Which new smartphone do I buy?

[redhonda76]

we can all see who is the fanboy in this thread

yup

[BankShot]

yup

I'm pretty sure andgar has a staunch history of hating Apple products, the Apple business model, and thinks that iUsers are iSheep.

He apparently very much dislikes Samsung smart phones too.

So i'm not exactly sure who's the fanboy here.

[BankShot]

Great conversation by the way.... giving me a lot to think about before next week.

I guess my next step is to head into Best Buy and play around with as many models as possible, and really think about what I want and need out of my phone.

Seeing as how this is a 2+ year item for me, I'd like to make a solid informed decision.

[Meticode]

I owned a HTC Rezound and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus which both came out around the same time within 1 month of each other. I still use my Nexus today and still like it even though it's almost 2 years old now.

[gts]

Great conversation by the way.... giving me a lot to think about before next week.

I guess my next step is to head into Best Buy and play around with as many models as possible, and really think about what I want and need out of my phone.

Seeing as how this is a 2+ year item for me, I'd like to make a solid informed decision.

Best Buy is good. If you're thinking about the iphone and you're close to an apple store go there to play with the iphone, they're all hooked up to the wireless and you can see how they interact with other apple products.

[magic chiongson]

Great conversation by the way.... giving me a lot to think about before next week.

I guess my next step is to head into Best Buy and play around with as many models as possible, and really think about what I want and need out of my phone.

Seeing as how this is a 2+ year item for me, I'd like to make a solid informed decision.

anyway as to the original point of this thread

As of yet I haven't used my mobile device for hardly any gaming, so its not a huge selling point either way.... but I'd like the camera to be solid. Other than that I really only use it for calls/texts, mobile internet, mobile e-mail, and a number of non-essential apps.

does size & battery life matter to you? if you want something small with a good camera the iphone 5/5x or galaxy s4 mini will be it.

if you don't mind bigger phones then get the best android devices (s4, htc one, lg g2,xperia z) mentioned here they usually have the best cameras, or thaatnokia windows phone.

personally for me i'd settle for something in between..like the xperia zr

[HoopsFanNumero1]

You misunderstood me.

I like the features that Samsung provides, I actually would love to have them. But they're poorly implemented and coded, that's the issue. At times they work at times they don't, and when they do work they aren't all that great or smooth. So it isn't about personal taste, it's about functionality and working properly.

Everyday at lunch I wish I had those features, make it easier on me to browse the net while my fingers are full of grease.

This is how I see Samsung.

Somebody has an idea, they throw it in, they might test it a bit but f*ck it it works good enough I suppose so they release it. They just throw shit out there without proper testing or development.

So sure, it might take Apple a year or two to adapt certain features, but they're 'usually' well implemented. No OS is gonna be perfect, but Samsung's offerings are very poorly coded and rushed. They try to throw the kitchen sink for the sake of filling the spec and features list and ignore quality.

For example, they're gonna add 64 bit chip on their next Galaxy phone in January. Who knows if they've even done the proper work and testing for it, they're just gonna throw it out there because they want to fill the spec sheets and say they have it too.

But once you know about their CEO it all makes sense.

The same company that's been caught fixing their benchmark scores, bribing journalists, paying trolls to post favorable comments and diss competitors, etc.etc.

They take the kitchen sink approach by throwing everything.

Dude, you sound exactly like one of those brainwashed sheep I used to see at MacRumors that go around saying $amDung

Tell the truth. You don't what you're talking about. Firstly, Samsung doesn't make their own OS. They just develop the front-end interface known as TouchWiz. Personally, I think they new to hire a new UX team and give their whole UI an overhaul, but it has some nifty features in their Note series.

As for the 64-bit chips, Samsung always uses the state of the art technology for their high-end phones. And your comment about doing the proper work and testing is just . Are you really questioning whether one of the World's largest chip manufacturing companies does proper testing?

[rezznor]

ios7 is getting killed. apple just dropped another shiny turd. read the comments as well, and keep in mind bgr is usually a ver pro-apple blog. the article doesn't even mention all the bugs and performance issues that have been reported




http://bgr.com/2013/10/15/ios-7-review-user-experience/

is Apple’s biggest visual design change since Apple first released the operating system in 2007. Despite initial reservations from users to the colorful, flat update, iOS 7 has been adopted at a faster rate than any previous update to Apple’s portable devices. Still, there are significant issues with iOS 7, some simply side effects of a recent software launch, others intrinsic to Jony Ive’s design itself. Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) has written an extensive “user-experience appraisal” of iOS 7, highlighting each and every minute detail that makes iOS 7 more engaging, as well as the features and changes that make for unpleasant, frustrating experiences.

NNG covers the biggest revision first: the flat design. The lack of skeuomorphism might be easier on the eyes, but it makes usability much more challenging. Buttons that used to stand out now blend in with the background. Links that used to be very visible on the screen are now more easily mistaken for plain text. Even the iOS picker (scrolling dropdown menu to pick from multiple options, such as date or time) has become more difficult to navigate. NNG also believes that Apple has not given app developers clear guidelines in order to maximize ease-of-use for end users, and it shows.

The next category, swipe ambiguity, is one that plagues all touchscreen devices, but its implementation in iOS 7 is especially egregious. Three of the four edges on an iOS 7 device can be swiped to either open a menu or complete an action depending on what the user is doing.

Although NNG understands the obvious benefits of having an easily accessible Control Center, the act of swiping up, from any part of the screen, is one that iPhone and iPad users have been performing for years in order to see more content. Now, without careful placement of the fingers, scrolling on Safari can be constantly interrupted by the Control Center — though iOS 7 can be configured so that Control Center is not available while apps are open.

Spotlight Search and Notifications cause similar problems from the top edge of the screen. Even the seemingly innocuous “back button” feature of swiping from the left edge of the screen in Safari can interfere with basic website interaction.

There is no question that NNG sees major flaws in iOS 7, enough to warrant the claim that “Apple has demolished millions of hours of user learning by changing the icons.” The research group has seen improvements as well though, such as unlimited folder space, background updates, cleaner browser design and a polished settings menu. The group’s conclusion is still grim, however: Apple needs to reevaluate the user experience on iOS 7.

[BankShot]

Best Buy is good. If you're thinking about the iphone and you're close to an apple store go there to play with the iphone, they're all hooked up to the wireless and you can see how they interact with other apple products.

I figured Best Buy would be a good place to go because they have pretty much all phones and carriers, and since I've seen that most high-end phones are pretty much the same price with a 2-year activation there wouldn't be too much of an incentive to push one particular brand over another.

Also, I have had good experiences in the past at my local Best Buy with very knowledgable floor employees with HDDs, PS3 stuff, Blu-Ray, etc...

[BankShot]

anyway as to the original point of this thread


does size & battery life matter to you? if you want something small with a good camera the iphone 5/5x or galaxy s4 mini will be it.

if you don't mind bigger phones then get the best android devices (s4, htc one, lg g2,xperia z) mentioned here they usually have the best cameras, or thaatnokia windows phone.

personally for me i'd settle for something in between..like the xperia zr

Battery life isn't an issue at all. I don't do heavy lifting on a daily basis with my phone, and I literally charge it absolutely every single night on my night stand, so I've never had a problem with batteries outside of needing a new one after 2-3 years with my current phone (maybe $8 on Amazon)

I don't really care about the specifics aesthetics or display of the phone, since I don't really game or use it for video display. At the time of purchase, my current Samsung was considered a very large display and it was fine with me.

As an update, my current standing is probably:

70% iPhone 5S
15% Samsung something
15% HTC something

[aj1987]

Battery life isn't an issue at all. I don't do heavy lifting on a daily basis with my phone, and I literally charge it absolutely every single night on my night stand, so I've never had a problem with batteries outside of needing a new one after 2-3 years with my current phone (maybe $8 on Amazon)

I don't really care about the specifics aesthetics or display of the phone, since I don't really game or use it for video display. At the time of purchase, my current Samsung was considered a very large display and it was fine with me.

As an update, my current standing is probably:

70% iPhone 5S
15% Samsung something
15% HTC something

What exactly do you want?

[BankShot]

What exactly do you want?

Read the the thread

High-end, reliable, product, for basic phone functions. Battery life, storage space, and screen size are non-issues. The question is more iPhone vs. Android, and hearing info on both and posters give their opinion/experiences.

[embersyc]

Don't know if you already made your decision, but right now the HTC One is hands down the best phone on Verizon.

The Sense 5.0+ is so much better than stock Android. Blinkfeed will change your life.

Plus the phone is just solid in every imaginable way. Quad core processor Dual front facing speakers, Beats audio, Beats earbuds free in box.

My only complaint is no removable battery, expansion slot.

If HTC had better marketing they would be dominating.

Oh, also the HTC One has an infrared transmitter, so you can use it to control your TV/Cable Box, and the TV Guide is pretty cool. You can select exactly what channels you get and it will show you what movies and shows are on, whats coming up, etc... That's stock software built into the phone.

[andgar923]

haha well if a big company like Apple can release a phone with a bad antenna design where signal can be severely dropped by holding it in the wrong area, im sure anything is possible.

but then again, Apple assured us we are just holding our phones wrong and there was nothing wrong with the phone.
except that they gave everyone free cases and were found guilty in a class action lawsuit

how about that for quality control and testing

EVERY phone had antenna issues, but nobody cared. And even then the issues were mostly due to the way the signal was displayed not the reception itself (for the most part).

Apple at least made it an effort to please customers. If Android phones made the news for everything that was wrong with them, we'd never finish hearing the end of it.

[andgar923]

Dude, you sound exactly like one of those brainwashed sheep I used to see at MacRumors that go around saying $amDung

Tell the truth. You don't what you're talking about. Firstly, Samsung doesn't make their own OS. They just develop the front-end interface known as TouchWiz. Personally, I think they new to hire a new UX team and give their whole UI an overhaul, but it has some nifty features in their Note series.

As for the 64-bit chips, Samsung always uses the state of the art technology for their high-end phones. And your comment about doing the proper work and testing is just . Are you really questioning whether one of the World's largest chip manufacturing companies does proper testing?

why you arguing semantics? you know exactly what I meant regarding touchwiz.

They may use the highest technology but they do so at the expense of something else. And YES they don't do proper testing, they're known for it. They rush shit to market, it's SAMSUNG that's what half those Asian makers do!