Mobile Purchases You Regret?

[poofyhairguy]

With so many mobile devices coming out and the breakneck pace in which the technology moves the chances for poor decisions are great even among the informed. Below are my bad decisions (and my best one):

Bad Decisions:

-Transformer Prime: I really wanted this tablet (not the HD or plastic brothers) but design flaws mixed with unlocking problems and no current way for me to root it has made it a very poor decision in the long run.


Best decision:

-SGS2: Here I am more than a year later and I am running a semi-recent version of Android with GUI performance that improved over the life of the device. I can't think of another phone from that time period I would rather have today. It barely edges out the Nook Color as my best mobile decision.


How about you?

 

[A5]

Worst: Evo 3D sucked pretty bad. Shouldn't have bothered.

Best: Nexus 4

 

[dlock13]

Honestly, I don't think I can even say what my worst purchase has been.. I mean thinking about it not, and the only 2 flaws I see are because the product wasn't right for me. I've had plenty of phones over the years, but only a handful that I was in love with and didn't feel the need to trade.

With all that said, the 2 flaws are.....

Worst: iPad/iPhone.

I'm by no means a fan boy, but after using Android for... 3 years of my life, I wanted to try out iOS, and I just couldn't do it. I sold the iPad and got back my.....

Best: Galaxy Nexus LTE

Sure, there were problems with certain aspects of the device. The radio had horrible reception. The battery life was extremely subpar. The camera was mediocre, but it could eke out some pretty good shots.

I had the Nexus before the iPhone, but thought I was growing weary of Android in general so I traded it to begin with for the 4S then I decided iOS is not for me and went back to Android with the Nexus again.

Bonus category!
Meh: Droid DNA.

It's a pretty good phone, but it just doesn't feel like anything special. I mean I like the large screen, and it is pretty quick. It just doesn't stand out to me as a need to have it. I don't know what it is about the device, but if I were offered the right deal, I'd get rid of it.

I think I've been spoiled by Google's Nexus line. Honestly, I keep debating if I want to trade this phone for a Note 2 and then when the Google X phone or whatever it's called comes out, jump on that ASAP.

So..... there's my devices.

 

[Red Storm]

Worst: HTC Trophy. What a waste that was.

Best: Galaxy Note 2.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Droid Bionic - Was super happy with my OG Droid and waited forever for the Bionic to come out. Got it and had nothing but issues from the start with dropped signals, random reboots and crashes of apps that shouldn't crash (like the dialer) and being stuck on Gingerbread until it was far too late. Not to mention it was discontinued about 2 months after it came out and was replaced with the Razr and Razr Maxx.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Oh yeah the Droid Bionic was a HUGE mistake for those who bought it in retrospect. I feel for you.

 

[bonkers325]

buying an HTC Thunderbolt and Blackberry Storm.... ugh

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Worst - Nook Color. As much as I liked it at first the performance was lacking and Gingerbread really didn't make a good tablet os. After a few months I replaced it with a Motorolla Xyboard 8.2 whcih actually functions well as a tablet.

Best - SGS2. At launch the performance was fantastic and even after a year of use it was still very competitive thanks to the low resolution (but very nice) screen and beefy gpu. If I hadn't gotten the SGS3 for $1 I would still be happily using it.

 

[dguy6789]

Worst was probably the Droid X2. Phone just had crazy buggy software.

Best(out of some 14 smart phone purchases in the past) was easily my most recent purchase the Droid Razr Maxx HD. The idea that it simply no longer mattered what settings I set, how much I used my phone, or what I did on it that it would never run out of juice completely changed smartphones for me. Can never go back to iPhone or GS3 level or worse battery life devices again.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I make so many bad decisions.. I don't know where to start...

That $800 Motorola Xoom 3G... WTF was I thinking?

Most recently the Samsung Ativ Smart PC 500T. 11.6 inch 1.7 pound tablet with a glossy plastic back, like a bar of soap at times. I should have known better.

I noticed my impatience tends to lead to purchases I regret.


So far I have to say I think the iPad might be my best mobile purchase. I'm not an Apple fan, I hate iTunes, don't own any other Apple products. But I use the hell out of my iPad. It's great for browsing the web, I love all the apps that are beautiful on a 9.7 inch screen. And I can't believe I can resell these damn things a year later for 80% of their original value still. So upgrading has been rather cheap.

 

[Deeko]

Worst: HTC HD2. I was having issues with my OG Droid so I switched. Turns out I hate 4.3" screens, missed the keyboard, and did not support T-Mobile's HSPA+ network like I was led to believe. On the plus side, it was the most flexible phone ever, if it still charged I'd probably be running WP8 or something on there.

 

[Super56K]

Sorry OP, but I chuckled pretty hard at your logic for saving storage space on your iPad 2. Seriously, get that thing updated, and free up space to do it if you have to.

And as for my worst decision, I'd say it was an HP Touchpad if not for the fact that I flipped it immediately and came out way ahead during the fire sale. I actually wanted to use it, rather than flip the thing, so I was a little shocked at how fast I wanted it out of my possession after using it for a few days. Out of the box it was terrible, albeit with small glimpses of promise here and there (which HP stamped out almost immediately by dumping the product so quickly).

 

[Dominato3r]

Nexus S towards the end of its use caused me a lot of problems. I pin it more on Android than the phone itself though. Battery life just became abysmal, hovering somewhere around ~4hours. Best mobile device I've used would have to be my iPod Touch. It's been 4 years and still works like it did from day 1.

 

[vshah]

worst: wife bought an asus transformer (original) just a month or so before the next generation tegra 3 devices came out. wish she could have waited, but she needed a tablet asap.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Sorry OP, but I chuckled pretty hard at your logic for saving storage space on your iPad 2. Seriously, get that thing updated, and free up space to do it if you have to.

The iPad won't get updated until iOS6.x has an untethered jailbreak. Its main use nowadays is to allow my wife to watch videos stored on an external HD via XBMC, so I need that as a minimum.

With that said, last year I passed up a chance to move to iOS 5 (when it was jailbroken) simply because I hate telling my wife "delete your old apps so I can install this update that will eat some of your precious storage space downloading textures that your non-retina iPad will never use." I can't imagine any of the actual retina 16gb iPads being useful- you put one movie and twenty apps on there and the damn thing is full!

What I will probably do is just never update the iPad 2 ever again and allow it to be a glorified XBMC device, and buy her an iPad Mini (32gb!) when the retina one is released.

 

[bearxor]

Damn, poofy. I have no idea what you're doing. I only buy 16GB devices. I've got 51 apps on my iPad 3 now and still have 2GB left. I don't use it for video though, all that is streamed off a central location.

Worst: HTC-PPC6700

Was just the worst upgrade I ever made, and I used a Toshiba 2032SP and a Hitachi G1000 beforehand. The PPC-6600 was brilliant, but when the 6700 was released, HTC decided to go a little overboard with their bloat. I managed to get Sprint to switch me to the Treo 700wx at the time and never looked back.

Best: Treo 700wx

Seriously. THE best WinMo phone I used. The usability on that device was such a significant difference from every other WinMo device I had before. Palm and Microsoft worked really hard on customizing WM2005 for it and it really shows.

Best #2: iPad.

The 1st gen iPad basically changed my life.

 

[Skurge]

Worst: Nokia Lumia 800. The phone was built like a tank, I dropped it a milllion times and the body was unmarked. But WP7 is horrendous. No multitasking at all. Switching between Whatsapp and The browser meant whatsapp would reload every time I would switch back. No tapatalk, gmail, Youtube. The phone was also terribly underpowerd. You'd think a Single core phone would last more than a day. It was worse than my Gnex. It also became so hot during long phone calls, it would become uncomfortable to hold. Also IE was dog s***


Best: Galaxy Nexus, there was nothing great about it, but it was perfect for me. My nexus 4 might be better in every way, but looking back. There wasn't a real *need* to upgrade. I would still be happy with my Gnex today. I guess using the Lumia in betwen really made me appriciate the old Gnex more. Also I liked the SAMOLED display cause I could have it as a clock at night. This LG panel has such poor black and viewing angles I don't do that anymore as the light bothers me.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Damn, poofy. I have no idea what you're doing. I only buy 16GB devices. I've got 51 apps on my iPad 3 now and still have 2GB left. I don't use it for video though, all that is streamed off a central location.

Thanks for the heads up. I need to break it down and see what is eating all the space I guess.

 

[dagamer34]

Worst: 64GB iPhone 4S unlocked. Never used more than 16GB and honestly my iPhone 4 worked just fine. Never again.

Best: iPhone 4. At the time, it was groundbreaking in every way. Retina display changed everything again. Don't think Apple could pull off something like that again though.

 

[Ksyder]

I'd say the Droid 3 was the most recent disappointing mobile phone purchase I've made... stuck on Gingerbread, average build quality, just unsatisfying for whatever reason... didn't seem to have any huge improvements over the older Droid phones. Also, going further back... the Droid X was a letdown. Showed promise in its day, big display and decent performance, but held back by buggy software and lack of updates.

Honorable mention for best purchase goes to the IPhone 4, which was a enjoyable phone to use overall, and ended up trading for a SGS2, which was also a great phone that I was happy with for awhile.

I'd also add the unlocked Galaxy Nexus and Droid Razr as 2 phones that I currently use and am happy with.

One more that I hated was an iphone 3gs which I picked up recently for 30 bucks, and isn't even worth that anymore IMO.

 

[Super56K]

The iPad won't get updated until iOS6.x has an untethered jailbreak. Its main use nowadays is to allow my wife to watch videos stored on an external HD via XBMC, so I need that as a minimum.

With that said, last year I passed up a chance to move to iOS 5 (when it was jailbroken) simply because I hate telling my wife "delete your old apps so I can install this update that will eat some of your precious storage space downloading textures that your non-retina iPad will never use." I can't imagine any of the actual retina 16gb iPads being useful- you put one movie and twenty apps on there and the damn thing is full!

What I will probably do is just never update the iPad 2 ever again and allow it to be a glorified XBMC device, and buy her an iPad Mini (32gb!) when the retina one is released.

iOS 6.1 does have an untethered jailbreak (both my devices are running it). But, if it is primarily relegated for your wife's use, and she's happy enough, then leave it be and upgrade down the road as planned.

At the least, check out an app in the Cydia store called iCleaner if you're not already aware of it. It's like the iOS equivalent to windows disk cleanup.

 

[Midwayman]

Worst: Galaxy Epic (one of the S1 line) Full of horrible bugs that were never resolved. Different enough hardware from the rest of the s1 line that it was always behind and XDA studd didn't port to it well.

 

[Sheep]

Oh hai original Sprint Palm Pre. I hope you died in a fire or are otherwise occupying landfill somewhere because there's no chance in hell you're still functional.

 

[KentState]

OG Xoom. Maybe things will change if they ever release Jelly Bean for it.

 

[Trader05]

Oh hai original Sprint Palm Pre. I hope you died in a fire or are otherwise occupying landfill somewhere because there's no chance in hell you're still functional.

Lmao...so true.

Worst: HTC 6700

What a brick, Windows Mobile at the time was horrible (at least on this device). Returned this for a Blackberry Curve.

Best: Samsung Focus

Even though Windows Phone 7 wasn't that great, the battery life was amazing after the 7.5 update.