Need help choosing a new phone

[Drael646464]

I have 25 different apps just for music, and I use them all at least once a week. I recently uninstalled 25 apps I wasn't using.

You must be a hardcore streamer!

 

[N_LaRUE]

So your saying nothing has ever taken a long time to load an app? Like just suddenly out of the blue?

The only app issues I ever have is due to the app and not the OS. That's typical of any platform though. Sometimes apps 'break'. The developer typically gets roasted for it in the reviews too.

Not to pick on Samsung but their interface skin has always been a bit heavy, even though it's been trimmed a lot, it's still not perfect. The other issue with Samsung is they pre-load a lot of apps that you can't delete, only disable. They're still good devices though.

I would have bought a Pixel but I couldn't justify the cost and I wasn't a fan of the overall design. That's personal choice though.

So I typically buy the phones that have the cleanest interface and if I feel like it I put a launcher on or theme it. It's mostly mood based.

Then there's the apps. I like going through the Play store and seeing what's there. Sometimes I install apps just to see what they're like. I'm curious that way.

Truth is, my habits on Android are different than what they were on Windows Phone/Mobile. I typically left my interface alone and the Store was always a bit depressing.

So that's why I'm on Android.

 

[ghese]

The Android lag will become apparent when you start using a different platform. And it's not Limited to apps loading or breaking. It's more random than that. Like pressing the home button and sometimes getting there instantly, and some other times for no reason, wait 2 Seconds to get to the homescreen. Sometimes the widgets takes longer to load up. Or it might be the scrolling that stutters for no reason, in browsers, play store or even those widget side panels. You can even see this happen to S8s on reviews (The reviewers usually just brush it off or pretends tht they didn't see it, but you can see it happening if you observe carefully).

Want to see a prime example of Android holding back great hardware? There's no doubt about S8 being beautiful and powerful hardware (it's got 4 GB RAM). Check out videos comparing the S8 With the SE(it's got 2 GB RAM). The SE is consitant and mostly on par and sometimes even faster at loading up apps and running them smoothly. Heck, even games load up faster on the SE and the Graphics(not talking about resolution) on those games are better on iOS. And we're talking about SE that's been in use for 1 year versus a New S8. That just speaks volumes about how lackluster Android is.

 

[ghese]

No slowdowns or stutters here on Android either.
3 years ago yes...not on my last 4-5 Androids at all.

So in the last 3 years, you've had 5 different Android Phones. That's probably why you couldn't see the degradation of Android's performance over time.

 

[ghese]

If you like the 950 XL then why not get it repaired, or if too expensive then get another 950 XL? You can probably still find new 950 XLs, or there are obviously plenty of used ones around too.

If you really want to go iPhone, wait until they refresh them in September as the prices always drop on the current ones when the new one is released each year - if you need a temporary phone the x2x Lumias e.g. 625 (great budget phone in my opinion) are very cheap these days and run W10M fine.

- Not a single phone repair shop nearby offered repair for it. Another option was to send it by post to some Remote Place, but that was too costly. Wouldn't invest in a New 950XL as it's getting outdated. It's not really that cheap over here. And I wouldn't buy a used phone as their battery-life would be aweful.

I'd consider waiting for NeXT iPhones to release, but the SE price right now is actually quite good for the value. Not to mention I'd have to wait 3+ months for the NeXT generation Phones to get released.

 

[Guytronic]

So in the last 3 years, you've had 5 different Android Phones. That's probably why you couldn't see the degradation of Android's performance over time.

Nope...
Sorry the "lag" complaints don't apply to every Android user.
I keep my phones for a year or longer if I like them.
At any time I will have 2 active phones running for personal use.

Again no slow downs or stutters with any quality Android midrange phone I have owned.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nope...
Sorry the "lag" complaints don't apply to every Android user.
I keep my phones for a year or longer if I like them.
At any time I will have 2 active phones running for personal use.

Again no slow downs or stutters with any quality Android midrange phone I have owned.

That's been my experience as well. I didn't even have slow downs or stutters when I used an Android device that was 3 years old at the time (the original Moto X in 2016). I'm still using a 2013 Nexus 7 tablet, and that doesn't slow down or stutter.

 

[Drael646464]

I'm still using a 2013 Nexus 7 tablet, and that doesn't slow down or stutter.

Your 2013 nexus 7, with android 4.3 doesn't have sporadic slow-downs?

Now I have definitely used quad core 2gb android 4.3-4.4 devices with sporadic lag, whether it be accessing google services, or specific apps, that occasionally decide to spit the dummy. That points it to either app launcher, or firmware as the culprit.

Mind you some of the devices I've seen this on are pretty stock. I'm really confused as to why I've seen this so often and many here are saying they have never seen it at all. I've probably had about a dozen android tablets come through my store - I've got two android devices in the house ATM (along with two windows tablets/phones). I can't figure out the disparity. I guess it could be something in the OEM software, but then because it occurs on multiple devices, it can't simply be a matter of bad coding.

One would expect that with googles ram management services that each iteration of android would get slightly better, and that better hardware would also help. Of course where an app finds google services suddenly uncontactable (which happens time to time), or some similar process, neither of those will help. The increasing reliance of apps, due to google policy, on an increasingly large number of server services won't help this (Google+, google play services, the game service, maps)

I guess without knowing what causes this, and on what devices it occurs, anecdote or speculation is not really going to help. All we can really say is that some people have seen a lot of it, some people have seen apparently none of it.

Not that any OS is immune to things like app crashes, as one example of a slow down. iOS for all its supposed simplicity and known app quality has the highest recorded number of app crashes, probably because of its very simple stack. Plus if you have some busy background services, that can always demand some core power, if the system devices it needs that software service, and can't dump or throttle it.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Your 2013 nexus 7, with android 4.3 doesn't have sporadic slow-downs?

FYI - Nexus 7 2013 has been updated to 7.0

Also, bad coding has a lot to answer for.

When I used my L920, I had all the 'bugs' that people talk about. The phone was an issue as well as the firmware. Then on top of that, some of the apps were not that good and crashed.

When people talk about 'lag' it's typically about the way things are handled in Android. Windows and iOS typically hide this with animations, except when things go wrong of course then you get 'resuming' or whatever happens with iOS. However, I believe a lot of this has been fixed with each update in Android. I can't vouch for Samsung as their launcher is very heavy and could cause a lot of the 'lag' that gets talked about as Samsung is the one a lot of people use.

I don't use a lot of apps, but the ones I do use are not on WM, it may be that I'm using some of the better quality ones and I just don't have these issues. On top of that, you should expect that as things are reliant on the 'cloud' a lot that sometimes things are not going to work as expected. But that's just because where we are with mobile in general.

I think Android is going to get a lot more interesting as time goes by. As will other OS. It's an interesting area at the moment but it's no longer at the 'oh and ah' stage.

 

[sanjeet_deshwal]

IPhone 6 is also an option if small size and price are issues with other models(6s, se).

 

[xandros9]

...And it's not Limited to apps loading or breaking. It's more random than that. Like pressing the home button and sometimes getting there instantly, and some other times for no reason, wait 2 Seconds to get to the homescreen. Sometimes the widgets takes longer to load up. Or it might be the scrolling that stutters for no reason, in browsers, play store or even those widget side panels. You can even see this happen to S8s on reviews

Honestly, that better describes Windows 10 Mobile from what I know, but of course everyone has their own set of experiences.

Also, Android lets manufacturers customize it quite extensively. You hold up the S8 as the example of Android's lag but Samsung has historically been known for making a-bit-too-heavy software additions and skins that hamper and cause less-than-expected performance on their otherwise top-notch hardware.

If you look at a Pixel, it's a buttery, stock experience that my phone-dork friend obsessed over and it puts my already-competent Priv to shame. Generalizing about Android like that is not unlike attempting to generalize Windows Phone 8.1's and Windows 10 Mobile's vastly different levels of fluidity into one sentence.

 

[Keeptechcoolandsimple]

Do you mind if I ask what Android device(s) you've used in the past that soured your experience on them? Or what apps that you're looking at? In my opinion, the app gap in terms of quality is nearly unnoticeable between apple and android. yes, there are some apps that come to apple first , but primarily because devleopers make more money from them through apple than android. But as a user, the experience shouldnt be vastly different. I just recently sold a iphone 6s, currently carry a oneplus 3 and a gs 8.I'm just curious as to what apps you've had difficulty with and if any of them can be attributed devices.

 

[ghese]

Do you mind if I ask what Android device(s) you've used in the past that soured your experience on them? Or what apps that you're looking at? In my opinion, the app gap in terms of quality is nearly unnoticeable between apple and android. yes, there are some apps that come to apple first , but primarily because devleopers make more money from them through apple than android. But as a user, the experience shouldnt be vastly different. I just recently sold a iphone 6s, currently carry a oneplus 3 and a gs 8.I'm just curious as to what apps you've had difficulty with and if any of them can be attributed devices.

Galaxy S3 from before my Windows Endeavour. Then the random demo models at stores, this includes flagships from Sony, LG and Samsung. And not too long ago, I got myself a Honor 5X for android Dev Projects on Budget.

As for apps, generally social media apps like Snapchat, Musically. But also stuff like MuseScore and OneDrive runs smoother on iOS. Generally, they either perform better and/or has more features. Heck, even games, despite Flagship android Phones having 4+ gb RAM and so on, the Graphics are better on the iOS counterpart and also less laggy. That's just the few Things I tried out at the store.

 

[Keeptechcoolandsimple]

Galaxy S3 from before my Windows Endeavour. Then the random demo models at stores, this includes flagships from Sony, LG and Samsung. And not too long ago, I got myself a Honor 5X for android Dev Projects on Budget.

As for apps, generally social media apps like Snapchat, Musically. But also stuff like MuseScore and OneDrive runs smoother on iOS. Generally, they either perform better and/or has more features. Heck, even games, despite Flagship android Phones having 4+ gb RAM and so on, the Graphics are better on the iOS counterpart and also less laggy. That's just the few Things I tried out at the store.

i guess it might be subjective and come down to preference.

personally, i feel android has come a long way the past couple of years. I've owned both the iphone 4 and 6s, for some reason i always keep coming back to android (which include several galaxy devices, xperia devices, a xiaomi device and also a oneplus 3; i kinda have a thing for phones and spend too much money on them)- i actually find iOS (as a matter of fact anything from apple)a little too restrictive for my liking. i will admit that up until a couple of years ago (~ish?) i felt a difference in app quality but I'd say since galaxy note 4, i don't find any noticeable difference in app quality or features (ie, what feature is available in iOS snapchat that's not available on android snapchat?) . in fact, I'll even go so far as to say that now, depending on the skin, android may even offer up more options on how you interact with apps(but that might be a controversial opinion). that's just my personal opinion on the general difference between iOS and Android.

The problem with Android is there's too much fragmentation so depending on what device, you can an awesome experience or a crummy one. top of line is good, budget lines not as good. Based on a couple of the apps you've mentioned, you might be into editing - in which case outdated/budget phones like gs3 or the honor 5x are not gonna cut it. things like true editing, of course, can still only be truly reserved for a full fledged computer but i know people like working cross-platform. if your primary editing is done only on a macOS, then iphone should be fine because it plays nice with each other. if you primarily use windows or a mix of windows and macOS (like i do), I'd actually recommend an android. in my experience, windows works better cross-platform with android than iphone (though probably not as well as a windows phone) and working an android cross platform to macOS is relatively smooth as well (though admittedly not as smooth as iphone) - for some reason, i always felt like something was lost in translation when working with an iphone to windows - even if it was just the experience. Microsoft apps, like onedrive, just seem to work like it's supposed to on android and resemble more the feel of using the actual Microsoft apps, imho. in addition, if you enjoyed your windows phone experience, android allows you customize so it's very similar.

ultimately, when comparing iOS and Android, its only
a true comparison if it's between iphone and the top of the line android phones. theres only one version of iOS across its different models, whereas android has different flavors of android depending on the phone maker. if you're looking for a phone to compete directly with iPhone, steer clear of budget and/or heavily skinned androids -they just offer chopped up /regurgitated versions of android. phones like pixel or oneplus that offer stock android or near stock android with high end specs will probably do more and feel buttery smooth doing it, whereas phones like xiaomi and honor, based on the heavy skins will more likely lag. new top of the line Samsung (gs8), though skinned, is lighter skinned and has so much other good things going for it (camera, display, design, etc...) if you're looking for a good all around phone and don't care for stock experience. i personally don't see where iOS excels over android anymore other than a cohesive user experience - which, even then,might come at the cost of feeling restrictive like it does for me. i'm in the camp that believes quality of apple went down after the steve jobs era. (of course, being the phone fiend that i am - i'll probably give iphone another chance when there's a new design - just because im a phone fiend)

one app you mentioned that i found interesting in particular is musescore. I'm familiar with musescore on a windows and mac platform, but haven't used any mobile version of it. (i actually use finale and sibelius more than musescore on both windows and mac). if the experience in the mobile version of musescore is anything similar to those of full fledged computers, i would actually be inclined towards the galaxy Note line - I'd assume the combination of s-pen and big screen real estate would be more effective than fingers on a program like musescore (or for any other app requiring detailed editing). for those purposes alone, i would put it on the short list.

but again, ultimately - like i said before - it comes down to individual preference. per the title of the thread, i just wanted to offer a perhaps different perspective on how to go about choosing your new phone.

 

[Arcturus Gonzalez]

I recommend android Oneplus T5, great phone with great specs.