Getting my first Smartphone! Need help!

My carrier is Verizon Wireless and I have a 4 year old LG Envy 3. It is really starting to fall apart and I am finally able to now upgrade and get a new phone. I was thinking of an Iphone 4S, even though I hate Apple, but the phones are really great people tell me. I am thinking you guys are going to recommend Droid phones because they are much easier to customize, no jailbreaking needed and they aren't Apple, lol. I hear really great things about the Samsung Galaxy S III, also I am liking the HTC Incredible 4G LTE.

So my main things I want on my phone is a fast internet connection, tons of apps, good customizability, good quality video & music, and be able to upgrade memory if possible, I understand Iphones do not have upgradeable memory but they are like the only exception. What do you guys think?

 

I just got an iPhone 4S a week ago and i really like it. I had a HTC Wildfire before which was quite laggy and I decided to give the iPhone a go. It is really easy to use, especially with music but you are not really able to customize it unless you jailbreak it. On the other hand i don't find it necessary to jailbreak it (yet ).

 

I back either the Verizon Galaxy Nexus or the Samsung Galaxy S III. Do note that since Verizon is NOT a GSM network provider, you can't really travel with these phones outside the US (unless you roam ofc ... and most countries including Canada these days run on GSM and have abandoned the CDMA2000-based networks).

I back the Galaxy Nexus mainly because it doesn't really come with bloatware (even the Verizon version doesn't really come with bloat which was surprising). It's updated directly from Google and is considered a AOSP capable phone.

If you rather have the latest hardware, the Samsung Galaxy S III is probably one of the best phones out there but lack in terms of software support the way Google does it.

deltatux

 

Depends if you want a kids toy phone or not, if you're a bit simple and can't really work things then get an iphone, for me I couldn't ever get a phone that doesn't even have a home screen and lacks even basic features like mp3 ringtones (without a pc or a jailbreak), no bluetooth file transfer, no video calls, and loads other stuff.

 

I definitely don't need a kid's toy. I would rather have the best out there now, customizable and has extended memory addons, like the Samsung Galaxy S III. It also has a bigger screen, better more vibrant colors and better camera and video I hear.

 

I think you've just made your choice right there. I still stand by my recommendation but you can't go wrong with the SGSIII either.

deltatux

 

nah, s3 all the way delta. he said he wants customizable. meaning he'll be messing around with it, I guess. Not sure what the scene for the s3 is right now, but even the s2 has quite a few jelly bean roms that not only remove all the bloat but also run the latest version of the OS. The s3 is just a better phone overall, even the s2 beats the nexus most of the time, only downside I see is that the nexus has a larger screen than the s2 which is always nice.

 

If he wants it customizable, there are no phones out there as customizable as the Nexus. You can literally do anything in terms of customization with a Nexus phone as you get an untouched version of Android.

I would put the Galaxy Nexus as between SGS II and SGS III. Sometimes no matter how powerful a hardware is, without superior software support, it's just not as good as a phone with lesser hardware specs with superior software support.

deltatux

 

Yeah the SG III is an awesome phone, so are there really roms and emulators and stuff like that you can actually use on the phone lol. Hey, I did say I was new to Smartphones. I'd be doing a lot of web browsing, music, video, customizing my phone, and probably a bunch of things I am not even thinking about right now lol

 

Anything SNES equivelant and below will be fine (i've played the majority of super metroid on my s2), past that it'll be pick and mix, games are likely going to be too complicated to do on a phone (even super metroid is pretty fiddly), except of course RPGs.

 

Hahaha that's cool

 

Only concern I have in the back of my head is the Iphone 5 coming out in like a month I think, around then. What about that?

 

Who knows, it's all just rumours, probably a larger screen to go with that trend, but it's still the same closed off iOS software, and I doubt they will have the oled screen the S3 will have, likely still sticking with ips.

 

What about the HTC Incredible 4G LTE or Droid Razr? I want a good phone with fast web browsing, upgradability, lots of apps, good video and music, customizability, etc.

 

I don't know anything about either, not read up on them.

As far as good video goes though, the S2 has pretty good video codec support, far better than the equivalent Tegra 2 of the time, able to support 1080p mkv files (h.264) no problem, I can only imagine the S3 being better, especially since it has the resolution to support it. Music is going to be pretty much the same in all of them, if you don't like the stock player on android you can replace it with something.

 

I am looking at the HTC Incredible 4G LTE: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5892

How is that phone? I mean the Galaxy S III is ridiculously big and stuff, looks nice and everything and has a ton of features. I am not really liking the design tho to be honest, I guess a case can change it lol and a good "Dark Knight Rises" wallpaper/theme or something haha. I mean I don't need the best camera on the planet and everything. I do care about the sound quality and the HTC Incredible has the Beats Sound thing. Also has good video quality and fast 4G LTE web browsing speed and the snapdragon dual core processor.

 

happy w/ my iphone 4 and im not an apple fan. it was the only phone w/ an ips panel when i bought it while other phones had inferior screens when i was shopping around (late 2010).

 

Yeah I don't know about an Iphone 4S dude, sorry. I am liking the HTC Rezound or the Samsung Galaxy S III really.

 

galaxy s2 and s3 get AOSP roms which are same as you get on stock nexus. what can you do on a nexus that you can't on the s2?

 

I just don't know what phone to get, I really like the design of the HTC phones, like the Rezound, not really liking the design of the Galaxy S III really, lol. The Rezound has really good sound quality and good video, maybe not the best but good HD 720p video, you probably won't notice the difference on the display anyway. Has the Beats headphones which are nice, 4G LTE fast browsing, a good 8 MP camera w/ full 1080P HD video recording. Dual Core 1.5GHz w/ 1GB Ram and more.