Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding. Which phone should I get?

[Windows Central Question]

Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding.

Hi, I was wanting help on deciding on which Windows phone to buy used, the HTC One M8, the Samsung Ativ SE or the Lumia Icon. I had a Lumia 928 a year or so I ago but sold it due to the battery life and the "app gap" but I have always loved the tiled interface and use a Lenovo Thinkpad 8 as my primary tablet even over an Ipad Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4. I am aware that the app gap has improved considerably over the last 12 to 15 months. Anyways, I can get anyone of these 3 devices on Ebay for $200-$300 but cannot decide as they all have their pros/cons. Build and sound= HTC, removable battery and SD and renown screen= Samsung, the Lumia Icon/= historic windows phone mfg of choice and possible best camera. I had heard that the Lumia wasn't getting good support on Verizon as they recently pulled all Nokia devices and from what I see the M8 is the only one that Verizon currently sales. So many variables to consider.

 

[aximtreo]

Re: Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding.

I have the ICON and love it. It's bad enough for Verizon to play hanky panky with windows phones and subsequent upgrades but the Windows Insider program helps this along somewhat. The other two may have it also but just knowing it's a Microsoft product gives me a touch of confidence with keeping it up and running until this fall when the Win 10 devices I had the HTC one and it was OK but the screen on the ICON is unbeatable. No experience with the Ativ.

 

[Br1t]

Re: Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding.

I will say, the battery life has been stellar on my AT&T M8. For me thou Icon or M8 appears the best choices for a used device. But there are much discussed differences, its a personal preference. I would go with whichever you can get cheaper as the tie breaker.

 

[Mike Majeski]

I have the HTC One M8 on Verizon and love it so far. If you are looking for something long-term, I would recommend it, especially since it sounds like HTC and Verizon seem like they will play nice and bring Windows 10 to it eventually.
However, since there are rumors of upcoming flagships (when aren't there?) that should ship with Windows 10. You may be better of going with the $120 LG Lancet (tried it would in the store and it was pretty nice for the price) and just use that until a proper flagship is released. You can go $5 a month for it on Edge and just pay it off when the flagship comes out.

 

[kdsmith10000]

Thank you for your help. Of the 2, M8 or ICON, which has the brightest screen overall. I have a LG G3 and although it's quad HD, the panel is too dim overall.

 

[jdballard]

Next week (6/18) Verizon is getting the 735. A lot of people have good things to say about it. Never used it myself. Just another option.

 

[onlysublime]

I posted this in the Icon forum: http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-icon/360190-sad-leave-team-icon-now-sporting-htc-one-m8.html

My impressions haven't changed from what I wrote there. What I will add that I failed to mention after reading it a week later is how slippery the HTC phone is. Really slippery. I can't emphasize this enough. One-handed operation is much harder with this phone than the Icon one. You really need big hands to use this one-handed. The Icon can sit on the hand while you hold it nearly vertical and you one-hand it. The HTC, you will need to grip the sides so if your finger can't reach while you're gripping, you'll have issues.

In terms of the screen, I would say the HTC is brighter and a little sharper. However (and this may be a little confusing), the Icon has more truer and more vivid colors. The colors are more intense but more realistic. Black is really black. But there's a caveat. The Denim firmware doesn't show the correct color profile on the Icon like the Black firmware did so the black is no longer truly black and it will look more brown (not as noticeable unless you were a previous owner of the Icon and knew what the screen should look like). Also, the Lumia firmware allows you to adjust the color settings somewhat (though limited). The HTC has no color adjustments.

The colors on the HTC are garish. Your eyes will adjust though and mine think the colors are fine, just kind of cartoonish.

After typing on the onscreen keyboard more, I'm making a lot more mistakes with the HTC especially with the wordflow (swiping). I don't know if it's the HTC or Update 2. On the Icon, I had Update 1 (Lumia Denim). On the HTC, I've only had Update 2 (had the HTC for a couple weeks now). It seems to pick the wrong word more often. On the Icon, my swipes would occasionally leave a "v" extra character. But on the HTC, my swipes makes a lot more mistakes.

 

[bmetelsky]

Re: Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding.

I've had both phones. Currently using the M8 and loving it. As for size and comfort, I find the form factor of the M8 to be just slightly better, it is a tad bit narrower and I like that. I use a supcase on mine and it helps with grip and protects the phone on case of drops. I wouldn't go back to the Icon, but that is a personal preference.

 

[Kevin Smith6]

Re: Looking to get back to Windows Phone on Verizon and need help deciding.

I got the Icon, found a guy on Craigslist who was willing to trade a black icon that was 8.5/10 to my spare HTC One M7 that had been sitting in my nightstand for consistently for the last 8.5 months. Gotta say, this phone is a vast improvement over my 928 and windows phone market has improved by 1000 percent and the camera is excellent as is the software.