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Best mobile phone?

Pseudonym

By Pseudonym
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crazyfacials Veteran member

crazyfacials

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Depends what you're after dude, your request is ambiguous.

 

I have a Note 2, it has its ups and downs, sadly my hands are pretty small (and I have yet to win post of the month, so I can't get that HGH for extra large hands...) it's a pretty good phone apart from everyone think they're funny when they say the same joke (oh that's not a phone, that's a phablet)  for what you get out of it it's a pretty solid phone, doesn't have 4g support though (note 3 has from memory?) but if you're like me and sometimes want to watch movies/videos when in bed and can't be arsed using the PC/Laptop/TV then it's real good, the hardware that it comes with is pretty good too, comes with a stylus (but to be honest I only use it when playing cut the rope or drawing stupid things in viber to troll mates), the drawbacks is that it feels like a plastic toy and doesn't have that solid feel that the iphones do, the Appstore Vs Itunes argument can be made here too but to be honest by now whatever you get on one device you're bound to get on the other.  If that's what you're after but you're detered by the size then the S3 (even better if you can get the oversease version, they tend to have double the ram the NZ ones have (2GB also do support 4G/LTE)) or if you're lucky you can get the S4 for cheap, the good thing about them is you're not really limited by the phone's storage so even if you get one with a small onboard storage you can solve it with an SD card  (although I think you might not be able to install programs on the SD card? correct me if I'm wrong here)

 

As for operating systems both have their ups/downs , and can get custom images for both  (or jailbreak/root them)  some devices you see out there will prefer one over the other, eg my car's stereo will take USB sticks and play them fine, and apple products, but not android phones....I've never had any good luck with LG/HTC phones so I stay away from them (but that is just me, you might prefer them)  also you might notice that the default display for each phone company differs from the other, but that can always be resolved by downloading apps that can control your theme and customize it.

 

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pyro Senior member

pyro

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Nexus 5 is a beast. Have been a samsung galaxy user for many years, have played with many iphones(gf had an iphone) and hands down the nexus 5 is the best phone ive used, and one of the cheapest out of the top models. Can't recommend this phone enough!

 

http://www.warehousestationery.co.nz/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WSL-B2C-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewOfferDetail-Product?ProductUUID=RFgKBTFxJiYAAAFC1V1RaC4l&CatalogCategoryID=sPkKBTFxKpEAAAE0rcNfL49S

 

On special atm for $499, bloody good price, and beats anything by a mile in that price range. 

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Pseudonym Veteran member

Pseudonym

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Not sure what the best is but can tell you to be ware of the cheap Malaysian imports on trade me... I have heard they disappear when you put them in flight mode!

Disappear?! You mean they wipe themselves?

Are you willing to go on a contract? That'll open up the options.

I am on contract already, but I don't spend enough for any telco to bother giving me a phone.

Depends what you're after dude, your request is ambiguous.

Fair call. Although that was partly to see what people suggested without me influencing them.

OK, here's some more info about my likes/dislikes...

- Currently on an HTC Desire (first generation). Generally quite happy with it, but it's showing its age and getting a bit sluggish. But the main issue is that the early Desire models have bugger-all memory. I have virtually no apps on my phone other than the ones it shipped with, and it doesn't have enough space to even update those. I believe on later version of the Android OS you can download apps straight to the SD card. But not on my version, so I'm screwed.

- I like the small size of the Desire though. Big phones are great if you carry a handbag, but for me, a phone has to fit in my pocket.

- I am NOT an Apple fan. So that means an Android OS.

- Don't really care about cameras. If I want to take a good photo, I'll use my actual camera.

- Waterproof would be nice, but I've never needed it thus far.

- So far I'm thinking about the HTC One Mini or the Google/LG Nexus 5. I liked my current HTC phone, but I suspect the later models have got a bit too clever in their reskinning and bundling in the manufacturer's rubbish apps. One of the attractions of the Nexus is (I believe) you get a pure version of Android, free of all that extra crap.

- I don't love the look of the Samsung phones, and this is going to make me sound really snobby, but... they're a bit, well, common. :P That said, if they were totes amazeballs, then I'd probably hold my nose and get one.

 

Hopefully that narrows the field a bit. Definitely open to other options though. Thoughts/comments?

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AZIDE Senior member

AZIDE

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Not sure what the best is but can tell you to be ware of the cheap Malaysian imports on trade me... I have heard they disappear when you put them in flight mode!

Disappear?! You mean they wipe themselves?

its a mh370 joke

 

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Leeroid Veteran member

Leeroid

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I bought an S3 after I cracked the screen on my HTC One X and it stopped working. The S3 is so sluggy and unresponsive compared to the HTC. For example, if I press the home screen, it takes a couple seconds before the home screen appears whereas the HTC would switch instantly. I was disappointed after hearing so much hype about the S3. Bought the HTC for $600 in April last year and bought the S3 for $500 in November last year.

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Terrymundo Senior member

Terrymundo

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I bought an S3 after I cracked the screen on my HTC One X and it stopped working. The S3 is so sluggy and unresponsive compared to the HTC. For example, if I press the home screen, it takes a couple seconds before the home screen appears whereas the HTC would switch instantly. I was disappointed after hearing so much hype about the S3. Bought the HTC for $600 in April last year and bought the S3 for $500 in November last year.

I got an s4 and i never had these issues. I cant imagine the 2 being hugely different??? whats an S4 run for these days?

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Pseudonym Veteran member

Pseudonym

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Not sure what the best is but can tell you to be ware of the cheap Malaysian imports on trade me... I have heard they disappear when you put them in flight mode!

Disappear?! You mean they wipe themselves?

its a mh370 joke

Oh yeah. Hehe... sorry for being thick. :P

 

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Pseudonym Veteran member

Pseudonym

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Nexus 5 is a beast. Can't recommend this phone enough!

I missed your post last night, Pyro - you must've posted while I was writing mine.

So am I right in thinking the Nexus is pure Android without any extra manufacturer's crap?

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fng Member

fng

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there's an add for the samsung S5 on the home page, why havn't they given you one ?

I've got an S3 which does more than I'll ever know or understand, so it works quite quickly due to probably being quite empty. I spend basically 100 a month which will get me a new S5 for 200 through vodafone on another 24 month plan. current plan expires in august by which time the S5 should be free for my spending

 

 

 

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pyro Senior member

pyro

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Nexus 5 is a beast. Can't recommend this phone enough!

I missed your post last night, Pyro - you must've posted while I was writing mine.

So am I right in thinking the Nexus is pure Android without any extra manufacturer's crap?

Yup no bloatware bs at all, just the stock standard android stuff. Converted a few hardcore iphone users over to the nexus after they have played with my phone a bit. It's basically the S4 without all the crap, and a much cheaper price tag.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Pseudonym Veteran member

Pseudonym

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How's the new phone going?

Too funny! I actually jumped on the site just now with the sole purpose of posting a status report.

It sat in its box for most of last week because I didn't have a single minute to spare setting it up. (That's your fault, Gymnation...) I still haven't really had a good play with it, but at least it's semi-functional now.

So part of me really likes it. I said I wanted a naked Android phone with no bloatware... and that's exactly what I got. But that's also partly what I don't like about it, too. There are absolutely no frills, no clever little features.

Don't get me wrong - the Nexus 5 is slick and fast and looks and sounds like a quality phone. But it's very much a base that needs to be built on, and I haven't done that yet.

 

So here are my peeves at the moment... there may be kudos for anyone who can suggest solutions. :D

 

- My old HTC managed my contacts really well. It would automatically merge someone's Facebook account, phone contact and Outlook/Exchange contact. The Nexus 5 doesn't seem to do that. In fact, my Facebook friends aren't in its contacts list at all.

- When I first turned it on, and went to call someone, it auto-suggested some random person with a Google+ account that matched the number I was starting to dial. This apparently is a feature. WTF Google?! Why on earth would I want to call a stranger just because they have Google+? I've now turned this "feature" off.

- I have various address books in Outlook/Exchange. Some of them contain contacts that I'll probably never call again, but I'm keeping their address just in case. On my HTC, it was an easy matter to make them disappear. On the Nexus, it looks like I have to use some convoluted system of tagging individual contacts, then explicitly excluding that tag. And then they still all show up in the Dialer anyway.

- I'm not loving the theme in a lot of the default apps, either. Maybe it just takes time to get used to a new look and feel, but right now I find it super-minimalist.

So what do you reckon? Do I just need to install better apps? If so, what do you guys suggest?

(I remember Drizzt's brother built a pretty cool interval timer app too... anyone know what that was?)

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Pseudonym Veteran member

Pseudonym

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Nope. That was the first thing I tried.

It seems it's a bigger issue than just a setting though. It's part of a battle for control of data between Facebook and Google, and it's been in the pipeline since 2011...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/google-android-facebook-contacts/

 

Oh, and this phone seems to be slightly confused about Auckland's weather too:

Photo: I know Auckland's weather is unpredictable, but really...

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pyro Senior member

pyro

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If you had a gmail account attached to your old HTC, you can import all your contacts from your HTC to your gmail account for backup, then you can import them onto your nexus.

Adding your facebook account under settings will import all your facebook contacts into your phone directory as well. If not there is a setting to do it, which i cant remember how, since I havent got mine imported.

Apps I havent got anything special

-Advanced Task manager - to shut down any unwanted background apps running

-Pandora - Music app, put in one of your fav artists/groups and it will stream similar genres

-Shazam - Music listener / finder app

-Banking app - Banking shit

-Viber - Chat messenger similar to skype

-Whatsapp - Chat messenger similar to skype

-Facebook

-Flashlight

-IMDB

-Evernote - Small easy note app

-Sky TV app

-Trademe

Then various games.

You can easily grab some themes to change the look.

Check out this video. 

And have you figured out what OK google is yet?

List of various commands that can be used.

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