Will you be staying with iPhone for your next phone?

[0dev]

For me personally I like the GS3 better. Simply because LTE is a compromise I thought at first I could make(going years without it) but realize after having it, that it's a tough trade off. I absolutely LOVE the Nexus 4. The user experience is second to none. It's just buttery smooth, and pure vanilla Android is second to none. However, I realized that in real world usage that I really missed LTE. For most people that don't have great LTE coverage like we do in Texas, I'd say go with the Nexus 4. The only trade off there would be non expandable storage(user replaceable battery has never been a selling point for me). The only problem I face, is that I can't seem to part with my Nexus 4. The user experience is just too good to let go of, and I find my sim card making it's way back in the N4 for a few days every so often. Hope that helps.

It does, thanks. I don't have LTE anyway so that's not a concern for me, and I do like the vanilla Android user experience my Nexus 7. The non-expandable storage worries me though since I currently have a 16GB iPhone and it's pretty much full. Plus I dislike glass heavy designs because even though they look and feel better they're far more prone to damage.

What do you think of TouchWiz on the GS3? I've played with it a bit and I was quite impressed, especially when I compare it to the crappy old versions of TouchWiz, but what's it like to actually live with?

 

[matttye]

It does, thanks. I don't have LTE anyway so that's not a concern for me, and I do like the vanilla Android user experience my Nexus 7. The non-expandable storage worries me though since I currently have a 16GB iPhone and it's pretty much full. Plus I dislike glass heavy designs because even though they look and feel better they're far more prone to damage.

What do you think of TouchWiz on the GS3? I've played with it a bit and I was quite impressed, especially when I compare it to the crappy old versions of TouchWiz, but what's it like to actually live with?

Touchwiz is awesome (other than S-Voice ).

If you read a lot of articles/books/whatever then Smart Stay is a really nice feature.

The home screens themselves aren't that much different to stock Android. You can always install a different launcher if you don't want them anyway.

There's a 'hide apps' feature so you can hide the stock apps if you don't use them and keep the app drawer free of clutter.

I had very few complaints with my S3.

 

[0dev]

Touchwiz is awesome (other than S-Voice ).

If you read a lot of articles/books/whatever then Smart Stay is a really nice feature.

The home screens themselves aren't that much different to stock Android. You can always install a different launcher if you don't want them anyway.

There's a 'hide apps' feature so you can hide the stock apps if you don't use them and keep the app drawer free of clutter.

I had very few complaints with my S3.

Awesome, thanks

The only real reservation I have with the S3 is the sudden death problem, especially since I'd probably buy a used phone. As I understand it, the latest version of the firmware fixes the problem, but if the phone's been running on the old version for a significant amount of time the damage could already be done. If I buy a used phone I have no idea if it's spent a lot of time on the old firmware and the memory might die in a few months.

Aside from that though I am very tempted.

 

[Zerilos]

Not arguing, just trying to understand.

How can you talk about profit on the phone when, by subsidised, the phone is bundled with the contract (in other words, the monthly payments are covering that subsidy - plus a lot more).

The same resale value applies to the unsubsidised phone (in fact it may be higher as the unsubsidised phone wouldn't be locked to a network).

Ignoring the entire cost (phone + monthly subs) is very foolish.

But since you're paying the monthly fee even if you don't upgrade, it doesn't matter. In the USA the plans that offer lower rates if you provide your own phone come with far inferior service to my experience.

 

[0dev]

But since you're paying the monthly fee even if you don't upgrade, it doesn't matter.

What he's saying, though, is that it's cheaper to buy the phone outright and pay less for your service every month than to buy a subsidised phone and pay a larger monthly cost. And he's right. I always buy my phones unlocked and used or refurbed for this reason.

 

[tekno]

What he's saying, though, is that it's cheaper to buy the phone outright and pay less for your service every month than to buy a subsidised phone and pay a larger monthly cost. And he's right. I always buy my phones unlocked and used or refurbed for this reason.

Exactly. Thanks - I was beginning to question myself!

 

[0dev]

Exactly. Thanks - I was beginning to question myself!

No problem

It seems to be a difficult concept for most people to wrap their heads around when they're used to signing two year contracts every time they buy a phone

 

[tekno]

But since you're paying the monthly fee even if you don't upgrade, it doesn't matter.

By not upgrading you come out of contract and can then opt for a considerably cheaper tariff with your preferred service provider.

Subsidised phones are exactly the same as taking out a (very expensive) loan. All it's doing is allowing you to spread the cost across a year or two. Personally I prefer to save and pay up front. Doing that over the last fifteen years with cars, phones, washing machines etc etc., I suspect I've saved many thousands of pounds.

 

[Zerilos]

By not upgrading you come out of contract and can then opt for a considerably cheaper tariff with your preferred service provider.

Subsidised phones are exactly the same as taking out a (very expensive) loan. All it's doing is allowing you to spread the cost across a year or two. Personally I prefer to save and pay up front. Doing that over the last fifteen years with cars, phones, washing machines etc etc., I suspect I've saved many thousands of pounds.

You can opt for a reduced plan if you're willing to tolerate reduced services. With my provider (Verizon) there are no special plans for people having finished their contract. You could accept a reduced pan for a reduced fee but it comes with reduced minutes and reduced data. The plan I currently have is the plan I need, so even out of contract I'm not going to downgrade. For me, by not upgrading I'm essentially continuing to pay for a phone that's already been paid off.

----------

What he's saying, though, is that it's cheaper to buy the phone outright and pay less for your service every month than to buy a subsidised phone and pay a larger monthly cost. And he's right. I always buy my phones unlocked and used or refurbed for this reason.

I could purchase the phone outright; however the providers that would allow me to do so and save money have inferior service (way inferior). I'm with Verizon because the cheaper alternatives suck in my area.

 

[tekno]

For me, by not upgrading I'm essentially continuing to pay for a phone that's already been paid off.

Well that isn't very nice.

 

[0dev]

I could purchase the phone outright; however the providers that would allow me to do so and save money have inferior service (way inferior). I'm with Verizon because the cheaper alternatives suck in my area.

Fair enough if the only network that works well in your area is the one that locks you in I guess, there's nothing you can really do about that. I really do feel sorry for Americans when I have these conversations, the phone plans over there are truly terrible.

 

[TacticalDesire]

No problem

It seems to be a difficult concept for most people to wrap their heads around when they're used to signing two year contracts every time they buy a phone

Im using an unlocked phone and I'm not locked in and getting raped by a two year contract. I was simply stating what mist people do

----------

Fair enough if the only network that works well in your area is the one that locks you in I guess, there's nothing you can really do about that. I really do feel sorry for Americans when I have these conversations, the phone plans over there are truly terrible.

Yes they are!

 

[Zerilos]

Fair enough if the only network that works well in your area is the one that locks you in I guess, there's nothing you can really do about that. I really do feel sorry for Americans when I have these conversations, the phone plans over there are truly terrible.

I agree. We pay more for our service and generally not as good as it is in the EU nations.

 

[ChrisTX]

It does, thanks. I don't have LTE anyway so that's not a concern for me, and I do like the vanilla Android user experience my Nexus 7. The non-expandable storage worries me though since I currently have a 16GB iPhone and it's pretty much full. Plus I dislike glass heavy designs because even though they look and feel better they're far more prone to damage.

What do you think of TouchWiz on the GS3? I've played with it a bit and I was quite impressed, especially when I compare it to the crappy old versions of TouchWiz, but what's it like to actually live with?

I actually don't mind TouchWiz at all. I never had any qualms with skinned Android, because before the GS3, I had no prior experience with Android at all. So I didn't really know what was part of the OEM skin with TW, and what was essentially Android. With that being said, the processor, and 2 gigs of ram make this phone plenty fast, even with TW. The camera settings Samsung has added are excellent, and the look, and feel are easily replaceable with any number of Launchers available in the Play Store. In the end, I haven't actually found the user experience to be THAT much better on the n4 vs. the GS3. In the end 16gb of storage on a high end smartphone in 2012/13 is just anemic. I have a 32gb micro sd card in my GS3 coupled with the 16gb of on board storage which is more than enough for me. Sooner, or later my N4 will make its way to craigslist, or ebay.

One more thing, to comment on the build quality of the 2. The N4 feels a little more premium than the GS3, but with my case on my GS3, they both feel about the same. In my opinion, it sounds like your decision is between stock, and Skinned. However remember, there's always root, and flashing custom roms...

 

[daveathall]

I actually don't mind TouchWiz at all. I never had any qualms with skinned Android, because before the GS3, I had no prior experience with Android at all. So I didn't really know what was part of the OEM skin with TW, and what was essentially Android. With that being said, the processor, and 2 gigs of ram make this phone plenty fast, even with TW. The camera settings Samsung has added are excellent, and the look, and feel are easily replaceable with any number of Launchers available in the Play Store. In the end, I haven't actually found the user experience to be THAT much better on the n4 vs. the GS3. In the end 16gb of storage on a high end smartphone in 2012/13 is just anemic. I have a 32gb micro sd card in my GS3 coupled with the 16gb of on board storage which is more than enough for me. Sooner, or later my N4 will make its way to craigslist, or ebay.

One more thing, to comment on the build quality of the 2. The N4 feels a little more premium than the GS3, but with my case on my GS3, they both feel about the same. In my opinion, it sounds like your decision is between stock, and Skinned. However remember, there's always root, and flashing custom rome...

I also have both and find the above very fair comment. Neither of mine are LTE which in my case doesn't matter as there is no LTE in my part of Northern England. I am struggling to sell one, IMHO, they are that close. What I will say is that either one you pick is a superb device, you wont be disappointed.

 

[0dev]

I actually don't mind TouchWiz at all. I never had any qualms with skinned Android, because before the GS3, I had no prior experience with Android at all. So I didn't really know what was part of the OEM skin with TW, and what was essentially Android. With that being said, the processor, and 2 gigs of ram make this phone plenty fast, even with TW. The camera settings Samsung has added are excellent, and the look, and feel are easily replaceable with any number of Launchers available in the Play Store. In the end, I haven't actually found the user experience to be THAT much better on the n4 vs. the GS3. In the end 16gb of storage on a high end smartphone in 2012/13 is just anemic. I have a 32gb micro sd card in my GS3 coupled with the 16gb of on board storage which is more than enough for me. Sooner, or later my N4 will make its way to craigslist, or ebay.

One more thing, to comment on the build quality of the 2. The N4 feels a little more premium than the GS3, but with my case on my GS3, they both feel about the same. In my opinion, it sounds like your decision is between stock, and Skinned. However remember, there's always root, and flashing custom rome...

I also have both and find the above very fair comment. Neither of mine are LTE which in my case doesn't matter as there is no LTE in my part of Northern England. I am struggling to sell one, IMHO, they are that close. What I will say is that either one you pick is a superb device, you wont be disappointed.

Thank you both

 

[ChrisTX]

Thank you both

You're welcome, good luck in deciding!

 

[3bs]

My HTC Sensation fell apart physically then stopped connecting to phone networks properly, and the battery life was consistently awful. Plus it had this design fault where if the top of the phone around the headphone socket got stretched (which it did very easily) then headphones wouldn't work properly.

That's put me off HTC and it helps me to see why their marketshare and sales have been falling as of late. Sloppy build quality.

Besides, despite having an official unlock tool from HTC out, you still can't get full S-OFF without hacking, which is ridiculous when Samsung doesn't lock their bootloaders at all.

Maybe I should keep using my 8X for a few months and see how it holds up before praising it so much

I went through three and none of them were good. My first HTC 8X wouldn't recognize any SIM card, so I exchanged for another. The second one had dust under the screen. The third one had a green tint to the screen and looked really bad.

I like Windows Phone 8, except for a few minor gripes, but I gave up on the HTC 8X because build quality issues seem to be common with HTC devices. Also, the flex of the screen bothered me. Just using the screen normally I could see ripples when touching it. I could see that on all three of them. You can force it to happen by gently squeezing the sides of the device, but I was seeing it in normal usage. People are reporting dust and rippling issues on all HTC phones. They may not all do it, but there are some serious QC problems.

I'm sorry to hear you had such bad experience with HTC and the 8X. So far my only issues are with the OS and that's Microsoft's fault for the most part.

 

[JediZenMaster]

I'm a lifer when it comes to the iphone i will always stay with iOS however, I have a galaxy s3 also and I love android equally as much.

Both platforms excel IMO

 

[onthecouchagain]

I think it's interesting that we're starting to see plausible evidence that there will be a "low end" more affordable iPhone coming later this year. If it turns out to be true, what will the naysayers do that said "Apple won't and will never produce a lower end iPhone"? Their worlds' must be collapsing.

If true, it'll also be made out of :gasp: plastic.

And I wonder what Apple's definition of "affordable" actually means. It'll be interesting to see the price points and what specs you'll get for this iphone.

 

[ybz90]

I have heard variously that the Nexus 4 has LTE hardware, but haven't followed on whether or not people have been able to activate it in a usable form.

 

[0dev]

I think it's interesting that we're starting to see plausible evidence that there will be a "low end" more affordable iPhone coming later this year. If it turns out to be true, what will the naysayers do that said "Apple won't and will never produce a lower end iPhone"? Their worlds' must be collapsing.

If true, it'll also be made out of :gasp: plastic.

And I wonder what Apple's definition of "affordable" actually means. It'll be interesting to see the price points and what specs you'll get for this iphone.

"Affordable" to Apple will be £300 at the very least. They won't go lower than that.

It'll be interesting to see what an iPhone built specifically for the mid range market will be like though. I hope they put more effort into it than they did with the iPad Mini.

 

[jojoba]

I'd really like to have everything integrated into the same eco system, but I will be staying with Samsung next to my Air and iPad. I don't like the screen size of the iPhone, and more importantly, I can't stand the keyboard. I tried it again in an Apple shop the other day, wishing that my feelings would have changed - but I just find it such a pain in the butt to write on compared to SwiftKey for android.

 

[Zerilos]

"Affordable" to Apple will be £300 at the very least. They won't go lower than that.

It'll be interesting to see what an iPhone built specifically for the mid range market will be like though. I hope they put more effort into it than they did with the iPad Mini.

It looks comparatively priced to the N4. Apple should not go cheap.

 

[jrswizzle]

"Affordable" to Apple will be £300 at the very least. They won't go lower than that.

It'll be interesting to see what an iPhone built specifically for the mid range market will be like though. I hope they put more effort into it than they did with the iPad Mini.

Lol what does this mean? Because it doesn't have a retina display? Are we really so demanding?

For the price point, fitting a retina display with the current tech into the form factor they adopted would have been near impossible....

IGZO is the answer to this, but won't be available (in the quantities they'd need) until later this year.

Even without retina, the mini is a great little device. Having owned both the iPad 4th gen (which I'm considering selling) and the Nexus 7 (which I've already sold), the mini is my favorite - adding a retina display would just be gravy!