Grand gizmos

Samsung Galaxy S IV (5-inch screen)

Evolutionary rather than revolutionary. If you keep hearing that about Samsung’s newest sequel to its hugely successful Galaxy S III, that is because it is evolutionary. The S IV has a body that is similar to its predecessor, but at the same time is thinner, lighter and also bigger. It carries a 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED screen supported by a 2GB RAM and a 1.6 GHz Exynos Octa-core chip. A smaller bezel means that even with a bigger screen and a massive 2,600mAh battery, it still manages to be 0.8mm skinnier and 0.7mm thinner than the SIII, while weighing a mere 130 grams. There is a 13 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera along with the usual antennas for 4G LTE, and WiFi. It runs on the latest Android 4.2.2.

HTC One (4.7-inch screen)

Cheap, plastic bodies are the undoing of many a superphone. HTC One does not do that mistake. HTC boasts that it takes 200 minutes to manufacture one beautiful body made out of anodized aluminum, white polycarbonate and glass. The screen is a 4.7-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 made out of Gorilla Glass 2. But HTC One is not just a beauty. It is also a powerful phone powered by Qualcomm’s 1.7-GHz, Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor and a 2GB RAM with the support of a big 2300mAh battery. Above and below the screen you will find dual front stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers that constitute HTC BoomSound to give you studio-quality sound with Beats Audio. The star attraction though is the HTC Ultrapixel camera.

LG Optimus G Pro (5.5-inch screen)

With the huge 5.5-inch screen, LG’s Optimus G Pro is more of a phablet than a phone. And at 1080p resolution that huge screen is feast on the eyes. Powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor and 2GB of RAM, this powerful phone has a 13-MP rear camera and a 2.1-MP front facing camera. Running Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, the phone has 32GB of internal memory and a big 2100mAh battery. As Optimus G Pro is an important part of LG’s race to take on its Korean friend on the international stage, it has many features that make the Galaxy S4 unique like pausing a video when a user looks away, and picture in picture photos.