Smart Phones

[erm2003]

I was reading rock_nog 's comments in the "What did you do today?" thread about having a phone with a decent camera and it got me thinking a bit about starting a discussion about smart phones in general. By now most people I know have jumped into this world. I started with a Blackberry Curve back when the trend first started and eventually jumped ship to Android once I started to see what these phones could do. Currently I have a Motorola Razr Maxx HD which has served me well over the past couple years. The phone still runs fairly well, but as most phones go it doesn't always age well with battery life, lagging, and just some other basic problems that exist when looking at older models compared the ones that are available today.

I am able to upgrade in November but I am not sure if I am going to do it right away or not. My top consideration right now is the Samsung Galaxy S5. I have been very impressed with the Samsung products over the past few years and the S5 is exceptional. The other consideration I have is to hold out about 6 more months for when Samsung will release the S6. They pretty much have everything for the new model finalized. More RAM, better processor, as you would expect with an upgraded model. I am also intrigued by one other big difference. New phones coming out in the next year will also have the capability to run a 64-bit of the Android operating system. From what I understand, this is supposed to make a big difference in the processing speed and overall performance of the device, though I never really did look into it too much. I am sure someone on here can explain the difference.

So that's where I am. S5 or S6? What devices do you guys use and what are you looking into for future considerations?

[ctrl-alt-delete]

I have the iPhone 5 right now. I'm waiting for the S6 or the 6S if that doesn't look promising.

The 6 and 6 Plus are complete jokes. I get the feeling Apple has finally given up and decided they can go the route of Macs, aka people will buy it for the software so fuck the hardware.

[erm2003]

The 6 and 6 Plus are complete jokes.

I was surprised they didn't come out of the gate with a bit more technology in these new devices. Don't get me wrong, the Apple products work great and they are very reliable, but I just like the options I get with Android. I thought the 6 could really be huge - but then again they have sold millions already and will probably crush their 5S sales even if the specs aren't up to what some of the Android phones have or will have in the next several months.

Then there's this... http://www.dailydot.com/technology/iphone-6-plus-bendgate/?fb=dd

[rock_nog]

I've got a Galaxy S5 myself and I'm pretty happy with it. Very fast, really good camera, nice big screen... I really don't know anything about the S6, but yeah, all in all, no complaints from me.

Here's a sample photo I've taken, to give you an idea of quality in terms of that (don't know how important the camera is to you, but this is one of the nicer cameras I've seen in a phone, and it's actually gotten me into photography).
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/macweirdo42/20140919_184030.jpg

[erm2003]

That is pretty nice. The Samsung cameras seem to be the top quality ones for Android phones. Motorola does ok, but I have noticed any of my friends with S3-S5 phones seem to have much more clear and vibrant shots.

As for the S6, there is a lot of speculation still on final design and a few features could change, but most sites are reporting the same basic thing. Here is one example: http://galaxys6news.com/

I want to keep an eye on what else comes out for S6 information over the next couple months and maybe it will help me decide to buy the S5 in November/December or wait until the spring to see if the S6 is worth it.

[Aliem]

I had a Galaxy S4 for a while, but dropped it at a weird angle and it broke. Really good phone. I'm due for an upgrade in a month and a half, so I figured till then I'd go with an old-school flip phone. Really looking forward to a Galaxy S5... Though to be honest, Windows Phone intrigues me a little bit...

[Brasel]

I had an iPhone 4S up until a few weeks ago. I got an LG G Vista now. It's pretty big. I work with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at work, and I really loved the size. I went with the LG G Vista because it was cheaper and I got an LG tablet for a buck when I got the phone.

[Tim]

I recently upgraded to the LG G3. Despite its big screen, it is still a one-handed phone and is very reliable.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

What's four months? There's no way I'd get an s5, even right now at 7 months.

[erm2003]

So for you iPhone users in case you haven't heard by now, DO NOT upgrade to iOS 8.0.1 though by now you shouldn't even have the option because they say it's been pulled. If you downloaded it, don't install it. It actually broke the network connection and a few other options like Touch ID. I don't get it. Don't they test these things? I am surprised they wouldn't have noticed the errors themselves since it was so widespread with the initial release of the update.

EDIT: I should specify these issues are mainly effecting the new iPhone 6 models.

[Tim]

Outsourced QA teams blow.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

Dropped by AT&T today.

I can happily report that IF the 6+ is bending easily, it is STRICTLY a defect with only some phones. It's no more or less bendable than every other big phone there, and actually seemed as sturdy as other Apple products in the past, if not moreso. The phone is still a piece of shit, but it's not an easily bendable piece of shit. As far as 8.0.1 and bluetooth issues go, all I can say is lol. This is why I tend not to buy products on launch--there will be issues. My iPhone 5 suffers from a nasty WiFi bug, and my launch day Wii had a GPU overheat.

I messed around with the Galaxy S5 momentarily and am still very uncomfortable with Android. I know there's a learning curve with anything, but a couple of things are annoying to say the least, and I'm very concerned about Chrome's performance on Android against Safari on the iPhone being so weak. (I may have a smart phone, but it's very uncommon for me to use it for anything other than calls, texts, and browsing.)