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Reception issues with iPhone 4s, swtiching to Android to resolve, need advice

K

kcharm

Lurker
Noob around here, but I really need some help on the cell phone front.

I live in a fringe area in Seattle, WA. The reception on my iPhone 4s is HORRIBLE and the battle to resolve the issue has taken me through a network extender and has culminated at Verizon telling me I can break my contract for free and do what I want.

While I know I live in a fringe area, my wife's old flip phone as well as my old LG ENV2 get great reception so I know that reception without the network extender is possible.

This has led me back to Android (I had an original Moto Droid). I need a phone that gets incredible phone reception.

My research has pointed me towards the RAZR HD/MAXX, the DNA, and the SIII. Are there others I should be looking at? What are folks experiences with these models as phones? They all sound like great devices, but I need a functional phone.
 
Do you have any preferences in a smartphone?
The Galaxy S4 is coming out in a month or so, so if you want a top-end phone, you can wait for that.
The Razr Maxx has the superior battery life out of the three.
The S3 being the more popular.
The DNA has the faster processor in the US and reviews show that it has the better display.

All three phones mentioned are good phones so if you can try them out for yourself and see which software you like better, that would be a dealbreaker probably. Some people hate Samsung's Touchwiz UI. I personally love the new version of it that came with the S3.
Others hate Sense. I'm not too big of a fan of Sense, but I can live with it if it was my only option.
And whatever Motorola calls their UI.

But then again, if you root your phone and install a custom ROM, software wouldn't matter too much.

Which leads us to hardware.
Samsung stuck with it's all-plastic hardware.
HTC DNA still has a metallic hardware and I'm not too sure about the Razr.

Just a quick $0.02 :)
 
Other than wanting the phone to also function as a phone, I don't have any real preferences. I started my smartphone life with the original Droid and went from there to the iPhone 4s so I have experience with both OSs and they both work well for me...I'm adaptable! It sounds like all the top end phones have there strengths and weaknesses, there is no perfect phone. The one feature I'm looking for is the ability to grab hold of a voice signal and never let go. As an experiment, I just switched my iPhone to my old Droid to see if the 4 or 5 year old Motorola radio would work any better then the iPhone's. It did work a little better, but not much. The question is, what does that mean? Is the comparison of an old 3g Motorola phone to a new iPhone to an even newer Motorola 4g phone a useful comparison? What says the masses about radios?
 
kcharm said:
Noob around here, but I really need some help on the cell phone front.

I live in a fringe area in Seattle, WA. The reception on my iPhone 4s is HORRIBLE and the battle to resolve the issue has taken me through a network extender and has culminated at Verizon telling me I can break my contract for free and do what I want.

While I know I live in a fringe area, my wife's old flip phone as well as my old LG ENV2 get great reception so I know that reception without the network extender is possible.

This has led me back to Android (I had an original Moto Droid). I need a phone that gets incredible phone reception.

My research has pointed me towards the RAZR HD/MAXX, the DNA, and the SIII. Are there others I should be looking at? What are folks experiences with these models as phones? They all sound like great devices, but I need a functional phone.
Click to expand...

I currently live in the Bitter Lake area of Seattle, WA. I spent a year on an iPhone 4S and recently moved back to Android - one of my iPhone 4S complaints was signal strength. I went with the Droid Razr HD and am now enjoying not only great signal strength but also impressive battery life. I would highly recommend the Droid Razr HD. The Razr MAXX HD is essentially the same phone but with better battery life.
 
Thanks. It looks like Verizon is starting to work with me a little more. Initially, they're sending me an Incredible 4g for free to see if upgrading the phone will fix my reception issues in my neighborhood. From there, if that phone works, I'll be free to exchange it for the RAZR MAXX HD...which, after playing with those two phones, I am likely to do.

Any thoughts on the Incredible 4g other than the fact that I can't upgrade the OS to Jelly Bean?
 
kcharm said:
Thanks. It looks like Verizon is starting to work with me a little more. Initially, they're sending me an Incredible 4g for free to see if upgrading the phone will fix my reception issues in my neighborhood. From there, if that phone works, I'll be free to exchange it for the RAZR MAXX HD...which, after playing with those two phones, I am likely to do.

Any thoughts on the Incredible 4g other than the fact that I can't upgrade the OS to Jelly Bean?
Click to expand...

How long will you have the phone once you make a decision? I would be very hesitant to accept a phone that cannot be upgraded to a newer version of android. Android is always evolving so it's always best to have a phone that has the longest upgrade life. If you're going to be "stuck" with the phone for a while, you might want to get a phone that has the best chance of upgrading. I would imagine the Razr MAXX HD is your best bet right now.
 
ardchoille said:
How long will you have the phone once you make a decision? I would be very hesitant to accept a phone that cannot be upgraded to a newer version of android. Android is always evolving so it's always best to have a phone that has the longest upgrade life. If you're going to be "stuck" with the phone for a while, you might want to get a phone that has the best chance of upgrading. I would imagine the Razr MAXX HD is your best bet right now.
Click to expand...


Thinking the same thing. I'll have 14 days to decide once it arrives.

Of course, if the Incredible doesn't fix my reception issues, then it goes back to Verizon and I go to AT&T and get either the HTC One or the S4.
 
kcharm said:
Thinking the same thing. I'll have 14 days to decide once it arrives.

Of course, if the Incredible doesn't fix my reception issues, then it goes back to Verizon and I go to AT&T and get either the HTC One or the S4.
Click to expand...

Nice phones choices there for AT&T. That's going to be another tough decision :)
 
ardchoille said:
Nice phones choices there for AT&T. That's going to be another tough decision :)
Click to expand...

The timing is helpful. I doubt there will be reliability issues with the Galaxy, but I think the HTC is new enough that a couple weeks may show hardware flaws.

Assuming no issues, the One is just a sweet looking phone and feels really nice in my hand!
 
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