New Smart Phone Question

[false_Aest]

I hate that I can't delete certain apps off of my iphone.
I hate the sound quality.
I hate the itunes navigation.
I'm not a fan of the interface.
I hate that I get reminded multiple times a day to update my software -- every time I do it, my phone gets slower.
I hate that it doesn't have a slot for additional storage.

On top of it, I'm just hating Apple lately (I want to be able to upgrade my HD. I want to be able to upgrade my RAM. I don't need a flippin touch-thingy, I need my function keys back. I don't need iCloud, I need my machine to be upgradeable).

Unfortunately, I'm on the Apple platform at work and at home. The last time I used an Android phone the communication between the two was "meh" at best.

So what do you do?

HTC was hot **** for a moment.
Samsung's new phone looks promising if it doesn't burn my gentleman's sausage.
Google's Pixel is rad but there's glass on the back?
The Huawei I saw in China looked promising but I'm scared.
Does Nokia even exist? Motorola?

Can I just get my Darth Vader flip phone back please? Can we just move back to T9 texting?

Help?

[Cicli]

I am dumb enough to just stick with my ifone

Its bliss.

[nash]

Could you really go back?

[dustyrider]

Which iPhone are you using?

[vqdriver]

same reasons i jumped from the apple ship. too many updates (and their seemingly endless patches to updates) that bricked phones or slowed them down.

on an s7 now and couldn't be happier. s6 before this and i had the google pixel for a hot minute before i decided i couldn't stand the giant G app on the homepage. it is not removable or hideable. no thanks. returned it day 3 and went with the s7. if you don't like obligatory apps, you won't like an obligatory app that's quadruple the size and unmoveable.

hardware wise, i felt that they're all similar. the samsungs just feel sleeker and better made in the hand. the pixel had probably the most intuitive fingerprint reader (on the back) and it worked really well. lg phones seem oddly organized to me but i don't think any of them really fall behind in processor/memory power. no one beats the samsung cameras tho. so if you're one to use your smartphone as your primary camera you'd be hardpressed to beat a galaxy.

fwiw, my wife is married to apple universe and uses the 7plus with the dual lens. it sucks donkey balls.

edit - i have the s7 edge. the edge function is style and nearly zero function. if i could do it again, i'd get the regular to avoid fat fingering all the time

[ultraman6970]

Got an asus phone to my wife that had a quad or an 8 core processor and the thing just flies for less than 200 bucks with the last andriod version installed. She is happy with it, almost the same than a samsung phone for a lot less.

Hawei phones arent bad but so far I have not tried the high end stuff from them but what ever andriod phone you get I would advice you to delete all the weather cr@p software that is running 24/7, that is some of the ones that kills the phones IME. Same with games but looks like you arent into games, right?

I have not tried apple stuff ever but hackingtosh.

[Mzilliox]

I am still using a flip phone but ill soon buy a smart phone so i can use a bike computer, haha. its getting to the point that other gadgets i wouldn't mind having require one to also have a smart phone, which pisses me off, but is what it is. so i guess ill join the world of smart phones, but am also curious as to which one... sounds like not an iphone, which is good, because as a phone nobody can get service at my house with their crappy little, mini, useless, not good at anything in particular computer, almost phones i phones.

of course my flip phone is crystal clear anywhere on the property.

[Tony T]

[Frikki]

I moved over to google's Fi service a few months back with a Nexus 5x and am never looking back.

I average ~$35/mo for service. The android OS, after the two week learning curve, is much more intuitive than ios ever was to me and the phone is perfectly adequate, for $300 retail.
The rest of my devices are all apple, but I really I use airdroid if I ever need to actually interface with my phone, not using the phone.
Use VLC as the music/media player of choice.
The camera is a little slow but takes lovely pictures, if that's something that matters

[old fat man]

I've been on Droids for 5 years or more, never owned an iphone, until last week. I have a Pixel for personal use and was moved from an HTC to an iphone 7 for work because our mobile app is no longer supported on Android.

1. The pixel is great, the glass back is not a worry, i have a rubber skin/case on it anyway
2. I really like the G app, whatever it's called. Shows me relevant updates on things I care about (even though it is alarming to realize just how "smart" your phone is)
3. This iphone is absolutely horrible. Keyboard is horrible, navigating between apps is horrible, accessing Settings is horrible, customizing the home screen(s) is basically impossible
4. I am shocked that Apple has as much market share as it does

[Red Tornado]

Youngest son finally came over to Android from the dark side about 6 months ago. Loves Android, said he will never go back to Apple & wished he made the switch sooner.
We are now an Android family.
I understand if you're locked in to the Apple/Mac thing with work, home computer, etc. But if you can reasonably make the jump - do it.

[maxdog]

Originally Posted by Mzilliox

I am still using a flip phone but ill soon buy a smart phone so i can use a bike computer, haha. its getting to the point that other gadgets i wouldn't mind having require one to also have a smart phone, which pisses me off, but is what it is. so i guess ill join the world of smart phones, but am also curious as to which one... sounds like not an iphone, which is good, because as a phone nobody can get service at my house with their crappy little, mini, useless, not good at anything in particular computer, almost phones i phones.

of course my flip phone is crystal clear anywhere on the property.

What he said.

[tiretrax]

Razor was the best phone I had. My children love their IPhones. I think they drink the cool aid that all their peers are consuming. No complaints about Samsung phones other than their shelf life. I haven't been able to get more than 3 years out of a Galaxy. My wife uses a Note 7 and won't give it up. Apparently, there were three production runs, and hers was in the second run that didn't have many problems. She'll let them buy it back when the next Note comes out.

[fiamme red]

I'm still using an LG flip phone.

[tylercheung]

Say what you will about Apple, but I have never really felt the need to upgrade anything on the smartphone, and since most data is on the cloud these days, it's different from my desktop. Their system works for me better than most Android phones I've used, and I've found the hardware and software to just be better overall. Not perfect but I don't like having to fiddle around w/ Android type settings. I guess its the psychology of what you are going to do with it but for smartphones, Apple's "just work" philosophy really shines for me, whereas for desktop, sometimes you do need to be able to fiddle around with things, swapping out drives, video cards, etc. Apple's decisions tend to be opinionated, and work for who they are building the phone for....but if you want to have swappable/upgradeable hardware and switch low level interface settings on/off, then they are probably not the right phone for you.

That being said, the few times I used Google Now, it was pretty slick...the voice recognition is still better than Siri's. I think the secret sauce to android is all the fancy algorithms that google bakes into it for day to day productivity, some of that is pretty nice.

Addendum:
*battery life got much better once I got rid of the Facebook app. That thing was/is a piece of crap. Seriously, went from having to recharge at 4 PM to a charge lasting 2.5 days....anecdotally, this is also true for some of my Android-using friends...