The mid priced smartphone market can be a difficult to negotiate. Deciding which one to buy can be a long thought process in this crowded section of the market.

The mid priced smartphone market can be a difficult one to negotiate, with so many brands offering what seem like great options in terms of Android phones, and so many tariffs and data plans to choose from. If you have decided that you don’t want to go with an iPhone or anything else at the top end of the range in terms of price, it is certainly still possible to get a great device that does everything you need it to, looks respectable when you take it out, and is also fun and easy to use, but deciding which one to buy can be a long thought process in this crowded section of the market.

Windows Mobile, which is what the PC giants originally called their mobile OS, was a bit of a disaster, and their shockingly low market share told them what we had all suspected – that nobody would touch an original Windows phone with a barge pole. Like the Zune, the disastrous Microsoft “rival” to Apple’s iPods, the original Windows Mobile devices seemed very out of touch with what the mobile market wanted. Now, things have changed, and Windows Phones are actually pretty cool, and in the middle of the market, a very viable choice over comparable Android phones. One of the biggest problems with Android is that where it is designed to work on hundreds of devices, it isn’t really optimised for anything, meaning it can be slow and clunky. Apple iOS is obviously a lot faster and better in this respect, purely because the developers only had to worry about its performance on Apple’s own devices. With Windows Phone on a quality device like the HTC HD7, you get a lot of the performance advantages of an optimised operating system, without the Apple price tag.

The Windows Phone 7 interface you get on the HTC HD7 is great to use, and really easy to configure to keep all of the things you use most in the most easy to access places. While it’s really a matter of personal taste whether you like the tiles and the way it looks better than the interface on a comparable Android, it is stable, works well and gives you a lot of cool features that make your home screen a really useful at-a-glance environment. The calling quality on the phone itself is good, and the camera is decent, as is the 4.3” high resolution screen which is a great size for using most mobile versions of sites along with Windows phone apps. One nice touch on this device is its little kickstand, which makes it easy to prop it up if you are watching something on it. Where the HD7 really comes into its own, however, is gaming. This model takes you beyond fun little phone games and lets you harness a lot of the power of Xbox Live to play on your mobile.

Three mid-range Samsung phones the Appeal, Attain 4G and S Blaze 4G this article takes a look at some of the great features along with the flaws.

While smart phones are known to cost you a quite a lot of money, here are a few of the Samsung phones that come with performance and excellent quality at reasonable rates. Take a look at some of the features, the flaws and know what to expect when you buy a Samsung Galaxy Appeal, a Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G or a Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G.

Packed with an Android 2.3 Gingerbread version, a single-core processor, and internal memory storage of around 8GB, the Samsung Galaxy Appeal might not be the best but it is a formidable phone to have on a budget.

The screen at 3.2 inches is small even by mid-phone standards and the only up-side is that there is remarkable resolution offered. The 5MP camera provides clear imaging. However, on closer inspection you’d find brownish tints and blurs in video recording. Featuring a 3G network, the download, surf and upload speeds are quite low ranging from 0.8 Mbps to 1.2 Mbps and this could make app storing and web browsing a hassle.

The design of the Samsung Galaxy Appeal is not elegant as the other Galaxy products. However, for the price you get it, the Galaxy Appeal does hold a lot of appeal.

A slim design, featuring an Android 2.3 OS and a formidable 4G LTE compatibility, the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G is another superlative smart phone on a budget. The 1 GHz processor coupled with the 32 GB expandable memory makes the smart phone really fast and great for multitasking in moderation.

In fact, the Galaxy Attain 4G is primarily suited for 4G data relaying with a 1.3 MP front facing camera and a 3.2 MP rear end camera to make video calling and Skype calls easy and comfortable. Moreover, the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G has amazing social networking options and a lovely chat interface to keep connected on the go.

Sure, its camera isn’t up to the mark, the features it provides are limited, and there is extra app support – but, for the price, we are sure you will find very little to complain about if you made this your phone of choice.

One of the very few budget smart phones with an excellent dual-core processor powering its applications, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G ensures you never have to compromise on speed and quality. The Android OS, the 64 GB expandable internal memory, and the 4G networking compatibility make the S Blaze 4G one of the best buys on a budget.

Some experts may scoff at the chassis and the 5 mp camera (they usually expect at least an 8 mp camera to accompany a processor and OS of such high quality), but we feel the Galaxy S Blaze 4G is pure value for your hard earned cash. The 4.5 inches screen ensures you can stack your apps, browse the Internet with ease, and organised your corporate schedules too. Simply put, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is one of the best phones for budget-conscious buyers.

Phil Turner thinks that the Tesco Phones website should serve as a model for all mobile phone operators with its clear pricing visible on the Home page it is a pleasure to use.

It is awards time again and here we take a look at The Sony Xperia Z which has been nominated for a 2013 top phone award.

The Sony Xperia Z is the newest super slim flagship phone from Sony. Recent handsets from Sony have demonstrated promise; the Sony Xperia S and the Sony Xperia T were attractive and performed well. The company is looking to make a huge impact on the smartphone market. They have been advertising here, there, and everywhere. They’ve got themselves into the latest Bond film, and they have apparently “re-invented the phone”.

Sony have broken free from Erickson from a design and manufacture point of view, and their phones since the breakup have provided far more creativity, innovation, and improved technical specifications.

The positives

One of the most innovative features about this phone is that it is water resistant. It can last even if dropped in water, perhaps even up to several minutes or more. The video camera on the phone is excellent without being exceptional; and the music quality is exceptional. This makes it a really good entertainment device. Perhaps, the greatest strength of the phone is its looks. It is striking to say the least. It looks and feels and premium, and Sony have done some real magic to make a rectangular slab into something so beautiful.

The negatives

The phone is certainly pricey, coming in at a minimum of £37 a month on contract for two years. There is no possibility to remove the battery, which is always a bugbear with users who like to carry a spare. The phone also has no Mac capability and there are some bugs that reviewers noticed in trial versions. Not serious, but annoying.

The conclusion

This phone certainly is a brilliant smartphone. It is, however, pricey at over £500, and the camera at 13 megapixels does not do a 13 megapixel job. The price, for me, is a little high. However, this is certainly the best Sony phone produced to date, and represents an amazing opportunity for Sony to go into marketing overdrive as they seem to want to do.

On appearance, the phone has few competitors. On performance, it is not top-notch. There is so much competition in the smartphone market these days. It is important to get both the performance and the appearance right. No doubt a lot of people will be attracted to this phone because of the aesthetics, and most will not be disappointed by the performance.

Business users looking for the best of the best though, are better off going for an HTC One or the up-coming Samsung Galaxy S4.

All in all though, well done to Sony for stepping up their game. Sony have really entered the room with this phone and it looks like they will be able to carve out a niche through people looking for Bondesque phones that look flash and have real sex appeal.

” With so many new phones on the market there is stiff competition, here we picked four top phones currently on the market that are worth considering ! “

This list may soon be slightly out-of-date, but it provides a view of 4 of the best phones available on the market towards the end of 2012 and early 2013. These phones are crackers. New handsets coming to the market really must innovate and create in order to improve on these devices.

The first one we’ll look at is the Samsung Galaxy S3. This phone is extremely intuitive. It is able to listen and respond to the needs of its user and personalize to the individual’s wants and desires. It has a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED high definition touch screen. This provides amazing vibrant pictures and is excellent for media and entertainment. Streaming high definition movies is a real joy on this device. The 8 megapixel camera provides superb clarity of image and the video recording is high definition and very good too. The phone is top-tier, coming in at around £450 but it is a superb example of a flagship Samsung smartphone.

HTC Desire X

We’ll return to another Samsung later, but now onto the HTC Desire X.

The Desire X collects all of the best of HTC in one phone. The music technology utilized produces a fantastic entertainment phone for those who love to listen to music on their device. They use Beats-audio technology to deliver deep and rich sound that is a joy to experience. The 5 megapixel camera is better than its specifications sound, producing amazing pictures. The 1GHz dual core processor is fast enough to create a seamless flowing journey around the phone.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

The second Samsung on our list is the Samsung Galaxy Note II. This is a massive phone with a 5.5-inch high definition Super AMOLED screen. It provides a fantastic experience when watching movies, Youtube, and looking at your pictures. At extreme angles, it is superb, so showing your pictures to your friends in a group won’t be a problem. It has an S Pen for note taking that provides a very good level of accuracy and the screen is big enough to enjoy this stylus. The phone uses a Quad Core 1.6GHz processor so being able to complete multiple activities at once is not a problem. Much like the Samsung Galaxy S3, it has an 8 megapixel camera that does a fantastic job of producing crisp and vibrant photos. The phone pushes the boundaries of phone and tablet and is a one heck of a device for both business and social use.

HTC OneXPlus

The final device on our list is the HTC OneX Plus. This is the enhancement of the OneX and provides more features and more power. The Quad Core processor is 1.7GHz and is an upgrade on the OneX. The 64 gigabytes of storage is ample for even the most media hungry users and is more than many laptops provide. The picture quality in the screen is incredible and web browsing is an enjoyable and simple experience. The sound matches the visual experience providing deep and clear audio. This phone is really good for gaming, videos, browsing, and just about anything else; a terrific all-rounder that is a favorite of many.

So there you have it… my top pick phones – two of them Samsung, two of them HTC. With many new phones entering the market in the beginning of 2013 and onwards, there is stiff competition between manufacturers and it is a really tough task to improve no these.