So You Want To Buy A Smart Phone...

Nexus 6 with Google Fi. This ***'s huge.

You said that and then I tried it and I had to watch a fuggin YouTube tutorial on how to get it out loooool why would they do this

My phone:

Huawei Ascend Mate 2


Pros:
-*** huge like Xbox display, phablet.
-Bright vivid display.
-Perfect for gaming on the go, no need to squint
-LONG battery life. (4050 mAh battery)
-Comes unlocked.
-Great pricepoint ($230-250)

Con:
-Makes sacrifices in its camera to meet pricepoint.
-Huge size makes it unwieldy if you're strapped for space.
-Could use some more internal memory, 16GB doesn't cut it.
-Battery is not removable.
-Huawei's onboard software is bloatware.

tl;dr - If you aren't on contract and want to buy an unlocked phone without breaking the bank, the Ascend Mate 2 is a solid choice.

You can slide a slip of paper up around the pen so it's not getting snagged but yeah really dumb it can even fit in there backwards

I love my apple Iphone 6+

That is all.

Very well put. Thank you for the info. I realize SD cards are being phased out, but I'm just being crotchety and set in my ways, I suppose lol. Hit a lot of points I've never really considered though. I'm also being hesitant to make sure there's a stable root method. My original Note and current Note 3 are both fully rooted, and I refuse to remain stock on any device I own. I'd also admit I'm somewhat of a Samsung fanboy, but it's just infinitely easier having all my smart TVs, sound systems, and whatnot, communicate effortlessly throughout my household.

i have a samsung s5 and and iphone 5s. i don't use them for anything other than calling, texting, and as a hotspot for my laptop. all phones have issues, so just get one that you like. they'll all be outdated within a week and eventually be ruined my an update.

I've had a blackberry for about a year and a half, then an iphone for 2 years then an android for the last 2 years. All of them were work phones and I didn't really get a choice on which one I got but at least I didn't have to pay for them.

I don't recall what model the blackberry was... But it looked like this one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/BlackBerry_Curve_8310.JPG

The only thing I really liked about the blackberry was that it had a full physical keyboard on it. I could type entire emails without looking down at it and my typing speed was far better. Well and that I could have a 30 second song bit for an email or text notification and once I hit a button it'd stop it. On iphone and android it just kept going even after I click buttons... But since it was a work device I need to make sure that I paid attention and didn't miss any notifications.

I had an iphone 4 after that. The interfaces were okay. Not super intuitive or anything and I often found myself spending a large amount of time finding settings or just realizing that apple decided you couldn't change that particular option. Overall it was a huge upgrade over the blackberry and I was fairly happy with it for the 2 years I had it. iMessage was nice since I had a number of friends who used it out of the country so I could actually keep up with them without alarming texting bills. iTunes was a huge mess and putting anything on the phone or taking it off was way harder than it should have been.

I've had an android galaxy s4 for the last 2 years or so. The size of this thing took a bit of getting use to carrying. It's great when you're using it though. I like the capacity to have 2 apps in split screen though the way they did it is clunky as hell and you can only do it with limited apps. I just want windows I can move and control like I'm use to. The storage and compatibility are great. Android doesn't limit you quite as much as Apple does but man do they install a lot of bloat ware. When I first got the phone I nearly bricked it trying to install a custom OS... I'd still like to since there's still a lot of limits placed on them. Like having a 16gb phone and only having 7gb immediately filled up with crap you'll never use and that only runs down your battery. You can sorta disable some of them but even then... Also, I'd like to be able to control the brightness from the lock screen. The auto adjust makes it too bright in the dark and too dim when it's in the light so if I'm inside set it low, then go outside I can't even see my screen to put in my pin and unlock it ^^;

I have to say that pretty much all phones piss me off to some degree. I just need something I can plug in to my brain already. Touch screen keyboards make me so angry and I'd kill for directional buttons even if they were on the OSK. Touch the screen to move your cursor and you touch just a tiny bit to the wrong side and even when you click the cursor and drag it it's hard to get it where you want it and highlighting a particular bit of text is just rage inducing.

if you have verizon your plan probably gives you 25gb of cloud storage. even if you're not, you can probably get similar storage for a few bucks a month or year depending on the service you use. then you can access the content anywhere without eating up your phone storage.

My issue with cloud storage is that when I'm listening to music, I'm often underground which means no reception or internet access.

Verizon is also all about that expensive *** plan life.

did anyone mention windows phones yet?

I'm waiting for the sony xperia Z5 before I decide on a new phone. can finally watch netflix in 4k... >.> lol

Everyone seems to be raving about it, but I'm just so completely underwhelmed by it. There's almost nothing to set it apart from anything else, like there was with previous iterations. Is there anything else on the horizon, that you know of, that I should hold my breath for? Hearing good things about the new moto x, but not much else.

WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU... err... Wait... I'm not paranoid >.> Haha but seriously, that's exactly how I've felt. I feel so stupid for not just upgrading to the Note 4 nearly a year ago. Price, although a factor, isn't a huge one. I'll spend what I need to for something I know is worth it, since I know I can make it last as long as necessary. Two year upgrade discount will bring it to around $300, I believe, so not as bad as full retail. And I'm avoiding their "next" plan like the plague. You mean I get to pay three times the retail amount AND I get to give the phone back at the end??? Where do I sign up??

Its not really about the pixel density. its more about the contrast ratio. whiter whites and blacker blacks. Also no real reason not to get it if its priced the same as other 1080p phones. and reviews well with great battery life (should be the same as Z3)

Well sony said on the Z3 to expect 2 day battery life, and i do get 2 days. and they say that again for the Z5. whether thats optimism or truth idk. just have to wait for reviews. Granted it may not be as bright/colorful as samsungs OLED but then again samsung has really bad battery life on their new phones that dont allow a swap.

Being able to heavily use my phone and make it all day is great.