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

Recommended Verizon phones under 5"

D

dc_maf

Newbie
My wife has a white Droid Razr HD which she has generally been happy with but has become too unresponsive to be viable (last night a call she tried to make to me went through 10 minutes after she dialed it).

I have been looking for replacements for her, but she likes its size and it seems that all phones with reasonable specs (e.g. at least 2 GB RAM) are 5+ inches. I currently have a 2013 Moto X and consider a used one a possibility, though mine is starting to show its age as well.

Can anyone recommend a "small" current Android phone on Verizon with good performance (just needs to be able to run Chrome, etc. and make phone calls at the same time)? The Razr HD has physically held up well, so build quality is important!

Suggestions on improving the performance of her current phone are also welcome - I have cleared the cache on it before, though it has been a while.

Thanks!
 
Poor performance is almost always due to a contaminated cache partition. I recommend that you do a Wipe Cache Partition and she may be happy with what she already has.

(On the Droid Turbo I Wipe Cache Partition every Saturday as part of weekly maintenance.)

... Thom
 
I
Thom said:
Poor performance is almost always due to a contaminated cache partition. I recommend that you do a Wipe Cache Partition and she may be happy with what she already has.

(On the Droid Turbo I Wipe Cache Partition every Saturday as part of weekly maintenance.)

... Thom
Click to expand...

I've been kind of lax in this department, and can't even remember the last time I did that on my Samsung Galaxy S5.

After I quit installing new apps, I sort of just got lazy about it.
 
How I see it ...

Do you want to be bothered over-and-over-and-over by unexpected problems cropping up like apps not loading and really lousy performance?

If the answer is "I'd like this to go away and NEVER affect me again" ... the answer is a periodic Wipe Cache Partition.

The elapsed time to do it on my Turbo is 8-10 minutes.

The only excuse I ever heard for not doing it is that there are some very poorly constructed old games that store progress results in temporary files and they are lost with a Wipe Cache Partition. I have not heard that argument in a couple of years.

... Thom
 
did not use a clock with a second hand, just the Time display on the phone.... 3 minutes elasped.

I did the Cache Wipe twice, because the first time, it happened so fast, I didn't think the 'Power Button' selection even worked, it went back to the Menu "now!"

then I looked down below with a 5" magnifying glass, and sure enough, it printed out "Cache Wipe Complete".
so, powered the phone back up.... it is the 'Power Up" time that takes longer than anything else.
My S5 will power off in about 10 seconds.....
Power up is about 30 seconds.
 
Great.

I have never found an explanation anywhere that explains why it takes 3 or 5 or 7 or 10 minutes and I have never seen an explanation anywhere that tells me why something that took 9 minutes in the past now takes 7 minutes after the last update.

Remember the lament "my phone is getting laggy ... I guess it is getting old and is time to upgrade". Nope. It is time to Wipe Cache Partition.

After any minor system upgrade I Wipe Cache Partition.
After any major system upgrade (like Kit Kat to Lollipop) I do a Factory Data Reset.

... Thom
 
I have always just done a full FDR after every OS upgrade.
That clears out the Cache Partition and lets the OS come up clean.

I also have always pulled the extSDcard before I let an upgrade get started. to me, that is just being prudent and protecting myself from a lot of headache.

the short amount of time it takes to remove the battery, pull the SD card, and then reboot is minuscule compared to the anguish I have read about from folks who absolutely refuse to pull the SD card, and then complain that "it should not have broke".
 
My battery is not removable and I have no external SD card.

The Factory Data Reset on minor updates is really overkill. A Wipe Cache Partition will get rid of all the droppings from the update.

(It is also suggested on a major update you do a Factory Data Reset before and after the update. This will greatly speed up the process because you are not scanning hundreds of apps during the update and then turning around and removing hem.)

... Thom
 
you are correct, I did not do a FDR on the last Verizon upgrade which was only to stop that malicious SMS virus, the name of I can never remember, although it starts with 'S'
 
Thanks - will definitely give try wiping the cache and see if that helps her.

If that isn't sufficient, any thoughts on a well-performing, current Verizon phone that is under 5 inches?
 
The Droid Maxx is a great phone at 5.25". If you go that route I suggest she go to the store and handle some of them to pick what she likes.

The Droid Maxx might not be getting Lollipop or Marshmallow.

... Thom
 
Last edited:
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is still a top performing flagship phone, and the prices are beginning to get low enough to grab a used one is good condition.

Mine looks like new, even though I have had it since 4/11/2014
it has always been in a case.
 
Like the Galaxy S4 Mini, which I bought and after two weeks got rid of the damn thing.

Anything that small is totally useless as a Smart Phone.
 
Wiped the cache last night. It was better for a few minutes, then got bad again and started periodically locking up and rebooting itself. Looks like a trip to Verizon is on the schedule this afternoon.
 
Does your version of Android have a Safe Mode? With power on long press on power button, , screen appears, permit it. It should reboot into Safe Mode. To exit Safe Mode just reboot.

In Safe Mode all apps you added will be disabled without being uninstalled. If the problem stops in safe mode it is caused by an app that you added.

... Thom
 
Thanks, safe mode helped a little. At least now we were able to install a backup program and back up her SMS and contacts. Also got Google Photos to install and it is slowly syncing her photos to the cloud.

We uninstalled Facebook and a few other smaller apps. Even with that there is only about 60 MB RAM free with only the Google Photos app running in the background.

I think she is done with this phone and will get a replacement. When you recommended the Droid Maxx above were you referring to the original (do they still have it in stores) or the new Droid Maxx 2? She seems most concerned with phone width (under 3"; the Razr HD is 2.67"), battery, and of course reasonable performance.
 
Thanks - after removing Facebook and a few other apps her current phone is at least usable again.

We went to the local Verizon store last night. She is now resigned to the fact that her new phone will be bigger than she would like. We also got a better understanding of the pricing of the new monthly plans and determined she would be better off going to monthly than getting a new phone at the discounted 2-year contract rate which puts all the new phones as well as the unlocked phones that work on Verizon into play.

So now we are looking at the Turbo 2 and its competitors, with performance (any top-tier phone should be fine but the Maxx 2 reviews on that front are a little concerning), battery life, build quality, and ergonomics being key.
 
The key is to define the group she is interested in and then go to the store an handle them. She is going to be using it for a few years and needs to pick the one that works for her.

I am using a Turbo and waiting form my Turbo 2 to arrive. Battery life is great. I find touchless control to be VERY seductive and wonder if I could ever use a phone in the future without it.

... Thom
 
Thom said:
I am using a Turbo and waiting form my Turbo 2 to arrive. Battery life is great. I find touchless control to be VERY seductive and wonder if I could ever use a phone in the future without it.

... Thom
Click to expand...

that feature is one I don't want... my phone does enough by errant screen presses without me just breathing on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom