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So, as a power user, what should I look toward next?

codezer0

codezer0

Android Expert
Foreword

I'll try to keep this as brief as I can. Simply, even when I do have a phone that I'm actively using and that should be lasting me a while, I try to keep in mind to always have a "viable" choice... like a... "if I suddenly lose the phone I have now, what would I need to get in order to be good?" Kind of thinking. Problem is, presently... I can't say I'm particularly happy with what I have now, and I can't seem to find anything that would fulfill what I'm looking for.

Current Phone: Moto X Pure
  • + Universal bands support, supporting all four major carriers and prepaid providers
  • + Excellent Screen
  • + Front stereo speakers
  • + Only phone I could find at the time that had the universal bands support and still supported SD cards
  • - Factory AC adapter basically died within two months
  • - god-awful battery, that's also non-removable, and knowing it's just going to die eventually
  • - being forced to carry an extra battery bank and having had gone through several USB cables before finding one the combination wouldn't just break
What do I want, and why?
  • Removable battery, and especially, for there to be a design that enables extended batteries to be made for it, if not already having them available. No, I don't want to carry the mother****ing power bank around anymore. I used to have a Note 3 I used with a ZL extended battery and case... made it about as big as a brick, true, but it still fit in my work shirt pocket, and I knew with that battery, it would always at least last a full day of heavy use no problem. The MXPE loses 80% of its battery in just one hour of WWE Champions. Nevermind basically refusing to increase charge percentage while running down the power bank instead. Eff that noise.
  • Ideally, support for all four major carriers' bands. But at least from my own checking, seems no manufacturer at any price point will do these first two. If I have to dump one of the major carriers here in the states, it would likely be Sprint, due to the bad blood that they created with me in the past. For what it's worth, I'm currently on T-Mobile... but if I ever have to switch, being able to keep the same phone would basically limit the wait, and the cost, since it took me the half a year at the time, before I was able to raise enough money for a phone when I was finally mentally done with Sprint and their shenanigans.
  • Should go without saying, but SD support helps a lot. Since I won't even suffer an Android phone I can't root, having the SD slot with a custom recovery gives me the peace of mind and the ability to have an image backup I can restore from if things ever go sour, rather than risk bricking the phone.
It feels honestly distressing that nobody seems to be making anything close to fulfilling these requirements. At least, that I am aware of.
 
codezer0 said:
What do I want, and why?
  • Removable battery
  • Ideally, support for all four major carriers' bands.
  • Should go without saying, but SD support helps a lot.
It feels honestly distressing that nobody seems to be making anything close to fulfilling these requirements. At least, that I am aware of.
Click to expand...

The Moto G4 Play has all three, but it's a mid range device not a high end flagship phone.

https://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-g-play
 
It doesn't have NFC, may not matter for the OP but it does to me :)
The G5 will have it, that looks like a nice phone. Waiting on pricing and final specs still but it could be a contender.
 
That g play does not have a removable battery. Most of my problem with the mxpe is because of the battery being nonremovable. Just yesterday, I had to spend time charging it three separate times. That's ridiculous.
 
Clementine_3 said:
It doesn't have NFC, may not matter for the OP but it does to me :)
The G5 will have it, that looks like a nice phone. Waiting on pricing and final specs still but it could be a contender.
Click to expand...
LG g5? There are no extended batteries for it. And LG has not yet made one that can work across more than one carrier, to my knowledge.
 
Looks like the V20 has a removable battery and SD card slot, but there is a different model for every carrier making it less likely you can activate it on all four major carriers.

The Moto G4 Play is the only one I know that meets all 3 requests.
 
kate said:
Yes it does (however the G4 and G4 Plus don't have removable batteries). Here are three reviews of the Moto G4 Play all saying the battery is removable:

http://www.zdnet.com/product/motorola-moto-g4-play/

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/moto-g4-play-1328624/review/3

https://www.androidpit.com/lenovo-moto-g4-play-review-simple-smartphone-with-good-battery-life
Click to expand...
Huh. Interesting. Problem is, googling for an extended battery for it is resulting in nothing at all.

On the other, I could see this being a good choice for my fiancee, who still insists on hanging on to the Lumia 550 I gifted her, as she finds Android user environment infuriating compared to Windows Phone 10 (her words, not mine). Just in case we have to switch carriers to one that Lumia can't connect to.

At least reviews are also showing this is much weaker than what I already have.
Hadron said:
I believe that the LG V20 has a removable battery, and a more conventional approach than the G5. Don't know about bands but that should be easy to check.
Click to expand...
Indeed it does. But yea, LG only seems to want to make carrier specific models. I tried asking about this on their facebook page, and someone did mention that they were indeed working on a carrier-agnostic version to be released by the end of this month, if not late last year. Problem is, I haven't seen or been able to find any information anywhere of this unlocked model... And I am not paying $800 for a phone to be locked to a carrier, and then not be able to actually use it anymore if for whatever reason (in this case) T-Mobile doesn't provide satisfactory service anymore.
 
All I know is... If WWE champions already seems to nuke the battery of my existing Moto x pure, and give my already sour taste of Motorola's warranty service, what hope would that g4 play have with me? I mean, based on what this has already, the 430 in the g4 play would be a harsh downgrade, and probably run out faster.

Lack of extended batteries is also a sour point.

But of course, the only hope I had before was project area, and of all companies, Google buys it out so nobody can have it. Only to try and make us pay $800 for yet another knockoff iPhone with a 30 minute battery life or worse.

I fail to see the point of spending any serious money if the phone isn't going to last. I can relax and stretch my budget goal for a phone that has removable battery and extended batteries available, but a nonremovable battery just ends up being a throwaway, because of all the problems I continue to have with an example like this one I'm typing from now.
 

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psionandy said:
Just interested in if you'd made a choice yet... or what you're looking towards at the moment.
Click to expand...
Have not had much time to look into it further, because I suddenly had to move... Long story, not really worth going into. In any case, haven't been able to really find anything on my own for any avenue.
  • Replacing internal battery on this phone would be a nightmare to do on my own, and at best will just give me the same problem as before, only the phone will look worse as no instructional video or guide I could find details how to put it back together once the original glue is gone.
  • On the same note, can't find anything to try to link multiple of the batteries together for a higher capacity, as there is no way to have a thicker body to make room for them.
  • Someone I talked to locally suggested doing some kind of process like a reflow of solder to desolder the radio chip in the note 3 for one that would work with modern LTE bands, but can't find anything of the sort, nor have the gear to do such a fix.
  • Other than the iPhone 6s or newer, T-Mobile itself that I could see doesn't sell a phone that would work on another carrier, that can be had for new.
  • LG hits a lot of positive points with the g4, v10 and v20, but they refuse to offer an unlocked version. And they were very explicit in stating that even if bought new, any unlocked phones of their brand have no warranty at all. Which means nothing to deal with the bootloop issues plaguing the g4 and v10. And nobody wants to make any extended batteries for the g5, so that is out.
  • No extended batteries for the g4 play, combined with the sour experience of nonsupport from Motorola, already tmel me the g4 play is a bad choice for me; though not a bad alternative for my fiancee if I have to get her a phone to switch from her unlocked Lumia 550.
  • Even if I choose to ignore the presence of an SD slot, which I'd rather not, I'm still back at square one.
 
codezer0 said:
  • LG hits a lot of positive points with the g4, v10 and v20, but they refuse to offer an unlocked version. And they were very explicit in stating that even if bought new, any unlocked phones of their brand have no warranty at all.
Click to expand...
This seems surprising, since I can see what they call an "unlocked" V20 on the LG USA website. Of course it may not meet all of your other requirements (they are vague about frequency bands even in the "tech specs"). I presume that the comment about lack of warranty support refers to phone bought overseas and imported (possibly not made clear by them), because I would be amazed if they could sell it themselves within the US and just choose to offer no warranty.
 
Hadron said:
This seems surprising, since I can see what they call an "unlocked" V20 on the LG USA website. Of course it may not meet all of your other requirements (they are vague about frequency bands even in the "tech specs"). I presume that the comment about lack of warranty support refers to phone bought overseas and imported (possibly not made clear by them), because I would be amazed if they could sell it themselves within the US and just choose to offer no warranty.
Click to expand...
I thought it was positively insane. I went through the same thought process about this time last year before settling on the Moto x pure.

I was about to pick up the LG g4, because best buy locally had the unlocked version sold at a better than average price. I contacted LG directly to confirm the model was unlocked and had the bands I needed to have good service with T-Mobile. Their response was that it was a model locked to us cellular, when I was left asking "who the hell is US Cellular?" Because I never heard of them anywhere. They also said any os updates would have to come from them, and that regardless of whether I bought it from best buy or Amazon or any such place, even if new in box, it would have no warranty at all.

So is it any wonder I'm terrified of LG at this point? I would be apolcolyptically pissed if I had a hardware fault for them to tell me I have no warranty after dumping that much on a phone.
 
Indeed.

I just wonder about the information they gave you, because that page I linked not only says "unlocked" with no mention of USC, it also has a "buy now" button (so sold directly by LG) and a warranty information link which is a standard 1 year warranty.

Now if they were saying that Best Buy were taking USC-locked handsets, unlocking them themselves and then selling them I could believe everything they said. But that sounds quite a bizarre story to me, especially since LG do actually make unlocked versions (I can even see an unlocked G4 still on their website, where they show a couple of official vendors for it). Of course I've little experience of Best Buy (I visit the States every couple of years, but don't usually buy electroncs while I'm over) so it may be that they do something screwy, but LG themselves are certainly advertising unlocked models with standard warranties on their own website.
 
Hadron said:
Indeed.

I just wonder about the information they gave you, because that page I linked not only says "unlocked" with no mention of USC, it also has a "buy now" button (so sold directly by LG) and a warranty information link which is a standard 1 year warranty.

Now if they were saying that Best Buy were taking USC-locked handsets, unlocking them themselves and then selling them I could believe everything they said. But that sounds quite a bizarre story to me, especially since LG do actually make unlocked versions (I can even see an unlocked G4 still on their website, where they show a couple of official vendors for it). Of course I've little experience of Best Buy (I visit the States every couple of years, but don't usually buy electroncs while I'm over) so it may be that they do something screwy, but LG themselves are certainly advertising unlocked models with standard warranties on their own website.
Click to expand...
Best buy is known to do many things, but going through that seems like more trouble than it's worth. Especially when Amazon would also sell the same model when it does show up in their stores.

The whole thing definitely has me confused. And the lack of clarity from the part of LG doesn't help matters at all.
 
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