4G Android phone megathread

[Zomp]

So through asurion I got my replacement S3.  I activated the new sim card today and sync'd it, but nothing is showing up.  Only 41 of my contacts sync'd over and my gmail hasn't yet.  The phone has been activated since about 7:30pm.  Should I factory reset it?  Hard reset?  Or do these things just take a lot of time?

 

[JerBear]

Anyone know if you can split a BOGO between two accounts with Verion?  I only have 1 line available for upgrade but I'm sure I can find a friend with an upgrade that wants a HTC One M8.

 

[Seven Costanza]

S5 released today.
 
If anyone gets one soon, interested to hear how you like it.

 

[TheBenzingerGame]

S5 released today.
 
If anyone gets one soon, interested to hear how you like it.

 
The HTC One M8 is broadly available as of today as well (including at AT&T's brick and mortar stores).

 

[Spelunker]

I got mine last week, upgrading from the original HTC One. It's a really nice upgrade, although I'm still getting used to the larger dimensions.

 

[glennhoffmania]

I'm going to get an M8 next week.  It definitely seems a little bigger than my Evo (I checked it out in a Verizon store) but I'm hoping that it won't be an annoying transition.

 

[4 6 3 DP]

Can upgrade to M8 or S5. Anyone have any opinions? Seems M8 is better except for camera and removable battery, but those are two important things.

 

[JerBear]

I got the M8 and its great.  Haven't had much time with the camera yet but it seems fine for what I would use my phone camera for.  Battery life has been spectacular so far.  Played audio in the car (~4 hours with a service call).  Small amount of browsing the web, checking emails, etc during the day (~1 hour total screen on time probably).  Watched some streaming video in the evening (~1 hour) which had the screen on the whole time.  Was down to 35% battery when I went to bed after being unplugged for 16 hours.  Phone is fastest and most responsive I've used, which makes sense as its current hardware.

 

[SumnerH]

That seems like pretty mediocre battery life. I'd expect to have a least 70% battery left after that, probably closer to 80%.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

That seems like pretty mediocre battery life. I'd expect to have a least 70% battery left after that, probably closer to 80%.

 
You're at 80% battery life after 6 hours of use and 10 hours of standby? what are you using? 

 

[SumnerH]

 
You're at 80% battery life after 6 hours of use and 10 hours of standby? what are you using? 

 
LG G2.  Today I've listened to about 2 hours of local music and been on standby for another 8 hours, it's at 98%.  Last weekend I had a BBQ and streamed music to the phone (wi-fi, not 4G) that was played on a bluetooth speaker for 10 hours; that took it from 100% to 92%.  So I figure conservatively 1% an hour when playing music, half that for standby.
 
The video would be a lot rougher. I know from taking the train fairly often that 6 hours of video with the screen on takes it down by about 70%, so figure a bit under 15% an hour video.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

 
LG G2.  Today I've listened to about 2 hours of local music and been on standby for another 8 hours, it's at 98%.  Last weekend I had a BBQ and streamed music to the phone (wi-fi, not 4G) that was played on a bluetooth speaker for 10 hours; that took it from 100% to 92%.  So I figure conservatively 1% an hour when playing music, half that for standby.
 
The video would be a lot rougher. I know from taking the train fairly often that 6 hours of video with the screen on takes it down by about 70%, so figure a bit under 15% an hour video.

I've never heard of battery life half that good.
 
Do you have certain things like GPS, ect disabled?

 

[SumnerH]

I've never heard of battery life half that good.
 
Do you have certain things like GPS, ect disabled?

 
Bluetooth, GPS, Phone, Wi-fi all on.  NFC is off.  That streaming was all over wi-fi, too, if it were over 4G I'd probably have burned 3 times as much battery playing those songs.
 
I do occasionally notice battery life dropping precipitously (10% or more an hour) if I leave the browser open on a page with an animated gif or refreshing game scores or something, or with a few other apps; I've definitely gotten used to closing apps or navigating to still pages or whatever.

 

[SumnerH]

 
LG G2.  Today I've listened to about 2 hours of local music and been on standby for another 8 hours, it's at 98%.

 
Relatively useless data point, but that was 4:18pm; it's 6:30pm now and it's at 97%.  
 
I've taken one 2-minute phone call in that period, otherwise it's been in standby.  So the .5% /hour estimate for standby seems to at least be in the right ballpark.

 

[TFP]

I'm happy if I make it to 3pm with any battery life at all at this point.

 

[Fratboy]

T4P, what are you rocking these days? Do you still have an iPhone, or did you leave that at some point?

 

[Fratboy]

 
Relatively useless data point, but that was 4:18pm; it's 6:30pm now and it's at 97%.  
 
I've taken one 2-minute phone call in that period, otherwise it's been in standby.  So the .5% /hour estimate for standby seems to at least be in the right ballpark.

 
That's just insane. And you're running stock, push email, Facebook, the whole bit? With GPS on the whole time? I'm blown away.
 
I loved the specs for the thing, but I can't get past the volume control on the back. Do you have a car holster or dock for it?

 

[SumnerH]

K

 
That's just insane. And you're running stock, push email, Facebook, the whole bit? With GPS on the whole time? I'm blown away.
 
I loved the specs for the thing, but I can't get past the volume control on the back. Do you have a car holster or dock for it?

I turned off email push and Facebook push, so I need to actually refresh to get those.

The volume control on the back is okay but the power button there sucks; if your wallet is in the pocket outside the phone it'll light it up continually (as the wallet presses the power button) and drain the battery.

I've gotten used to having only the phone in one pocket, which works, but that's by far the worst part of the phone. Different for the sake of different with no advantage.

I don't have a car dock for it.


4+ hours of streaming music and Bluetooth, lots of refreshing mlb.com on WiFi, and a half hour phone call has me at 83% now. The baseball kills it because I have the screen on, which is obviously a huge power draw. It's not unusual to be over 95% when I leave work and sub-70% 6 hours later when I go to bed because of web surfing and the like.

 

[TFP]

T4P, what are you rocking these days? Do you still have an iPhone, or did you leave that at some point?

 
Still running a beat up iPhone5. Since recently, it sucks. The battery life is atrocious, to the point where it's almost unusable. I'll be getting maybe 3-4 hours out of it with any sort of usage whatsoever (internet, text, twitter, email). I've done all of the battery saving tricks and even done a hard re-set, which worked for a while then it started again. It's something software related that just chews up battery behind the scenes which I can't figure out. 
 
I've looked at some of the Android phones recently and while the battery life is attractive (my gf has an HTC One which is really nice) but I just can't get into them. With a Mac, an iPad, and AppleTV, I'm also completely married to the ecosystem and I accept that. Just trying to hold out for the iPhone 6 at this point.

 

[Seven Costanza]

From what I understand, don't Genius Bars now have some sort of diagnostic tool for shit battery life?
 
TFP, my better half got one of those Mophie battery cases a few months ago for her 5 and really likes it.  Aesthetically it's not for everyone, but she can get through a day now and not worry about it.
 
In personal news- I made the full switch to iOS 2 weeks ago.  If you had told me a year ago that i'd be rocking a Mac, iPad and iPhone I would have laughed in your face.  I'm so happy now I made the switch.  Just so much better for my particular use case. 
 
Sorry Foulkey.

 

[TFP]

Yeah they do, I should take mine in I just haven't have the chance. It's 100% software related, I'm sure the phone battery itself is fine. Hell, when I was in Chicago a couple weeks ago I would go the whole day and have 70-80% of battery left, so I don't know if it's cell service related or something else.
 
I'll look into the Mophie charger. Considering I use it for work and travel a lot, it's necessary.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

 
Sorry Foulkey.

Nothing to apologize for.

Enjoy your iPhone while I'm rocking a phone that lets me watch HD movies for 5 hours straight and actually gains battery life.

 

[Fratboy]

What phone did you get, Foulkey?

 

[Foulkey Reese]

The S4. I actually haven't had to charge the battery since I got it.

 

[Fratboy]

Awesome. Does it even have a USB port, just in case?

 

[glennhoffmania]

I'm trying to get the M8 but it only seems to be available in gold in NYC.  How is this possible?

 

[jayhoz]

I'm trying to get the M8 but it only seems to be available in gold in NYC.  How is this possible?

 
Seems like savvy planning on HTCs part, no?  Gaudy seems right up NYCs alley.

 

[glennhoffmania]

I can't believe that gold is one of the two colors it comes in.  It looks awful.
 
Is there any downside to ordering one online and then bringing it to a store to get everything transferred?  My only real concern is that if there's something wrong with it and I have to deal with shipping it back instead of exchanging it at a store.

 

[jayhoz]

I usually order online, but I'm not a tech moron.  No offense. 

 

[glennhoffmania]

None taken.  I know I am. 
 
So when you order online, do you ever go to a store for data transfer, activation, etc?  Or you do it yourself and never need a store?

 

[jayhoz]

Never need a store.  I let google sync my contacts, I use the play store to reload my apps, and I move my photos/videos to my PC.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Maybe I should just do that.  I can always call Eddie if I fuck it up.

 

[jayhoz]

Amazon Wireless has the Sprint M8 32GB in Gunmetal Gray for $149.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Ooh, good find.  Thanks.
 
I've been looking at Best Buy but they're pissing me off.  Sprint says the price is $200.  Best Buy says the "regular" price is $250, but they'll give me a $50 discount so it's only $200.

 

[zenter]

KI turned off email push and Facebook push, so I need to actually refresh to get those.

The volume control on the back is okay but the power button there sucks; if your wallet is in the pocket outside the phone it'll light it up continually (as the wallet presses the power button) and drain the battery.

I've gotten used to having only the phone in one pocket, which works, but that's by far the worst part of the phone. Different for the sake of different with no advantage.

I don't have a car dock for it.


4+ hours of streaming music and Bluetooth, lots of refreshing mlb.com on WiFi, and a half hour phone call has me at 83% now. The baseball kills it because I have the screen on, which is obviously a huge power draw. It's not unusual to be over 95% when I leave work and sub-70% 6 hours later when I go to bed because of web surfing and the like.

 
The lack of push and the apparent lack of even casual gaming, I think, accounts for a fair share of your battery success. Most days, between constant bluetooth streaming, casual gaming, push, and video-watching, I'm lucky if I have more than 10% on my GS4 by 11 PM.
 
On those days where I'm too busy to actually use my phone as a distraction device (ie, it stays in the pocket essentially fulltime), I'm always surprised to see my phone gets plugged in at night with >50%.

 

[Fratboy]

Never need a store.  I let google sync my contacts, I use the play store to reload my apps, and I move my photos/videos to my PC.

 
How did this work? I did a factory restore on my phone in December, and nothing came back for me, but I used good old AppBrain to do it all. Is there a way to get all your apps back without having to accept permissions every time? I'm not rooted, btw.

 

[SumnerH]

 
The lack of push and the apparent lack of even casual gaming, I think, accounts for a fair share of your battery success. Most days, between constant bluetooth streaming, casual gaming, push, and video-watching, I'm lucky if I have more than 10% on my GS4 by 11 PM.
 
On those days where I'm too busy to actually use my phone as a distraction device (ie, it stays in the pocket essentially fulltime), I'm always surprised to see my phone gets plugged in at night with >50%.

 
Yep.  I listen to music/podcasts many hours a day, but almost never game on it.

 

[jayhoz]

 
How did this work? I did a factory restore on my phone in December, and nothing came back for me, but I used good old AppBrain to do it all. Is there a way to get all your apps back without having to accept permissions every time? I'm not rooted, btw.

 
I don't remember specifically, but I don't remember it being burdensome at all.

 

[glennhoffmania]

I got the M8 on Friday.  So far so good except I'm a little skeptical about the battery.  I charged it overnight last night to get it to 100% for the first time.  It's been unplugged since about 8am.  I've done some emailing, played a game for about 5 minutes, used the SoSH app, a few minutes on Chrome, and that's about it.  Now at almost 1pm I'm at 88%.  Am I expecting too much, or is this not very good?  I had read that this battery was supposed to be one of the best available but I'm not so sure.  Or maybe I got a lemon.

 

[SumnerH]

How long has the screen been on?  That's the biggest power draw, expect to lose 10-20% an hour if the screen's on.  Are you connected to wi-fi?  It takes a lot less power to run over wifi than it does to use 4G.

 

[glennhoffmania]

I guess the screen's been on a lot because I'm still checking things out and changing things around.

I'm almost exclusively on WiFi but I realized that there's a free outdoor WiFi in my hood but the signal isn't very strong so it's been trying to conncect a lot. So I think I need to block that network.

It's now been unplugged for 7 hours and I'm at 85% so I guess that's pretty good.

 

[saintnick912]

I'm trying to find a legit way to buy an unlocked Xperia Z2.  So far all I see is Taiwanese eBay sellers with huge markups, "preorders" with iffy dates, and a place in Chicago that has major red flags.  Guess I'll wait a bit longer and see if people start getting them.
 
Am I nuts?  Really don't want a junky piece of plastic (Samsung), not impressed by the M8 camera (though it's my second choice), or a compromised battery (Nexus 5, also a contender). 
 
Resurrected my HTC One X with Cynanogenmod 11, so I should have a few weeks.

 

[pmb116]

I'm trying to find a legit way to buy an unlocked Xperia Z2.  So far all I see is Taiwanese eBay sellers with huge markups, "preorders" with iffy dates, and a place in Chicago that has major red flags.  Guess I'll wait a bit longer and see if people start getting them.
 
Am I nuts?  Really don't want a junky piece of plastic (Samsung), not impressed by the M8 camera (though it's my second choice), or a compromised battery (Nexus 5, also a contender). 
 
Resurrected my HTC One X with Cynanogenmod 11, so I should have a few weeks.

The LG G2 is the best phone I have ever had, if you wanted to consider that too. The battery life is the absolute best on the market.

Rumor is that the G3 will be coming in June/July as well.

 

[SumnerH]

I'm very happy with the LG G2, too. I'm not sure why it gets overlooked in the pantheon of flagship phones.

 

[teddykgb]

I'm trying to find a legit way to buy an unlocked Xperia Z2.  So far all I see is Taiwanese eBay sellers with huge markups, "preorders" with iffy dates, and a place in Chicago that has major red flags.  Guess I'll wait a bit longer and see if people start getting them.
 
Am I nuts?  Really don't want a junky piece of plastic (Samsung), not impressed by the M8 camera (though it's my second choice), or a compromised battery (Nexus 5, also a contender). 
 
Resurrected my HTC One X with Cynanogenmod 11, so I should have a few weeks.

 
I tried to PM but for some reason was getting all kinds of errors.  I'm living in paris until June, if it proves easier to get an unlocked one in Europe than USA drop me a line and maybe I can help you out.

 

[bohous]

 
 
Am I nuts?  Really don't want a junky piece of plastic (Samsung), not impressed by the M8 camera (though it's my second choice), or a compromised battery (Nexus 5, also a contender). 
 

 
I'm with you on the Samsung and M8. Its superficial but the S5 is just an ugly phone. The M8 is probably the best looking and well built current Android but the camera is important to me and it looks like they really dropped the ball here (same for the Nexus). Deal breaker.
 

I'm very happy with the LG G2, too. I'm not sure why it gets overlooked in the pantheon of flagship phones.

 
I'm between the G2 and S5 at this point if I decide to make the switch. I suspect the rear buttons are a turn off for a lot of people. It also has a plasticy feel and will be a generation behind in a couple of months. At that point I may just hold out and see what iPhone 6 has to offer.

 

[pmb116]

 
I'm between the G2 and S5 at this point if I decide to make the switch. I suspect the rear buttons are a turn off for a lot of people. It also has a plasticy feel and will be a generation behind in a couple of months. At that point I may just hold out and see what iPhone 6 has to offer.

The rear buttons take a little getting used to. But I love them. The phone has a feature where you double tap the screen to wake from sleep or put in sleep mode, so I use that, and its more convenient than using a power button anyways. Naturally my index finger rests where the volume rockers are as well with the phone in my hand. In a couple months the G3 will be out sporting a 5.5inch 1440x2560 QHD display amongst other goodies. In my biased opinion, probably the best phone to come out this year.

 

[saintnick912]

The OnePlus One looks pretty neat, but it seems like it will be pretty much impossible to get one before this summer so that's no fun.
 
The back buttons do seem kind of strange to me, but I guess I haven't tried the phone so I shouldn't knock it.  The price for an unlocked is much closer to a Nexus 5 than I expected, so hmm.  I plan to avoid the carrier versions of phones going forward, got burned too bad with AT&T dropping the HTC One X pretty much right away after promoting it as a flagship, and delaying the shit out of the updates when it really needed them.
 
On the G3, I'm not really seeing the benefit to a screen over 1920x1080 right now, other than sucking away the processing/battery advantages.  Sort of like the early 1080 phones were a massive compromise.

 

[bohous]

The rear buttons take a little getting used to. But I love them. The phone has a feature where you double tap the screen to wake from sleep or put in sleep mode, so I use that, and its more convenient than using a power button anyways. Naturally my index finger rests where the volume rockers are as well with the phone in my hand. In a couple months the G3 will be out sporting a 5.5inch 1440x2560 QHD display amongst other goodies. In my biased opinion, probably the best phone to come out this year.

 
Didn't realize it was going to be 5.5" screen. I honestly don't think I would want anything much larger than 5" (twss), which will already feel huge coming from a 4s. Does a 5.5" phone even comfortably fit in a standard jeans pocket?

 

[pmb116]

 
Didn't realize it was going to be 5.5" screen. I honestly don't think I would want anything much larger than 5" (twss), which will already feel huge coming from a 4s. Does a 5.5" phone even comfortably fit in a standard jeans pocket?

The G2 has a 5.2inch screen and fits comfortably in my pocket. The G3 will be actually millimeters smaller in size with a larger screen. The bezel is thinning out.