Pamela Anderson
Newbie
Yesterday I went to Verizon and looked around at the different options. I started with the HTC One. Pretty nice looking phone (kind of cheap looking aluminum though) but the screen (4.7") is not much bigger than my Droid X2 (4.3"). It felt snappy, though, and I liked the big buttons at the bottom of the screen. It wasn't hard to navigate.
The next was the Galaxy S4. Really light in the hand. Too light if you ask me. It felt kind of cheap and the plasticky feeling wasn't too attractive. The interface was laggy. It reminded me of my Droid X2. Also, the phone was just too busy. Too much crap installed and features I'll never use.
Then I came to the LG G2. It felt nice nice in my hand. Polished hard plastic, with a heavy feel, gave me the impression of quality. The screen is beautiful. The bezels on the side of the phone are a couple of millimeters thin. The double tap on-off feature was excellent. The buttons on the back were a little strange at first, but I actually came to like them a lot. I learned that I can press and hold the volume up button to go directly to a notepad to jot down some notes or I can press and hold the volume down button to go directly to the phone's camera. Great features. The interface is just beautiful. So smooth and easy flowing - much better than the Galaxy S4. Everything seemed well thought out ( a first for my experience with Android). I was able to go into system settings and disable all the Apps I wont be using (Amazon, Kindle, etc). Now I don't even see them on my screen. The battery seems to be running really great. I charged it only for an hour since I got it and it still says "38 hours remaining." I like that it feels great holding it with one hand. Changing the background was a breeze. It's really easy to customize and not too complicated at all.
The only thing I don't like about the phone is the glossiness of the back. It really attracts finger-prints and is slippery, so I need to be careful with how I'm holding it. I'm planning on getting a matte, rubberized back case for it to aid with that and to protect it. Sometimes double-tapping the phone on takes a few tries. It's all in how you tap. Eventually I got the hang of it and it rarely takes me more than once to get in the phone. The call quality is on par with my Droid X2, which is good and loud. I don't think there is anything wrong, but I didn't see any improvements in this regard. I usually use Pandora for my music, but started using the included Slacker app. For some reason, on Pandora, the high frequency sounds (like a snap of a clap, snare, crash) creates a sharp distortion bleep sound when it's hooked up to my car speakers through Aux. This doesn't happen with Slacker... so it's something to do with the software on pandora rather than a hardware issue. One other thing I find weird is that when you are filming, you tend to capture the auto-focus zooming in and out. So, if you are moving the phone while filming, it will keep re-focusing and causing little jolts in the picture. Not a great feature, I must say, but hopefully this gets resolved.
Anyways, hope this helped someone with their buying decision. I have researched a lot of phones, and compared the best of the best, and I 100% do not regret my decision. I was going to go with the Nokia Lumia 1020 (AT&T) but I'm glad I didn't. I really like this Android platform, much more than my old Droid X2. I was also considering an iPhone 5, but this think kicks it's butt from all angles basically.
The next was the Galaxy S4. Really light in the hand. Too light if you ask me. It felt kind of cheap and the plasticky feeling wasn't too attractive. The interface was laggy. It reminded me of my Droid X2. Also, the phone was just too busy. Too much crap installed and features I'll never use.
Then I came to the LG G2. It felt nice nice in my hand. Polished hard plastic, with a heavy feel, gave me the impression of quality. The screen is beautiful. The bezels on the side of the phone are a couple of millimeters thin. The double tap on-off feature was excellent. The buttons on the back were a little strange at first, but I actually came to like them a lot. I learned that I can press and hold the volume up button to go directly to a notepad to jot down some notes or I can press and hold the volume down button to go directly to the phone's camera. Great features. The interface is just beautiful. So smooth and easy flowing - much better than the Galaxy S4. Everything seemed well thought out ( a first for my experience with Android). I was able to go into system settings and disable all the Apps I wont be using (Amazon, Kindle, etc). Now I don't even see them on my screen. The battery seems to be running really great. I charged it only for an hour since I got it and it still says "38 hours remaining." I like that it feels great holding it with one hand. Changing the background was a breeze. It's really easy to customize and not too complicated at all.
The only thing I don't like about the phone is the glossiness of the back. It really attracts finger-prints and is slippery, so I need to be careful with how I'm holding it. I'm planning on getting a matte, rubberized back case for it to aid with that and to protect it. Sometimes double-tapping the phone on takes a few tries. It's all in how you tap. Eventually I got the hang of it and it rarely takes me more than once to get in the phone. The call quality is on par with my Droid X2, which is good and loud. I don't think there is anything wrong, but I didn't see any improvements in this regard. I usually use Pandora for my music, but started using the included Slacker app. For some reason, on Pandora, the high frequency sounds (like a snap of a clap, snare, crash) creates a sharp distortion bleep sound when it's hooked up to my car speakers through Aux. This doesn't happen with Slacker... so it's something to do with the software on pandora rather than a hardware issue. One other thing I find weird is that when you are filming, you tend to capture the auto-focus zooming in and out. So, if you are moving the phone while filming, it will keep re-focusing and causing little jolts in the picture. Not a great feature, I must say, but hopefully this gets resolved.
Anyways, hope this helped someone with their buying decision. I have researched a lot of phones, and compared the best of the best, and I 100% do not regret my decision. I was going to go with the Nokia Lumia 1020 (AT&T) but I'm glad I didn't. I really like this Android platform, much more than my old Droid X2. I was also considering an iPhone 5, but this think kicks it's butt from all angles basically.
