Best android alternative to Lumia 950

[nkdd]

My first post here, so please, don't be hard on me
It is a kind of rhetoric question, about the whole industry: why make waterproof phones, when u can't replace the battery after 2-3 years? ..You get it right: $. A nice marketing excuse to be charged extra $ (first time), to be sold something you do not need (second time) - as it is like you take care of your glass back smartphone not hitting the floor, but is okay to go swimming with it.. c'mon man.. and lastly you will have to buy another phone in some 2-3 years time. Again because....well it is waterproof, so it is sealed, so you can't change the battery (third time).
Nice!
Recently I bought a spare battery for my 950, since the battery after 2 years started to fade away, barely lasting 8-10 hours of normal use. And then, as many of you, came to the conclusion that the inevitable is coming - I have to switch. Not only of the OS being left by MS, but also because of the app gap. It exists.
Currently I will continue using my 950. Me thinks that LG V20 is a phone worth considering. Swappable battery (though not very impressive 3200 mAh), metal body, three mics, dual camera, Snapdragon 820, big screen, 1440 x 2560 pixels, FM radio, should be getting Oreo update. No wireless charging...

 

[mweflen]

I moved from 950 to Sony Xperia XZ Premium. I'm very happy with it.

It has a physical camera button, expandable memory, 4k screen, and SD835 SoC. So it basically crushes the 950 in every system performance respect, while almost matching it for camera quality.

The build quality is beautiful and luxurious, in the way the best Nokia Lumias were.

I am also running Square Home 2 as my launcher, and like it quite a bit.

For the $600 they cost on Amazon, you're getting a true 2017 flagship phone.

I will say that the LG V30 is enticing, as well. The Pixel 2 camera is interesting, but the price is just out of control.

 

[Dan Feinberg]

It was time for new phones and Verizon offered no high end Windows phones. There was no way we were going to Apple Crapple so it was droid.
We got Samsung Galaxy 8 or Galaxy Note 8 phones. I like them from a hardware standpoint and the os is OK and there are any apps we want. I do miss the more logical Windows OS on my phone but having to choose it was Droid and the Samsung Galaxy.

 

[darrell reimer]

I'm sticking with my 950 XL. I test-drove a LG V30 for two weeks, then returned it. Android OS - not bad, but not as good as Windows 10 Mobile. Screen aspect ration 18:9 - me no likee. When i returned the V30, and started using my 950 XL, and immediately noticed that i like the 'old' 16:9 much better. Camera on the V30 - very poor!! Noticed right away that the colours were bland and washed out; look at camera comparison result from Phonearena:

Conclusion

Summing up the results, one thing is clear: the LG V30 got the least votes and its photos definitely do not look as good as those from the iPhone or the Galaxy. The V30 only won the vote for 1 out of 10 scenes and was a close runner-up in scene 6.

The iPhone X and the Galaxy Note 8 cameras had much more comparable and much better results. The iPhone won scenes 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10, so it got 6 out of 10, and emerged as the winner.

The Galaxy Note 8 was the runner-up, winning scenes 2, 6 and 7.

Are you surprised by the results? Did you vote for your favorite phone? Which phones do you want to see us test next? Let us know in the comments below!

Me again: so i thought i just had a 'bad' V30 with camera issues, but no... the V30 is not the phone for you if you use the camera a lot!

 

[RaRa85]

I'm sticking with my 950 XL. I test-drove a LG V30 for two weeks, then returned it. Android OS - not bad, but not as good as Windows 10 Mobile. Screen aspect ration 18:9 - me no likee. When i returned the V30, and started using my 950 XL, and immediately noticed that i like the 'old' 16:9 much better. Camera on the V30 - very poor!! Noticed right away that the colours were bland and washed out; look at camera comparison result from Phonearena:

Conclusion

Summing up the results, one thing is clear: the LG V30 got the least votes and its photos definitely do not look as good as those from the iPhone or the Galaxy. The V30 only won the vote for 1 out of 10 scenes and was a close runner-up in scene 6.

The iPhone X and the Galaxy Note 8 cameras had much more comparable and much better results. The iPhone won scenes 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10, so it got 6 out of 10, and emerged as the winner.

The Galaxy Note 8 was the runner-up, winning scenes 2, 6 and 7.

Are you surprised by the results? Did you vote for your favorite phone? Which phones do you want to see us test next? Let us know in the comments below!

Me again: so i thought i just had a 'bad' V30 with camera issues, but no... the V30 is not the phone for you if you use the camera a lot!

Incorrect. The V30 is not a great automatic shooter. It is perfectly serviceable for people who love manual mode and the results are amazing. If you just used the V30 in auto mode the whole time and never took the time to dive into the manual settings, which coming from the Lumia 950 you should appreciate, you really missed the best and most rewarding part of the V30's strengths. I loved the old Microsoft phones but their camera software is sorely outdated now. When you change the ISO and shutter speed settings in the Lumia camera app the screen does not even reflect the changes in 2017! Microsoft, rather Nokia, led the charge in camera tech and then left it alone. The V30 is factually the worst of flagships in auto mode(and still not by much) but that falls on LG for poor software. Manual mode is where the true fun begins.

 

[Rhody#WP]

I moved from 950 to Sony Xperia XZ Premium. I'm very happy with it.

It has a physical camera button, expandable memory, 4k screen, and SD835 SoC. So it basically crushes the 950 in every system performance respect, while almost matching it for camera quality.

The build quality is beautiful and luxurious, in the way the best Nokia Lumias were.

I am also running Square Home 2 as my launcher, and like it quite a bit.

For the $600 they cost on Amazon, you're getting a true 2017 flagship phone.

I will say that the LG V30 is enticing, as well. The Pixel 2 camera is interesting, but the price is just out of control.

I used to go back and forth between my 950 and a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I switched to a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact. I couldn't be happier. It has the solid build quality (actually better) of the Lumia 950. I don't have a case and don't worry too much about dropping it. I have never broken a phone by dropping it, and I feel safe with this one. It has the USB-C and camera button. I cannot express how happy that makes me. The XZ1 Compact is small. I used to hate having a near-phablet when using the S7 Edge. The battery of the Xperia is the best I have ever experienced, which makes up for the lack of wireless charging.

 

[RTGent]

I used to go back and forth between my 950 and a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I switched to a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact. I couldn't be happier. It has the solid build quality (actually better) of the Lumia 950. I don't have a case and don't worry too much about dropping it. I have never broken a phone by dropping it, and I feel safe with this one. It has the USB-C and camera button. I cannot express how happy that makes me. The XZ1 Compact is small. I used to hate having a near-phablet when using the S7 Edge. The battery of the Xperia is the best I have ever experienced, which makes up for the lack of wireless charging.

Ditto on the Sony suggestion (along with LG). I moved to T-Mobile last year and used the opportunity to take a deal for the LG V30, a phone I had been eyeing because of its camera and music features. I tried it full-time for a few weeks, then returned it for several not-as-good-as-what-I-like blocks/reasons. Then, late last year my 950 went down and I went for the second phone I'd been eyeing since it was released last October -the Sony XZ1 Compact. I like this phone very much, but it is still Android. I have not liked the big-phone trend, and this Sony is rare in the market because it is almost as fully-featured as it's senior/larger siblings, especially in the critical factors of processor, memory, etc. The iphone SE is the only other small smartphone option I know of, and that version does not compare to its siblings. I installed the Microsoft launcher and got the basics I needed, including Office apps and Bing search and wallpapers. Then, yes, there is the camera button, which, BTW, the V30 also has -with its VERY nice burst mode. BUT, I was able to score a 950 on the WC marketplace (my 4th 950 -I'm careless), and I went back to my still-preferred phone PLUS OS. HOW-EVER, the difference this time is that I did not return the Sony. I have installed the T-Mobile DIGITS feature, and it is operating as my downstairs (on Wi-Fi) phone and as my secondary Spotify -wired or Bluetooth- device connecting and driving my stereo systems. AND, I have purchased a leather Stilgut case for it, which I have only done for favored phones. I am also moving my SIM card to it on weekends or occasionally to enjoy the compactness and to take my time learning and adapting to android. I now have one OS, but two phones that I like very much.

BTW, I specifically chose to keep the XZ1 when I learned that the XZ2 is moving in directions I definitely don't like. SO glad I found the Sony I like. I feel much better-prepared for my eventual post-950 existence.

 

[Dwarf_King]

Fnord...