Let's talk smartphones...

Specifically Verizon smartphones...

I have had a Droid X since it was released. Since I, like many of you, cannot leave anything stock and unaltered, I modded it almost immediately. I rooted it, installed Liberty 1.5 ROM and overclocked it to 1.3Ghz. It has been almost flawless in the 1.5 years I've had it modded. Then I deployed. It sat in a plastic tote, in a secure climate controlled building for 7 months. I come back, fire it up and re-activate my account. It still had about 20% battery life. Then I noticed something:

The camera completely died and the LED flash will not operate.

Dammit.... I guess it didn't like being left behind...

So, after work today, I stop by my friendly crack house, I mean Verizon store. I really wanted to play with a Galaxy Nexus. They didn't have any in that store but the one 15 miles away had it. I wasn't driving 15 miles to look at a phone. The sales guy was using a Razr Maxx. That is my second choice. Since the two phones are the same price, he said after the 2 week "evaluation period", I could return the Maxx for the Nexus.

So... The Maxx isn't a bad phone by any means. A few things I don't like is you cannot remove the battery and it doesn't have ICS (yet). The Nexus has a bigger, higher resolution screen and a removable battery but no MicroSD slot. It has 32gb of internal storage and that's it. There is also rumors of bad 4g LTE connectivity.

Do any of my fellow GRMers have a Galaxy Nexus or Droid Razr Maxx? I want to customize the hell out of it and I like eye-candy, so I still leaning towards the Nexus. But, I've had good experiences with Moto Droids in the past. What does the tech-savvy GRM brain trust have to say? Help me decide!

I have the regular Droid RAZR. The MAXX just has a bigger battery. I don't mod phones, but I've been very happy with my phone whereas a coworker with the Galaxy is always complaining about it. We are both Verizon and use the phones for work including live server access. I get about a day and half out of my battery with task Killer, about 3 hours without it.

Task killer is a must. It really helped my modded Droid X. I have it on my Asus Transformer Prime as well (which has Ice Cream Sandwich )

I've never had a Samsung phone just Motos. I'm jealous of my buddy who has a Samsung Note (AT&T only). That thing is huge! I have screen envy hahahaha

I have little to add in way of personal experience but if you want information overload, head over to www.howardforums.com for tons of dialog about handsets.

My mum loooooves her Nexus S (one generation before the Galaxy Nexus, same as the Galaxy s - for berkeley's sake, Samsung, pick a name for each line and stick with it!), BUT she's already had one push firmware update bug the whole thing and it had to be sent back to a warranty center. They fixed it free of charge with nary a peep about that it had been unlocked and rooted.

iPhone 4s

Taiden wrote: iPhone 4s is crap

Finished that for you.

I had no idea you could mod a smartphone. And get off my lawn, too, you damned kids . . .

I bought a Galaxy Nexus for my wife in December when it was first released to upgrade from her Droid Eris which had a custom GingerGlass install on it.

Honestly Ice Cream Sandwich is buttery smooth, screen looks great, and it responds exactly the way I want a smartphone to. The GNex hardware isn't super cutting edge however it's very very good still. They also sell a extended life battery for it as the battery is still removable as you stated.

That said. There are reports of there being issues with reception on the new version of ICS (4.0.3?). She hasn't had any issues with hers, and when I used it I had no problems, however I'm not home to hear about them if there are, so grain of salt and all that.

The stated screen size of the phone is deceptive because it does not have hardware buttons. The soft buttons do disappear for certain applications which is fantastic in my opinion. I have largeish hands and it felt solid in them. The speakers are also pretty good.

I'm honestly not sure I would ever buy a non reference phone again after using it. The experience with it was just that good compared to the original SenseUI and Blur UI.

Bear in mind I'm comparing it to a first generation Verizon Android device, but it really is that good, and will be right up until they release quad core phones devices. Technology is like that though.

Samsung Galaxy Epic Touch 4g user here. Absolutely zero complaints other than that ics is a couple weeks out.

One cent shipped via amazon.

Javelin wrote:

Taiden wrote: iPhone 4s is crap

Finished that for you. Now let me go back to my underdeveloped conglomeration of over marketed software which has been plastered across dozens of generations of crap hardware called an android phone.

Finished that for you.

If you've got Froyo, task killer apps are useless placebos that may actually make things worse.. Google's engineers and Cyanogen agree.

Read here.

If you're running 2.0 or 2.1 they do make a huge difference, but we're talking legacy devices like the HTC Dream.

Javelin wrote: I have the regular Droid RAZR. The MAXX just has a bigger battery. I don't mod phones, but I've been very happy with my phone whereas a coworker with the Galaxy is always complaining about it. We are both Verizon and use the phones for work including live server access. I get about a day and half out of my battery with task Killer, about 3 hours without it.

Three hours?! Replace your battery. My X can pull more than that running GPS, bluetooth, and streaming video, and it's got less efficient hardware.

I would have said wait till May/Early June when Verizon always releases a few new phones but it sounds like it's too late.

Taiden wrote:

Javelin wrote:

Taiden wrote: iPhone 4s is crap

Finished that for you. Now let me go back to my underdeveloped conglomeration of over marketed software which has been plastered across dozens of generations of crap hardware called an android phone.

Finished that for you.

I don't really want to start a war....

But did i miss out on power by not buying an iPhone? I'll be sad if i did, since i agonized over the decision for months before going with the Galaxy S2. (Or Epic Touch 4G whatever) I ended up with the Galaxy because the hardware was:

1) Faster and more powerful
2) Made by samsung, which supplies much of the iPhone's parts anyway.

Have i been misled?

I agonized over my choice for, like, 20 minutes when the guy at work said I had to pick one. Went with a Droid Bionic 'cause a guy who spent a lot more time thinking about it than I did said it was good.

Dunno. I flippin' love it! But it replaces a Blackberry that didn't do squat. So it's really my first "smart" smart phone.

So basically your Android is better because it's faster than an iPhone 4s. Alright, I haven't seen any proof to back that up, but I have no problem believing that. Cheaper too even.

But would you really want to daily drive this?

If the answer is yes, you sir, have not been mislead.

iPhone vs. Android is purely personal preference, both are great platforms. 'nuff said about that.

I went from a Droid RAZR to a Galaxy Nexus and then settled on an HTC Rezound last December. Here are my thoughts on the three:

RAZR: Super-thin and cool-looking, almost too thin to be honest, it was kind of uncomfortable to hold. Screen looks good (Super AMOLED), but doesn't have the resolution of the other 2. Battery life was quite poor, and not being able to replace it was a major downside for me. RAZR MAXX has a bigger battery, which would partially alleviate this problem.

GNex: This is the phone I was waiting for with bated breath. I was at the Verizon store the day of the launch to exchange the RAZR for one. ICS is awesome, buttery smooth with some really nice UI enhancements. Big, sharp, high-res screen, though it didn't have the "pop" of the RAZR's, it was still better. Downsides: It's BIG, uncomfortable to hold in my hand, and I don't have small hands. The 4G reception, frankly, sucked. Much worse than the RAZR or Rezound. The lack of an SD card slot meant that when I plugged it into my Sync port in my truck, it wasn't recognized as a USB drive so I couldn't play the music stored on the phone. And the 5 mp camera, despite some nice ICS features like panoramic and quick shutter speeds, was the worst I've seen in a smartphone. Just awful, and baffling that Samsung would put such a poor camera in such a high-end phone. Still, worth it for a lot of people for the "pure Google experience" (no manufacturer overlays like Sense or Blur). It also has an NFC chip for making payments and such, which sooner or later will be useful. And a barometer, for some reason. In short, it's a very tricked-out phone that's let down by a couple of fatal flaws.

Rezound: Replaceable battery AND an SD card slot! Hooray! Same resolution as the GNex, but with a smaller screen, so better pixel density. Super LCD display doesn't have the contrast or brightness of Super AMOLED, but it looks more "realistic" to me, less artificial. Phone has a nice rounded shape to the back, feels very comfortable in my hand. I know I'm in the minority, but I actually like HTC Sense. Very good 4G reception. I've had mine for 4 months and I'm completely happy with it, after having spent a couple of weeks with the other two.

Galaxy Nexus>every other phone out right now

Taiden wrote: So basically your Android is better because it's faster than an iPhone 4s. Alright, I haven't seen any proof to back that up, but I have no problem believing that. Cheaper too even. But would you really want to daily drive this? If the answer is yes, you sir, have not been mislead.

Have you SEEN my daily driver? 'Nuff said.

Not everyone likes Beige Camrys.

(Just teasing, just teasing)

Well my phone is getting a little old at this point (HTC Thunderbolt) but it still runs like a top and blows my GF's iPhone 4Gs out of the water to the point where she's reaching for my phone whenever she needs to look things up on the internet or get directions. Google maps GPS navigation is fantastic and the traffic condition updates have saved me countless times.

ZOO wrote: I had no idea you could mod a smartphone. And get off my lawn, too, you damned kids . . .

My sentiments exactly. I'm in favor of dumber phones, smarter kids.

Osterkraut wrote:

Javelin wrote: I have the regular Droid RAZR. The MAXX just has a bigger battery. I don't mod phones, but I've been very happy with my phone whereas a coworker with the Galaxy is always complaining about it. We are both Verizon and use the phones for work including live server access. I get about a day and half out of my battery with task Killer, about 3 hours without it.

Three hours?! Replace your battery. My X can pull more than that running GPS, bluetooth, and streaming video, and it's got less efficient hardware.

That was brand new, out-of-the-box. Again, that's while working work apps including live updating from a central server, real-time.

The Droid 4's the best Android phone, and also the phone with the best hardware overall (unless something better has come out recently)

You guys don't mod your phones? My last 3 have been extensively modded, even hardware-wise. My current phone works like a computer, I can even install, run and distribute apps I wrote myself for it, no manufacturer permission necessary. Everybody could have enjoyed such things but the masses voted with their wallets for Apple's walled garden.

Taiden wrote: So basically your Android is better because it's faster than an iPhone 4s. Alright, I haven't seen any proof to back that up, but I have no problem believing that. Cheaper too even.

Faster, cheaper, has free navigation that actually works, is actually compatible with Flash, Office, Excel servers, etc, and doesn't refuse to play the music I own (off of CD's) because they didn't come from their own DRM-store.

1988RedT2 wrote:

ZOO wrote: I had no idea you could mod a smartphone. And get off my lawn, too, you damned kids . . .

My sentiments exactly. I'm in favor of dumber phones, smarter kids.

I think I need this on a t-shirt . . .