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Deliberating what android phone to get!

dmakinde

Lurker
Sep 12, 2013
5
1
Hey all! So I got fed up of iOS and was disappointed by the windows phone, so I finally decided to cave in and get a droid. The thing is I feel a little spoiled for choice as to which one to get. I've done a fair bit of research and seen all the benchmarks, but since I'm not quite what you would consider a power user, a lot of the big numbers don't really mean a lot to me.

I would just like a nice, fast, premium phone that will last me a good few years and I have narrowed my choices down to the LG Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy S4 and the S4 mini. Ideally I would like something with the expandable memory, since my current phone has a micro SD card that I would like to carry on using, putting the two samsung handsets ahead, but I'm not particularly fussed if the phone can't do that, as long as the onboard storage is enough for my music and podcasts. I believe all together I am only using up about 10GB on my current phone anyway.

Battery life is quite important because while I'm not a power user, I also plan on getting the sony smart watch and ideally I wouldn't like the pairing to drain my phone's battery dead within an hour or two.

I would actively use my phone to listen to podcasts as well during my commute to work (the ease of which was probably the one thing my iPhone had going for it) so I would like a phone that could handle that well enough, but I suppose that is down to the OS rather than the hardware. I don't really care for mobile gaming, but that was probably because I was put off by the cumbersome windows phone store and as such, I may change my tune once I get an android device, but again, I don't see myself obsessively doing so.

The Galaxy S4's air gestures look pretty neat, but I don't see myself using that for more than a day or two to impress my friends, then forgetting the feature is even there. I'm quite a fan of large screens, to make use of screen real estate on the UI, but I'm not too bothered about the camera as I never really hopped on the instagram bandwagon (although that could also be because windows phones don't have instagram and as such I never got into it), and while that may change with an android device, I don't see myself using all of the S4s camera features, as neat as they are.

Lastly, I like a phone that is up to date. Again, while I'm not much for gimmicks, I like a phone that is as bug free as possible. I hear that since the Galaxy S4 is using the touchwiz variant of the droid OS, they receive their updates slower as they have to be adapted for the samsung skin, while the LG will get them as soon as they are available, which could mean that things like bugfixes and software features would hit the LG faster and who knows, among them could be something I like!

Thanks for reading this wall of text and I hope you all can help me out. While money isn't really a concern for me in this particular venture as all the phones are in my price range, I do acknowledge and appreciate the fact that the nexus is significantly cheaper, but that also worries me a bit as in a lot of (admittedly not all) cases you get what you pay for, and I'm afraid that a few updates down the line the nexus will slow down while the galaxy stays at top speed. So guys, what do you think?
 
Welcome to the forums and the good side!

:D

The top phones right now are the HTC ONE, LG G2, motorola X, and the Samsung S4.

( the S4 is the only one with an SD card slot)

I would try to play with each of those to get a feel for what you like. I'm with you in the fact that I don't like Samsung's gimmicky features. That's one of the reasons I prefer stock android like in the nexus devices.

The LG nexus 4 is an amazing phone as well, but there should be a new one announced within the next month. So it would be wise to wait on the new one if you aren't in a hurry.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I like the look of the Nexus 4 but without 4G Support, I imagine it's not very future proof. I could wait for the Nexus 5 to come out but I imagine since it's brand new, the price may be out of my range. Still, thank you for the advice. What I might do is get the Galaxy S4 and then root it so it effectively becomes a google play edition (the google edition is not available over here in the UK for now)
 
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Past pricing is no guarantee of the future, but I'd still bet on the Nexus 5 being a lot cheaper than the Google Edition HTC One or Samsung S4.

All advice is time-dependent and a matter of personal choice. If I were in your position right now I'd wait a couple of weeks and see what the Nexus 5 brings (price and storage). I'm not in your position - I bought a One a few months ago, don't regret it at all - but if I were, that's what I'd do myself. A Nexus is the best way of being up to date (especially if you don't want to go the root and custom ROM route), so if it meets your other spec requirements it's the way to go. And the N4 is almost a year old, and all the signs are that the N5 will be an impressive beast. Storage is always my concern on Nexii, but it sounds like you can live with that (and I personally hope that Google are going to get real this time and not prat around with 8GB phones!). So my own feeling would be to see what the N5 brings - if it doesn't meet your needs, then the other options are still there.

The S4 Mini is in a different class from the other devices discussed. It has an SD slot and is more compact, but it's a mid-range device using the flagship's branding to push sales, and not in the same category as the other devices we're discussing. I'm not saying it's the wrong choice, because these things depend on individual factors and preferences, but it's not really comparable to the others discussed here, and if that's a serious choice then we should IMO be discussing different competitors.
 
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Past pricing is no guarantee of the future, but I'd still bet on the Nexus 5 being a lot cheaper than the Google Edition HTC One or Samsung S4.

All advice is time-dependent and a matter of personal choice. If I were in your position right now I'd wait a couple of weeks and see what the Nexus 5 brings (price and storage). I'm not in your position - I bought a One a few months ago, don't regret it at all - but if I were, that's what I'd do myself. A Nexus is the best way of being up to date (especially if you don't want to go the root and custom ROM route), so if it meets your other spec requirements it's the way to go. And the N4 is almost a year old, and all the signs are that the N5 will be an impressive beast. Storage is always my concern on Nexii, but it sounds like you can live with that (and I personally hope that Google are going to get real this time and not prat around with 8GB phones!). So my own feeling would be to see what the N5 brings - if it doesn't meet your needs, then the other options are still there.

Wow that's a good perspective to have on this whole thing. While I'm eager to move away from the windows phone I guess there is no harm in waiting a few weeks for what the N5 brings to the table. A lot of people seem confident with good reason that it will be the right choice, but it will depend on how much it costs. I would prefer to just buy the handset out right without being tied down to a contract so if it's in the
 
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I like my Nexus 4. Fluidity was very important for me after having using a Windows Phone for a year and I can say that it runs extremely smooth and I don't think you should let the price scare you on this one. I was, too, bothered but this but it turns out it's probably one of the best smartphones I've used. And after using my previous devices I became spoiled on the premium look of devices as well so it's pretty much good all the way around.
It seems like you may be happier with a Galaxy S4, but I kind of was turned off the Galaxy series after using a Captivate Glide, GS2, and GS2 Skyrocket. I don't like touchwiz and the Skyrocket didn't run as smoothly as I'd liked. I thought I'd give it another chance so I started playing with my GS3 and it was still pretty much the same thing. So, I don't know. Others seem to be happy so to each his own.
As someone else pointed out, the Nexus 5 is coming out soon so you may want to look out for that. The cool thing is that while the Nexus 4 may end up being discont... it's still is one of the best and will continue to receive timely updates.
 
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