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Please help me pick a device

CrownMe

Newbie
May 17, 2011
17
0
Hi guys,

I'm finally upgrading from my G1, and I need a bit of help picking a device, and I was hoping some of the more experienced members may be able to guide me a bit.

1st of all, I'm located in Canada but am open to purchasing a phone from the States, as long as it's an unlockable GSM phone.

I just want a quick and reliable phone, good reception, good battery, that will hopefully last me a couple of years,

I basically had it down to three phones, but I'm open to any suggestions.

1) MyTouch 4G

- I really like the fact it has physical keys down at the bottom and a track pad, plus the notification led (which the caprivate doesnt have)... These small features are for some reason huuuge to me
- According to a few reviews and comparisons I hear its faster than the captivate
- Build quality is supposed to be great.
- Unfortunately I'm reading the battery is terrible (but this may not be a major issue for me as I currently do not have a data plan, and usually keep my brightness relatively low)

2) Samsung Captivate

- Great Display
- 16GB space included is great (although I dont plan to use my phone as a primary mp3 player or video player, but cant complain about extra space)
- Phone is sleek and slippery (I have a bad habit of dropping my phone, but thats nothing a nice case cant fix)
- A long time ago I had some really bad experiences with samsung and vowed never to buy one again. I dont know how well this phone is built, but I've been reading samsung still doesnt compare to the likes of HTC.

3) Motorola Atrix
- According to some reviews it can be a bit laggy (a huge no no, for me) Maybe custom roms will fix that though.
- Again I hear the battery is not great on this phone either.

I hear the G2X is great as well, but is just a bit pricey for me, but I might shell out some extra money if its really that much better.


.. Sorry I know sometimes these things are extremely subjective, but judging from what I've said, any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
 
Out of that list I would probably get the Atrix. Best overall future-proof purchase in my opinion. Nice screen, good memory, nice CPU. =)

I keep hearing bad things about Samsung phones myself but haven't ever owned one. So I can't comment on that but people seem to either LOVE Samsung or HATE Samsung. It's almost an Apple-Like mentality. I haven't figured it out yet...
 
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You're right on paper the Atrix is definitely the most powerful device. But some of the reviews that I read and watched on it had some complaints of lag, which really put me off. Also reports that the dual core was a real battery killer also put me off. But overall it looks like a great phone. And both of those issues, especially the lag, can probably be fixed with a custom rom.

The only thing working against the mytouch for me is that it apparently has a pretty bad battery life itself, and the screens not as big as the other two.

Samsung on the other hand, I've had a bad experience with personally a long time ago and I know two guys that purchased Vibrants and had them die on them twice within a month at which point they decided to go with something else. So the build quality is real concerning. And I'm planning to buy used so I dont really know how warranties and things like that will work, if it does happen to die.

But I guess no phone is going to be perfect... Thanks for your input man, really appreciate it.
 
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My friend has a MyTouch 4G and really dislikes it. I'm not sure why but he generally seems to hate the phone lol... I shouldn't speak to this being accurate as we're not very close and it could be a carrier issue or a personal preference issue. So take that statement with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, I also have a friend with a Samsung Fascinate and she loves it. However she is a very light phone-user. So things like build quality & hardware are less important to her than, for instance, the shiney amoled screen.

Finally, my "geekier" friend has an original Motorola Droid and seems to love it. It's pretty old but he loves to tinker and mess with it. He even overclocked it until it died and went out and bought another just like it. I've never heard any complains about Motorola Smartphones. So that is a plus.
 
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Thanks.. some personal insight is always good. I have a friend that's got the Fascinate and loves it to death as well. And he's a lot more into the whole mobile phone scene than I am. Unfortunately living in Canada I dont know anybody that has had any experience with the MyTouch.. and the Atrix is relatively new, so I dont know anyone that's owned one of those either.

I guess I'm going to have to do a bit more research on the Atrix. And then decide.

Between the Samsung and the MyTouch I'll probably go with the MyTouch, simply due to build quality. I drop my phone a whole lot (and thats my brick like G1) so I dont even wanna know what I'll do to that sleek Samsung phone.
 
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My Wife had the same concern when she went from her flip-phone to her smartphone. Luckily we've only had to replace it once LOL... :D

Good luck with whatever decision you make! I suggest you go into the stores and try to spend at least 15 minutes on each device just toying around with them. ;)

Good idea might give that a shot this weekend.

Thanks
 
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you should wait for the upcoming htc sensation if you can, that phone is really nice..

I'd love to wait another month, but my G1 screen is cracked, I can barely see the screen anymore, plus its starting to freeze up, so I'm honestly looking to purchase something within the next week probably.

But you're the second person to say that, so maybe it might really be worth the wait.

Thanks.
 
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I have a Google MyTouch 4G and it is an exellent phone, it has quick 4G speed, it downloads super fast so i can play with my apps within seconds! anoter great feature to this phone is that it has the talk and type feature which alows you to speak into your phone microphone and it will type what you say, that feature is mostly acurate. if you havent chosen your device yet choose the myTouch 4G and i guerentee you will love it! oh i almost forgot. it is known as a super smartphone by 90% of its owners
 
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I have a Google MyTouch 4G and it is an exellent phone, it has quick 4G speed, it downloads super fast so i can play with my apps within seconds! anoter great feature to this phone is that it has the talk and type feature which alows you to speak into your phone microphone and it will type what you say, that feature is mostly acurate. if you havent chosen your device yet choose the myTouch 4G and i guerentee you will love it! oh i almost forgot. it is known as a super smartphone by 90% of its owners

Well I dont have a data plan currently so I'm not super concerned with 4G speeds..

My major concerns is probably reliability, durability and longevity. As far as cool apps and features are concerned, I'm sure all of these phones have their fair share of great stuff.

But from my understanding and experience with HTC their build quaity is top notch and that's what really attracts me to the Mytouch as opposed to the Samsung.

But thank you for your input, it's great to hear from a happy Mytouch owner.
 
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Nooo!

Keep the G1, it's an antique device.

If it was me I'd never trade it for anything except for a proper successor of it (which doesn't exist)!

Ha, my wife is still using my launch day G1.

I recently got a G2X and am loving it. Some have experienced hiccups, but apparently a fix is coming soon for them. My experience has been great though.
 
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I'd love to wait another month, but my G1 screen is cracked, I can barely see the screen anymore, plus its starting to freeze up, so I'm honestly looking to purchase something within the next week probably.

But you're the second person to say that, so maybe it might really be worth the wait.

Thanks.

Ah, I see.. Yeah if you could manage it at all, I would definitely wait for the Sensation. That phone just looks too good. But out of your choices I'd probably go for the Atrix. And you've been talking of the myTouch 4G, I'd definitely grab a Nexus S over that if you could afford it and if you're not gonna go for 1 of the dual cores.
 
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So I've decided I'll give it a week, I hear they're making progress with the Atrix bootloader so if that's looking hopeful by then, I'll definitely go for the Atrix.

If not, I'll probably just go for the mytouch... G2x is just a bit out of my budget, and I can imagine the Sensation will be too.

.. I have a week so if anybody has any other comments or suggestions, it's always appreciated.

Thank you for all your input guys.
 
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I have a Google MyTouch 4G and it is an exellent phone, it has quick 4G speed, it downloads super fast so i can play with my apps within seconds! anoter great feature to this phone is that it has the talk and type feature which alows you to speak into your phone microphone and it will type what you say, that feature is mostly acurate. if you havent chosen your device yet choose the myTouch 4G and i guerentee you will love it! oh i almost forgot. it is known as a super smartphone by 90% of its owners

Ive been doing that on almost every android I've had...BTW I vote mytouch 4G. It's just not my thing since there is no keyboard
 
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Ive been doing that on almost every android I've had...BTW I vote mytouch 4G. It's just not my thing since there is no keyboard

I'm a keyboard kinda guy as well.. just didnt know which keyboard device to go with, so I just figured I'd suck it up and move on to an on-screen keyboard (which I hate, but meh thats life).

Thanks for your input.
 
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I'm a keyboard kinda guy as well.. just didnt know which keyboard device to go with, so I just figured I'd suck it up and move on to an on-screen keyboard (which I hate, but meh thats life).

Thanks for your input.

Not all software keyboards are equal. The HTC keyboard is one of the better stock ones, and there are plenty of fans of Swype and Swiftkey. The stock gingerbread keyboard is supposed to be much improved, though I personally preferred the HTC keyboard when I comparison shopped.

This coming from someone who held onto a Nokia E71 for waaay too long.
 
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Not all software keyboards are equal. The HTC keyboard is one of the better stock ones, and there are plenty of fans of Swype and Swiftkey. The stock gingerbread keyboard is supposed to be much improved, though I personally preferred the HTC keyboard when I comparison shopped.

This coming from someone who held onto a Nokia E71 for waaay too long.

I've tried a few.. but it's like anything else I guess.. Just takes some time getting used to.
 
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