4G Android phone megathread

[crystalline]

I've been happy with an external battery pack. If you carry a bag around you can throw this in and charge the phone in the bag in the middle of the day. Not the most slimline solution but it's off the shelf. Mine holds about 6 full charges.
Example
http://www.amazon.com/Capacity-13000mAh-Portable-External-Technology/dp/B00BQ5KHJW

 

[kelpapa]

I just down loaded lazy swipe. It's a favorites tool bar right by your thumb position. Seems pretty useful so far.

 

[Caspir]

Good find. That's a nice app for phablet users our people with small hands. It's not intrusive, and I've only accidentally activated it once. I love my Note, but once in a while I have to awkwardly turn it in my hand to swipe at the notification bar. This saves me the trouble.

 

[SoxFanInCali]

So, Samsung has decided with the S6 that style (glass and metal build instead of plastic) is more important than substance (removable battery, MicroSD Card slot, waterproofing are all out). That's disappointing.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Neither the new Samsung nor the HTC M9 seem to be wowing folks based on early looks - I still haven't pulled the trigger on something -

 

[NortheasternPJ]

So, Samsung has decided with the S6 that style (glass and metal build instead of plastic) is more important than substance (removable battery, MicroSD Card slot, waterproofing are all out). That's disappointing.

The edge looks amazing but pretty much impossible to even put a case on it. I'd imagine even with the newest gorilla glass the edge glass wouldn't be hard to crack.

 

[Orange Julia]

So, Samsung has decided with the S6 that style (glass and metal build instead of plastic) is more important than substance (removable battery, MicroSD Card slot, waterproofing are all out). That's disappointing.

So, it's an iPhone? I need to upgrade my SG3; perhaps I'll just get the SG5.

 

[SumnerH]

The edge looks amazing but pretty much impossible to even put a case on it. I'd imagine even with the newest gorilla glass the edge glass wouldn't be hard to crack.

 
Wow.  I think the edge is ugly as sin.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

I thought the edge was ridiculous until I saw how my coworker is able to leave it lying flat and still control his podcasts and read notifications. It's a gimmick, but having seen it in action it seems pretty useful.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Neither the new Samsung nor the HTC M9 seem to be wowing folks based on early looks - I still haven't pulled the trigger on something -

 
Did they upgrade the camera at least?  I still have a little while to go but I'm thinking of moving on from HTC after having three of them in a row.

 

[Remagellan]

I was intrigued by the idea of the Note Edge until I held it in my hand and found it uncomfortable, so I was curious to see how a double-edged one would feel.  But having removed most of the reasons for not getting an iPhone 6 Plus (removable battery, MicroSD card slot, waterproofing), I'll probably now just get an iPhone 6 Plus.  
 
Good job, Samsung!  

 

[Remagellan]

 
Did they upgrade the camera at least?  I still have a little while to go but I'm thinking of moving on from HTC after having three of them in a row.

 
It's a 20 MP camera, not the ultrapixel BS. 
 
http://www.htc.com/us/smartphones/htc-one-m9/

 

[SumnerH]

I was intrigued by the idea of the Note Edge until I held it in my hand and found it uncomfortable, so I was curious to see how a double-edged one would feel.  But having removed most of the reasons for not getting an iPhone 6 Plus (removable battery, MicroSD card slot, waterproofing), I'll probably now just get an iPhone 6 Plus.  
 
Good job, Samsung!  

Samsung not having those features doesn't mean that nobody does (the LG for instance just added back removeable batteries and microSD slots in the G3).

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

 
Did they upgrade the camera at least?  I still have a little while to go but I'm thinking of moving on from HTC after having three of them in a row.

Yes, but the reviews on the new camera suck. Even though it's lots of pixels, the images supposedly aren't very good. Perhaps a software upgrade will fix it.

 

[gars finnvold]

It looks like the Nexus 6 will be available for online purchase tomorrow for Verizon customers.  At least initially, they are only offering the 32GB internal storage memory version.  Is this a concern and should I wait for the 64GB version to become available?  I do not take a tremendous amount of photos and videos with my phone and the pictures I do take are stored to the cloud. I could download some music to store but I have an older iPod with most of my music library.  I typically carry both devices with me, so storing music is not too great a concern (but probably will be when the iPod stops working a week after I get the new phone.)
 
I am up for a renewal of my phone and have narrowed the choices down to the LG G3 and the Nexus 6.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Has anyone with Sprint figured out a way around this ridiculous ItsOn app battery drain issue? I've read articles and the forums and apparently Sprint just gives people the run around and blames HTC even though it's an app related to Sprint service.

 

[Orange Julia]

I can't wait much longer to replace my SG3 and I'm looking at the 5 which is bigger than I'd like but I'm sure I'll get used to it just like I did with the 3 I am wondering though about backing up all my data in a wholesale type of way as opposed to one app back up at a time. A lot of my stuff is on my SD card but some of it probably isn't. Should I just mount it to my computer, make a folder, drag everything in and then reverse the process, or is there an easier cloud-based kind of situation that I can use? I use my google account for almost everything I can so I am covered that way as well, but I do know there are some outliers on there. Thanks.

 

[Caspir]

Couldn't you share the sd main folder to your Google Drive, then just share it from your Drive back to the sd card once you pop it into the new phone? Would save you the trouble of plugging into a computer and doing the drag drop twice, which would also involve installing new drivers on your computer for the next phone you get before you can transfer everything back.

 

[jercra]

Are you rooted by any chance?  If so you can just use titanium backup.  It will back up your apps and your data.

 

[trekfan55]

I have an SG4 and I want an upgrade.  I usually buy unlocked phones as I need to switch out a lot of SIM cards when I travel.
 
I recently looked at the LG G3 and loved it.  Is it worth it?  From what I've seen I don't think I want the SG6.

 

[Caspir]

In case you didn't read about it, Verizon is pushing Lollipop to the Note 4 and rolling it out on Samsung devices. I had to manually check for updates, but it's downloading now.

 

[NJ_Sox_Fan]

In case you didn't read about it, Verizon is pushing Lollipop to the Note 4 and rolling it out on Samsung devices. I had to manually check for updates, but it's downloading now.

Good luck. Lollipop ruined my S5. Battery won't last 4 hours now with no use, and I get text messages hours after they're sent. Verizon says they're aware, but have no fix yet, and now my phone is essentially useless.

 

[Caspir]

So far, so good. Texts/calls seem to be fine. Will test the battery tomorrow, but I always have a back up power pack so two full charges should get me through even the roughest adjustment period.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

Good luck. Lollipop ruined my S5. Battery won't last 4 hours now with no use, and I get text messages hours after they're sent. Verizon says they're aware, but have no fix yet, and now my phone is essentially useless.

That's a Verizon problem and not a lollipop problem. Keep calling Verizon and bitching until they do something about it.

 

[NJ_Sox_Fan]

That's a Verizon problem and not a lollipop problem. Keep calling Verizon and bitching until they do something about it.

They sent a patch through, however that has not done squat. If any wireless service worked where I live as well as Verizon, I would leave them and never turn back - problem is, ATT etc have awful coverage in NJ (where I live). 

Bitching at Verizon is like trying to explain string theory to my 7 year old. 

 

[jimv]

Time for a new phone, and being an Android person I'm considering a Nexus 6 or Samsung G6. Uses, in order - email/text, phone, web, GPS, music, very occasional game play.  These phones are big enough that I might consider them as an e-reader, which would be very useful for me.
 
Any contenders I'm not considering? Any upcoming releases I might want to wait for? Any info/insight would be much obliged

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

I'm on the same fence. The Samsung is smaller. The reviews are very good on the Samsung.

 

[jayhoz]

The LG G4 is coming.  Note 4?

 

[SumnerH]

The LG G4 is coming. 

 
The G2 is what I have and it's awesome, my brother has a G3 and loves it.  They change pretty dramatically so there are no guarantees, but I'd be tempted to at least wait until the 28th (when the G4 comes out) and see how the reviews are, unless I needed a phone right now.

 

[jayhoz]

Yeah I have the g3. It isn't without it warts but the screen quality and the screen size to overall size ratio more than make up for them.

 

[jimv]

The LG G4 is coming.  Note 4?

the LGG4 looks interesting, I'm leaning towards a larger screen - all the phones are so big any size advantage is negated, imo

 

[jayhoz]

These two phones have the same screen size.
 

 

[jimv]

so 0.46 x 0.12 x 0.07 - those deltas aren't very meaningful to me. The smaller bezel does look better

 

[SuperManny]

I pulled the trigger on the Samsung S6 which should be delivered on Friday.

 

[jimv]

I pulled the trigger on the Samsung S6 which should be delivered on Friday.

Let us know what you think after you spend some time with it

 

[Valek123]

I love the screen and many features on the S5, but I haven't loved the first two needing to go back for extreme overheating or the fact that on the third I need to keep GPS disabled at all times or the battery goes dead in about 3 hours flat.  Love the phone, hate the GPS, battery and basically anything relating to heat.

 

[SuperManny]

Let us know what you think after you spend some time with it

 
It ended up coming in a day early so I've had it since around noon.
 
I'm coming from the S4 so the layout is similar although the interface feels leaner and sleeker, which may just be from the more recent version of android. The screen on the S6 is much brighter and easier to read than the S4 while on the same brightness setting. As expected, the S6 is noticeably quicker when opening/closing apps and browsing the web.
 
The phone itself looks and feels like it is made from much higher quality material, which is a big plus. The S6 is a bit taller than the S4 due to an increased bezel on the top and bottom, I'm guessing to support the finger scanner. The finger scanner works pretty well, better than I expected actually, but its still not as smooth as apple products. On occasion it takes a few attempts to read your finger correctly but it usually works on the first try.
 
A few other changes I noticed from the S4 seem to be that the power button is now about 1/2 inch lower on the right side and the speaker is on the bottom of the phone instead of the back which makes more sense so you don't muffle the sound. The camera on the back sticks out further on the S6, they also added a shortcut to the camera by double clicking the home button twice which is a great idea (again not sure if android or samsung though).
 
I've taken a few pictures to test out the camera and the pictures look very good so far. I've only made one call but the sound quality was solid. My S4 has been having battery issues lately so I'm looking forward to testing how well the S6 holds up with a full day of use tomorrow. As has been mentioned in all the reviews, there is no SD slot and the battery is not accessible in case either of those are a deal breaker for you.
 
edit: Thats a good point about the heating issue, my S4 would definitely get too hot when charging and doing too much processing at the same time. I did notice that when I was charging my phone and downloading a bunch of apps that the phone did heat up but not nearly as bad as the S4. When just charging it doesn't heat up at all.

 

[jimv]

Thanks for that. I'm no closer to deciding and still putzing along with my old phone First world problems I guess

 

[JerBear]

I am the resident HTC fanboy and I love my M8. My wife loves her M7. One of us will be getting the M9 with an update in the next few months. While the camera isn't great for everything that's why I have a DSLR. I know that's a deal breaker for some but it isn't nearly as bad as most make it out to be.

 

[SoxFanInPdx]

Went into an ATT store today and looked at the HTC M9 and the Samsung Galaxy S6. Really nice phones! Recently, my iPhone 4s kicked the bucket and I'm toying with jumping to the Android market. Tough choice.

 

[Orange Julia]

I went ahead and got the SG5 two weeks ago and am shocked at how I managed to survive with the SG3 for so long. And, I will note that areas that were previously No Data/No Phone (a several mile stretch of the Prince William Parkway are now LG4 the entire way. I kept my old phone and got a new line for it for work purposes, so I had both phones in the car to check the coverage. Very pleased with that. The battery life is terrific. I can totally get around the fact that it is bigger than my hand for longer battery and actual coverage (Tmobile)

 

[jayhoz]

The Verizon LG G3 Lollipop update is out.

 

[SoxFanInPdx]

I got the new Galaxy S6 yesterday. As a noob to Android (was a iphone guy), it's been pretty easy to pick up on. One thing I am missing so far a lot is the Podcast app on the iPhone. Any Android Podcast app that's equivalent to it that you'd all suggest?

 

[Foulkey Reese]

I got the new Galaxy S6 yesterday. As a noob to Android (was a iphone guy), it's been pretty easy to pick up on. One thing I am missing so far a lot is the Podcast app on the iPhone. Any Android Podcast app that's equivalent to it that you'd all suggest?

Spend the $3-4 and get Pocketcasts. It's well worth it.

 

[JerBear]

Spend the $3-4 and get Pocketcasts. It's well worth it.

100% agree.

 

[SumnerH]

Pocketcasts has some cool features that Podkicker doesn't (e.g. skip the first n seconds of a podcast, for ones with fixed-length intros/ads), but I found myself going back to Podkicker even after shelling out for Pocket Casts because the Pocket Casts UI felt a little cluttered and clunky.  Podkicker doesn't have many features, but it's simple and stays out of your way.

 

[Bunt4aTriple]

How does Podkicker compare to Sticher for anyone who's used both?

 

[SuperManny]

I haven't tried Sticher but I just downloaded Podcast Addict because I was getting sick of the Podkicker UI.

 

[SumnerH]

How does Podkicker compare to Sticher for anyone who's used both?

 
Stitcher forces you to stream everything, so it's a non-starter compared to Podkicker, Pocket Casts, BeyondPod, AntennaPod, etc.

 

[Bunt4aTriple]

That's not true. You can manually download any episode (although some shows restrict the number, like This American Life) and also set all of your favorites to download the most recent, which gets overwritten once the new episode is released.