1. Over USB or wifi to your PC, back to the new phone.

2. Drop box.

3. Picasa. I would have listed this option first but I've read people are having trouble with it, I am not though.

 

i would have them sync to my google+ account. it will store them all there... then when you get your new phone it will xfer them all right back

 

Google+ will store them with a lower resolution than picasa. Picasa also lowers the resolution a little bit, but not as much as google+.

Unfortunately I can't find any sources right now. I'll edit the post when I find them.

 

who said that? both google+ and picasa store your photos at original resolution. the thumbnails are downrezzed, but you have the option of downloading your pics at original full resolution. with google+ it's in the lower left corner under options. "download full size"

 

Correct that if you upload directly to Picasa your pictures are kept at full size, but if you use instant upload with G+ or even share pictures to G+ they are reduced to a max width of 2048 and I think they might even apply some additional compression. I just verified this with my own picture that have gone up via each method.

I sure hope that G+ photos becomes more like Picasa and not the other way around... I've been using Picasa for a long time to backup, store and share pictures.

Also +1 for dropbox if you just want to backup your pictures. Picasa is better option for sharing, editing, etc.