New Phone

[Steve Wood]

Until now, I have pretty much stuck to the phone with the highest end specs that was available when I got a new one.  I have noticed that the current models have lots of hardware specs that in practice suck the life out of your battery even as battery sizes go upward.  There has been nothing really new in features other than gimmicks that I would never use....The Galaxy S4 is such an example.  I like the larger screens available today but as I wear a tee shirt during the warmer months, the phone has to go into the shirt pocket.  Having the tendency to pitch the phone out of my pocket when I bend over to pick up something, I typically need a rugged case.  Second day I had my SGII, I pitched it off the end of the loading dock at the feed store and it went cartwheeling across the pavement about six ft down...thank goodness for the case which doubled the weight of the phone...stuffi ng one in my pants' pocket is asking for trouble.

Got rid of an iPhone a couple of years ago...was not a bad phone for the day but I cannot stand Apple and got tired of jb'ing it every time they upgraded IOS.  The fanboi's made it even worse.

When the HTC One came out, I really liked the front speakers on the phone and the volume it can produce clearly....old and deaf going down the road at 70 mph could really appreciate that.  Their concept of a camera appealed to me but in practice it falls short in outdoor pictures many times and that is where I take most of my pics.

I like Google Now altho it sometimes has difficulty with my twang.  I don't use it very intensively because in a town with about a 1000 people, I can find most things but I seem to use it a lot at lunch to find an answer to someone's questions....p isses me off when they ask me to ask Siri about some poisonous weed.

In the end, I seem to use my phone more for pictures, texting, and finding out where someone can get something than I do for talking.  Quit playing games on the phone once the bloom wore off.

Pretty much stuck with ATT out here and they still don't have even 3g out here...have to go 30 miles to find a fast connection outside of wi-fi.

I always hate the struggle out doors to see the screen when taking pictures and the struggle involved to get the camera into action before something disappears from sight.

I am very interested in the Moto X that was introduced yesterday because they seem to have tried to use hardware intelligently rather than topping the hardware specs race.  I like being able to take a pic in less than two seconds from a shut down phone and some of their other "contexual" features.  I don't like having to say "Hello Google Now" to do some things because that is a waste of five syllables, can get old fast, and make you really look dumb in public, imo.  I would like to use my own choice of words or word to kick things off.  I will have to wait a bit to see how the camera produces, how bright the screen is outdoors, etc.

What I really like is that it has not put it's own massive operating system on top of stock android that tends to turn to molasses as the phone is used.  It has a minimal overlay for camera and such.  Looks pretty close to stock which should enable them to get updates out much faster than Samsung, etc.

Battery life should be much better with Motorola's approach to the hardware.  Google Now and videos can soak up a battery if that stuff is running in thebackground.

The other phone coming up some time is the Sony "Honami".  It has a 41 mp camera which sounds like a lot of overkill, but it sounds like Sony is trying to get back into the game with a competitive phone.  It reportedly has an ir blaster which is cool if you have a PS, Sony tv, etc.   Not much is yet known about it.

The Lumina 1020 looks killer with its camera but it's a windows phone which is probably not as bad as it sounds but, apps and such are in short supply and I put Microsoft in almost the same league as Apple.

I always want to wait for the next generation to see if something revolutionary comes along....guess that is akin to Moore's law  The idea behind the Moto does appeal to me...probably need some more software refinement

[SuperSix]

I use one of these.
http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-v/

I bought 3 last year for $49 ea, Black Friday sales.
Went with VM, left TMobile.

The $39.95/mo plan is fine, but data seeds suck outside of WiFi, even with 3G. It's barely useable. Pandora is fine, which is what uses 90% of the bandwidth.

I work from home, so it's usually on WiFi.

I really like the HTC phones.

I use the camera and Photobucket app a lot, makes it very easy to share media with it.

[Steve Wood]

yes, HTC has generally built a really good phone.  I just did not like some of the camera quirks even tho I liked the light sensor idea.  Great indoors.  I really like the sound coming out of the One due to the speaker placement.  Tonal quality is pretty good as well as being loud.

the phone part...recepti on, consistency of signal is important out here in the boondocks as well and lotsa phones seem to have forgotten that because most customers live in the city

[phil_long]

great point about forgetting the customers in the boonies!!

[TexasT]

Apple can keep their crap and the idea that as a customer I should buy all new stuff when the "new exciting " stuff comes out. I am an HTC guy. Im on the third upgrade with one. I use att as work gets us 18% off. We get lte here in the metroplex. It screams. I rarely get the "bigger, better, faster, stronger" one. I'm more of the "I got the wife and I a new upgrade for a penny each and then called to get them to wave the activation fee as we are loyal customers" kind of cheap.


Ill check out this one at the next upgrade. Sounds like a nice piece. One thing that worried me about it is you cant easily remover the battery. Im just paranoid I guess.


Oh, and I'm a believer in otterbox. sometimes you can find them on closeout when you buy last years phone like I do. $40 each for mine and one for the wife. Not water proof but keeps the screen intact. My daughters dont see the value so I have to do screen surgery every six months or so on one of their phones. youtube and ebay can get you fixed up with that.

[Steve Wood]

I have used Otterbox several times...saved me more than once....

I am looking for innovation that I will actually use...hence my interest in the Moto X.  I like removable batteries, but I can live without it and my experience with SD cards is that they often cause more problems than they are useful.  The cloud is there for those that have 25,000 songs to store...

Guess I am getting old but this time I am looking for a phone that serves my needs rather than one with gimmicks that I won't use after the first three days.  Motorola used to build good phones that did not drop signals easily and sounded good...I hope they still do but few ever mention this in reviews these days

[Forzfed]

The I-Phone is probably the worst phone ever!  My provider was trying to give me one and told them to keep it because I want a phone to talk on and it fails miserably at that.  They are only good if you are in populated areas with towers.  They suck in high noise environment areas.  My boss was right behind me on his I-Phone and I could only hear him because he was behind me.  My buddy keeps calling me while he is on the road with his I-Phone, so more than half the time I never talk to him.  But I keep saying, "I can't hear you!!!  Do you own an I-Phone?"  My other buddy and his wife took a trip up North, there I-Phones worked for about 60 miles but there kids old flip phone worked the whole trip.

I want a phone for a phone!  What damn good is it if you can't talk on it!!!!

[Steve Wood]

agreed...my iphone dropped calls like mad

[Scott87]

Motorola typically has the best radios and offers great call quality with few disconnections . ..

Currently I am using the note2.. The size of the phone is great,  the battery life is amazing. ..

Pros of the note 2
Size
Battery
Unlocked bootloader
Easy to root

Cons
Super amoled screens suck to read in direct sunlight although pretty they just lack the brightness to them.

I am a bit of a power user so every phone I get pretty much gets rooted within the first week of owning them.

The down side to motorola products is due to primarily corporate use they lock their bootloaders (most of the time). Unlocking them can void warrantees. .

Moto makes some solid phones but their locking of bootloaders and then abandoning of devices promised to get upgrades to ics sucks... The main reason I moved to the note2.. If samsungs radios were better then I would never consider a moto device ever but sadly moto makes devices with the better radios. ..

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

[Steve Wood]

the X is unlocked on sprint, tmobile, rogers, etc...but not on ATT and Verizon

The Developer models announced are unlocked.....I am stuck with ATT for service.....I don't really care about unlocking other than I would like to dl a rom without all the att crap on it....

This is a really strange release by Motorola....if you want the customizable stuff, you get the ATT version or wait for it to be available later in the year on the others....what kind of marketing is that?

I like the idea of the phone...waitin g on some proper reviews to see if it really delivers....an d will probably wait to see what sony has

I wish someone would make a good display that works in bright sun because I have plenty of that!

My son is waiting to see what the Note 3 looks like....

[Scott87]

My last phone was a moto photon through sprint. .. There were equivalent models from other carriers their names escspe me...

Anyhoo the screen being non amoled and being a capacitive screen it was super bright in even direct sunlight...

The battery life of the photon was crap but it is still a solid world phone..

That sounds cool about the motox.. I will have to read into that one...

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

[firebird_1252]

the main reason i have the iphone and will continue is because it is just convenient. if android had to where i can plug in to my stereo and i can control though the stereo i'd give them another try.

[stevemon]

Just got a no contact AT&T Samsung Rugby Pro. Great phone. Excellent battery life. Super loud volume. 


I think this phone would pass the old Timex watch test where John Cameron Swazey straps one to an outboard motor propeller to prove it's water and shock proof. 

[Steve Wood]

I think most modern systems use blue tooth for connecting the phone to the radio or MTP which is a cable connection.  Android beginning with ice cream sandwich began concentrating on how to make it easier to so...

[firebird_1252]

steve, true. but.. i like picking up the remote and just changing the song. also it charges at the same time.