Smartphone Roundup

Phones have changed a lot over the years. First they could text, then you could play Snake and now they can pretty much do anything. What hasn’t changed is the convoluted way companies name these devices. With their haphazard grab bag of numbers, letters and version designations, keeping track of what handset you should buy this year isn’t exactly easy. Add in the fact that 2013 has a huge amount of flagship smartphones spreading across four major operating systems and manufacturers from around the world—well, you’ve got a lot of research to do. That’s why we’ve gone and done it for you.

So here it is—Paste’s guide to the flagship smartphones released in 2013:

HTC One
Operating system: Android
Release date: 4/17/13

The One-Liner
Despite suffering from a lack of Android updates and some unnecessary OS skinning, the HTC One stands out with its gorgeous display, sleek industrial design and the best Android experience next to stock Android that you’ll find.

What We Like
The HTC One is the flagship HTC smartphone of 2013 and features an all-aluminum body, a 4.7” 1080p display, and the newest version of the HTC Sense UI paradigm. Of the smartphones we’ve seen so far, the HTC One is the most well-constructed and beautifully designed smartphone of 2013. The sharpness of the display is out-of-this-world and the front-facing speakers are the best you’ll find in the smartphone market.

What We Don’t Like
If there’s a place to complain about the HTC One, it’s on the software side. HTC’s Android skin, Sense, is better than it’s ever been and more non-intrusive than ever before, but it’s still not stock Android. You’ll still have uninstall some apps and customize Sense’s new home screen features to get it to a place where Android can truly shine. Lastly, the HTC One doesn’t come with the newest version of Android, which is really unfortunate.

BlackBerry Z10
Operating system: BlackBerry 10
Release date: Available

The One-Liner
The BlackBerry Z10 features a brand new operating system that shows plenty of promise, but still lacks the maturity or third-party support of their competitors to give users a real reason to make the switch.

What We Like
The Blackberry Z10 is the long-awaited reinvention of the BlackBerry. After holding out for so long, BlackBerry has finally moved its devices into the 21st century with a functioning modern OS and high-quality build that their competitors have been doing for years now. The new BlackBerry 10 operating system is a perfectly capable environment that can do almost anything that your equivalent Android or iOS device can, even implementing some really nice swipe gestures and multitasking functions on top. Furthermore, we like that BlackBerry has gone back to the drawing board with some of the iOS design tropes that have taken over, especially regarding the home screen.

What We Don’t Like
BlackBerry’s current state as a company still remains up in the air. Betting everything on the success of BlackBerry 10 and the Z10, BlackBerry has left behind their diehard QWERTY fanbase, along with the substantial enterprise market share they once had. Blackberry 10 does most of what you’d want it to, but still doesn’t handle basic features like email, messaging and notifications with the finesse of Android or even iOS. What’s more, the fact that third-party app support for BlackBerry 10 has been quite limited as well makes the Z10 somewhat of a hard sell.

Sony Xperia Z
Operating system: Android
Release date: Available

The One-Liner
Sony’s Xperia Z is a beautiful Android device to behold and will no doubt keep many under its spell despite its shortcoming in performance and unfulfilled software potential.

What We Like
The Xperia Z may be light on features, but the clean body design sure does make a great first impression. This is the kind of bold industrial design we love to see out of a company like Sony, who has never had an easy time selling Android phones. Meanwhile, Sony’s skin on the Android OS is relatively light compared to the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung—getting out of the way of Google’s state-of-the-art functionality.

What We Don’t Like
The Xperia Z lacks a significant draw to hold consumers’ attention amidst the clever marketing schemes of Samsung and the good reputation of HTC—so much so that “water resistant” has become this phone’s most significant feature. If the Xperia Z handled all of the basics well, the phone’s simplicity wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, the Xperia Z struggles with basic functionality like performance, overheating and even battery life. Add in Sony’s inability to implement the PlayStation brand in any meaningful way and you’ve got a big missed opportunity for the company to make its mark on the smartphone market.

LG Optimus G Pro
Operating system: Android
Release date: TBA 2013 (currently available in Korea and Japan)

The One-Liner
The Optimus G Pro is a massive phone that will take as many people away from the Galaxy Note II as it will continue to affirm to the rest of the world that a phone with a 5.5” display is an entirely impractical form factor.

What We Like
The Optimus G Pro is LG’s direct response to the success of Samsung’s mega-phone, the Galaxy Note II. At 5.5”, the Optimus G Pro is as massive as it is breathtaking. The full HD 1080p display is worth the price of admission alone, especially when it comes to watching video or playing games.

What We Don’t Like
A phone larger than 5” is not for most people. If you are attached to the idea being able to easily slide your phone into your pocket or of comfortably using your phone with one hand, it doesn’t matter how great the Optimus G Pro’s display is. LG’s heavy-handed treatment of Android doesn’t help things either. Despite its speed, with its 35 pre-loaded apps that can’t be removed and carrier-specific features, LG’s version of Android still feels bloated.

Samsung Galaxy S IV
Operating system: Android
Release date: 4/26/13

The One-Liner
The Galaxy S IV takes the solid foundation of the Galaxy S III and adds hand gestures, eye-tracking and bunch of other cool features that you’ll probably never use.

What We Like
The Galaxy S IV is the followup to the wildly successful Galaxy S III and is Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone of 2013. The GS IV is the only Android handset this year to be released with the newest version of the Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and is also the most likely to receive new updates from Google. Features like S Health and Air Preview work really well and feel like small evolutions of what a smartphone can do.

What We Don’t Like
The Galaxy S IV has an eerily similar look and feel to the Galaxy S III – so if the glossy, round edges and cheesy animations of that phone turned you off, you’d best look elsewhere for your high-profile Android handset. In terms of hardware, there’s no doubt that compared to the One, Xperia Z and the iPhone, the GS IV’s casing feels distinctly cheap and plastic. On the software side of things, Samsung continues to pile on more and more features to its TouchWiz UI paradigm, making stock Android nearly unrecognizable at this point. While many of these features are interesting, most are unnecessary distractions that will end up killing your battery before actually being useful.

Apple iPhone 5S
Operating system: iOS
Release date: TBA

The One-Liner
The iPhone 5S is the half-step up from the iPhone 5 that will mostly likely feature a similar look and build, with the outcome of iOS 7 being the true deciding factor between Android and iOS in 2013.

What We Like
Without having more than handful of rumors about the new iPhone, there are a few things we can assume about the next half-step up Apple handset. What we will mostly likely get is a phone that has the same light and thin feel of the iPhone 5 in terms of hardware and the next iteration of an already solid mobile OS. Rumors that the newest update of iOS is being delayed makes us think that something big is coming and Apple will no doubt be working hard to fix their reputation after last year’s Apple Maps fiasco.

What We Don’t Like
Most of the big questions surround the iOS 7 upgrades of services like Apple Maps, iCloud and Mail. Not only have these apps been criticized by users, they’ve also been happily backseated by third-party apps (most notably Google’s apps). It’s been known for quite some time that Apple’s biggest weakness is its slowly iterating software design process that can be mind-bogglingly frustrating (remember how long it took to get copy and paste?). As Apple continues to fall behind Google and Samsung’s growing list of features and willingness to try just about anything, Android has become the more exciting platform in light of Apple’s lack of software innovation. Apple needs to address this in iOS 7 in powerful way if they hope to stay on top in 2013.