Your favorite smart phone and why please

22 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
  • |
I'm getting close to possibly biting the bullet.

I've been doing my best to avoid the smart phone thing for a while, but my birth anniversary approaches and the question has been swarming my head. Others are somewhat shocked that I'm the internet girl in the family and I don't own a smart phone.

Right now I use a not so smart phone - which can do some internet if I were desperate but I never bother as it seems I always have my computer on me - or my old ipod, another part of this query.

So, the old ipod touch is now unable to update to the latest ios, but it's a fine ipod as it has a nice 64gb memory in it. It came out before the flash option for the photos, so I really just want to load it with lots of music now and get rid of all my cd's.

When I first got the ipod I used it for checking mobile sites, playing lots of candy crush, and found how I could even use it to blog if needed. Could check emails, take photos, etc.

I like my phone to be a phone. I'm concerned about becoming too reliant on the phone to do all the other stuff I like to do in that I will certainly stick it in my back pocket at some point and excuse myself to use the ladies room only to return in a panic looking for a bag of rice.

My current phone was a whopping 10$ on ebay. I drop it, kick it, even let it get all sweaty from sticking it in my bra and the battery lasts a good week before needing recharging and the thing just WORKS - as far as being a phone.

Everyone wants me to grow up and get a real smart phone now and I'm feeling pressured to do so.

Normally I'd just go for iphone as I have all mac stuff, but I'm not sure this is the best way to go. It seems like the iphones software will be out of date within another 2 years, and you are forced to get yet another phone to keep up to speed - when all I really want to do is just make a phone call. lol

I'd like to be able to test some things and maybe play with some new apps.

I'm looking for a phone that is smarter than my not so smart phone, but not as smart as the smart phone if that makes sense. Something solid but I'm just not into dropping 650 to 850 bucks just to make a phone call. Heck, I don't even spend 500 a year for my actual phone plan and even that is too much imo.

I'm on ATT. I'm actually going to converge onto a family plan that will drop my bill down to $20 a month (unlimited text and calls which I use). There will be some internet usage available if needed but I'm really used to not really using it so I will likely not use it unless really desperate.

I'm thinking to spend the birthday funds on getting a new ipod touch which will have all the capabilities I believe of those iphones (except making the calls of course), but also getting some kind of smart phone.

So the question is, what is your favorite smart phone and why? I just don't have a lot of experience with them as I like to find one thing and stick with it.

The phone I've been using is a samsung strive. If you look it up you'll see how old they are, lol. I like the size of that and the slide out qwerty keyboard - but I suppose I'd be ok with a touch screen phone.

Would love to hear what you all are using and what you like about them.
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    I'm hell on phones, gone through about 10 of them over the last 2 years. Let's start at the top lol...with the one's I can remember.

    Droid RAZR Maxx through Verizon. Crap phone, amazing screen that killed the tiny battery, and very fragile, though. Busted as SOON as I dropped it from 3 inches off the ground. Onto the next.

    Samsung Galaxy S3 - Amazing solid phone for the money, took a lot of punishment, but I couldn't stand the TouchWiz operating system and bloatware Samsung put onto the device. The hardware is also outdated, these days. It tends to be laggy on the latest updates. You can pick these up for $50 on Craigslist. I had this phone for 10 months, trucking on with tape over the busted screen.

    The HTC One M8 is a cool little phone. I loved the front facing speakers with BEATS audio. Probably the best sounding phone I've ever used. Had a metal case, compared to plastic on the rest. OK camera, but it had a remote control feature that let me control my TV and cable boxes. First time I ever had that feature, and now every phone I own needs to include it.

    Samsung Galaxy S4 - Another staple flagship phone, solid camera, decent battery and hardware, but again, Samsung's TouchWiz crap and it's hard to root the phone to replace it with a stock android operating system.

    Upgraded to the Galaxy S5 for about 3 days, and it ran slower than my S4, the camera wasn't all that much more amazing than the S4, and the hardware jump wasn't noticeable, so I sold it to a buddy and reactivated my S4.

    Then I bought a Google Nexus 5 off of Craigslist for $100. I loved that phone. The feel of the case was great, the screen was awesome (same as the S4/S5), didn't have all the bloatware, and is easy to fix if you bust it. Unfortunately, I dropped it and the screen shattered, so it's still sitting in my drawer. I may buy a new frame and rebuild it to activate it for a second line. Amazing phone for an amazing price. Only qualm I had was the screen size and my big hands -- I need at least a 5.5" to 6" screen.

    After the Nexus 5, I went to the LG G3. Holy cow that thing was the best phone I've ever used, hands down. It's almost as if LG went through Samsung, Apple, Google, and HTC's phones, picked them apart, and figured out what users wanted most, then gave it to them -- without all the bloatware.

    While I had my G3 I picked up a Galaxy Note 4 to test the waters, but just couldn't get behind the TouchWiz system again. I love stock android, so I don't think I'll ever be able to own a Samsung, HTC, or other manufacturer bound device. The Note 4 was nice, huge battery, super speedy processor, plenty of memory to keep it from lagging down, but the operating system irks my last nerves.

    I didn't want to do it, at first, but I managed to get talked into selling my G3 and upgrading to the G4. It's even better than the G3 I had previously. Better hardware, slightly bigger screen, even less bloatware and zero lag, and a primo camera. I didn't think it could get any better, and actually went to buy a case and screen protector for the G4 the first day I bought it -- it's still in one piece, working as good as ever.

    Now, though, I've got the new LG beast in sight. The LG V10 is a camera, phone, mobile computer, gaming machine, podcasting, game streaming, task managing, alarm clocking, you name it phone. It does just about everything well, and is a major upgrade from the G3 and G4 I'm so fond of. The screen is a lot larger, hardware got a huge boost, and the camera is the major selling point. I don't think a digital camera is necessary with the V10. That's just my opinion, though. I think it's a phone that will be solid for the next 5 years.

    So, you can see, I've gone through just about every manufacturer except for Apple. I refuse to buy into their jacked up ecosystem, mainly because I'm an old salt hacker and rely on open source development to achieve what I want with a phone or operating system. I don't like being forced to use a phone the way manufacturers want me to.

    If I can remember any of the other phones I've had in that time, I'll post up my thoughts on those, too. As for now, though, you can get a G3 for $200ish, a Nexus 5 Google Play Edition for $100ish, and a G4 for $350ish. The V10 is running around $700 right now.

    LG phones are as close to stock android that I've gotten, outside of the Nexus 5 Google Play Edition. I'm an android fanboy. Windows phones are junk, and Apple wants to take you hostage for life.

    My recommendations, tl;dr from the best to worst would be:
    1. LG V10
    2. LG G4
    3. LG G3
    4. Nexus 5
    5. HTC One M8
    6. Note 4
    7. Galaxy S4
    8. Galaxy S3
    9. Galaxy S5 (They fubar'd this one. Should have never released it. Barely an upgrade over the 4, except for more lag)
    10. Droid RAZR Maxx (Seriously, just send me your money if you consider this phone -- you'll get more joy that way.)

    Here's a picture of some of the one's I've still got in the drawer. From top left, to bottom right (sorry it's upside down):

    Droid RAZR Mini, Sharp Aquos Crystal (Junk), Galaxy S3, Droid RAZR Maxx
    Nexus 5 Google Play, then (2) HTC One M8s. First one met the toilet, second met the floor.

    http://i.imgur.com/lHxBnER.jpg

    Then the honorable mentions: The LG G4 (picture taken with it) vs the LG V10 Hero

    http://i.imgur.com/9wQMhVT.jpg
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498030].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Wow! Thanks! Just some things I was looking to hear about.

      Can't believe people go through so many phones! lol

      Early on I had an lg phone, but thought they'd gone to crap.

      Love the battery life most on my samsung - been hard to give that up!

      But now I'm reading about things going to lifi - so I want to time this right. I could see getting something now and planning an upgrade in another 3 years perhaps when maybe lifi is actually happening.

      In the time I'd posted the original post I realized I could go iphone6 and pay what I'm paying now (with 30 month contract of course).

      I've been off contracts for so long now. It makes payments bearable - but it's still a contract and if the phone goes to sh*t you are still stuck paying for it.

      Part of me won't hesitate to pay for top of the line - but for me it's like buying a Ferrari when all I really need is a scooter. It's a waste to get too many bells and whistles. You get to the end of life for something and it's worth crap. I'm just not into that. I like finding things that can last and I can get the fullest out of them and really feel like the investment was fully utilized.

      Damn, I so love buying some vintage things that are so freaking solid they will be around for another 50 years - which is more than ample to last the rest of my lifetime I dare say.

      The ipod I have for example - got the $400 model at the time as I do tend to blow through storage. But found I still have tons of storage on this one but its ios can no longer be updated and its camera is not the highest of quality anymore. Planning to get one with less storage as everything gets transferred onto a laptop hard drive anyway. So massive storage is not really necessary.

      Another thing I love about my current phone is the way it cradles my cheek. Call it crazy - but the way a phone fits to my head is part of it.

      I remember the old rotary phone we had on the wall and that nice old headset and you could wrap your neck in it and totally go hands free. Phones today are so dang small it just slides out. And I'm a PITA and don't want to be going speaker phone all the time and have no need what so ever for a land line. Even those suck in their design today.

      Making one last payment in my current bill before the slide over to family plan - but will need to have the phone thing figured out in the next couple of weeks. Best case scenario is to just buy something outright and stash my old phone away for an emergency situation.

      It will be a good 3 year commitment to something before I dream about upgrading again. I just don't have the time and patience to be swapping out phones every 3 months or so.

      So with my karma card now, I'm trying to figure out how that would also work in transitioning to lifi. I'm guessing it would be a modem/transmitter that could pull off the card and translate into the new lifi devices.

      It was only last august when I dropped my evdo broadband card - heck that plan took me through a good 7 years of internet usage being all over the place and not needing to pay extra to a cable provider for internet stuff for the most part. Only place it didn't work was in Vermont when I was at a really high elevation. Nothing worked there though - not even the cell phones. Won't be going back there - that I do know.
      Signature

      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498081].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    lol, looking back, I can't believe I've gone through so many either. Starting to think it's more than 10. The amount of money I've got in my drawer. ;/ Depressing.

    My mom has had the same phone for 5 years, and refuses to upgrade. An old Droid Razr flip phone she loves.

    I don't think you're going to find any smartphone that lasts a week on the battery, even with light usage. The Nexus 4 lasted me the longest, at 2 days of medium usage. If I did any gaming, phone calls, browsing the web, or using the phone I'd make it from morning to bedtime with 20% charge left. The LG V10 has a bigger battery than the 4.

    A girl I recently broke up with had the iPhone 6. I gotta say that the screen was nice, but I just can't get over Apple being Apple. Sick camera, though.

    I'm with you when it comes to contracts. I've been a Boost Mobile user since I managed to free myself from Verizon's chains, and pay $60 a month for unlimited everything (in theory -- they don't like me downloading torrents on 4G lol)

    My history with phones keeps me from buying the best of the best. That being said, I've managed to (knock on wood) keep my G4 in solid condition, so I've considered the $700 price tag on the V10. May just wait for someone to get in a bind and sell theirs off to me for $250 or $300. A boy can dream lol. I'd rather drive a $2,000 Miata with a $3,000 turbocharger, and save the other $95,000 for fun things, than spend all $100,000 on a Ferrari.

    I can't hold a smartphone to my ear and talk. I had a few phones that would hit random keys and have about 30 apps open by the time I got off the phone. My G4 and the V10 are too big to hold up, but the speakerphone makes up for it. I've always hated actually talking on the phone, and holding it to my ear even more, though.

    I know what you're talking about with the adapter for the phones. When I ran a collections department I had a dialpad and phone designed to cradle in between your shoulder and ear. Made it comfortable to call for 8 hours a day.

    That's why I keep all my old phones, even if they're busted. I can reactivate one in an emergency, just gotta throw some tape over the busted glass to keep from getting my thumb cut up.

    I haven't heard a whole lot about lifi on phones, yet. That being said, 3 years is a long time in terms of phones, so anything is possible. Lifi is a solid tech, I'd say it's safe to assume that it's coming sooner than later.

    It's a big jump going from an older phone, especially the flips, but I don't think I could personally go back. I'm hooked on having a computer in the palm of my hands.

    After reading your posts, I'm thinking the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus may be the best fit for you, since you're already comfortable with your iPod. Things aren't going to change a whole lot, other than adding an actual phone, better camera, stiffer hardware and a few more software features. The only complaint I've got on Apple is iOS itself being so hard to modify, and Apple not liking the fact you can do it. As far as accessories and R&D go, Apple takes the cake.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498093].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by Synnuh View Post


      My mom has had the same phone for 5 years, and refuses to upgrade. An old Droid Razr flip phone she loves.
      Yep, I know exactly how she feels.

      Unfortunately, I'm guessing she and I are on completely different career paths. If I wasn't doing any business online I'd stick with my current phone until it was no longer usable.

      My siblings who are 7 and 10 years older both want me to shift up on the phone thing. One would think it'd be the other way around and I'd be telling them to upgrade.
      Signature

      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498097].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    Yeah, you're right about that. She's got a cushy accounting job with the railroad, 10 years out from retirement and pension.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498100].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    lol I've seen them for the iPhone.



    1922 Retro Classic Desk Phone w/ iPhone Cable
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498106].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    That's crazy, my grandparents have the same one I posted in the pic. That joker does weigh a ton. Clicks and pops when you're on the phone with them, too.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498117].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      I'm about 50 miles away from posting a pic for you.

      It is a HUGE box thing. Bigger than the pic you have. I want to say the ear piece is separate from the rest. I had to shuffle it around in the garage a few months ago. It is over 2 feet high.
      Signature

      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498121].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Synnuh
    Damn, that is an antique then. I'd say theirs weighs probably 30 lbs, and sits on top of the old box TV with the turn knobs next to the LCD they almost refused to buy -- until they figured out the old box and tube was going to cost as much to fix.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498126].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author agc
    I hate Apple with a passion and wish they would implode and die.

    However, if you have all mac stuff, and use the iPod touch with IOS, then just get an iPhone.

    ick. now I feel dirty.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498137].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by agc View Post


      ick. now I feel dirty.
      How dirty would you feel if I licked the mud off of you?
      Signature

      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498172].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author agc
        Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

        How dirty would you feel if I licked the mud off of you?
        Even dirtier ;-)

        Please?
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498939].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author BigFrank
      Banned
      Originally Posted by agc View Post

      ick. now I feel dirty.
      But you appear enlightened. lol

      Cheers. - Frank
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499015].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author ThomM
        Jill I got my first smart phone last April.
        I still use it primarily as a phone.
        It's a Moto E 2nd Gen. and I do like it.
        It runs on the Android O.S.
        I don't have many apps on it and still use my computer for the internet.
        I was on ATT but switched to Cricket Wireless. Cricket is owned by ATT so it uses their network but there's no contracts.
        My plan is unlimited talk and text with 5G of data a month for $50, 45 if I use direct pay. If I ever use more then the 5G in a month instead of shutting data down or charging for the extra data they just slow the data down.
        Almost forgot, the phone was only $80 new.
        Signature

        Life: Nature's way of keeping meat fresh
        Getting old ain't for sissy's
        As you are I was, as I am you will be
        You can't fix stupid, but you can always out smart it.

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499127].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author David Beroff
    I, too, have a "dumb phone", and haven't felt the need to "upgrade". I also have the ability to surf the Web, but it's a royal pain, and I only do so when it's seriously needed, maybe once a year or less. The cell phone service costs me $5/month, which is really all it's worth to me, especially given the abysmal cell signal level, (due to mountains and low population). I even won an iPad Mini a few years ago, and gave it to my girlfriend, although she actually feels the same as I do about not needing a smart phone, so she never activated it, or whatever it is that you're supposed to do with them.
    Signature
    Put MY voice on YOUR video: AwesomeAmericanAudio.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10498407].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author butters
    I would wait to see what Apple offer for the iPhone 7... I quite like the iPhones and have always used them, I find them very user friendly but I think android based phones have more flexibility regarding apps etc...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499014].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by butters View Post

      I would wait to see what Apple offer for the iPhone 7... I quite like the iPhones and have always used them, I find them very user friendly but I think android based phones have more flexibility regarding apps etc...
      There's a new iPhone every fall, and we're in month 4 of 12. The waiting for a new model strategy doesn't really start to make sense until month 9 or so.

      Unless it's really just an excuse for not buying one at all, at which point it always make sense, even on the day they release a new model lol.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499206].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    I have one that no one knows the number to, I like that one the best

    al
    Signature

    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499173].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author alistair
    I'm no expert on phones but I've got the Samsung Galaxy S6 which does for me. A few days ago I got the Samsung Gear VR Lite for it which is pretty good but I think I overdone it yesterday as I haven't used it for nearly 24 hours and my head is still spinning a bit.

    To be honest though it was a lot of money to spend on a phone as I'm not on a contract and although you can do a lot of things with it, takes decent pictures etc I don't really make use of it enough to justify the expense and would probably buy something less expensive next time.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10499440].message }}

Trending Topics