Smartphone advice

[Ambrose Burnside]

Note 4 announced.

Really by-the-numbers upgrade, nothing too special about it. Screen: same size more pixels. Camera: OIS, more pixels. CPU: More hertz. Same memory, same battery (negligibly better), same device size and weight (negligibly worse), same expansions. Metal rim, fingerprint scanner, heart rate scanner, double sensitivity on the stylus. Ie, a bunch of things I don't care about, but the metal rim is nice at least. The back doesn't look less ugly imo.

Just the "Aint broke, don't fix" approach it, which I can't complain about. Definitely worth considering if looking into getting a phablet, since the Note series is a good thing. But not worth considering if you're already on a Note 3. Apart from the camera (and the metal I guess) I think you're barely going to notice the improvements.

And of course the iPhone 6 is here soon so etc etc etc.

I'm due a new phone in January and the Note 4 is definitely a contender.

Others will include the Nexus 6 (should be announced any day now!), the HTC One M9 (can't be too far away either), and I will also watch out for the Windows Phone 9 announcement, but after two years with Windows Phone 8 I'm pretty sure I'll go back to Android.

[edgecrusher]

my contract expires in less then a fortnight, time for a upgrade. Had HTC for 2 years now and gonna stick with them.

[Cletus]

HTC make excellent phones and have since the 02 XDA.

[unfnknblvbl]

Yeah, HTC are really rather excellent, they just have awful marketing.

[lestat]

Yeah, HTC are really rather excellent, they just have awful marketing.

and poor after market software support.

[Madmya]

Can't go wrong with an M7 or M8. Samsung's have been good to me, they're just rather plain in my eyes.

[Ambrose Burnside]

My wife will also need a new phone next year, but there's no way I'm buying someone as clumsy as she is an expensive phone.

Is there a newer equivalent to the excellent Xperia Go?

It's her current phone but it's starting to show its age.

Alternatively, has anyone used the OtterBox cases? Do they work?

[GreyWizzard]

Any phone that has a good talk to phone capability is perfect for th phone illiterate. You ask it to call, text, get directions, check the weather, open any app... Fuck one button and you're good to go. I love all the shit Cortana can do.

[jizzlobber]

Lumia 630 for $99 is the best deal ever.
Vodafone though

[Ambrose Burnside]

It's more the ability of these phones surviving a klutz.

The Xperia Go has survived all sorts of drops. I basically want that phone with updated specs (if possible).

[Cletus]

Ambrose, i have an otterbox on my Note3. The one that clips into a second case to hang off my belt. Anyway they protect as they're supposed to. Dropped a few times with no problems.

[Rorschach]

I went in today to see about upgrading to the One M8, looks reasonable on a plan for $65 but to avoid re-contract fees I have to wait until the 25th. Bit disappointed with Telstra and Motorola. THe Razr HD I have should be on KitKat now but Telstra refuses to release it for whatever reason. Unfortunately they broke something in the phone on the upgrade from ICS to JB so Smart Actions has never worked properly and calls are constantly falling out. Might use the month to wait and see what happens with the Nexus 6 but kind of need expandable memory to make it worth my while.

[Cletus]

Unless you REALLY want Telstra's firmware for some insane reason, root whatever device you get and use custom roms. It's not difficult and you'll get a plethora of functionality that other regions have but Telstra won't allow you. And you'll be able to upgrade to whatever the latest version of Android is for the phone...even beyond and not be stuck with earlier versions of the OS and Telstra bloat.

[Rorschach]

True that. I didn't do it previously because I was paranoid about bricking my phone. My friend showed me what he did with his phone, might be worth doing with Razr as a challenge.

[Rorschach]

Fuck, bootloader locked down. Motorola won't give me an unlock key to fix it. Double fuck.

[Cletus]

If there's a fix, it's on XDAforums.

I get a new phone every two years. Most of the time I read up on the methods available to run custom roms, set it all up, hit start and close my eyes. So far so good. I've pretty much never had a warranty because of it though but also luckily not needed one.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Ambrose, i have an otterbox on my Note3. The one that clips into a second case to hang off my belt. Anyway they protect as they're supposed to. Dropped a few times with no problems.

Thanks Cletus!

[Ambrose Burnside]

Thanks Cletus. Went with the Moto G + OtterBox combo for the wife. Should survive her clumsiness while being a great upgrade from the Xperia Go. Without costing a lot.

For me, I'm waiting for the Nexus 6.

[Deef]

Just noting the mention of the iPhone's new wow predictive typing, have any Samsung owners here noticed what its predictive typing will produce if given no prompt at all? Just start with a blank line and keep selecting the default word it suggests until you have a sentence. It's rather sweet of them.

[Ambrose Burnside]

My HTC 8X (on the preview program) got the 8.1 update with Cortana this morning

[Rorschach]

Picked up the One M8. Very very nice

[flipswitch]

Nice One M8

[Rorschach]

Even came with a bundled case which is half decent. Went with the $70 plan for extra data but it includes a bonus gig so comes to 2.5 gigs a month which is pretty tidy. I used to hate on HTC back in the day but call quality on my 4 year old Desire S smashed that of the Motorola. Will miss the Razr but they definitely broke it with the update to Jelly Bean

[Mavy]

The new WP8.1.1 update fixes the bitlocker issue for Lumia phones too. So people on the developer preview can upgrade to cyan. I'd already done this via the Nokia firmware upgrade tool. Which has been a buggy mess. Seems better since the new preview update though.

[Madmya]

Did you get the dot matrix case with it Rors?