Have not bought a new phone for 2.5 years

[isekii]

I'm hoping that my recently-purchased used Galaxy S5 will be good for the next 5+ years. Seriously.

Retina-level screen. Good enough horsepower for everything that I would need a *phone* to do. WATERPROOF. I can always add more storage. And I can just replace the battery when the old one gets worn. If it had 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB it would be even more of a tank.

My old S4 was really setting a longevity record until water got the best of it and messed up the GPS.

My Nexus (Samsung) before that just got too slow.

Run a custom rom and you should be butter for a long time.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Run a custom rom and you should be butter for a long time.

I only wish that custom roms had the stock Samsung camera (the AOSP ones don't). The Samsung camera is far and away better than anything on the market and also the stock Google camera.

 

[Megatomic]

I think there is a rapidly growing portion of us that really don't need real Windows on an x86 platform. There are people that have been able to replace their Windows laptops with an iPad and keyboard or Chromebook, because everything they do can be done with cloud apps and a browser or modern apps.

PC isn't going away anytime soon of course. But for a lot of people, I can see them being perfectly served by a phone that expands to a full desktop to run the apps they are already using on their phone in a more comfortable experience.

I know we already had the Motorola Atrix but if a major Android OEM made a modern Continuum-style device I'd be done with PCs outside of work. I'll need a PC at work for a long time to come due to AutoCAD, PLC and HMI programming suites, etc... But at home I mostly use my phone as is and sit down to the PC when I absolutely need to. I'd love to have a docking station instead and just plug my phone in as needed.

 

[Dannar26]

I'm hoping that my recently-purchased used Galaxy S5 will be good for the next 5+ years. Seriously.

Retina-level screen. Good enough horsepower for everything that I would need a *phone* to do. WATERPROOF. I can always add more storage. And I can just replace the battery when the old one gets worn. If it had 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB it would be even more of a tank.

My old S4 was really setting a longevity record until water got the best of it and messed up the GPS.

My Nexus (Samsung) before that just got too slow.

S4 here. The S5 seems like the high water mark. Expandable storage, replaceable battery, and decent specs with only a 1080p resolution screen to power.

Yet I don't want to go with an S5 only because it's such a short jump from where I'm at. There are no compelling upgrades this year.

Maybe the LG V10...

 

[StrangerGuy]

Not sure why would I want an Android flagship anymore in 2015 when I can get a buttery smooth software experience even on a Snapdragon 410, regular software updates, a pretty decent camera, 720p IPS screen, dual-sim 4G / removable battery / MicroSD on a Xiaomi device that is priced only 1/4 as much. I can totally see why a niche audience would want a better camera etc but flagships are a total ripoff for most people IMO.

 

[postmortemIA]

Run a custom rom and you should be butter for a long time.

right, Samsung lock their bootloaders when you buy device from the carrier. I had S4, only ROMs that work with stock kernel could be loaded.

 

[saratoga172]

I'm only posting because I don't feel the need to upgrade to the iPhone 6s. I normally get an itch to upgrade every year. In some regards I still wish I had my 5s. The 5s with 6 or 6s internals would be amazing! I'll be hanging on for a while I think.

Next upgrade for me is a phone I can dock and use as a desktop. Doesn't necessarily have to run all system apps since I can run cloud software (VMware View or using phone version of Office apps saved to Dropbox or OneDrive). I want to like the Windows phones but I don't really want a 5 or 5.5 inch brick phone. I also want multi day battery life. As in 3+ days of battery life.

 

[Megatomic]

Next upgrade for me is a phone I can dock and use as a desktop. Doesn't necessarily have to run all system apps since I can run cloud software (VMware View or using phone version of Office apps saved to Dropbox or OneDrive). I want to like the Windows phones but I don't really want a 5 or 5.5 inch brick phone. I also want multi day battery life. As in 3+ days of battery life.

I'm not being sarcastic here, I truly want to know why you'd like 3+ days of battery? I run and am on the go so much but one day of battery life is plenty as I just plug in at night and am ready for the next day when I wake up. Even my old Moto X 2013 lasts all day.

 

[isekii]

right, Samsung lock their bootloaders when you buy device from the carrier. I had S4, only ROMs that work with stock kernel could be loaded.

T-mobile S5's are bootloader unlocked, infact I think most if not all samsung devices from T-mobile are bootloader unlocked so you can go and load all the custom firmware you'd like.

Verizon Developer models are the same but I don't recall any of the S5's and such having a developer model except for the Note 4.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Next upgrade for me is a phone I can dock and use as a desktop. Doesn't necessarily have to run all system apps since I can run cloud software (VMware View or using phone version of Office apps saved to Dropbox or OneDrive). I want to like the Windows phones but I don't really want a 5 or 5.5 inch brick phone. I also want multi day battery life. As in 3+ days of battery life.

It doesn't seem like you're going to get that kind of battery life without a phone that looks and feels like a brick though. To do it they'd have to have a lot of space for battery inside the phone. Personally in that case I'd rather they took advantage of the increased surface area for screen size rather than thickness.

 

[poofyhairguy]

You know it's funny, my iPhone 1 (2007) was probably the most happy have ever been with a smartphone because I didn't know to expect more. Maybe 3G and real apps, but that was it.

By the time I got my 3GS (2009) I already dreamed of more because by they we knew eventually the cameras would have flash and the phones would have LTE.

By the time I replaced that with a Galaxy S2 (2011) I really wanted what a S4 was instead. On this very forum I predicted that the S2 was just a placeholder for the 1080p quad core monster that was obviously going to be on the market in a year or two.

I was pretty happy with my S4 as a phone (2013), but by then I had to deal with locked bootloaders and a over-the-top-Touchwiz that made me wish for the same device but with fast stock updates. Plus by the end of that year it was obvious things like fingerprint readers and OIS really mattered, which are things that weren't on my list back in 2011.

It is a constant treadmill since smartphones began, and satisfaction is never realized because neither Apple nor anyone in Android can deliver a device that has it all.

 

[saratoga172]

I'm not being sarcastic here, I truly want to know why you'd like 3+ days of battery? I run and am on the go so much but one day of battery life is plenty as I just plug in at night and am ready for the next day when I wake up. Even my old Moto X 2013 lasts all day.

It's really a want more than a need. Current battery life suffices for about 95% of everything I do and I never run out of battery within a normal day. Off the charger at 6am and back on when I go to bed around 11pm-midnight. Usually around 30-40%.

The reason I'd personally like multi day battery is to not have to worry about charging each night. I go camping/hiking and it would be nice to go the weekend without having to turn off my phone or throw it in airplane mode. Not necessarily that I'd be using it but the convenience is really the thing I'm looking for. Other than that I travel a bit for work and when I go see family so it'd be nice not to have to worry about a charger or finding a plug where I sleep.

Like I sad it's more of a want than a need thing. I also want all of that in a 5s physically sized phone and for them to fit a 4.2 or 4.3 inch screen on there. I can dream right?

 

[saratoga172]

It doesn't seem like you're going to get that kind of battery life without a phone that looks and feels like a brick though. To do it they'd have to have a lot of space for battery inside the phone. Personally in that case I'd rather they took advantage of the increased surface area for screen size rather than thickness.

Outside of power optimization I don't think it'll happen until a new battery tech or breakthrough is achieved. I do think the current wave of as thin as can be is ridiculous though. While nice and light I really wouldn't mind an iPhone 6 with the thickness of the 5s. I'm not holding my phone so much that it really makes a difference in weight. And times I'm on a call that long where it will, I use my earbuds.

I'm really surprised we've been continuing on this trend of larger and larger phones and it's a bit disappointing for me personally. I've actually considered dumping my 6 for a 5s because I like the size so much more.

 

[Megatomic]

It's really a want more than a need. Current battery life suffices for about 95% of everything I do and I never run out of battery within a normal day. Off the charger at 6am and back on when I go to bed around 11pm-midnight. Usually around 30-40%.

The reason I'd personally like multi day battery is to not have to worry about charging each night. I go camping/hiking and it would be nice to go the weekend without having to turn off my phone or throw it in airplane mode. Not necessarily that I'd be using it but the convenience is really the thing I'm looking for. Other than that I travel a bit for work and when I go see family so it'd be nice not to have to worry about a charger or finding a plug where I sleep.

Like I sad it's more of a want than a need thing. I also want all of that in a 5s physically sized phone and for them to fit a 4.2 or 4.3 inch screen on there. I can dream right?

Your use case is SO similar to mine. I've resorted to having one of those 2000mAH power banks handy if I think I won't have access to a charger overnight. This has happened to me once.

And yes, you certainly can dream.