[HAB]

I'm on Verizon, and have a Galaxy S3. I like it, but it's starting to shit the bed, so it's time for a replacement. Since I've been happy with it, an S5 seems like the obvious call, but figured I'd explore my options. My criteria:

-Android
-Battery life and internal memory are priorities for me. I've got a 64gb SD card mostly full of music in my S3. I could pare that down a bit and survive with a phone with 64gb of internal memory, but otherwise an SD card slot is a must
-I don't want anything super gigantic, e.g. Galaxy Tab
-I'm mostly not too concerned about features like NFC, wireless charging, etc unless there's something super cool I don't know about that would be useful on the newer phones.

With that said, the HTC One M8 and the Droid Turbo seem like the viable contenders. I don't love that they don't have removable batteries, and the Turbo lacks an SD card slot, but I think it's supposed to be available with 64gb onboard (anyone chime in here? Verizon's site doesn't seem to say anything about it) and the gigantic battery is a strong selling point. I played with a friends' Moto X a bit and did find the ability to pull up google now without touching the phone to be pretty cool, but I don't need that feature, strictly speaking.

The HTC looks to have broadly the same features as the S5, but in a nicer package, at the expense of batter life and a removable battery. Anything I'm missing there?

Any other suggestions?

 

[Kevin]

InbeforeiPhonez

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Sure you don't want the new iTimeWaster from Apple ? It looks flexi...

 

[HAB]

Sure you don't want the new iTimeWaster from Apple ? It looks flexi...

Maybe if it had moar shimz and/or came in rootbeer.

 

[stevew]

looking at reviews on youtube the camera on he M8 is horrible.

 

[CBJ]

Good point I say get the one with the best camera the rest seems so similar on most phones.

 

[jonKranked]

New droid turbo or nexus 6. Turbo has a slightly smaller screen and a monster battery (3900mah). Other than that largely the same device.

 

[Quo Fan]

I recently went through the "I need a new phone" thing, and ended up with a Galaxy S4. A little larger than my last phone, but not as big as the Galaxy S5.

 

[HAB]

New droid turbo or nexus 6. Turbo has a slightly smaller screen and a monster battery (3900mah). Other than that largely the same device.

Nexus 6 is too damn big.

 

[Nick]

I too had the s3, got the s4. Familiar, still fits in a shirt pocket. Boosh.

 

[jonKranked]

Nexus 6 is too damn big.

yea i missed that part the first time i read through. i'm thinking about the turbo. waiting to see what the unsubsidized price is.

 

[stevew]

Nexus 6 is too damn big.

but is it galaxy mega 6.3 big?

 

[HardtailHack]

New droid turbo or nexus 6. Turbo has a slightly smaller screen and a monster battery (3900mah)..

Good Lord, you'll be able to jump start a car soon with your phone soon, that is a damn big battery.
Why don't they just make the OS do less shit when the phone is idle? I miss Symbian, it didn't try to do anything sneaky while you weren't looking and my E7 would go for up to four days on a charge.

I'm going a Lumia 520 as they are cheap and I don't want to spend much on a Windows phone as it will probably get airborne when it asks me to log in to X-Box live repeatedly.

 

[slyfink]

I'm in a similar boat, have the same criteria and really like the look of the new Moto X. Haven't held one in person though, and think it might be a bit big... anyone have experience with it?

 

[syadasti]

I have the turbo, upgraded from the iPhone 5S, the battery life is great. Haven't taken many photos yet, but works well with flash in night mode close up. Z3v would be only similar option but lower resolution but likely a better camera processing co-processor with comparable battery life and slightly thinner on average but the OLED probably has better contrast ratio. I like the sensor based display wake feature plus the new processor/GPU vs Z3v. The nylon back on the 64gb is probably a drawback vs the 32GB or Z3v v/SD card.

 

[syadasti]

 

[jimmydean]

I spent a lot of time looking for my phone because I didn't want a HUGE screen but I also wanted some good hardware. I ended up with the HTC One Remix (Verizons version of the Mini 2). Great display, awesome sound, full metal body, and it was only $350 new no contract.

 

[HAB]

I have the turbo, upgraded from the iPhone 5S, the battery life is great. Haven't taken many photos yet, but works well with flash in night mode close up. Z3v would be only similar option but lower resolution but likely a better camera processing co-processor with comparable battery life and slightly thinner on average but the OLED probably has better contrast ratio. I like the sensor based display wake feature plus the new processor/GPU vs Z3v. The nylon back on the 64gb is probably a drawback vs the 32GB or Z3v v/SD card.

Why do you view the nylon back as a negative? Haven't managed to get my hands on one yet, so I legitimately have no idea.

 

[HAB]

I'm in a similar boat, have the same criteria and really like the look of the new Moto X. Haven't held one in person though, and think it might be a bit big... anyone have experience with it?

I played with a friend's and liked it. it world be on my short list if it had more internal memory and/or an sd card slot.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I have a S4 Active and have kicked the snot out of it. I'm pretty impressed with the device.

 

[syadasti]

Why do you view the nylon back as a negative? Haven't managed to get my hands on one yet, so I legitimately have no idea.

Personal preference at this point, but I think the nylon back could potentially pick up dirt and/or noticeably wear more than solid/smooth backplate would.

It's nice that android is pretty much similar to stock on the turbo, no touchwiz or similar garbage.

 

[canadmos]

Its too bad the Motorola Moto G doesn't have an SD slot. I got one a few months ago, and for its price, it has been awesome. I have an iPhone 5s for work and barely even touch that thing. This phone is great.

 

[HAB]

Personal preference at this point, but I think the nylon back could potentially pick up dirt and/or noticeably wear more than solid/smooth backplate would.

It's nice that android is pretty much similar to stock on the turbo, no touchwiz or similar garbage.

Fair, but neither of those things particularly concern me.

The stockish android is a plus for sure. I'm getting more and more sold on the 64gb Turbo.

Anyone have thoughts on the LG G3?

 

[syadasti]

The turbo also has a $100 off if you bring in ANY work smartphone and one free screen replacement during the 24 month contract. Also by the end of the year it will support VoLTE for simultaneous voice and data and HD Voice (higher quality calling if both ends have a capable device).

 

[HAB]

Good to know. I still have an old ass Thunderbolt around somewhere that technically works, even if it's the biggest POS in all of recorded human history.

 

[big-ted]

Curious there's so much love for Motorola. I have the Razr HD and, whilst I liked it at first, two years later it's now slow, buggy and borderline unusable at times. I've wiped the OS and reinstated the factory defaults a couple of times, but I'd be nervous about going Motorola again...

 

[syadasti]

Curious there's so much love for Motorola. I have the Razr HD and, whilst I liked it at first, two years later it's now slow, buggy and borderline unusable at times. I've wiped the OS and reinstated the factory defaults a couple of times, but I'd be nervous about going Motorola again...

Google until recently owned Motorola and recent phones are the result of that period of Motorola Mobility's history.

 

[binary visions]

HAB; do you really need 64gb of internal storage? I keep all of my music on Google Music and just pin stuff offline when I want it on the phone. Makes it super easy to "sync" music even if I'm away from home, and I can't really come up with a reason why I need 64 simultaneous gb of music on my phone - can only listen to so much.

Curious there's so much love for Motorola. I have the Razr HD and, whilst I liked it at first, two years later it's now slow, buggy and borderline unusable at times. I've wiped the OS and reinstated the factory defaults a couple of times, but I'd be nervous about going Motorola again...

Motorola has made awesome strides in the last two years. The new Moto phones are awesome.

 

[HAB]

I mean there's definitely a difference between "need" and "want" but yeah, I'd like it. I've got 40+ gb of music on my phone now and do actually listen to all of it. I do use google music, so paring down the local files and streaming more of it wouldn't kill me but I do use my phone to play music a lot when I'm out/in the car etc and would rather not take the battery life/data hit of having to stream.

 

[canadmos]

FWIW on that note, when I purchased my Moto G it came with 50gb of Google storage for two years.

 

[HAB]

Google Music gives you 100gb. I'm not short on cloud storage, I'd just rather have the files locally.

 

[jdcamb]

My phone is all phoney. I like that in a phone. It does other stuff that I don't care about. I dropped it in the ocean and scavenged it out. It smells funny now. It still works. Its a s 3

 

[Sandwich]

Question- why do you prefer android? I have been an android fanboi since day 1, I hated the "monopoly" that apple had on the market. For four years I've dealt with buggy OSes that get worse with time- instead of better, apps that are undeniably better on iOS, and Google's near-literal monopoly on personal information. I was refusing to ever get an apple product due to the non-removeable battery and no SD slot, but just recently my SD card spontaneously died, leaving me with few reasons to deny the iphone now.

With the iphone I could have better integration (we have several iproducts at home, including a built in car-player changer thinger), still better selection of cases, accessories, etc., and greater network of chargers n shit to plug in at work or whatever. So, I'm left wondering why should i want an android phone this next time around?

 

[HAB]

Customizability. My phones have been rooted, using Tasker to automate all kinds of shit, etc. Can't do that on iOS.

 

[big-ted]

I USED to be able to mount my Android phone as a USB device, which enabled me to copy music across from my Ubuntu laptop straight to my phone via USB 3. Also, I could mount it to my car stereo to read the internal memory on the headunit and navigate tracks etc. That's far too open-minded and cooperative for Apple. However, since an Android system upgrade (I forget which one) Android too have removed this capability, so aside from my bitter and unending resentment of itunes, I'll admit it's pretty much a wash now...

 

[HAB]

I USED to be able to mount my Android phone as a USB device, which enabled me to copy music across from my Ubuntu laptop straight to my phone via USB 3. However, since an Android system upgrade (I forget which one) Android too have removed this capability

Really? I can still mount my 4.4.2 GS3 as a USB device. Try it now?

my bitter and unending resentment of itunes

Also that.

 

[Sandwich]

ugh, that's a good point. My last interaction with itunes reminded me why it took a year to have another go at it. it wouldn't update from its own launcher, I had to uninstall it and manually reinstall the damned thing...although this latest version seems slightly less bloated than the last.

 

[binary visions]

I agree about the customizability. Widgets are important to me, too - I hate the unending desktop of squares, much prefer some interactive widgets that I can immediately look at info or perform an action. The iOS widgets aren't the same.

I use Tasker as well to do things like disable my PIN lock when I'm at home.

I hate iTunes with a burning passion so that's another issue I have with iDevices.

While it doesn't mount as a mass storage device anymore, it does still mount as a USB device that you can directly copy to and from without sync applications...

Plus I really like some of the features on some of the Android phones. The "active notifications" on the Moto phones have literally changed the way I interact with the device. And while I don't talk to my phone all that much, it is pretty nice to be able to just wake up the phone and perform an action by talking, when I'm in the car or the other night I set a reminder while I was in the kitchen and the phone was in the living room.

There's a whole ecosystem that you get with the iPhone, of course. I just don't really take advantage of any of it. My music streams over Bluetooth, I don't use cases, I don't have interest in any of the various music playing accessories... so that's really not a draw for me.

 

[Sandwich]

I agree that the widgets are pretty slick, I love being able to open up my phone and see what the weather is or have a slideshow of the kiddo in various states of cleanliness...but I often find the slideshow to bog down performance, and I need to open the app to see any details anyways, which I do instinctively. I'll have to look into tasker though, that looks slick.

 

[jimmydean]

The Moto X and Moto G were both high on my list. The Nexus 5 is such a sweet phone for the price, but it was just too big for my taste. If they built a Nexus 4 or 4.5 with 4G and Verizon I would have bought it in a heartbeat.