My never ending search for a good smart phone
Most iPhone users will most likely tell me that the answer to my search is to bite the bullet and find an iPhone but life would be too easy if I jumped on that particular band wagon.
Trying to conform to my life's goal of spending as little money as possible without feeling that I'm missing out on what the latest technology has to offer, my journey started out with a Samsung Galaxy S1 purchased used when the Galaxy S4 was the hot selling phone. I kept it going with new operating systems and finally retired it when it could no longer run the latest operating system out of cyanogenmod.
I found a prepaid phone plan called Puretalkusa which allowed me to keep 4 smartphones with voice only for only $35 per month total (ie for all the phones) at a time when people were paying upwards of $100 per month for just one phone for voice + data.
In attempting to stay low cost, I went through a Blu Studio and a Blu Studio Mini C in the span of approximately 1 year before settling into a Motorola G2 updated to Marshmallow (1+ years). While the G2 proved to be more reliable and stable than the Blu phones, it did not have enough memory and performance capability to allow me to run the applications I need to see work calendar + mail on my phone.
My latest phone is a Galaxy S6 purchased new when the S8 is about to rollout. I don't like it so far, the performance and memory are there but I much prefer a straight android experience over the AT&T bastardized bloatware filled version. Battery life is terrible but I will hold off my judgement until after the phone gets updated to Marshmallow.
Should I have gone to the iPhone? Probably. Never has the old adage that a poor man pays twice been more true, but I dislike Apple's ecosystem so I continue to resist.
I purchased a Moto G5 Plus for my wife and it appears to check off many of the features I'm looking for these days.
Trying to conform to my life's goal of spending as little money as possible without feeling that I'm missing out on what the latest technology has to offer, my journey started out with a Samsung Galaxy S1 purchased used when the Galaxy S4 was the hot selling phone. I kept it going with new operating systems and finally retired it when it could no longer run the latest operating system out of cyanogenmod.
I found a prepaid phone plan called Puretalkusa which allowed me to keep 4 smartphones with voice only for only $35 per month total (ie for all the phones) at a time when people were paying upwards of $100 per month for just one phone for voice + data.
In attempting to stay low cost, I went through a Blu Studio and a Blu Studio Mini C in the span of approximately 1 year before settling into a Motorola G2 updated to Marshmallow (1+ years). While the G2 proved to be more reliable and stable than the Blu phones, it did not have enough memory and performance capability to allow me to run the applications I need to see work calendar + mail on my phone.
My latest phone is a Galaxy S6 purchased new when the S8 is about to rollout. I don't like it so far, the performance and memory are there but I much prefer a straight android experience over the AT&T bastardized bloatware filled version. Battery life is terrible but I will hold off my judgement until after the phone gets updated to Marshmallow.
Should I have gone to the iPhone? Probably. Never has the old adage that a poor man pays twice been more true, but I dislike Apple's ecosystem so I continue to resist.
I purchased a Moto G5 Plus for my wife and it appears to check off many of the features I'm looking for these days.
- good camera
- straight android
- more than 1gig ram
- more internal storage
She hasn't complained about the phone in over 2 weeks of use and that is a first.
***UPDATE***
We've switched over to a new prepaid phone service through GoRedPocket.com for about $15 more per month we're getting more minutes plus data. The 2 plans we're using are:
$10/month for all of us (500 voice, 500 text, 500mb data)
So far, it's the best deal I could find in pre-paid phone service.
I found a plan called Mint Mobile that I may try for the wife. it's $15 per month but you get alot more data and mins. we shall see.
***UPDATE 2 ***
The S6 is locked to AT&T and this means I can't upgrade it to a different version of Android. So while the performance capability is suitable for several newer releases of Android, Samsung has stopped updating the phone in a planned obsolescence scheme to sell more newer phones. I can swap the battery for a newer one to get another 2 years of use but would like to get some operating system and security updates to run some work related applications which require more recent software.
***UPDATE 3 ***
Well the S6 lasted me roughly 2 years and would have likely lasted much longer if I could upgrade to a more recent operating system. I think if I install a new battery, it could go another 2 years without much issue, but I want to run email from my work and that requires recent security patches so I've purchased a refurbished (used!) OnePlus 5T. We'll see how it goes when I start using it.
***UPDATE***
We've switched over to a new prepaid phone service through GoRedPocket.com for about $15 more per month we're getting more minutes plus data. The 2 plans we're using are:
$10/month for all of us (500 voice, 500 text, 500mb data)
So far, it's the best deal I could find in pre-paid phone service.
I found a plan called Mint Mobile that I may try for the wife. it's $15 per month but you get alot more data and mins. we shall see.
***UPDATE 2 ***
The S6 is locked to AT&T and this means I can't upgrade it to a different version of Android. So while the performance capability is suitable for several newer releases of Android, Samsung has stopped updating the phone in a planned obsolescence scheme to sell more newer phones. I can swap the battery for a newer one to get another 2 years of use but would like to get some operating system and security updates to run some work related applications which require more recent software.
***UPDATE 3 ***
Well the S6 lasted me roughly 2 years and would have likely lasted much longer if I could upgrade to a more recent operating system. I think if I install a new battery, it could go another 2 years without much issue, but I want to run email from my work and that requires recent security patches so I've purchased a refurbished (used!) OnePlus 5T. We'll see how it goes when I start using it.
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