I had that headset for two years (I have now upgraded) and it was outstanding with no glitches or lag. Unfortunately it sounds like you guys were unlucky and picked up a dodgy one. New phone Performance wise: the Samsung S4 has your back (and yes for those who counter: I have seen the iPhone 5s multicore results and they are small fry in comparison). Back to the English language! The HTC one also had a fantastic premium feel. To summarise: Performance wise these guys are miles ahead, they also have bigger screens too (important to note if you watch a lot of media). Let's call these guys the heavy weights On the topic of screen size: check out the Samsung Galaxy note series. These are basically phones with a **** off large screen, they also keep up performance wise, so do not worry about stuttering here! However you have to consider that the apple experience seem a little less experimental; there are less feature: for example you can't scroll webpages with your eyes as you can on the new Galaxy. But what they have is fully optimised and it just works a little more smoothly. There phone is basically cluttered with less crap. On top of this, if you want something a little cheaper and more stable, I would actually go for one of the older IPhone models, otherwise you may be stuck with the Same Samsung S2 problem. Then there are the Vast array of windows Nokia phones.... Haha don't get me started on those! Stay clear!
Same daughter who dumped the Samsung Galaxy II on me is the one who swears by her Xperia. Thanks for the tip, as she's been dreadful at picking a winner so far. (edit, I know that's by Sony, but I saw some dude on the telly last night -BBC news? , who basically said Nokia and Sony were dying and Apple would follow). What do you think of the Xperia. btw?
I will give you my view on the Sony Xperia Z: This phone I see as the flagship for all Sony phones. Truth be told I quite like the look of it! The phone is not only well built and shock absorbent, but also fully waterproof (although this may be a party trick for some). When looking at brute power the Xperia is no slouch, and although it won't match the brute power of the latest IPhone or the top tear Android devices: Samsung S4, HTC one and the Nexus 4 (in my opinion the big 3). It definitely packs some power and the screen is a good size to watch media and to browse the web on, although the speakers do suffer somewhat in my opinion. Please note: there is a variant of this phone called the Ultra which I have not actually held, although I would expect it to be of a simular build to the Xperia Z. It has a display size of 6.4 inches). This has some advantaged although it seems rather ridiculous to me. Now for the horror story: Due to these phones running a Sony modified operating system layer on top of android, the phones often have a few software bugs. Over time these can amount to several issues which I will go in to later; for now just be aware the phone performance may drop slightly as time progresses. I am willing to bet if you search around for a while there will be countless reviews on the internet with users complaining about software related issues. This typifies Sony as there hardware is always way more impressive than there software! I know of 4 people who own this very phone. 1 of which has overheating and battery life issues; however the remaining three have a classy good looking responsive smart phone. I for one doubt the reliability of Sony's software overlay though. To Summarize: These phones look that part! On a hardware side they look fantastic, they are well build and sturdy, however software inconsistencies let the phone down! You could go out and buy a spectacular phone or you could buy a phone with a negligent problem which gets worse over time. Think of it as the Micheal Owen of Phones! If you like something which looks fantastic though, I'd really recommend the HTC One or one of the Iphones. If you don't care about that and want something that performs well you can add the Samsung range (note and s4) to that list. (Please note: i have not talked about the lower end Sony Phones, you can assume these phones have similar issues however as they run very similar overlays)
