Smartphone

[zahc]

My S4 is dying again (3rd time) and I think it's time to move on.

I want a cheap phone but if I can keep it 4 years like my S4 then I could probably spend up to $300.

Must:
--must take SD card
--must have headphone jack
--camera must be fast. I think the camera in my s4 is fine.

Nice to have:
--fingerprint reader would be big bonus
--havent committed to a carrier, so universal radio would be good
--swappable battery is a bonus
--newer OS support is a bonus. Plain Android would be good.

Based on my limited research the Moto G4 seems like a good bet. The G5 is more expensive and they apparently made the camera worse. The Google phones removed the headphone jack.

I actually bought a $60 Samsung On5 in an emergency situation. The camera sucks and there is no fingerprint reader, but it's literally fine. The screen is supposed to be cheap but I don't even notice. I like the barrery life too. If it weren't for the camera and the fact it doesn't work on Verizon I could just make this my phone.

[MechAg94]

My work phone is an S8. 

- No SD card slot, but it has a lot of internal memory and you can just plug it into a computer with a USB cable and read/write directly to it.  You may have another reason for that requirement.
- Has the headphone jack.  pretty sure all the samsung phones do.
- I don't know what you mean by fast.  The camera works pretty good for me and does some really high quality pictures. 

I think it does fingerprints, but I don't use that.  Always meant to play with it.  Can't open it up to get to the battery as far as I know.  I have no idea on whether it can switch carriers.

[K Frame]

My S4 is still chugging along, which is great, because I absolutely adore the thing.

I'm thinking, however, that it's about time to upgrade, and I'm thinking I'm going to go with either an S7 or an S8.

Regarding cost of a new phone, you may want to try something in the Samsung Galaxy line. I hear good things about them. Sort of like an S7 lite, I believe.

[Hawkmoon]

I'm still using a Galaxy S3. In January I tried an upgrade to one of the newer Samsungs that Verizon offered, and I hated it so much I only kept to for two days. I sent it back to Verizon and used some of the money to buy a couple of spare batteries for the S3.

[dogmush]

Regarding cost of a new phone, you may want to try something in the Samsung Galaxy line. I hear good things about them. Sort of like an S7 lite, I believe.

The whole Samsung phone line is Galaxy something or other.  the S7 and S8 are, properly, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8.

I think you are probably referring to the Galaxy J line.  The Galaxy S series is the Flagship Phone, and the Galaxy J series is their more mid priced line pitched to the low cost carriers.

FWIW, the Galaxy S9 drops next week so the GS8 is down to $600ish, and the GS7 is also dropping. My GS7 has been a great phone, although the last software update slowed it down dramatically.  Battery life is starting to drop after 2 years, but I still get a full day of use, including streaming a couple hours of music and have 40% charge when I get home, so it's pretty good.  I would recommend one as a solid smartphone choice.

I'm a huge fan of Samsung phones. 

Due to size , build, battery requirements, and more phones being waterproof a user replaceable battery (at least replaceable without a soldering iron) is pretty much a thing of the past.  There are some hanging on, but none of the really good phones have it.  The form factor and builds are too small to do that and remain competitive.

[K Frame]

"I think you are probably referring to the Galaxy J line."

Yes. You're absolutely correct. I've been referring to my phone as my S4 for so long I blipped on it being a Galaxy S4.

And yes I, too, love Samsung phones. And TVs. And just about every other product Samsung has made and which I've purchased.

[Ben]

My GS7 has been a great phone, although the last software update slowed it down dramatically. 

Argh. I hate to hear that. I'm still rolling with the S5, which I got when they first came out. I've been thinking maybe it's time to move on as I also have slowed down after a bajillion updates, the most recent of which seem to be geared to newer, faster phones. I was originally thinking of just bumping up to the S7, but if it's already slowing down via updates, I'm thinking that will severely reduce its life expectancy for me.

It comes down to the ridiculous price of the new Galaxy phones though. While working, I wouldn't hesitate to go to the S9. These days though, I don't need the absolute newest, but still like the features of the Galaxy line. It starts to become a decision between an around $400 S7 that may only have a couple of years before it slows down too much, or forking over around $800 for an S9 that I could maybe hang onto for five or so years.

While in most ways I'm glad I'm not on the old contract system with Verizon, the one thing I miss about it is getting a new flagship phone for like $200.

[dogmush]

Don't fret too badly Ben, I'm doing a fair amount of weird, processor intensive stuff.  I run Marine Traffic and a tide app in the background all the time, stream Pandora and never turn it off, two offsore weather apps. I'm not sure if the Android update slowed my phone down, or an update to one of the apps I'm always running. (or Verizon bloatware).  It's weird though, prior to two weeks ago the GS7 was working great, no complaints.  I put it on wifi and it downloaded a bunch of updates, now it restarts itself 2-3 times a day and takes 10 seconds to unlock.  really freaking annoying.

Verizon is offering me $300 trade in on it if I pre-order a GS9, which would make the new phone $500.   So very very tempted.

[Ben]

Heh - I used to run Marine Traffic all the time too, along with being VNC'd into a couple of my rednecked AIS stations.     Being able to do that on a handheld device was always very cool to me. I used to like running Navionics as well. Mostly so I wouldn't have to bother the boat driver with "Are we there yet?" 

I can do a trade-in as well, but for the S5, it's only $100 of chump change. Maybe I'll still keep the S7 in mind, depending on what the price drops are after the S9 has been out for a while. The S8 doesn't seem to get a lot of love. Kinda like Windows 8. 

[K Frame]

Trade in value for my S4?

$5.

I'M RICH!

[HeroHog]

Over 60 with an iPhone 6s and love it FWIW.

[Mannlicher]

after 6 years on the iPhone 5,  I recently upgraded to an iPhone SE.  Same size, new OS, newer guts.  It's fine.  No issues.  Fast, decent camera, phone jack, finger print reader, sizzling speed on the inna net. 

[zxcvbob]

I recently got a Moto E4 to replace the LG phone that I lost.  (the LG should show up again someday)  I like it, except for one annoying bug.  I suspect it's an Android Nougat thing.  When I plug it in to charge the battery percentage rapidly drops instead of going up, until after maybe an hour it's at 15% and the battery saver mode kicks in.  Then it stays at 15%.  If I power it off/on, the battery will be at 97% to 99%. 

If I unplug it at say 72%, it will stay at 72% for hours before it starts slowly dropping like it's supposed to.

Other than that, the Moto is great.

[brimic]

after 6 years on the iPhone 5,  I recently upgraded to an iPhone SE.  Same size, new OS, newer guts.  It's fine.  No issues.  Fast, decent camera, phone jack, finger print reader, sizzling speed on the inna net. 

I’ve been using the SE for almost 2 years ( got it when it first came out). Great little phone. I had dropped it in a bad way early on and had a corner of my screen that kept popping up in a loose fashion. A few few months back, I took it in for a battery change, and pointed out the screen issue and asked them to try to fix that right away... The tech took a look at it and told me it could be a swollen battery, grabbed a new phone off the shelf, and started transferring the data over to the new phone. A 1/2 hr later, I walked out of the store with a new phone, which they gave me and set up for free.

I never really bought into the apple culture, and have always been a reluctant user, but that customer service experience has sold me on the brand.

[bedlamite]

I recently got a Moto E4 to replace the LG phone that I lost.  (the LG should show up again someday)  I like it, except for one annoying bug.  I suspect it's an Android Nougat thing.  When I plug it in to charge the battery percentage rapidly drops instead of going up, until after maybe an hour it's at 15% and the battery saver mode kicks in.  Then it stays at 15%.  If I power it off/on, the battery will be at 97% to 99%. 

If I unplug it at say 72%, it will stay at 72% for hours before it starts slowly dropping like it's supposed to.

Other than that, the Moto is great.

I've got the Moto E4 Plus with 7.1.1, and the battery monitor behaves normally, it may be a hardware issue.

Battery life on the E4 Plus is insane. I can go all week without charging the 5000mah battery. Last charge was 4 days ago and it's at 42% now. My only real problem is that Verizon has successfully prevented me from rooting it.

[K Frame]

My experience with my Motorola Droid pretty much made me swear off ever again taking a chance on Motorola phone.

[Ben]

I just realized that although every dumb phone I ever owned was a Motorola, I've never once had a Motorola smart phone. Started out with HTC, then went to Samsung with the S5.

[HeroHog]

Understand, I am NOT an Apple fan boy. I like their phones, yes, beyond that, I'm a PC guy. My next phone will probably be an Android but Terri is happy with what she is used to and has vowed to stay Apple when I last broached the subject.

[Perd Hapley]

My first three smartphones were Droids, so I used them for the past several years. I just recently switched to a Galaxy S7, and I can't say it's a big improvement. That's even though I've been using a Droid Mini for the past 2 or 3 years, which is not exactly the best Droid out there. A terrible, non-replaceable battery is the Mini's problem, and the Samsung's battery still needs recharged during the day.

The Samsung refuses to pair with the wireless ear-buds I got last year, and doesn't always like to connect to other devices. There doesn't seem to be a way to stop it from turning down the volume every time I connect an external speaker, which I do constantly. Also, having the on/off and volume buttons on the same side (like the Droid Mini) is just better than having them on opposite sides. There's no option for turning off the useless (to me) selfie camera. This wouldn't so bad, except that it keeps switching to selfie mode when I'm trying to zoom.

But the battery is at least reasonably good, and it has more storage space. The one thing I really like about the S7 is that I was able to get a Magpul case for it. Love the texture on the Magpul case.

[Sindawe]

I've been using and abusing my iPhone 5C that I picked up when the iPhone 6 came out.  I've lost count of how many times I've dropped the thing with minor damage to the polycarb back.  Still works great as a phone & music player, camera is sufficient for quick snapshots.

[French G.]

I have a G4, bought it new from Walmart as an unlocked no carrier phone for $150. I like it a lot. Now granted, I do not use it as a phone, I use it as a camera and wifi device. I got it specifically because I needed a powered USB port to run cameras like more borescope and thermal cam. Also connect external memory that way too.

[BlueStarLizzard]

My experience with my Motorola Droid pretty much made me swear off ever again taking a chance on Motorola phone.

Funny. I'm now on my third Motorola Droid and I was even open to going with a new brand this time but still ended up with the Moto Z Force (Of the options, it had the best battery and was the most durable). And before the smart phones I had nothing but Motorola flips.
The first two I kept going long past when most everyone else upgraded and both would have kept working if not for the fact that the software hadn't gotten to be too much for them. When we went in last Friday to replace the old one, the guy behind the counter was shocked to even see it.
I've never had one that broke down until long after the expected point of replacement.

[Brad Johnson]

I have an S7 that's still going strong after two years. One of the OS updates hosed my battery life pretty bad but an interim update a couple months later fixed it. It will occasionally, maybe once or twice a month, do the "gets really warm and chews on the battery" thing but a quick power cycle cures it. Seems to be an app problem rather than a phone/OS problem.

The fingerprint reader is light years better than the one in SWMBO's S6. I suppose I might someday need more internal memory but it hasn't been an issue yet. Only thing I've found that will noticeably slow it is letting text messages pile up, especially if you have that one friend who insists on forwarding every funny gif they see. I think it starts auto-dropping messages when you reach 1000 but I keep mine cleaned up anyway. The included web browser is ho-hum. I switched to Chrome and it seems more stable and less prone to compatibility issues. I use the email function heavily (four accounts, including a MAPI server) and it's never missed a lick.

Friend of mine was an S8 early adopter. He loves it except for the curved glass edges, and only then because no one had a really good protective cover for it until recently. He's a dedicated tech geek and still raves about the phone after most of a year. From what he says the functionality is fantastic.

If you think the camera in your S4 is fine, you're gonna shat your pants over the camera in an S7 and later models.

Brad

[Ben]

It will occasionally, maybe once or twice a month, do the "gets really warm and chews on the battery" thing but a quick power cycle cures it. Seems to be an app problem rather than a phone/OS problem.

Interesting. My S5 started doing that about a year ago. Same as you, "off and on again" fixes it. I have tried searching for an app that might be the problem, but never see anything sucking up resources. On the battery indicator, "standby" or whatever it's called is usually the biggest user of the battery.

The other glitch I've seen, also in the last year, is that occasionally when I take a picture, the camera takes like 5 seconds to snap the picture after I hit the button. Connected to that, whenever it happens, Gallery will also slow down/lock up and do stuff like either not load all images, or if I hit one, will not load it, or take like 30 seconds to do so. I finally did a full phone reset around a half year ago, which fixed those things for a while, but then they came back.

It's one of the reasons I've been thinking it's finally time to upgrade. Also a reason to maybe look at "latest and greatest" rather than an older generation, just because it seems that having the newest platform gives you that much more time before updates, etc. start making things hinky. Either that, or going back to a dumb phone.  

[Perd Hapley]

The other glitch I've seen, also in the last year, is that occasionally when I take a picture, the camera takes like 5 seconds to snap the picture after I hit the button.

My S7 doesn't take anything like that long, but it does lag for a second or two. Very frustrating, especially when I'm trying to take pictures of a wiggly, 5-month-old lab puppy.