Top 10 smartphones for 2014:
2014 has already been a crazy year for smartphone
buyers, with tech firms releasing everything from fitness-focused
handsets with heart-rate monitors, to NSA-busting spy phones.
While this sounds great, the wealth of innovative releases have made it difficult for many buyers to know what smartphone's best for them and what's on the horizon.
Here to help we've taken a thorough look through all the latest handsets unveiled this year, cross-referenced them against the rumoured handsets due for release this year, and put together our list of the top 10 smartphones you should be saving your cash or upgrade for.
So don't rush off to put in your BYOD request or visit your mobile operator just yet, it might be that the perfect phone for you is coming out in the next few months.
10. The Lumia 530
While
the eyes of many C-level executives and people with money to burn may
be fixed on Microsoft's flagship Lumia 930, buyers on a budget would be
foolish to ignore the firm's recently unveiled Lumia 530 smartphone.
As the first ever Windows Phone 8.1 handset to cost less than €100, the Lumia has the potential to be one of the best affordable smartphones this year. This is largely thanks to the inherent business perks of Windows Phone 8.1.
Coming loaded with all the productivity services seen on previous Windows Phone versions, including Office 365, Outlook, Lync and OneDrive, as well as several advanced security features such as mobile device-management (MDM) support, Windows Phone 8.1 is one of the most enterprise-friendly operating systems currently available.
Add to this the Lumia 530's above-average technical specs, for its price band, which include a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and 4in full wide video graphics array (FWVGA) 854x480, 246ppi display, and we can't help but get excited about Microsoft's latest budget handset.
Hopefully the Lumia 530 will make good on its opening promise come its release in August.
9. Amazon Fire Phone
There
have long been rumours that Amazon was going to enter the smartphone
market, although for several years it has stuck resolute to its Kindle
and Kindle Fire tablets as its sole hardware offerings. This has all
change now, though, with its new Fire Phone.
While the Fire Phone has a fairly unassuming design, under its rubber frame it is full of innovations, featuring Amazon's custom Dynamic Perspective and Firefly technologies.
Dynamic Display is custom screen technology that aims to offer glasses free 3D viewing experiences using the Fire Phone's four front cameras.
Firefly is an information service that lets Fire Phone owners use the phone's
While this sounds great, the wealth of innovative releases have made it difficult for many buyers to know what smartphone's best for them and what's on the horizon.
Here to help we've taken a thorough look through all the latest handsets unveiled this year, cross-referenced them against the rumoured handsets due for release this year, and put together our list of the top 10 smartphones you should be saving your cash or upgrade for.
So don't rush off to put in your BYOD request or visit your mobile operator just yet, it might be that the perfect phone for you is coming out in the next few months.
10. The Lumia 530
While
the eyes of many C-level executives and people with money to burn may
be fixed on Microsoft's flagship Lumia 930, buyers on a budget would be
foolish to ignore the firm's recently unveiled Lumia 530 smartphone.As the first ever Windows Phone 8.1 handset to cost less than €100, the Lumia has the potential to be one of the best affordable smartphones this year. This is largely thanks to the inherent business perks of Windows Phone 8.1.
Coming loaded with all the productivity services seen on previous Windows Phone versions, including Office 365, Outlook, Lync and OneDrive, as well as several advanced security features such as mobile device-management (MDM) support, Windows Phone 8.1 is one of the most enterprise-friendly operating systems currently available.
Add to this the Lumia 530's above-average technical specs, for its price band, which include a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and 4in full wide video graphics array (FWVGA) 854x480, 246ppi display, and we can't help but get excited about Microsoft's latest budget handset.
Hopefully the Lumia 530 will make good on its opening promise come its release in August.
9. Amazon Fire Phone
There
have long been rumours that Amazon was going to enter the smartphone
market, although for several years it has stuck resolute to its Kindle
and Kindle Fire tablets as its sole hardware offerings. This has all
change now, though, with its new Fire Phone.While the Fire Phone has a fairly unassuming design, under its rubber frame it is full of innovations, featuring Amazon's custom Dynamic Perspective and Firefly technologies.
Dynamic Display is custom screen technology that aims to offer glasses free 3D viewing experiences using the Fire Phone's four front cameras.
Firefly is an information service that lets Fire Phone owners use the phone's
camera
and microphone to pull data from Amazon's database on a number of
things including books, DVDs, phone numbers, QR codes, CDs, URLS,
barcodes and business cards.
8. LG G3
Since
releasing its stellar G2 smartphone in 2013, Korean tech firm LG has
worked hard to reestablish itself as an innovator in the market. Keeping
this up in 2014 LG loaded its latest flagship G3 handset with a wealth of innovative software and hardware features.
Two of the most interesting of these are its 5.5in 2560x1440, 538ppi Quad HD display and advanced 13MP with Optical Image Stabilizer plus (OIS+) and Laser Autofocus rear
The screen is interesting as it uses custom technology from LG that reduces the size of displayed pixels by 40 percent to push the screen's ppi-count past 500. This makes the screen, on paper, one of the sharpest ever made.
Laser Auto Focus is technology similar to that used by law enforcement agencies' radar guns and is designed to improve the phone's data capture and auto focus speeds - according to LG the tech lets the G3's camera focus images in 0.276 seconds making it one of the fastest camera phones available.
These features, combined with the G3's innovative design, which places the power and volume buttons on the phone's back, make it one of 2014's most interesting handsets. We're guessing the G3 will climb higher in our top 10 rankings later this year once we've had a chance to thoroughly test the phone for our full review.
7. HTC One M8
Taiwanese
firm HTC is probably the only company in the world that is as focused
on design as Apple. As a result it's no surprise its 2014 flagship smartphone, the One M8, is one of the best looking and designed smartphones currently available.
Even better, underneath the One M8's robust, but elegant metal chassis lies a wealth of top end components. HTC's loaded the M8 with a high power Snapdragon 801 processor, high resolution 5in, 1080x1920, 441ppi, Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen and Duo camera technology.
Duo Camera is a new technology that lets One M8's 4.1MP Ultrapixel rear camera capture spatial information using a second supporting camera sensor. This lets users manually adjust the point of focus and create a depth-of-field effect on a captured image.
The technology also lets the One M8 know the distance of objects in the shot and use the information to selectively ignore items in the foreground when applying filters and make it a great choice for any blogger looking to get creative when shooting photos with their smartphone
Since
releasing its stellar G2 smartphone in 2013, Korean tech firm LG has
worked hard to reestablish itself as an innovator in the market. Keeping
this up in 2014 LG loaded its latest flagship G3 handset with a wealth of innovative software and hardware features.Two of the most interesting of these are its 5.5in 2560x1440, 538ppi Quad HD display and advanced 13MP with Optical Image Stabilizer plus (OIS+) and Laser Autofocus rear
camera
.The screen is interesting as it uses custom technology from LG that reduces the size of displayed pixels by 40 percent to push the screen's ppi-count past 500. This makes the screen, on paper, one of the sharpest ever made.
Laser Auto Focus is technology similar to that used by law enforcement agencies' radar guns and is designed to improve the phone's data capture and auto focus speeds - according to LG the tech lets the G3's camera focus images in 0.276 seconds making it one of the fastest camera phones available.
These features, combined with the G3's innovative design, which places the power and volume buttons on the phone's back, make it one of 2014's most interesting handsets. We're guessing the G3 will climb higher in our top 10 rankings later this year once we've had a chance to thoroughly test the phone for our full review.
7. HTC One M8
Taiwanese
firm HTC is probably the only company in the world that is as focused
on design as Apple. As a result it's no surprise its 2014 flagship smartphone, the One M8, is one of the best looking and designed smartphones currently available.Even better, underneath the One M8's robust, but elegant metal chassis lies a wealth of top end components. HTC's loaded the M8 with a high power Snapdragon 801 processor, high resolution 5in, 1080x1920, 441ppi, Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen and Duo camera technology.
Duo Camera is a new technology that lets One M8's 4.1MP Ultrapixel rear camera capture spatial information using a second supporting camera sensor. This lets users manually adjust the point of focus and create a depth-of-field effect on a captured image.
The technology also lets the One M8 know the distance of objects in the shot and use the information to selectively ignore items in the foreground when applying filters and make it a great choice for any blogger looking to get creative when shooting photos with their smartphone
6. Blackphone
Since
news of the PRISM spying campaign broke, privacy has been at the
forefront of many people's minds. The scandal has made people more
concerned than ever about what happens to their data.
So secure communications specialist Silent Circle teamed up with hardware engineers at Geeksphone to create a new snoop-busting Blackphone. The Blackphone will run using a heavily customised, security-focused version of Android, codenamed PrivatOS.
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption protocol creator and Silent Circle president Phil Zimmermann has lent his support to the phone and promised it will let users securely send and receive data. This all adds up to mean the Blackphone should be one of the best choices available for any privacy conscious smartphone buyer come its release later this year.
5. Sony Xperia Z2
Japanese
tech giant Sony's 2013 flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z1, was a great
handset and won over numerous reviewers, including us here at V3.
One year one we're pleased Sony hasn't chosen to rework the wheel and rather than completely rethink its design strategy, worked to fix a number of the Xperia Z1's flaws with its latest Xperia Z2.
Featuring the same robust water and dust resistant IP-certified design and advanced 20.7MP rear
Since
news of the PRISM spying campaign broke, privacy has been at the
forefront of many people's minds. The scandal has made people more
concerned than ever about what happens to their data.So secure communications specialist Silent Circle teamed up with hardware engineers at Geeksphone to create a new snoop-busting Blackphone. The Blackphone will run using a heavily customised, security-focused version of Android, codenamed PrivatOS.
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption protocol creator and Silent Circle president Phil Zimmermann has lent his support to the phone and promised it will let users securely send and receive data. This all adds up to mean the Blackphone should be one of the best choices available for any privacy conscious smartphone buyer come its release later this year.
5. Sony Xperia Z2
Japanese
tech giant Sony's 2013 flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z1, was a great
handset and won over numerous reviewers, including us here at V3.One year one we're pleased Sony hasn't chosen to rework the wheel and rather than completely rethink its design strategy, worked to fix a number of the Xperia Z1's flaws with its latest Xperia Z2.
Featuring the same robust water and dust resistant IP-certified design and advanced 20.7MP rear
camera
,
but coming loaded with an improved Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
and 5.2in, 1080x1920, 424ppi IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen the Xperia
Z2 is one of the best Android handsets on the market.
4. Nokia Lumia 930
Microsoft
made a big deal about Windows Phone 8.1, listing it as the first
"enterprise ready" version of its mobile OS, when it first arrived in
the UK.
Having thoroughly tested Windows Phone 8.1 during our full review we can understand why. Featuring advanced security and productivity features, like a new Word Flow Keyboard, and mobile device management support plus all the inherently great mobile applications seen on previous Windows Phone versions, Windows Phone 8.1 is a truly fit for business mobile OS.
As a result we can't help but be excited about Nokia's soon to be released Lumia 930, which as well as running on Windows 8.1 also features a number of top end hardware, including the Finnish firm's hallowed Pureview imaging technology.
3.
Samsung
handsets' releases always come with a lot of fanfare. Luckily this year
the fuss was justified and Samsung unveiled what in our mind is its
most innovative smartphone to date, the Galaxy S5.
Featuring a rugged, water and dust proof IP-certified design and wealth of top end components, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and upgraded 16MP rear camera, there is a lot to like about the Galaxy S5 from a hardware perspective.
However, the Galaxy S5's charms don't stop there. Samsung's also added custom fingerprint scanner and Knox security services to the phone.
The fingerprint scanner lets users set the Galaxy S5 to only unlock when the user has proven their identity using it. Knox is a sandboxing feature based on NSA technology that lets users set up work and personal areas on the phone. The work side is password protected and encrypts any data stored on it, ensuring it should remain safe should the Galaxy S5 be lost or stolen.
The combination of top end tech and robust security make the Galaxy S5 one of the best Android smartphones currently available to businesses.
2. Nexus 6
With the Nexus 5 only released in November, little is known about Google's next flagship smartphone, which is commonly referred to as the Nexus 6.
But given the success it has had with its last two LG-made Nexus devices, it's a safe bet it'll be cheap. Both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 offered buyers great value for money. With prices starting at a modest £300, the two flagship smartphones offered performance and specifications usually only seen on handsets that cost twice the price.
This tactic has proven a solid hit with buyers and helped both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 sell out on the official Google Play Store hours after being made available. Given the success of the two devices, we can't see Google straying too far from its established pattern for the Nexus 6, which is no bad thing.
1. iPhone 6
Apple
launched its iPhone 5S last September, and according to its own sales
stats the handset was another winner. The firm also unveiled the 5C, a
second lower-priced handset with a plastic casing, available in a range
of colours.
Apple managed to shift nine million iPhone 5S and 5C devices in the first three days of availability. But the firm still faced questions over its lack of innovation. By the time the iPhone 5S went on sale – basically a lighter and thinner version of the previous iPhone 5, but with a faster chip and fingerprint scanner – rival smartphone manufacturers had launched an array of competing handsets offering super-sized screens, bargain price points and fancy software features.
For that reason, we think the iPhone 6 – or 5SS, or whatever Apple ends up calling it – will be the handset to wait for this year. Rumours are that Apple will unveil a larger device with a 5.5in screen, which could help it compete with successful Android handsets such as the S4. While not much else is known about the next premium iPhone, based on Apple's normal release schedule, this handset is likely to feature a more major overhaul than seen between the iPhone 5 and 5S. Whether that's a phablet or mini version, or the addition of tech such as NFC or wireless charging, Apple will need to do something pretty drastic if it's going to overtake
Courtesy: V3
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Microsoft
made a big deal about Windows Phone 8.1, listing it as the first
"enterprise ready" version of its mobile OS, when it first arrived in
the UK.Having thoroughly tested Windows Phone 8.1 during our full review we can understand why. Featuring advanced security and productivity features, like a new Word Flow Keyboard, and mobile device management support plus all the inherently great mobile applications seen on previous Windows Phone versions, Windows Phone 8.1 is a truly fit for business mobile OS.
As a result we can't help but be excited about Nokia's soon to be released Lumia 930, which as well as running on Windows 8.1 also features a number of top end hardware, including the Finnish firm's hallowed Pureview imaging technology.
3.
Samsung
Galaxy S5
Samsung
handsets' releases always come with a lot of fanfare. Luckily this year
the fuss was justified and Samsung unveiled what in our mind is its
most innovative smartphone to date, the Galaxy S5.Featuring a rugged, water and dust proof IP-certified design and wealth of top end components, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and upgraded 16MP rear camera, there is a lot to like about the Galaxy S5 from a hardware perspective.
However, the Galaxy S5's charms don't stop there. Samsung's also added custom fingerprint scanner and Knox security services to the phone.
The fingerprint scanner lets users set the Galaxy S5 to only unlock when the user has proven their identity using it. Knox is a sandboxing feature based on NSA technology that lets users set up work and personal areas on the phone. The work side is password protected and encrypts any data stored on it, ensuring it should remain safe should the Galaxy S5 be lost or stolen.
The combination of top end tech and robust security make the Galaxy S5 one of the best Android smartphones currently available to businesses.
2. Nexus 6
With the Nexus 5 only released in November, little is known about Google's next flagship smartphone, which is commonly referred to as the Nexus 6.
But given the success it has had with its last two LG-made Nexus devices, it's a safe bet it'll be cheap. Both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 offered buyers great value for money. With prices starting at a modest £300, the two flagship smartphones offered performance and specifications usually only seen on handsets that cost twice the price.
This tactic has proven a solid hit with buyers and helped both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 sell out on the official Google Play Store hours after being made available. Given the success of the two devices, we can't see Google straying too far from its established pattern for the Nexus 6, which is no bad thing.
1. iPhone 6
Apple
launched its iPhone 5S last September, and according to its own sales
stats the handset was another winner. The firm also unveiled the 5C, a
second lower-priced handset with a plastic casing, available in a range
of colours.Apple managed to shift nine million iPhone 5S and 5C devices in the first three days of availability. But the firm still faced questions over its lack of innovation. By the time the iPhone 5S went on sale – basically a lighter and thinner version of the previous iPhone 5, but with a faster chip and fingerprint scanner – rival smartphone manufacturers had launched an array of competing handsets offering super-sized screens, bargain price points and fancy software features.
For that reason, we think the iPhone 6 – or 5SS, or whatever Apple ends up calling it – will be the handset to wait for this year. Rumours are that Apple will unveil a larger device with a 5.5in screen, which could help it compete with successful Android handsets such as the S4. While not much else is known about the next premium iPhone, based on Apple's normal release schedule, this handset is likely to feature a more major overhaul than seen between the iPhone 5 and 5S. Whether that's a phablet or mini version, or the addition of tech such as NFC or wireless charging, Apple will need to do something pretty drastic if it's going to overtake
Samsung
as the top mobile device vendor.Courtesy: V3
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