Android - what's in your pocket?

The obstruction thing is basically bullshit. It does have front-facing speakers though, which I find a fine tradeoff.

I never understand the weight issue. Give me a heavier phone if it means a larger battery. I say “NO!!!” to the ultra slim phones with tiny batteries. Give me a brick of a phone with a large battery. A large meaty phone with a 7 inch screen.

Also, make it under 300 bucks. I got a budget.

Every single marketing photo has users holding it by the edges, not by the front bezels.

@legowarrior the extra 700mah over something like the G6 doesn’t really explain why it weighs 25% more.

Big phone + large weight = mandatory to use two hands, which I find a pain for general usage.

120Hz is awesome. Wonder how many Android games will support it. Probably Unity can patch so it works automatically and whatnot.

I have a Note 8 and just received the Pixel 2 XL. The Note 8 felt too long (if that makes sense) and the Pixel 2 XL feels just right in my hand. Samsung has improved their software over the years, but it still feels very bloaty. They probably needed to add Bixby to the mix for their long-term strategy but it is a mess on the phone. Constantly bothering me about stuff. Plus with the AT&T apps added there is a lot going on in a bad way on the Note 8. Hardware is great (screen is divine, but too long). Still have a bit of lag in some apps.

Pixel 2 XL is very quite, no bloat. I have the Google Store version and that is where I am going from now on (had the Verizon Pixel XL at one point). All apps behave very smoothly, no lag, everything just works. I don’t know about all of the blue tint and screen issues. I have not taken out a microscope and examined the screen. What I see works very well in a cohesive manner.

I’m done with smartphone shopping this year. I also switched from Samsung Gear S3 to LG Watch Sport. The Gear S3 is a great watch, but no google maps integration. Now that Google and Microsoft Exchange play together in calendar apps, using Gmail with Google Calendar works just fine on the phone and watch. Battery drains faster on LG watch, but not too bad if you disable LTE.

Killer speakers and 120hz screen perhaps? As I said, I find the weight to be a non issue. I don’t wear skinny jeans, so size isn’t a problem either. I would like a removable battery though.

Why don’t you just use a tablet with a sim card then?

Size isnt an issue, great battery life and fantastic speakers.

I think I’d generally prefer an OLED display to a non oled display that does 120 hz.

A Samsung OLED at least. . .

OLEDs tend to be dimmer in bright sunlight, so it depends where you primarily look at your phone. Modern OLEDs are completely readable outdoors, but still not up to LCD quality. Main advantages of OLED are the infinite contrast and battery savings with black backgrounds, as black pixels are completely off. I would prefer the adaptive refresh and 120Hz myself.

Yeah, I like the fact that black is off on oled displays, and I tend to run my phone in a manner to keep things as black as possible.

Same. Literally bitched and moaned until someone instituted a true-black backgrounded theme on Nu Qt3. I run my phone to the bone as it is, so anything I can do to save battery while not sacrificing the ludicrous number of draining apps I rely on is a plus in my book!

I’m actually kind of tempted by that Razer phone, even though I do almost no Android gaming, except I suspect the extra battery is going to be eaten up by the display.

I am still using my 2nd gen Moto 360. I would like get serious about a refresh, but I am waiting for Google to get their software up to snuff. Damn that effing Google shiny-new-squirrel-adhd-Googlebubble syndrome!

I have successfully broken screens from a Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P… 6P has been the hardest to fix. I also had the Nexus S and others but I can’t remember if I broke the screen. While prying the FUCKING PLASTIC CLIPS AND THE STUPID SUPERGLUE OFF I managed to warp the battery.

I reassembled the fucker but battery no good. Faced with having to disassemble the freaking thing again, I said fuck it.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. It won’t go back together. You need to buy some freaking special glue to get the glass to stick. No other phone did that.

You’d think I’d learn because I just bought a Pixel in July. After this shit I’m just buying cheapo phones, fuck it.

I have had my XL 2 for a couple of days now and am very happy with it. The speed and responsiveness blow my 6P out of the water. The screen is an improvement over the 6P as well. The camera nukes the 6P’s from orbit in terms of launch speed, photo speed, and photo quality. So far I do not have the bluetooth wonkiness I had with the 6P. I am convinced that the 6P’s bluetooth issues revolve around the antenna connection. I generally carry my phone in a front or side pocket. Anytime I sat down, crouched, or bent over from the waist my bluetooth would go kaput. I could willingingly get the bluetooth to choke by putting any sort of mechanical stress, strain, or torque on the 6P with my hands. Good riddance.

Concerning the display… I will always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I listened to the most recent Android Central podcast. I could understand some of the thorough and very technical information Dan Matte shared. He edified my decision for my initial order cancellation. But, the warranty extension lured me back. Still, the phone price should be reduced by $100 at the very least.
I will never compare the XL 2 display side by side to a Note 8 nor an iPhone X. Why torture myself?

Speaking of shoes, both of them have a jagged pebble in them named no headphone jack. Looks like I am just gonna have to suffer those and buy the $45 dongle - when it is finally in stock at the Play store.

So the new Kindle app, and specifically it’s store: wow, this thing is super slow now. On my OnePlus One, it took so long from clicking on a notification to actually loading the app and then the page, that I thought the notification click didn’t work.

On my Nexus 6p, it’s not much faster.

So there we go, Amazon is actively annoying me now in an indirect way to actually desire a new phone.

Planning to upgrade in the next couple of weeks (waiting on BF deals to be announced, and the 11/16 OnePlus 5T reveal) and still very torn on what to go for.

I went and played with the V30 in store side by side with the Note8. The Quad DAC makes a night-and-day difference when toggling it while music is playing (so much that I wonder if LG intentionally gimped the “normal” audio mode), but when switching back and forth between it and the adjacent Note8, it was much harder to tell the difference – both sounded great. I wasn’t able to reproduce any screen graininess, but Samsung definitely has a noticeable edge on overall visual appearance (though I still think the curved edges are an annoying gimmick).

For anyone else looking to upgrade soon, here’s how things look to me, along with the best prices I’ve seen so far (on configurations with min. 128GB storage, either natively or through expansion slot).

-Galaxy Note8: $660. Best screen. Huge and beautiful, great camera. Not thrilled with the fingerprint reader placement, pointless Bixby assistant, or curved screen edges, but those are minor niggles.

-Galaxy S8: $460. Best all-round value. Most of the same positives and negatives as the Note. Saves significant money, but I’m not sure I want to go back to a normal-sized phone given my giant gorilla hands.

-Essential Phone: $450. Best construction, price, and close to stock Android. Lack of headphone jack is a significant minus, and the screen isn’t OLED.

-LG V30: $640 plus free Daydream VR headset. Best sound. Questionable screen quality/longevity.

-Pixel 2 XL: $949. Best OS and camera. No headphone jack, and same potential screen issues as the V30, but much less forgiveable due to the price with no deals around that I’ve seen.

-OnePlus 5T: $???. Looks like a big upgrade to the screen of the 5, which was its biggest downside. Could be good.

-Razer Phone: $699. Best refresh rate. I do love high refresh rates on my PC monitor, though I’m not sure it’s worth giving up OLED, especially since on phones the usage is much more text-focused. Also missing headphone jack.

The Essential is pretty much stock Android, FYI.