Please suggest a phone and where to buy it

I currently have an HTC One (M7) and love it... well loved it. The battery lasts for about 45 minutes of use and the camera now takes horrable picture. I got a quote of $60 to replace the battery but for not much more I can get a new phone.

I don't have the money or the desire to have the latest and greatest thing out there.

Here is my criteria:

1. Budget ~$250 (Flexible)
2. No contract
3. Must support Verizon
4. Decent battery life.
5. 4G LTE
6. Decent Camera

I had my eyes on Asus but I do not see any models that support CDMA which I think is required for Verizon. I am stuck with Verizon for several months, after that I either plan to change carriers to go to a month to month plan.

One option i am considering is a refurb S4 mini.

I just wanted to here if you guys had any suggestions on what is out there and where to get it.

My wife has an S4 mini and likes it just fine.

A couple of my coworkers have purchased LG G2 and Moto X phones that they've found for less than your budget as well.

If you get a refurb phone, does that renew the contract with your current carrier?

It depends how you buy it. Most carriers offer both an option to renew the contract and an option to buy the phone outright. For instease I can buy a refurb s4 mini from verizon for $130 or i can get the same phone for $40 with a new contract.

I usually just search "carrier + phone" in one of the well known e-tailers and find fantastic deals on used equipment. If you're tech savvy and your Google-fu is so so, you can get most any CDMA phone switched to your carrier ( that is if someone has done the work already- otherwise you have to be proficient in making a rom for your carriers version of the device and then switching stuff around like radios and apns) Most of that stuff is beyond me I'm afraid, but as I said it may be a bit more accessible to someone with greater knowledge. If not, look for a used device from your carrier ( mine will even let you know if they can switch your chosen device if you ask them first). I have been really surprised at how much you can save if you're not after the "latest and greatest"

That being said: USB 3.0 is making its way to smartphones. Faster recharge and file transfer. If you have any must have features I can try to help. Corning Gorilla glass 3 is the newest (iirc) and is very nice to have. There are phones being released with 64 bit architecture (but only in Europe I believe - you can still get them and transfer to your own carrier though) but there isn't much written for them. Most phone processors top out around 1.2 - 1.5 ghz (dual or quad core / quads are easily on your price range but maybe not for your carrier) .... There's lots of other features. You might want to make sure you are running Kitkat (android 4.4+) or Lolipop (android 5.0 +) to stay current with apps....

I hope that helps. If there's any specific features your looking for I might know which phone has it. I'm sorry I don't have a clear recommendation though

Edit: if you do go used... Make sure you can find a RUU before you buy (Rom Update Utility) is specific to your phone and version of firmware but the right one will fix just about anything (kind of like a fresh install of the OS, Much better than a factory reset)

huawei p8 looks nice, design nice, hardware nice all he have nice but battery isnt so good, and he isnt cheapest or meizu mx4 looks too nice : ) My brother have lumia 640 and its too nice mobile and its cheap

Huawei does not support CDMA from what I can find which means no verizon.

So I played with my Dad's S4 and realized I am too much of the techie to settle for 2 year told technology. It seems slow to open almost any app. And with a three yearold in the house, in the time it takes for the camera to open the opertunity has passed. I am seriously considering the S6 or anther HTC ONE

Droid Turbo or MAXX.
You don't even have to unlock the phone to open the camera, just rotate it in your hand twice and it's up.

I'd also suggest a Turbo. Mine's really fast with the lollipop update and the hand motions for camera and flashlight are cool. Add in near-stock OS, hands-free voice control if you want, and other neat features like notifications on the amoled screen even when it's off are great. You don't have to unlock the phone since moving your hand near it is enough to get it to trigger, unless it's in your pocket where the screen will stay off. The notification features are controlled by specialized low-power processor cores so there's negligible power use outside of the voice controls.

I personally can't imagine going back to a phone without the on-screen notifiers and I keep catching myself trying to hover over my tablet's screen when it's off (same with girlfriend's iphone). The screen resolution's a little larger than necessary IMO but the GPU in the phone is oversized to compensate so it has no trouble with 3D games.

I think the MotoX has the same features so the main difference is the GPU and battery life. The MotoX will easily last a day or more, and the Turbo will give you 2-3 days of battery life depending on use. With the turbocharger you can have it ready to go from empty in about 20 minutes.

A Maxx wouldn't be bad but it's a couple generations old and a Verizon model so I wouldn't expect too much in the way of OS updates.

edit: They just announced new Moto G and Moto X models so I'd keep an eye on Verizon models.

Well tuesday my HTC One finally bit the dust. After being plugged in all night it died an hour after being unplugged. It would not turn on unless I would charge it again which only lasted ~1/2 hour on standby.

I went to the local BB still split between the S6 and Turbo. I liked the S6 size but the Turbo has a lot to offer, the large battery for one. Well BB made that choice simple. They didn't have any Turbo's in stock so I ended up with the S6. My first day the S6 lasted all day 6:30am - 10pm of what I would call heavy use and it still had ~40% when I plugged it in. Overall I am impressed with the camera (all though BB doesn't display real phones anymore so i couldn't play with the camera on similar devices).

The only draw back, which i think would have effected the turbo also, is I lost HTC BlinkFeed. Boy do I miss it for news. I tried flipboard but it simpily is not the same. Do you guys have any suggestions for a BlilnkFeed alternative?