Is EDGE an option? I personally got my Note 3 but i use my more recent LG Lucid 3 (I often mistakenly refer to it as a G2 due to the nice UI it has being exactly like the one in the G2--LOOOVE IT!) more often and at work. it's a budget phone, only $300 without a contract, but despite that, it works extremely well, appears to be remarkably well-built (at my job that's important) and it doesn't lag or crash. hardly ever have to reboot it (only done so twice, once due to a memory leak that i later fixed by disabling the offending app, the other by letting the battery die), the UI is extremely polished and is one reason i bought it, and the battery lasts an entire day even with heavy use. Specs wise it mirrors the Brigadier a bit, same SoC iirc, only 1GB RAM but it does well.
I love that phone. it's not the most popular and is panned by reviewers, but it keeps the familiar consistency with my Samsung products due to the physical button design and similar UI design, while being a phone that i can afford to replace if it gets broken at work or on vacations. I really prefer the menu button vs. the recent apps button on later devices, including the G3. i also love the 3-D UI. not too many current phones have that except the Note 3 and i have to enjoy looking at the UI i use, and it has to remain familiar to me. the Lucid 3 also gets excellent reception--better than my Note 3 or G3.
I had a One M8 for a short time but returned it for three reasons:
1. The remote app took a few presses before my entertainment equipment registered it. aka, three taps of 'on/off' to turn the TV on, five presses of 'volume up' before it took on the TV.
2. the UI was crap. Blinkfeed is annoying, and the gesture controls worked with the screen off and locked, so in my pocket i would have my phone unlock straight to Blinkfeed, or activate voice actions, or randomly unlock. i think it's called Motion Gesture but it's uber annoying. the Touchscreen is too sensitive and it gets triggered by accident too often.
3. the hardware wasn't well-built. arguments for metal vs. plastic aside, the bluetooth in mine died outright in a week. my Android Wear watch just refused to connect to my M8, even after factory resetting both. they just refused to pair anymore. tried a bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager Legend) and it failed to pair as well. i attributed it to hardware failure. this was the main reason for return. i was still within my 14 days.
All in all the M8 felt outdated. the design is two generations behind, it has huge bezels, those speakers really don't feel worth the hype, and the screen is tiny compared to my Note 3. the screen color accuracy was pathetic. emphasis on green was high, while blue and red were very low. you can see this when you open the Play Store.
