Cell phones - What are you packin'?

[candiru]

LG Revere 2 Still living in the flip-phone era.

[Swiftswamper]

Galaxy s4

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

HTC MyTouch 4G (snore)

iPad 2, 3G, 64

I will never do another cell contract. My phone is old, but I hate cell contracts. Looking into other contract free options when I buy again.

[LMITOUT]

Upgraded from the Galaxy 10.1 to the new Pro 10.1 yesterday. Great tablet so far and the screen (299 pixels/inch) may be the best on the market right now.

[Kettle]

LG Revere 2 Still living in the flip-phone era.

Until August I was still on the flip phone until I had to get one for work and such. Less features than the touch screens but less to go wrong, kinda like crank down windows (which I have and swear by) to power windows in a truck.

Kettle

[PierBridge]

Galaxy S4

On my way to get a Galaxy S4.

Sams club has them for $47. Best Buy was $50 and Verizon was a $100 after rebate.

no way around the activation FEE of $35

So $82 plus some uncle Sam and I am into a S4.

And of course the beloved 2 year contract...

[PierBridge]

4gggggg Rocks+

[river rat316]

moto x assembled in America and does everything quickly, wouldn't own anything from Samsung, worse than Apple imho, I am probably sticking with the Moto X for a long long time, I even bought a case for it. Came from a razr, decent phone but nothing like the Moto X Also have a Nexus 7 v2 that is pretty good, looking at getting one of the dell tablets for my wife, just can't decide between the Droid os or the windows os

[PierBridge]

I ruled the Moto X quickly with no expandable memory and a less than stellar camera and weak battery ratings.

[LMITOUT]

Motorola phones don't seem to have very good cameras. I have a RAZR Maxx HD and the camera is nothing to write home about. I'll be looking at the new HTC One for my next phone unless something else comes out between now and October when my contract is up. I had two HTC phones when I was with Sprint and they were great. I fired up the EVO 4G a while back and the screen is leaps and bounds better than this newer Droid.

[Big Dave2]

Question: We use T-Mobile for our cell provider but want to switch to Verizon. My son has an IPhone 5 that he just got last summer and I hate to have to buy him a new one. Is there a way to use that phone on Verizon's network or am I SOL?

[DTro]

Pretty sure T is GSM and Verizon is CDMA. You could always sell the IPhone since they hold their value well.

[aanderud]

BigDave2, Yeah you'll have to sell that T-Mobile one and buy a verizon one. I'm guessing you should come out about a wash if you sell a used one and buy a used one both on hsolist or eb@y or other type of place -- other than the hassle-factor of making said transactions.

[aanderud]

Other than the battery life on the razr maxx, the rest of the phone is just mediocre. It's showing its age being that I don't have an HD screen, I have only dual core, etc. I'm going to be upgrading soon, just not sure to what phone yet.

HTC is coming out with their new "One" phone supposedly next week. March 25th there will be at least a half dozen retailers already announced selling it in europe, and the thought is that we'll be at most a week behind that here in the states. Also, Samsung is releasing the galaxy S5 on april 11. Odds are I'll be on one of those two phones within the next 2-3 weeks, but might wait until after April 11 even if I'm leaning toward HRC, just to be able to read some heads-up competition reviews against the S5.

Both have a micro SD slot. The HTC supposedly has a better camera, better heavy duty build...but the galaxy s5 is apparently dust and water resistant....which is a big bonus to me.

Then there's also the prospect of waiting another couple months for the LG G3, which is supposed to be water and dust resistant. So many choices...

[LMITOUT]

HTC is coming out with their new "One" phone supposedly next week. March 25th there will be at least a half dozen retailers already announced selling it in europe, and the thought is that we'll be at most a week behind that here in the states. Also, Samsung is releasing the galaxy S5 on april 11. Odds are I'll be on one of those two phones within the next 2-3 weeks, but might wait until after April 11 even if I'm leaning toward HRC, just to be able to read some heads-up competition reviews against the S5.

Both have a micro SD slot. The HTC supposedly has a better camera, better heavy duty build...but the galaxy s5 is apparently dust and water resistant....which is a big bonus to me.

The info on the new One (M8) has leaked so badly it's not even a surprise anymore. I was hoping for something smaller or closer to the first One but that doesn't appear to be the case.

It doesn't seem like people are happy with the S5 specs/design, and if I were to get a Samsung (which I'm not) I'd get the S4 since the S5 didn't really improve on it that much and save the money. If they followed the iPhone nomenclature it'd be more like a S4s than a S5.

[aanderud]

Couldn't stop myself from ordering the "all new one" (M8). Verizon wireless had a buy one get one -- which doesn't help unless you need another line or two people on your plan are up for renewal and want that phone. My mother in law wanted to jump on the family plan and wanted a reasonably priced phone. Got a coupon on the web chat (they didn't want me to go to the store to buy it, so they offered me an incentive) to knock another $50 off. Went to the store to pick them up after ordering online, and then got to the store and they weren't able to give them to me for some snafu reason (I selected 'use amex on file' when I ordered and I have a different amex card now and they apparently couldn't figure out how to change the credit card). They cancelled the orders and told me to go home and reorder the phones again. I did that but during the process of complaining about the hour I wasted at the store and the fact that they couldn't get me the phones until Thursday now, they waived my upgrade fee, saving me another 30 bucks. So, basically after some hoops to jump through I get two of them for $160.90 after tax. They'll be here tomorrow.

[meerkat]

Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8 phone.

nothing to complain about, long battery life, wireless charging.

[Borch]

Looking forward to your review Brian. We're planning on upgrading soon and the HTC One M8 is on our short list.

Only negative I hear early one is the camera isn't as sharp and has some color wash out.

[aanderud]

Looking forward to your review Brian. We're planning on upgrading soon and the HTC One M8 is on our short list.

Only negative I hear early one is the camera isn't as sharp and has some color wash out.

Phone is fast. Has 32 gigs of ram which is plenty to start with, and it has an SD slot, which I populated with a 16 gig card from my old phone. It'll take up to 128 gig sdxc card, I think, so if you're into playing movies and all that, it will have PLENTY of space. Huge screen which is very nice for playing games, viewing websites, etc....but I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with the LCD screen 'colors' versus the old AMOLED one on my RAZR maxx. Seems a bit washed out, if you ask me -- which I guess is probably the same reason I buy plasma TVs instead of LCD. I stare at an LCD all day at work and I have to say I'm not impressed with LCD in general.

The metal case feels really nice. Better than the galaxy s4 at the store (and from what I've heard the S5 is not much better). The screen is a gorilla glass 3, which is supposed to be good. I've always had good luck with the glass though, from the motorola line even with gorilla glass and gorilla glass 2. I always run my phones naked with no case, since I don't like inflating their size any larger than they have to be. This one shouldn't disappoint, as I've seen some reviews with guys hacking at both the glass front and the aluminum back with keys and it stays scratch free until you start going at it with a serrated knife blade.

Battery life seems good, I've had it on all day since 6:30 am and the battery says 47%. Nothing near what my razr maxx was getting, but this should be obvious just based on the smaller amp-hour rating of the battery plus the bigger screen. It looks like it'll get me a full day most days, unless I have some super extreme things going on like a lot of streaming, navigation, or other crazy stuff.

The camera is sorta weak as far as megapixels and colors. If you're buying primarily for a camera, the lumia, xperia, and the iphone will be better....but it's actually a slight upgrade I'd say from my razr maxx. Seems faster to focus, and seems to rely on the flash a bit less. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's going to win you any photography awards.

I'd say if you're on the fence and you can wait 2 weeks, go to the store april 11 when the galaxy s5 comes out and compare them side by side. If anything maybe the pricing will get even better on these at that point. But as is now, with the buy one get one free plus the gal on the web chat giving me a $50 coupon, it was really a no brainer. $161 after tax for two top of the line phones is a great price. I will admit that I've paid more than that for a single phone more than once.

I don't expect the camera on a pone to act like an SLR, so the camera 'shortcomings' are acceptable to me. The only thing this phone is missing that I'd like is some water resistance -- but I was thinking about this earlier and I don't think I've waterlogged a phone, ever. That doesn't mean it won't happen -- but I do think that a lot of folks like to buy the insurance, and water is covered under that. More on insurance later, btw.

The LG G3 is also due to be out mid-May, but that's a ways out yet. Who knows if it'll be delayed. RIGHT NOW, this HTC M8 is the best phone out, IMHO. Well, there's actually a blackberry that's much better hardware-wise, but it's a blackberry -- so there's no way it'll compete. So, of the real phones, I'd take this one. However, in the near term the M8 will have some competition from several vendors -- nokia lumia, sony xperia, samsung galazy s5, and LG G3 are all slated to be released in the next few months as new models of 'flagship' phone. Plus, apple will have their new iphone out possibly as early as June. But, I didn't see any compelling rumors that convinced me to wait at this point.

Also of note, I did some insurance pricing. I've been running without insurance for the last 2 phones. Verizon charges 8 bucks a month for insurance ($192 over the course of a 24 month contract), and then 99 bucks for a deductible if you have to get a phone screen fixed -- total $291 if you need it. To me, paying almost 300 bucks to protect a phone seems a bit much. Squaretrade charges only $95 for the insurance plan (dig around online for a coupon to take the $125 down to $95), and then their deductible is only $75. To me that's a great option if you were going to buy the insurance anyway. Still not sure whether it's worth it versus going insurance-less and then just biting the bullet if sh "it" happens, but it's definitely closer to being worth it than the Verizon plan is, as it's basically 45% less cost.

OK, that's all I know for now.

[LMITOUT]

Thanks for the review. There are a couple of things that bother me with this phone, one of which is the size and the other is the rounded edges. It looks like it'll be awfully easy to slip out of your hand. I've never been a fan of "organic" design and prefer more "squared" styling. I guess I'm still on the fence about this phone and will have to see what is available when I'm due for an upgrade in October.

A while back I heard about Wells Fargo phone insurance and forgot about it until now. Looks like a no-brainer but need to research it a bit more. Almost seems too good to be true. $600 coverage/$25 deductible as long as you pay your monthly cell provider bill with the WF credit card. I'm sure there are plenty of strings attached.

[Borch]

Thanks Brian.

We have to wait a little bit yet so there will be a couple more options but I really liked the features and ratings so far of the HTC One. Will have to see what the others offer. Not quite sure I want a phone they big especially if you add a case so that might sway me as well.

[PierBridge]

Thats what I was thinking Borch but it took me about 30 seconds to get used to the bigger S4 with Ottercase.

If I had to over again I would have got the note which is larger yet.

Im so much more efficient and happy with a larger display.

My S4 fits any place my ild Droid did even my front pants pocket if needed and it wont break with the Otter box.

[wishing for walleyes]

Galaxy note 2

[Matt C]

Grabbing the S5 tomorrow. I hung onto my S3, because the S4 didn't show me anything different from the S3.

My wife got the Lg G2 a few months ago and really likes it.

I am personally not a HTC or Motorola fan (chev vs. ford). I am partial to the Samsung and LG phones.

[DTro]

From what I've read, the S5 doesn't offer much of anything over the S4, except for the fingerprint scanner and pulse monitor. I'm torn between the S5, the One M8 and the Droid Maxx.