Smartphones : who has one ? Favorite OS ? Brand ?

[DrThinkpad]

Title says it all.

As for myself, I own an iPhone, which I customized using a 3M carbon fiber skin and a black bumper. I like iOS and the stability it provides : I have no need for widgets, games or fancy stuff. I just need a good battery life.

[jronald]

I had a Samsung Aviator for 2 years, and was not really impressed. I then traded in about a billion loyalty points and got the Galaxy s4. Right now Im pretty happy. In 3 months it has locked down once, that a restart fixed, that was after no shutdown for at least 60 days. The aviator was restarted everyday, without fail. And I still had lock ups. Im a minimalist type, with only 4 or so extra apps.

Ron

[DrThinkpad]

Most people I know who use their smartphones a lot have very little apps, as it usually involves a lot of browsing/email.

Then again, YMMV

[pianowizard]

I too have very few extra apps on my Samsung Galaxy Note (1st gen). Last week the Amazon App Store gave me a $10 credit for buying any apps on the site. I spent hours looking for something useful and found nothing. I use my phone mainly for email and browsing the internet, and all I need for these tasks is a web browser.

My Note uses Android 4.0. I also have a Nokia Lumia 521 running Windows Phone 8.1, and an iPad Air with iOS 8. None of these operating systems beat Windows Mobile 6.5, which works almost exactly like a full-fledged PC. I used Windows Mobile 6.5 on my previous phone (HTC Touch Pro2) for 4.5 years. Besides having an awesome OS, that phone had a fantastic mechanical keyboard, which was so much easier to type than the Note's awful virtual keyboard. Too bad most phones don't have mechanical keyboards any more, with the Blackberry Passport being pretty much the only exception. It's also too bad that Microsoft replaced Windows Mobile 6.5 with a severely crippled Windows Phone 7.

BTW, I am pretty sure my next phone won't be a Samsung. This Note's micro USB port stopped working after just a month -- the phone was brand new when I bought it. After that, I have been recharging its battery using an external battery charger. *All* the other Samsung products I have ever owned also had various problems.

[Saucey]

I got a Galaxy S4 for Verizon due to the hype of last year and it is my first smartphone.

Initially I was impressed, got a lot of apps, but then the screen life and how hot the battery can get at times from charging is surprising.
Eventually I got tired of TouchWiz from verizon, I was able to root it, but it wasn't enough, so I tried a custom rom.
I was very happy with AOKP, I had Cynaogen Mod for awhile and it was cool but like linux distros, you tend to not settle on only one. The battery life was better and its performance was much better too, which was crazy because at the time it was supposidly good.
But Samsung had made it where the machine would overclock its CPU under benchmark testing, so it wouldn't truely perform that well in real life tasks.

After breaking it on accident while switching phone cases, I had gotten a replacement but I was stuck with the stock TouchWiz firmware again.
Eventually I was able to get away with installing HyperDrive on it, although it is not as great as AOKP, I am happy there aren't a billion apps running in the background eating the RAM it has.
It only accepts touchwiz roms now, which is crappy because its a performance hinderer. Its still a big sluggish too, but it a lot worse under the original firmware Verizon had on it. e.g. under the Samsung keyboard, I wasn't able to properly delete words, it would push the word back to the one before it and add a random character, at times it would just paste the word when I tried erasing it. Extrememly frustrating, I don't think I'll buy another Samsung phone again.

I do like the PPI of the screen, AMOLED isn't great outdoors, although I don't use it much outdoors, it sucks when I'm fumbling thru radio stations while running or when texting while walking.

Although I wanted a nice big phone, its too big, after I had used a Nexus 7, I found that screen estate doesn't really matter when it comes to mobility.
I used to have an LG Cosmos before this, and an LG Envy 2, I miss having a slide out keyboard to text with.

[ajkula66]

A (work-issued) BlackBerry user here. Happy with it and would probably buy one of their products as my personal phone if I had a need for one.

Having said that, if more users were like myself, cellular carriers would go out of business very quickly. My Internet usage is minimal, barely any texting and a couple of phone calls a day for the most part. If I really feel like talking to someone, I pick up my landline phone.

[jdk]

BlackBerry 10. Great OS, decent hardware, underrated because of the name. Moved here from Jolla, Android before that, and Symbian (my first smartphone). Highly recommended if you aren't already locked into one of the other platforms.

[ZaZ]

I pick up my landline phone.

Haven't had one of those since the 90s, but I have to get my roof done in the next five years or so and I might get a metal one, which could necessitate a land line due to the interference.

As for my phone, I've got a Lumia 820 and like Windows Phone a lot, more than iOS or Android. Like others I mainly talk and text(mainly text, cause who calls anyone these days?) on it with a few games for down time.

[Norway Pad]

Work issued iPhone 4 here. As this phone is work property, I don't touch it with a stick, so to speak. I still run IOS 5, and only a few applications that can be disguised as being useful for work, ie. ticket purchasing apps for train, flashlight, etc. I am generally not a Apple fan, so the corporate choice of phones has always annoyed me. But I have to say one thing: I have never had a phone that's been as durable as this phone. It's still on it's original soon-to-be 4 year old battery, and never a glitch with anything. Two years ago it was dropped, so the mute and volume buttons on the side stopped working, but the built in accessibility menu circumvents that.

As I have this free work phone, I couldn't justify blowing almost $1000 on a private phone. So I went with a cheap Samsung S4 replica from China, the N9500. If this replica phone is only 3/4 as great as the real Samsung, the S4 must be a really great phone. Both the OS and the screen. Unfortunately the mechanical parts of the knock off phone isn't very durable, so I have had to fix it a couple of times, and need to treat it with more care than the iPhone.

So as a summary: If I could have had a phone that combines the physical durability of the iPhone 4, with the Samsung size and an Android OS, that would be my dream phone. But for all I know, a genuine S4 might be just as durable as the iPhone 4, so in that case a Samsung S4 or S5 would be my ideal phone.

[Dekks]

Nokia Lumia 620 Win Phone - Replaced my beloved flip Razr, the Lumia is stock with no extra apps as i just use it as a phone, shocking i know. Great reception but the battery life is pretty poor, if i was a heavier user i might not be so happy.

[killer]

I bought a Nexus 4 from Google. It runs Android 4.4.4. Works a treat and wasn't expensive.

[RealBlackStuff]

My first (smarter than usual) cellphone was a Motorola E770v, which I brought over from Ireland in 2007.
However, where we now live in the Poconos, we only have just about the tiniest bit of AT&T reception,
and those two didn't like each other for some reason, even though the phone was unlocked.
So, being a senior citizen, I bought a Pantech C520 Breeze and got the same for my wife.
But since I rarely use a phone anyway, mine soon disappeared into a drawer.
The wife has been using that phone ever since, basically for messaging and an occasional call.
I got her a Samsung Captivate SGH-I897 in between, but that gave up the ghost after less than 2 months.
So she's back to using the Pantech ever since.
A few months ago my wife insisted that I start taking my cellphone with me whenever I go out.
It had been in that drawer for almost 5 years!
So I got the cheapest cellphone plan that I could find: Consumer Cellular from AARP at $10 a month, and no contract.
In the two months I have been 'using' my old Pantech again, I have already made 1 call and received 0.
What a waste...

[pianowizard]

Extrememly frustrating, I don't think I'll buy another Samsung phone again.

I have heard many Samsung phone users say this, and of course I said the same thing in my previous post. Samsung phone sales skyrocketed after the original Note came out, partly because it was the only brand with phablets at that time but also because the Samsung name was more recognizable than HTC or LG, and Samsung spent much more money on ads than any other brands. But Samsung phones had and still have poor quality (both hardware and software), so eventually Samsung phone sales began to drop. Many Samsung Note 2 and Note 3 owners plan on switching to the iPhone 6 Plus.

If HTC phones had removable batteries, I would have gotten one instead of my current Samsung Note. I use my phones heavily and their batteries do wear out fairly fast. The build quality of my HTC Touch Pro2 was incredible. Windows Mobile 6.5 was extremely unstable initially but somehow, after half a year or so, it was rock solid for four years until I retired that phone back in August.

[brchan]

I have a 2013 Motorola Moto G. Does pretty much everything higher end phones do, but for a fraction of the price. Excellent performance and display, though the camera is lackluster. It is also suprisingly durable and has been dropped quite a few times on solid concrete/asphalt (including on edges) with only a few scratches on the sides and back. This is without a protective case.

[Ibthink]

I have settled on Windows Phone 8.1 as its a perfect match with Windows 8.1

Hardware wise, I started once with a Sony-Ericsson J100i - that was my first cell-phone. In 2012 I got a Samsung Omnia 7 as a gift - as it grew older and because I was quite happy with Windows Phone, I replaced it earlier this year with a Lumia 925. Very satisfied with it!

[emeraldgirl08]

Primarily was a Blackberry user but am now using a Nokia Lumia 521. Bargain-bin phone but it is working out decently for my needs. Plan on a BB Classic or BB Q10 at some point in the future. What I miss about my BB 9780 is the LED notifications and the LED camera flash. An obvious determining factor for most folks is the keyboard. I find I have adapted to the touchscreen keyboard however I am nimble with the BB keyboard as well which makes me a keyboard dextrous gal

I do not have any complaints about the W8 OS. I also have not had any problems with the W8 OS nor the hardware on my phone yet. Nice thing about it being bargain-bin is that if something happened to it then it would suck less than if I had paid top dollar for it!

[600X]

I currently own a Lumia 630. Good build quality for the price and Win Phone 8.1 does the rest. I've dropped it many times already but it has a resistant thick plastic shell. My old shell has many scratches and marks but I replaced it with a new one so my Lumia looks like new again. These Lumia's are very durable because you can always change the cover if anything happens.

Otherwise, it's a solid but no fancy phone. The colorful covers (green, orange, yellow etc.) are an eye-catcher though.

[rumbero]

Am i really the only one using a Lenovo smartphone in this forum?

My first smartphone was a Motorola Defy+ running Cyanogenmod, but due to the limited battery running time i replaced it with a Lenovo P770.

Since they are not marketed in Europe, i had to order my chosen Lenovo model from Singapore. While also being pretty cheap, I mainly chose the P770 because it has a rather huge and also still removeable(!) battery which lasts about a week, depending on usage. It runs a custom ROM without any Google stuff, using f-droid.org and repo.xposed.info for any application needs. My favorite Xposed module is the XPrivacy privacy manager.

Other than that, i am not really happy with those smartphones, because it doesn't really feel like a tool i fully own and control, especially since the firmware is at best only superficially open, preventing full user control. Also, the user touch screen interface is a nuisance for real use, and i much prefer the flexibility and versatility of a real computer. Web browsing is something i absolutely dislike doing on any kind of smartphone.

It would certainly be nice to use a a real handheld computing device with full low level access to it's hard-/firmware, in order to also install a different alternate operating system instead of Android, and which also offers telephone services but which is technically separated from the computing device in order to prevent it from being hijacked.

The Neo900 would probably come closest to what i have in mind, but i'd rather buy a few ThinkPad's instead for half the price. Unfortunately a superior smartphone device wouldn't resolve the awkwardness of the user interface either.

[Hierax_ca]

Samsung Galaxy Note 1 has been great for me! My first cellphone/smartphone of any sort, I held off for years and years until I finally saw one that felt right. I've had it since the day it came out in Canada and my contact runs out in a few months, so I'll either ride it out until it finally dies or get a new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 because I've been so happy with the massive screen of the Note 1 and the cool pen stuff.

Only things I added to it were: a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset (awesome for calls and, listening to audio books) and an OtterBox Defender protection case making it nigh bullet-proof.

I've made a lot of bad decisions in life but getting these 3 things together have been nothing but good for me, highly recommend.

[killer]

Windows has stopped selling Win 7 and Win 8 according to reports on the BBC today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29880144

Therefore Windows on smartphones looks like it will depend on Windows 10 ... as yet unreleased. Good marketing?

iOS is only for iPhones. Very expensive. Worth it?

Android is free. Is cheap the best?

Lenovo have all their options open. They have just taken over Motorola. They aren't in the market in Europe which is a huge marketplace. Missed opportunity?

We'll see.

[Saucey]

Yeah, the otterbox case is a life saver, plenty of times I fumbled my S4 and that case takes most of the beating.
My phone broke when I was switching cases, now I make sure I switch cases on top of a table or desk.

I will be moving to a smaller screen phone (and holpefully a thicker device) when my two year contract dries up in june.
I would think thinner is better, but as my hands hold my phone, I've gotten pain from late night browsing/texting too long from using it in portrait mode.
I've never had the pain from gaming 24/7 when I was younger (currently 28 at the time of this post), nor just typing away while on a desktop or ThinkPad all day long.

If I could move the onscreen keyboard to the top of the screen, I'd feel there would be a more even weight distribution on my fingers than most of it on my indexes.
But this is due to me refusing to use the phone in landscape mode.

[ajkula66]

I pick up my landline phone.

Haven't had one of those since the 90s, but I have to get my roof done in the next five years or so and I might get a metal one, which could necessitate a land line due to the interference.

Well, there are several reasons that I maintain a landline apart from the fact that reception on my BB which is on VZW just outright sucks in my house. My wife does a lot better with AT&T, but that's not an option for silly old me.

Having lived through the NYC "brownout" in August of 2003 when *all* the cell towers in Brooklyn went down within minutes due to a major power outage - regardless of carrier - taught me a thing or two...

[ZaZ]

Well, if I live kitty corner from the hospital in town and they have a courtesy phone in the lobby if I'm desperate. I also can get free WiFi when mine is down, though the speed isn't all that great.

[ganon11000]

Nexus 4 for me. Most of it's use is watching YouTube when I'm not at my PC.

[GomJabbar]

My first smartphone was my daughter's hand-me-down HTC Inspire (my wife and daughter each got one of those new iPhone 5's when they came out last year). I liked the 2-year old HTC Inspire pretty well except that it was slow. The processor is getting long-in-the-tooth, and the Inspire is really only 3G capable (no LTE).

I bought an unlocked, unbranded, HTC One (M8) back in April from HTC for use on AT&T's network. I was disappointed with the internet speed until I realized it was not using the LTE band. After a couple of calls, I found out my line hadn't been provisioned for LTE even though I was on a family plan and the other two lines (the iPhone 5's) had LTE. AT&T couldn't provision my line for LTE from my HTC One's IMEI number, apparently because that IMEI number wasn't in AT&T's database. They agent tried to provision my line using one of the iPhone 5's IMEI numbers, but that wouldn't work. I had to coax an IMEI number from a coworker that had a Samsung Note (an Android phone) using LTE on AT&T's network. Fortunately by giving the AT&T agent my coworker's IMEI number, AT&T was able to provision MY line for LTE.

Anyway, I am quite happy with the HTC One (M8). I can't say that I use all it's features, but the ones I do use, I am happy with. I bought 2 different cases to use with it. I got a Speck case that offers better protection when I carry my phone in my pocket, and I got a Platinum case that I can clip to my belt or use it's kickstand for watching TV, videos, etc.

This phone is using the latest version of Android OS, KitKat 4.4.4. One caveat; KitKat is not supposed to support flash player, and flash is not available on the Play Store for this phone. I needed flash to be able to watch TV on Southwest Airlines in-flight entertainment. Fortunately I was able to find a hacked version of flash that works with the Dolphin browser (only). It's weird, on Southwest Airlines I can watch live TV using flash and Dolphin, but to watch on-demand TV I have to use Firefox (however with Firefox I can't watch live TV). Go figure!

A link for those interested in running flash player on KitKat.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google- ... st47958533

[pianowizard]

Anyway, I am quite happy with the HTC One (M8).

I seriously considered it back in July when I needed to upgrade from my 4.5-year-old HTC Touch Pro2 to something more modern. It has excellent hardware, but I wanted a larger screen and a user-replaceable battery. Among all the Android phone makers, I believe HTC makes the highest quality ones.

This phone is using the latest version of Android OS, KitKat 4.4.4.

It's now the second latest, because Android 5 came out a week or so ago.

[GomJabbar]

It's now the second latest, because Android 5 came out a week or so ago.

Hmm. I just installed an over-the-air update a couple of days ago.

Looking further...
I see that Android 5 supposedly will be available for the HTC One within 90 days from yesterday.
HTC confirms 90-day countdown for One M8, M7 Lollipop updates starts today

[pianowizard]

Hmm. I just installed an over-the-air update a couple of days ago.

Android 4.4.4 is the latest for your HTC M8, but Android 5.0 is already available for Google's Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus 6 phone.

[GomJabbar]

I see also that the HTC One (M8) is currently available in a Windows 8.1 version for Verizon, and will become available in a Windows 8.1 version for AT&T this Friday.

http://about.att.com/newsroom/new_htc_o ... _next.html

[ilakast]

Besides having an awesome OS, that phone had a fantastic mechanical keyboard, which was so much easier to type than the Note's awful virtual keyboard. Too bad most phones don't have mechanical keyboards any more, with the Blackberry Passport being pretty much the only exception.

+1
Few months ago got a "new" to me, second-hand Motorola droid 3. Great keyboard, battery and camera for a 2011 phone...