Thinking about my next phone

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
One possibility coming to mind is the OnePlus 3, especially after the sRGB and RAM management update:

http://www.androidcentral.com/onepl...=slider&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=ac

Another thing I am looking into is making sure any such phone has an unlocked bootloader (because I like running a custom ROM). I think the LGs, Moto's and Samsungs all have (for an extra charge) models with unlocked bootloaders.

Should be interesting.
 

Quetesh

Well Known GateFan
I went for budget and have been pleasantly surprised by how great my Huawei phone is working out. I can barely tell the difference from my previous much more expensive Samsung Note. It even has more internal memory. I would also say it came with less bloatware installed on the phone as well.
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
One possibility coming to mind is the OnePlus 3, especially after the sRGB and RAM management update:

http://www.androidcentral.com/onepl...=slider&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=ac

Another thing I am looking into is making sure any such phone has an unlocked bootloader (because I like running a custom ROM). I think the LGs, Moto's and Samsungs all have (for an extra charge) models with unlocked bootloaders.

Should be interesting.

The only thing that turned me off on the OP3 is they decided to go proprietary with their fast charge tech. If you carry multiple devices (whatever devices), you'll need to carry multiple chargers.
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
I went for budget and have been pleasantly surprised by how great my Huawei phone is working out. I can barely tell the difference from my previous much more expensive Samsung Note. It even has more internal memory. I would also say it came with less bloatware installed on the phone as well.

Which Huawei?
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
The only thing that turned me off on the OP3 is they decided to go proprietary with their fast charge tech. If you carry multiple devices (whatever devices), you'll need to carry multiple chargers.

Good point. They probably should have just used the Qualcomm standard tech - although that may have prevented them using USB-C.
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
Good point. They probably should have just used the Qualcomm standard tech - although that may have prevented them using USB-C.

My HTC 10 is USB-C with Qualcomm's 3.0 Quick Charge tech. Love this phone except for 2 things:

- I wish it they had used AMOLED or SuperAMOLED instead of Super LCD 5
- the camera auto-focus is still flaky when objects are less than 1 foot from the lens

They keep promising a firmware fix for the camera but, so far, no luck.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
OnePlus probably should have gone with the Qualcomm standard then. Then again, they are a startup company and have a bit of a reputation at this point for doing some daffy things :)
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
OnePlus probably should have gone with the Qualcomm standard then. Then again, they are a startup company and have a bit of a reputation at this point for doing some daffy things :)

True but it's cost them sales. I follow them on G+ and FB and they get a lot of slack from pissed off former and current customers. OP2 was especially disappointing with tons of bugs and the inexplicable removal of NFC. The Dash thing doesn't seem to bother Indian and Chinese customers so much, it's more the western countries.
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
I've also thought about the Samsung Galaxy S7, as XDA has cracked the bootloader which means I can flash a custom ROM onto it. That way I can run a straight AOSP ROM or alternately Cyanogenmod, which I like a lot.
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
I've also thought about the Samsung Galaxy S7, as XDA has cracked the bootloader which means I can flash a custom ROM onto it. That way I can run a straight AOSP ROM or alternately Cyanogenmod, which I like a lot.

Those are all over Craigslist on the cheap. Many are free carrier upgrades people are selling but occasionally you'll find an unpaid subsidized phone. You can always ask them to send you the IMEI for verification.

http://imeidata.net/blacklist/check

https://swappa.com/esn
 

Joelist

What ship is this?
Staff member
True enough. The HTC 10 has also been rooted and can take ROMs (of which there are quite a few on XDA).

I do get a bit nostalgic on occasion, as to be honest none of these newer smartphones have ever equalled what was to me my favorite smartphone experience, which was on Blackberry. There was just no equal to the email, calendar and BBM with that physical keyboard which was so well designed. I had a Storm 2 and also a Bold.

Today's phones are WAY faster and of course support LTE, but sometimes they seem to be trying to be too much, and in the process they start to lose that being excellent at the essential communications functions of a smartphone... :)
 

Bluce Ree

Tech Admin / Council Member
True enough. The HTC 10 has also been rooted and can take ROMs (of which there are quite a few on XDA).

I do get a bit nostalgic on occasion, as to be honest none of these newer smartphones have ever equalled what was to me my favorite smartphone experience, which was on Blackberry. There was just no equal to the email, calendar and BBM with that physical keyboard which was so well designed. I had a Storm 2 and also a Bold.

Today's phones are WAY faster and of course support LTE, but sometimes they seem to be trying to be too much, and in the process they start to lose that being excellent at the essential communications functions of a smartphone... :)

I miss my old Blackberry, too. :) The elegant simplicity, a true workhorse that never quit. I always looked forward to the next iteration of the Bold series until I got tired of them just releasing the same old phone with a new model name on it. :icon_lol:


HTC phones don't even need tricks or hacks to root. HTC themselves have tools to unlock the bootloader and root your phone.

http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader

Unlock Bootloader
Unlock the possibilities with total customization
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I went for budget and have been pleasantly surprised by how great my Huawei phone is working out. I can barely tell the difference from my previous much more expensive Samsung Note. It even has more internal memory. I would also say it came with less bloatware installed on the phone as well.

Which Huawei phone is it you had when you wrote this? I wish I had known about Huawei back then! For a phone considered "budget" (by it's cost), these phones are extremely impressive. I got the Honor 6X and I love the phone! It has everything I need, plus lots of very impressive tech specs and gobs of power. The UI is buttery smooth with no hiccups or snags when scrolling or opening apps. It has a great screen even though it isn't AMOLED. And with expandable storage and dual sim capability, it outperforms many "premium" phones on several levels. Plus, it's beautiful and slim too.


For the record, the very first thing the phone did when I set it up was upgrade itself to Android 7.0 Nougat. I watched several videos whining about the phone running 6.0 with no upgrades planned, but that is false. Huawei will also be doing OTA for Android 8.0 on this phone.
 

Quetesh

Well Known GateFan
Which Huawei phone is it you had when you wrote this? I wish I had known about Huawei back then! For a phone considered "budget" (by it's cost), these phones are extremely impressive. I got the Honor 6X and I love the phone! It has everything I need, plus lots of very impressive tech specs and gobs of power. The UI is buttery smooth with no hiccups or snags when scrolling or opening apps. It has a great screen even though it isn't AMOLED. And with expandable storage and dual sim capability, it outperforms many "premium" phones on several levels. Plus, it's beautiful and slim too.


For the record, the very first thing the phone did when I set it up was upgrade itself to Android 7.0 Nougat. I watched several videos whining about the phone running 6.0 with no upgrades planned, but that is false. Huawei will also be doing OTA for Android 8.0 on this phone.
I really don't remember. It lasted a good long time until some update came in that killed the phone. It might have been a Y600. I now have a total piece of crap LG Joy and I am thinking of getting a reasonable Moto G-5 but that will be a huge splurge for him. On the other hand, I am seriously looking at the newest MSI Stealth Pro for my new laptop.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I really don't remember. It lasted a good long time until some update came in that killed the phone. It might have been a Y600. I now have a total piece of crap LG Joy and I am thinking of getting a reasonable Moto G-5 but that will be a huge splurge for him. On the other hand, I am seriously looking at the newest MSI Stealth Pro for my new laptop.

I did love my LG G2, and some things on it are noticeably better like the sound. But through bluetooth, the Huawei is identical. The Huawei screen is bigger, 5.5" vs 5.3 for the LG G2. Otherwise, the Huawei kicks the shit out of it in performance, camera (especially the camera and video), and expandability. I can have a whole library of movies on my phone that I can cast with my Chromecast to any TV with HDMI because of that 128GB SD card in there now. :).

I picked up the case for it yesterday at the Amazon store in Westwood. The phone is only $179 on Amazon!
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
True enough. The HTC 10 has also been rooted and can take ROMs (of which there are quite a few on XDA).

I do get a bit nostalgic on occasion, as to be honest none of these newer smartphones have ever equalled what was to me my favorite smartphone experience, which was on Blackberry. There was just no equal to the email, calendar and BBM with that physical keyboard which was so well designed. I had a Storm 2 and also a Bold.

Today's phones are WAY faster and of course support LTE, but sometimes they seem to be trying to be too much, and in the process they start to lose that being excellent at the essential communications functions of a smartphone... :)

I was in love with the Palm Treo phones. My first was a Treo 700wx running Windows, then the Palm Treo Pro running Windows, all because of that real QWERTY keyboard. My first smartphone without one was the Galaxy S2, then the Galaxy S4, then the LG G2 and now this Huawei Honor 6X. The company phone is always a dumb iPhone.
 

Quetesh

Well Known GateFan
I don't think you are grasping I spent 30 pounds for my Huawei and maybe 20 pounds for my LG Joy. This is total cost, as in, no contract and pay as you go. These phones are far below what you are describing. LOL.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
:icon_e_surprised:


You about to get the shit kicked out of you by a clique of Apple fanbois bro.

I can't believe @Azaliarazor didn't throw the first punch. :)

I always know how to handle Apple Fanbois. :) It's hard to have that debate with somebody who carries BOTH an iPhone and an Android with them at all times.
 
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