Samsung Galaxy S II Plus

Introduction

Samsung has been steadily setting the bar ever higher with each flagship released, and the massive success of the Samsung Galaxy S III and its predecessor, the S II, have catapulted it to the top of the smartphone food chain. And, as is expected in the aftermath of such success, the Koreans are looking to capitalize on the name put up by their top models. Enter the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II  photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support
21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4.3" 16M-color Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX
1.2 GHz dual-core Broadcom BC28155 CPU, VideoCore IV GPU, 1GB of RAM
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization
2MP secondary camera
1080p HD video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass
8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB v2.0 port with MHL
Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
FM radio with RDS
Great video codec support
Solid 1080p video recording

Sony Xperia V

Introduction

I don't see why a phone with dual-core Krait and an LTE connectivity shouldn't enjoy life in the midrange. OK, the upper midrange - but the Xperia V isn't easily caught off guard. Of course, people are not as easily impressed today as, say, a year ago. Yet, a select few phones are willing to offer 1080p videos and 13MP stills, while putting an HD touchscreen at your fingertips.

Sony Xperia V photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
LTE Cat3 DL 100 Mbps UL 50 Mbps
4.3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit Reality LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine 2; Scratch-resistant glass
Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean coming up
IP57 certified for dust and water resistance, up to 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes
Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset
13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Superior Auto mode
1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
VGA front-facing camera
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Voice dialing
Deep Facebook integration
PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
NFC connectivity

HTC One S

Introduction

As the LTE networks rapidly increase their reach globally, support for them is no longer exclusively reserved for high-end devices. The HTC One SV is a clear example of this trend. The Android smartphone is far from the Taiwanese company's top shelf offerings. Instead, the handset aims to offer affordable LTE goodness, packed in a well put together, fairly affordable package.

HTC One SV official photos

Key features

LTE network support

Quad-band GSM/tri-band HSDPA support

4.3" 16M-color Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels); Corning Gorilla Glass 2

Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.1

1.2 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset; Adreno 305 GPU

1 GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage

microSD card slot

5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging

1080p and 720p video recording @ 30fps with stereo sound

1.6 MP 720p front-facing camera for video-chat

Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA

GPS with A-GPS

NFC connectivity

Accelerometer, proximity sensor, built-in compass

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth

MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)

Smart dialing, voice dialing

DivX/XviD video support

FM radio

HTC Portable Hotspot

Beats Audio sound enhancement

Superb build quality and ergonomics

Nokia Lumia 510

Introduction

The Nokia Lumia 510 is old hardware running new old software, aiming to rally new users to the Windows Phone cause.This is the cheapest Microsoft-powered smartphone by Nokia but also the first to release straight on Windows Phone 7.8 on most markets.

Nokia Lumia 510 official pictures

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

Quad-band 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support

4.0" 65K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution

5 megapixel autofocus camera, VGA video recording

Windows Phone 7.8 OS

Resizable tiles and some other WP8 features made available to the older OS version

800 MHz ARM Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset, 256MB of RAM

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation

Digital compass

4GB of on-board storage, 7GB on SkyDrive

Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

FM Radio with RDS

microUSB port

Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR (with Bluetooth file transfers)

Deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface