What phones do you love and hate?

#24

Long time Android user.

Started out with Verizon, then Sprint, T-Mobile and ATT.

Dropped the huge bill from ATT and moved to Metro PCS.

I’ve always liked Samsung devices since they came out. Have used the S3, 4 and 5. Samsung has consistently met the all the aspects for me: camera, features, cost and uniqueness.

I recently started a new job as a Mobility Coordinator for a large company and all of their users are on iPhones. The company issued one to me and I have been using that now for 6 months. Yikes, was my first thought! I am totally impressed with the phone using it and supporting it. What? Another device that meets all aspects? No way!

With Metro PCS you have limited devices to choose from and you have to pay for the phone up front. One reason I have not got the S7 or an iPhone. Metro recently came out with the ZTE Zmax Pro at a bargain price of $99 and their first 32GB phone. I read all the articles about this phone before it came out and recently dumped the ol S5 and bought the ZTE. I like this phablet. It is huge but looks right in my big hand! Everything I researched about this device was dead on.

So now I’m Android and Apple. I may just have to drop Metro and go back to a major carrier and get an iPhone. I just like them much better now.

#25

Galaxy s7. Great hardware but awful software.

#26

Always wanted to be able to change and tweak things. I knew the camera was often lacking but these past couple years have really flipped that and at the moment i’m using a Nexus 6P. Switched from a V10 and have been loving these cameras. Also love the screen size and being back with my front facing speakers is so great.
Personally hate iphones because of lack of tweaking straight out of the box. There also really isn’t variety in software feel. I understand you could jailbreak it but even then there’s limits.I’d easily recommend it to family and friends but its just not a personal preference. And as far as the future is concerned with usb protocol Android is far ahead with most phones adopting type-c connectivity. Forward-thinking like that lead to widgets… something just recently adopted by apple the past couple years.

#27

There are so many phones out there, it begs the questions which is the best. That’s what I think we are trying to get from this topic.

Android is one of the best systems out there. The only problem with Android is the silly layer each company adds to the top to make it their own. Samsung for example, have a bundle of bloatware apps which can be disabled to make your phone a little quicker. But I digress…

If you want a great phone, there are really only two processors worth looking at right now: Snapdragon 821 and the Kirin 960. I have checked out mobile phones using both these processors, and here are my two options… Yes two, I am looking at these two for my next mobile phone (purchase in the next two months).

  1. Huawei Mate 9 Pro rocking the Kirin 960
    http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/mate9pro/index.htm

  2. Xaomi 5S Plus
    http://xiaomi-mi.com/mi-5s-plus/xiaomi-mi-5s-plus-high-edition-6gb128gb-dual-sim-gray/

Both phones come with 6Gb Ram which is MORE than enough to handle whatever you throw at it, and they both have dual cameras. I feel Chinese phones are ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and affordability. The specs they provide, if you got the Samsung variant would cost you the same as an iPhone. I live in the UK, and offline phones are VERY expensive.

Good luck finding the right phone…

#28

Wow, that is some impressive. I like it a lot, I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive. Here in Canada it is $1275.00 and the Galaxy s7 edge is $800

#30

So I think you’ll find if you can get it imported, it should be cheaper. I am having a friend bring mine over from China. I think it works out to be £660. But I decided after much deliberation and research to wait, also with my budget. Decided to go for the Xiaomi Mi5S Plus… Cheap (almost) as chips…

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#31

It’s Android. You can change it!

#32

Because I got SAMSUNG as a gift twice in my life. I didn’t went back to it but had to use it coz I had no phone and got gift of smasung fone and that’s it. Ok u don’t believe it, just get a samsung and experience it. But without having iPhone usage experience, u can’t compare.

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#33

I love my Samsung galaxy s7 :heart_eyes:

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#34

I remember the good old days when my Nokia would require only one charge every 5-7 days. Those were simpler times.

Smartphonewise, I’ve used the Nokia 5800, an LG Android, then I moved to iPhones. And I probably won’t be going back.

Yes, Apple products are a little pricier - and I mention “a little” because you have to compare specs to compare prices, and the top Samsung phone/notebook cost about as much as the iPhone/MacBook. But they have, for me and my family - and also a bunch of my friends - one quality that Android in general lacks: ease of use. I don’t care that the latest gimmick is present on Androids for a decade. I care that it’s advanced enough for regular use without having to think about it.

That’s the thing for me. Apple products, in general, allow me to take fewer decisions on my daily life. I don’t have to worry about some app working or not working, as long as I have the latest iOS installed - and the OS life of an Apple product is a great advantage. When I’m home, where most of my tech is from Apple, everything just works. I have to send a file to my wife’s notebook? AirDrop takes care of it in seconds, nothing to think about. I want to move my music from my computer to the Apple TV? Also done in seconds. Show a photo in my phone on the TV? Easy. Nothing to install, nothing to configure. It’s there and it works.

The camera is a little worse than the best Android phone? So what? It’s still an excellent camera. The screen has a lower resolution than the Galaxy? So what? It’s a perfectly bright and visible screen with more than enough resolution for it to appear like a printed paper. You can’t customize it? So what? most people don’t, even when they can.

People tend to think of Apple as a tech company. Well, it is, but it is much more a marketing company. Apple rarely is the first to come with a new tech. It usually refines existent tech. FaceID is a prime example: other phones had face identification before, but those were unsafe to the point you could fool it with a photo. Apple just expanded on the concept with infrared 3D measurements, making it a bit more safe, and then creates the greatest buzz around it. Not new, but better. So, when I buy an iPhone, I know it has tech developed to the point of being reliable. Of course, not everything is failproof, and there are bad things about any device you choose.

All that said, ultimately you almost can’t go wrong buying top phones of any brand. You have to buy into the “OS ecossystem” with any choice you made, but that’s a burden of modern times, I guess.

2 Likes
#35

NEXUS 6P

● Camera: It have full HD and razor image!

● Features: One of the first, if not the first, to have the finger reader on the back

● Cost : I got it at 300$ it was a good price since all phones were 500$ or more

● Uniqueness:The look, its sexy! The 2 front speakrs, the finger print, even the glass on the camara. I love it! Its a pity the pixel become ugly…

#36

I hate the LG G5, as the power button breaks often and the cost is not worth the value. However, the camera is quite brilliant, and it can withstand shatter in its focus. It is unique in its awful lag and support of bad programs.

#37

I am an Apple guy and always will be because of their great OS and usability, Also they usually do well in all categories but have been behind lately on new features. The new X has changed that with face ID, the lack of a home button, and the wireless charging. One thing I hate is the AUX being gone but its not the end of the world with the AirPods and other Bluetooth heaphones being so prevalent. Overall great phones in my opinion but I would be willing to switch if a brand got me a brand new one to try out!

#38

I got the S8 two months ago and absolutely love it, maybe even more than my HTC. Still dislike my Ipad air.

#39

I am curious what kind / type of mobile / smart phone is the most used / liked ! So let us start an internal survey.

So I start with my phone: no joke, it is true ! And I am happy with it, works fine, very good battery - but I confess - very, very old fashioned.

IMG_0928.JPG2048×1536 773 KB

Its a Nokia 2310, and it is - believe it or not - 20 years old and still in use - as my only mobile phone ! So for internet I use my laptop at home.

But now let us go for the survey. I am really curious !

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#40

What a good question :slight_smile:
So you can look at phone sales to see what is popular objectively.

image.png1105×554 56.1 KB

What you will get from a forum is a set of subjective views which would eventually accumulate and get you a different number, because the forum has a subset of phone owners who care about that forum. For example in geek forums you get folks who think far more about their phone than the average who just pick one in a store and use it til it stops working then repeat.

I currently operate 3 phones:

  • Oneplus6, it replaced Oneplus 3T, OnePlus2, OneplusOne. Why that? Cheap, fast, and unlocked bootloader and downloaded ROMs so you can root it to block ads.

  • LG Urbane 2 Watch. If i leave my phone behind calls divert to my watch so I have a “low tech” mode, usually when biking or walking and don’t weight of a big heavy OnePlus phone.

  • Huawei Mediapad M5 10.8 LTE. This is my most recent “phone” it is a phone chipset inside a 10.8" screen with big battery and big screen and a POGO connected screen. So electronically it is a phone, but it looks like a laptop. The reason is it uses lower end cheaper chargers and long battery life.

  • my backup phone is a Moto G4 Play. Cheap and supported by LineageOS to keep up with security updates.

As to hate, I hate the iphone as its non-innovating and overpriced for its technology, it is sucking revenue from what could be true innovation and just leads to expensive houses in Palo Alto. But I don’t hate the owners as many of them just want something simple and willing to pay the price and a phone is just a phone and respect just wanting something simple which just works.

What the objective sales is showing we’re hitting a plateau of phone usefulness, the limits of something which can operate in one hand and fit in a pocket means you struggle to innovate, there’s only so many choices you can make in a fixed size use case, So what is happening is signs the differentiation is on cost. Apple is saying this themselves of sales declining forecast.

Where I see the real pinnacle of innovation is in the new form factors, like in wearables. They really struggle with the functionality vs battery life. Compare with a phone which so long as you don’t try to get too thin a phone your phone will last a long enough time to you stop moving near a wall socket usually back home.

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#41

I have the Samsung s9 which I like a lot and I am a huge Android person. The google pixel phones are also nice since I have gotten the chance to play around on my cousins a lot. The camera on the new google pixel is really nice and of good quality in my opinion.

#42

camera :
I own a CANON EOS with different objective lenses:
Tele, macro and normal ones.
This is a must. :grin:
And of course useful image editor like GIMP.

mobile:
I have an old iphone, but dont use it. :wink:

#43

When it comes to the camera it is very important to me. Although I feel that Apple has created the perfect camera for phones. It has all the important features (namely bokeh effect) and provides true color scheme as opposed to Samsung phones. I find that Samsung phone have wierd colors to there pictures.

I like that Apple has a dedicated operating system instead of having an operating system that has to work with every phone. I feel like a dedicated operating system works best on the phone it was created for. Although, iOS has WAY less customization than android. I wish iOS had more customization.

Personally I love the design of the Apple phones with notch. I don’t like the Samsung phones for some reason although I can’t tell why.

Price is very important to me. I would have never bought an iPhone except for the fact I got it half off. Over 800$ for a phone is simply unacceptable. 400$ is much better.

I don’t know if this is being asked because anker is planning to make a smart Phone but I hope they do!

#44

The newer iPhones cameras are amazing. I can take pictures in my iPhone XR that are equal to my canon rebel t5i. It’s pretty amazing. The newer Samsung phones are supposed to have really nice cameras too. Although I don’t like the color scheme. I personally don’t like the google pixel camera.