New smartphones coming in Aug - which are your favorites?
xmacro
Posts: 3,402 ✭
I'm about to jump on a new smartphone and try to rejigger my Verizon contract for a smartphone - I've heard about the Samsung
Galaxy S II and it's phenomenal reviews, called by some reviewers the best smartphone on the planet, but it only has 3G (rumored to have 4g LTE for the US release, but unconfirmed), but then there's the much anticipated/much hyped Motorola Droid Bionic which was supposed to be a blowout phenom at CES in January, and then there's the Apple iPhone 5 (really don't want an apple product, but I'm considering it).
Just wondering if anyone else is in the market for a new smartphone and what they're considering?
Galaxy S II and it's phenomenal reviews, called by some reviewers the best smartphone on the planet, but it only has 3G (rumored to have 4g LTE for the US release, but unconfirmed), but then there's the much anticipated/much hyped Motorola Droid Bionic which was supposed to be a blowout phenom at CES in January, and then there's the Apple iPhone 5 (really don't want an apple product, but I'm considering it).
Just wondering if anyone else is in the market for a new smartphone and what they're considering?
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JDE
That being said you'd have to try the phones out first and see how you like the interaction of the phones.
Currently I'd say go with the Bionic with the list you've given. Samsung Galaxy S II is sweet and has the specs locked up for speed (DUAL 1.2Ghz, 1GB of RAM, 1080P HD Video) but the Samsung software is a bottleneck and the resolution is like that of all the other phones
The Droid Bionic is a little light on the specs comparatively (DUAL 1Ghz, 512MB of RAM 720P HD Video) but it has much better screen resolution and I like the Motorola Droid Software.... Again, on paper the Galaxy S II is AWESOME! But right now my money would be on the Droid Bionic until I play with a Galaxy phone
ps this message was typed on the droid 2 and that's why all the doublle letters. Known bug yet to be fixed....junk
I am loving my droid X but the bugs are there and i am about to throw it at the **** sales rp!
Hell, Apple has more money than the federal government. LOL.
From you guys and others, I've heard that Motorola doesn't support their products after a year or so, and if I'm on the hook for a 2yr contract, I'm only gonna go with a company that supports their older stuff; I've dropped Samsung from consideration because although the phone has been called the best smartphone on the planet and has gotten phenomenal reviews, I've heard a lot of rumbling that Samsung is slow as molasses when releasing the newest firmware; apparently they take months, or even a year, to release the newest Android firmware on their phones, whereas HTC is apparently one of the fastest to take the new Android releases, adapt them, then release them for their users.
So unless anything major changes, it seems HTC Vigor is it for me
BTW why are you extending your contract with verizon? I mean you do no that they are doing price tiers now? I for one wouldn't want to continue to support them after both what they are doing with their pricing and what they are doing to their workers. Then again if say Sprint has bad service in your area and verizon has better than maybe, I mean no since on having really poor service.
Oh btw are you planning on rooting your phone? if so I'd stay away from droids, they have locked bootloaders. If your not planning on rooting then any phone will work really.
Short answer - coverage. Sprint comes in clear as a bell here in Tampa, but if I move, I want something that'll give me bars in a remote area. Also, reading the paper, it seems Sprint is getting more and more beat up by ATT/Verizon ever since T-Mobile sold off.
The tiers don't really bother me - don't get me wrong, I'm kciking myself for not getting an unlimited plan before they cut them, and it's BS that they charge so much for the plans above 2GB ($50 for 4 GB/$80 for 10GB? Total BS) - but 2 GBs a month is plenty for me; I don't watch many videos on my phone or use it for gaming (mostly web surfing), so although I'd love the option to get unlimited downloads, realistically, it's not an issue since I watch most videos/game from my laptop.
As for the labor issues, it goes both ways; the unions are harrassing the replacements and cutting cables, Verizon's playing hardball with their labor contracts, trying to cut down on its landline dept which has been posting losses as less and less ppl use landlines - just typical bickering, nothing that'll affect my purchase decision, especially since any phone I buy, I'll need to live with it for 2 yrs, well after the labor disputes are settled Much appreciated; I'm not sure if I wanna root it or not; mostly scared that I'll do something stupid, so I'm gonna read up on it some more before deciding
damn, that's giving me second thoughts; the only real reason I'd want to root is to get rid of that retarded CityID, and to get some wifi tethering going on; might have to think about this for awhile; thanks again!
The HTC Holiday (code name) it is a dual core 1.2 GHZ phone, with a 4.5" screen with Qhd resolution, more memory than the Galaxy S2 and etc....
BUT the main reason I like this is that it is a 4G LTE phone.
But NATE... Verizon already has 4G OUT!
Yes, but when Verizon's 4G switches to 3G (old network due to coverage) the Verizon 3G is about 1.1mbps vs. the HSPA+ from ATT at up to 14.4 (or most likely 6mbps realistically) That means that the ATT LTE phones will have a range of 6mbps-25mbps where as the Verizon LTE phones have a range of 1.0mbps-25mbps.
PLUS that HTC software, IMHO, is the best without problems/lag...
The main reason for Samsungs LAG is that the logic processor in the TOUCHWIZ layer over the stock android is a 1-in 1-out type process... As you type an email, the text may become laggy for it's updating the WEATHER at that moment... Basically, Samsung wrote the software to only execute one command at a time, thus resulting in some lag, not due to hardware, but software...
I want a Verizon phone badly, due to 4G right now, but ATT has committed to having LTE phones out by the holidays so that will be the fastest, best written software for me
1) Iphone 4 vs 5, is from what I've read, like the upgrade from Iphone 3 to iPhone3gs - not much more than a tweak; the iPhone 5 is only going to be 3G because Apple is unhappy that the current generation of LTE chipsets are too bulky and would make the iphone thicker than they want it to be - aesthetics over functionality, essentially, so they're not going to allow 4G chips into their phones, preferring to wait until 2012, when whatever company it is that makes them is rumored to be coming out with a 2nd gen chipset that's supposed to be thinner
2) The Apple fanbase annoys the living crap out of me - the holier-than-thou attitude of so many Apple adherents just makes me wanna choke the living crap out of so many of them, that I just couldn't take being associated with the kind of cultish worship that most iphone users have for Steve Jobs, a total control freak who won't allow any impure software like flash, to desecrate his sacred tablets.
EDIT - not saying you're one of those types, but I've seen so many of these types of people, that I just can't stomach them anymore
- 4G LTE
- dual-core 1.5 GHz
- 4.3" qHD (rumored 720p)
- 1 GB RAM
- 8-mega-pixel camera
- 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- Bluetooth 3.0
Not sure about Ruby, but the Vigor has more or less been confirmed to have Beats by Dr. Dre audio hardware in it as well
EDIT - Ya got me on the ATT vs Verizon, but my family is on Verizon (free calls!), and I need coverage more than 4g if I ever go in the boonies (I'm in Tampa, so 4G is guaranteed for me unless I go somewhere else).
I've always been into phones and 1.5 years ago I imported a HTC phone from Australia for it was the first phone to have the 1Ghz processor and the 4.3" screen (It was the HD2 on Tmobile as well) but ATT did not have it.
Now I also wanted 3G speeds and Tmobile's bands aren't on the same 3G so I found that the Telstra Company in Australia works on the 850Mhz 3G band and the phone comes unlocked so I imported it.
The beauty is now that EVERYONE is excited about phones again so it's easy to find basically the same phone on each carrier... The one thing I don't like about he Vigor is that it's a 4.3" screen... I'm a big guy, I need big SCREENS!
As for screen size, I actually think it's a bit big; I like my phones to look like, well, phones - they're turning into mini-computers!! (do I sound like a troglodyte?) It's amazing what they can do and all, but the sheer size is annoying when I'm trying to stick it in my pocket or coat pocket; I'm still waiting for the down-sizing to begin. Ain't that always the cycle? Bigger = more powerful when it first comes out, then smaller = more powerful and big = outdated? Happened with speakers, computers, cell phones, etc - I'm still waiting for the small-wave to hit smartphones