Smart Phones not many smart choices

[Perryg114]

It has been a while since I bought a phone. Present phone is a Samsung S3. It is getting a little old and slow and battery life has never been even remotely good.

Things have changed in the last few years and now you have to pay up for a $700 phone that could last 2 months and then it is dead and the factory takes months to fix your phone if they fix it at all. These sorta steers me away from a new phone because of having to rely on the factory warranty and it seems all brands have crappy warranty handling and response time. So this leaves me with a $60 Windows phone that I can't do much with or maybe are refurbed phone for less than $200. Yeah I guess I could rent a phone but that is not cheap either and I am not sure what the replacement policy is on those. I am using AT&T and will probably stay with that.

So it seems that there is a ton of demand for smart phones and universally crappy service. So am I missing something here or do you just fork over $700 and hope it lasts 2 or 3 yrs? I don't need the best phone out there but even the mediocre ones are $400. I don't consider any of these disposable. At this rate, keeping my old phone is looking better. So who has the best warranty service and won't play games? I was never impressed with my Samsung and I don't do Apple.

Perry

 

[shabby]

Things have changed in the last few years and now you have to pay up for a $700 phone that could last 2 months and then it is dead

 

[Adam595]

You could get a moto g4 or g4 plus. That way you won't be $700 out of pocket if it breaks out of warranty. Both are better than the s3.

 

[Commodus]

If you're concerned, I'd go with Adam595's rec and snag a Moto G4 Plus. Maybe wait to see what the new Nexus phones bring or even score a Nexus 6P so long as you get it at a discount.

With that said, it's a bit odd to complain vociferously about bad warranty service while ruling out Apple, the one phone maker that has a reputation for good warranty service.

 

[ericlp]

could get an s6... it can be had for around 300 new or cheaper on ebay if you want to push your luck.

It just got the marshmallow update. even tho, nugget will be out very soon. Might want to wait for that to come out and buy a phone that supports that version... If that is even important to you.

 

[Perryg114]

I am not a power user of these phones. I do some light texting and use thing thing to remind me of appointments and I use the camera a good bit. I want good alarm functionality which my S3 does not have. I also don't like stuff being constantly updated to newer versions that usually remove features and change user interfaces. AT&T updates seem to remove settings and screw with stuff. Things like settings that use to be on one page are on 4 different tabs now so you have to hunt for stuff. I probably use the local weather app more than anything. My S3 does not like to connect well with a PC for downloading data off the external SD card. I end up taking the phone apart and installing the card in a reader to download photos. Voice dialing with a bluetooth is something that should come with the phone and I had to use a 3rd party app to make that work. This is something that even came with the cheap flip phones and it does not work on a so called smart phone. I don't want to talk to some Siri thing for 5 mins to make a phone call. I just want to push the button and say home and it dials home. I would like the battery to last more than a day even if you use your phone. Why are these things 1/4 thick? Make them 1/2" thick with a BIG battery. Thin phones are hard to hold on to. Has any of this stuff gotten better on the new phones?

Perry

 

[JeffMD]

There are TONS of phones that stomp the S3 and would start under $200 with no contracts. You are clearly not looking hard enough. Try looking through the youtube videos of engadget, pocketnow, phonearena, and marques brownlee