• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Best Verizon Android phone recommendation for certain purposes

S

smilejack1

Lurker
I'll be upgrading from the original Motorola Droid soon, and could use some advice. I have certain needs and priorities, and would like recommendations for the best phone to meet those needs. All advice is appreciated.

What I'm looking for (and I don't much care whether it's from Motorola or another manufacturer, as long as Verizon sells it):

  • System resources galore. I have a ton of apps and my current phone is really bogged down despite my having rooted, overclocked, and moved as many apps as possible to the SD card. I want to be loaded for bear.
  • A big viewscreen w/ great text display. I read a lot on my phone, and my eyes aren't getting any younger, so I need really crisp text and room to expand it when necessary. Media display, on the other hand, isn't a big deal for me.
  • Good pics, especially in less than optimum environments. I can figure out which phone has the best resolution, but there's more to good pics than megapixels. What I'm looking for here is input on which phones have superior focusing and better light meters and so forth. My current Droid has not impressed in this regard.
  • Extremely good sound, from the phone and the headphone. My ears aren't getting any younger, either.
  • Good battery life, but it doesn't have to be great.
  • 4g capable.
  • The damn thing should work, extremely well.
  • A hardware keyboard would be nice, but then again, I found the keyboard on my current to be disappointing, and unless I find something that is much more impressive, I won't bother.
  • A front-facing camera would be nice, too, but not essential.
What I'm not looking for:

  • Bells and whistles. The very idea of Vcast annoys me, and I don't use most system apps because third-party apps are invariably better.
  • Lots of crap in the OS. Manufacturer mods of the Android OS also annoy me.
Again, all advice is appreciated.
 
smilejack1 said:
I'll be upgrading from the original Motorola Droid soon, and could use some advice. I have certain needs and priorities, and would like recommendations for the best phone to meet those needs. All advice is appreciated.

What I'm looking for (and I don't much care whether it's from Motorola or another manufacturer, as long as Verizon sells it):

  • System resources galore. I have a ton of apps and my current phone is really bogged down despite my having rooted, overclocked, and moved as many apps as possible to the SD card. I want to be loaded for bear.
  • A big viewscreen w/ great text display. I read a lot on my phone, and my eyes aren't getting any younger, so I need really crisp text and room to expand it when necessary. Media display, on the other hand, isn't a big deal for me.
  • Good pics, especially in less than optimum environments. I can figure out which phone has the best resolution, but there's more to good pics than megapixels. What I'm looking for here is input on which phones have superior focusing and better light meters and so forth. My current Droid has not impressed in this regard.
  • Extremely good sound, from the phone and the headphone. My ears aren't getting any younger, either.
  • Good battery life, but it doesn't have to be great.
  • 4g capable.
  • The damn thing should work, extremely well.
  • A hardware keyboard would be nice, but then again, I found the keyboard on my current to be disappointing, and unless I find something that is much more impressive, I won't bother.
  • A front-facing camera would be nice, too, but not essential.
What I'm not looking for:

  • Bells and whistles. The very idea of Vcast annoys me, and I don't use most system apps because third-party apps are invariably better.
  • Lots of crap in the OS. Manufacturer mods of the Android OS also annoy me.
Again, all advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...

My advice is not going to point you to a specific phone, but rather I would suggest a method for you to find a phone that fits your needs.

I've had my Droid X since launch day and and it's the best phone I've ever had. (Hope I didn't jinx it there)

With all your requirements (one being that Verizon sells it) there will only be a handfull of phones you need to check out. When you have some time, (a couple of hours at least) go to a corpotrate store and start checking out the phones that offer the things you require. Take your time and spend as much time as you need with each.

You only need to narrow it down to two phones. After doing that,pick your favorite of the two and take home and try it out for no more than 14 days. If after 10-12 days, if the think your 2nd choice phone would be a better fit for you, take #1 back and exchange it. The only downside to this method is you can't go back to phone #1 if you don't like #2. That's why I suggested picking your favorite at the beginning.

Maybe there are a few posters here that have actually tried many of the phones Verizon currently sells and can give you an informed reccomendation.

Good luck with your new phone.... whatever it turns out to be.....
 
Sounds liek you would be best fit by the upcoming Samsun Galaxy Nexus. Check my notes in red about how it fits your needs. Current rumors suggest it will be released after Black Friday, and there are also two other phones, the Motorola Droid Razr and the HTC Rezound being released right before Black Friday.

smilejack1 said:
I'll be upgrading from the original Motorola Droid soon, and could use some advice. I have certain needs and priorities, and would like recommendations for the best phone to meet those needs. All advice is appreciated.

What I'm looking for (and I don't much care whether it's from Motorola or another manufacturer, as long as Verizon sells it):

  • System resources galore. I have a ton of apps and my current phone is really bogged down despite my having rooted, overclocked, and moved as many apps as possible to the SD card. I want to be loaded for bear.
  • The Galaxy Nexus (GNex) is one of the fastest phones out there now, and has significantly more resources then the OG Droid. It will be as fast or faster then all other phones on the market in benchmarks.
  • A big viewscreen w/ great text display. I read a lot on my phone, and my eyes aren't getting any younger, so I need really crisp text and room to expand it when necessary. Media display, on the other hand, isn't a big deal for me.
  • The GNex has a 4.65" screen the largest out of any popular consumer phone seen in the US yet. It also has a 1280x720 Super AMOLED display that is the highest resolution seen on any phone yet, and it has the second highest DPI. the GNex also comes loaded stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which features a brand new font developed by Google that is designed to be easy to read on mobile screens.
  • Good pics, especially in less than optimum environments. I can figure out which phone has the best resolution, but there's more to good pics than megapixels. What I'm looking for here is input on which phones have superior focusing and better light meters and so forth. My current Droid has not impressed in this regard.
  • Has a 5 Mpix camera and brand new software which is suppsoed to be quite good.
  • Extremely good sound, from the phone and the headphone. My ears aren't getting any younger, either.
  • Can't comment on the sound as no one has really heard it yet, however if sound is your primary concern you might want to check out the HTC Rezound when it coems out because it will be the first Verizon phone to feature Beats by Dre Audio. For what it's worth I think Beats headphones sound awful (and I listen to a lot of bass heavy music too) and I assume (I havent seen it though) that the software they add that lets you equalize the music is either useless or a complete gimmick.
  • Good battery life, but it doesn't have to be great.
  • ICS is supposed to have better power usage, and since it has a lot of dark backgrounds the AMOLED screen will help save power.
  • 4g capable.
  • Check
  • The damn thing should work, extremely well.
    Not out yet but we will say Check. Being a Nexus phone the GNex is a pure google experience, which means it will not have any thrid party developer overlays over the UI (HTC Sense, Moto Blur, etc.) which seems to be what you want. This also means it will get updates faster than any other phone if bugs do appear.
  • A hardware keyboard would be nice, but then again, I found the keyboard on my current to be disappointing, and unless I find something that is much more impressive, I won't bother.
  • No hardware keyboard, but on a 4.65" display I'm sure the virtual one will be fine. If you really want a keyboard rumors for the Droid 4 are starting to pile in and it has been said to have the best physical keyboard on an Android yet, and it will be 4g capable, but I owuldn't expect a release before mid January.
  • A front-facing camera would be nice, too, but not essential.
  • Check
What I'm not looking for:

  • Bells and whistles. The very idea of Vcast annoys me, and I don't use most system apps because third-party apps are invariably better.
  • Check, Stock ICS is the newest software available and will have all the bells and whistles removed. It should be free of verizon bloatware liek VCast because it is a Nexus, but i wouldn't be surprised if Verizon Weaseled one or two pieces of crap onto it.
  • Lots of crap in the OS. Manufacturer mods of the Android OS also annoy me. See above
Again, all advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...


After writing all that out and seeign how you do not like the Modded UI overlays I don't know why you would choose any phone ofther than the Galaxy Nexus.
 
From the leaked Rezound video the guy said the sound from the headphone jack was very good. I will be buying the Galaxy Nexus when it comes out but the Rezound looks good too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom