New phone but dont want to

[cytg111]

Maybe the Anandtech community can help me out here.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5, got it the summer it came out, that means that i've had this phone for three years now.
Here is the thing, this phone is annoying me alot, from usability problems with the userinterface (how hard must it be to make a phone call or type an sms?) to actual hardware problems, reboots, easily scratched screen(after about 1½ year it scratches just looking at it), compasss breaks down wich means no portrait mode or actual compass functionality and just now it seems like it wants to take in water if it has been in a moist envoriment. It reboots alot now. The chrome is crackling and it just looks like a rusted 20 year old Dacia.
This phone has just broken down to nothing in three years. Three years. Only Three years. Put the usability issues on top of that and you got a pissed off me that will never but another samsung phone again. My problem is I am not sure the other brands are better, neither so the Apple line. I was eyeing an Ubuntu phone but then they cancelled the project. Yay.

If anyone can nod to this experience I'd love to hear what YOU do for "phone"?

 

[pauldun170]

Had the Galaxy S4 since the day it came out and still have it around the house. No scratches because of a tempered glass screen protector and if I take the phone out of its case it look brand new.
Can't think of any major usability issues. Everything still works on it and no real glitches.
The battery was replaced last month with some battery off amazon and now the battery life is back to what it was from when I got it.
Compared to the newest phones it may take a little longer to do certain things but it still a very usable phone.
I replaced it with an S8+.

 

[jtvang125]

I would try backing everything up and doing a factory reset to see if it helps.

As for physical damage you should take more precautions in protecting it with a screen protector and a case. I hate having to use them and I would like to think that I'm careful with my phones but drops and scratches still happen. So it's either use them and get use to the bulk or don't and end up with a beat up phone in just a few years.

 

[Zivic]

youre pissed it only lasted 3 yrs? I have had sammy phones, I think they are garbage and I wouldn't last me a year even., I think even good phones going 2 yrs with regular use is asking too much

 

[ericlp]

Sounds like you are hard on your phones. I don't know I had an S4, Brand New, stupid thing would always lose sim and memory SD connections. Tried all the tricks, I finally got tired of the No SIM error message and rebooting ... Got rid of it for an S6, never had those problems again.

I would get a cheap phone, something that you can beat up... I've never owned a phone for more than a few years. Tho, I like to have a spigen slim case. Mostly to protect in case I ever dropped my phone (which I've never dropped). I guess I'm not really a phone dropper like others. But, also to protect the screen and camera when setting it down on hard surfaces. You can find a last generation phones from chinese companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, etc...etc... If you want to stick with android, there are TONS to chose from and maybe if you're lucky you'll get another 3.5 years of service out of one of them.

That being said, one should probably upgrade anyway, since the hardware on phones have changed a lot in 3 years.

 

[Yuriman]

Phones seem to be built to be disposable. Batteries can't be replaced anymore and screens are glued in place with many new phones. I'm sure this is the result of market pressures forcing companies to make ever-thinner phones at lower costs, despite these devices needing to survive in very harsh environs - being in my pocket and tossed around for 3 years seems to destroy a wallet too.

My G1 Moto X lasted me 3 years before it started to fall apart, which coincided very nicely with when it started to "feel" a little slow due to aging hardware. I replaced it with a Pixel about a year ago, which I'm very happy with so far, but who knows how it will hold up over the next two years.

 

[werepossum]

Just please don't buy an iPhone. I've finally been dragged kicking and screaming into buying smart phones because I'm traveling and need to be able to answer email in airports and on job sites. Having researched android phones, I came prepared to buy an LG G6, but foolishly let the Sprint salesman "up sell" me to iPhone, so I bought four iPhones and one G6. Worst decision of my life. Virtually every design decision in the iPhone is either a blatant money grab or just plain stupid. When first I bought this, the phone continuously tried to pair with everything Bluetooth, which typically is other phones. People were having credit card information stolen since Apple phones never stop trying to find things with which to pair - there is no discovery or pairing mode such as every non-Apple device has had since Bluetooth was invented. Apparently this is because Apple is convinced that anyone who bought an Apple phone is too stupid to use such a setting. (Admittedly, having bought an iPhone I can understand that conclusion.) Apple finally got around to patching the software and now none of our phones reliably see anything Bluetooth except one Bose speaker in the Apple Store. Their "solution" is to buy only Apple Bluetooth devices, but besides the horribly inflated price tags, the iPhones aren't seeing any Apple Bluetooth devices either. Their solution to that is to wait for the next version.

The screen looks fine in the store and the phone is speedy. Once you try to see anything high resolution, you discover that the iPhone's speed is only competitive because it is pushing one quarter of the pixels of any other flagship phone. The base phone has 32 GB and you get 5GB of free iCloud storage, but this is their justification for not having the expansion port that allows virtually any Android owner to easily and cheaply add up to 256 GB of storage. They eliminated the headset port, relying instead on the Lightning charging port (considering the charging speed relative to Samsung or LG I am assuming the name is intentionally ironic) with a 2" converter cable which costs nine bucks on Amazon.

This is a $100 phone which Apple's marketing allows them to sell for $400. Do your homework and you won't get fooled like me into assuming that a top of the line Apple phone is as good as pretty much any $100 Android phone.

 

[Yuriman]

I wouldn't say anything iPhone is a $100 phone - objectively, the screen calibration is excellent, if lower resolution, and it has the fastest CPU and GPU on the market. The camera is competitive with the best of Android, and the body has (to me) a subjectively nice feel and appearance. Software is another matter, but hardware wise you'll not see anything close with Android for $100.

That said, I don't want an iPhone.

 

[werepossum]

I wouldn't say anything iPhone is a $100 phone - objectively, the screen calibration is excellent, if lower resolution, and it has the fastest CPU and GPU on the market. The camera is competitive with the best of Android, and the body has (to me) a subjectively nice feel and appearance. Software is another matter, but hardware wise you'll not see anything close with Android for $100.

That said, I don't want an iPhone.

The fastest CPU and GPU as long as they are only pushing one quarter as much data as the competition.

 

[Yuriman]

Check your facts. The iPhone 7, released approximately 1 year ago, is only just now being tied by Samsung's new 14nm SOCs going into the S8. These benchmarks are "offscreen", meaning they run at the same resolution regardless of what phone/screen you have.

Due to the iPhone's low resolution, on-screen benchmarks are often several times faster.

 

[NutBucket]

It needs that horsepower since it will inevitably slow down to the point of uselessness due to iOS updates. The chip itself may be speedy but then they decide to cheap out on RAM and charge out the ass for non-expandable storage.

Back the the point. I do agree that OP is probably a bit rough on his phone. That said, 3 years is a pretty reasonable lifespan. You can't really compare it to any other device since it takes much more physical abuse than any computer.

 

[Yuriman]

Agreed, my biggest beef with Apple when it comes to hardware is the anemic amount of RAM they put in nearly every device.

 

[NutBucket]

And this is why in some ways our 4th gen iPad is "useless" whereas the same era Nexus7 only shows its age running games. Come on Apple, RAM is cheap!