Smartphones

[jerichoholicninja]

So my wife and I are going to join the 21st century on Saturday and get smartphones. She's been doing all kinds of research and has no clue what we should get. Neither do I. We know we won't be getting the latest version of whatever we get because we don't want to spend that kind of money.

 

As for what we are going to use them for the most, I know my wife will be taking lots of pictures. I shutter to think about how many more selfies I'm going to be forced to be in after Saturday. For me the biggest thing will using it for my business so email, calendar, etc. I'd also like to use one of the many baseball scoring apps I've found. Of the people I know it's probably 50/50 iPhone/Andriod so what are your pros and cons for each?

[Point Beer Is Best]

My wife and I started using Smartphones about 4 years ago. Our first models were the Motorola Droid X2. I liked it at first, but after about a year it really started slowing down, and started restarting on its own and would keep looping through the restart process. Each time it did that I had to remove the battery to stop the loop. Very annoying and frustrating. Also, those Droid phones had the hardest time staying connected to our WiFi in our house. I could never figure out what the issue was surrounding that, but it happened to both of our Droids. So our next phones were the iPhone 5s for me, and an iPhone 5c for my wife. We had no issues with those whatsoever. My only complaint is after about 2 years the battery on my phone became very weak and needed to be charged constantly, so two weeks ago I upgraded to the iPhone 6plus.

 

In addition to the actual performance of the iPhone, the fact that we have a couple of iPads was an additional selling point since we could share pictures/music/apps.

 

Also, a lot of video apps (flixster/Netflix/Nick Jr/PBS Kids/Disney Anywhere, etc) are now compatible with Google Chromecast ($35) which just plugs into an HDMI input on most TV's so that's something you might want to consider purchasing as well if you don't have a Roku player or a newer blu-ray player that may have internet connectivity. But that would be available for iOS or Android users.

 

Edit: If you're not looking to spend a lot of money on a fairly recent model, I'm pretty sure most places you can get the iPhone 5c basically for free with a 2 year contract (i saw it for a penny at Cellcom in Green Bay), and the iPhone 5s now was all the way down to $99. The iPhone 6plus I got was still $299.

[stoutdude04]

I prefer the droid, but it usually seems like people either love apple, or hate them.

[Baldkin]

Size was the biggest thing for me when I went with a smart phone. I went to a Best Buy and just held the phones until I found the size I liked, wrote it down then hunted online for the other specs I wanted.

 

I went Android as I already had an android tablet and I simply don't like apple products.

 

If she's about the camera, there are plenty of phones with decent cameras. You don't need the overwhelming bells and whistles if all you're doing is taking selfies and quick snap shots (get a real camera for that!)

[BillScottCanRake]

I think it is well worth spending some time playing with both an iPhone and an Android phone if you can, as the biggest decision you will have to make is what OS do you want on your phone. Ultimately, which OS you like best is a personal choice, and if you are dissatisfied with this choice, no matter what phone you get you will be unhappy. Both systems offer most of the same features, but how they offer them is different, so what you end up liking is going to be as personal a choice as blondes or brunettes.

 

Other than my first smartphone (which was an HTC running Windows Mobile) I have used Android's OS on Samsung phones. To me, the Android OS more closely resembles the Windows OS that I have used each and every day, which meant I was up and running right away. An added benefit to me is that I store all my contacts, calendars, etc, in Gmail. While I know iOS has functionality to pull contacts from gmail and attach to a calendar, I like that when I get a new phone I simply log into my Gmail account and it does all the work for me.

 

It is important to note that I've had minimal exposure to Apple products, so I find the iPhone, iPad, etc, cumbersome to use. Anytime my mom wants me to try to do something on her phone, I typically have to google how to do it first and then do it. That's not an slam against Apple or iOS, just that my background and experience makes Android the best phone for me. My wife has a MacBook, so while she has an Android phone for personal use and likes it, she has no problem using the iPhone she has to use for work. I'l' be interested to see if she continues to use an Android phone for personal use or just drops it and sticks with the iPhone. That's why I recommend if possible spending some time with each OS before you pick out a phone.

 

Once you decide on iOS or Android, then you can pick out a phone that fits within your budget and has the hardware features you want in a phone.

[1992casey]

Don't get anything that doesn't have the current operating system. That's not an issue with iPhones, but cheap Android phones often ship with obsolete OSes that will never see an update.

 

A huge advantage to iPhones is that updates are actually delivered. Apple is able to bypass the carriers. That means that customers receive updates as soon as they're available. Updates on other platforms need to go through both the phone manufacturer and carrier before they're delivered, if they're delivered at all. Since the most important updates address security issues, you'll want to have them.

 

iPhones integrate very nicely with Macs and reasonably well with Windows. That means that your contacts, calendars, etc. will be available to you on all of your devices. I know that you have an older Mac, though, so I don't know how well equipped that might be. But on any platform, you can access iCloud via any modern web browser.

 

Pay attention to storage. Manufacturers advertise the total amount of storage available without accounting for the operating system or pre-installed apps. You'll want to know how much storage is actually available for you to use and plan accordingly.

[adamb100]

Eco system matters as well. The iTunes Store is second to none but the application is pretty terrible on Windows. . ITunes works best on OS X. I would never consider using anything but iPhone on a mac.

 

Google has applications for all operating systems but there is no centralized app like iTunes.

[TheCrew07]

My work phone is the Samsung S series, my personal cell is an iPhone, so I work in both of the more popular worlds every single day.

 

My best friend and his wife use the LG G series phones and really like them, and of course compared them to my 2 phones.

 

I think you are going to find positives and negatives with all types of popular smart phones, every phone sort of has it's own niche so I think in the end what it comes down to is your lifestyle and the choices you've made. I went to iTunes a long time ago so getting an iPad and then an iPhone was a natural progression. My first smart phone was something by Motorolla, an Android phone, and as Casey pointed out was on an old operating system that was never updated so the phone constantly ran out of memory and had to be reset to factory defaults, I hated that phone with a passion so coming from that experience the iPhone was a glorious change.

 

I would recommend the Samsung S6, Iphone 6, or LG G4... but as I opened with I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, it's more about picking the phone that fits in best with the rest of the choices you've already made.

[thebruce44]

A couple of things from personal experience and from recent reviews I've read:

 

1- Droids are not the same as Androids. A lot of people call all Android phones Droids, but in reality Droid phones are a subset of devices (typically Motorola) that Verizon heavily controls and messes up. The closer to stock Android he better, so I would recommend staying away from Droid phones if you are on Verizon.

 

2- What kind of computers do you have around he house and at work? If you are Mac users, then this discussion is over, go with iPhone. It makes no sense to use Android. The other reason to consider iPhones is for ease of use. Apple supposedly fixes everything for you, which is why I recommended one for my mom...though she seems to have nothing but problems with hit they say that can't fix...maybe someone else can weigh in on this.

 

3- You mentioned using your phone for work. Does your work have certain security requirements? New iPhones have fingerprint scanners. Android is upgrading to this feature in another month or two, but if this is a requirement and you need to get the phone right now you may want to go with iPhone.

 

4- I'm an Android user. I find the notification system to be light years ahead of iPhone. I find iPhones to be clunky to operate and to slow me down in my day to day use for business. I feel like I can do a lot more with Android, but I am also a fairly technical person. If you are looking for a budget Android phone, I've ready nothing but good stuff about the new Moto G (2015). This phone has been labeled as best budget phone across the board for several iterations now.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/11/moto-g-review-2015//

[MrTPlush]

Honestly I would stay away from the IPhone if you don't have a bunch of Apple products in your house.

 

As far as what phone you don't seem like someone who needs the new thing so it would make sense to just go with a phone you get free with plan. That is assuming you are getting a plan.

[1992casey]

The problem with the Android "free with a plan" phones is that those are the ones least likely to be updated. The "free with a plan" iPhone will get updates.

 

That's assuming that a contract price is available or desirable. Carriers are dropping subsidized phones and instead charging full price on a payment plan. That's generally considered to be a good thing. Your monthly rate drops once the phone is paid for, and carriers set things up for users to upgrade sooner if they'd like.

 

Definitely check out the security of the fingerprint sensor. Apple's will be fine as uses algorithms instead of images, the algorithm is stored in a secure area of the hardware, and apps don't have direct access to them. On the other side of the spectrum, the fingerprint sensor on the HTC One Max is completely insecure.

 

You'll also want to think about how you want to deal with photos as you won't want to store them on your phone indefinitely. With an iPhone-Mac combo, they're easy to move from the phone to either iPhoto in pre-2015 OS X versions or Photos in the latest versions of OS X Yosemite. If you store photos in iCloud, you'll almost certainly need to pay for extra storage. Of course, there'd be third party cloud options that would have apps on multiple platforms.

 

Another thing to ask about is the cost of replacing the screen. Apple is able to do this fairly inexpensively because of the volume of phones that they produce.

 

If you're thinking of an iPhone and are able to wait, we'll be seeing new models in a few weeks. New models mean faster processors, updates extending further into the future, and reduced prices on current models.

[jerichoholicninja]

Just like the research we've already done, all you're help is informative but doesn't really help us make a decision.

 

I think for me an iPhone would be best. I'm familiar with Apple products and use a Mac. My wife uses Windows and is usually lost if she tries to use my laptop for anything. However, she uses iTunes and has an iPod and I'm sure will be doing a lot of whatever things you can do with those things together.

[FVBrewerFan]

1- Droids are not the same as Androids. A lot of people call all Android phones Droids, but in reality Droid phones are a subset of devices (typically Motorola) that Verizon heavily controls and messes up. The closer to stock Android he better, so I would recommend staying away from Droid phones if you are on Verizon.

 

You're close, but very simply "Droid" is a brand name for Motorola. And I do currently have a Droid with Verizon service, and it's the best phone I've ever had. It has the best battery life of any phone I've had since a very old Blackberry many years ago. That's one of the most important things to me, personally.

 

Also, as someone said, go to a store and pick them up...see how they feel, what size you're comfortable with. That's something you have to live with 100% of the time, so it should have the screen size you want, look/feel, etc.

 

You can get a phone for basically free whether it's Iphone, Droid, Galaxy, etc., it will only be a year or two (max) outdated. You said you're both getting phones right? Maybe it would make sense for one of you to get an Iphone, the other get an Android phone? That way you'll know what you both want the next time...

[logan82]

I would recommend getting the newest version if whichever phone you decide on. Phone technology is changing fast and unless you want the phone to get slow and within a year you want the newest version. If you have Apple computers get an iPhone. Otherwise I would recommend android.

 

Photos are easy to move on android. They are easily moved or synced to Google drive.

[logan82]

By the way, buy a phone case. You are going to drop your phone and they break. Don't buy them where you buy your phone.

[thebruce44]

1- Droids are not the same as Androids. A lot of people call all Android phones Droids, but in reality Droid phones are a subset of devices (typically Motorola) that Verizon heavily controls and messes up. The closer to stock Android he better, so I would recommend staying away from Droid phones if you are on Verizon.

You're close, but very simply "Droid" is a brand name for Motorola. And I do currently have a Droid with Verizon service, and it's the best phone I've ever had. It has the best battery life of any phone I've had since a very old Blackberry many years ago. That's one of the most important things to me, personally.

Sorry, but that is false. Droid is not a brand name for Motorola. I actually owned an HTC Droid DNA. I was able to root it and install stock Android to get rid of Verizon's bloatware and be able to update at better frequencies. For the immediate future, it looks like Moto will be the sole provider for Verizon's Droid lineup, but the brand is definitely not owned and has not been exclusive to Moto.

 

A quick Google search will bring you this:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_Droid

[LouisEly]

4- I'm an Android user. I find the notification system to be light years ahead of iPhone. I find iPhones to be clunky to operate and to slow me down in my day to day use for business. I feel like I can do a lot more with Android, but I am also a fairly technical person. If you are looking for a budget Android phone, I've ready nothing but good stuff about the new Moto G (2015). This phone has been labeled as best budget phone across the board for several iterations now./

This has kind of been my experience as well. I've had both (iPhone for work, Android for personal) and found the iPhone to be not intuitive when it came to finding settings I want to change and other things I'm trying to find. And it bloody well took Apple long enough to get a decent size screen - I had the HTC Evo (awesome phone, until the battery and RAM became outdated) with a 5" screen for two years before Apple finally figured out a bigger screen.

 

I have a Moto X and, aside from all the bloatware that Google put on it since they owned Motorola at the time, it has worked great. Takes phenomenal HD video and really good pics. One of the biggest things that impacts battery life is how good of a phone signal you have. When your phone doesn't have a good signal, or it is on the border of 3G and 4G signals and keeps switching between them, you'll burn through your battery regardless of what phone you have.

 

If you go cheap, make sure that your phone has at least 2GB of RAM. Apps are becoming obnoxiously large RAM hogs (Facebook is 140MB when running in the background), and I don't envision the apps becoming smaller.

[DHonks]

It's great having two nice ecosystems and the competition they bring. I have had iPhones ever since the iPhone 4 came out. I went to a Palm device before that as my first smartphone, but it was actually VERY dumb. I had iPhone envy almost from day 1. I've been happy with every device since then. iPads, iPhones, the MacBook Air, Apple TV, my 13" Retina MB Pro, and now my Apple Watch. Every device I've had has worked great from day 1, no issues. My favorite tool is an often-criticized feature--iCloud. I haven't needed to email myself a document in probably 2-3 years, and I haven't used a thumbdrive in probably 7 years. Every file I make in Numbers or Pages (Apple's versions of Excel and Word, respectively) instantly shows up on every device. I'm just very pleased with the devices.

 

I have a few HS students in my classes that like Android more. Although several switched last year, later confessing that they only liked the bigger screens and switchable batteries. My HS is a ~90% iOS school, per surveys conducted.

[GAME05]

I probably could have used this thread last week. I just went from a flip-phone to a Droid Mini. I mostly just wanted a smaller phone that would fit in my shirt pocket. I only have a 1 Gig plan and I doubt I'll come close to using most of that allotment. Although the information said it would last about two weeks on standby, I'm losing half of its power per day while barely ever using it.

[DHonks]

Game05, not sure about it anymore, but you used to be able to return a phone within 30 days and--at most--pay a restocking fee. Also, of Android users, I've hear quite a few lately profess they are done with Samsung phones and will only be buying LG and HTC

[logan82]

I probably could have used this thread last week. I just went from a flip-phone to a Droid Mini. I mostly just wanted a smaller phone that would fit in my shirt pocket. I only have a 1 Gig plan and I doubt I'll come close to using most of that allotment. Although the information said it would last about two weeks on standby, I'm losing half of its power per day while barely ever using it.

I only have a 1GB plan as well. I connect to WiFi at home or school. As long as you are not downloading files or apps that 1GB will go a long way. The only time I have come close is this month when I had to replace my phone and it started downloading apps before I realized it. You can backup all contacts pictures, practically everything to the cloud if you let your android device do so. My phone died and I still have all my contacts on the new one. I went from a Galaxy S4 to S6.

[1992casey]

Just like the research we've already done, all you're help is informative but doesn't really help us make a decision.

 

I think for me an iPhone would be best. I'm familiar with Apple products and use a Mac. My wife uses Windows and is usually lost if she tries to use my laptop for anything. However, she uses iTunes and has an iPod and I'm sure will be doing a lot of whatever things you can do with those things together.

If you're befuddled by the options, the simple choice is to go with an iPhone. There are only four models out there:

 

[list-sp]

• 5C: only 8GB of storage (minus the OS and pre-installed apps)
  
• 5S: 16 or 32GB of storage (minus the OS and pre-installed apps), faster processor than 5C, Touch ID (fingerprint sensor)
  
• 6 & 6 Plus: 16, 64, or 128GB of storage (minus the OS and pre-installed apps), faster processor than 5S, Touch ID, larger screens than 5C/5S, NFC for Apple Pay

[/list-sp]

Although it may be a consideration for Android phones, you don't have to worry about RAM when considering Apple. In fact, Apple rarely mentions it, if ever. We usually find out about iPhone RAM from people who do teardowns. It's not a big deal if the product works.

 

For a data plan, my biggest concern would be what happens if I go over my limit. If the charge for extra usage is reasonable, it's no big deal. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't monitor your usage and opt for WiFi for data-instensive stuff. But it does mean that you don't have to be freaking out if you have a month here or there where you need to exceed your limit.

[BillScottCanRake]

For a data plan, my biggest concern would be what happens if I go over my limit. If the charge for extra usage is reasonable, it's no big deal. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't monitor your usage and opt for WiFi for data-instensive stuff. But it does mean that you don't have to be freaking out if you have a month here or there where you need to exceed your limit.

 

Depending upon your provider, you might be able to configure each phone/line so that data is turned off at a user-specified threshold.

 

We have four phones and a tablet on our plan that share 10GB per month. Via our provider, we have set monthly data allotments for each device/number, with the total of the allocations being 10GB. When those allotments are met, the ability of the device to use data is terminated until the next month begins. While my wife and I never come all that close to reaching our data allotment because we are almost always hooked up to WiFi, our son's poor data management and inability to connect his phone to the myriad of open WiFi connections that dot the city means he ran out of data consistently in the first 10-15 days of the billing period. It might have been a problem for him, but we were never charged an overage because we made it impossible to use more data than our plan allows.

[jerichoholicninja]

What kind of data plans does everyone have? I know between my wife and I we probably won't be using a ton of data and you can find wifi just about anywhere you go nowadays.

[MrTPlush]

For a single person 1GB is good if you only use it occassionally. I use it quite a bit and won't ever go over two.

 

As far as trying not to go over Apple doesn't have a setting for that? On my phone(HTC One M8) you can get warnings and even force it to stop once it hits a certain point.