Help Thinking of Samsung Galaxy S5 but have a few questions on its future

[dedvalve]

First I don't know if these topics are allowed so I apologize in advance if they aren't and feel free to close the thread and direct me to the proper place to ask the question.

My phone broke and I am in the market for a new cheap phone that packs a whollop and noticed that the S5 is on sale on ebay and generally available for pretty good prices. My budget is ideally under $450 no contract

I just wanted to ask a few questions regarding the phone but more specifically the speed of it and how much longer will it last in todays market. I'm coming from a broken HTC One M8. One major complaint with my M8 is the battery is now utter shite. It drains to 70% in about 1 hour and when its at 30% it dies very quickly. It also gets hiccups and occasionally gets slow.

I know Samsung has touchwiz (my mom has a note) which I absolutely despite so I was hoping to get rid of it completely and just have basic android on it. Does lollipop work well? I really enjoy their notifications feature.

But I want to know how future proof this phone is or should I just shell out an extra $300-450 more for this years model? I would want something that works fast and zippy for a year to a year and a half with no slowdowns if possible and I don't really care greatly for a lot of 2015 model phones for the price they are offering.

I also don't know too much about android phones in general and have been searching around but the options are just overwhelming. I'm choosing samsung mainly because on paper the specs look really good but it ultimately comes down to software to make sure the phone doesn't lag like crazy. So if this can stay snappy and good for a year out then I'll definitely get one. Anyone with experiences on Lollipop that aren't running touchwiz (sorry its really just a strong preference that I don't have it) and any other tips should I get one such as buying a better battery for it? Or any other phone to suit my needs?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[MLSS]

Touchwiz has gotten a lot better so you may be surprised by it.
The S5 is a good phone. I have a couple family members who have it and love it.
I would think you would still be okay with it if you wanted to keep it for a couple years.
I heard it is getting Marshmallow, so you know it's getting an upgrade.

If you don't like TW you could always use a 3rd party launcher like Nova launcher or even the Google Launcher.

 

[dedvalve]

yeah I'm currently using nova launcher on my htc. As for marshmallow I'm worried that it'll make the phone run significantly slower as I've had bad experiences with older phones getting new OS's on both iphones and androids alike.

Mostly I just want something I can pay off immediately and see what next years big phones have in store. So if S5 can still handle lollipop (that new notification system is too good) and manage a few running apps day to day with a good battery then I'll get it asap. Speed is also a big thing for me.

 

[Madbat]

The s5 can handle marshmallow just fine. It's not that old of a phone. It will be just fine for a couple years. I just gave my "S3" to my neice. I flashed the latest lollipop (5.1.1) on it and it runs fantastic. So that should tell you that the S5 will be fine for quite some time.