NFC + 4000mAh battery + microSD card support + dual SIM + 4K video recording – hooray. Reportedly fantastic dual-lens camera too. But also full HD screen only. Bleh.<\/p>\n

Oppo R9s Plus: huge 6″ AMOLED screen + 4000mAh battery + a whopping 6GB system RAM + dedicated buttons and sharing the same characteristics and limitations as the others in the list so far. Does not support Android Pay – oh no.:( And lastly, it’s a pretty new phone, so there aren’t many reviews of this phone out there at the moment.<\/p>\n

Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra: humongous 6.8″ screen that’s even larger than the Max’s. 4600mAh battery + 4K video recording. But just too large for it to be pocketable!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Going with the list above, I’m leaning towards the A9 Pro followed by the R9s Plus. The A9 Pro – if I go with that later – won’t actually be a significant upgrade from the Note 5 though, on account of its lower resolution screen, lack of stylus and support for wireless charging, and 4K video recording.<\/p>\n

But it’ll still be a new phone, so a decision to make in the next couple of months!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many technology enthusiasts here look forward to a special occasion every 2 years – expiration of our mobile phone subscription contracts! When that happens biannually, we get to shop around for a new smartphone to go along with contract renewals.<\/p>\n

Read More Smartphones 2017<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[551],"class_list":["post-23769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-toys-technology","tag-smartphone","wpcat-16-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/blog-samsunggalaxynotes-P1040520.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35764,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769\/revisions\/35764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}