Starting to look about a new smart phone/cell phone, need advice

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, I've been running the numbers on the cost of phones over the life of however long you take to pay them off.

AT&T claims that their "Next" plans are cheaper than the traditional 2-year contracts. As it turns out, this is a lie, at least on the phones which I've been looking at with my chosen data plan. You pay the monthly installment fee to pay off the phone, plus you also pay for usage and data charges for whatever plan you have and the local and government fees. So, when you upgrade to a new phone on one of their "Next" plans you pay your regular monthly fee for your data and voice plan(s) like you have been paying for with your previous device, and they tack on an additional monthly payment for the cost of the device (so you are paying out more per month than you would with a 2-year contract). Over time, this adds up to be greater than the price with a 2-year contract, by quite a lot as it turns out (over $600 more with some phones).

Apple iPhone 5s Pricing (with cheapest data plan):
2yr Agreement: $862.51
AT&T NEXT 24 (30 month): $1472.7
AT&T NEXT 18 (24 month): $1282.68
AT&T NEXT 12 (20 month): $1154.6

Samsung Galaxy S 5 Pricing (with cheapest data plan):
2yr Agreement: $812.52
AT&T NEXT 24 (30 month): $1494.6
AT&T NEXT 18 (24 month): $1302.6
AT&T NEXT 12 (20 month): $1174.6

Samsung Galaxy S 6 Pricing (with cheapest data plan):
2yr Agreement: $942.51
AT&T NEXT 24 (30 month): $1559.4
AT&T NEXT 18 (24 month): $1367.64
AT&T NEXT 12 (20 month): $1239.6

LG G3 Pricing (with cheapest data plan):
2yr Agreement: $812.52
AT&T NEXT 24 (30 month): $1423.5
AT&T NEXT 18 (24 month): $1231.56
AT&T NEXT 12 (20 month): $1103.6

 

[Bluefalcon13]

Ahhh but that doesn't take into account the Nexus devices. IE the Nexus 5 which is still a very solid phone, went for $400 for the 32gb, or the current price for the Nexus 6 which is $350 for the 32gb, or $400 for the 64gb unlocked on amazon. Both are great phones. Plus you get the added benefit of the latest versions of android as Google releases it. Furthermore, they are extremely easy to unlock the bootloader, and have ridiculous amounts of dev support for custom android versions.

Edit: finally, you could also go with a MVNO that piggybacks on ATT's network for a reduced price as well. I should also disclose that I am a huge Nexus fan, cause the support on the software side from Google is great. Their rule of thumb is a nexus device gets 18 months of updates ATLEAST from the day they stop selling it.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Still vote G3.
3Gb of RAM? Yes please

Super fast and fluid too

 

[BugFreak]

Still vote G3.
3Gb of RAM? Yes please

Super fast and fluid too

I'm curious, why would ram matter on a smart phone?

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I'm curious, why would ram matter on a smart phone?

If you play a fair amount of games on you phone like I do, you's appreciate the extra RAM.
It also means I can leave open many apps and tabs in Chrome so I can switch back to them later without bringing the page up again.

That said, my G3 never uses more than 2Gb at a time.

 

[BugFreak]

Makes sense. Guess I've never thought that important on a phone. My iPhone 6 has 1g from what I found and I leave tons of stuff open all the time.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Makes sense. Guess I've never thought that important on a phone. My iPhone 6 has 1g from what I found and I leave tons of stuff open all the time.

All the mobile phone OS's are great at saving RAM. Android will kill processes and such to make RAM available if it has to.
Not sure about Ios but I assume it'll do the same.

Either way they all have the same goal: Smooth user experience.

 

[weakssauce]

switch to verizon and get the droid turbo 2 that phone is literally unbreakable iv seen it get dropped from 900ft in the air and survive....you want reliability there it is buddy

plus verizon is a much better carrier than att

 

[Tech Tweaker]

switch to verizon and get the droid turbo 2 that phone is literally unbreakable iv seen it get dropped from 900ft in the air and survive....you want reliability there it is buddy

plus verizon is a much better carrier than att

We'll disagree greatly there.

Have a friend that's had Verizon for a few years now. He drops calls constantly, especially when he's at home. Hates their service for this reason and wishes he'd never switched from AT&T.

Standing in his living room he can barely get enough signal to make or receive calls most of the time, but when I'm at his place on my old phone I have five to six (full) bars of signal most of the time and probably never see less than half of full signal.

I ended up getting a Galaxy S5, been using it for about two weeks now. So far, fairly satisfied with it. Just wish the battery life was a bit better, as on my old phone I could easily go a week (or a bit more) between charges. On the Galaxy S5 I'm getting about 4-5 days if I only go down to a minimum of 20-30% battery remaining before I recharge it. Though that's better than the iPhone my father has, that he says he has to charge up every 2-3 days at most.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

We'll disagree greatly there.

Have a friend that's had Verizon for a few years now. He drops calls constantly, especially when he's at home. Hates their service for this reason and wishes he'd never switched from AT&T.

Standing in his living room he can barely get enough signal to make or receive calls most of the time, but when I'm at his place on my old phone I have five to six (full) bars of signal most of the time and probably never see less than half of full signal.

I ended up getting a Galaxy S5, been using it for about two weeks now. So far, fairly satisfied with it. Just wish the battery life was a bit better, as on my old phone I could easily go a week (or a bit more) between charges. On the Galaxy S5 I'm getting about 4-5 days if I only go down to a minimum of 20-30% battery remaining before I recharge it. Though that's better than the iPhone my father has, that he says he has to charge up every 2-3 days at most.

Well if you were looking for battery life the LG G3 has none.

I charge up everyday. The screen is terrible on the battery.

 

[weakssauce]

it all depends on the area man your just in a bad area for verizon btw if your buddy wants out of verizon have him call customer service and say he wants out because he has no service at home they wont charge him a ETF fee he would just have to pay off the remainder of his phones IF hes on device payment (i work for verizon)

grats on your new phone and why not just plug it in every night? i never understood the "i want my phone to last for x amount of days"

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well if you were looking for battery life the LG G3 has none.

I charge up everyday. The screen is terrible on the battery.

I guess it depends on how you use the phone. Personally, I don't use mine for web browsing (much) or email (because I'm usually near a desktop or laptop PC), just occasional calls and a few text messages now and then. So, I probably get better battery life than users that surf the web a lot or send lots of emails or text messages.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I guess it depends on how you use the phone. Personally, I don't use mine much for web browsing (much) or email (because I'm usually near a desktop or laptop PC), just occasional calls and a few text messages now and then. So, I probably get better battery life than users that surf the web a lot or send lots of emails or text messages.

I have terrible reception in my house too so that's always an issue.
The G3 will drop 3% at work all day but it'll lose 40% battery when at home in a few hours..

If you use it as a phone it'll last a few days but if you play games like me, it's not so battery friendly yeah.

 

[grumperfish]

grats on your new phone and why not just plug it in every night? i never understood the "i want my phone to last for x amount of days"

Sometimes it's nice not having to worry about it - if I go have a night out with the girlfriend and head back to her place it's good not to have to think about battery life or charging a phone until maybe the next day at some point. That and better battery means you could watch netflix or play some games for far longer without ever having to be concerned about having a charger on-hand.

That and I get sub-par signal at our office so the phone drains faster, but the extra capacity makes it mostly a non-issue.

 

[kamran]

Buy an "i"phone, be prepared to handle it more gently than a newborn.
So fragile....

The Galaxy phone are superb. Very fast and while not a strong as the indestructible Nokia, it's still strong.
Android is very easy to use and quite flexible.

after people telling me how note 4's touchwiz is fixed and it's nothing like the past (on xda) I can no longer trust Samsung again! specially with heir ram and multi-tasking issues! and it has terrible dev support :| I am personally waiting too see what moduels g5 has to offer and for htc 10 (if price rumors are false) and nexus!

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Mmmm LG G5
I should have held out for it perhaps. Meh, my G3 is powerful and sexy looking

I'm a fan of LG personally. Good quality phones without too much bloatware. I just like the stock firmware on LG phones. Fast and fluid.