We here at Phones Review have used the Apple iPhone since it was first released in 2007, and even though we use many smartphones it has to be said that we use on a daily basis it the iPhone. We have had them all and loved the whole set-up of these handsets, please read our hands-on review of why the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is preferred to iPhone 5.
We have the iPhone 5 and it looks fantastic, but to say it is much better than the iPhone 4S for the money difference is the choice for those with the money, personally do not get the iPhone 5 if you are buying it off contract. We have always loved the iPhone for the build quality and this has always been Apple’s strong suit, at least until the iPhone 5 was released. Many loyal Apple users sit back and say the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android phone feels cheap with its plastic toy like feel, let us tell you how we feel about the build quality shall we.
The iPhone 5 has not compromised on high quality materials and it looks stunning with its brushed aluminum back instead of the glass that was on the iPhone 4S, it is a lot tougher according to Apple and yes it can be dropped and does not damage as easy as its predecessor. Now let’s step back and think about this for a moment, many consumers are complaining about the scratches and chips on the iPhone 5, we have noted this and suggested Apple release a new iPhone 5 Case Program and to be blunt Apple should compensate those with chipped iPhone 5’s.
Now think about this for a second, we can all go around saying the iPhone 5 looks better and feels better in the hand but personally this has turned into a statement of fashion and brand rather than quality and practicality. We love the look, the feel and the functionality of the iPhone 5, but drop it and chip the sides or backing and you have no choice but to take the handset back to Apple for a replacement. Now drop and damage the backing on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and all you need to do is simply replace the back cover, if we dropped the iPhone 5 on the floor we would probably be pretty ticked off, drop the SG Note 2 and it would be the case of oh well it is easier to replace.
The iPhone 5 has a 4-inch 326ppi pixel density display with 640×1136 pixels, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has a 5.5-inch 1280×720 pixels HD Super AMOLED display with 265ppi, and the iPhone 5 is much better in the sunlight than the Galaxy Note 2.
There have been a few changes on the iPhone and to be honest the lightning connector is not a good idea if you have iPhone speaker systems in the house that used to take the 30-pin connector on the previous iPhone’s, now it means you have to spend more money on a new lightning adapter, yeah that’s a good idea Apple let’s give you more money on top of say the £599 for the 32GB iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 does have a larger display than the iPhone 4S but to be honest we prefer the Samsung galaxy note 2 screen for all round usages, and in that we mean browsing, gaming etc, more screen more to see as they say.
The Samsung galaxy Note 2 can multitask and thanks to the huge display this device its great for running multiple apps at the same time. You can open Facebook for example and also open the Web browser on the side; the 2GB of RAM and quad-core processor makes this a breeze. We will probably get moaned at big time here but sorry we are just going to come out with it, Google Maps was always better on the iPhone rather than the new Apple Maps. The new maps by Apple seems to have many problems with pin-pointing the exact road and many areas are spelled wrong, of course Apple will iron out these issues.
The iPhone 5 offers you Passbook and Samsung offers you real NFC S-Beam, Galaxy Note 2 comes with a clever S-Pen stylus, S-Notes and much more. On the iPhone 5 you can only go up to 64GB max storage where as with the Note 2 it goes up to 128GB thanks to the microSD card support. The iPhone 5 is much better when it comes to dimmer lighting and wins the contrast advantage hands-down, it also feels better in your hands, the Galaxy Note 2 as a phone is just a little to big and this is where the Galaxy S3 is better as a phone.
Overall the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the perfect phone come tablet if you cannot afford phone and tablet, the price of an iPhone 5 and a iPad mini is close to £1000 dependent on GB size. The iPhone 5 is a simple phone where you turn it on and there you go that is it, the Android device is open source and that means you can make the device how you want it to be and not what Apple wants it to be with the iPhone 5, personally the Galaxy Note 2 is more robust and much easier to navigate.
Yes the iPhone 5 is popular and we will continue to use it on a daily basis because it is simple to use for work etc, but if we did not have thousands of pounds worth of movies and apps with Apple and take the stand to start all over again then personally the Note gets our vote! We are not slagging the iPhone 5 off but for an all round phone / tablet for browsing the Web, playing games, watching movies and the affordability factor it has to be the Note 2. Go and play with the Note 2 for like 2 hours, play a game search the Web and then go back to the tiny miniscule iPhone 5 and then let us know what you think.
Please let us know what you think?
