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Old 05-22-2013, 12:34 PM
 
102 posts, read 413,287 times
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I'm with Verizon, and they're suddenly offering me an iPhone 5 for 99 bucks -- only since my contract ended last Friday.

I'm waiting for the HTC One announcement today. My daughter has one and loves it. I might get that, but I'm thinking of giving the Galaxy Note a try. If I don't like the size I can exchange it. My b/f's daughter has a Galaxy 4 and loves it after having an iPhone 4.

Anybody have feedback suggestions on which phone is best? I like to keep phones AT LEAST 2 years. I'm a reluctant consumer. Thanks!!
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Old 05-22-2013, 03:08 PM
 
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In my opinion, Samsung Galaxy S4 > HTC One > iPhone 5 > Samsung Note 2.

Last month I bought 3 new phones, one for each person on my plan: the iPhone 5, the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S5.

iPhone 5 has a smallest video display of the three that I bought. iOS, while comfortable and familiar to anyone used to an iPhone, is not very customizable. Siri is better than any Android personal assistant, but the Android apps will catch up if not surpass in the next year (my opinion). My 80 year old father is happy with his new iPhone 5.

The HTC One is the best looking phone. People actually stop to look at it when I bring it out. The HTC is the best built (in terms of sturdiness - just don't assume it's drop-proof) and has both a great display (larger/more impactful than the iPhone display) and the best external speakers (but not as good as ear phones or a bluetooth speaker). While it lacks the nice integrated touches of Apple's Ipod and Visual Voice Mail, there are Android apps that almost match the convenience of the iOS world. BlinkFeed is a Flip-Board type of app exclusive to the HTC One - it's the default home page and can't be turned off. People either love or hate BlinkFeed.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a bigger video display (about half an inch wider than HTC One) and looks great. Although the HTC One has a higher pixel density, you won't really notice a visual display quality difference when comparing the Samsung S4 and the HTC One side by side. The S4 has a far superior camera than the HTC One; the S4 camera is also better than the iPhone's. The S4 has a removable battery, a spot for a microSD card, a touchscreen that you can use with gloved hands and eye-movement activated text scrolling and video pausing features that are unique to the phone; neither the HTC One nor the iPhone 5 have such features. The S4 is the most fragile out of the three and probably the not as attractive as the other phones, but get a good case for the S4 and these drawbacks disappear.

I haven't used the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, I'm basing the lower rating on the fact that it's simply an older phone and the S3 was judged by most reviewers to be a better phone than the Note 2. That, and the S4, the HTC One and the iPhone 5 are all reviewed higher than the S3.
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Old 05-22-2013, 03:32 PM
 
102 posts, read 413,287 times
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Thank you for taking the time to detail out all that information! Very helpful.
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Old 05-23-2013, 08:50 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,460 posts, read 19,490,320 times
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I agree with djmilf except for a few small points.
I just saw my first S4 yesterday. Holy c--- is that thing smaller then I thought (though not small). And light as hell. People like to bash Samsung because they use plastic but my god that thing is so light! It feels like a toy. I like it alot but I can see why some don't. The S4 has a MicroSD slot for adding memory and has a replaceable battery. The ONE has neither of those.

The one thing I vehemently disagree with is that Siri is better then Google Now. That's not even close to true. Siri should be embarrassed to call itself a "personal assistant" in the face of Google Now. I know a lot about both.
About the only thing Siri can do (and this is cool) that Google Now cannot is Book a Table at a restaurant if that restaurant uses Open Table.
If you have a Gmail account and do most of your stuff through that, Google Now proves invaluable and really makes Siri look like a gimmick.
Once you add the Google Now Widget to your home screen, let me give you just a few examples of what it does for me at a glance. This is all in the widget itself right on the home screen. I can go into the app for more details.

I order something from Amazon. It tells me my order has shipped and I can one click to get tracking info.
It updates the Cleveland Indians game in real time. Right on the Widget.
Every morning it tells me how long it is going to take me to get to work with traffic.
Every night it tells me how long it will take to get home.
Wherever I go it tells me how long it will take to get home. And I can *click click* and go right into Navigation to get home.
If I have a Meeting in my Google Calendar it will tell me how long it's going to take to get there an hour before I need to leave.
Flew to Florida. Widget showed me that my flight was on time. Then it changed and said there was an hour delay. The widget (and this BLEW ME AWAY) told me about the delay BEFORE UNITED ANNOUNCED IT OVER THE PA. No BS.
As soon as the plane lands, I turn on my phone and there is the weather report for Plantation. There is a link with driving directions and a phone number to my hotel. Everything I just typed: requires ZERO interaction from me. It's right there...on my home screen.

This is why I HAD to have Jelly Bean on my new phone (RAZR HD). It was all I cared about. My phone actually DOES help me in a realistic way. Siri does not.

Not only all that: Google beats Siri in speed of answers and quality.

Siri vs. Google Search (Jelly Bean) - YouTube

Siri. Just. Sucks.
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Old 05-23-2013, 08:58 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,460 posts, read 19,490,320 times
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Oh, I don't take public transit so I haven't actually seen this work but supposedly if you are standing at a bus stop it will even pop up and tell you when the next bus is coming...
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Old 05-23-2013, 12:57 PM
 
8,365 posts, read 7,313,677 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by djmilf View Post
Siri is better than any Android personal assistant, but the Android apps will catch up if not surpass in the next year (my opinion).
e lower rating on the fact that it's simply an older phone and the S3 was judged by most reviewers to be a better phone than the Note 2. That, and the S4, the HTC One and the iPhone 5 are all reviewed higher than the S3.[/quote]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine View Post
The one thing I vehemently disagree with is that Siri is better then Google Now.
OK, it sounds like next year has already arrived.

I've tried out Siri on my Dad's iPhone and used mostly the Robin app and to a lesser extent Google Now on my HTC One. I honestly thought that Siri was better than Robin at some things while Robin was better than Siri at others. Plus, Robin at first sounded a little choppy in her responses.

So far I've only used Google Now for web searches, and I wasn't that impressed with it. If Peregrine says Google Now is currently better than Siri, then I need to put Robin on the shelf and try using Google Now as my primary.
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Old 05-23-2013, 03:21 PM
 
Location: Whittier
3,004 posts, read 6,244,443 times
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Google Now is better than Siri. And it will only get better in time.

I use Google Voice as well for "Visual" voicemail as well. It even transcripts the message (which works only sometimes).
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:19 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,460 posts, read 19,490,320 times
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But again let me stress to get the most our of Google Now you need to use GMail for most stuff that you do. And you should have the widget on your home screen.
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Old 05-27-2013, 11:29 AM
 
Location: Wappingers Falls, NY
1,618 posts, read 2,607,381 times
Reputation: 1098
Too bad the OP is on Verizon, LG's best option on there is the Lucid 2, which is a nice phone but in need of an update (only a dual core). I don't know if Verizon will get a variant of the Optimus G Pro or Optimus G2.

If you're looking to consume media on your device, specifically audio and video, the HTC One is probably better, with true-to-life screen colors and front-mounted stereo speakers. The Galaxy S4, on the other hand, has expandable storage, and a better daylight camera.

The Note 2 is out of date, the Note3 should drop sometime this year, but if you can't wait, get the Galaxy S4 instead.
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Old 05-27-2013, 11:43 AM
 
Location: Wappingers Falls, NY
1,618 posts, read 2,607,381 times
Reputation: 1098
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine View Post
But again let me stress to get the most our of Google Now you need to use GMail for most stuff that you do. And you should have the widget on your home screen.
Not so. It'll collect any data from any use of Google Services on any computer where you're signed into them. So if you regularly use Google searches on your desktop while signed into Google, your phone will benefit from that data and GoogleNow will use that data to provide you with additional cards. I don't use the GMail app: I prefer to just establish an EAS connection to my Google mailbox, so I can use the one email app for both work and person mailboxes. I'm not sure how much longer Google is going to allow that, but there's always IMAP access also.

I've found the widget to be of comparatively limited utility, but maybe it's just messed up on my One X. It only ever seems to show weather and a stock quote.
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