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Does a phone like this exist?

B

BD2003

Lifer
What I really want in a phone is the opposite of most trends. Does anything like this at all exist?

-Shell built of rubber or soft plastic with a slight lip around the screen so it can take a fall every now and then. Everyone puts a case on their phone so what's underneath is pointless, I'd rather just have the phone made of the stuff the cases are made of.

-Giant battery that can no BS last all day. I don't care if it's heavy or thick, I just don't want to think about battery life, ever.

-Screen no bigger or higher resolution than the iPhone 5. I want to be able to hold it securely and reach the corner with just one hand. And I don't need more pixels than my eyes can see.

-A micro SD slot.

-Stock android or windows phone without any OEM UIs or crapware. And timely OS updates.

-Responsive performance and smooth scrolling over eye candy.

-A reasonable price for an unlocked model.
 
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To me you were describing the Galaxy S5 Active until you got to this part:

-Stock android or windows phone without any OEM UIs or crapware. And timely OS updates.
Click to expand...

We just all need to learn as a community that sad as it is stock Android is either/or to everything else because it is locked to the Nexuses and Motos. In 2015 its:

Battery vs Stock Android and fast updates
or
Good camera vs Stock Android and fast updates
or
Micro SD vs Stock Android and fast updates

The dream of GPe or Android Silver or anything that got Stock Android and fast updates on something other than a Nexus/Moto is dead. Google pretty much admits it, that is why almost EVERY major AOSP app in Stock Android (like the clock app, the launcher, etc.) is in the Play Store. Google accepted defeat and instead allows you to take that Samsung phone and hide as much Touchwiz as you can behind bolted-on Google apps.
 
Sigh, all pretty close but not quite there.

Is it possible to download a stock android image and flash it onto any of these phones?
 
I wish more phones had a soft touch plastic or rubberized feel. I loved how the Nexus 5 felt and it resisted or hide scratches very well. That was a phone I really didn't feel the need to wear a case (though the front was utterly unprotected without a lip of any kind).
 
Ravynmagi said:
I wish more phones had a soft touch plastic or rubberized feel. I loved how the Nexus 5 felt and it resisted or hide scratches very well. That was a phone I really didn't feel the need to wear a case (though the front was utterly unprotected without a lip of any kind).
Click to expand...

That the thing that kills me about most phones...especially for the high end ones, they put so much work into these intricate designs that no one ever sees because the first thing any sane person does is cover it with a case. 95% of all the iphones I see are in a case, and the other 5% have cracked screens.
 
bd2003, forget what you think you want about the shell. You don't want a phone that has the case built in, chances are you would not like it. On the other hand you have several brands out there that make cases that would survive nuclear fallout offering you many different styles.

Battery life may be picky. LG usually does good in this area, although sadly their flex 2 did away with the oversize battery and now has just average sized. That said if you are looking for durability, you can't go wrong with the flex 2 as the only breakable thing is the glass. The OLED layer is plastic and the internal layout is segmented to allow for amounts of flexing and movement.

As for updates... pfft... unless you are buying the flag ship phone, you are gambling on updates.
 
BD2003 said:
Is it possible to download a stock android image and flash it onto any of these phones?
Click to expand...
Why do you want "stock"? Stock sucks.

In any case, you can unlock the BL for the Z3C and flash a pretty solid build of CM12.1 (based on the latest AOSP)... all unlockable Snapdragon-based flagships should let you do this. Of course, if you don't know your way around TWRP and all that, there are obstacles... but then you shouldn't give a crap about stock anyway.

But to be honest, not only does stock suck, but so do quick updates. With Google it's impossible to tell beforehand whether their new release is one step forward or two steps back. For example, we're now all the way up to 5.1.1 and there *still* hasn't been a build of Lollipop that gets as good battery life as KK 4.4.4. I guess when you learn that there's finally a magic build, you want to get to that ASAP, but honestly until then it's better to let other people beta test for you.
 
s44 said:
Why do you want "stock"? Stock sucks.

In any case, you can unlock the BL for the Z3C and flash a pretty solid build of CM12.1 (based on the latest AOSP)... all unlockable Snapdragon-based flagships should let you do this. Of course, if you don't know your way around TWRP and all that, there are obstacles... but then you shouldn't give a crap about stock anyway.

But to be honest, not only does stock suck, but so do quick updates. With Google it's impossible to tell beforehand whether their new release is one step forward or two steps back. For example, we're now all the way up to 5.1.1 and there *still* hasn't been a build of Lollipop that gets as good battery life as KK 4.4.4. I guess when you learn that there's finally a magic build, you want to get to that ASAP, but honestly until then it's better to let other people beta test for you.
Click to expand...

I dunno maybe I'm being too traditional about this, but I don't like the idea of not being in control of the software on my phone. Whether it's crapware or not being able to update at will...it's my damn phone, I should be able to do with it what I please. So at the very least I want a clean starting point.
 
paperwastage said:
http://www.cnet.com/products/panasonic-toughpad-fz-e1-2014/
Or fz x1(android version)

Everything but screen size and price. Shouldn't have bloatware, but no update

And oh, its not really a phone
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I do not own a smartphone even, but I do I like the looks of that.

I like industrial level shit 🙂

I do not own a laptop either, but I know Panasonic been making similar things a long time now also in that area.

http://business.panasonic.com/toughbook/semi-rugged-laptop-toughbook-52.html
 
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For anything ruggedized, the build quanities are going to be so small that it forces the price of them to be needlessly high. A case is simply much more economical. I do wish they would stop with the stupid 1080p and higher garbage. That's just a sick waste of money, not to mention a massive waste of silicon. I still cant buy better than a 28nm GPU because all these idiots keep buying 1080p/1440p/+ smartphones that require enormous mobile GPUs just to drive pixels they cant even frickin see. It is beyond irritating. I paid $150 for my 720p ZTE N9810 back in 2013 and it still has honest all day battery life. In all this time I have not seen one person doing one single thing on their fancy new phones that my lowly 720p screen couldnt do just as well. Not... one... single... thing...
 
sm625 said:
For anything ruggedized, the build quanities are going to be so small that it forces the price of them to be needlessly high. A case is simply much more economical. I do wish they would stop with the stupid 1080p and higher garbage. That's just a sick waste of money, not to mention a massive waste of silicon. I still cant buy better than a 28nm GPU because all these idiots keep buying 1080p/1440p/+ smartphones that require enormous mobile GPUs just to drive pixels they cant even frickin see. It is beyond irritating. I paid $150 for my 720p ZTE N9810 back in 2013 and it still has honest all day battery life. In all this time I have not seen one person doing one single thing on their fancy new phones that my lowly 720p screen couldnt do just as well. Not... one... single... thing...
Click to expand...


I'm not saying it needs to be rugged, I have a very thin and cheap case on my iPhone. But it's taken many falls and it's fine because of the lip around the screen. So instead of fancy metals and such just make the casing out of thin rubber or something else that won't scratch or crack if I don't put it down gently. Doesn't need to be industrial strength, just survivable enough for everyday usage. Then take the cost and space savings and put a better battery in or something.
 
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