Another 'which phone' is best for me

I moved this thread to the subforum where device comparisons are discussed.

... Thom

drtrigsman said:

Hi guys,

Long time user, first time poster.

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Welcome.

*Streaming /broswing - I know this has a lot to do with reception - I'm on T-mobile in WA state.

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It also has to do with how far (in internet distance, not in miles) you are from the server you're streaming from.

*No Lag - looking for a true multitasker. I have a hard time getting this out of benchmarks. I really think you can only measure this hands on. Like the brilliance of a diamond vs. it's 'specs'

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High CPU speed, multi-core, lots of RAM. Oh, and realistic expectations. This isn't a Super-Blue, it's a phone. Playing World of Warcraft while searching for the next prime number is going to make a Commodore 54 look like a Cray 2.

*Reception

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They don't publish ANY specs you can use to determine this. (Guess why.) About the only thing you can go on is what your friends in your area see. I had a great little starter phone. Worked great everywhere. Moved a few states. Walked into my daughter's house. No receptopn unless I went to one particular upstairs window, held the phone against the glass, horizontally. And then it was poor.

But back where I bought the phone I couldn't find a dead spot if I paid for one.

With my current phone (and carrier - that changed too), I make and take phone calls wherever I am. But I chose the carrier based on where I'll be, THEN I chose which of their phones I preferred.

*Camera - specifically low light & long distances & also video (goodies i enjoy are real time zoom and snap shot during video)

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Personal opinion. The cheapest little digital camera will take better pictures than almost any phone camera. If I think I'm going to want pictures, I throw the camera into my pocket. I think it cost me under $50 a few years ago. If I blow a picture up to 16X20 I can see that it's not a Hasselblad. But it does 8X10 pictures very nicely. And videos. And a wooden match is enough light to get a decent picture of someone lighting a campfire.

Although my wife has been taking a lot of pics of the new couch to let the family know how the redecorating is going. With her Note 3. And they're pretty good pics in a dimly lighted room. (A few actually look like they were taken with a flash, but they weren't.)

*Battery life

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Form your battery. (I don't let them set my phone up with MY battery. Use one of theirs or use a charger, but you don't drain my battery until it's been properly formed.) Fully charge it until the phone tells you to disconnect the charger. Use the phone normally until the phone tells you to charge it. Plug in the charger and fully charge it. 3 cycles like that - 3 charges, 3 discharges. I know that industry sites I respect (I worked for some of them) tell you that this is nonsense, but my V551 "go to when the real phone has to go in for repair" feature phone (did you know that cellphones have cameras now?) still has the battery it came with in 2002 (or was it 2003) and I still get full life from it. I have a few other, slightly younger phones, that also have fully working batteries. Maybe I'm just doing it at the right phase of the moon, but I'll keep doing it.

*Weight/size. - They're all about the same.

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Well, not actually, but that's a personal thing. Go into the stores where they have working models, or at least dummies that weigh about the same as the real phone, and handle them. Personal taste is ... well ... personal. No one can tell you what you prefer.

My daily driver is a Note 3. Big screen (cataract in one eye that's not coming out for a while), fat fingers so I need a keyboard spread out (And the S-Pen makes it easier to hit the key I'm aiming at), FAST CPU and lots of RAM, so just about nothing I run lags. (I run a few apps that would lag on any phone, but I don't judge the 0-60 speed of a VW Bug when it's hauling a house trailer.) That's me. You might hate the Note 3. If he Notes didn't exist, I might have bought an S3 or S4.

If the S3 is working for you for reception issues, why not the S4? Very solid phone and the only one out there that I'm aware of with the multi-window feature (which is however limited to certain apps). Also, if you currently use MicroSD then you're going to be very limited in choice.

The other one I would look at, particularly for T-Mobile, is the Nexus 5, but that's because of the cost and the reviews. I can't add any personal experience.

The problem is that smaller phones tend to be crippled with inferior hardware. I commented on that somewhere else just today.

I didn't own an S3, so didn't know it didn't have 2GB of ram. That seemingly makes a huge difference, but my prior phone was well over 2 years old, so it had inferior hardware in many other regards too.

If the Note 3 is too big, the second best contender would be the LG G2.

iTzKPanda said:

If the Note 3 is too big, the second best contender would be the LG G2.

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If camera/video is important, then don't get the G2. I know its gotten great reviews, but check out G2 videos submitted to youtube by users. Watch the jumpy auto focus on all videos and listen carefully to the poor audio quality. Background noises sound like the video was taken underwater or in a cave.

I loved everything about the G2 untill I used the camera. Then I get rid of the g2