Phones - Why should I upgrade?

GuitarBizarre · 12-17-2011, 09:29 AM

I own a HTC Desire. Its a pretty good phone.

Come Feb, I get my free upgrade on my contract.

Cloudchaser, explain to me as thoroughly as you can, what I will be able to achieve with a newer phone, that I can't achieve with my Desire.

And no, I do not give a single **** about the iPhone. I don't want one, I have never wanted one, I will not want one, and I cannot envision a situation in which I would want one.

With that said, what new **** is happening on phones that'll bring me such a significant improvement in my life as to take the upgrade, rather than ask for a cheaper contract?

My main bugbears on phones are -

1 - Battery Life.
2 - Battery Life. - A user replaceable battery is also a good thing.
3 - I'd like something I can slip in a pocket and be comfortable keeping there. My Desire allows that, and as long as I'm not stupid and don't keep keys there too, I've no reason to believe it'll start looking shabby or break. I don't want something I have to baby or keep in a case. Gimme a phone I can work with. I know touchscreen is ubiquitous, but the Desire's screen is more than tough enough to not get scratched in my pockets, so I'm looking for that or better. (Gorilla glass?)

Salami · 12-17-2011, 10:19 AM

Wow, you are so angry! Bikes, My Pony and now phone battery life.

I'll try and say something: I don't really know that much about phones, and not having much time I use the iPhone.

If you want a great touchscreen that won't break, I'd advise you to give at least one sh*t about the iPhone.

Seriously, a few mates and I were having a quad bike race in the lake district earlier this year, and my iPhone fell out of my pocket and was run over by the quad bike behind and ended up in a muddy puddle.

And guess what? It still works perfectly. There is a small hairline crack in the glass, but is invisible from most angles.

I'd also recommend the T Mobile Unity, which is very cheap but can do everything a blackberry can, and is a lot more reliable.

Hope this is mildly useful.

RVCA · 12-17-2011, 11:22 AM

I feel the same exact way dude. I've had the same little Samsung for the past 4 years now (the one that flips both ways), and I haven't even considered upgrading to a smartphone for several reasons
1. Love the battery life on my Samsung. I charge it once every 4-5 days.
2. Love the durability. It's a brick compared to those newfangled smartphones, which, if you drop once at the wrong angle, reward you with a shattered screen or malfunctioning touchpad.
3. Love the size. It's seriously probably half the surface area and mass of your average smartphone.
4. Those smartphone data plans are ridiculous, and getting ridiculous-er by the day. I mean, sometimes I wish I'd hopped on the smartphone bandwagon at the beginning so I would've grandfathered into a decent data plan like my brother did, but such is life

s_k · 12-17-2011, 11:38 AM

I guess there's no reason to upgrade yet. A Desire can still do what most new day smartphones can do. If you like it, keep it.
Wouldn't want to be without a smartphone anymore, but if you have one that works, there's no reason to upgrade just yet.

Burning Down · 12-17-2011, 12:02 PM

I have an iPhone, but my mom has the Samsung Galaxy S2 and she loves it. You don't need a case for that one. In fact, you really don't need a case for any phone. People are so obsessed with keeping their gadgets in mint condition. A scratch is not going to seriously affect the phone's ability to function properly. The downside to the S2 is that it's fucking huge because the screen is 4.5". It's thin but I imagine it would be uncomfortable to have in your pocket. It's also expensive.

I heard the Samsung Galaxy Ace is good. It's like the S2, but smaller. It's about the same size as an iPhone so it will fit nicely in a pocket.

HTC is also good, as you already know.

If you want something that doesn't break easily, I advise you to stay away from the Blackberry. They are absolute shit. Before I had the iPhone, I had a Blackberry Curve and it fell off a coffee table and broke open. Also, my dad had the Blackberry Torch 9810, the touchscreen one. The battery life was terrible and the screen shattered when he dropped it from a short height.

If you go the smartphone route, plans can get expensive. But you can save a crap load of money by blocking the 3G/4G (whatever it is now) data usage. I did that with my iPhone and now I don't pay more than $30 per month. Most of these smartphones can pick up WiFi signals (the Samsung and iPhones do, I know that for sure), and so many public places have free WiFi, so you don't even need a data plan!

GuitarBizarre · 12-17-2011, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burning Down

I have an iPhone, but my mom has the Samsung Galaxy S2 and she loves it. You don't need a case for that one. In fact, you really don't need a case for any phone. People are so obsessed with keeping their gadgets in mint condition. A scratch is not going to seriously affect the phone's ability to function properly. The downside to the S2 is that it's fucking huge because the screen is 4.5". It's thin but I imagine it would be uncomfortable to have in your pocket. It's also expensive.

I heard the Samsung Galaxy Ace is good. It's like the S2, but smaller. It's about the same size as an iPhone so it will fit nicely in a pocket.

HTC is also good, as you already know.

If you want something that doesn't break easily, I advise you to stay away from the Blackberry. They are absolute shit. Before I had the iPhone, I had a Blackberry Curve and it fell off a coffee table and broke open. Also, my dad had the Blackberry Torch 9810, the touchscreen one. The battery life was terrible and the screen shattered when he dropped it from a short height.

If you go the smartphone route, plans can get expensive. But you can save a crap load of money by blocking the 3G/4G (whatever it is now) data usage. I did that with my iPhone and now I don't pay more than $30 per month. Most of these smartphones can pick up WiFi signals (the Samsung and iPhones do, I know that for sure), and so many public places have free WiFi, so you don't even need a data plan!

My plan for data is £25 a month for 500MB, an extra £5 for every additional 500MB block. I rarely use it all, much less twice over.

Blackberry, I suppose I should have mentioned. I kind of forgot they exist, but frankly, dextrous though my fingers and thumbs are, as a guitar player, Blackberry typing is a nightmare for me. I was never going to consider one.

Salami · 12-17-2011, 03:45 PM

They are really hard to type on. The T Mobile unity is the best I've encountered for that.

Burning Down · 12-17-2011, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

My plan for data is £25 a month for 500MB, an extra £5 for every additional 500MB block. I rarely use it all, much less twice over.

Blackberry, I suppose I should have mentioned. I kind of forgot they exist, but frankly, dextrous though my fingers and thumbs are, as a guitar player, Blackberry typing is a nightmare for me. I was never going to consider one.

Okay, yeah that's about $40 here which is about what I paid for 500MB of data. I had that plan for about 3 months, but I wasn't using enough of it to make it worth every penny, so I cancelled the plan and blocked data usage so I would rack up any extra charges if I accidentally used it.

I think Blackberry is on it's way out, really. People like apps and stuff now, and Blackberry doesn't have nearly as much selection as Android or Apple do. I think the only thing they have going for them is BBM, but now iPhones have the new iChat/iMessage feature (and you can send messages to iPod touches and iPads over WiFi) which is free unlike BBM, and I heard that Android might introduce something similar in the near future.

FETCHER. · 12-17-2011, 08:33 PM

I've had an iphone and blackberry.

I'll start with my blackberry curve 9360. Its balls.
+Emails are like texts straight to your phone. Its right handy.
+Its slim
+the camera's quite good for a 5mp
-Its been turning off randomly when it has charge in it.
-Its slow.
-The battery life is awful.
-The apps are useless and ****. There's like no free decent games.

Can't be arsed writing about the iPhone. You hate them anyway. One thing I will say is that imo there is no better phone.

FETCHER. · 12-17-2011, 08:39 PM

Bbm is free...

12-17-2011, 11:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	I guess there's no reason to upgrade yet. A Desire can still do what most new day smartphones can do. If you like it, keep it. Wouldn't want to be without a smartphone anymore, but if you have one that works, there's no reason to upgrade just yet. __________________ Click here to see my collection

12-17-2011, 10:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
Salami Get in ma belly Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 1,385	Wow, you are so angry! Bikes, My Pony and now phone battery life. I'll try and say something: I don't really know that much about phones, and not having much time I use the iPhone. If you want a great touchscreen that won't break, I'd advise you to give at least one sh*t about the iPhone. Seriously, a few mates and I were having a quad bike race in the lake district earlier this year, and my iPhone fell out of my pocket and was run over by the quad bike behind and ended up in a muddy puddle. And guess what? It still works perfectly. There is a small hairline crack in the glass, but is invisible from most angles. I'd also recommend the T Mobile Unity, which is very cheap but can do everything a blackberry can, and is a lot more reliable. Hope this is mildly useful.

12-17-2011, 11:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
RVCA （￣ー￣） Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3,270	I feel the same exact way dude. I've had the same little Samsung for the past 4 years now (the one that flips both ways), and I haven't even considered upgrading to a smartphone for several reasons 1. Love the battery life on my Samsung. I charge it once every 4-5 days. 2. Love the durability. It's a brick compared to those newfangled smartphones, which, if you drop once at the wrong angle, reward you with a shattered screen or malfunctioning touchpad. 3. Love the size. It's seriously probably half the surface area and mass of your average smartphone. 4. Those smartphone data plans are ridiculous, and getting ridiculous-er by the day. I mean, sometimes I wish I'd hopped on the smartphone bandwagon at the beginning so I would've grandfathered into a decent data plan like my brother did, but such is life

12-17-2011, 12:02 PM	#5 (permalink)
Burning Down The Music Guru. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Beyond the Wall Posts: 4,858	I have an iPhone, but my mom has the Samsung Galaxy S2 and she loves it. You don't need a case for that one. In fact, you really don't need a case for any phone. People are so obsessed with keeping their gadgets in mint condition. A scratch is not going to seriously affect the phone's ability to function properly. The downside to the S2 is that it's fucking huge because the screen is 4.5". It's thin but I imagine it would be uncomfortable to have in your pocket. It's also expensive. I heard the Samsung Galaxy Ace is good. It's like the S2, but smaller. It's about the same size as an iPhone so it will fit nicely in a pocket. HTC is also good, as you already know. If you want something that doesn't break easily, I advise you to stay away from the Blackberry. They are absolute shit. Before I had the iPhone, I had a Blackberry Curve and it fell off a coffee table and broke open. Also, my dad had the Blackberry Torch 9810, the touchscreen one. The battery life was terrible and the screen shattered when he dropped it from a short height. If you go the smartphone route, plans can get expensive. But you can save a crap load of money by blocking the 3G/4G (whatever it is now) data usage. I did that with my iPhone and now I don't pay more than $30 per month. Most of these smartphones can pick up WiFi signals (the Samsung and iPhones do, I know that for sure), and so many public places have free WiFi, so you don't even need a data plan!

12-17-2011, 03:45 PM	#7 (permalink)
Salami Get in ma belly Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 1,385	They are really hard to type on. The T Mobile unity is the best I've encountered for that.