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Help Recommendation: Used Android Phone

Ilya

Ilya

Android Enthusiast
Long story short: Want to buy a (used) phone for a friend.

I want it to have a good camera and at least 16GB of storage (with expandable storage preferably). OS version or other specs aren't really a concern as I don't think she'll be a power user like me (I'm running a rooted LG G4 H815).

What are some of the best 2014 or early 2015 phones that are good at picture taking and overall quality? What would you buy in my shoes?

I previously had an LG G3 which I thought was pretty decent. Before that I had a long line of HTC EVO's and the HTC One and won't even consider that phone.
 
Ilya said:
You'd take either of those (with TouchWiz) over a G3?
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Touchwiz isn't all that bad. It has improved greatly and if you don't like it you can always use a 3rd party launcher like Nova or Apex, even the Google Launcher.
 
TouchWiz is NOT a problem.... do NOT believe the stuff you read about it.

Install NOVA launcher, turn off the bloatware or anything else that won't be needed.
Even if it is not registered to a provider, it makes one hell of a camera and a great game machine.
64 gB SD card makes for a tremendous amount of picture storage, the camera can be defaulted to the SD card.

I just plug the phone into my PC's USB port, boot up the Windows file manager, twice.... One window for the phone, 2nd window for the target directory. Highlight, Control-X and switch windows, Control-V and the pictures are sucked off the phone onto the PC...... IF, you want to leave them on the phone ( I don't ) do Control-C for copy instead. I take a huge amount of pix, 3 to 5 shots per scene...... I look at them on the PC on a 24 inch monitor and delete the fuzzy ones.

Throw in a Qi wireless coil to the thing, and charging problems are a thing of the past.

The S5s are tough, I have two of them. Removable battery, but I'm still on the OEM and it is NOT showing any lack of power yet. I got mine on release day, 1 April 2014.

On the Camera Settings, turn off all the GeeWhiz features, no sound, no review, no HDR, full Auto for the ISO.... it does a great job, and is very fast for a phone's camera...
Are there faster ones? yes, but for the price, this is a good choice.

The camera defaults can be preset from 16 mP down to 2k (which is what I use so that I can upload to forums w/o making any modifications to the pix for size) and no one can tell that I did not take them at 16 mP... ( unless I transfer them direct to them )

____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
 
Ilya said:
You'd take either of those (with TouchWiz) over a G3?
Click to expand...
Sure. TouchWiz really isn't bad. The only reason they say it's slow is because it has a lot of animations on by default, which are slow. But there's a setting to turn them off or speed them up. Plus the features TouchWiz has are pretty useful sometimes.
 
I use Nova on my G4 but was thinking of leaving this phone as stock as possible due to after-support issues (not wanting to support it lol). That's why I asked why an S# over a G3. The user I'm getting it for isn't as technically savvy as I.

Also, I'm a systems engineer/consultant...I know how to use Windows Explorer. Sorry, I guess my OP made it sound like I was tech-useless. There is just a million Android devices and I wasn't sure if there was anything better than the G3 that came out later since I follow Android news (as far as hardware) only when I'm up for an upgrade.

Thanks guys...I'll see what I can find the S4/5 or LG3 for...those are my two front runners so to speak.
 
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Dastany said:
I suggest you to go for HTC One M8 or M9. Both of these phones are really stylish. I hope your friend will like them.
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dontpanicbobby said:
Another vote for an M8. Aside from the crystal clear voice reception it's a really fun device for music and movies.
Click to expand...

I had an M7. Never buying an HTC device again unless they make some phone that every media outlet gives a score of 10+ to and it's hands down the best seller. That thing was garbage compared to my G3 and the M8/M9 are a level below the G3/G4/S5/S6, etc.

What set me over the top in hating was HTC is that the M7 got slightly wet (it was in my pocket while I was riding my motorcycle and I got caught in some rain). Most phones would have been fine as it's not like it was submerged or fell in a puddle but the M7 went into a permanent boot loop. Because it had no removable storage, I lost 100% of the data on that phone. After that I started using Google AutoSync to sync my phone files to Google Drive but that whole incident left a terrible taste in my mouth regarding HTC. Up until then I was already considering switching.

I supported HTC for years...EVO, EVO 4G, EVO 3D, M7...never again.

Plus, maybe I'm one of the few people on the planet who doesn't want a metal/glass premium phone...they are slick/slippery. I'll take plastic every day. I'd love a phone with a thin rubber back even.
 
I like the plastic back phones, simple, elegant, drop proof.

Galaxy S, and now two Galaxy S5 phones.

All of them have durable rubbery cases on them. You can't see the phone's case, so why give a damn if it is metal or plastic?

The metal cases have a huge problem with the antennas, plastic phones can talk farther from a cell tower any day of the week.
 
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