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Official 2015: Which Smartphone Should I Get?

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Official 2015: Which Smartphone Should I Get?

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Old May 17, 2015, 3:40 pm
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by murtaza12
I'm with you 100% on this.

I loved my Z2 in it's early days, then it started becoming a real pain in the a**. Random reboots, power off itself and most of ALL, the defective loudspeaker.
If I had to play some music through the loudspeaker, the phone would power off and wouldn't turn on unless you connected a charger.
Same goes for any other audio, a video, the sound from a game and even turning the volume on the ringer up caused the phone to power off.
After asking Sony about repair, they took 2 days to reply and it was a pretty generic one saying that the only Service Center in my country (sadly, Pakistan only has one service center), doesn't have the speaker part for the Z2, I was pretty pissed at this, I asked if they could import one and I got cut off.

I wasted USD 440 (44,000 rupees) on it and ended up selling it as defective for a mere USD 200 (20,000 rupees). That'll teach me to buy another Sony phone.

Samsung fanboy forever!
I'm using a Galaxy S5 now and loving every bit of it.
As an update, I got a replacement Sony phone, ~4 wks after I sent it in. Sony sent out the replacement exactly on the 14th business day after they logged it in as being received. (They received the phone on a Monday morning, but it wasn't logged in as being received until Tuesday, and the 14 business day counter started on Wed).

On one of my final calls to the service center, I was told that Sony had to replace so many defective phones that they were severely backlogged, and that was why my replacement was delayed.

So, this is just a warning to anyone thinking about getting a Sony phone - quite unreliable, and when it breaks, even if Sony says it is covered under warranty, you'd need to wait a month for a replacement.
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Old May 17, 2015, 4:05 pm
  #62  
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Originally Posted by paynea
As an update, I got a replacement Sony phone, ~4 wks after I sent it in. Sony sent out the replacement exactly on the 14th business day after they logged it in as being received. (They received the phone on a Monday morning, but it wasn't logged in as being received until Tuesday, and the 14 business day counter started on Wed).

On one of my final calls to the service center, I was told that Sony had to replace so many defective phones that they were severely backlogged, and that was why my replacement was delayed.

So, this is just a warning to anyone thinking about getting a Sony phone - quite unreliable, and when it breaks, even if Sony says it is covered under warranty, you'd need to wait a month for a replacement.
Sony mobile phone service is unlikely to get better. The company has been interested in gutting even more than it has already gutted in terms of staffing and some other related contracts. I'm better off with the likes of Apple or Samsung when it comes to phone repair service, even if it may be more highly priced than what may be an ok phone if the service was there to deliver to me when I need it.
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Old May 18, 2015, 1:28 pm
  #63  
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Originally Posted by pseudoswede
Asus is finally making an announcment on Monday about the release of the Zenfone 2 to the US market.
ZE551ML (4GB) – $299
2.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3580
5.5-inch 1080p display
4GB RAM
64GB internal memory
13MP rear camera & 5MP front camera
3,000 mAh battery

ZE551ML (2GB) – $199
1.8 GHz Intel Atom Z3560
2GB RAM
16GB internal memory
Rest, same as above

Available at most major online retailers tomorrow (5/19). The phone has its own version of "QuickCharge", but it appears to not have Qi compatibility nor T-Mobile's band 12.
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Old May 18, 2015, 3:46 pm
  #64  
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Looks like a potentially compelling phone, and a truly great deal on the $199 one.

Pity about the lack of OIS on the camera, but it gets decent reviews despite the lack.
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Old May 19, 2015, 11:08 am
  #65  
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YotaPhone 2 is now available via IndieGoGo.

$525 isn't a bad price--especially considering it includes T-Mobile's LTE band 12 and wireless charging.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/y...rtphone#/story
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Old May 19, 2015, 1:10 pm
  #66  
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Originally Posted by pseudoswede
Available at most major online retailers tomorrow (5/19). The phone has its own version of "QuickCharge", but it appears to not have Qi compatibility nor T-Mobile's band 12.
Having rechecked what band 12 is, are there currently ANY unlocked phones that have it?

Other than possibly the US-version Nexus 6 available on the open market that do -- AFACIT, the list is pretty much just "phones sold directly from T-mobile." (Even with the Nexus 6, there's a T-mobile-specific OTA that it will pick up for that and VoLTE support if you have a T-mobile, leaving it no longer quite standard.)
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Old May 19, 2015, 1:21 pm
  #67  
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Originally Posted by nkedel
Having rechecked what band 12 is, are there currently ANY unlocked phones that have it?
This website lists four phones (most notably the 2nd-gen Moto E and the Idol 3), not including the YotaPhone 2 posted above.

Last edited by pseudoswede; May 19, 2015 at 1:34 pm
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Old May 19, 2015, 1:31 pm
  #68  
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Originally Posted by pseudoswede
This website lists four phones (most notably the 2nd-gen Moto G and the Idol 3), not including the YotaPhone 2 posted above.
Thanks, not sure how I missed that!

(Although it lists the LTE Moto E, not the G; I haven't seen any sign the the 2.5-generation Moto G with LTE is on sale in the US yet, so it may well support it.)
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Old May 19, 2015, 1:34 pm
  #69  
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Originally Posted by nkedel
(Although it lists the LTE Moto E, not the G; I haven't seen any sign the the 2.5-generation Moto G with LTE is on sale in the US yet, so it may well support it.)
That's because I can't read. I corrected my post.
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Old May 19, 2015, 2:13 pm
  #70  
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Originally Posted by pseudoswede
That's because I can't read. I corrected my post.
No worries.
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Old May 19, 2015, 2:21 pm
  #71  
 
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Has anyone seen the Notification Area and Menu System of the Asus ZenPhone 2? I don't like the look of the launcher, but that's easy enough to replace if notifications and menus aren't too heavily skinned.
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Old May 19, 2015, 3:05 pm
  #72  
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Originally Posted by IsleOfMan
Has anyone seen the Notification Area and Menu System of the Asus ZenPhone 2? I don't like the look of the launcher, but that's easy enough to replace if notifications and menus aren't too heavily skinned.
From review photos, the menu skin looks relatively heavy.

I'm a bit surprised to see that none of the reviews show the notification tray, but none of the top results from a quick search do.
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Old May 19, 2015, 3:32 pm
  #73  
 
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Originally Posted by nkedel
From review photos, the menu skin looks relatively heavy.

I'm a bit surprised to see that none of the reviews show the notification tray, but none of the top results from a quick search do.
I found this... the main notification area isn't terrible, but the toggle area is a bit much, ESPECIALLY if toggles can't be hidden/disabled.

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Old May 19, 2015, 7:00 pm
  #74  
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Originally Posted by IsleOfMan
I found this... the main notification area isn't terrible, but the toggle area is a bit much, ESPECIALLY if toggles can't be hidden/disabled.
Yeah, I saw the photo of the toggle area. That's pretty awful, although I don't spend a lot of time looking at the toggles and I'd expect muscle memory to get used to the new layout pretty fast (so I wouldn't spend TOO long looking at the eyes-bleedy color.

The proliferation of too many discs doing too many things I don't care about is no worse than on the GS5.
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Old May 20, 2015, 7:07 am
  #75  
 
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I've been trying to decide between $199 for the 2gb/16gb version of $125 to fix the cracked screen on my 2014 Moto X... I'm not completely turned off by the Notification Toggle area, but it does make me think I'll miss vanilla Android quite a bit.
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