Mobile Network Comparison

How does the two year old £200 Samsung Galaxy S2 compare to the much newer £170 Zopo ZP980?

Sure the Zopo might have a 5″ 1080p full HD screen compared to the Samsung’s 4.3″ AMOLED. And it does have a quad-core CPU and higher-resolution cameras whereas the Galaxy S2 (i9100) is running the dated Exynos chipset and only has a dual core processor. However, the Samsung was the flasgship handset when it originally came out and it is running a Cortex A9 instead of a Cortex A7. Thanks to CyanogenMod, it’s also running Android 4.3 already while the Zopo is left lagging behind.

But can the S2 keep up with the new phone from China? Even though it still costs more to buy, is the Galaxy S2 actually any better than the ZP980? In the video above we subject both handsets to a rigorous benchmark test to check their processing speed, RAM performance and how good the graphics are on both their (very different screens).

For more information about the Zopo ZP980, please head over to check out our full in-depth handset review.

Which phone will win? Have the advances in mobile technology combined with the power of Android equalised the market so that Zopo can now compete evenly with Samsung? Has the Galaxy S2 had its day? Or is there still something to be said for the older device? Give us your predictions in the comments below then watch the video benchmark test for our full verdict.

Samsung started the whole ‘phablet’ trend with their Galaxy Note devices back in 2011. Despite the original Galaxy Note having some nice hardware at the time, it wasn’t as popular as Samsung may have hoped and instead carved a small niche of power users who wanted to make the most out of their smartphone experience.

Samsung pushed for a more mainstream appeal with the Galaxy Note 2 though, and since its release date, we’ve seen dozens of phablets hit the market in the attempt of attracting the crowds.

But which phablets really deserve our attention? Whilst there aren’t as many phablets as there are smartphones, there are still a lot out there, and if you’re looking into buying a phablet, you should definitely consider the ones on this list.

Samsung Galaxy Mega

Only £334 SIM-free | FREE on contract

Whilst the Samsung Galaxy Mega is mainly considered a ‘mid-range’ handset, thanks to having 2013 hardware, it’s performance only just undercuts the likes of the Galaxy Note II or other high end phablets.

At 6.3 inches, this is Samsung’s largest smartphone yet- the display is quite nice, and can be used comfortably with two hands.

Of course for its large size, using it one-handedly is practically impossible. On top of this, its 1.5GB RAM and dual core processor don’t justify the expensive price point. You’ll be able to bag yourself a 2012 phablet with more powerful hardware for cheaper, both second hand and new.

On top of this, you can grab yourself a 7 inch Nexus 7 for around £150-£200, making the Samsung Galaxy Mega only viable for those that use a lot of media and rely on calling and texting whilst out and about.

 

HTC Butterfly

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The HTC Butterfly was one of the first 5 inch handsets to have an HD display. With a mahoosive pixel density of 441 ppi, the display on the Butterfly is clearly the winning point.

The large 5 inch display and beautiful chassis also make the Butterfly stand out from its competitors whilst making it comfortable to hold and easy to look at.

Luckily for some, the Butterfly comes with a micro SD slot, something that is not uniform with many other HTC devices, and the handset is also run on a powerful quad core 1.5GHz Krait processor and 2GB RAM.

The HTC Butterfly only has a 0.1 inch bigger display than the S4 though, so if you’re looking for a big screen, this phone may not be for you.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Only £324 SIM-free

The Galaxy Note II took everything that wasn’t finished to perfection with the original version of the Galaxy Note and fixed it up.

This included better S-pen functionality, more native Samsung Galaxy Note 2 functions, a super-fast processor, and at the time it was released it was the first phone to have 2GB RAM.

The 5.5inch display looks great, and thanks to the large screen estate, there is lot that can be done on the handset. A great choice.

 

LG Optimus G Pro

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The LG Optimus G Pro is in essence the bigger brother of the Optimus G, a phone that was used as the basis of the Nexus 4.

The LG Optimus G Pro has a large 5.5 inch display with a decent HD quality, and had very decent hardware to power it, including a 1.7GHz quad core Snapdragon 600 processor and the high end phablet standard of 2GB RAM.

Of course it is also 4G LTE capable and comes with Android Jelly Bean.

 

Sony Xperia Z Ultra

Only £460 SIM-free

Whilst the Xperia Z Ultra was only recently announced, its October release may mark the start of something great for Sony. The handset has a huge 6.4 inch display, but unlike the Galaxy Mega, it has enough hardware to really power the big screen.

The phablet comes with a super powerful 2.2GHz snapdragon 800 processor – something that is possibly twice as powerful as the HTC One’s Snapdragon 400 – and of course 2GB RAM.

The screen is at an amazing HD quality despite the large size, and is capable of being submerged in water without taking damage and can keep dust out of its innards.

New handset review: Zopo ZP980

We’ve been hard at work out the last few weeks and is much new content to the site as possible. One thing that many of our users requested, is to have more high-quality and extremely detailed reviews of mobile phone handsets. While these are very time consuming to do well, so far we have published three handset reviews, two of which also have in-depth video reviews posted on our new YouTube channel which we strongly encourage you to check out 🙂

Up till now, due to popular demand, we have been focusing on Chinese phones made by manufacturers such as Lenovo and Zopo. While these models aren’t yet available on UK high street, they are becoming increasingly popular choices in this country and we think are some of the best value options for money currently available. We are also one of the few English language websites we are aware of that are taking the time to look into these types of phone and we hope to continue to lead the way in making useful information more available about them.

Our latest review and currently our high-scoring handset is the Zopo ZP980. It’s a quad core phone with 1 GB of RAM and it is running Android Jelly Bean. It also has a full HD 5-inch screen and 13 megapixel main camera as well as an 8 megapixel front-facing camera. If you want to know more, we encourage you to check out the full review (especially the video).

Furthermore, if you have any suggestions for the next handset for us to review whether it is a Chinese phone or more standard choice, please leave your picks in the comments below.

Latest 4G coverage updates

In other news, 4G is finally starting to take off in the UK. At last, after much faffing about, consumers have a real choice between network providers high-speed mobile Internet access. However, as public access to this technology is still bleedinh-edge new, the geographic availability of coverage is changing incredibly rapidly.

Because of this, we’ve put together a new page dedicated only to 4G mobile coverage. This will keep track with most up-to-date information about the roll-out of 4G services from all of the mobile networks. We aim to make this a one-stop shop which will allow you find out all you need to know to make an informed decision about which 4G service to go for.

At the moment, we’ve got for information about all the current network providers offering 4G services as well as the frequencies they use and the rough percentage of the UK population that is currently covered by their 4G signal. We also have a full run down of the specific towns, cities, regions and general areas where 4G signal is available from each mobile network.

As things progress, we hope to keep this completely up-to-date and we will even cover the roll-out of 4G services on virtual networks when it becomes available. Please go and check it out now to see the full list of information. As ever, we would be really grateful if you could help out by putting out any inaccuracies you might find as new details get released 🙂