Budget 20-25K Android Gurus : Which 25k Droid for an iPhone stand-in / temp replacement

mach9

mach9

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I need all the Android Guru's on TE to weigh in on this one. Though i kind of have a few clear likes and dislikes on which 25k (MAX) droid i'd like to pick up.. I've almost narrowed it down to the current to workhorses.. the Google Nexus 4 vs the Galaxy S3.

Trouble is, my last experience with Android was in 2011 with the SGS II and to say the least.. it was kinda f*cked up.. partly cos i was one of the many who suffered from Samsung's deceptive crap and got the I9100G instead of the I9100. By the time i got rid of it.. the SII was well on it's way out of the race for top phone. Coupled with the fact that Samsung took AGES to release the ICS update for the SGS II and even longer for the G spec.. I pretty much swore I'd think twice before ever picking up a droid again.

Present day scenario - I moved back to the 4S and then in Dec'12 i got my iPhone 5. Unfortunately, I had to let it go in April, but I'm back at the point where i can pick up another 5 again.. however I don't think it makes sense to go with the 5 anymore considering we're approaching it's last quarter at the top & I think i've found Apple's obstinance of sticking to a sub 5' screen as wasted potential. So i figured i'd ride it out with a stop-gap phone .... and that HAS to be a droid because the 4S/4 have insane valuations considering their age.

Which brings us to my 2 horse dilema : Which one to go for in terms of outright long term advantages? Let me sum it up below:

1. Time frame for usage : This will be relatively long.. at least for 16 months going forward. (yup, I'm targeting iPhone 6)
2. Budget : 25k max
3. Open to 2nd hand phones? : Yes
4. GN4 Likes : Stock Droid experience, Direct Google update advantage, Screen quality, RAM, Build Quality, Design & Feel.
Dislikes : Non replaceable battery, Limited storage (though generally 16GB+drive/dropbox was ok for me on the iPhone), Camera optimisation, non expandable memory.
5. SGS 3 Likes: Great Camera, replaceable battery, expandable memory.
Dislikes : The Samsung experience, horrendous touchwiz UI, screen quality sucks/color reproduction, lesser RAM, plastic design n feel is utterly crappy for me (iPhone lover after all), update lags n support from Samsung.

While the hardware differentiators are quite clear between the two, I'd really appreciate it if any of the Droid guru's here can really help sum up the differences between the stock droid experience on the GN4 v/s the customisation and features offered by Samsung with their SGS 3's touchwiz.

Primarily what irks me are 3 things:
1. Support over the next 16 months for updates to Android & Key Lime Pie.
2. Battery life .. considering the GN 4 has no user replaceable battery
3. Memory storage/available memory & UI experience.

Does the GN4 offer enough to overcome the SGS3's customised enhancements or does the SGS 3 the best all round experience at the cost of limited future support & risking Samsung's whimsical update delays/support considering the GS3 has just one more year to go for official support?

Sincerely appreciate any thoughts from the experts here... keep in mind when it comes to droid.. I'm pretty much a noob at tinkering. Can't be arsed to root a droid either (or rather.. never did it before :p )

Thanks!
 
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If you are open to rooting then any of TE two makes sense as they both have loads if dev love. Tough choice really.

Camera, battery and expandable storage is what S3 offers.

Better screen size and quality, latest OS and exclusivity is what N4 offers. A
 
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How about the HTC One X+ ? No external memory support but the looks of HTC are nice and the build quality exceeds that of the Nexus and Samsung S3.

EDIT : Inadvertently mentioned HTC One rather than HTC One X+
 
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Thanks everyone, appreciate each response.

I completely forgot about the HTC One X+ but i think that's prolly cos the price is around 27-29k and is a bit beyond what i'd consider spending. That apart, it's a pretty darn neat looking phone and feels good to touch! HTC's display too is mighty stunning!

I have a couple of Xperia owners in the family, but i could never big myself around to getting used to the Bravia engine/display whatever it is they use for their screens. There's just something thats extremely off putting about the Xperia screen. Their UI too was no great must have. The LG too is not to my liking not to mention resale demand ain't nothing to write about.

Coming back to the HTC One X+ while the phone has been out since just Oct 2012.. the following things are what i currently listed against it..
1. The Camera records HD @ 28fps which is a shade lower than what the S3 n the likes do. I don't know if this has been bumped up via any software updates since then. Not to mention the few quirks with the viewfinder and the framing issues for video with this phone. The One X+ also has been reported to drop frames quite badly and this means skippy/jumpy videos. The S3 on the other hand had me completely stunned and I've seen what it can do in the hands of my friend who's an absolute novice with smartphones. Not just the videos but also the stills! They were simply brilliant! The HTC One X+ camera issues could actually be a BIG -ve for me & that concerns me to a big extent if it cannot be fixed by software updates.
2. The HTC Sense UI is heavily customised. There are some aspects of it that has the look and feel i really like, and then there are some that are downright overdone and completely disharmonous. Coming from the iPhone, it kinda prolly bothers me to a larger extent.
3. The update saga applies here too - HTC's timelines for updates is quite long from what i've heard and from friends experiences.. I don't know if that has improved recently. Also going forward, what is HTC's support policy for their phones? Samsung has a minimum 2 year support on their Galaxy range IIRC?? Or at least for the S3/S4 i believe? The question is, will i run out of update support before Sep/Oct '14 with HTC?
4. Battery life.. the One X+ again seems to be slightly hungrier than the S3 from a few reviews.. though i would need someone to comment on real world feel.

So all in all.. the HTC One X+ is definitely an add to my list ... but with the above 4 points to the slightly higher price... I don't quite think it quite as par for the course as the other 2

So summing up..

GN 4 vs SGS 3 vs HTC One X+

These choices drive me nuts!
 
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comp@ddict said:
^^ Since you're complaining so much about updates, get the N4.
If you've liked what you've seen so far with Sense 5.0, HTC One X+ is a no-brainer. It's a stunning device really.
Click to expand...


It's not about complaining. It's about the fact that Samsung / HTC and their update policy. Having burnt my fingers once with Samsung, I just want to be double sure it's still not the case of old wine in a new bottle. My time frame is fixed and that's about 16 months minimum going forward, so logically if KLP was to be released by Google by then.. I just don't wanna end up being blindsided for updates.

As for the HTC ONE X+ I like it a lot too.. but what I'm looking for is the clarification on the Camera and the updates. The rest i can tolerate. But if they're asking for 27-29k for the phone... the damn thing better have a decent camera at least right? Frame rates dropping well below acceptable limits etc are a fatal flaw in my opinion.. and I'm not sure if that's addressable by software updates entirely.
 
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Well, you can always get the One X for 24k instead. But IMHO I would pick the One X+, it's not bad. It's just not the BEST and that's what people are complaining about (like always)
 
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Ok so i checked with my dealer at HP and he said 24k for the GN.. i suppose he'd come down a bit but I'm wondering if the difference of 1.5k makes it more worthwhile to get the GN4 officially with warranty instead of from the grey market?

I've almost narrowed it down to the GN4 vs the SGS 3. The only thing I need help with is from current GN4 users about the camera performance. From the review i read on Anandtech.. apparently they are not all that thrilled about the camera performance either especially issues with focus.

Then there's also the issue of battery life with a few sites saying the GN4 had issues in being power efficient and hence lower battery life.

Link : http://www.anandtech.com/show/6440/google-nexus-4-review/5

Starting with the misc. photos I’ve taken with the Nexus 4, I find myself thinking that camera performance is really quite bimodal. In broad daylight the Nexus 4 can take some surprisingly decent shots as long as you’re not looking at them at 1:1 resolution. Viewed like that, you can see just how aggressive the anti-noise smoothing is even in good lighting on the Nexus 4. The Android 4.2 HDR mode also makes a significant difference in end results too, for example with HDR turned off, and with HDR turned on. Indoors in lower light however the Nexus 4 definitely struggles to produce well exposed results or even hit focus. Again I have to note that I have many duplicates from where my Nexus 4 missed focus and I was forced to take a few more shots to get one totally in focus.
Click to expand...

The Nexus 4 video quality is now adequate by no longer dropping frames left and right, but isn't what I'd call best in class among smartphones that record 1080p30. I can see compression artifacts in the shadows and audio is still single channel AAC that still sounds like it was recorded under water.
Click to expand...

Seriously?? Any of you GN4 owners experienced the above??

If this is true, I might just have to swallow the bitter pill and put my money on the SGS 3.
 
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Camera on N4 isnt that good. battery depends on your usage.Normally i get around 4 hrs screen time.Its more than enough for me.
Honestly you should go for N4 only if you are open to rooting.Reasons-
1)I think that without screen calibration the screen sucks.The colours are washed out.
2)The processor advantage is useless on stock due to thermal throttling.This phone heats up in no time and processor will underclock.
If you are open to rooting then N4 is a no brainer.
 
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Thanks. So it's the bitter pill for me with the SGS 3 then i guess.. unless there's a convincing option for the HTC One X+

Time to go back n check for prices!
 
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One X+ has a mediocre 8 mp camera.. S3's camera can wipe the floor with it..

The reason being the optimization that Samsung has put in it. N4's camera is more of a slap on.. However that does not mean it is bad. For FB pics (most people use the camera for this) it gets the job done.

S3 for its price is a phenomenal phone. Although the updatesay be delayed, you will get them. Also, TW looks childish, it more than makes up by providing features (some rather gimmicky) that make it way more user friendly than stock Android.

And honestly speaking, you do get tired of custom ROMs. I had an S2, ran almost all custom roms but each had some or the other bug and loss of some functionality. Eventually came back to the stock ROM, freezed stuff that I did not require and voila, I had the perfect phone.

N4 for all its goodness, is not optimised properly. I wish it were, in which case it would have been a no brainer. It is a phone to show off JB, and that is where it stops. Being a showoff..

(Had an S2 for almost 2 years, brought an N4, didn't like it, now have an S4..)
 
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I would suggest xperia sp. Pretty descent phone out there.I gb of ram and a dual core krait processor.It has also the most latest and the powerful gpu, adreno 320.It has almost all the sensors plus expandable storage and a braviaengine 2 display. Benchmarks have shown that its processor performance beats out s4 and xperia z in some cases.
 
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