No exciting Android phones coming out:(

[Jester666]

Galaxy Alpha could be an option too, but battery life not the best

 

[GoodEnough]

iOS is a great OS for the kind of users who felt maintaining their Windows PC and keeping it clean was too hard because "their computer hates them" or because they couldn't figure out where applications went once installed. I will give it credit for finally providing an OS option to the least technically inclined users out there. That doesn't make it the ultimate smartphone OS though, its just a pretty shortcut for those who never grasped basic computer concepts.

Just wanted to say, this is a great post.

 

[QueBert]

Just wanted to say, this is a great post.

iOS can also be jailbroken and you can do damn near anything, the Cydia community is crazy big. And there in lies how beautiful iOS is. My Step Mom who doesn't know crap about electronics can use iOS and love it. And I can JB mine and make it exactly how I want it. I have an HTC One and just can't get over how poor the quality of the apps are compared to iOS. I guess you always have to trade something to get something *shrug*

 

[NutBucket]

If you have to design apps to work on a small range of hardware you can optimize things to look better, etc. On Android you have to accommodate for low end hardware and flagship hardware at the same time.

Advantage: iOS

 

[Rakehellion]

Oh great, we turned this into Android vs. iOS in only three posts.

 

[QueBert]

If you have to design apps to work on a small range of hardware you can optimize things to look better, etc. On Android you have to accommodate for low end hardware and flagship hardware at the same time.

Advantage: iOS

That's a cop out, the UI on Android apps don't have to look like a 13 year old in an intro to programming class made them. I understand the reason being 90% of the revenue from apps comes from iOS apps. But a lot of those cross platform developers should still be ashamed of themselves for the quality of their apps they chose to port to Android.

 

[NutBucket]

Perhaps. I'm a hardware guy so I really don't know the ins and outs of developing for either platform. I'm just applying my logic to the discussion...part opinion and part fact.

 

[Midwayman]

I don't mind the look of iOS. I have both-ipad and android phone. What really gets me is apples stupid restrictions. Like to save a photo out of an email I have to goto the iOS mail app. Gmail won't do it. There are a ton of things like this that are a roadblock between sharing data between apps. Drives me nuts. Other than than they both have their good points.

 

[NutBucket]

Back to the point of this thread:

What is the next "killer app"? QHD screens, fast processors, better battery life...what's left?

 

[lazybedone]

Lots of sellers tend to sell fake products. This would result to the declination of loyal buyers of the brand and would look for an alternative.

 

[kpkp]

Back to the point of this thread:

What is the next "killer app"? QHD screens, fast processors, better battery life...what's left?

Flagships at reduced price. I think the time has come where the $700 phone will have a hard time being sold, at least on the Android side.

 

[NutBucket]

I guess. Do we have figures on how much profit is made per unit? My guess is these flagship phones are not particularly inexpensive to manufacture/design.

 

[sm625]

The ZTE Axon Pro seems pretty exciting. Especially given the fact that this phone will likely be on sale for $200 by black friday, if their history is any indication.

 

[Midwayman]

Back to the point of this thread:

What is the next "killer app"? QHD screens, fast processors, better battery life...what's left?

Mobile VR?

 

[NutBucket]

Oculus Rift already exists?

 

[GoodEnough]

Android is free. Cheaper user base.

 

[GoodEnough]

As for OP, PHONES and OS's are not exciting, apps that help you do your life better are.
IOW, if you're phone is not exciting, it's bc your life is not.

 

[rbk123]

As for OP, PHONES and OS's are not exciting, apps that help you do your life better are.
IOW, if you're phone is not exciting, it's bc your life is not.

Embarrassingly weak.

His/her life could be so exciting that phones as of yet have not evolved with apps that help better his/her uber-exciting life. IOW, he/she doesn't want to take a step backwards in life excitement.

 

[trmiv]

I don't mind the look of iOS. I have both-ipad and android phone. What really gets me is apples stupid restrictions. Like to save a photo out of an email I have to goto the iOS mail app. Gmail won't do it. There are a ton of things like this that are a roadblock between sharing data between apps. Drives me nuts. Other than than they both have their good points.

That is a Google issue. You can actually save photos directly out of the Google Inbox app for iOS but not the gmail app. No idea why they haven't added it to the gmail app.

 

[Midwayman]

That is a Google issue. You can actually save photos directly out of the Google Inbox app for iOS but not the gmail app. No idea why they haven't added it to the gmail app.

That's just one example I've run into. iOS doesn't share data well between apps in general. I'm crossing my fingers they fix it for iOS 9.

 

[Dannar26]

My upgrade is loafing around unused since April of this year. This has been an atrocious year for smart phone releases.

The snapdragon 810 is a dud, and made all the phones with it inside duds as well. Everybody is dropping features that are useful, and adding things that are stupid.

Here's what I want out of a phone:

-810 level performance without guzzling battery life and melting faces

-Removable battery

-microSD card slot

-water/dust resistance

-unlocked boot loader, or some way to escape wasting several GBs on worthless bloat

-not a 2k or 4k screen. What a pointless waste of resources.

Seems like the S5 was the first and last of its kind, hitting on most of the points I identified. Too bad we now care about how the phone looks more than anything else.

I realize that there is no phone that will likely ever meet all the criteria, but dang, couldn't *something* come even remotely close?

 

[dawheat]

That's just one example I've run into. iOS doesn't share data well between apps in general. I'm crossing my fingers they fix it for iOS 9.

There are random things that do drive me up the wall sometimes on my wife's iPhone. With a new baby, we're constantly taking videos and wanting to share it with family.

I REALLY REALLY hate that I can't just email a video file I just took in anywhere near full quality. Instead a 75MB original file gets turned into a crappy 3MB file and there's no way to change it. Instead I have to share it to some random app like Dropbox.

Ok - so you want to save data. At least give me an option when I'm on wifi to send an original file.

The lack of a back button, especially when apps open other apps, also drives me crazy, though it looks like it'll be part of iOS 9.

--------------

I'm curious to see what the Note 5 really ends up being. If it really has a 4100mAh battery combined with the expected 14nm SOC and more power efficient screen, battery life could really end up being spectacular.

 

[Commodus]

My upgrade is loafing around unused since April of this year. This has been an atrocious year for smart phone releases.

The snapdragon 810 is a dud, and made all the phones with it inside duds as well. Everybody is dropping features that are useful, and adding things that are stupid.

Here's what I want out of a phone:

-810 level performance without guzzling battery life and melting faces

-Removable battery

-microSD card slot

-water/dust resistance

-unlocked boot loader, or some way to escape wasting several GBs on worthless bloat

-not a 2k or 4k screen. What a pointless waste of resources.

Seems like the S5 was the first and last of its kind, hitting on most of the points I identified. Too bad we now care about how the phone looks more than anything else.

I realize that there is no phone that will likely ever meet all the criteria, but dang, couldn't *something* come even remotely close?

I don't think it's an atrocious year for smartphones -- the GS6 is good apart from its battery life and remaining bloat, the G4 is surprisingly well-rounded, and it looks like the new Moto X models will do well. And if you're not Android-exclusive, the iPhone 6s and the Lumia 950/950 XL are promising as well.

It's just that the market is shifting, and many manufacturers have decided that the old way (where specs trump everything) wasn't working. Remember, Samsung saw its sales start to fall right when the GS5 was supposed to lead it to bigger and better things. That doesn't mean that including a microSD slot, a removable battery or waterproofing is the kiss of death. However, it does show that many people are more concerned about the overall experience than the feature count.

 

[NutBucket]

Agreed. Specs are meaningless if you the thing sucks to use. With the Note4 I have little motivation to install a custom ROM, etc. Good thing too since this VZW version is completely locked down.

When I bought the GS3 the thing was already a bit laggy out of the box. That's unacceptable in this day and age.

 

[Dannar26]

I don't think it's an atrocious year for smartphones -- the GS6 is good apart from its battery life and remaining bloat, the G4 is surprisingly well-rounded, and it looks like the new Moto X models will do well. And if you're not Android-exclusive, the iPhone 6s and the Lumia 950/950 XL are promising as well.

It's just that the market is shifting, and many manufacturers have decided that the old way (where specs trump everything) wasn't working. Remember, Samsung saw its sales start to fall right when the GS5 was supposed to lead it to bigger and better things. That doesn't mean that including a microSD slot, a removable battery or waterproofing is the kiss of death. However, it does show that many people are more concerned about the overall experience than the feature count.

It's interesting in a way. This may be the first year I'm not exclusively looking for andriod phones. If the iPhone 6s is actually worth it, I may go that way. If I have to put up with a walled garden, I may as well go with the one that does it best.

The galaxy s6 has the performance I'd expect from a two year upgrade cycle. I love what they've done with their in-house processor, and their new storage option. It's just less versatile.

Maybe I'll just get the S6 active...

The G4 has the battery and micro SD slot, but the processor is lackluster. I'm mostly unfamiliar with LGs overlay too.

I don't know what the moto phones will be like, or how the nexus phones will pan out. But from what I've picked up off of Google, it doesn't sound promising.

It's sad that the market has spoken in such a stupid manner. The GS5 was the perfect phone, but was given a "meh" reaction because it didn't come in leapard print or some other trivial concern.

It's like paying the same money and getting a fiat when you used to get a ford F-150...