Phones

[Blackferne]

Open question: what type of smartphone do you have? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? How is the battery? Processor? Memory?

Jess and I are looking at getting new phones. Figured a survey would be useful.

[Jimer Lins]

I have a first-gen HTC One. It's very nice; I've had other HTC phones before (the Thunderbolt), and while it was a decent phone its battery life sucked on ice. The One doesn't suffer from that. However, I haven't held or used the newer/updated version of it, but I hear it's very nice too.

My HTC One lasts for a good while on battery, is light and pretty solid. I don't play games on it, but it'd be good at it- and it's got a great camera with front and rear lenses.

[Whiteness]

Who is your service through? I have an old Pantech Breakout from Verizon, but apparently their new phones for AT&T are much better than their current Verizon phones. I love my phone but it's internal memory is horribly small and has no flash so I don't really use it for pictures.

I just got a BlackBerry Q10 from work and I've really liked it, best BB I've had so far.

[Blackferne]

Carrier is verizon, could switch to AT&T but that is unlikely. Bonus info: I'm on android so would probably prefer that to switching to a different ecosystem unless compelling arguments were made.

[Furiel]

I also have an HTC One and I like it very much. It's very solid and durable, screen is large without being huge, call quality is good.

Specifically on battery life a couple notes that I find interesting. The battery is really good, with normal use it'll go well over a day without needing to be charged assuming you have the wifi on. Yes you read that right, using the wifi on the phone instead of the carrier data drains the battery less. A couple weekends ago I had my phone plugged in overnight so it was at 100% battery, I put in my earphones, turned on Pandora and went to work on stuff around the house. 8 hours later I was done with the painting and yard work I needed to do, my battery was still in the 70s percentage wise.

Couple downsides I have found that may or may not apply to you. Universal downside - it has a sealed case so you cannot upgrade the storage (it comes with 32GB standard though), likewise you can't swap the battery if you are traveling and can't charge it or if you have a battery issue it can't be replaced. That's the only universal one. This one may just be my phone or something, but I have issues using wifi and Bluetooth at the same time, specifically if I am streaming music via Pandora over wifi and am playing it through my Bluetooth connected speaker the music will stop for a few seconds to buffer every so often.

That said, I love my HTC One and will have it for a long time to come I'm sure.

[Marrkin]

I am currently using a Motorola Razr Maxx:
Battery life is ridiculous, and its basically the reason it is called the Maxx. It was also the fastest phone of its time (Jan 2012). It has been a wonderful phone and considering the number of times I have played accidental-floor-hockey with it, it has never broken or zonked out on me.

Cons: It is aging now and the OS is outdated, and cannot be upgraded further without rooting it. It does not seem to be able to keep up with the current 4G phones at all. The OS now stalls frequently and if I do not have a strong 4G signal, then I may as well put it back in my pocket and resort to smoke signals.

I did buy a Samsung Galaxy S5 this past July, and that thing is a friggin Bentley of cell phones. I upgraded the storage to 64gb with a mini-sd card, which was nice since I like to always have access to a lot of music. I think it's upgradeable to 128gb, which is basically unheard of for a phone. The camera takes photos just as well as my Fuji Digital camera. The interface is very clean and I loved the overall look and feel of the phone. I really liked the fingerprint scanner for unlocking the screen. The phone overall just "ran"... I don't think I managed to do anything that ever slowed it down. Now for the caveat to that....

I dropped this phone down a storm drain 6 days after buying it. Unfortunately I was unable to recover it, so I cannot attest to its advertised "short duration water resistance" which is supposed to be approx. 30 min of exposure in no more than 3ft of water......

However, other folks I know that have it, also love this phone to pieces.

Question for the HTC folks: I used to have HTC phones, but promised I'd never get another until they figured out why their OS's would freeze solid and restart. I am guessing they got that all fixed/figured out since I do not see mention of it here?

[Graflex]

Samsung Galaxy 4 Active (Dec 2013) Phone was replaced in Jan, due to speaker dying. Battery life is not great (we have BYOD at work, so I get company email & texts, which don't help). Have to reboot it every other week to fix issues (texts not coming through, overheating, etc..) I do like the larger screen (had an iPhone 4s before) & extra memory from the 64GB mini-SD card I added. When everything works, it's actually a great phone. Maybe I just got stuck with a couple duds.

I'd been a fan of Samsung products, but between this phone & issues with my home theater, I'm beginning to lose confidence.

[Furiel]

I think I've had it lockup completely a handful of times at most and I've had it for almost a year now.

Also iirc the latest version of the ONE does not have a locked case so that downside would not be an issue if I'm right. I looked at the Galaxy when I was shopping and what won out for me with the one was it's button placement and sturdier case. The galaxy plastic case felt flimsy to me compared to the metal of the ONE and I had issues hitting the raised home button hear the speaker while talking on the Galaxy.

[Jimer Lins]

I don't think I can remember my HTC One locking up on me; but I've rebooted it a few times when it got a little tetchy.

A strange nitpick I have with it is that it's really hard to tell which end is up at a glance. I frequently pull it from my pocket and want to check if I have messages, so I mash the USB plug port on the bottom instead of the power button on the top. I often wish I could tell which way it was oriented by feel.

Still, very minor nits.

[Marrkin]

LOL, I have the same problem with my Razr Maxx.. I have found myself trying to hit the button only to find it wasn't there....ofc the phone was upside-down!

Also, when this happens, I have managed to plug the micro-USB into the mini-HDMI (which is on the bottom of the phone) and then wonder why it hadn't charged overnight

[Bulwark]

I have the Motorola RAZR HD. Great phone; good screen, good battery, water resistant, and they just updated the OS a couple of months ago.
That being said, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is out next month and it looks like a nice phone. It's, more or less, a galaxy S5, but with a good looking exterior. It'll probably be my next phone.

[Cuspar]

I have an iPhone because that's the only phone Apple makes. Also, you're all clearly wrong.

[Dood]

I have a MotoX. I generally get a new phone every year through work. This year may be the first year I don't replace my phone because the Moto is just that good for me.

What phone do you have now? The ecosystem you're in sort of dictates where you should go.

[Blackferne]

I currently have a samsung stratosphere (I like the pullout keyboard) so I'm firmly an android guy. But if there were a super compelling reason to flip to apple or windows I'm not opposed to it.

[Marrkin]

Back in July I was able to mess around with my buddies MotoX as well... it was pretty slick and I thought it was a good size as well. *Edit* By "good size" I mean its not like a mini tablet, more like in-between an iPhone and the S5

Seemed like a really clean layout, and the OS/UI was pretty quick. It was actually my only competition when I was deciding on the S5. Since the memory is not externally upgradeable on the MotoX, the S5 won out for me.

Since the untimely drowning death of my S5 though, I have been looking at buying a MotoX with factory upgraded 32gb memory... the other customization options are also pretty neat.

[Dashl]

I have an iPhone because that's the only phone Apple makes. Also, you're all clearly wrong.

Same, and so that Cuspar and I can have crazy conversations on Imessage each day about Metal Gear, Last of Us, and headsets.

[Cuspar]

I have an iPhone because that's the only phone Apple makes. Also, you're all clearly wrong.

Same, and so that Cuspar and I can have crazy conversations on Imessage each day about Metal Gear, Last of Us, and headsets.

PS. I'm just getting the cables to use my TB Earforce Tango with both systems.

[Maizan]

I switched to a windows phone 8 phone from Nokia. It is awesome and I love it. I don't do apps,or games on my phone, but it does come with a real copy of ms word excell pp and OneNote. (That alone was worth the switch as I am a bit of an excel junky - most of the functions work without an issue.) I knocked my phone off a about 7 ft shelf onto a concrete floor and it survived no case required. (galaxy 3 slipped out of my hand on to a wood floor and the screen exploded).
Battery life is about 2 and half days, but I do not play games.
I had an iPhone 3s and got sick of dealing with iTunes and istore to do anything with it. I got the external battery pack for it and extended its life to 3/4 a day without doing games. I had Samsung galaxy 3 and nothing worked properly in it. Core apps would crash constantly.

Important note for which ever phone you choose. Do not sign a 3 year contract as almost all phones are built to be 2 year throw away. Samsung even told a friend of mine that when she took her phone to them for repair.

The new version of,the Nokia phone has a 41mpixel camera on it (I kid you not). This phone was also the easiest phone to setup. Signed into my hotmail account and all contacts calendar tasks and apps transferred down. Fully going in about 3 minutes.


Sent from my Nokia Windows 8 Phone using Tapatalk

[Whiteness]

Go in to a Best Buy or a Verizon store that has real phones for demo.