OT: Smart phone help....

[ABachelor6CR]

In July I can upgrade my mobile phone and was looking at getting a smart phone. I am one of the few in the US that still has a regular mobile phone.........

I want a phone that has a large screen and can hold a lot songs and audio books. I originally looked at the Droid DNA but found out that it only has 16gig of space and you can not use a SD card. My question is which phone is the best taking into account space and battery life??

My wife says to get the iPhone 5 but I can't afford that and I am not a big Apple fan....please help...LOL

 

[triaddukefan]

There is only one phone to consider..... The Samsung Galaxy S IV...... Thats the phone Im waiting for..... hope it will be in stores when i can upgrade in May. It will have a SD card slot.... will likely have a 32 G version...... a huge screen with full 1080 HD..... great camera... everything you can possibly want in a android phone. Another great phone is the new HTC One that will be out in a few weeks ...... its a bit smaller... but has a great build quality.

I assume you are with Verizon ???

 

[EricLA]

I have the Samsung Galaxy III and i love it. I'm not planning on upgrading any time soon since i don't need it and already have an Asus notebook that I love...

 

[UConnChapette]

I have a Galaxy S II. I love it and have never had a problem with it, with the exception of using it so much for music and surfing having to charge it very often. Solved that problem with an extended battery. Contract is up for renewal in August, and will probably upgrade to the latest and greatest Galaxy.

 

[ABachelor6CR]

There is only one phone to consider..... The Samsung Galaxy S IV...... Thats the phone Im waiting for..... hope it will be in stores when i can upgrade in May. It will have a SD card slot.... will likely have a 32 G version...... a huge screen with full 1080 HD..... great camera... everything you can possibly want in a android phone. Another great phone is the new HTC One that will be out in a few weeks ...... its a bit smaller... but has a great build quality.

I assume you are with Verizon ???

Yuuuup...Verizon-

 

[McHuskyFan]

I am one of the few in the US that still has a regular mobile phone.........

I, too, am still using a dumb phone. Not planning on spending the $$ on a smart phone anytime soon, neither!

 

[RS9999X]

Wait til July. Seriously. The market changes so quickly. If you want screen size check the Galaxy Note II for price cuts then.

Sent from my Lumia 920 via Windows 8. Now bite me Apple Droids.

 

[Husky Love]

I have the Galaxy Note II and its incredible.

 

[triaddukefan]

I have a Galaxy S II. I love it and have never had a problem with it, with the exception of using it so much for music and surfing having to charge it very often. Solved that problem with an extended battery. Contract is up for renewal in August, and will probably upgrade to the latest and greatest Galaxy.

I have the Galaxy S...... Loved it, and never had a problem with it............. until the past month or two....... its has crashed alot lately.... usually when im using the web on my phone.... or when Im playing Angry Birds.. Luckily only 2 more months until i can get another one. I was dreading that the new IV wouldnt come out til the summer or fall.... cause Im really ready to get a new phone..... but the buzz is that Samsung will introduce it in the Spring. That new HTC just announced looks awesome..... and if it wasnt for the upcoming IV, I'd surely get that one. I will say the HTC phones have a better build quality than the Samsungs.... Metal vs Plastic....

 

[pap49cba]

My wife and I both have iPhones. Yes, they are expensive but FWIW in our experience Apple's customer support is OUTSTANDING. My wife's phone started shutting down intermittently soon after she got it. They thought it was an overheating issue but weren't sure. It didn't matter because they replaced it with a new phone with no questions asked. And they paid for expedited shipping so we had the new phone two days after I spoke with tech support who were really switched-on young people based in North Carolina who spoke English. Probably Duke grads.

 

[FairView]

I have the Galaxy S...... Loved it, and never had a problem with it............. until the past month or two....... its has crashed alot lately.... usually when im using the web on my phone.... or when Im playing Angry Birds.. Luckily only 2 more months until i can get another one. I was dreading that the new IV wouldnt come out til the summer or fall.... cause Im really ready to get a new phone..... but the buzz is that Samsung will introduce it in the Spring. That new HTC just announced looks awesome..... and if it wasnt for the upcoming IV, I'd surely get that one. I will say the HTC phones have a better build quality than the Samsungs.... Metal vs Plastic....

I can't imagine being happy with a phone that gives you problems during the last 4 months of a two-year contract. True, iPhones are expensive and others have caught up, but you can't beat Apple's service, attitude and accountability.

My wife's iPhone 4 started taking blurry photos. We walked into the Apple store and made an appointment with a Mac Genius in 10 minutes. We saw a bright helpful man who diagnosed the problem (my wife had scratched the lens cover), retrieved a replacement part in two minutes, made the repair as we stood there and sent us on our way. No charge for a warranty repair, even though we had clearly caused the damage. And he pointed out that if the warranty had expired, our cost would have been $19. I should also mention that we did not buy our phones at the Apple store, we got them at Verizon. They take care of their stuff and the quality is there. I have a couple of friends still using their original iPhones.

 

[bruinbball]

I have the Note 2....AMAZING! I have the Best Buy service plan - not my favorite, but I had to use it within 3 days of buying the phone. One other thing to keep in mind, if you do upgrade and there is a Best Buy around, pre-register your number with them - you will save an extra $50 when you upgrade and they price match Amazon filled orders as well. I walked out of Best Buy spending $295, upgrading my phone from the s3 to the Note 2 and my wife's old Droid 3 to the IPhone 5. Good luck. If I had any patience I too would have waited to see what the s4 offered. It's specs being shown now are simply off the charts.

 

[triaddukefan]

I can't imagine being happy with a phone that gives you problems during the last 4 months of a two-year contract. True, iPhones are expensive and others have caught up, but you can't beat Apple's service, attitude and accountability.
.

Well I did say I loved it (past tense). Ive thought about just slamming the phone on the ground to break it.. and just filing an insurance claim to get a new phone.... but i figure I might as well just deal with it as is. Really the only frustrating thing about it is I really dont play Angry Birds anymore. If I do.. it will invariably crash and then Im like Just have had to find other outlets to pass the time away.... like perusing the Boneyard via Tapatalk

 

[DaddyChoc]

I, too, am still using a dumb phone. Not planning on spending the on a smart phone anytime soon, neither!

Im with you but we're being forced into going "smart"... the basic stock is very limited

 

[DaddyChoc]

does the data (internet) plan mean anything to you?

 

[triaddukefan]

Yuuuup...Verizon-

Well you can forget about the HTC One..... apparently Verizon passed on it... all the other carriers will get it. Ill check it out when it hits the stores.... I doubt it can sway me away from Samsung.... but we will see.

 

[cardfan]

I've had every iPhone since inception. I use other Apple products (Macbook Pro and iPad) so it's a very easy platform and interface with iOS 6. I currently have the iphone 5, which I like a lot. I use it without a case because it is so light and nice looking. I do carry a morphie battery pack because the battery will drain less than a day if you use pictures, video, text, email (like at a bball game). You can get the 4S for $99 with 2 year contract. I pay for the device. but my work pays for the monthly plan (AT&T), so can understand concerns of high monthly bill.

 

[Man-Man]

I've had pretty much every phone then got with the iphone in 08, loved it, well made functional, ease of use, after years of apple products I switched to the Galaxy Note 2 primarily for the largerscreen for web browsing. Iphones function a whole lot smoother but the Galaxy phones give you more bells and whistles with larger screens. The perfect phone would be an iphone with a Galaxy sized screen without all the apple restrictions.

 

[gibhunter]

Razr Maxx HD has 32GB of storage, ability to add another 32GB with an SD card and the best battery life of any smart phone ever made.

 

[Drumguy]

In July I can upgrade my mobile phone and was looking at getting a smart phone. I am one of the few in the US that still has a regular mobile phone.........

I want a phone that has a large screen and can hold a lot songs and audio books. I originally looked at the Droid DNA but found out that it only has 16gig of space and you can not use a SD card. My question is which phone is the best taking into account space and battery life??

My wife says to get the iPhone 5 but I can't afford that and I am not a big Apple fan....please help...LOL

Since budget seems to be an overiding issue - get the previous version - so for example, wait until the Galaxy SIV is lauched and then buy the Galaxy S3. Or pick up an iPhone4S. While it's not the latest and greatest, they will still be very good phones, and the best bang for the buck.. Anythng you get will be a vast improvement.

 

[60'sfan]

Razr Maxx HD has 32GB of storage, ability to add another 32GB with an SD card and the best battery life of any smart phone ever made.

I have the Droid Razr Maxx HD too. I have to recharge it every 3 days. It is amazing.

 

[RS9999X]

There's new players in town: the computer manufactuers are getting involved.

ASUS (the builder of the Google Nexus 7) is offering their version of the Nexus 7 with metal casing, a Micro SD card slot, and a SIM slot for off contract usage. $249.00. A bit large for a phone unless you use a blue tooth ear accessory.

Since I am a Windows 8 Phone fan I may as well add Verizon has the Nokia 822 for free with 16 GB of memory. The win here is the ability to add a 64GB Micro SD card (refurbs on ebay are under $20.00) for 80 GB total memory. Not shabby at all. If reading Kindle and subscribing to Spotify Premium are your thing and you want to load videos and music on cheap SD cars its a pretty good way to go. App store is sitll way behind Android. OTOH in 3 months its grown substantially and in July it might be worth a look.

Safest bet is the already mentioned Galaxy S III which should have plenty of 32 GB refurbs available for free come July.

Then there' the Kindle Fire 7" HD with SIM slot rumors for November and Microsoft offering an HD Surface Pro 7 with SIM cards slot come Holiday Season.

Soon-- a data plan free-for-all with Verizon and ATT trying to hold to the present "rape, pillage, rob and gouge" pricing model.

And yes the already mentioned Galaxy Note II. A Note III is one the way come Summer and the Note II should be fairly cheap as a refurb come late July.

Lots of options coming. All of them with the shelf life of a firefly

 

[psconn]

Since budget seems to be an overiding issue - get the previous version - so for example, wait until the Galaxy SIV is lauched and then buy the Galaxy S3. Or pick up an iPhone4S. While it's not the latest and greatest, they will still be very good phones, and the best bang for the buck.. Anythng you get will be a vast improvement.

I've been using a Galaxy SIII since they were brand new. Great full-featured phone. Not sure what additional goodies the SIV will have but you can't go wrong with a reduced price SIII.

 

[bruinbball]

I've been using a Galaxy SIII since they were brand new. Great full-featured phone. Not sure what additional goodies the SIV will have but you can't go wrong with a reduced price SIII.

Apparently an 8 core processor

 

[MilfordHusky]

I love my iPhone 4S. Most of my BY posts are done on it.

Wait! Maybe that's not an endorsement!