Help me select a telephone, NICO Club.

[Jesda]

First, I will open with a "letter to mother":

Dear mom,

First and foremost, you are a b****. This letter isn't just about the smartphone that you won't buy me. It's about you being a TOTAL b**** whenever you get the opportunity. I'm not bitter, I'm honestly just sayin'. I sometimes curse your name and wish for your death because of the CRAPPY FOOD that you cook and the way you treat me like that time you wouldn't let me go to the movie's for Sarah's birthday and EVERYONE was there and I felt like such a loser the next Monday at school when every one had inside jokes and I was just this loser who had to go to the viewing of your dead brother.Why the f*** did we just get iPhone 4S's LITERALLY just 5 days ago? REally mom? You don't read tech blogs? U didn't see this coming?I get it mom. You pay for the cell phone bill. Unlimited data. Unlimited texts. I use the majority of the daytime minutes on our Family Plan. You think this doesn't matter, but it DOES. iPhone 5 kicks so much a** and I'm gonna look like such a loser laggard with my iPhone 4s. Kids at school will LAUGH at me and my dumb phone. They will bully me. I know you will tell me that I shouldn't care what they think, and that they are not my true friends. You are right, they USED to be my true friends before this new phone came out and ruined my goddamn life.

You are TEARING THIS FAMILY APART.

I get it. You just got me the iPhone 4s because our contract just expired and before that you had me on this PIECE OF s*** Blackberry. Even though that's what I wanted a few years ago because my friends were all on Blackberry Messenger and I didn't want to be one of those poor people on 'smartphones' who use Android and try to claim it is all better.I'm so f*** lucky you won an iPad in your company raffle and I got to become commonlaw owner of it so that I could maintain an instagram account. Thank f*** god.

Now this guy who replaces Steve Jobs tells me that there's a f*** iPhone 5??? I just bought (my mom just bought) a f*** iPhone 4S! WTF. My mom shoulda known better. Doesn't she read tech blogs at her f*** job? I have no idea what you do, honestly, mom. But seriously, stop making me feel guilty every time you buy me a $400-$600 device. It's just part of staying with the times, like food, water, and shelter. We gotta stay connected. I hate my s*** iPhone 4. I want to kill that Siri b****. I'll bet she's way smarter on iPhone 5.

I had the WORST feeling that the girl at the Sprint Store had no f*** clue what she was talking about. She kept trying to get us to by Samsung Galaxy S III's. I wouldn't wipe my a** with that piece of s***. I need a f*** phone that plays MP3s. I need a phone that looks cool and syncs up with my MacBook Pro.

I NEED that 4 inch screen. My screen totally f*** sucks. It is so small. My phone is so bulky. It can barely fit in my pocket. It is such a dinosaur. I feel like I am carrying around a 50 pound weight just for people to make fun of me. It is LITERALLY like a scarlet letter, and I am walking around feeling #shamed.


In closing, THANKS A LOT mom for f*** EVERYTHING up once again. You always want me to go to therapy, but I think YOU are the only loony person who belongs in therapy for thinking that you can get away with 'providing for your son' on the cheap. It's one thing after another. When are you going to pull it together? I'm 29 years old and still waiting for you to finally love and support me. Like, not just financially (has been rough to find a career after my 7 years at college) but I just wanna feel like you 'get' me and my needs as a technological consumer. Why can't you just keep up?

Can you just get me an iPhone 5 and I'll sell the old one on Craigslist and I'll give you some of the money or take you to Outback Steak House or something. But seriously mom, you are a b****.

DOESN'T LOVE YOU,
your son

Second, I switched from Sprint to Virgin Mobile (a Sprint MVNO) a year and a half ago to reduce my bill. Since then I've saved about $650 and currently pay $45/mo. The problem is, you can't bring any phone to the network so my choices are limited to these:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/cell-phones/

The iPhone is quite overpriced and I'm not sure I trust HTC on quality. My brother's Sprint Evo has been in for repair/replacement several times.


What looks like a decent option?
Or, what carriers are similarly priced that are also liberal on tethering?

Maybe I should get a landline and an answering machine.

[Kompresshun]

I would go for the Samsung Galaxy Reverb, out of what's available. The HTC EVO V has Android 4.0 as well, so it may not be a terrible phone, but i've found that Samsung build quality is better than HTC. I've had 3 HTC phones and all of them didn't hold up very well over time, plus HTC are VERY slow on their system updates, where Samsung are usually pretty quick.

I have the Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Sprint and personally, it's been one of the best Android devices i've owned so far. It's rock solid and has never given me a single problem, even with it being rooted and running an experimental OS.

I can say that I WOULD NOT blow $549-649 on a damn iPhone, even if it does have no contract. Nothing about last years iPhone is good enough to get it over one of the Android phones. Android 4.0 and above has made Android smartphones so much better to use over previous versions.

Looking at their plans and phone pricing, I honestly wouldn't recommend changing to another carrier. The only ones that will comes anywhere close are Sprint and T-Mobile, but they're still going to cost you a lot more than what you're paying and I doubt you'll get much better service in most cases. After seeing their pricing, I almost wish I would've looked into them before I renewed my contract last time - they have some awesome deals on their plans.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Jesda, my last 3 phones have been HTC and they have served me wonderfully without a single issue, and I am NOT gentle with phones. One of them even partly survived a trip through a clothes washer (it works fine, but has no backlight, rendering it useless).

None of the Android phones available through Virgin are very noteworthy. There are 2 or three that are decent, but none I'd actually spend money on. The Galaxy Reverb is definitely the best as far as internal-hardware goes. But the Motorola Triumph probably has the best build-quality physically. I've found that Samsung's non-flagship offerings generally have VERY cheap-feeling plasticky housings that lack the solid heft I prefer in a phone. Moto's offerings are generally tightly-built and feel classier outside.

The 3 I'd consider are the Galaxy Reverb, the HTC One V, and the Motorola Triumph--in that order. They're all single-core phones with not a lot of RAM, but at least the first two offer Android 4.0. I've read your remarks on early Android, and I can tell you that you will definitely appreciate what 4.0 did to improve things (you'd appreciate 4.1 even more, which is yet more reason to root, but that's another discussion). The Triumph has Android 2.2, which is WAY outdated, and should thus be avoided unless you intend to get hacky.

Regardless of which way you go, I STRONGLY recommend that you root/hack the phone and run a non-stock ROM. I'm not talking about anything ultra-nerdy. But despite Google's best efforts, every manufacturer out there feels the need to add tacky "skins" on top of the otherwise perfectly-functional Android interface.
Samsung's Touchwiz is probably the best put-together but, sadly, it spends all its effort trying to be an iPhone rather than doing anything useful. Seems a bit silly to me: people who care if their phone looks like an iPhone will just buy an iPhone.
HTC's tries so hard to be shiny that it looks tacky. In the early, grey days of Android, HTC's Sense added some nice enhancements to the stock interface. These days, it's just gaudy shiny for the sake of shiny. Android itself has pursued a clean, 2-D, high-contrast look that doesn't fit with Sense's curvy-shiny feel. I DESPISE Sense's lockscreen--especially when the stock Android lockscreen has become quite excellent from 2.3 on.
And Motorola's Blur is just a joke. No one has ever liked it, and its biggest bragging point has been that you can get access to all your social networking in one place: a purpose that any of fifty bajillion free apps will fulfill better.
Simple apps like Nova Launcher will do away with some of the two-facedness created by the manufacturer skins, but your best bet is to install a ROM like AOKP or Cyanogenmod and call it a day. IT IS NOT HARD, so don't steer clear of a good phone because of a bad interface. There are step-by-step directions all over the net to help you make your phone what it should have been out-of-the-box.

I really wish Google would expressly forbid skinning Android. I think it would improve the overall image of the OS for consumers, and it would certainly make things more consistent. Imagine if Dell and HP and Gateway all decided they should make their own version of Windows' desktop.

[BusyBadger]

I have the Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Sprint and personally, it's been one of the best Android devices i've owned so far. It's rock solid and has never given me a single problem, even with it being rooted and running an experimental OS.

^This...'cept I'm not rooted and I'm not on Sprint, I'm with Big Red. You'll have the newest Android OS and Google Maps with TbT and you won't have to spend a lot to get it. If you want the latest and greatest and don't care about the cost I'd suggest the Galaxy S3.

[Kompresshun]

Ditto on running the non-stock ROM. I run Cyanogenmod personally and even though i've tried a few others, i've always come back to Cyanogenmod for stability and reliability.

I personally wouldn't touch the Motorola offered, simply because it has Android 2.3 on it. There's nothing wrong with 2.3, but even if it's possible to put 4.0+ on it, it will likely be lacking robustness for the long run. Other than that, it's a good phone though and I agree with the above.

I personally don't prefer HTC's, but that's just due to poor personal experience with their products. They have great customer service, but every phone and tablet i've had by them has had some sort of issue. My EVO cracked all over the casing, even though it stayed in an Otterbox the entire time I owned it. My HTC EVO tablet had to have the motherboard replaced twice in less than a year, due to a poor charging port design. The connector would get damaged and was unable to be repaired both times. Fully covered and fast turnaround, but it still happened more than once in a year. My Windows powered HTC 8525 was a horrible phone all around - HORRIBLE. My wifes HTC Arrive has been very unreliable and she wanted a new phone 3 months after we got it. Again this is personal experience, but i've known far more people that have had bad luck with HTC products than good. They have decent build quality and there are certainly worse phones on the market, but for the money you have to spend on their products, i'd rather buy something else.

[Jesda]

I really wish Google would expressly forbid skinning Android. I think it would improve the overall image of the OS for consumers, and it would certainly make things more consistent. Imagine if Dell and HP and Gateway all decided they should make their own version of Windows' desktop.

Thanks for the tips!



You guys remember when manufacturers installed custom UIs on top of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95?



Cute but atrocious.

[Kompresshun]

DUDE. YOU HAVE PRODIGY. YOU MUST BE FILTHY RICH.

I had a Packard Bell with a very similar interface to that. I remember those times very well for sure.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

I've wanted to root my Bionic for a while now...but have absolutely no idea where to start. What will I gain by doing so? What could I lose? (other than the warranty)

[Jesda]

The near-vanilla Android 2.2.1 on my LG Optimus combined with 'no-hacks-required' wifi tethering have made it an outstanding value. It's been across the globe and has been superbly dependable. The battery life is pretty damn good too.
The only annoyances are moments when Google Nav or tethering cause the CPU or battery to get too hot and it reboots. Also, the lack of a camera flash and insufficient storage for apps and text messages.

I did some additional Googling and it looks like any current VM phone will require rooting and maybe a custom rom to enable tethering. Virgin Mobile doesn't care how you use your data but they throttle your speed after 2GB. I doubt I've ever used more than 500MB.

I hate hacking and futzing with devices to make them do what I want them to do. It's fun at first when you're first learning how to do it but then it becomes an annoyance and a chore. But for the monthly savings, I'll tolerate it. AT&T wants an absurd $90/mo plus tax for the same level of service I currently enjoy with VM at half the cost.

[IanS]

7 replies and nobody has gone there? Really.

What happened to you Nico, you used to be cool?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5C6X9vOEkU[/youtube]

Will go perfectly with your bacon wallet.







Seriously though, I want Android 4.0 so bad, but my contract isn't up till January, so I with live with my rooted Droid 2 until then.

I agree with MOD about the stupid skins all the makers are putting on top of the OS. Its just dumb.

[Razi]

I rooted my phone (Samsung Fascinate) in the beginning just so I could get tethering working.
Then I got curious and installed some ROMs because the stock ROM was Gingerbread with Touchwiz and a crap load of bloatware.
Now I'm running Cyanogenmod 10 (4.1 Jellybean) and I'm really pleased with it. It has a lot of neat features and the phone runs nicer. Super awesome!

[orangeNblue]

I'm getting the iphone 5.....

[Razi]

LoLz

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7huae767Rxg[/youtube]

[BusyBadger]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFhjDX-DUew&showinfo=0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTTSsB92L_s&showinfo=0[/youtube]

[Rex]

7 replies and nobody has gone there? Really.

What happened to you Nico, you used to be cool?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5C6X9vOEkU

Will go perfectly with your bacon wallet.

This was my first thought
BANANA Phone

[AZhitman]

<-- Hates the iPhone, has a RAZR Max or whatever-the-hell-it's called.

[alms24sebring]

nsfw lang

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/285768/

I avoided the iphone as well. Galaxy S3 for me and its great.