Help Me Pick My New Phone

I've had both and disagree so who is correct?

Seriously man, let it go. You act like you invented iOS or something. There's a lot of us that have had both and I think most of us have no problem admitting Android Devices are much smoother running with fewer problems.

 

I've had both. Android is way more integrated with apps and way more customizable. iPhone is way more stable and has much better battery life. I personally like my iPhone much better than the android based phone even though there are a few things that i miss.

 

Sig nailed it perfectly. That's the same thing I have found as well. Very well said.

 

Ok, bringing this back from the dead, rather than starting a new thread.

I have been with T-mobile for 10 years and currently have a Mytouch2. My contract is up in March and am leaning heavily towards switching to VeriZon because of coverage at my house. I am in 4G-LTE coverage based on VeriZons map, and only in "moderate" with T-mobile. I nixed my internet at home, so use my phone for the occasional surfing while sitting on the couch. My current phone obviously takes forever due to poor connectability(and it's an older phone), as well as horrible phone reception.

My priorities for the phone are:

1. Texting
2. Surfing
3. Getting email
4. Calling
5. All other crap.

I don't do music, and carry it in my pocket, so size may be an issue with the 4g phones. Pluses and minuses between the following phones?

Thunderbolt
LG Revolution
Charge
Droid Razr
Galaxy Lexus

After comparing them online, I think the Thunderbolt is where I'm leaning. I plan on Porting my work cell number to Google voice, and just having one phone for work(used very little) and personal.

My next big issue is if 4GB/month is enough(I currently use less than .5GB/month currently).

 

Oh God, don't do the Thunderbolt! That phone was a huge blunder.

Here's another LG Phone that's about to drop on Verizon, it looks like. Not bad specs.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/05/veriz...re-lg-spectrum-on-january-19th-report-claims/

I would actually say the Rezound (which you don't have listed) or the Nexus out of the current 4G phones.

 

What is the big issue with the Thunderbolt?

I had looked at the Rezound but forgot to list it. The problen with it, and the Galaxy and some others is that they are all 5"+. That is getting pretty big to carry around in your pocket....

 

The Thunderbolt was a blunder by Verizon to get an LTE phone out fast. It's been plagued with technical and software problems and software updates are already slowing to a trickle. It will be end of life in short order. I usually don't care about obsolete phones if they work, but this one has had issues from the beginning.

 

Oh, the Rezound is actually slightly smaller than the Razr, so that will help a little as well.

 

Never had any issues with my Tbolt, I love it :shrug


I would think 4gb a month would be enough, but it's hard to say, you might get on the 4g network and surf even more than you do now

 

I'm in the same boat. I've had an HTC Indcredible since they first came out and LOVE that phone - very small and fast. Since I cracked the screen a few months ago it's been wigging out on me, so it's time to move on. Out of all the new stuff, nothing jumps out at me. I'm finally coming to the conclusion that the tradeoff between 4g and size is not worth it. I think I'm just going to go with the Incredible 2.

 

I could see using more bandwidth than I do now, but not 5x as much.

I'm gonna keep the Tbolt on my list, till I find more cons towards it. I have 2 months for more stuff to show up, like the one jkhonea linked to.

 

I was figuring on not going 4g because I didnt think I'd have coverage at the house, but since in fact I do, I'd hate to not get a capable phone. The size is definetly an issue tho.

 

OMG...I am soooo right (sort of).

Though 4G DOES NOT actually exist yet. The phones and system that they currently call 4G are faster than 3G.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/14/132934022/what-does-4g-really-mean-anyway

If you don't want to read here is my main point: "Mr. ZIEGLER: Yes, yes, every American carrier was talking 4G there.

FLATOW: And is there a common definition for what 4G means?

Mr. ZIEGLER: You know, it's interesting. There actually is. There is a technical definition that's controlled by the ITU, which is a body that's run by the U.N. And people might be amazed to discover that no current network advertising itself as 4G actually meets those requirements."

 

I had a Galaxy Nexus for a week (long story; not the phone's fault) and while I like the new Android OS it's the 4G that really shines. It's as fast as operating on wireless at my home or office.

The downside was that battery life was fleeting. Apparently 4G sucks up alot of power and coupled with a gigantic screen it's quite a double whammy. But if you hop from charger to charger like I tend to do it's not a situation you can't live with.

CES is next week and I'll be watching the announcements. The first wave of 4G phones are out there so I expect the second wave to start addressing the shortcomings.

 

I use to be "xrated" until I Pissed off DaveK

Well, they can call it what they want, but I do know from experience that when my Thunderbolt is in an area that is 3G only, I am downloading at a rate of 2.3 to 2.6 and when I'm on the 4G LTE area, I'm seeing speeds in the 10.XX to 12.xx. I've had the T.B. since it came out back in the spring of 2011 and as stated in one of the other posts, if you optimize you settings and turn off the useless (to you) stuff, the battery life is 10 to 12 hours for me. I do probably 1 1/2 to 2 hours of web surfing a day on mine and especially since Verizon did the OTA update to Gingerbread a few months ago, the phone is virtually trouble-free and smooth. I've never used an Iphone of any generation so I cannot make a comparison to any of them, but I am well satisfied with the T.B. on Verizon's 4G network. I was kind of worried at first about the size of the phone (4.3" display), coming from a Samsung Omnia II (Windows based phone and quite a lot smaller), but I've gotten very accustomed to it. At any rate, Verizon now has, if I'm not mistaken, close to 175 or there abouts, 4G coverage areas in the U.S.

Oh, BTW, quite an interesting article that you linked in your post. I don't know how much has changed since that article was written in Jan. 2011, but there are ton more 4G phones out there with Verizon

 

I like this article:

Consumers covet 4G, the tech no one understands.

I'm on the verge of finally upgrading to a smartphone as well and I was originally in the exact same boat as the OP trying to choose which one. I'm pretty sure that it's going to be the 4S for many reasons, not the least of which is the size. The droids all just seem too big to carry comfortably in my pocket. Also, I haven't met a single person yet with an iphone that doesn't absolutely love it.

 

A coworker with an iPhone 4S (AT&T) and I with my Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) ran the Speed Test app on our phones over lunch one day. My Galaxy Nexus was 4x faster at moving data. I think onboard the phone the crop of dual processor models all run local apps very quickly. But what would worry me, and kept me from going with the 4S on Verizon, is the 3G speed with the overhead that is incurred by being tied to the cloud. That's a significant hit to data rates in my mind.

My wife has the iPhone 4S on Sprint (through work) and Siri is slow enough that I'd just rather type my questions. It's nice in the car when you can't type but otherwise it's been unreliable at delivering timely answers.

 

What is your overall take on the Nexus? I held one in my hand the other day and I was pleasantly surprised at how thin it was. Most of the other droids (except the razr) just seem too damn big and bulky to carry in my pants pocket.

 

It's big. It still fits in my jeans pockets or a jacket pocket but forget running with that beast. My only other complaint was that the back is kind of slick and a few times I pulled it out of my pocket only to go chasing it with both hands to keep it from falling to the floor. Maybe it's me since I'm prone to awkward moments. I think a protector of some sort would've helped but I didn't have it that long. I did find the size more comfortable for talking on the phone though. Maybe because it's getting close to the size of the handset I grew up with on the rotary dial phones. Performance-wise I really liked it. The new OS is really a big step forward and I didn't have any complaints in any regard with it. The screen resolution is dazzling. The camera app is so quick you're not sure what happened but the picture quality noticable trails the 4S.

FWIW, the Razor just went on sale for $60 off and I'm betting the Nexus gets a similar discount by February. Too many new products hit the market to keep those introductory prices for too long.

 

The dude in the Verizon store had me watch an HD video of the Blue Angles for a few minutes on the Nexus. The color and sharpness of that screen is spectacular! :up:

However, I'm not sure how much streaming video I'd actually ever watch on my telephone!. Probably more than I think now, but...

That's why I'm a little baffled by the insistence for bigger and bigger screens (thus making bigger and bigger frickin' cell phones )

Yeah, yeah...

I'm sure that once I finally upgrade I'll eventually get to the point where I'll wonder how I ever lived without it (kinda like my DVR ) but for right now, even the 'smallish' screen of the iphone is a huge improvement over my Env2.