This is the worst nexus year for me. I decided to stick with the nexus 5. I got lollipop and am content. The Nexus 6 hardware is just meh especially if you are considering upgrading from a nexus 5 to a 6. IMO you are downgrading the screen. Nexus 6 has a ****ty amoled display relative to the new generation ambled displays found in current gen samsung devices. Processor bump isn't much. Still no 64 bit. And six inches is just ginormous.
won't find a bigger nexus fanboi than me (biggiestuff or dave2k maybe) and i kinda agree, though i thought the screen was downright gorgeous. also, the build quality was better than any nexus to date. the very, very slight stutters could be attributed to me turning off encryption. animations seemed like they were cracked-out on hyperspeed to where they weren't as fluid. really my own gripe was the size. you either love or don't.
The screen by itself with no objective comparison is nice but I was disappointed with the level of quality relative to the current generation Samsung devices such as the Note 4. IMO the Nexus 5 is still the better screen. Similar pixel density, the nexus 6 has better black levels and higher contrast, but the nexus 5's display is brighter and more accurate with a non pentile matrix.
The Nexus 6 has seemed to grow on me over time. I wasn't a fan of it at first and I decided I'd try it out before I sent it back. Eventually, I decided to keep it, and I'm liking it more and more. Though I'm not a fan of phones with large screen sizes, I've gotten used to the size of this phone now. I still prefer 4.7"-5" phones for the most part. The Nexus 5 size is the ideal size phone. One thing I really like about the Nexus 6 (so far) is the battery life. I've had it for about a month now and battery life has been above average for me.
If you want a giant phablet... and I can't believe I am actually suggesting this... buy the note 4. I am also a huge nexus fanboy and usually despise touchwiz, but the hardware and added phablet specific software features of the note 4 make it the best phablet in the market currently.
The Note 3 will get Lollipop very soon, which I'm chomping at the bit for. So I'm good for another year, maybe longer.
Any love for the HTC one m8? I am eligible for an upgrade via Verizon and having had Samsungs thus far (s3 and s4) I think I am ready for a switch. I can't deal with horrible keyboards, poor interface and poor battery life that both of my samsungs had. I hear very good things about the HTC.
My son has the M7 and loves it. My nephew wants the M8 very badly (he's tired of iPhones) but his mother wont allow it and is forcing him to get an iPhone 6. Sense is great IMO. Much better than the annoying Touchwiz
I'm in somewhat of the same boat as omega with the nexus 6. Definitely like driving a stationwagon after coming from an s2000 (moto x 2013). Performance wise it's been mostly great. There are a few annoying software issues that I hope get ironed out. Aggressive google play services, Lag in certain games that don't exist on kitkat. Battery isn't what I expected, or it made me realize I'm on my phone too much but I can get through a day from 8am to 10pm with about an average of 5 hours of screen on time. I expect that to improve once some of the software issues get ironed out. I'll never get used to handling this behemoth of a phone BUT I'm willing to make the sacrifice because I love the size of the screen. It's not the best quality wise but it's still up there. It's not the brightest but one feature that I've enjoyed is actually how low the brightness can go. I don't get the feeling that I'm disturbing my wife anymore when I'm on my phone before bedtime. Handling the phone clean is the equivalent of handling a live fish. After the phone gets some oils and some grime it's actually easier to manipulate. in the end I'm going to stick it out and wait for the software updates. Lollipop has some nice features, but it still needs a lot of polish. My ideal phone would have been the pure Moto x 2014 with a larger battery. If I could, I'd try to get my hands on the international version of the Droid Turbo, the Moto Maxx. Nexus 6 specs in a smaller package but with a larger battery. =).
If you have to buy brand new I like the moto budget line. I got my mother in law a moto E and my mother a moto g (2013) for about 100 bucks. The moto G is actually this one. http://www.target.com/p/consumer-cellular-moto-g-cell-phone-black/-/A-15181851 It's sim locked but the unlock code cost me 2 bucks roughly and after unlocked it works on T-mobile just fine and will work on AT&t just fine. Only issue is no LTE and only 8GB of internal memory but does have a microSD slot to store your photos and videos on. If LTE is important for you, I completely understand. I'd keep my eyes peeled out on slickdeals. I've seen deals on high end phones from last year in the 200-300 range. I thought this was pretty reasonable for an LTE phone that has the latest OS and features that Apple can offer except for NFC payments. It even has solid storage option at 32gb. http://slickdeals.net/f/7541550-unl...ous-colors-seller-refurbished-209-shipped?v=1
Went over to the dark side and got an iPhone 6. Pretty cool phone. Miss my Moto X turning the screen on automatically as soon as i take it out of pocket though
I got a Droid Turbo, and quite frankly, it sucked butt. Battery life was *way* overstated. The nylon back was irritating and started to fray immediately. The out-of-the-box UI was ugly and clunky. First time I ever had to install a launcher on my phone. Buttons were not responsive and started to get finicky after I switched the SIM card (the card is housed under the volume rocker). Camera was good quality but once again the UI stunk. Very feature lacking. Lots of little things wrong with this phone. Hard to describe. Kind of like death by 1000 papercuts. I really missed the "tap on" feature. I missed the earphone jack on the bottom. I missed having a good speaker to play music. I missed having a simplistic notifications system. The best thing about it was the screen. Super clear, deep dark blacks. Very nice. Otherwise, it fell victim to the "tons of horsepower but lacking usability" trope. I sold it on ebay and got an LG G3. Never been happier.
I apologize for the likely repeated-multiple-times question for you experts out there, but... I've been an iPhone user since Day One (2007). I am not an Apple fanboy in any sense (I did own a Mac Powerbook once for work...and I suppose my Apple IIc doesn't really count). I'm also a lifer with AT&T (flame away!) and am locked into it via my job (work actually pays the monthly bill). I've been avoiding an iPhone upgrade for so long I'm still using a 4S. The battery is finally collapsing and I'm well overdue for an upgrade through the AT&T plan. I need to leave The Cult. Now. I'm so sick of Apple's proprietary bullschitt. I want OUT! Help me, Clutchfans. You're my only hope... I've heard great things about the Nexus 6, but honestly...it just seems too big. I really like what I've read about the Galaxy S5, but I haven't seen much love in this thread (admittedly I've only gone back about five pages). I do see some good things in here about the Galaxy Notes, but they're too big for me also). My main uses are quite pedestrian: Actual Phone, internet, email/gmail, scores, social media...and music. I use my iPhone as my music player/iPod. This is very important to me as I'm an avid music collector and digitize everything for listening to wherever I go. I want to never see iTunes again. Ever. I need a phone that will allow me to easily load/unload tunes. I can get a Galaxy S5 right now with contract renewal from Target for $99 (although it's only 16GB). Sorry for the tl;dr. Thanks in advance.
First, I have a Samsung GS3 (rooted) and a GS4 (stock, work phone). Lots of good choices for Android phones. The Samsung S5 is a very good phone, especially for the size you seem to want. Great camera, great screen, very good battery life and while folks complain about the UI and corresponding bloat, most people like Samsung best among the stock UIs. And, you can always root if it is a problem. Other good phones... LG G3 (though perhaps a bit too big) and the Motorola phones. And if a Nexus attracts you, you can still find the Nexus 5 which is a great size.
S5 is a solid phone. you just missed the 1 dollar S5 at best buy if you renewed your contract. It's still 49.99 right now which is better than the target deal. my opinion is that Samsung mailed it in with the S5 as it's not too much different than the S4. Reason why I have issues recommending the S5 is it's not even their best phone. That belongs to the note series but as you said it's out of your size range. Here is the latest deal on the NOte 4 if you change your mind http://slickdeals.net/f/7533314-sam...ft-card-2-yr-contract-sprint-verizon-ymmv?v=1 Reasons why i wouldn't opt for the S5. * 2gb of RAM Touchwiz and the upcoming lollipop, your memory limitation could start posing a problem in the future when apps start using more resources. * Shy away from 16gb if you can. Lollipop takes up more space than Kitkat and add touchwiz's additions, 16gb could leave you little for your system but the use of a microSD could alleviate some of that if you can install the apps there * Updates. Samsung seems to be a bit slow on this compared to motorola and LG who have stepped up their games a bit. It's understandable as they have to do more testing with touchwiz on top of the latest Android OS before releasing it. recommendations for phones in that size range. There seems to be similar deals on the LG G3 vs the S5. The phone is nearly identical in size to the S5 but you'll get a larger screen. The phone comes with 32gb internal with microSD Also comes with 3GB of RAM making it more future proof than the S5. I've heard about heating issues due to the display but not sure if most of that has been resolved or not. If you can wait a little and spend a little more, there seems to be promotions going on from time to time on the Moto X 2014. Last promotion brought the phone down to 350 unlocked straight from motorola. Reason why i didn't recommend the HTC m8 is because although the screen size is in the same range, the overall size of the phone is closer to the note series which you said is too large, otherwise a great phone as well if you don't put too much emphasis on great photos.
Read up a little and then go to a store and try out each of these: HTC M8, LG G3, Moto X and Galaxy S5. You really can't go wrong. If you can, spend some extra time with a Note and see if you can get used to the size. If so, you will never go back.
Thanks for the advice, everybody! I knew Clutchfans would come through in the clutch! Cheers and Happy Holidays to every damn one of y'all!
The G3's display is probably one of the worst in its class, however, unless you're holding up right next to another (better) screen, it probably won't even bother you.
