Cell phones

[Directive]

Asking a poll question. What cell phone does everyone have, and what would you get if you got a new one. If any of your choices are apple products for getting a new phone, give me your non apple choice please.

[palmboy5]

Currently have a Nexus 5.

HTC One M8 looks good (and SOUNDS good. Go listen to its speakers sometime. It totally outclasses all other phones.) and I would choose it over the Galaxy S5.

The Moto X is a perfectly valid choice too on the budget side, although I wish it had an IPS display. It is also kinda due for a new version. Moto X2? Dunno.

[I7Iz490N]

lol

[Directive]

HTC one from what I read doesn't have a removable battery. All Motorola's have fixed battery's as well and the moto X has no expandable memory. Nexus 5 seems OK, but not as good as the S5. So palmboy5, why not the S5 or S4 for that matter? Is it Samsung or the phones specifically? The S5 seems to rate rather well by a number of different sites. I know Motorola's do rate well also and have great battery life but I prefer removable batteries. By the way, I use Verizon wireless.

[palmboy5]

My gripe with Samsung is with how much they modify Android (read: bloat).
Every brand does it because it's basically how they differentiate themselves and have their own selling points, but those differentiations aren't necessarily what one would call "clean", might contradict design goals set out by the underlying OS (Google), and might attempt to lock you into their brand for future purchases.

Samsung is the worst offender in this regard, even going as far as having their own app store (Samsung Apps) that competes with the Play Store. Guess what happens if you buy an app using Samsung's app store? That's right. Now you need to continue buying Samsung devices in order to continue using that app. Their phones come with both Samsung Apps and Play Store (TWO app stores come by default? Nothing confusing about that to a newcomer! *cough*unclean*cough*) and you better remember to use Play Store.

Motorola is the most close brand to the way Google designed Android to be (the closest, of course, being Google's own Nexus devices). Their lighter amount of modifications to Android also allows Motorola to be the fastest non-Nexus brand to be updated to new versions of Android. Last year they even got their Moto X updated before the Nexus 4: https://productforums.google.com/forum/ ... BSEDFyj0BA

HTC is between Motorola and Samsung regarding the amount of modifications they do to Android, but I recommend the HTC One M8 over the S5 because the aluminum build is better than plastic, the IPS screen is better than AMOLED, and the speakers are just night-and-day better than everything else. It's simply, physically, the better phone.

As for removable batteries... it's funny, I've had numerous phones in the past with removable batteries and even defended that as a perk to some iPhone people, but not once have I ever changed batteries. The fact that you'd have to first turn off your phone in order to keep it "on" longer leaves a feeling of contradiction in my mind. And even after the deed is done, later you have to shut it down again to charge up the drained battery.
Take your pick for what my reaction looks like regarding that idea: http://imgur.com/a/AXues

I use one of these to have extended power while out for prolonged periods of time: http://www.amazon.com/10000mAh-Technolo ... B009USAJCC
It most certainly lasts longer than any first or third party battery you'll find for your phone, and is useful for charging other things. And when I get home, I can charge it and the phone at the same time. With one charger. (charger -> battery -> phone) NOTE: You do not need to buy one as big as mine. They come in many shapes and sizes.

[Directive]

My gripe with Samsung is with how much they modify Android (read: bloat).
Every brand does it because it's basically how they differentiate themselves and have their own selling points, but those differentiations aren't necessarily what one would call "clean", might contradict design goals set out by the underlying OS (Google), and might attempt to lock you into their brand for future purchases.

Samsung is the worst offender in this regard, even going as far as having their own app store (Samsung Apps) that competes with the Play Store. Guess what happens if you buy an app using Samsung's app store? That's right. Now you need to continue buying Samsung devices in order to continue using that app. Their phones come with both Samsung Apps and Play Store (TWO app stores come by default? Nothing confusing about that to a newcomer! *cough*unclean*cough*) and you better remember to use Play Store.

Motorola is the most close brand to the way Google designed Android to be (the closest, of course, being Google's own Nexus devices). Their lighter amount of modifications to Android also allows Motorola to be the fastest non-Nexus brand to be updated to new versions of Android. Last year they even got their Moto X updated before the Nexus 4: https://productforums.google.com/forum/ ... BSEDFyj0BA

HTC is between Motorola and Samsung regarding the amount of modifications they do to Android, but I recommend the HTC One M8 over the S5 because the aluminum build is better than plastic, the IPS screen is better than AMOLED, and the speakers are just night-and-day better than everything else. It's simply, physically, the better phone.

As far as bloatware is concerned I can ignore stuff on my phone rather well. I have learned to live with bloatware since getting my Samsung Stratosphere just under 2 yrs ago. NFL shift, lets golf, Facebook, YouTube, Verizon tones, amazon kindle, etc.. are just a few apps I ignore, never updates and never ran/opened.
I don't watch movies on my phone, full length or otherwise.
As for sound, I have an MP3 player I use for music now, so the sound doesn't have to be great.
I just learned about the separate Samsung store. I never thought about having to get another Samsung to be able to use those apps. Will keep that in mind and just add the Samsung store to my ignore list.
I plan on a rugged case, like the Otter box, so phone cover material is less important to me.
IPS is better. Is it really that noticeable of a difference in such a small display?

As for removable batteries... it's funny, I've had numerous phones in the past with removable batteries and even defended that as a perk to some iPhone people, but not once have I ever changed batteries. The fact that you'd have to first turn off your phone in order to keep it "on" longer leaves a feeling of contradiction in my mind. And even after the deed is done, later you have to shut it down again to charge up the drained battery.
Take your pick for what my reaction looks like regarding that idea: http://imgur.com/a/AXues

I use one of these to have extended power while out for prolonged periods of time: http://www.amazon.com/10000mAh-Technolo ... B009USAJCC
It most certainly lasts longer than any first or third party battery you'll find for your phone, and is useful for charging other things. And when I get home, I can charge it and the phone at the same time. With one charger. (charger -> battery -> phone) NOTE: You do not need to buy one as big as mine. They come in many shapes and sizes.

I want a removable battery not just for replacement. I have experienced phone lock-up and needing to remove the battery in order to get my phone to respond again.

[palmboy5]

IPS is better.  Is it really that noticeable of a difference in such a small display?

I wouldn't mention IPS being better if it wasn't something noticeable. This is a nice article on the topic since he walks you through being puzzled about the difference and finding out why: http://www.phonedog.com/2012/05/09/i-am ... -displays/

Fact is, for the same ppi, AMOLED looks less sharp and more grainy.

I want a removable battery not just for replacement.  I have experienced phone lock-up and needing to remove the battery in order to get my phone to respond again.

It's as if non-removable battery phones are just dead in the water! <hint>Hold the power button for several seconds<\hint>

[I7Iz490N]

lol

[Directive]

Holding the power button does nothing on my phone ether when it is locked up. Normally holding the power button opens a window asking me weather to shut down, restart, Silent mode or airplane mode.
My 2 must haves for a phone is removable battery and expandable memory.
I did look at both those phones first Palmy, but my 2 must haves are deal breakers.
Are there any other recommendations out there?

[palmboy5]

Then... Galaxy S5 I guess.

I have a question. What are you storing on your phone that requires expandable memory? You said you use a separate MP3 player, so music can't be it... neither are movies/shows because you said you don't use your phone for that either.

[Directive]

Expandable memory seems to be the fastest/safest way to transfer files (photo's, documents, etc...) to and from my phone. Then nothing has to be on a public network. Yea, so not that I would use it all that often but having that option is my safeguard. I really hate using public networks.
I am on Verizon's smartphone loyalty program and pay $60 for unlimited talk and text, and 2gb data per phone. More then enough for my seeing I don't stream TV or Movies on my phone.
I really do appreciate all the advice and suggestions. Like I said, I did look into the devices you suggested before posting here, so at least i'm on the write track.

[palmboy5]

This doesn't happen when you plug your phone into your computer through USB?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol
I know you don't use Macs (that don't really support this protocol) so there's no reason this way wouldn't work.

There are also things like these:
http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Micro-USB- ... B005QX7KYU
Those things allow you to connect flash drives, card readers, cameras, etc. to the phone and access them like you would through a PC. (And shout out to this wonderful thing! https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... controller)

Either option is easier than having to remove the back cover (as well as the case, if you use one) just to swap out memory card(s).

P.S. I suppose its possible your current phone is too low-end to support either of these features... But your next phone pretty much has to support them. (if not, choose a better phone)

[2005]

I can't really comment because I have an iPhone 4S now which has held up way better
then the first smart phone I've ever owned (the motorola droid X). By the time my 2 year
contract was up with Verizon, I hated my Droid X. It was slow, glitchy and would crash randomly.

This iPhone 4S is now 2 years old and it's finally starting to exhibit anything other then great
performance. It will freeze up every now and then, and it apps will start crashing. Like if im going to
take a picture, the camera app will just crash every time I hit the button to take the picture. If I reboot
the phone, it will work fine again.

For as much as I use my phone, I'm highly considering keeping this iPhone for a while yet. It still does everything
that I need a phone to do. I might upgrade to an iPhone 5S, all depending on the final cost of the upgrade but really
I might try to eek through another 2 years with it and then at that time upgrade to the 6(S).

I'm not against going back to android either, my main complaint with them (and major pro for apple) was that the google
store (wasn't called google play at first, don't remember what it was) was SO unorganized. Pretty much unless you knew
the name of the app you were looking for it was hard to find anything good just "browsing" around. Apple had the
categories feature and the "best seller" functionality from the get go making it very easy to see the popular apps that were
being downloaded. My friend showed me recently that google has made major changes and optimizations to the google play
store so now that isn't an issue.

As far as the HTC One goes, my fiance has one and it gives her all kinds of problems. Her phone basically randomly refuses to
charge. Sometimes it just wont, other times it will stop charging after some period of time and just sit there. When it does
start and stay charging correctly it can take all night to get a full charge. She's already had it plugged in and charging and
the battery life has GONE DOWN, WHILE PLUGGED IN AND CHARGING!!!!!q111!q11. I don't know if it's an M8 or whatever, but
she just got it recently and I "think" it's the aluminum bodied one.

I have to do some lookin at the newest android offerings and see if there are even any I'd like.


On another note, I plan to ditch verizon for a pre paid service called page plus. It uses the same towers that verizon does,
and you have to bring your own phone, but it's WAY cheaper then VZW. You can also keep your phone number. Right now I pay $207 a month for 2 smart phones and one old flip phone. 700 min per month shared between devices, grandfathered unlimited data on mine (3G), 2GB of data on the other smart phone and the flip phone obviously has none.

On page plus I can get unlimited min, unlimited text and 1GB of data for $39.95 per month. They also have a $12 plan that would
fit the flip phone perfectly (250 min and 250 text). So for $92 a month I can pretty much get everything I have out of VZW. Data
would be the only real difference and fact of the matter is %99 of the data I use is on my wifi and if the other smart phone really needs more, for an extra $15 I can get 3GB of data on that phone. The other smart phone really averages around 500MB so the $39.95 plan would be fine.

I won't be able to do so until December when the contract on the other smart phone is up, but once it's up I'm leaving Verizon for good!

[Directive]

Palmboy
You make a great point. I didn't know this about phones, except the USB thing which I do sometimes. It's not that hard to get at my card. Just behind the back case, but I have had to remove the rear case to remove the battery way more often. So, I would admit a card reader would not be a deal breaker. Thanks Palmboy.

2005
I looked into Straight Talk from Walmart when they used Verizon towers. I thought it a bit too good to be true so I did some digging. I found that these 3rd party company's that use, for example, Verizon towers would be kicked off the network if overloaded. Straight Verizon customers would take priority during network congestion then 3rd party customers sharing the tower. Heard this from a Verizon tech.

[2005]

Palmboy
You make a great point. I didn't know this about phones, except the USB thing which I do sometimes. It's not that hard to get at my card. Just behind the back case, but I have had to remove the rear case to remove the battery way more often. So, I would admit a card reader would not be a deal breaker. Thanks Palmboy.

2005
I looked into Straight Talk from Walmart when they used Verizon towers. I thought it a bit too good to be true so I did some digging. I found that these 3rd party company's that use, for example, Verizon towers would be kicked off the network if overloaded. Straight Verizon customers would take priority during network congestion then 3rd party customers sharing the tower. Heard this from a Verizon tech.

Of course they tell you that. I COULD be a little wrong however, I think that for the most part people usually never have this issue with Page Plus Wireless. You could do some reading over at Kitty Wireless forums if you wanted to get an idea of customer satisfaction. I've read on the Kitty forums that some people have also been told this by VZW employees, but I really wonder that if it is even true, how often does it come into play.