Smartphones have you owned and your opinions of them

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Smartphones have you owned and your opinions of them (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:05:33 PM EDT

What has been your favorite? Biggest POS? What will you buy in the future?

I left the world of flip phones in 2005.

2005-2007: Palm Treo 650. This phone was the shit, and built like a motherfucking tank. It was also large and heavy enough that it could be used as an improvised bludgeoning weapon and in the end it would probably work better than it did before the fight.
2007-2009: Palm Centro. Honestly not as great as the Treo, but it had 3G. This was also around the time when all of the cool people migrated to the iPhone - dumbasses. Palm fanboys were just bustas at this point.
2009-2010: Palm Pre. Surely this will be more awesome than the iPhone. But it wasn't. It was actually a decent OS, although app development was nonexistent. Hardware was garbage and build quality was poor. My last stand as a Palm fanboy.
2010-2012: HTC Evo 4G. Liked it a lot at first. Succumbed to the fact that micro USB is fucking garbage.
2012-2013: HTC Evo 3D. Kind of a piece of shit. Yep, micro USB is still a terrible fucking way to charge a phone. Note - Begrudgingly acquired iPad during this time and it grew on me...
2013-present: Apple iPhone 5S. The iPad made me un-hate apple but the iPhone made me see the light. It has exceeded my expectations and taken far more abuse than it should have.

I'll upgrade to the 6S sometime in the near future, but honestly my 5S has been so good to me that I haven't felt the burning desire to go out and upgrade just because something slightly newer is available.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:07:32 PM EDT

[#1]

iPhone 3S. Completely useless after OS4 update a few months after I got it.

Budget android phones, most were slow and badly built, didn't like (still better than iTrash).

Galaxy S4, love it.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:07:40 PM EDT

[#2]

LG G2.

worked well until it died. Top half of the screen lost all touch sensitivity at 10 months old.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:09:10 PM EDT

[#3]

Note 3 is the best phone I have ever had. It's two years old and still running strong. I'm a fan.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:11:26 PM EDT

[#4]

OG Moto Droid - Loved it. Loved the keyboard. Survived falling out of my pocket on a roller coaster. Built like a tank.

HTC Incredible 2 - Great phone. Very easy to mod. Worked great with all kinds of custom ROMs.

HTC One M7 - Good phone until I dropped it and smashed the screen. Nothing but trouble since.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:13:12 PM EDT

[#5]

S5 has been the perfect phone for me and the wife for almost two years now.

0 problems so far.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:15:18 PM EDT

[#6]

Biggest piece of shit I ever owned was the HTC Evo. Was so bad that I made the switch to iphone, and never looked back.

No problems through 3 different iphone generations.Very pleased with my iphone 6.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:16:13 PM EDT

[#7]

2009/10 - 2012 - Iphone 3g s and Iphone 4s - my first smart phones. Loved them. Liked them more after jailbreaking. Got tired of the tiny size so I switched to a Note 2

2012-2014 - Note 2 - loved it. Only thing I didn't like was all the bloatware. I started having problems with the charging port towards the end of the 2 years. It was really finicky and i couldn't really handle the phone with it plugged in or it would "disconnect".

2014 - Present - iPhone 6 + - I didn't like it initially after switching from android. It's tolerable with a jailbreak and my computers are Macs, which makes connecting everything easier. I was happier with the Note 2.

Eta - I liked the user replaceable battery and ability to add memory in the Note. I've heard that Samsung took both of those features away, so that's a strike against moving away from the iPhone.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:19:12 PM EDT

[#8]

Had a Panasonic bag phone in the late 90s. Stayed in the Jeep.

Awesome reception.

0.44 per minute

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:20:35 PM EDT

[#9]

Samsung Galaxy S4.

Only one I have owned, I like it OK. It's beginning to show its age.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:23:19 PM EDT

[#10]

The iPhone was great in handling abuse - my 3GS made it into the wash one day and survived a couple years afterwards. That's where the pros end, in my experience. With the 3 I had between 2009-15, performance became increasingly worse with each software update.

Switched to Android recently after my 4S took a dump following a software update. The signal would black out for a minute, then come back, and the cycle would continue. I will say that I'm not terribly tech savvy, so I'm not certain how much can be attributed to my lack of know-how.

I've had the Moto G for about a month now and no big complaints so far. Expandable storage is a big plus, as is not needing to charge it multiple times a day.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:25:30 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:
Note 3 is the best phone I have ever had. It's two years old and still running strong. I'm a fan.

View Quote

Same. Got mine a couple of weeks after it debuted, and no issues.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:30:16 PM EDT

[#12]

Droid X and now a Moto X. Both have been absolute workhorses. In fairness, I don't use mine for games, music, or Facebook

, but I use my phone constantly for work and both of them have been awesome. My complaints are trivial things.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:37:28 PM EDT

[#13]

None.
Expensive fragile piece of shit.

The last thing I want is ANOTHER expensive toy.

Who needs a data plan, I have internet and satellite TV.

I want to talk and text on my phone.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:43:33 PM EDT

[#14]

Personal: HTC EVO 4G from 1/11 until about a week ago. Great at first but just underpowered for today's tech/updates. Cleaned them up and now they are MP3 and games for the kids.

Just upgraded to LG G4. Wow. Pictures are great, shoots in RAW, still removable battery and can add memory. Feels good, looks good. But it's just seems huge compared to the EVO.

Work: Iphone 4, about 3.5yrs. Wouldn't take updates anymore. Company replaced with Iphone 6. Use Ipad/Ipad Air at work too.

Wouldn't own an Ioverrated unless it was the last phone on earth, and even then I'd have to debate it.

Posted: 1/9/2016 9:43:45 PM EDT

[#15]

I grab every new iphone. I went down the Android road once...never again.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:02:51 PM EDT

[#16]

Circa 2012 I had a Galaxy S3 but dumped it quickly because the ex's IPhone got better reception and because the battery life sucked. Replaced it with a Motorola Photon slide phone which I liked but it quickly started having issues. It might have been TX heat and leaving it in the car at work since I had no reception inside my building. Quite a few times I would go out to my car and the temperature warning was on.

Circa 2013 I got a Galaxy S4 and really liked it. And then I dropped it on concrete from waist height and it was in a bumper case but the screen shattered. Not just the glass on the outside the actual screen. That was completely unacceptable and since they wanted $250 to replace the screen (besides that it worked fine) I went with the metal bodied HTC One M8. I still have it and love the phone though something went wrong (early) with the speakerphone mic. It is so weird since I can dictate to it using voice to text fine but noone can hear me if I try to use the speakerphone feature.

Circa 2015 I got to try out (via work) both the Iphone 6 as well as the Note 3 and Note 4. I did not like the IPhone because it was too 'locked down' but in general it was a good and reliable phone. I loved the Notes; though large they seemed the perfect size.

I am riding with my current carrier Sprint until April when my current contract is up. I just moved across the country and once I buy a place I will evaluate Sprint's coverage where I am and either goto a different carrier or use my 'credit' to pick up whatever is the best phone on the market at that time (likely a Note). I really like the active versions of the Samsung phones AT&T have. A ruggedized, water proof phone without the need to add a case.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:16:21 PM EDT

[#17]

Had an HTC titan WindowsPhone for quite a while it was good. built like a tank, not many apps, ate battery pretty bad. 6/10

Nokia 1020 WindowsPhone FANTASTIC! great operating system, good battery life, 41 Megapixel Camera, intuative, actually "smart." lack of apps is the ONLY drawback 9/10

HTC one M9 Android Device, I literally feel like I have gone back in time. Looking for the crease to fold this POS in half like my old razor. Nothing against HTC, but the camera sux, has no app to make the joke of an operating system actually "smart" in anyway, un-intuitive, a hassle to do much of anything efficiently,no audio texting in the car via bluetooth, terrible battery life. it is a mess. but has apps...go figure. 3/10

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:20:53 PM EDT

[#18]

Lots of different blackberry devices for work

Original Iphone, and every iteration since. I liked them all.

I just bought a Samsung Note 5 and it's growing on me.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1825247_Iphone_users_contemplating_a_switch_to_Samsung_Galaxy_Phone.html

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:23:32 PM EDT

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:
Note 3 is the best phone I have ever had. It's two years old and still running strong. I'm a fan.

View Quote

Me too. Have no plan to upgrade. Wish the camera was better.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:27:16 PM EDT

[#20]

Only had 2; Iphone 4 lasted me from 2010 until late last year. Currently have the 6S. So far, not bad. Comes in really handy for entertainment when you have to just sit and wait.

ETA: Odd subject to post for #11111.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:28:01 PM EDT

[#21]

Smartphones:

Nexus - Loved it for the first 8 months or so, then the network adapter started to get a bit fritzy. Noticeable decrease in signal strength and intermittent issues changing towers

Nexus 5 - Same as above. Loved it for the first 65 to 8 months, then it started having some issues maintaining a signal with the network.

I'm done with Google phones. Samsung is next for me.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:30:05 PM EDT

[#22]

Random work Blackberries, did ok for their time.
Droid 2, sort of slow but good.
Droid 4, amazing, can't believe Motorola gave up on the QWERTY slider platform, SIM port died or I would still be using it
Galaxy S6, great phone, just sometimes wish I had a keyboard.

Kharn

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:30:17 PM EDT

[#23]

I'm only on #2.

First one was the HTC Thunderbolt. I liked it.

I've been using the Droid Max for 3 years now. I like it more. I will like it until it no longer works. At that point I will get another Droid Max that I will like more than the first one.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:33:11 PM EDT

[#24]

HTC something or other, good phone
Microsoft something or other, shit.
Current is Galaxy S6, it does everything but walk my dogs. Great phone.

Posted: 1/9/2016 10:34:49 PM EDT

[#25]

I have owned 3 HTC phones . They were great .
I am on my second Samsung S-5 . Number 1 was replaced under warranty for software problems . Dialing calls while on a call . Bricked when updated and on and on . I will never buy another Samsung phone. The software is user unfriendly. The reliability was great until they updated it away. .

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:26:20 PM EDT

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:

None.

Expensive fragile piece of shit.

View Quote

Maybe if you treat it like one. I've had quite a few smartphones and have still never had one break, not even a cracked screen.

Of course, I had a pristine flip phone for a few years that was flawless... I loaned it to a friend and it came back almost completely wrecked a few months later

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:32:08 PM EDT

[#27]

A couple different HTC android phones. Screen broke for no reason on the first one (Inspire?) and got another type then lost that one. Was not impressed with any early android stuff which was all buggy. Remember rebooting your phones everyday?

Then I bought a GS4 for last job, good phone. Still use it to sling box the news over wifi on my desk at work. Samsung kind of ticking me off since they abandon their phones for upgrades after 2 - 3 years. Lollipop has a bug in the screen brightness function and Samsung won't offer Marshmallow update for GS4. That is BS and I won't ever go Samsung again due to this. Unacceptable. The Otterbox commuter case for the GS4 is awesome.

New job requires company provided BlackBerry Z10. Good enough for work but battery life is awful. I really love BB10 OS, very fast and smooth OS. Of course native apps support is lacking.

For personal phone have been using a BlackBerry Q10 for almost 2 years with Otterbox commuter case which is awesome and was cheap on eBay. The Q10 is a beast for text & email work as the REAL keyboard is awesome. Never been a fan of the virtual keyboards as foe me I can belt out messages much faster and more accurately on a real keyboard. Not great for apps but I don't care as I use my pad for playing around. I love that I can just pop it in my left front pants pocket. I have another one that a friend gave me free when he upgraded to an iPhone so I have a backup just in case I drop it or lose it or whatever.

I like having my phones paid for and no contract.

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:37:23 PM EDT

[#28]

Original Blackberry. Hated that POS and never could figure it out.
Original IPhone. Love at first click!
IPhone 3gs
IPhone 4 until it went to the bottom of a lake while taking a piss off the side of my boat

Current IPhone 5
Eventually a 6s or 7
Old fart IPhone fanboy!!!!!

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:41:19 PM EDT

[#29]

Biggest POS was my HTC Windows mobile phone running 5.0. Huge pile of shit
POS but had moments of good was the Palm Treo line
Just POS was a Palm Pre
Not bad was a Samsum S3
Decent to good is my current work phone a HTC One M8

Best is/was were my iPhones. None of them have had any issues and worked well beyond my use of them.

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:42:23 PM EDT

[#30]

First and only smart phone so far is a budget Moto E. Love it. It makes phone calls and shit, I run Waze and have gmail and Outlook on it.

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:43:59 PM EDT

[#31]

Original Motorola Droid...great phone
Motorola Bionic...also great phone, bulletproof. Even better after rooting.

Tried a iphone 4s...despised it from day one. Got worse after first update a week after I got it. Gave it to my daughter and went to Samsung. It finally died after the last update and she wanted a 5s so that's what she got.

Samsung S3...good phone after root and bloat removal. Great battery life even while tethering.

Samsung S4...good phone with excellent battery life. No way to root yet to clean the bloat off.

Looking to swap to a Note 3 that's still on a rootable version...very impressed by the ones friends have.

Posted: 1/10/2016 12:30:16 AM EDT

[#32]

BlackBerry Z10, Q10, Z30, and currently Classic. I'm a huge fan of BlackBerry 10 and how stable and smooth it is. I have tried an iPhone 5s, Galaxy S5, a few Windows phones, and nothing comes close to how efficient BlackBerry's software is.

What's neat is the OS supports android apps, so I can run any android .apk file in a native 4.4 runtime.

And the keyboard rocks.

Posted: 1/10/2016 12:44:01 AM EDT

[#33]

Previous phone: Blackphone first gen: security focused, came with almost its value in SilentCircle and Oakblade subscriptions. Not a good general purpose phone. No google apps (for better and worse), PrivateOS means no Google software. It's secure and the GPS lies about your location which is nice. But it's slow, custom hardware didn't do them any favors, and even though software updates have fixed most of the really annoying problems it was showing its age.

Current phone: LG Nexus 5x running Cyanogenmod 13. Hardware is really nice, screen is big, fingerprint reader is handy, processor is fast, and the OS I installed is mostly working extremely well.

Posted: 1/10/2016 12:50:20 AM EDT

[#34]

Iphones are my favorite. I use to hate apple products because well, hipsters like apple, and anything that hipsters like I automatically dislike.

Now, that's all I own.

I must be a hipster.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:23:03 AM EDT

[#35]

Quote History

Quoted:
BlackBerry Z10, Q10, Z30, and currently Classic. I'm a huge fan of BlackBerry 10 and how stable and smooth it is. I have tried an iPhone 5s, Galaxy S5, a few Windows phones, and nothing comes close to how efficient BlackBerry's software is.

What's neat is the OS supports android apps, so I can run any android .apk file in a native 4.4 runtime.

And the keyboard rocks.

View Quote

One of the reasons I loved Palm back in the day was because of their real keyboards. I soon got over it.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:24:44 AM EDT

[#36]

Still rockin the Note 3. Don't want to give up battery or memory yet.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:28:58 AM EDT

[#37]

All the smartphones I've had were wonders of technology with OS that were annoying as fuck.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:30:19 AM EDT

[#38]

Quote History

Quoted:
All the smartphones I've had were wonders of technology with OS that were annoying as fuck.

View Quote

That's why I like CM.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:31:43 AM EDT

[#39]

Droid X - Worked alright at first. I think the hardware couldn't keep up with the OS.

I've used nothing but iPhones ever since. Other than iTunes being garbage, I really like them.

Posted: 1/10/2016 1:39:26 AM EDT

[#40]

0 I can't afford one, but, I think all the Android software names are fucking stupid.

Posted: 1/11/2016 1:06:11 PM EDT

[#41]

Favorite: Motorola Droid Pro (most underrated IMO)
Least Favorite: IPhone 5
Current: Galaxy 6S its mediocre, several charging port issue.

Posted: 1/11/2016 1:37:26 PM EDT

[#42]

Treo 90

Treo 600

Treo 700

Droid 1

iPhone 3GS

Blackberry Storm

Droid 2

Droid Bionic

Galaxy S5

I'm not sure the timeline is correct, and there were a few that I only had for weeks before losing, breaking or being returned because I hated them, that aren't in the list. Still liking the GS5, it's one amazingly durable smartphone, but I also use a case and a tempered glass screen protector. In the almost two years I've had it I've broken 3 of the screen protectors from drops but the screen itself is still fine. I've also gotten it seriously wet twice, and totally submerged it once. I can't even begin to count the number of times it's been dropped.

Posted: 1/11/2016 1:56:14 PM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:

I'll upgrade to the 6S sometime in the near future, but honestly my 5S has been so good to me that I haven't felt the burning desire to go out and upgrade just because something slightly newer is available.

View Quote

The slightly larger size is totally worth it for web browsing, videos, et al.

I went even farther and got the 6+, but they're admittedly not for everyone.

Posted: 1/11/2016 2:10:45 PM EDT

[#44]

Quote History

Quoted:

The slightly larger size is totally worth it for web browsing, videos, et al.

I went even farther and got the 6+, but they're admittedly not for everyone.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

I'll upgrade to the 6S sometime in the near future, but honestly my 5S has been so good to me that I haven't felt the burning desire to go out and upgrade just because something slightly newer is available.

The slightly larger size is totally worth it for web browsing, videos, et al.

I went even farther and got the 6+, but they're admittedly not for everyone.

My son has a 6s+, and it's a very nice phone. I didn't think I would want a BIG phone, but last week I switched from an old Iphone 5 to a Samsung Note 5, and wow. It really makes a huge difference, and the phone doesn't really feel that much bigger. With the smaller phones, I'd use the web browsing only if I absolutely had to, it was such a pain in the ass. Not so with the larger screen. It makes the device much more usable.

Posted: 1/11/2016 2:50:21 PM EDT

[#45]

Nextel PTT thing. Neat, I have a cell phone.
Blackberry Curve. Neat, I have a cell phone and internet access on it.
Samsung Galaxy. Neat, I have a cell phone, internet access on it, apps, and a touch screen.
Samsung Galaxy S3. Neat, I have a cell phone, internet access on it, apps, and a touch screen, but I have to pull the battery out once a week to reboot it when it freezes up.
iPhone 5S. Neat, I have a cell phone, internet access on it, apps, and a touch screen, but I had to download Swype.

Posted: 1/11/2016 2:55:06 PM EDT

[#46]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/resources/artefacts/mobile_phones/ETACS/Panasonic_EBJ-1114.JPG

Had a Panasonic bag phone in the late 90s. Stayed in the Jeep.
Awesome reception.
0.44 per minute

View Quote

Had a Motorola bag phone. They had increased output over a flip phone. Too much to be put up by your brain. So they put the antenna down by your balls.

Posted: 1/11/2016 2:58:23 PM EDT

[#47]

Samsung Winmo phone. What a God awful POS that was.
Samsung android something or other. POS until rooted/debloated. Awesome after. Killed it by breaking the camera and welding too close to it (touchscreens and welding slag don't get along too well).
Iphone 4s. Great, used it up until last year. Passed on updates that I knew would slow it down, still in service as an Ipod/streaming thingy in my bathroom.
Iphone 6. Awesome. A bit too big though. Can't imagine lugging around a 6+

Posted: 1/11/2016 3:14:50 PM EDT

[#48]

iPhone 3GS. Liked it. No problems at all, kids currently use them as iPods.
iPhone 4S. Liked it. Wife's battery required replacement before 2 years. Did it myself.
iPhone 5. Liked it overall. iOS 7-8 was somewhat quirky, so decided to try Android.
Motorola Droid Turbo. Like it so far. Converting everything over to Google (contacts, calendar) was a pain in the ass, but once working it's fine. Syncing with a Mac is still a pain in the ass.

Not sure what I'll get next when the time comes. Rumor that Apple will eliminate the headphone jack, if true, will keep me on Android of some sort.

Posted: 1/11/2016 3:25:16 PM EDT

[#49]

iPhone 3s
Galaxy S3
Galaxy S5
Wife unit has a Galaxy Note 4

I've used my nephew's iPhone 6

I'm staying with Android. I'll buy another brand if it's cheaper next time, but the OS is much easier to use than Apple.

Posted: 1/11/2016 3:25:49 PM EDT

[#50]

I've been a Motorola fan, Droid 2, 3, 4 and now Turbo
The Turbo is my first without a physical slide-out keyboard, I was holding out for the Droid 5 but it's still not materialized.
It's less of an issue now that I have home internet and I'll be ditching my unlimited soon because I won't be tethering except on road trips.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Smartphones have you owned and your opinions of them (Page 1 of 2)

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