Mobile Network Comparison

So the Samsung Galaxy S4 has been out for a couple of weeks now, and it seems to stack up pretty impressively against its main competition such as the HTC One and the iPhone 5. But what have Samsung done to upgrade and improve the latest incarnation of the best-selling Android smartphone ever produced?

We’ve already had a look at what the phone is like in our preview piece back in April. However, there’s now been plenty of time to have hands-on experience with the Galaxy S4 and we have to say we’re mightily impressed. We’re not alone either – across the board, the reviews have been universally positive. Some are even saying the S4 is the most powerful and feature-packed phone ever produced.

The hardware is hard to argue with. Its thinner and lighter than before and the speedy processor and GPU make it lightning fast even when paying the most punishing games. The 2GB RAM also ensures it is effortlessly smooth to multitask. One aspect which isn’t as flashy but which we’re particularly impressed with is Samsung’s insistence on having a removable battery and upgradable SD slot. Given it doesn’t matter how good your phone is when it’s out of battery, this is a lifesaver. There’s nothing more annoying than not being able to swap in a spare battery when out and about after your phone dies. And it saves tons of money being able to upgrade your memory yourself rather than paying grossly-inflated prices for built-in memory.

The S4 is the only phone with advanced next-generation features like Smart Screen, Air View, Air Gesture, S Health, Drama Shot, Eraser, Group Play and the amazing S Translator. This really is a phone that defines the Android smartphone experience. The problem is, if you want to get one, it’s not clear how much it’s going to set you back or even where the best deals can be had. That’s where we come in. We’ve scoured all the stores to put together the following guide. This will help you find the best price in the UK for what’s almost certainly the best mobile phone available anywhere in the world right now.

(Don’t forget you can click on the table headings to sort them in ascending/descending order to find the biggest allowances or cheapest rates. To make sure you get the best price possible, click through on the orange links in the “Total cost of ownership” column)

Phew! But now you know the cheapest way to get your new Samsung Galaxy S4 🙂 And before you go on to buy your shiny new S4, read on for a bit more info about what total cost of ownership means and why it’s helpful for you…

A note on “total cost of ownership”

When comparing different tariffs across networks, a key concept we always are keen to use is that of Total cost of ownership. A big problem with buying a new phone is that there are just so many choices across all the networks and this is the fairest way to get a meaningful and objective comparison.

Many people aren’t aware that there’s a metric you can use to fairly compare different tariffs across networks with different allowances but it’s pretty simple – all you need to do is to calculate the Total cost of ownership for each available option. This is simply done by working out the overall amount you’ll have to pay over the course of your whole contract (or for the equivalent length of time on PAYG) for your new Samsung Galaxy S4. You get this figure by adding the initial cost of the handset to the monthly price of the plan multiplied by the length of the contract (in months):

Total cost of ownership = cost_handset + cost_{monthly tariff} × t_{contract length}

The figures in the table above give the total amount you’ll have to pay over the course of the contract as well as the upfront costs for the handset and the rolling monthly charge. Of course, we’ve also let you know exactly what you get for your money in terms of minutes, texts and data allowance. This way, you can be best informed when working out which deal to go for.

So there you have it – the cheapest possible way to get hold of the best phone in the world right now. Hope you find it useful and please let us know in the comments which package you decided to go for.

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It’s almost here! After much speculation and rumour, it seems that Samsung’s new flagship mobile phone is going to be released this week. Samsung, the world-leading smartphone-manufacturer, has announced all the specifications for the follow-up to its best-selling Galaxy S3 smartphone, the predictably-named Samsung Galaxy S4.

Among the specs of the Galaxy S4, the screen is probably one of the most impressive. It comes with a huge 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display with an incredibly-high pixel density of over 440 pixels per inch making for an ultra-sharp appearance. Despite this, the actual form factor of the phone itself fits into a tiny package. It’s incredibly thin and also is very lightweight coming in at only about 130g.

Of course, the Galaxy S4 runs the most advanced mobile operating system in the world right now – Google’s Android. Some of the new features completely blow away Apple’s iOS and this phone comes fully equipped with the very latest version of Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. There are great new Samsung tweaks too such as the ability to share music through multiple phones so they all play the same song at once fully in sync as a kind of distributed speaker system. There’s also some nice tweaks to the user interface and a feature where sounds are recorded along with photos.

Perhaps the killer app is S Translator which can translate between a dozen languages in real time using voice as well as text. So, for example, if you are travelling in Shanghai, you can speak into your phone in English and it will say what you want in Mandarin Chinese. When you get a verbal reply, the phone will magically translate it into English for you. Check out this cool demo to see how it might work:

Other interesting apps included by Samsung are S Health which lets your phone act as an exercise tracker and some futurist motion sensing features for scrolling with your eyes or flipping through pages without even needing to touch the screen.

Of course, under the hood, the Galaxy S4 is packing extreme performance with a 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.9GHz CPU chip backed up with 2GB of RAM. No matter what you throw at it, this handset will easily keep up. The latest games can be run at ridiculously high frame rates and it utterly spanks the competition in benchmarking tests.

As for connectivity, it of course is fully 4G and NFC equipped. AllShare Cast is included as well meaning you can effortlessly stream media from other devices using Sony’s DLNA standard.

The camera is another area where Samsung aims to excel with this phone. The camera sports a massive 13 megapixel sensor which producing stunning results. It has a bright LED flash and performs well in macro and low-light conditions. Plus, of course, there are special modes such as Burst mode, Eraser mode and Cinema mode plus a decent 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls or even to merge into your 1080p videos.

Although it was originally announced that the phone would go on sale in the UK on Friday 26 April, the release date has now slipped. Samsung have delayed the release until 10am on Saturday 27th April instead so you’ll have to wait a bit longer to get your hands on this amazing new device.

Where to get it?

All the major mobile networks will be offering the Samsung Galaxy S4 from this Saturday. Click the links below for our picks of the very best deals currently available:

	£35/month for 500 minutes and unlimited data
	£37/month for 600 minutes and 750 MB data
	£36/month for unlimited minutes and 2 GB data
	£31/month for 1000 minutes and unlimited data
	£37/month for unlimited minutes and 1 GB data
	£36/month for unlimited minutes and 500 MB data

So what do you make of the new Samsung Galaxy S4? Is there any better phone out there right now? How does it compared to the iPhone 5, HTC One or Nokia Lumia 920? Which is the best network to get it on? And will you be queueing up to get one later this week? Let us know!

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