Thinking of switching from iphone to android

[ViviTheMage]

Soo, seems to be lots of droid phones out there. I have had my ios phones for about 6 years now. I kind of want to make the switch. I used to dislike droid phones because the interface was laggy compared to my ios, but that seems to have finally be fixed, and the group text messaging with ios/droid users too. I am not sure I care what the new iphones bring to the table either. I will be sad I wont have all of my already paid for apps/games, but whatever, i'll move on.

So I see a lot of phones right now... my main requirements:

5"~
expandable memory
7+ hour battery

From what I can see the Galaxy S5, LG G3, Motorola MOTO X, one M8 seem to fit the bill... but is one better then the other really? Or are they personal preference at this point.

 

[bearxor]

I honestly don't think you could go wrong with any choice at this point. See which one has the extras and interface that best speaks to you and go with it.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Makes sense ... can they all get rooted and hook up via BT to a wii/ps4 controller if I wanted to emulate games by chance? Or have an HDMI output?

Is there a specific version of android I should get? Can you get rid of samsung bloatware stuff?

 

[vi edit]

All of them have their own merits and quirks. It really comes down to which one is most comfortable for you to use and is there one glaring piece of tech that one provides that others don't.

With Android a lot of it comes down to which skinned OS are you most familiar with/able to stand.

Samsung has TouchWiz. HTC has Sense. LG has a lightly skinned version of the basic Android. Moto has an even more stock android experience. All have their advantages and disadvantages.

Same with the phones themselves. All of them have slightly different sizing formats with different levels of usability. I think the S5, G3 and M8 are getting on the edge of too big for comfort without adding a significant amount of function. At that point you may as well go out on a Galaxy Note and get the slick stylus function. It's not really that much bigger.

The MotoX is an interesting offering because it's incredibly compact, swings a lot harder than it's specs would relate, and brings some awesome and useful add-ins to the table that others don't. But it's old, doesn't have expandible storage, and is due to be updated any freaking time now.


Any of the "big three" are good choices. Just see which one fits your hands the best and which UI looks the most functional to you. I'd wait a month though for the Iphone6 announcement and the new MotoX just to see what they bring to the table for features and pricing.

 

[luv2liv]

i looked on youtube before i rooted my phone. once rooted, u can do pretty much anything including installing a custom ROM that doesnt have samsung bloatwares

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, I am in zero rush, just looking around right now. What's moto x supposed to have?

what is the diff between touchwiz, sense, and the lg lightly skinned droid? Is there a 4th one too, like android stock?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yeah, I am in zero rush, just looking around right now. What's moto x supposed to have?

what is the diff between touchwiz, sense, and the lg lightly skinned droid? Is there a 4th one too, like android stock?

There is stock android, and I find it to be the cleanest out of them all.

Touchwiz, sense, etc are all awful imho. They do have some perks but those can easily be obtained through rooting your phone.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Which phones come with the stock droid interface? Or can all come with it, after rooted?

 

[soccerballtux]

LG G3 is the only one with sane bezel design-- if you're going to go big, S5 and M8 (and G3 probably too) are all too large for comfort and waste bezel.

For me I would choose LG G3 or Nexus 5 or GS4

 

[soccerballtux]

I would wait for iPhone6 with larger screen though

 

[vbuggy]

Unless you're talking about a Samsung pile of kitchen sink crap, I think 'stock' is overrated. You can easily buy a clean third party launcher that improves on stock IMO.

The G3's too big but the M8 isn't - sizewise it's just a vertically stretched One, which I don't remember anyone complaining about. The S5 = borderline IMO, not comfy for me.

 

[dawheat]

Which phones come with the stock droid interface? Or can all come with it, after rooted?

The launcher makes the biggest difference IMO is making a phone feel 'stock'. You can install the Google Now Launcher on pretty much any current phone or any number of popular launchers (Nova, Apex, etc). The plus side is you can try them all, fiddle with dozens of settings, and find which one you like. It's the opposite to the one-way approach of iOS (don't read this as a criticism - most people don't want to experiment with different launchers and play around with tons of settings - they just want it to work).

Some skins like (like Sony's and HTCs) are very light and don't add any lag, LG is heavier and adds some, and Samsung is the heaviest and adds the most. However, IMO even current Samsung phones like the Note 3 and S5 aren't really noticeable once you disable a bunch of motions/tracking features. I don't have an issue taking the 30 seconds to do so when getting the phone, but it annoys a lot of people.

 

[sgrinavi]

I just picked up a One Plus One for my spare phone, it's pretty damn nice, but I still reach for my iP5 when I need to do something with contacts or mail, it's just easier- I'll probably end-up with the 5.5" iPhone 6 unicorn if it should magically appear.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Just an FYI... "Droid" is a Verizon brand name for specific Android phones. Referring to all Android phones as "Droids" is one of those weird things that makes my eye twitch. Haha.

 

[Ravynmagi]

If you want a really big phone, the LG G3 looks really nice, it has has the 1440p display. And very small bezels.

However the front facing speaker and all aluminum body of the HTC One M8 is pretty nice to have as well. And damn it, HTC needs people to buy their stuff. I would hate to see HTC fail. So for pities sake, buy an M8!

And the Samsung Galaxy S5 has an AMOLED display that's very beautiful and since the phones are mostly thin plastic, it's very light for it's size. And you can carry a spare battery and swap it easily if you go on very long trips without a power source (camping or such I guess).

And the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is being announced September 3rd. This is very large phone like the G3, but you'll only find an active digitizer and pen on the Note phones and that's handy if you like to jot down notes on the go. Microsoft's OneNote beta works great with this phone.

 

[QueBert]

IMHO I hate stock everything on Android, if I got a phone that ran stock Android the 1st things I do is replace the launcher, the dialer, the caller ID screen, the calendar, the camera. Basically everything. Android can look nice, but stock I detest just about everything about how it looks and most of how it functions. The same with my iPhone I couldn't stand it until I got Cydia on it and replaced some of the things I didn't like.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I don't like the AMOLED, haha ... leaning towards HTC M8 with the LCD screen.

 

[Megatomic]

okay, so did some playing around ... I THINK I am leaning towards the galaxy S5 LTE-A

but how do I know I got an LTE-A version and not the original S5?

Also, how hard is it to swap out the UI? It's a bit bloated...

I'm not a Samsung fan so I could be wrong, but I thought the LTE-A version of the S5 was released in only Korea. If I'm right, it could be a pricey proposition trying to get one here in the USA.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, I just realized that ... so I switched to an M8, haha... not sure I want to drop 700+ for a droid phone.

How's that oneplusone phone working out? What's unique about its OS exactly?

 

[Megatomic]

I'm SOOO in love with the M8, I completely understand why you'd opt to go that route. About my One+, it's an amazing phone and I would think so even if I had paid $500 for it. I have no yellow and I seem to not experience any of the other issues I see various people posting about. The unique thing about the OS is the lack of a skin and the customizability of it. It's 99% stock android which is perfect for me as I prefer the GPE. I've made my OPO into a GPE edition.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Interesting, which do you prefer to use Megatomic all day? I like to have just one phone, haha. How's the battery on both?

 

[Megatomic]

I only own one phone, the One+ One. But if I was given the choice, I think the M8 would edge out the OPO even if just slightly. That being said, the OPO is a fantastic phone. I enjoy it a lot.

 

[ViviTheMage]

How's the battery life?

 

[vbuggy]

I was curious about the OnePlus, but the way the company operates totally puts me off. Hardware wise it's not a giant leap away from anything else I can get so I've stuck to what's normally available. When the WP M8 comes out I guess I'll be very HTC-heavy... but I figure they need the money right now lol

 

[Megatomic]

How's the battery life?

I unplug my phone at 5am and use it all day long for Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, GMail, Email, podcast playback and regular phonecalls. Intermittent YouTube playback and gaming also. The lowest my battery has been at 10pm when I go to bed is 19%. I'm satisfied.