4G Android phone megathread

Doc Zero

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Dec 6, 2007
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Doc what do you have for a phone now (and are you in VZW)? According to the email the $480 credit is good for a trade in of any of the following: iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Google Pixel XL, LG G6, Motorola Z Force, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge/S8/S8+/Note 5

$335 credit: iPhone 6/6 Plus/6S/6S Plus, Google Pixel, HTC 10, LG G5/V20, Motorola Z Droid, Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge/S6 Edge+

$240 credit: iPhone SE, HTC M9, LG G4/V10, Motorola Z Play, Samsung Galaxy Note 4/S5

Sent from my SM-N920V using SoSH mobile app
I'm Verizon, yeah, and I'm on the good ol' iPhone SE. I guess I just like iOS more than TouchWiz, and the way Apple's updates roll-out is a little better for me. the SE's form factor is a delight, too, but YMMV obviously.

In any event, I'd go with the Note 8. It'll be a slightly-bigger, sexier version of what you already have. It'll probably have the best smartphone camera in the game, too.

Also If I ever use the word "sexy" to refer to tech ever again please report the post.
 

Boggs26

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Jul 12, 2005
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I'm Verizon, yeah, and I'm on the good ol' iPhone SE. I guess I just like iOS more than TouchWiz, and the way Apple's updates roll-out is a little better for me. the SE's form factor is a delight, too, but YMMV obviously.

In any event, I'd go with the Note 8. It'll be a slightly-bigger, sexier version of what you already have. It'll probably have the best smartphone camera in the game, too.

Also If I ever use the word "sexy" to refer to tech ever again please report the post.
Well, I went into my local Verizon today and everything was as it seemed in the email. I pre-ordered the Note8 and when it comes in I'll send in the Note5 and get a device credit of $480. Should be getting the phone on the 15th or 16th, but this was an awesome deal. Even paying out for tax and the stupid device activation fee, it only cost me $90 (which I'd have had to pay for any phone I upgraded to) and my device payment plan will only be $20/mo for 24 months versus the $34 I had been paying for my 5.

Oh yeah, and once the phone comes in, I can submit the paperwork to get my free SD card and wireless charger. At this point, the phone would have to burn my house down to disappoint me...oh...*fingers crossed*

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Boggs26

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Jul 12, 2005
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Alright, I still don't feel like I've used the phone enough to truly review it, but here's some initial reactions:

Keep in mind that my point of comparison is a Note5 that was 2 years old.

Battery: based solely on today, it's WAY better than the 5. Lately my battery had been barely making it through my 7-3 workday, getting down into the teens or twenties by the time I got back to my car. Today, with the 8, I left work at 3 with 76%. In fact, after charging it up to 83 on my fairly short drive home I'm still at 68% as I type this.


Screen: it's beautiful though the new aspect ratio is a little odd. The screen seems to be the same width as the Note5 but it's about an inch taller. Interestingly, the phone itself seems to be somewhat thinner than the 5 which is nice.

Camera: the dual camera seems to live up to the hype so far. Very good images and the "live focus" depth of field function is pretty fun to play with. I'll have to take more pictures before I can definitively grade the camera, but it seems great so far.

Other than those features, all I can say is that the phone seems very snappy with no lagging in any app so far.

If anyone has specific questions, is be happy to test them out.

Sent from my SM-N950U using SoSH mobile app
 

glennhoffmania

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I'm still putting off upgrading to Nougat on my S7 because of the problems I hear about. Does anyone know if they've addressed things like battery drain, wifi connections, mobile data, etc.? I want to push the button but I'm scared that my already mediocre battery life will get worse.
 

Marceline

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Nougat seems pretty stable at this point. I haven't had any battery life issues lately, and I'm running it on a Nexus 6p, which are notorious for terrible batteries.
 

glennhoffmania

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Thanks. I think I'm finally going to give in and do the update. For some reason my battery has been a lot worse lately and I want to get the app sleep function on Nougat.
 

smastroyin

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My boot times are better but battery life seems worse.

the picture in picture thing is really not well implemented (or working for most Pixel users) for something they are advertising as a core feature. It's ok because it's totally new and really in most situations my phone screen isn't quite big enough to make it useful. but, I was looking forward to having spotify occupy the majority of my screen space and have maps down in the corner where I could one touch access it.
 

johnmd20

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Battery life definitely seems worse. I would regularly charge my phone every other day. It was never every day. Since the update, I'm below 40% on the 2nd day after charging, when before I would be above 55-60%.

Not happy with that but the new Pixel is coming soon and I'm probably going to get it anyway.
 

TallerThanPedroia

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Jul 19, 2005
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Have a Verizon Pixel, got the update last week. Battery power does seem slightly worse, though only when I'm actually using it - I've been noticing the phone getting warm more. When it's just sitting with the screen off it uses the usual almost no power.

Haven't tried PIP. I miss my old Android emoji.
 

glennhoffmania

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My S7 is about a year old and the battery life has gone to shit. I was hoping that the Nougat update would help but it hasn't. The battery was fine, but not great, for about the first 9 months. Now I have to charge it every day by mid afternoon at the latest. Is this typical of the S7? Is there anything that can improve battery life? I've already gone through all of the apps and set most of them to sleep when not being used, and I lowered the brightness.
 

locknload

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Jul 14, 2005
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My S7 is about a year old and the battery life has gone to shit. I was hoping that the Nougat update would help but it hasn't. The battery was fine, but not great, for about the first 9 months. Now I have to charge it every day by mid afternoon at the latest. Is this typical of the S7? Is there anything that can improve battery life? I've already gone through all of the apps and set most of them to sleep when not being used, and I lowered the brightness.
I'm still living off my S5. I grabbed a new battery off Amazon for like 5 bucks and turned into a new phone.
 

glennhoffmania

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I don't think the S7 has a changeable battery. Or if it does I have no clue how to do it.

On another topic, can anyone recommend a pair of ear buds that have track and volume controls that are compatible with Android? I had a pair of Philips that worked well but one side is shot, and the pair that came with the phone worked great but it just died too.
 

jercra

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I ordered 2 Pixel XL 2's today. Man, putting $2k down on 2 phones was a bitch, but I'm hoping to not need something new for at least 2 years. I sure hope they're better than my 6P from a performance, battery and phone call perspective. The 6P has basically been a terrible experience for me and if I wasn't on Fi I would have ditched them a while ago. I'm a little surprised to see no discussion of the Pixel 2 here.
 

jercra

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Yeah, I'm all BT all the time so I don't really get the big deal with losing the headphone jack (especially because they are shipping the adapter in the box). What's the use case that makes you need the headphone jack in a way that the adapter is insufficient? I get that dongle's suck but are you plugging your headphones into a bunch of devices where you'd need to constantly be using then not using the dongle?
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Jul 19, 2005
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1) The supplied dongle doesn't support charging and listening to music at the same time
2) Dongles suck
3) Dongles get forgotten / lost
4) Dongles suck
 

jercra

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Ok on point 1. That's annoying but I'm hoping I don't have to change my Pixel2 nearly as often as my 6P. And yeah, dongles suck, but my question was really based on the concept that it ends up less a dongle than a permanent adapter if you're always plugging your phones into just your phone. If that's how you always listen to music, I'm not sure what the big deal is. The dongle gets attached and then just stays there.

Edit: It's been over a year since Apple made the same decision to ditch the jack. Has it really been a terrible experience for iPhone users? I'm asking honestly since I don't know anyone dedicated to iPhone+wired phones.
 

jayhoz

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Jul 19, 2005
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I personally don't want to walk around with a 2 inch appendage hanging off my phone at all times. I'd also be worried about damage to the USB-C port and/or the dongle with it constantly plugged in while banging around in my pocket.

Edit - My bad...I see now that you mean always plugged into the headphones not the phone.
 

jercra

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Google sent me an email saying they are offering up to $410 to trade in my OG pixel... Tempting.
I got the same offer, put my phone into their calculator and it came out to $159. You'll get more on Ebay than you will on trade in so if it's tempting, see what a used Pixel goes for on Ebay.
 

Boggs26

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I got the same offer, put my phone into their calculator and it came out to $159. You'll get more on Ebay than you will on trade in so if it's tempting, see what a used Pixel goes for on Ebay.
For $159 you're probably right, but I'm not sure about $400 - it looks close. Interestingly, as I noted upthread, I got $480 trade-in for my Note5 when I bought a Note8. That's WAY more than I could have got on eBay so it's definitely worth investigating for yourself depending on the offer.
 

FanRoy

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Aug 14, 2008
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So I got that same offer of $400 to trade in my Pixel XL. Plus T-Mobile is offering to pay half of the cost of the phone if you switch to their service in the form of a MasterCard gift card... is there any reason not to pull the trigger and essentially get the phone for free? I looked over the fine print from T-Mobile and there is nothing about how long you need to stay an active customer of theirs, they only mention that it could take up to 8 weeks to receive the gift card, at which point I would simply switch back to Fi.

I figure even with any costs of switching and a slightly more expensive plan, the phone might cost me a total of $150. Sounds too good to be true, someone help me figure out what I'm missing!
 

jercra

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I should have mine on Wednesday or Thursday. I'll report back here once I've had time to play with it. I'm mildly concerned about the screen but it sounds like many of the complaints could be fixed by settings so I expect changes in the future.
 

JakeRae

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Jul 21, 2005
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Sorry what are the screen concerns?
There appear to be three main issues. The biggest complaint is that the colors are less poppy than AMOLED displays. This is a deliberate settings issue to be more natural, but is drawing a lot of criticism. The second is that the screen has blotchiness issues in low light. This is a problem with P-OLED, but reports are the XL displays are better than the V30. The third is that there is a narrow viewing angle that suffers from blue tinting when viewed off angle. All screens have the tinting issue from far enough off angle, but it is apparently worse with P-OLED.

I have no idea if these are deal breaking flaws for a normal user. Mine arrives this week. The V30 was the other phone I've been interested in on paper, and that has similar screen issues except the color saturation issue. I'll probably look to either the s8 or the iPhone X if I end up unhappy with the screen as I'd prefer the slightly smaller form factor if I can't get the benefits of pure Android. Not sure which I'd go with though.
 

JakeRae

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Jul 21, 2005
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Thank you.

I keep my phone's brightness down regardless, I'm not that worried about it.
It's not a brightness issue (although the phone has lower peak brightness than Samsung too) it's a color profile issue. The blotchiness issue only exists at low brightness, so that would be more of a concern if you keep your brightness very low.
 

johnmd20

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The Vergecast just did a long podcast on the screen. They are usually pretty spot on. They are NOT fans of the Pixel XL screen, but they absolutely love the phone and said it wasn't a deal breaker. They said the phone would rank a 10 pretty easily, but for the screen, which knocked it down to a 8.5.

I have received my Pixel 2, non XL division. It's the greatest thing ever invented in the history of humanity. It's unbelievable how much better it is than the Pixel 1, which is saying something because that phone was previously the greatest thing that was ever invented. It's fast and awesome.

And I was fully charged at 3pm yesterday. I was texting like a monster yesterday evening. I listened to podcasts this morning for two hours on bluetooth and I'm at 70% battery right now. Strong.
 

jercra

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For anyone who's still fighting the 6P battery issue, I called Google today (via Fi) and told them I was having the issue. After initially telling me that it was out of warranty, I told them the battery issue was a known issue, and they decided to send a replacement for free. The replacement is a brand new 128GB Pixel XL. My Pixel 2 XL gets here tomorrow so the replacement will be going up on Ebay, but for those of you still holding onto defective 6Ps, you should get in touch with Google. I believe this will only work if you bought directly from Google Store or Fi.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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My Nexus 5x finally got hit with the dreaded bootloop of death a couple weeks ago, and I've got a Pixel 2 (non-XL) on the way. It looks like all the screen problems are limited to LG's XL version? After the bootloop problems with the Nexus 5x that seem to be legion, I wasn't going near another LG-made phone.

I've been rocking my old Galaxy S4 with the Fi sim chip in it for two weeks now and I'm pretty ready for a non-neutered phone starting on Friday.
 

jercra

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My Nexus 5x finally got hit with the dreaded bootloop of death a couple weeks ago, and I've got a Pixel 2 (non-XL) on the way. It looks like all the screen problems are limited to LG's XL version? After the bootloop problems with the Nexus 5x that seem to be legion, I wasn't going near another LG-made phone.

I've been rocking my old Galaxy S4 with the Fi sim chip in it for two weeks now and I'm pretty ready for a non-neutered phone starting on Friday.
If you bought the phone from Fi or from Google, hit them for support. I was well past my 1 year warranty (nearly 2 years) and they sent me a new phone for free. You'd probably get a Pixel 1, but hey, a new Pixel 1 is a fine backup phone.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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If you bought the phone from Fi or from Google, hit them for support. I was well past my 1 year warranty (nearly 2 years) and they sent me a new phone for free. You'd probably get a Pixel 1, but hey, a new Pixel 1 is a fine backup phone.
I'd read that Google washed their hands of the Nexus 5x problems in September and were only referring people to LG at this point. How long ago did you deal with them?
 

jercra

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I'd read that Google washed their hands of the Nexus 5x problems in September and were only referring people to LG at this point. How long ago did you deal with them?
Yesterday. Though my issue was a for a 6P, which they also said they wanted their hands of.
 

SumnerH

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Jul 18, 2005
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I'd read that Google washed their hands of the Nexus 5x problems in September and were only referring people to LG at this point. How long ago did you deal with them?
My 5x (purchased direct from Google) died in September and I got nowhere with support, they referred me to LG.