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Offline Fortuna

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Getting a new smartphone
« on: August 04, 2014, 08:12:56 AM »
My oh so premium iPhone is starting to show its age, and it doesn't handle iOS 7 as well as I'd like. What phones do you all have and why do you like them? Right now I'm considering a few options. Yes, I'm an Apple fanboy, but the low prices of some of the unlocked Android phones has piqued my interest. I'm considering the Moto X, the Nexus 5, and the iPhone 6 (when it comes out, obviously). I'd love another iPhone, but I don't really feel like paying $1000 for one that's unlocked. I'm leaning towards the Moto X, but I'd like to hear what you think first. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a Thork thread.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2014, 08:31:28 AM »
I (and Blanko) have a ThL W11, an off-brand Chinese smartphone. It's got a huge, beautiful 1080p screen, two 13MP cameras (front and back), a good enough (but certainly not excellent) build, and despite being a brand that no one fucking heard of, it's easy to get replacement parts for it. For its price, it's really good, and the price is pretty damn low.

Full disclosure: I recently fucked up the screen on mine, so it's currently out of commission. Make fun and claim that it must be flimsy all you want, but it was genuinely my fault that I broke it. The display and the touchscreen are the same part, so I'm going to have to dump some $80 on a replacement (about a 3rd of the phone's price, at least when I paid for it). It's something to be aware of, but if you're not a retard like myself, you won't have to worry about it.

Oh, and Thork hates it, so welcome to Thork Thread Town >o<

« Last Edit: August 04, 2014, 08:35:32 AM by pizaaplanet »
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Offline Fortuna

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2014, 08:42:39 AM »
How much did it cost? It looks pretty decent.

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Online Lord Dave

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #3 on: August 04, 2014, 09:34:59 AM »
I have an HTC ONE X (att build).  I like it personally though I wish I spent the extra money to get the good version.  Or at least wait until the HTC One came out. (I didn't name the phones.  No idea why "one x" comes before "one")

If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2014, 09:48:52 AM »
How much did it cost? It looks pretty decent.
Off the top of my head it was under $300, but I honestly don't remember exactly. Fasttech have it for $300 right now, and they're fairly reliable when it comes to not scamming people.
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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2014, 11:08:34 AM »
I was going to ask recently about those THL's again. Good to hear they're still kicking. Definitely going to grab one of those as my next phone just because the price point is so fucking good.

Thork

Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2014, 03:43:37 PM »
Getting the Nokia 930 very soon.

Love the windows phones. Great price (although I get them free they are cheap for what they are), Windows 8 works great on a phone despite being hideous on a desktop and everything just seems to work a lot better than Apple. Apple haven't moved at all since Jobs died, apart from making the most hideously disgusting puke coloured OS for their phones.

Down side of windows phone is a weak app store, but I don't play games on my phone. It does have xbox games though. Just not so many apps games. You'll find many of the big apps missing. Tinder if you like that kind of thing, Grinder if you like that kind of thing, and many others are knock offs made by someone else ... BBC news being an example. In fact many are just people throwing iFrames up. That said, I've used all the latest phones and I still have a boner for the Windows phone. Its worth a look.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2014, 03:45:30 PM by Thork »

Offline Blanko

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2014, 04:21:40 PM »
I was going to ask recently about those THL's again. Good to hear they're still kicking. Definitely going to grab one of those as my next phone just because the price point is so fucking good.

I'd hold out on it. While my chinkphone has yet to fail me, I wish I'd done more research on the subject before jumping on pizaa's hype train. As it turns out, there are a lot of Chinese off-brands that use the same MediaTek chipsets with similar price points across the board. The only thing this THL phone in particular has going for it is the ridiculously overkill front-facing camera, which in terms of how useful it is ranges from completely useless to a fun little novelty that can be used as a mirror. The one huge tradeoff you get from Chinese phones is that they have very poor support in terms of firmware and OS upgrades, and THL certainly isn't the best of them (although upgrades to 4.4 are finally starting to roll in). If I got a Chinese phone today, I probably would have gone with an Oppo instead, although the OnePlus One might be coming Soon™ and that's pretty hype.

Also, a point of warning: because America is a special little snowflake and all, it uses different 3G frequency bands from pretty much the rest of the world, so getting a Chinese phone would be inadvisable if you're American.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2014, 04:27:30 PM by Blanko »

Ghost of V

Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2014, 04:43:27 PM »
Moto X, and I've had no problems. Best smartphone I've ever had, and it comes in multiple colors.

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Offline Lemon

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2014, 01:17:00 AM »
I'm sticking to my €15 phone that calls and texts. Get rekt. In other news, Pizaa's suggestion is fairly sound, from what I've read.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE. IGNORE RAMA SET.

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Offline xasop

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2014, 01:40:02 AM »
I have an HTC One M8. It's decent, except that I can't install a custom OS on it due to adb being broken on Linux. That's not really a fault with the phone, though.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2014, 02:40:21 AM »
The one huge tradeoff you get from Chinese phones is that they have very poor support in terms of firmware and OS upgrades, and THL certainly isn't the best of them (although upgrades to 4.4 are finally starting to roll in).
I suppose that could be an issue if you care about those things, but there are so many modded ROMs that fill that gap that you literally should never care.

Also, a point of warning: because America is a special little snowflake and all, it uses different 3G frequency bands from pretty much the rest of the world, so getting a Chinese phone would be inadvisable if you're American.
He's talking about unlocked phones, meaning he's on GSM, not CDMA. The special-snowflake companies won't even let you put a SIM card in1. He'll be fine.

1 - Except in case of 4G LTE, I guess, but the concept of an unlocked CDMA phone is still nonsensical.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2014, 02:46:04 AM by pizaaplanet »
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Offline Lord Wilmore

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #12 on: August 05, 2014, 05:01:34 PM »
I'd either get a Nexus 5, or wait until November for the inevitable Nexus 6. I think that they are the best compromise between value, build-quality, and support. I would be slow to suggest buying a Nexus 5 when it came out in November of last year, and even slower to recommend the Moto X, given that it came out in August. Both of these phones are due a refresh (pics of the new Moto X have already been leaked), so now would be a bad time to buy.


I have a Nexus 4, and I'll probably upgrade when the Nexus 6 comes out, assuming there's nothing dumb about it.
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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2014, 06:34:07 PM »
I have the HTC M7, and since the M8 is out, they're going for cheap right now. I think the only main differencea are that the M8 has a SD slot, and a slightly faster processor.
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Offline Blanko

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2014, 06:36:03 PM »
u wot M8

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #15 on: August 05, 2014, 08:45:50 PM »
u wot M8

I love the name so much. Any time I see anyone type it I mentally put a comma after "HTC" so it just seems like they're m8ing all over the place
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline Fortuna

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #16 on: August 06, 2014, 09:02:27 AM »
I went smartphone window shopping today and the Nexus 5 is my favorite so far. But I'm going to look into PP's suggestion more since it seems like a lot of bang for your buck.

Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #17 on: September 09, 2014, 09:19:41 AM »
Welp, my Galaxy S4 has finally broken so I'm looking for a replacement. At the moment I'm looking at the Oneplus One, it seems to offer very impressive specs for the price.

Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2014, 07:38:44 PM »
Yep, picked up a Oneplus One for $460 AUD. Tech specs better than most everything on the market while still maintaining comparable battery life to the S5, comes with CM11 and 64GB on board data. Hopefully it holds up better than my shitty S4 did.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2014, 07:53:17 PM by Vindictus »

Offline Blanko

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Re: Getting a new smartphone
« Reply #19 on: September 09, 2014, 08:07:25 PM »
You got an invite? How?