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El Quintron
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join:2008-04-28
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1 edit

El Quintron

Premium Member

[Hardware] Replacement for aging Nexus 4

My wife's Nexus 4 is about to call it a day, and she'd like to replace it with either decent smartphone, if not necessarily a flagship model.

Any suggestions? Good battery life, a removable battery, SD Card, decently zippy and 1080p are her requirements?

She's looking for something around $500, that would work on Wind Mobile/T.Mobile in the states.

EQ
El Quintron

El Quintron

Premium Member

She's currently leaning toward the GS5, now that's it's a few months old the price has gone down a little, but I'd like to know if anyone has any other ideas.

EQ

dliw
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join:2003-03-09
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dliw

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My son has the GS5 and is an excellent phone.

El Quintron
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1 recommendation

El Quintron

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I'm happy with my GS4, so I can't imagine the GS5 would be a huge departure.

EQ

Gbcue
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join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

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LG G2?
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO

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LG G2 doesn't have removable battery and SD card. LG G3 does.

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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said by OZO:

LG G2 doesn't have removable battery and SD card. LG G3 does.

She's a bit put off by LG due to some recurring difficulties she had with the N4, LG is probably the only brand she wouldn't get.

EQ
OZO
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OZO

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What're the problems? At this point I'm looking at G3 as a potential candidate and I'd appreciate if you share the experience with LG...

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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We both had N4s, and I did not experience any of these issues, so you luck may be better than my wife's.

She had to get the screen replaced twice, the battery life is sub par, even after a factory reset. The phone also goes back and forth between being either unresponsive or over responsive.

Other than the fact that my N4 was destroyed in a flood I was pretty happy with it.

I would probably bank that G3 is a much better product than the N4, but that's my strictly an impression.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO

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Thank you for sharing...
GLIMMER
join:2004-01-17
Fisher, IL

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if you had a nexus device why in the world would you go with a samsung touchwiz phone. The interface lag alone will turn her off to the phone. The htc m8 is what the wife is using she likes sense but hates touchwiz. Im using a LG G3 till my nexus 6 gets here. I loved my nexus 5. To me removable battery is well not an issue. Sd card maybe a little if you get a phone with less than 32 gigs of memory. You really cant take advantage of the sd card with kit kat or lollipop at this time atleast for moving apps to it.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO

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said by GLIMMER:

To me removable battery is well not an issue.

I have completely opposite opinion here. I had a very bad experience with my HTC Aria phone because of its battery. In a couple of years it started behave badly - charging at about 15% of its full capacity... I ended up with replacing battery several times and now I have 5 those batteries. If I had a phone that doesn't allow replace its internal battery - it'd be trashed long time ago... Moreover, when I need to use phone for a prolonged time without access to charger, I always keep second (spare) battery in my pocket. So, for me, replaceable battery, separated from the phone, is important point of consideration when I'll buy my next phone. I don't want to trash whole phone just because its battery becomes somehow depleted in a while... Especially keeping in mind, that some of those smart phones now cost more than a new laptop...
said by GLIMMER:

You really cant take advantage of the sd card with kit kat or lollipop at this time atleast for moving apps to it.

What do you mean - Kitkat can't take advantage of SD card? Right now my phone uses Android v4.4.4, where all my apps are placed on second partition (ext2) of SD card. I use Link2SD for that purpose and it works well with Kitkat.

Hayward0
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Just curious on a phone why would 1080p be a requirement?

Even on a 10" tablet hard to tell difference from 720p.. 50" TV at home ok noticeable, on a phone its purely spec bragging rights at the cost of battery drain. Not to mention really tiny text and constant zooming even if you have 20/20 vision..

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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said by Hayward0:


Just curious on a phone why would 1080p be a requirement?

Fair enough, what I mean is that the device should have enough graphic power to be able to play back 1080p media, older devices; like my TF101, weren't capable of doing this.

The screen itself doesn't have to have a 1080p resolution.

EQ
GLIMMER
join:2004-01-17
Fisher, IL

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That app requires root! Most people don't even know what root is. The rumor mill on Google+ is that lollipop may not be rootable. Google is slowly patching holes in android. Lollipop has file encryption on by default. And it also uses Samsung's Knox to some extent they just haven't released details. Just the preview at I/o
GLIMMER

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Also ozo don't take this the wrong way but using a 4 year old phone like the aria to base removable to non removable is not really a good picture. Battery tech has changed a lot in 4 years. My kids are still using my HTC one m7 and the battery is still going good. The other daughter has the nexus 4 still runs like a champ. I can get 2 days if I have to out of my LG g3. I do carry a portable bat pack if it's needed.

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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said by GLIMMER:

nexus 4 still runs like a champ.

The Nexus 4, despite being an excellent phone for the price, was really a hit or miss propostion IMO, considering both my wife and myself ordered them from Google directly, and mine was great (minus the whole flood bit) and hers were a dud from day one.

EQ
GLIMMER
join:2004-01-17
Fisher, IL

GLIMMER

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I bought mine after the first hardware revision. And have not had problems. But a friend bought his at launch and hated it.

Elite
Kiss My Ass
join:2002-10-03
New Haven, CT

1 recommendation

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Why don't you buy a Nexus 5? Currently, the white and red colors are sold out, but they still have black in stock. $349 for 16GB or $399 for 32GB. It's like your Nexus 4, but better!

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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This is not my opinion, but my wife will absolutely not buy another LG phone, unfortunately.

EQ

dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO

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said by El Quintron:

This is not my opinion, but my wife will absolutely not buy another LG phone, unfortunately.

The nexus 6 is made by motorola, not LG. Is it too big?

edit: nevermind no removables doesn't meet requirements.

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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said by dib22:

The nexus 6 is made by motorola, not LG. Is it too big?

Elite See Profile has suggested the Nexus 5, which is still an LG phone AFAIK, but as per your edit removables are a must.

EQ

dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO

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said by El Quintron:

Elite See Profile has suggested the Nexus 5, which is still an LG phone AFAIK, but as per your edit removables are a must.

Yea the 5 was LG... I guess I got a good 4 like you, mine is still working like a champ.
medbuyer
join:2003-11-20
Memphis, TN

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did you know that Google is offering to replace broken N4 units?

»slickdeals.net/f/7177944 ··· tore?v=1

as long as you bought it from google directly and you are the original owner.

lordpuffer
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said by El Quintron:

She's currently leaning toward the GS5, now that's it's a few months old the price has gone down a little, but I'd like to know if anyone has any other ideas.

EQ

It sounds like you should probably get the GS5 if an LG made phone is not an option. My own personal opinion after reading the reviews on the LG G3 (I currently own a GS4) is that I would get the G3 if I had the cash for it right now.

El Quintron
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El Quintron

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It seems like the best choice, I'd like to give the G3 a test run for myself, but my wife doesn't even want to look at another LG ATM so either the GS5, or an HTC that has a removable battery.

She liked the Alpha but it's not available on Wind's spectrum.
El Quintron

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said by medbuyer:

as long as you bought it from google directly and you are the original owner.

I appreciate the heads up but it's been well over a year, and she wants a different phone.

EQ
medbuyer
join:2003-11-20
Memphis, TN

medbuyer

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said by El Quintron:

said by medbuyer:

as long as you bought it from google directly and you are the original owner.

I appreciate the heads up but it's been well over a year, and she wants a different phone.

EQ

wont hurt to call and ask...worst thing is they say no...

good thing will be, you'll end up with a spare N4.
GLIMMER
join:2004-01-17
Fisher, IL

GLIMMER

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The problem with the alpha is the small battery. And the fact it may never get root because it's a nitche phone.

Elite
Kiss My Ass
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Buy the N5 anyway and tell your wife it isn't made by LG. QC on the N5 seemed fine when I owned (and broke) one.