Recommend me a new smart phone

[New Frontiersman]

So, I'm finally taking the plunge and getting a smart phone. I don't really know what I'm looking for though. I was hoping the Escapist might have some suggestions.

What kinds of phones are best? What are the differences between them. Are there any I should especially look at? Any I should avoid?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[EvilRoy]

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

 

[Parasondox]

If you do want to go through incredibly pricy with shitty battery life phones, get an iphone

Don't forget, if you drop an iphone 2cm from the ground, the screen will smash and cost you so much to fix it. Oh, even with a case it will still develop a cracked screen. Look at those you know with an iphone and ask if they have ever had the screen smashed or still do.

 

[Artina89]

I currently have the Samsung Galaxy S6 and I am very happy with my purchase thus far. I would recommend Samsung electronics overall, but that is because I am a little bit of a fangirl for Samsung products, but I just find them reliable, which is all that I really want.

 

[devotedsniper]

If you don't mind big phones the Nexus 6 I haven't had any issues with it.

Big Vibrant 2k Screen, 2 day battery life (regular use, 4 if you don't touch it), huge performance and no bloatware as it's OS has been left untouched. Really can't find anything to complain about it.

Looks great too and it's definitely the best phone I've used in the past 5 years.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

The xperia hardware is great, unfortunately the phones themselves have bad support (or no support now I think) and are rather fragile. A guy I work with has one and he's had he screen break on him from minor drops 3 times.

I personally really like my motorola droid turbo. It's a bit too big and it tends to heat up a bit but the hardware is really powerful, the camera is amazing for a phone, and the battery life is fantastic.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'd say start with something simple, a cheap budget model without a lot of the fancier bells and whistles.

What does that boil down to? The ?130 costing Motorola Moto E.

It ain't very fancy, mostly functional for basic smartphone usage. Software-wise for instance it has a nearly stock version of Android, with the latest 5.1 version of Android coming soon/already on it, which is quite impressive considering it being a budget model. That saves on a lot of fancy bloatware and graphical shells, leaving a clean and simple user experience.

Hardware-wise you get a surprising amount of stuff for ?130, or your regional equivalent. Is it top-of-the-bill? Hardly. But a 1.8Ghz quadcore CPU, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage with room for a microSD card is quite something for that kind of money and more than enough to run every basic smartphone app you'd need smoothly.

What helps too for a first-time smartphone user, I think, is the fact that it ain't all that big. A 4.5" screen isn't small either, but it won't swamp you like many higher-end models will. That more modest hardware suite also makes for impressive battery life for a smartphone, again especially for that kind of money; I can last around two days with modest app usage. Don't expect a superb camera either, but it does the job for the odd pic you send through WhatsApp to someone.

What do I use mine for (though I have the 2014 version)? Online banking, maps and GPS, WhatsApp, the odd bit of Netflix and Youtube, Spotify, news apps, tracking fitness progress, checking emails, audio books, you know the drill. And the Moto E does all those basic things flawlessly. The smaller size also seems to make it a little more rugged, it's also splashproof, and less prone to breaking its screen, which is nice for a clumsy oaf like me.

Do you want something a little more beefed up that's a little fancier? For around ?50 more you have the Motorola Moto G which is a little bigger, with a little bigger screen, little better hardware, camera, etc. There's hardly better budget models out there and they offer a great first-time experience.

 

[otakon17]

I got a Samsung Galaxy J1 under Verizon. $79.99 to $99.99 to buy the phone and $45 to $60 to activate the service, no contract. It's not super powerful(chugs a bit on Battleheart Legacy) when it comes to 3D gaming but beyond that? Runs fast, runs good. Only real downside is the lower resolution screen(tops out at 480p) and kind of crummy camera.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I recently spent $100 to get the LG F3Q off contract, a neat little dual core smartphone with a good camera, nice 4.1" screen, and a relic of olden days... A 5 row QWERTY keyboard! I can't believe I went 7 years without it. Touchscreens are not my forte. Only flaw I have with the phone is that it only has 1.5GB of internal space sadly. If you bloat it up with apps, you won't be able to touch the last 300MB due to updates it might get. Makes space management a bit rough. It does, however, support a 32GB SD card like I got.

Thing runs stuff just fine, has 4.1 Android I believe. Very smooth little phone~

 

[RicoADF]

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

This is what I recommend to everyone, Sony Xperia phones are by far the best devices you can buy. There is nothing that comes close except maybe the LG G4.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I used tobe a galaxy fan but after switching to the. Lg g3 and g4 i can't go back.

 

[New Frontiersman]

Get an old Samsung phone with crap load of battery life and a 3DS, you'll thank me later.
Edit: If you do want to go through incredibly pricy with shitty battery life phones, get an iphone, I turned to android and no day goes by I regret my decision.

Well, I already have a 3DS, so I guess I'm ahead of the curve on that one. Why do you think I should avoid Android though?

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

I did not know that perspiration from m leg could damage my phone. I'll need to remember that in the future.

I currently have the Samsung Galaxy S6 and I am very happy with my purchase thus far. I would recommend Samsung electronics overall, but that is because I am a little bit of a fangirl for Samsung products, but I just find them reliable, which is all that I really want.

Seems like Samsung is pretty popular, huh? I'll definitely have too keep that one near the top of the list when I go looking for phones.

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

This is what I recommend to everyone, Sony Xperia phones are by far the best devices you can buy. There is nothing that comes close except maybe the LG G4.

Oh? What do you think makes Xperias so great? I'm just curious.

 

[RicoADF]

Oh? What do you think makes Xperias so great? I'm just curious.

It's based off my experience ofcourse but the reasons are:
1) Waterproof - All of the Z series and even some of their other Xperia's are waterproof. While some may claim it's a gimmick I personally have found it reassuring that I can use my phone in the rain or when sweating and not having to worry about the moisture damaging the device (I have previously had a phone die because of rain). The Samsung S5 added this but the S6 has dropped it.

2) Streamline OS - Where as Samsung, HTC etc bog their phones down with extra stuff ontop (Samsung is especially bad for this, their phones don't run nearly as well as they should because of their UI overlay etc), Sony uses a mostly stock Android and tweak what's there then replace a few apps with their own custom ones which I, personally, find to be superior to other's I've used (Music/Videos/Pictures etc). They also tweak it elsewhere to work better.

3) PlayStation integration - I have most gaming systems, so having PSN integration is a nice bonus to me.

4) Durable and reliable - I have had the Z1, 2 and 3, none have had any faults and the Z2 survived a serious drop - I was running to the train and it fell out and hit the concrete platform at high speed, I didn't notice till the conductor brought it to me. I checked the phone and other than a scratch on the edge there was no damage and the phone worked perfectly. Please note it had no case, I had only owned it for a few days and had not had a chance to get one yet. While I'm not saying it's indestructible (no phone is), my experience is that it's sturdy and reliable.

5) Good hardware - the hardware in the phone is fast, both with a good processor, 3GB of RAM and expandable storage via SD card (Samsung has recently dropped this) and it's got a good camera and app to go along with it. Phone can shoot 4K video although I think that's overkill, the burst mode I found to be good (takes a bunch of photos for 3 seconds, good for when your taking a photo of motion so you can pick that perfect picture).

6) Long life - My phone always lasts over a day, often 2, without any issues. Obviously the demands you put on it will effect this but when I had a Samsung S4 it didn't last a day, yet with more usage the Z1/2 were able to last far longer.

Cnet review:
http://www.cnet.com/products/sony-xperia-z3-review/

 

[Jak2364]

The OnePlus One is a really good phone. It's no longer an invite only phone, Last years top specs, and the 64 GB version is only $300. You can probably get a used 16GB version for even cheaper (they no longer make those though so you can't get a new one).

Only negative I can think of is its battery life, but it might only be a problem if you have crappy cell coverage, cause that's what mine seems to use most of its battery on. I get through a day with about 50%-60% left, when I had an iPhone 5S I'd get through a day with around 80%, of course the 5S is a lot less power hungry than the One so it's understandable.

If you're looking for something really cheap, the Moto G and E models are also pretty solid, and so are most BLU phones.

 

[EvilRoy]

Personally because of my job I really like the Xperia line because of the great camera and top right camera button. They are also water and dust proof, so that will extend the average lifetime by a lot. People don't realize but the perspiration from your leg (if you pocket your phone) does slowly degrade the battery and internal parts.

Otherwise the newest samsung has the same waterproof rating I believe.

The xperia hardware is great, unfortunately the phones themselves have bad support (or no support now I think) and are rather fragile. A guy I work with has one and he's had he screen break on him from minor drops 3 times.

I personally really like my motorola droid turbo. It's a bit too big and it tends to heat up a bit but the hardware is really powerful, the camera is amazing for a phone, and the battery life is fantastic.

There is support still, of course better support for the newest editions, but on the older editions the updates really don't help or often hurt which does suck. I actually haven't had any fragility issues despite a few decent impacts, but I'm also typically an office person (or car-office person) so it is rare for me to test it.

I did not know that perspiration from m leg could damage my phone. I'll need to remember that in the future.

How sweaty of a dude you are will affect it greatly. Its gotten a lot better over the years, but you can actually still find stats showing that coastal cities have shittier phone life overall because of the higher humidity in the air doing a number on them.

 

[MeatMachine]

I've only had a Samsung Galaxy 3 and 5 as smartphones, but I've really enjoyed them. Might want to consider those ones.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I've used both iOS and Android. Without Android's custom ROMs, I would personally prefer owning an iPhone. From my experience, it runs better, is more likely to have the app I want, and is more respectful of user privacy (though Android M may help Android to some degree). Apple also takes serious issues more seriously than Google. (But really, when Android 5.0 released it was plagued with major memory leak issues, and Google took months to get an internal fix, and when they got that internal fix, they said they had no plans to release it quickly. And that's not counting various phone-damaging and security-related issues they've brushed off over the last year.)

However, because of custom ROMs, I do stick with Android. Right now I have a Nexus 5 running CyanongenMod 12.1, and short of Google's continued annoyance, I'm reasonably happy with it. Unfortunately, a Nexus 5 may be hard to come by, and the Nexus 6 lost a lot of the appeal. I have enjoyed Sony and LG phones the little I've used them, and they're the primary ones I'm keeping an eye on in case I need a new one (since it doesn't seem Ubuntu Touch is getting a phone in the states any time soon).