New smartphone user question

[CigarGuy]

I'm thinking of upgrading to my first smartphone. Not going to spend over 150.00 for an upgrade. Best Buy has a 50.00 rebate to add to the deal. For a rookie, what is the better phone for me? Going with minimum data pkg.

Razr, 4g, 32gb (150.00)

iPhone, 4S, 16gb (200.00)

iPhone 4, 32gb, (200.00)

iPhone 4, 16gb, (100.00)

[LMITOUT]

That's a tough one to answer. An iPhone is probably the most intuitive and easy to learn and use, but my 60 year old dad just got his first smart phone (Razr) and seems to have figured it out, but he isn't afraid of technology and likes to tinker with things like that.

I'm all-in when it comes to Google and their cloud products like mail, calendar, documents, and so on which made buying an Android-based phone a no brainer. Not to say you can't do those things with an iPhone, but everything seems to work well together for me.

Best bet would try to get hands on with both platforms and see what you like.

[itchmesir]

how much can you get a Samsung Galaxy/Galaxy II?.. probably the best smart phone out there right now hands down

[upnorth]

I tend to like the droid options because they are much less proprietary.

[nofishfisherman]

how much can you get a Samsung Galaxy/Galaxy II?.. probably the best smart phone out there right now hands down

I have the Galaxy S II and love it. I paid $200 for it awhile back before the Nexus came out. I love the phone. It was going back and forth between the S II and the Iphone 4S and after playing with both the S II won out. The screen is so much bigger and brighter. Functionality wise they do almost the same exact things and most popular apps are available on both markets. I just prefer not to deal with apple since they don't seem to play well with others.

[LMITOUT]

Some rumors about the S III floating around today and with any luck it'll be out about the time I'm up for an upgrade this summer. Quad core, Ice Cream Sandwich, and only 7mm thick is the speculation.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Razr, it's not a question.

The only question is if you can get the Razr Maxx. The battery life on the standard Razr is something left to be desired if you use it alot, which may not be an issue if you're going with the min. data.

I use mine for streaming radio while working with headphones, and the battery is done in about 4 hours.

[Kyhl]

Razr....

I use mine for streaming radio while working with headphones, and the battery is done in about 4 hours.

Really? What are you streaming? Using 4G?

I must be lucky. I run AudioGalaxy to stream music from my home PC in the morning and iHeart to stream KFAN in the afternoons. I run it about 3 hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon and it's usually down to 20% by the end of the day. I turn off 4G to do this though, 320k mp3 doesn't need 25mbps speeds. I'd bet iheart is probably closer to 120mp3.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I use Iheart for the Comedy 24/7 channel in the mornings, or else MediaU to listen to 1500 ESPN.

About a month ago I toggled the 4g off and tried that, same.

I make sure all of the wifi is off, the bluetooth, gmail sync.

I have to have a somewhat constant regular email sync, as I need to get my business emails as quick as possible (every 10-15 minutes).

Most of the property managers I do work for, they expect to communicate by email.

[Kyhl]

Maybe I'm lucky.

For kicks I kept track of my usage today. I started the work day at 90%. Didn't have it on the charger over night.

Streamed 32 songs this morning,

Read a handful of emails

Installed google.docs app and used it to review a doc for about five minutes in the morning,

Words with friends popped up with a notice that it was my turn and I spent a couple minutes reviewing it during lunch then closed without playing anything,

Listned to KFAN on iheart from 12:40-3:30.

Logged into Linked-In to accept an invite from a co-worker sometime in the afternoon.

Was down to 10% battery at the end of the day.

All on 3G and the only widget I have running is the weather channel.

[nofishfisherman]

I've noticed that Word with Friends is actually a battery hog. On my Galaxy S II I can see what is using the most power and Words with Friends is 3rd on the list after the operating system and the screen display. If you leave it running throughout the day it constantly looks to see if your opponents have played a work so it can really kill the battery. Make sure to go into your task manager and exit out of the game entirely when you are done playing so that it would constantly be running.

On my phone I can stream pandora for 6-8 hours, play words with friends, do email, mess around on Navionics and various other apps and be down to about 5-10% by midnight assuming I start the day on a full charge. I usually do this on 3G while at work to save the battery since the speed is plenty for what i need.

[DTro]

Get rid of WWF and use Word Fued instead. WWF kills the battery.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I tried again yesterday, running 3g, dropping all of my widgets, killing all the apps I had running, setting most everything in task manager to stop after 2 minutes once the screen turns off.

About 5 hours, battery dead.

This was with using Mixzing for my music app, just listening to music on my phone, not even streaming anything.

I've now deleted Mixzing and will go back to the stock music player to see if I can save battery that way.

It's to the point, when summer hits I use the stream about 15 hours / day, that I will buy a Maxx, but I don't really want to spend $150 for an extended life battery, more or less.

[nofishfisherman]

Have you tried Pandora for music? I can listen to Pandora all day without killin the battery but only 5-6 hours if I use I Heart Radio.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Pandora always freezes for me. It got to the point where it sucked so bad I just uninstalled it.

Same thing with Slacker.

Weirdest thing too. If I listened to I Heart and listen to 24/7 Comedy, it NEVER freezes or pauses, but if I listen to one of the stations I created, it'll play 2-3 songs, then pause for a while like the other apps.