OK folks, so I might as well ask you all, since you might know better than me.
My Motorola Droid 4 is dying hard, and I’m up for a renewal on my Verizon contract.
So here’s what I’m looking for.
Musts:
Android OS, there are no perfect OS, but this is the one I like the best.
Good Battery Life. This is my biggest complaint on the Droid 4
Same size or slightly smaller than the Droid 4. This one sticks out of my shirt pockets. Bigger screens are nice, but a bigger phone than this is bad.
Decent Camera: Like a Pocket gun a phone camera isn’t the best camera in the world, but it IS the camera you’ll have on you all the time.
What I’d Like but probably won’t get:
Removable battery. Not many of these these days, and it does tend to make the phone thicker.
QWERTY Keyboard. Makes typing so much faster and easier, but again, not something that’s done much anymore.
Anybody got some good choices? Any phones I should avoid?
Thanks!
The Android users I know all rave about the Moto X. It’s supposed to be the best one out there at this time. I’ve heard the Galaxy 4 is too bloated up with crapware.
I’m tapping this out on a Moto X. Don’t love the camera, but when I bought mine it was the only high end android phone that wasn’t immense. The mid size and compact android phones typically have internals that scale with their screen size.
My Galaxy S4 has a good camera and the best battery life I’ve run into in years. But of course it depends on your usage. I’ve gone as long as 24 hours with light use. I don’t know how big the Droid 4 is, but this is one of the larger phones I believe. If I could get the phone to take a picture of itself I’d send one. 🙂
Mirror.
Have a look at the wiki page, it gives the footprint. Still I can look on other sights to get the size.
I like the HTC One series, good low light camera, but low resolution, they have some neat tech in their cameras, but it doesn’t really quite work out the way they wanted I think.
I have the HTC One Mini, which isn’t really mini at all, but it’s smaller than a lot of other options.
Any of the samsung 4 or 5 series (galaxy or note)
Removable battery , get an Anker (about 5x the capacity).
Runs well and as driods go fairly well tuned.
Don’t have one myself but have used them at work for the “platform”
and they work well. Even the note2 is pretty decent.
Eck!
I love my Nexus 5 since it comes with bare android, but it doesn’t meet the size requirements set. You might try a Galaxy S4 mini though, its smaller than the droid 4.
One more vote for the Galaxy Note 2. It is large-ish in the hand, but quite thin. I also recommend some type of screen protector; I have the faux-leather book cover that is part of a replacement back cover for the phone. My collegue (a former Note 2 owner) just got the Note 3. It is a bit thicker, has basically the same width and height dimension but manages a larger screen nonetheless. My battery life is consistently 24 hrs+ but I’m nobodies idea of a power user. The camera takes quite accepteble pictures and reasonable video (YouTube worthy certainly).
No idea about the Anker mentioned above, but that certainly looks to be worth a little google-fu to me.
I’d go with a Nexus 5 (or whatever the next Nexus is, if you can wait that long) or a Samsung Galaxy S5. The Nexus is a good phone and gives you stock Android. The S5 is a good phone, too, even if it does have that mucked up UI over top of Android.
If you’re willing to flash a custom ROM, CyanogenMod keeps up well with both those series of phones – I only had to wait a couple of weeks for them to release KitKat for my Galaxy Nexus. CyanogenMod is basically stock Android with a few usability tweaks, and works pretty well.
I think you’re going to have problems finding a phone that meets your size requirements – everything seems to be going bigger, and only the low-end models and iPhones seem to be staying small. There’s still a size difference between “phone” and “phablet”, but it’s not much anymore.
Have a look here
http://www.tested.com/tech/android/460979-best-android-smartphone-your-network-april-2014/
Thanks man! I’m wayyy better off than when I typed this post!
You all rule!
Not to criticize (thanks for the link, btw!), but did that article read to anyone else as “eleven slightly-reworded reviews on three phones – oh, and I recommend the Nexus 5 if your carrier has it”?
That’s the impression I got. I understand that most people will just read the section pertaining to their carrier, so everything needs to be repeated, but jeez….
Yep, but the guy does have to write them every month.
It looks like you’re hosed for QWERTY phones. 🙁
Here are the longer reviews for those phones
http://www.tested.com/tech/android/460927-samsung-galaxy-s5-review/
http://www.tested.com/tech/smartphones/460750-testing-htc-one-m8-android-smartphone/ (This one also links to the video review)
Wait!
Here is your perfect phone…
http://xkcd.com/1363/
😀
I’m drooling pretty hard over the specs and price of the Oneplus One. It’s got a close relation, the Oppo Find 7A. It’s a very large phone though, 5.5.” The HTC One M8 is supposed to be the best phone out now. The Moto X has some really nice features, good price, and is a little smaller. It’s a good choice if you want smaller android.
The bigger question is what network. I’m also on Verizon, but their data access is bad at work and voice is bad at home, so I’m thinking I’ll try T-Mobile next. My contract is up in July. If you can live with Sprint there’s a few MVNOs with very good pricing. Virgin Mobile has $35 / month unlimited, and Republic Wireless has some very interesting cheap plans that you can change on the fly. If you don’t use much you might be able to use FreedomPop for free. Usually MVNOs are limited to 3G but include all taxes and fees in their prices. IM if you have questions.