Getting a new phone soon

[PK17]

I am torn between a few options, I am looking into getting a new phone (through verizon). I really want to wait and see what the Droid 5 will be like, I LOVE my physical keyboards, and have never owned a phone without one. I hated the on-screen touch keyboard on my old ipod touch. I figure the best way to to counteract the physical keyboard would be to get a phablet (phone/tablet). So at the moment I am considering a Galaxy Note3, LG G2, Moto X, and waiting for the droid 5. From what I have read the Droid 5 isn't going to be much of an upgrade over the Droid 4 (what I have now), maybe a better camera, but I heard that it will be the same internal spec, which is quite disapointing. It seems that companies don't want to put work into physical keyboards anymore, I don't get that, I can sit here and type this without ever having to look where my fingers are moving, I'm guessing noone with a touch can do that, and if you can you must be some crazy robot. I like the ease of the full keyboard, especially since it doesn't cover half of the screen. And people argue that it makes their phone too thick or hefty, yeah my phone weighs a bit more than others, but it is still just as thin as the competitors. It actually weighs more than the Note3 by around 33%, but the weight doesn't bother me, only others when it pulls my shorts down .

Anyway, does anyone have anything to share (recommendations / horror stories) about a Note3, G2, or Moto X they could share.

Oh, and I was also considering a Note2, but apparently it is nfs anymore.

[cccd3cpt]

Note 2 is too big lol. I like the Nexus 5. A friend got it and he's practically in love. Hearing lots of good things about Moto X from friends as well.

Having lots of brand loyalty, might I add the Q10 (cuz of the keyboard of course ... and BlackBerry 10)

[nyktos]

i'm a huge samsung fan - so i would say the note...
but i also favor new devices that have a decent root community / support.

currently running a custom Rom offering Android Kitkat 4.4.2 on a two year old device (a samsung GS3)
i'm sure the note will have just as many options available & if not now... then soon!

aside from that - using swipe is the key!
as opposed to an actual keyboard - which i swore by before it took "the dive"



i didn't like the idea when it came out...
but with an app like swiftkey & just giving it a shot - works wonders.

it's much faster than a physical keyboard when you grow accustomed to it.
just try it for the simple, short words at first... [the, we, hey, why, etc.]
in time - even complex words are swiped in just moments.

especially with a rooted samsung - it's sexy / trust me & give it a shot!

even the google keyboard has swipe now...
turn it on! and just ignore that it's there until you want to experiment a little (mid text)

[Covenant]

Have a Z10 myself and am constantly making typos. Am thinking of having a go at the Q10 too. Love physical keypads. New Nexus looks fantastic. Higher pixel density screen than current iPad retina. But with the Nexus, very thing is bout Google and all their built-in apps are designed for Google accounts.

[fiernaq]

I'm currently on the Samsung Galaxy Saga II (Epic 4G Touch - Sprint variant). I too was a big physical keyboard person for the longest time but like Nyktos said, the swipe feature on most modern soft-keyboards is extremely handy and makes things a lot easier. I plan to drop Sprint when my contract runs out so that I can switch to Ting and when I do that I'll probably buy a new Galaxy Nexus 5. I'm a bit annoyed by the bloatware that comes with a lot of phones and more specifically, the inability to get rid of said bloatware so a clean Google UI will be nice. I used to root and ROM my phone all the time; probably been through 50 different ROMs on my GSII. I'll definitely be rooting my new phone but I'm not sure yet if there will even be a need to ROM it. If there is, that's what the xda-developers forum is for.

[cccd3cpt]

Have a Z10 myself and am constantly making typos. Am thinking of having a go at the Q10 too. Love physical keypads. New Nexus looks fantastic. Higher pixel density screen than current iPad retina. But with the Nexus, very thing is bout Google and all their built-in apps are designed for Google accounts.

Really Cov? My Z10 keyboard picked up my style of typing pretty quick. It practically knows what I want to say next (profanity and slang included lol). And the awesome swipe options on the Z10 are better than those on the Q10 physical.
The only downside of it compared to my Q10 board is I can't type without looking down

[rijackson741]

I just got a Nexus 5 (a Christmas present to myself ). The display is amazing. It's so high resolution I can't see the finest details in a photo without a magnifying glass. That true even when I take my contact lenses out and shove the phone as close to my face as possible . I also like the fact that it's free of bloatware, and that it's completely unlocked. Actually, the latter is the primary reason I bought it, because I need a completely unlocked phone for international travel. It's a little bigger that I would like, making it slightly uncomfortable in my front pocket. Overall though, I'm happy.

I have a friend that has a Galaxy note, and she likes it a lot. My wife is thinking of getting one too (she has a Galaxy S3 at the moment, which is also a very nice phone). They both have handbags though, so a really big phone is no problem. I would not get one because there's no way it would fit in my pocket. I do have a Galaxy note 8.0 tablet that I use (surprise!) for taking notes. OK, and playing AT. Playing AT on a tablet is great, especially if it's really boring meeting . An advantage of the note (including the phone) is that it has a pen with it that's very accurate, and handwriting recognition software. The handwriting recognition is so-so, which means you can't just scribble on the screen and expect it to figure it out, but I can certainly enter information much faster than I can on a phone keyboard (whether physical, or by swiping). I can maybe enter information even faster than I can on a computer keyboard. I expect this to improve with practice too, because the very smooth screen is kind of different to writing on paper, and requires some practice. You should be aware that the note is not really compatible with Swiftkey though (which I use on my phone), because if you use Swiftkey you lose the handwriting recognition because it's part of the Samsung keyboard. I guess you could switch back and forth, but that would be a pain.

And... Happy Christmas everyone

[fiernaq]

Let me know how that Nexus 5 works for you. Especially interested in battery life and reception (both cellular and wifi). I've got a few months left on my contract which should give you plenty of time to mess around with it and write a 2 line review for me

[Pyrizzle]

I'm still rocking my Galaxy Note II, I have nothing but good reviews for this phone. =)

The size is a little big, but it's seriously nice when watching Netflix on the bus to drown out the local crazies.... well the ones that are not me.

[rijackson741]

Let me know how that Nexus 5 works for you. Especially interested in battery life and reception (both cellular and wifi).

OK, I've had it for long enough to give an opinion. I like the phone a lot, and still only have one complaint: it's a little larger than I would like. The larger size does make for an outstanding screen though, and allows for bigger antennas, which certainly seem to help with reception. My house is actually in a mini dead zone, with very poor reception for my carrier, so it's a good test bed for reception. My previous phone (a Nexus 1) was all but unusable unless I stood against a window. My wife's Samsung is OK most places in the house, unless you are at the center. In fact, no other phone we have had, until now, was better than the Samsung. The Nexus 5 has great reception most places, and it's usable everywhere . That's also true at work, where some other people have problems but the nexus 5 seems to have useable reception all the time. The WiFi reception is equally good. Almost as good as my notebook in fact, and noticeably better than my tablet.

The battery life is so-so. It's OK, but nothing to get excited about. I guess that's the price of a large high resolution screen, fast processor, etc. This is of no real consequence to me because I have a charger at home, a charger in the car, a charger at work, and I carry one of these with me in my computer bag: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089DZNS4/ref ... 1_ST1_dp_1.

Hope that helps.