Christmas is just around the corner, as if the shops hadn’t been making that obvious since mid-September (Halloween mince pies, anyone?) and the top of many people’s wish lists this year will undoubtedly be some form of technology. If you're the sort of person that loves to burn money and make their loved ones - be they your offspring or partner - very very happy then check out our list of the best phones you can get for this years festivities.
Before we let you loose we'd like to point out that these phones can be quite expensive when bought SIM free, so you should check out how much cash you can get for your (or their) mobile phone right now. If you're upgrading from a Galaxy S 2 to a Galaxy S 3 then you can currently knock £150 off the price of the next phone by trading in the older one. iPhone 4 to iPhone 5? Again, shred £150+ off the price of the new phone by sending in your older one.
It's not just phones you can make money from either. If you've got an old MP3 player, console, camera, even a laptop; check our website to see if you can sell it and get loads more cash for Christmas!
Got a phone in mind? Click the links below and jump right to it.
iPhone 5 | Samsung Galaxy S 3 | HTC One X+ | Nokia Lumia 920 | Sony Xperia T
iPhone 5
No top five would be complete without an iPhone. Whenever Apple announces a new iPhone, there is inevitably a lot of hype surrounding the latest edition of the iconic device, and the iPhone 5 didn’t let us down. While some might not consider it a full upgrade from the 4S, the iPhone 5 presents a whole host of impressive new features in terms of both design and technology. The iPhone is now longer with a 4” screen, Retina display and a resolution of 1136x640 pixels at 326ppi density. That display is made even better with a 44% boost in colour saturation, making images and text more vivid, while the increased length allows for an extra row of icons on the home screen.
The improved camera of the iPhone 5 supports panoramic photos up to 240 degrees, so you can get the whole view in one shot rather than spending an age deliberating which angle to take it from. iSight also captures photographs more quickly and has improved low-light performance, making it easier than ever to take photos using the iPhone. The iPhone 5 comes with Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 6, making the whole software experience smoother and faster and adding some useful new features like Passbook, an app that holds all your tickets, vouchers, coupons and cards in one easily accessible place, meaning you’ll never be in a last-minute panic over misplaced tickets ever again.
Pro's: The screen size allows for perfect harmony between thumb and screen space, meaning one-handed use is possible.
Con's: The new 9-pin dock connector means any iDevices you already own will be useless, and you'll have to fork out even more money to replace them with iPhone 5 compatible extras.
Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung devices are the smartphone of choice for the UK. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is more than capable of holding its own against the iPhone 5 hype. Where the Samsung Galaxy S3 triumphs is in its multitasking abilities, allowing you to do two things at once without the need to interrupt one to do the other. Pop-Up Play makes it easy to continue watching a video on your phone while sending that urgent text or email by shrinking the movie in size and letting you drag it on to the home screen as it carries on playing, meaning you’ll never have to pause it and lose the moment again.
With an 8MP camera, the Galaxy S3 is hardly ground-breaking on that score, but it does make up for this with a 'Best Photo' feature. Instead of taking one picture per click, it takes four and allows you to review the options and pick the best one, giving you a much better (well, four times better) chance of turning a quick snap into a masterpiece. There’s also a slightly creepy feature called SmartStay that knows when you’re awake and prevents the screen from dimming when you’re using it. SmartStay uses the front-facing camera to detect when you are looking at the screen and keeps it lit, meaning you won’t need to revive it. It’s the little things that count.
Pro's: Ultra-fast with infallible navigation makes the Galaxy S3 one of the fastest, smoothest smartphones around.
Con's: It's size isn't exactly pocket-friendly.
HTC One X+
The HTC One X+ may just be the best Android smartphone on the market thanks in large to its Tegra 3 1.7GHz quad-core processor, making it 67% faster than all previous HTC One devices and enabling fluid gaming and graphic rendering, speedy downloads and faster web browsing. Everything flows better on the HTC One X+, making the smartphone experience smooth, sleek and exciting. The addition of a 2100mAh battery provides up to 50% more talk time – that’s 6 hours extra on top of all that gaming and quick browsing.
Since mobile phones have become the all-encompassing portable device, bundling phone, camera, MP3 player and much more all into one, the HTC One X+ has one impressive feature in that it comes pre-loaded with Beats Audio, giving an immersive and authentic sound experience for music, games and videos. Taking photos with the HTC One X+ also introduces practical new features like Video Pic, which allows you to take photographs while recording video, and automatically taking three photos with a single press of the shutter button that you can then combine into one final, evenly-exposed photo.
Pro's: HTC is pretty much the granddaddy of Smartphones, and it shows in the build quality. This is a tough phone with the amazing HTC Sense overlay, making the user experience one of a kind.
Con's: It's big like the Galaxy S 3, there's no expandable memory like the iPhone 5, and you can't take the battery out.
Nokia Lumia 920
The Nokia Lumia 920 looks fun & vibrant on the inside and out with a choice of different coloured cases and the equally-colourful Live Tiles of the Windows operating system. Those who are already familiar with Windows phones will feel at home with the Lumia 920 while those who are new to it might take some getting used to the user interface. If you’re part of the former group, though, chances are you’ll love the Lumia 920.
The Lumia 920 has one feature that no other smartphone has yet: an image stabilising system. Featuring PureView technology, which claims 'real' optical image stabilisation, blur is minimised and the end result is a crisp, clear photo that’s good enough to hang on your wall. You can also play around with the ‘lenses’ option, which allows you to take panoramic pictures or create animated GIF's using the Cinemagraph option.
Pro's: Windows 8 promises to be the best mobile operating system from Microsoft, and Nokia is a great mobile phone manufacturer. Combine two super-powers and not much can go wrong.
Con's: Not much, it's big (notice a theme here?) and you can't expand the memory. Better get the right capacity or you'll be a bit stuck when you run out of space for your apps and MP3's.
Sony Xperia T
The latest offering from Sony is the Xperia T, marketed as ‘The Bond Phone’. If you can get past that cringe worthy ploy, however, it really is an impressive gadget. With a 4.6” screen, the Xperia T offers Sony Bravia technology for an incredibly vivid display, while the brilliant 13MP camera records video at 1080p. You can even watch your videos through your television, allowing you to appreciate that full HD quality on both the small and big screen. It’s worth mentioning that any photos you take on the Xperia T will look better on that device than any other phone, since the Bravia engine kicks in and transforms images in real-time.
Where the Xperia T gets one over on some other smartphones is with its expandable memory, allowing you to increase 16GB right up to 80GB with the addition of a 64GB micro SD card. If you use your phone as a multimedia haven, the Xperia T has more than enough room for your music and videos.
Pro's: Beautiful screen imagery and the standard Sony manufacturing that makes any item they produce a great buy. Great camera, Sony are known to produce some of the best camera sensors for mobile phones. Also: James Bond!
Con's: Take your phone outside on a sunny day and you won't be able to see the screen any more, also the notification LED is a bit small so you can only see it when it's dark. Something tells us this phone was meant for undercover operations...
So if you're in for a treat this year, then you can sell your old mobile with OnRecycle.
