[General Topics] katamari201:
CES brought with it a few good contenders in the 5-inch phone battle. Only a month ago, the Butterfly/Droid DNA from HTC was the only game in town. In the next couple months, the Sony Xperia Z, Oppo Find 5, ZTE Grand S, and Huawei Ascend D2 will be popping their heads up for your consideration. MWC might even bring more 5 inch goodness, but any phones announced then will still be a ways off. The rumored 5 inch Galaxy S4 is still a good half a year away also.

The 5 inch size seems to fit the bill very well between a manageable and pocketable phone and one that is too big to use and impairs walking. It fits my requirements perfectly. I've owned a Galaxy Note that's 5.3" before and the 80+mm width and 140+mm height was cumbersome and bulky for me. However, the Galaxy S III at 4.8" was almost imperceptible in my pocket and very easy to hold. Most of the 5 inch phones currently releasing are about the same size, especially those with onscreen buttons. Some like the Xperia ZL are even smaller.

Here's a rundown on my thoughts of the current crop:

Xperia Z: The sides and power button are stylish. It's thin at under 8mm. The back is too plain and that plainless allows fingerprints to shine very easily and nastily. Front is pretty generic. The screen seems to be a bigger version of the Xperia S/T screen. That is, the viewing angles and color aren't the greatest. The 13MP camera seems to take great low light shots with very little noise, and the HDR video is also stellar. Sound capture could use some tweaking. IT's also water/dust resistant, but that doesn't factor much into my decision.

Xperia ZL: The internals and screen are identical to the Z, however Sony tried to squeeze the dimensions a bit and the height and width is actually smaller than a Galaxy S III. The thickness, however, is less impressive. There is a godawful butt flap on the back, especially noticeable on the white one. The textured black one is too Samsung-ish and cheap looking to me. The lower right front facing camera, similar to the one on the Nokia N9, also drives me nuts because I always notice it. Not on my shortlist.

Oppo Find 5: This is the one I'm enamored with. I've always liked the way the Xperia Arc looked, minus the cheap looking plastics. This one is matte and soft touch instead. It is sleeker and more streamlined than the curvaceous and fluffier, less hardy looking One X and Droid DNA polycarbonate shells. The screen is supposedly the same one as the Droid DNA, which is the best 5" 1080p on the market. The camera is also 13MP and possibly has HDR video and a 120fps mode. This phone already has a release date of 1/29 in China, with many more countries following after. Most important of all, it's been stated that they will sell it unlocked in the US for $500 online. Hassle-free. Close to release and fully unlocked are big pros in my book. The name Oppo is also very endearing.

Huawei Ascend D2: Probably the ugliest and most generic of the lot. The front seems identical to the Galaxy S II from 2011, and the back is just cheap shiny plastic with generic budget phone design. There's also an iffy homemade SoC inside. The screen might be the same as the Droid DNA/Find 5 however. There is also a sizeable 3000mah battery.

ZTE Grand S: The design looks a lot like the HTC One series. At 6.9mm, it is also the thinnest. The screen seems to have varying opinions. Some say it is good. Others say it is washed out with poor colors. The only thing I can gather from the videos is that the default brightness isn't very high and it always looks rather dim. The large raised dais that the camera sits within doesn't look very elegant. It is a fingerprint magnet and contrast sharply with the matte of the rest of the phone.

Droid DNA: This one is actually out and available. I don't know about the Butterfly or international variants, but it is on Verizon in the US and can be easily unlocked for GSM networks. It has the best 5" 1080p screen in the market, and the colors are not overly warm like the One X. It also has the same fluffy pillow look of the One X, but with some fun red stripes on the sides. It is quite light for its size, but on the thicker side for modern smartphones. There is a woefully small battery. The camera is a transplant from the older One X, and is only 8MP compared to the other 13MP shooters. The quality is decent, but it tends to be overly dark and oversharpened. The video capture is also not very good.