New phone recommendations

I love my Galaxy 2S Skyrocket (on AT&T 4G LTE network). I'd recommend any of the Galaxy series of phones.
 
TomCat said:
You call that "dumbing it down"? I understood about 4 words of that. :p

The Samsung Galaxy S looks nice, but what are the real advantages of the III over the current II?
Click to expand...

Sorry, lemme make it simple. i was trying to type that during a 10 minute break at work haha.

Sprint bet the farm on a technology called WiMax a few years ago in order to be "first with 4g." For a variety of reasons this turned out to be a mistake so they're scrambling to transition to LTE, the globally accepted standard for 4G. This is called "Sprint Network Vision" and you can find out more here: http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/129198-network-vision-sprints-path-to-domination

As such, in the span of a 2 year contract if you were to buy now, Sprint mayyy turn off their wimax network in your area to repurpose the spectrum toward LTE. You'd then end up with 3G speeds and Sprint's 3G is slow, slower than verizon.

The Galaxy S III has a new design (some love it, others hate it) and additional features (a siri competitor dubbed s voice, a feature that lets the screen stay awake when you're looking at it, the ability to watch a video "on top" of what you're doing, etc.) It's also faster than the S II and has a larger screen than most Galaxy S II variants.

GRtak said:
This will probably be my Xmas present to meself, or I might be able to swing it by my bday in late August. It is on Verizon, and it will depend on the deal I can get. Would prefer to get one with a card slot too.
Click to expand...

You also might want to see if Verizon gets a galaxy s III variant.
 
Last edited:
I don't like the styling of the S3, not to mention it won't fit in my pocket.
 
My last one was a Motorola Defy+, and today i just ordered a Razr Maxx, the last 10 years i've a S/E guy, but no more SonyEricsson phones for me.
 
Pininfarina_ said:
I don't like the styling of the S3, not to mention it won't fit in my pocket.
Click to expand...

The One X is similar in size and is actually very pocketable.
 
How about the Xperia S? Hardware wise seems very competitive towards the S2 and has some seriously good looks.

I'm just a tad worried about it's durability though. The S2 has gorilla glass and the rest of the body can take a serious beating. The Xperia S looks rather fragile (not to mention some unnamed "scratch-resistant" glass and nobody has done a drop test on it).
 
The Xperia S hardware is kinda average considering how much you pay for it. Its a nice looking device in person and will be getting ICS soon, but I have no idea how durable it will be.
 
Spec wise the XS has a slight edge over the GS2 but everyone I've been asking likes the look of the GS2 better. Strange because I think the XS is gorgeous; I can see it going out of style really quick though, like all Sony phones.
 
Got myself a Samsung Galaxy S II today. I was thinking about just holding out for the III, but they're trying to push these II's out, so $99 seemed like a decent deal. It's still a massive upgrade over my old phone anyway. But now I feel like an old man, trying to get use to it. It uploaded my gmail contact list, but it's cluttered full of names of people I sent 1 email to 5 years ago, so I guess I need to clean that out a bit. And now I'm downloading the netflix app and I don't like how it wants to access all sorts of information on my phone, but there doesn't seem to be any choice in the matter.
 
TomCat said:
Got myself a Samsung Galaxy S II today. I was thinking about just holding out for the III, but they're trying to push these II's out, so $99 seemed like a decent deal. It's still a massive upgrade over my old phone anyway. But now I feel like an old man, trying to get use to it. It uploaded my gmail contact list, but it's cluttered full of names of people I sent 1 email to 5 years ago, so I guess I need to clean that out a bit. And now I'm downloading the netflix app and I don't like how it wants to access all sorts of information on my phone, but there doesn't seem to be any choice in the matter.
Click to expand...

You should be able to open the contacts list and set it to only show contacts with phone numbers.

The app permissons thing is handy, but it does require you to think about how an app could use the permissions it needs. I like devs who state why an app needs the permissions it does in the description on Play.
 
rickhamilton620 said:
You should be able to open the contacts list and set it to only show contacts with phone numbers.

The app permissons thing is handy, but it does require you to think about how an app could use the permissions it needs. I like devs who state why an app needs the permissions it does in the description on Play.
Click to expand...
I just went into my gmail account and deleted a bunch of my old contacts, that seemed to do the trick well enough.

Yeah, I looked through the permissions section and read the descriptions of each. Most made sense, like giving the app permission to override the energy saver so the screen doesn't turn off every couple minutes while trying to watch a program. But there was one that required permission to my phones personal data so it can learn about my tastes. I'm not so interested in that. I would like to think anything I send in an email would be private and not get shared with a million apps that don't really need the information, you know?

I guess this means no pron browsing on the phone. :(




:p
 
Phabulous!
 
So I've had my S II for almost 2 months now and I have to say, I'm not impressed with having a smartphone. It's more annoying than useful and hardly ever seems to work properly. There is no sense of privacy with it either, like you're required to forfeit any right to privacy the moment you get it. It links with your gmail account, pulls all your contacts and even goes through your emails looking to see what websites you're subscribed to and logs you in. I don't like it. Hardly any of the apps seem useful and the couple I've downloaded didn't work properly or crashed the whole phone. Fuck it. When this overrated piece of shit finally falls apart, which shouldn't take too long, I'll probably go back to a dumbphone.
 
TomCat said:
So I've had my S II for almost 2 months now and I have to say, I'm not impressed with having a smartphone. It's more annoying than useful and hardly ever seems to work properly. There is no sense of privacy with it either, like you're required to forfeit any right to privacy the moment you get it. It links with your gmail account, pulls all your contacts and even goes through your emails looking to see what websites you're subscribed to and logs you in. I don't like it. Hardly any of the apps seem useful and the couple I've downloaded didn't work properly or crashed the whole phone. Fuck it. When this overrated piece of shit finally falls apart, which shouldn't take too long, I'll probably go back to a dumbphone.
Click to expand...

You dont have to sign into gmail to use the phone. You can go into accounts, turn off gmail sync, and then access your gmail through the browser.

You can turn off gps location via the toggle switch in the notification shade until you really need it. Manage other location services by going to settings -> Location and Security

The phone backs up your contacts to your Google account so you dont have to worry about losing them. IIRC you're on a CDMA carrier, so you should know how annoying it is on a dumbphone to have to go to the phone store and have someone take 20 minutes to transfer your contacts from your old phone to a new phone, or worse...lose them altogether because your phone got lost or broken and you didnt set up a carrier specific Backup Assistant or whatever.

I've never heard of the trawling through your email thing and I've used Android for a few years now. Rest assurred that it would have made front page news if what you described was happening. What's likely happening is that the browser is keeping your autologin settings synced between devices. The stock Android 4 browser likely does the same thing.

You can clear your saved data and prevent the browser from saving this by going to the browser, opening settings and unchecking the "remember usernames and passwords" box. Follow up by tapping the "clear saved passwords" box.

I've always been asked if I wanted the browser to remember such things, even with the checkbox checked. Still worth a shot though.

You can review what each app has access to in the download process of the play store. I will say that some of the descriptions are vague so it might sound like "every app is out to get you" but you have to take the permissions into context. For example, if a calculator app lets you share your calculations, it might need access to your contacts so it can let you pick who to share the contacts with, etc.

What applications have you tried? Do you have any specific things you want to try with your phone?

The dumbphone segment is just going to continue to get smaller...and even worse..more basic...the "feature phone" midrange is quickly eroding due to lower end smartphones taking over. Verizon, for example, only has a few dumbphones left and most are inferior from their dumbphone lineup of only a few years ago.

If you need help and dont want to clutter the thread, seriously PM me or whatever. I love this stuff.
 
Last edited:
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but when I opened the YouTube app, it showed me logged into my old YouTube account. And for the life of me, I don't remember ever logging into it on the phone. I can't even remember my login information as I type this.

I wanted to download an app for a local radio station, since my old AM/FM portable CD player from the Y2K days is about to die on me. But every time I tried to use the app, it crashed my phone. I saw a couple other user reviews on the app that said the same thing, so I guess it's just a shitty app and not the phone's fault.
 
Last edited:
TomCat said:
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but when I opened the YouTube app, it showed me logged into my old YouTube account. And for the life of me, I don't remember ever logging into it on the phone. I can't even remember my login information as I type this.

I wanted to download an app for a local radio station, since my old AM/FM portable CD player from the Y2K days is about to die on me. But every time I tried to use the app, it crashed my phone. I saw a couple other user reviews on the app that said the same thing, so I guess it's just a shitty app and not the phone's fault.
Click to expand...

Youtube started linking accounts, so when you signed into your google account it also signed into your youtube account (but oddly the old one). You can choose between the two in YouTube for Android via Menu -> My Channel.

Sometimes, like PC apps, updates to apps break them for some users. TuneIn and Clear Channel's iHeartRadio are two pretty good radio apps. They'll use your data plan or wi-fi connection. The Galaxy S 2 has a FM radio tuner but Sprint and AT&T chose to disable this functionality in firmware.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top