Which High End Mobile To Buy? The HTC One Max Vs The Sony Xperia Z1

Shopping on today’s mobile market can be tough, and if you don’t know the difference between an iPhone 5S and an HTC One V you might find yourself in trouble. There are so many handsets to choose from that deciding on the right one can seem almost impossible, but there are strategies that you can choose to make sure that you’re making a good decision. There are two initial factors that are important.

The first of these is going to be price. You’re going to be spending well over £500 on a new, top of the line mobile phone, and that’s a huge sum, especially in today’s troubled economy where so many of us are trying to cut costs. You want to make sure that you’re investing wisely and that you’re not wasting your hard earned cash.

The second factor is performance. Many of us today are dependent on our mobile phone, either for professional reasons, or more personal ones, like having given up our home land line phone, for example. This means that it’s essential to get a good quality phone. You want to know that your phone is able to do everything that you need it to do, so you’ll need to have a good look at the specs on the models that you’re interested in.

The best way to make sure that you’re getting good specs for a good price is to compare phones. This could be a problem, however. Mobile descriptions are so full of technical language and strange numbers that they can be both confusing and time consuming for the average customer to read. That’s why we’re here to help you today.

We’ve taken some of the hottest new releases on the mobile market and put them to the test. Then we’ve put models in head to head [p2p type=”slug” value=”sony-xperia-z1-vs-htc-one-battle-titans” attributes=”comparisons”]comparisons[/p2p] which let you easily see which phone is the best buy. If you’re mobile shopping and want to know that you’re making a good purchasing decision, then read on to find out which of today’s two phones we’re going to be recommending.

Introducing the Two Phones

The Sony Xperia range is a huge phone line, and there’s a model for every budget. The current flagship of the Xperia line is the Z1, an update to last year’s Xperia Z model. The Xperia Z1 is high powered and high featured, and it’s also sexy and sleek. The Z1 is up against something big today though, so can it compete?

The new HTC One Max is literally big. It’s a phablet device, so it combines the functions of a phone with the much larger screen of a tablet. The One Max is an impressive model, and it has great build quality, it doesn’t come cheap though, so it the HTC One Max worth paying a little extra for?

What You’ll Pay

If you’re able to come up with the cash to pay full price up front then you can buy your hand set SIM free, meaning that you’ll be able to use it on any mobile network that you want and that you’ll own your phone outright. The Sony Xperia Z1 will cost you around £550 SIM free, whilst the HTC One Max will cost you around £600.

You can also sign an incentive contract with a mobile operator to avoid having to pay full price up front, and obviously different operators have different prices. The best deal right now on both these models is with Vodafone. You can get either hand set for no money down on a £38 a month calling plan contract. Read more about Vodafone’s UK networks and services here.

What They Share

Both of these models are touch screen 4G devices. A 4G phone offers faster mobile Internet speeds, though you’ll need a special 4G data plan from an operator to take advantage of this. Both models have the same 16 GB internal storage capacity, so you can keep plenty of music, photos and other data on your device. Finally, both run the new 4.0 version of Bluetooth for faster data transfer and lower power consumption when connecting.

What the Sony Xperia Z1 Does Better

The Sony Xperia Z1 may be a little cheaper, but it has some nice advantages over the HTC One Max, beginning with power. The Xperia runs a huge 2200 MHz processor, whilst the HTC has only a 1700 MHz model, so the Sony is faster, more powerful and more responsive.

The Xperia also has a better camera, its 20.7 MP in built device being capable of capturing a lot more fine detail than the 4 MP camera on the HTC, thereby taking better quality pictures. Whilst the Xperia might have a smaller screen, it does have a better quality display. Around twenty per cent more PPI (pixels per inch) mean that the screen on the Xperia is sharper and better defined.

Finally, the Xperia is more portable. It’s around forty per cent smaller than the HTC and about twenty per cent thinner as well. It’s also lighter, weighing just 170 grams versus the 217 gram HTC model. This means that the Xperia is simply easier to put in your pocket and carry around.

What the HTC One Max Does Better

Because the HTC is a phablet it does have a larger screen. It has a 5.9 inch display rather than the 5 inch display on the Xperia, so you have a far better viewing experience for video and web pages, as well as easier typing on screen. The HTC also has a better battery, averaging around seventy per cent more talk time per battery charge cycle, meaning that you’ll need to charge your phone less often.

What’s the Best Buy?

Today we’re going for the slightly cheaper Sony Xperia Z1. With its faster processor and better camera we think it’s a better buy, even though the larger screen of the HTC One Max is pretty tempting.

Resource Box: Phil Turner was looking for a bigger phone and chose the HTC One Max after visiting uSwitch and finding out what the expert reviewers had to say about it