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Smythe posted:I'm imagining spending $700 on a carrier locked phone that's loaded down with failware that hijacks your personal hardware and then also never gets patched and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm imagining paying $700 to be cast into the dumpster in 4 months or whatever the next hot commodity comes around and steals my spotlight. I'm looking at this thread and I'm realizing it's not just my imagination. Folks, casual readers, and invited guests: Do not ever buy an OEM phone from a carrier. Do not ever buy a non-Nexus Android phone. When you buy a carrier branded/locked phone from an OEM with their own skins on it, you're not the customer - the telco is. They don't give a gently caress about you. Carrier branded/locked phones are the bottom feeding scavengers of the consumer electronics world. Get as high up the food chain as you can, buy your poo poo straight from the source. Purchase your phones from the people who design and support them. If you're buying from anyone other than Google or Apple, you're loving Up and Doing It Wrong. When Google releases a phone thats a competitor with non 4 year old flagships from Samsung or LG, ill consider it.
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Mar 23, 2016 22:18
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Smythe is almost right the only thing keeping him from being all the way right is the fact that Google doesn't really try to compete with the top of the line flagships. Though, you've got to have some really specific requirements for the 6P to not be good enough (particularly since it costs hundreds less than the S7). Also, don't buy carrier versions of phones.
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Mar 23, 2016 23:32
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Why don't buy Samsung? Other options are better?
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Mar 23, 2016 23:38
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Tony Montana posted:Why don't buy Samsung? Other options are better? Samsung, like all phone makers, makes some things lovely. The key is finding the phone whose lovely parts are the least important to you. Samsung's shittiness comes from the fact that the changes they make to Android on the UI side are controversial and in some cases just objectively bad, and the some of the changes they make to the Android API (which apps use to do...stuff) are just objectively broken. You might not care about the subjective changes they make to the UI, and the objectively bad changes they make to the UI might not be as important to you as, say, the hardware design, and you might not use any apps that care about the broken Android API's. Or maybe not and it will be a shitshow from day one.
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Mar 23, 2016 23:43
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Right. A good response from an intelligent user. So day 3 of my Android switch. I was Mr iPhone since 2003 when I asked for one to replace my WindowsCE phone (with stylus and that screen that was two layer of plastic that would push together when prodded). In the iPhone thread years ago I posted when I lost my iPhone on the top of mountain while skiing in the Alps, I then skiied back the next morning and found it sticking out of a drift of snow. It had been there overnight, in sub-zero temps, sitting in frozen water and it was fine.. it even had 80% battery and I listened to tunes from it as I skiied back down. But loving iTunes. loving stupid iTunes. Then this poo poo of putting the Apple cloud poo poo into the Music player and other daily use apps and constantly shoving it down my throat. I'm was sick of not being able to just plug my drat phone into my PC and copy files to it. Why do I have to have a specific charger.. why can't it just be a USB standard and I switch through devices that are made by people that don't hate humans? Work offered me a new phone, being a telco I got a choice.. the new iPhone 6S or the Galaxy 6S. There were other ones but I only really saw those. So I chose the Galaxy.. because why not lets see. It's clunkier, still. This is why I didn't come across earlier. Sometimes you tap on something and you get no response, or you trigger something other than you tapped on. This either never happened on an iPhone or so rarely that it felt like it never happened. My car bluetooth doesn't seem to work quite right, while on the iPhone it could display my phonebook and call log through the car with the Galaxy it seems to be a bit gimped. All my drat headsets don't work right, I'll need to buy new headsets. But otherwise, wow this screen is just amazing. Widgets and being able to customize the UI beyond you ever could on a iPhone is amazing. Realizing I'll never need to install iTunes or go to Apple.com for any reason puts a smile on my face every time. Every major app I use (Netflix, Stan, TuneIn, etc) all have mature and solid versions on Android so that's all peachy. I'm happy, this is cool. Sometimes when I hear the iPhone blasting music out of it's internal speaker and the quality is just so high I wonder if I'll stay in Droid-land in a year. But for the moment I'm a tourist and the scenery is nice, if not a little foreign.
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Mar 23, 2016 23:55
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Impressive that you were using iPhones 4 years before they were released.
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Mar 23, 2016 23:59
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Tony Montana posted:Why don't buy Samsung? Other options are better? Ever read those Amelia Bedelia books as a kindergartner?
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Mar 24, 2016 00:03
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Endless Mike posted:Impressive that you were using iPhones 4 years before they were released. Yeah but he was on GPRS for like 2 of those years since the EDGE rollout started in 2003 and ended in 2005.
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Mar 24, 2016 00:08
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I've never had any issues with any of my Samsung s3, s4, s5, and now my s6 edge phones on Verizon. But yea gently caress Samsung lol! gently caress Verizon too! TouchWiz isn't even that influential nowadays and most can be modded or themed out
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Mar 24, 2016 01:05
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Samsung isn't particularly worse than any other manufacturer on average. They're all pretty bad in different ways, it's a matter of which is bad in the ways that are least important to you. Also, some are bad in ways you probably don't care about but should. (security)
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Mar 24, 2016 01:08
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The glass on the back of my Nexus 4 cracked the day I got it. My coworker's phone cracked spontaneously a few days later. My Nexus 5 has the worst battery life of any phone I've ever had. My coworkers Nexus 6 is an all around good phone, but the autofocus is a piece of garbage and is constantly hunting. The Nexus 5x is a piece of poo poo that's only just been fixed. The Nexus devices were great because they were cheap, ran vanilla android and were guaranteed to get more than a couple major OS upgrades. They're no longer cheap, and that makes it a lot harder to ignore the other flaws, mainly subpar hardware and extreme delays in fixing critical bugs. Full disclosure: I bought an S7 Edge direct from Samsung, so far it's pretty great, Touchwiz is more useful than annoying now and the build quality and battery life are great.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:14
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Smythe posted:Patently false. As has been proven time and time again, there are no "Good" Android phones outside the Nexus line. There are no alternatives. There are no edge cases. There are no exceptions. Full stop. Have you ever owned a Moto X? It's a Nexus with a couple cool features stapled on.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:21
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EngineerJoe posted:The glass on the back of my Nexus 4 cracked the day I got it. My coworker's phone cracked spontaneously a few days later. Cool anecdotes. Here's mine: My Nexus 4 retired unscathed, uncracked, and functioning as well as the day I bought it on the day I retired it for the 6P. My friend's Nexus 5 has worked fine since he got and has no complaints. The 5x was actually patched which is more than most carrier/OEM phones can ever boast. I got the middle Nexus 6P for $450 all said and done, off contract, through Google Fi - that's deep into "Inexpensive" territory. So, if you take my anecdotes in aggregate: They're durable, work well, get updates, and are inexpensive. Not sure how your angle got so hosed up, perhaps you're holding it wrong?
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Mar 24, 2016 01:27
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Pyroxene Stigma posted:Have you ever owned a Moto X? It's a Nexus with a couple cool features stapled on. I would never buy a phone that's not part of the Nexus line, and therefor a reference device that's directly supported by Google, so no - of course not. It's like asking a computer professional if they've ever bought an Alienware: Of course they haven't, you'd have to be stupid to make that choice while being informed.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:29
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Okay, we get your opinion Smythe, can you please stop repeating it now maybe.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:30
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CLAM DOWN posted:Okay, we get your opinion Smythe, can you please stop repeating it now maybe. I'm responding to a direct question, is that a problem? If you take issue with my posts, use the report button instead of making GBS threads up this thread and backseat moderating.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:32
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I still like my 2015 MotoXP too.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:35
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Smythe posted:I'm responding to a direct question, is that a problem? If you take issue with my posts, use the report button instead of making GBS threads up this thread and backseat moderating. Someone already did.
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Mar 24, 2016 01:37
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I hosed up with that date, I guess I used it like 2007. Ya'll get pissy about your phones, don't ya
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Mar 24, 2016 01:53
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Smythe posted:I would never buy a phone that's not part of the Nexus line, and therefor a reference device that's directly supported by Google, so no - of course not. It's like asking a computer professional if they've ever bought an Alienware: Of course they haven't, you'd have to be stupid to make that choice while being informed. You should try the S7, it is pretty nice.
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Mar 24, 2016 02:06
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Moey posted:You should try the S7, it is pretty nice. What have you done...
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Mar 24, 2016 02:09
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Smythe posted:Cool anecdotes. Here's mine: So long as we're sharing: I've owned every Nexus phone. My Nexus 4 cracked on day two, because what kind of loving idiot company builds their extremely fragile electronic device out of glass, Samsung is super guilty of this too. I didn't even drop it; it just cracked in my pocket. I probably bumped my hip on something. The Nexus 5 was actually pretty cool and I liked it a lot for what it was, but the battery life was pretty awful and the camera was just some terrible bullshit. I briefly owned a Nexus 6, returned it because the awful yellow tint to the amoled looked like somebody, like, peed all over the screen. Just, all over it. Even if that's not typical, cool quality control guys. I've made my opinions known about the Nexus 5X; it IS pretty cool that they fixed it and I applaud the effort, but it doesn't fix the poo poo-awful build quality and the way the buttons feel like they might as well not even loving be there. The 6P is so locked down, hardware wise, it sorta flies in the face of it being so nice software wise. It IS a lot better than the 5X in terms of build quality, but it comes at the cost of price. Nexus phones used to be compelling because the very low price made them almost disposable so it didn't matter if poo poo broke on the hardware side, but now I find it extremely hard to recommend one to a normal person. Almost everyone I've let borrow my Nexus has said something like "what the gently caress is this poo poo lol, can't afford a real phone?" edit: Also, if, by your own admission, you've never used any other phones, how do you know you're so right Daily Forecast fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Mar 24, 2016 |
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Mar 24, 2016 02:25
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Mar 24, 2016 02:28
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Pyroxene Stigma posted:Have you ever owned a Moto X? It's a Nexus with a couple cool features stapled on. U.S. carrier versions of the Moto X 2014, released in 2014, did not and will not get Marshmallow, released in 2015.
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Mar 24, 2016 02:55
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If the Nexus 5x didn't have poo poo specs I would buy it but it does so I won't. Hoo boy being a consumer sure is hard. edit: I'm holding onto my 2013 Droid Maxx running 4.4 because nobody makes a phone worth buying, the Nexus line especially. If they make a Nexus phone that isn't poo poo this year I will buy it. They won't though because there's nothing in the last few years that's left me impressed with anything that's come out of that line. I doubt HTC will change this. On Terra Firma fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Mar 24, 2016 |
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Mar 24, 2016 02:57
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Mar 24, 2016 03:00
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RVProfootballer posted:U.S. carrier versions of the Moto X 2014, released in 2014, did not and will not get Marshmallow, released in 2015. Yeah, so what? Don't buy carrier locked phones. Sent from my unlocked Moto X 2014.
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Mar 24, 2016 03:05
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Tunga posted:I don't get the little Flash plugin icon on the right-side of the address bar and there's no "click here to make Flash go" grey box so I assume it's using HTML5 but I'm not sure how to validate that. I don't have any version of flash installed besides the proprietary chrome plugin on my computer, and google play music gives me an error in firefox about needing me to install flash, so  I'd like to think the mobile site at least doesn't require flash, because it is kind of hosed if you can't use a google play mobile site on a google phone. Of course, then it makes even less sense to require it on the computer, so either way it's just kind of dumb.
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Mar 24, 2016 03:50
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nimper posted:Yeah, so what? Don't buy carrier locked phones. Non-poo poo carrier locked phones exist and I happen to have one. It did not come with a single piece of carrier software installed. The way my contract is structured it makes much more sense to get a subsidized phone because the monthly savings realized from bringing my own phone would not have come anywhere close to equalling the upfront cost of purchasing that phone outright. I am well aware that my situation is not universal but spouting hive mind bullshit at people isn't remotely helpful either.
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Mar 24, 2016 04:48
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grack posted:Non-poo poo carrier locked phones exist and I happen to have one. It did not come with a single piece of carrier software installed. The way my contract is structured it makes much more sense to get a subsidized phone because the monthly savings realized from bringing my own phone would not have come anywhere close to equalling the upfront cost of purchasing that phone outright. It's still good advice, since the odds of getting garbage apps installed on your carrier-branded phone are much higher than your experience (especially here in 'Murca). So in general it's just better to tell people to buy unlocked, if at all possible.
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Mar 24, 2016 04:57
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You guys are making me regret ordering a 5X.....
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Mar 24, 2016 05:01
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grack posted:Non-poo poo carrier locked phones exist and I happen to have one. It did not come with a single piece of carrier software installed. The way my contract is structured it makes much more sense to get a subsidized phone because the monthly savings realized from bringing my own phone would not have come anywhere close to equalling the upfront cost of purchasing that phone outright. What carrier and what phone?
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Mar 24, 2016 05:13
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Valicious posted:You guys are making me regret ordering a 5X..... It depends what you're coming from. I think most people would be pretty happy with a 5X.
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Mar 24, 2016 05:22
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nimper posted:What carrier and what phone? Rogers/Fido LG G4 (I'm Canadian) Also, if you in the US think your carriers are bad they don't come anywhere close to how horrible the major Canadian carriers are.
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Mar 24, 2016 05:25
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Let's build a wall around Samsung.
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Mar 24, 2016 05:27
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Whizbang posted:Let's build a wall around Samsung. But then where will google find features to add to Android from?
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Mar 24, 2016 05:33
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broken clock opsec posted:But then where will google find features to add to Android from? From hardworking American phone makers like...Apple?
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Mar 24, 2016 05:35
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Whizbang posted:From hardworking American phone makers like...Apple? Correction: Apple is Irish. We should have walled off the Irish this time last century.
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Mar 24, 2016 05:51
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Tony Montana posted:I hosed up with that date, I guess I used it like 2007. Most people are a bit loyal to their brand but most are open to real discussion. A few, like Smythe, are as bad as any apple hipster fangirl and will attack your choice vehemently if you don't eat his gospel with enthusiasm. So.. are their any specific game controllers people would recommend? Mostly looking for a Bluetooth one to use with my Samsung Gear vr once it comes in.
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Mar 24, 2016 06:02
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The Moga Pro for Android seems to be a reasonably recommended one that is not too expensive. The old recommendation iirc was to pair it in HID mode and don't bother with the app. I can't imagine that's changed.
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Mar 24, 2016 06:34
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