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MWC big phones comparison
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Tech fans got an eyeful of some monstrous mobiles at Mobile World Congress this year as Samsung, LG, HTC and Panasonic whipped their huge handhelds out in a big blower phone-off. I got my hands on the lot of them to see how they measure up and perform in this video.
Giant phones aren’t for everyone — they won’t slip easily
into a pocket and are eye-wateringly expensive. But if you’ve got
flapping great meat-plates for hands, a commute long enough to watch an
entire box-set and a hankering to show off your pocket-bulge, then you’ll be interested in the behemoth rivals that mobile makers unboxed at MWC.
The benchmark is the Samsung Galaxy Note,
which started the trend for phones to go large when it launched last
year. The phone-cum-mini-tablet has a massive 5.3-inch screen, boasting a
resolution of 1,280×800 pixels at 285 pixels per inch (ppi). It also
has a powerful dual-core 1.4GHz chip and an 8-megapixel camera, with
onboard storage of 16GB, and microSD card expansion of up to 32GB.
While the Note is the incumbent king of king-size, make sure you get a load of the emerging competition in this video
before splashing your cash, as I get hands-on with three
enormo-phone alternatives.
First up is the ludicrously wide LG Optimus Vu. It has a 5-inch screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio so it looks more like a miniature ebook reader than a phone. Resolution is 1024×768 pixels, giving it a ppi count of 256. Inside is a 1.5GHz dual-core chip and on the back is an 8-megapixel camera. There’s a whopping 32GB of onboard storage. What’s more, the Vu runs the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich.
Panasonic may not be the biggest name in phones but it unveiled a corking porker in Barcelona — the Panasonic Eluga Power, a 5-inch giant that packs in an HD screen with 294ppi. That makes it even crisper than the Galaxy Note. Under the hood is a 1.5GHz dual-core chip and around the back is an 8-megapixel camera.
There’s a mere 8GB of internal storage but you can expand it up to 32GB via the microSD card slot. It’s also enabled with contactless near field communication (NFC), which means it’s ready for making swipe payments in shops when this tech becomes more widespread. The Eluga Power is waterproof and dustproof too.
Lastly, I eyed up the humungous HTC One X. While it’s the biggest phone in HTC’s new One Series, it’s nonetheless the smallest of the four enormo-phones with only a 4.7-inch screen.
The One X has a quad-core-plus-one chip inside, making it a true beast of a handset. It also has the same HD screen resolution as the Eluga Power so it’s gloriously crisp and bright. And you get 32GB of onboard space — plus 25GB of free cloud storage from Dropbox — although there’s no microSD slot for further expansion. The One X runs Ice Cream Sandwich, and is skinned with the latest version of HTC’s Sense software.
So which comes first in the big phone-off? HTC’s One X may have the smallest screen but it packs the biggest engine — and a lot more besides. In any case, it gets my vote as I can just about clutch it without getting wrist-ache. Bravo HTC.
