Currently, both myself and my partner are looking into replacing our mobile phones (her slightly more urgently). As a result, we're both quite deep in the mire of tech reviews, contract comparisons and general research. For the most part, this has only gone to prove what I wrote about several weeks ago: the mobile phone market is stagnant. None of the current generation's big, flashy marketing gimmicks are even close to being on my list of desirable features, whilst previous years' genuinely useful innovations seem to have almost entirely disappeared (looking at you, waterproof casings!).
As a result, more so than at any time I've previously delved deep into the mobile market, the minor differences and quality of parts are becoming increasingly important. For both of us, one of those now-standard features which can make or break a mobile is the camera, but trying to really tell the difference between two handsets ability is getting incredibly hard. Long gone are the days of pixel wars, where the MP rating was a broadly useable mark of quality. Now all phones have far too many pixels to ever be needed, meaning the calibre of the lens and processing software is much more important. Here, too, though it has become harder to tell pro from imposter, with even relatively basic mid-tier handsets boasting chips and glass from reputable sources like Zeiss and Samsung.
So the discovery of GSM Arena and it's phone comparison tools (all credit goes to my partner for the actual discovery, of course) is a real boon. It's a brilliant website - irritating banner ads aside - which is surprisingly fast to load extremely high resolution, balanced images taken with any number of mainstream mobiles. Not just photos, but stills taken from video recordings are present as well, able to be synced between three phones for immediate comparison. It's a fantastic tool for quickly and accurately comparing models, with some surprising results. Personally, my favouritism of Sony has seen me eyeing up the XZ1 Compact, but having viewed the direct comparison between the Galaxy S8 I'm now a little put off (though oddly the video still seems much sharper). Most disappointing has been the Huawei Mate 10 Lite, which impressed me in store but at this detail is clearly lagging far behind.
Still, personal problems aside, it's a cracking service and well worth shouting about!
