Android Phone Recommendation?

[Faterson]

Hello all, I've been considering a switch away from iPhone to an Android phone. My current iPhone 4 is 3.5 years old -- a pretty fine device, but increasingly behind the times. I find iOS 7 revolting, whereas I'm pleased by Android 4.4 KitKat on my Nexus 7.

Below are the phones I'm considering for purchase... If I abondon iPhone, I'll be acutely missing 3rd-party apps like Marvin and Mailbox. For Marvin, perhaps Moon+ Reader Pro might jump in, until Marvin arrives on Android. For Mailbox, there is no feature-equivalent alternative right now, but I could continue managing my e-mail primarily on my iPad.

My candidates:

• Motorola Moto G (€169 here)
• Nexus 5 (€419 here; will get down to €349 soon, I hope)
• LG G2 (€425 here)
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (€519 here)
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra (€480 here)
• iPhone 5S (€640 here)

My primary use would be -- you guessed it -- e-books. Which is why I'm considering phablets like the Note 3 or Xperia Z Ultra. The phone function is secondary for me. I prefer a pure Android experience, which is why I'm ruling out Samsung Galaxy S4 (would rather get Nexus 5 among 5-inch devices). Motorola Moto G has a smaller screen, but the price is unbeatable. iPhone 5S has the apps, but a small screen and is (as usual for Apple) insanely overpriced.

Any comments or specific recommendations will be appreciated.

[walan]

Why not considering the Yota Phone with eInk display? http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/...-35560814.html

[Faterson]

Россия... Yes, I heard about it, but would be skeptical at this point. The review you linked says so in its conclusion:

Having an e-ink display on the back of the phone so you can comfortably read books or long articles without quickly draining the battery with a bright LCD display is a great idea in theory. I'm sold on the concept, but I don't think the YotaPhone is quite there yet.

Its e-ink screen is very low-quality, which makes doing even basic tasks with it unpleasant, and there's a definite lack of support for the display from third-party developers, meaning there's not much you can do with it just yet. If YotaPhone can use a better-quality display and work more closely with developers, its next-generation device might be worth checking out.

I'd like to know if Moon+ Pro Reader would work on that e-ink screen, for example. Likely not, because it's a third-party app?

As to battery life, I saw this interesting thing for the Sony Xperia Z Ultra:

http://www.mobilefun.com/41525-power...ra---black.htm

That should, at least in theory, give you more than twice the device's battery life on any given day. Not quite as comforting as an e-ink screen, but at least providing the full-fledged experience.

[afv011]

Given that you want a mostly Nexus experience, I would choose one of these:

For top end: Nexus 5 or Moto X
For mid/low range: Moto G

Now that Moto are Google owned, they've dropped their skin and offer a pure Android experience, with a couple of useful apps on top. They're also rolling out updates quickly, helped by the fact that they don't have to merge their ugly skin on top of Google's code, so they're worth considering. That said, I'd still go with the N5 for a top of the line phone.

I would stay clear of the skinned versions (Samsung, LG, Sony, ...) unless you would consider a play edition (which I believe are not sold outside the US).

[Faterson]

Thank you, afv011. Yes, if the LG G2 were available in a Google Play edition here in the EU, it would be a no-brainer, especially because right now, the Nexus 5 is (absurdly) priced equally as the LG G2 here. Only a few European countries like Germany currently offer Nexus 5 straight from the Google Play store at €349, which is still way more than the $349 it costs in the US. Sadly, the Nexus 5 just isn't such a great deal here in Europe currently, compared to overseas.

[Namekuseijin]

I was in want for the Moto G. Big hit here in Brazil, outsold and I can find it nowhere after the initial launch.

we had a black friday event here and I got an Xperia Zq (ZL) for a very reasonable price. pretty solid phone, specially the 1080p 5" screen

[Faterson]

Right. It's been recommended to me by others as well. It's just that among 5-inch devices, I'd opt for Nexus 5 because of "pure Android". I might put up with the Sony skin on the Ultra, considering the bonus of the huge 6.4-inch screen. (Well, it's a bonus in one way, but makes the device rather unwieldy to handle; and I hear the camera on the Ultra is horrible - - no flashlight, etc.)

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Right. It's been recommended to me by others as well. It's just that among 5-inch devices, I'd opt for Nexus 5 because of "pure Android". I might put up with the Sony skin on the Ultra, considering the bonus of the huge 6.4-inch screen. (Well, it's a bonus in one way, but makes the device rather unwieldy to handle; and I hear the camera on the Ultra is horrible - - no flashlight, etc.)

It you get the Ultra, you should be able to flash the Play edition ROM on top - but that'll void your warranty.

[Faterson]

Yes... I'd rather not mess with flashing ROMs... got tired of that in the Windows Mobile era.

[Jcas]

I have the Note 2 and it is fantastic to read on.

[Ranny]

Is the HTC max available where you are?

I have an LG optimus G pro and find the lg overlay far less intrusive than say Samsung's touch wiz. Also you can use an alternative launcher and customise it exactly how you like.

[booklover6]

Does anyone here own the Moto G? I'd like to know if the usable screen is 4.5, as stated in specs, or actually 4" as I read in one review.

Either way it'll be bigger than the 3" screen of my Pantech Crossover.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Does anyone here own the Moto G? I'd like to know if the usable screen is 4.5, as stated in specs, or actually 4" as I read in one review.

Either way it'll be bigger than the 3" screen of my Pantech Crossover.

I don't own one, but the screen is definitively 4.5".

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Jcas

I have the Note 2 and it is fantastic to read on.

I have considered Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (available here for €515, which is a pretty OK price), but I eventually rejected it because I just don't wish to mess around with TouchWiz.

Originally Posted by Ranny

Is the HTC max available where you are?

Yes, it is, but I'm not considering it. It seems to me that its price is disproportionately high compared to its hardware. It costs €590 here, yet it only features a Snapdragon 600 processor (instead of Snapdragon 800), 1.7 GHz instead of 2.2 or 2.3 GHz like the current flagships, the camera is only 4 (!) megapixels, etc. The hardware almost appears "last (or next-to-last) year's", and if the price were, say, €400, that would be OK... But for almost €600? No way. If you see those hardware features, it makes you wonder what else might not be quite up-to-date inside the phone. The best thing about the original HTC One, I thought, were the superb stereo speakers, so if HTC One Max features them as well, that would be a point in its favor... but, again, not enough to sway me, considering the €590 price tag.

Originally Posted by Ranny

I have an LG optimus G pro and find the lg overlay far less intrusive than say Samsung's touch wiz.

That's what I thought, too, and for a long time, I was leaning towards purchasing the LG G2 -- especially because its price is exactly equal here to the Nexus 5 price! They both cost around €399 here (which is around $550). For Nexus 5, that's an outrageous price, but for LG G2, it's very tempting, because in terms of hardware, it's undeniably superior to Nexus 5.

However, the LG overlay of Android really makes it impossible for me to get the LG G2. The last straw was when I found this in the LG G2 review at Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...s-of-giants/2/

I mean, it's enough trouble to struggle with Android bugs... but for an overlay to be adding its own bugs...? Canceling italics throughout Android, shortening app names in the Play Store, etc.? That's just too much to ask from me to accept -- I'll never go there. Also, the Android 4.4 KitKat update on LG's part seems to be very slow to arrive -- allegedly, distributed to around 5% of LG G2 owners in Korea over Christmas, with a fresh crop of newly introduced bugs. And I do consider KitKat essential (see below). Finally, I strongly dislike LG G2's removal of the standard Android 4-style multitasking button from the navigation bar, replacing it with an Android 2-like menu button, imitating Samsung in that in order to multitask on LG G2, you need to hold on to the Home button for a second before the apps menu appears -- to me, that would introduce unacceptable time delays in my work-flow, because I multitask frequently.

Originally Posted by booklover6

Does anyone here own the Moto G? I'd like to know if the usable screen is 4.5, as stated in specs, or actually 4" as I read in one review.

Once Android 4.4 KitKat arrives on Moto G (and that should happen relatively quickly, Moto G being a Google device), the usable screen will definitely be 4.5 inches. KitKat introduces "immersive mode" -- very nice and effective when reading books in Moon+ Reader Pro, for example -- that automatically hides the 3 Android software buttons in apps where you do not necessarily need to have them displayed all the time. Prior to KitKat, this was only possible to achieve by rooting your device (which, as mentioned, I'm not willing to do).

That's the only sense in which Moto G's screen might not be considered 4.5 inches -- because physically, that is definitely the screen's dimension. It's just that, if the 3 Android buttons are displayed the whole time, your effective screen use is decreased by the space occupied by the 3 Android buttons. Which is, exactly, why KitKat's "immersive mode" is such a big improvement -- it allows you to make use of the entire screen.

Now, my conclusion from exploring this topic in recent weeks is that, as of right now, the best buy of an Android phone for me would be, after all, Nexus 5.

However: the first thing that all American reviewers rave about when it comes to Nexus 5 -- its supposedly low price -- just doesn't apply to Europe. Over here, the Nexus 5 price is similarly high to the other high-end smartphones -- you get no price advantage; only the decent hardware coupled with pure Android, and that's it. It's really outrageous, if you ask me. Nexus 5 and LG G2 are priced equally here, at around €399 (or $550); however, those are the lowest offers, while the regular Nexus 5 price in these parts of Europe tends to be between €420 and €449 (which is $576 to $616). There is no justification for this, no excuse. It's pure greed. If Apple gets accused of overpricing their products, Google really takes the crown here. What Google did, is it selected a handful of wealthiest European countries such as Germany, and Google sells Nexus 5 there from their PlayStore at €349 -- which is also overpriced (corresponding to $478), but not as outrageously overpriced as elsewhere in Europe. No 20% of European VAT tax, or 2 years of warranty instead of just 1 year, can justify this enormous price hike. It really is perverse that Google apparently expects people from low-income European countries to pay even more for Nexus 5 than folks from wealthy countries like Germany.

For such conduct of business, Google deserve to fail with Nexus 5 in Europe. For me, the European Play Store price tag of €349 might just barely be tolerable. Certainly not the monstrous €399, €420 or €449 I see everywhere around me. Wake up, Google -- a dollar is not worth the same as the euro, so you can't pretend that $349 in the US translates to €349 (or even €399, €449!) in Europe. For example, even the iPad mini Retina, terribly overpriced by Apple in the US at $399, costs €365 here; and iPad Air, $499 in the US, can be had for €455.

A tempting European price of Nexus 5, corresponding to its tempting US price of $349, would be €299, for example. Not this. I don't understand Google: if Moto G can be priced $179 in the US, and have an equally amazing price of €169 here in Europe, why couldn't Nexus 5 be priced just as reasonably?

Given all these issues, I'm withholding the purchase of an Android phone for now, continuing to trudge along on my ancient iPhone 4, due to celebrate its 4th birthday this year. It really is amazing how long-lived it's turned out to be. It has slowed down lately, particularly since the arrival of the hideous iOS 7, but it still accomplishes everything I need it to accomplish. The main downside is the 3.5-inch screen -- tiny for today's standards. Unless the price of Nexus 5 falls to a tolerable level here within a few months, I might just decide to wait until September or so, to see what Apple might come up with next. A 5-inch iPhone 6, as already rumoured, would definitely be a reason to think about upgrading the iPhone at long last, whereas the current option, upgrading from a 3.5-inch screen to a 4-inch screen, does not sound so enticing at all, especially given the €625 (that's $855) price-tag of iPhone 5S in this country.

[dura]

I still enjoy reading from my Galaxy Note 1, 16x10 instead of the narrower 16x9.
Touchwizz is not much of a problem imo, and you can put on other ROMs.

But I would recommend an OLED screen above a TFT/LCD/IPS, unless you mind light letters on black background. OLED does not have backlight, so no backlightbleeding but pure even black.