Ditto. Ubiquitous and inexpensive cloud storage removed my need for SDCards. Portable battery packs for recharging any USB device are more usable than spare batteries since the battery pack can recharge any my familes phones/tablets as opposed to needing spare batteries for each form factor.
Admittedly I do get a new phone every 2 years like clockwork so I generally don’t let a battery degrade to the point where swapping it starts sounding attractive. I think the last phone I ever had to do that with a DROID3 if memory serves.
I recently got a 6P, it’s pretty slick. I was also considering a Note 5 but really wanted something other than a Samsung for once, with a regularly updated stock Android. Took about 4 reboots to install all the Marshmallow security updates so it seems those updates come quite frequently. Plus I figured I’d probably not use the Note stylus much after the initial honeymoon.
How are you finding the battery life? I’m pretty fed up with having to worry about making it through a single day with ordinary usage, which is why I’m leaning toward the 7 Edge, which seems to have a bumper battery at least in theory. My main experience with a Nexus (my mum’s 5), is not encouraging.
Well, it’s “free” in that I bought the S6 last year SIM-only so I’m already due an upgrade on the contract. And I kind of want to upgrade anyway because a) battery life, b) Gear VR overheating issues, and c) autofocus weirdness on the S6 camera.
6P battery life is excellent, though apparently this is at least partway due to the new Android features. I’m not a heavy game or video user (listen to music while commuting, some browsing, reading, maps) and can make almost 2 days on a single charge.
If you start watching videos or playing games it drains down a fair bit faster though…
I don’t do much gaming or video watching on my phone, at least not day-to-day, but I have a lot of background stuff going on (RSS feeds, work email/Skype/Slack, push sync on a bunch of apps). And I spend a lot of time websurfing or equivalent.
I’ve had the S7 for a week now, upgraded from the S6. The phone feels better in hand and the camera is better but neither of these are big differences. The expandable storage is useful but the biggest game changer for me is the battery lasts all day. The S6 battery life was generally poor. Now this could be because of Marshmallow or due to the S7 being more optimized/bigger battery, either way this is the best phone that I have owned and I am very happy with it.
Marshmallow made a large difference for the battery on my old N5 for the few weeks I had the upgrade before my N5X showed up. Anecdotally Doze is a clear win.
Doesn’t the S6 at least in theory have some of the battery saving stuff in Marshmallow? Samsung has its own app optimisation thing in Lollipop now (which incidentally, has a really annoying persistent notification), the stock version of which I think is responsible for most of the battery life gains in Marshmallow. I’m not expecting any huge improvement once my S6 gets the OS update (still, hurry up Sammy).
This from Android Central’s review of the S7 Edge is very promising (for a flagship anyway), but it also suggest the 6P is still better batterywise.
After several days using the phone in a variety of conditions I can say that it’s safely a 16-hour phone in my regular use with some battery to spare, which of course includes tons of email, messaging, podcast listening and camera use. My screen is on for at least three hours every day, though like most people it’s usually not for extended periods at any given time.
If I had heavier needs, like when I was traveling and hitting mobile data heavily, I could kill of the entire battery in just 12 hours — though I haven’t found any of my recent phones to be able to handle such usage and still make it through the entire day. With a lighter day that involved mostly standby time resting in my pocket, I was easily hitting 20 hours of usage before I got down to the five percent battery mark to engage Power Saving Mode.
Those usage numbers are only slightly better than I experience on the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 edge+, and are just about reaching what I get out of the Nexus 6P on an average day as well. This larger-than-average battery capacity is definitely required to get the Galaxy S7 edge+ through a full day without making you worried about where a power outlet is, and it means I rarely worried about battery life on the phone. It doesn’t, however, give you the confidence of “do anything, no consequences” battery life that so few phones can offer.
6p is a lot better than the 5. The 5 would run out of battery by 5pm-6pm if I used it. It would be gasping either way by 10-11pm.
6p goes past midnight with a good charge. Today, for example, it hit 11 pm with 50% battery charge.
In case anyone wanted a screen cover, I picked this one up in January. Pretty happy with it. It’s a sacrificial glass screen, unnoticeable. I managed to drop my phone down an entire flight of stairs today. I was cursing as I saw it drop. It has a big of a crack in a corner now, but I’m pretty sure it was the glass screen cover. I’m very happy about it.
edit:
if I have problems with the 6p, it’s that it’s too big to fit comfortably in a pocket, and it used to have gmail sync problems (fixed now thought).
True, but the prices point is starting to shows its age. Android phones have improved to such an extent that the justification of going from a mid-range android for 350 or 400 dollars to a high end Samsung’s for 700 or 800 dollars is getting very hard. What specific needs does the 7 fill that my axon Pro does solve and then some? Or my wife’s Asus Zenfone.
