2 years have passed - NEW PHONE TIME! Shit.. so many options.. or are there?

thomas

Grouchy Beemer Owner
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Freiburg - DE, or Texas when possible
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With my current phone contract ending in 2 month, I am looking for a new one currently and thus also for a new device. I am very much irritated by the trend of backside fingerprint scanners, and after playing with some in store, basically everything with that feature, is out. Currently the Huawei P10 doesn't look bad, especially on the price/performance side of things, looking how "flagships" are getting more and more expensive. Any recomendations based on own experiences of you lot? I tried to look around what is current and what isn't, but all the fucking models and sub-models are just too plentiful to really give enough fucks. I don't know which HTC or Sony is the latest one, I completely missed when Huawei went from 200 to 500+ EUR phones, hell even Apple while being a nonfactor seems to have more models than ever before..

Required:
- Neither Apple nor Blackberry
- Android as up2date as it gets, with chances for official updates as long as one can hope.. (so pref. coming with 7.x already)
- in the realm of 5" to maybe 5,5" screen, overall size of my Galaxy S6 is just fine, I don't want much more
- builtin storage not super important, but 32GB is probably the bottom line. if a ?sd slot is given, integrated storage becomes irrelevant
- I'd rather have too much ram than too little
- good and fast GPS is required
- fingerprint reader is at this point in time my preferred method of lock/unlock, so it needs to have that
- but as stated, NOT ON THE BACK! .. seriously.. who though that was a good idea?
- Oh yeah, if said phone is known to have reception issues compared to others, it is out. network around here sucks as it is.

Nice2have:
- better end of the spectrum camera
- the nerd in me wants 8 cores under any circumstance, but I know that 4 or 8 or whatever is a rather moot point depending on the actual processors..
- a battery that actually lasts 2 days! ... .. hahahah ok, nevermind..

Couldn't care less:
- metal? plastic? *shrug*
- edgy roundy fancy bla. If I need to worry about it sliding out of my hand when picking it up (looking at Samsungs Edge buggers), that is not a plus.
- fancy pants speakers to annoy everybody while walking down the street
- headphone socket or not

The price point is a rather unspecific one, since I'll be looking for a contract with it,.. so anything sub 500eur is probably going to be free, anything higher likely going to cost a little extra.. it'd probably more depend on how convincing the device is if I'm willing to pay extra.

If I forgot something, you'll probably ask it right away. Other than that, I hereby deem it your turn now!
 
I'm going to put a shout in for the Sony Xperia XZ Premium because of a few things.

- The XZ Premium is just a couple of weeks old. Doesn't get much more up-to-date.
- It has a side-mounted fingerprint reader like my Z5 Premium and I can pick it up in any reasonable position with either hand (5 fingerprints programmed in) and unlock it. You would assume that this has been improved further still.
- IP-rated splashproof, one less thing to worry about
- Sony cameras have been at the forefront of phone camera tech since the old Cyber Shot phones. I can't prove it's better however but I know mine was a vast improvement of the HTC One M8.
- It does have 8 cores, 64GB internal and MicroSDXC expansion.
- Battery life is claimed to be 2 days, 3230mAh. Quick Charge 3.0 is pretty much going to be on anything that isn't an iPhone or Windows but it's excellent.

However, it does have a kind of curved screen. You'd have to see for yourself on this one, I like my perfectly square Z5P as it's easy to hold but I still keep it in a case, so should you. :p

Also it's bloody espensive, don't know if it'll be covered by the contract but it's in line with the S8 and iPhone 7.
 
I have the p10 myself and am happy with it. It does tick some of the couldn't care less boxes though :p
 
I think I would get the Huawai P10 if I needed a replacement right now. It's about 2/3 the price of the usual flagship phones and seems like it would be sufficient. It would be nice with a larger battery (3.200 mAh) but that is the case for almost all phones unless you are willing to compromise everything else for more mAh.
 
I wish I could get the Huaweis here, they seem to be pretty good with a good price.
 
HTC 10 ticks all the marks and is bulletproof to boot. One of only a handful of phones to pass Jerryrigeverything's bend test. Lasts me 2 days, but your mileage my very, camera is almost top notch (according to DxoMark only the Google Pixel (made by HTC) and HTC U11 are better), reception is flawless, it'll be getting updates for at least a year if not two, the front facing fingerprint scanner is quick and accurate, even when scratched to hell and it has a microSD slot.

The HTC U11 is newer and shinier (read: faster and more expensive), but that comes at a price as the body is now glass instead of a brick of aluminium. I don't see the appeal, personally.
 
I don't see the appeal, personally.

Yeah same here. I had a Sony Z3 for nearly 3 years before the P10 and the thing that annoyed me the most was the bloody glass back. I don't get it, why not go with a nice aluminium unibody kind of thing.
 
Because shiny is the new black. You have to admit the shifting colours do look very nice,

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but personally not my taste. I much prefer the satin grey finish of my 10.
 
I'll have an eye out for good offers with any of the suggestions so far. Just not sure about the HTC 10 being over a year old, in terms of updates to come.. but I won't rule it out.

So far I've just not seen any good contract deals. Just shit phones I don't want, or phones I'd be fine with for either more than I want to pay, or cheaper phones for full price contracts.. like that flood of entry- and midlevel Samsung A/B/C/J/F/K/4/5/7 whatsoever things while still paying what I normally pay for a contract with a top end phone.. oh well, I still got time.. just not patience.. :D
 
Edit:

I am now considering a rather odd option, the Galaxy S7. Basically my phone with a bigger battery. A generation old though too.. But I can get that with a contract I want for a better price than most others and it'd be basically free (29? once). Hmhmhm...

I'm gonna go hit a store or two now and see if there are any local deals. My patience is just not playing along :p
 
That is what I have. No real problems with it in the time I have had it(nearly a year). Only minor nitpicking.
 
Edit:

I am now considering a rather odd option, the Galaxy S7. Basically my phone with a bigger battery. A generation old though too.. But I can get that with a contract I want for a better price than most others and it'd be basically free (29? once). Hmhmhm...

I'm gonna go hit a store or two now and see if there are any local deals. My patience is just not playing along :p
So you're dismissing a 1 year old phone from a manufacturer with proven update history but considering a 1 year old phone from a manufacturer with the shoddiest update history.

I don't even...
 
I have an S7 for work. Seems great for me, just too small.
 
So you're dismissing a 1 year old phone from a manufacturer with proven update history but considering a 1 year old phone from a manufacturer with the shoddiest update history.

I don't even...

I am fully aware of the slight stupidity of my two statements there, but I have no actual long-term experience with either of the two on the matter of updates. The S7 is just a current offer that came along and is being considered..

Also so far the 10 has shown to be rather expensive with a contract while being cheaper on its own. At times it's priced equal to the U11..
 
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I waited for the new month to bring new deals, but so far none of that happened. I guess I missed that short window of opportunity before the EU changes to get a contract that didn't have those priced in (since it appears that most contracts here are now suddenly 5-10eur more expensive) but they all have the "free" EU roaming now.. looks like I'll have to pay a 5er more for my desired contract. Oh well.

With that said, I still have to pick the device. I am still leaning towards the P10, which I can get for 1eur with the contract. The XZ Premium is in the 159-199eur extra range, the "older" ones ala S7 / HTC 10 are also usually 1eur. But now I spotted an offer with the same contract and the HTC U11 for 89EUR.. and I am now kinda torn between the P10 for 1 and the U11 for 89 Euro.. But on the U11 I'd also have to decide on a color :D
 
I was just about to get the contract with the P10 for 1? since the U11 went up to 99?, when it dropped to 69? again.. and then I realized that I even have a use for the Dual-SIM of the U11, so I pulled the trigger on that one. I picked the blue one, which is still not available right away, but the expected delivery is within 2 weeks or so.. and I couldn't really care less about waiting that long. I could have had a black or silver right away, but any of the other colors are still on order... and with the colored ones being at least where available even more expensive, I figured I might as well get a color for the same price. It'll be my first ever HTC! Not counting the ones I smuggled to Slovenia :p

Thanks to everybody for the input. The P10 almost made it, the XZ Premium was a contender on and off, but in the end, the combination of (retail)value for money and the completely forgotten Dual-SIM thing made the decision in favor of the HTC.
 
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I'm gonna have to have a tinker at ringmeet. I hope I don't drop it. The U11 looks mega slippery. :mrgreen:
 
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