What I need from an Android Phone.

[MotoXTC]

I've "upgraded" from a BB9900 a few weeks ago to a Moto X Play.
Here's a few gripes I have with Android phone.
Maybe you could suggest a phone, that works well as a phone. It seems my $10 home phone puts my Android phone to shame, as far as functionality goes.

1) With data off, I do not receive notification that an MMS message has been received. I always get these a few hours after just by chance when I manually open messaging app and see that someone is trying to send me a picture.

2) No LED notification. Why remove that? I have to walk across the room and unlock my phone to see if I have notifications. Horrible

3) Massive pixel density for camera photos. Seriously 21MP??? Every picture is 5-6MB. I'm left having to resize everything manually. Google Camera has options to choose picture size, but has focusing issues among other issues. Sigh

4) Call volume is too low, even with the volume button cranked to the max, I have to push the phone into my head to hear anything come out of the speaker. Not in a quite room? Good luck. Yet the loud audio speaker is very powerful, go figure.

Is there a phone out there that can solve some my requirements in what I need out of a phone?

 

[Mooncatt]

The MMS issue is actually related to how the standard is set up more than your specific phone. The MMS protocol for pics and such handles it via cellular data. With cellular/mobile data turned off, the phone won't receive MMS messages. It's the same with any phone, with the possible exception of carriers and phones setup for WiFi texting (I've no experience with that to know one way or the other). You can check your messaging app to see if there's a setting to notify you only after the picture has downloaded. If not, you can try another app. I use Handcent, and it has that option, so you can at least know you have something waiting.

Many phones have removed LED notification lights. Some people like them, others don't. I personally do like it and one of the reasons I didn't go with the X Play. If I remember right, it uses some sort of on screen display for notifications, and has a "breath" function to effectively flash it. Again, that function was met with mixed reviews from users. Now, with the "official" stuff out of the way, there is actually a white LED in the X Play, but it doesn't have any function out of the box. You have to root the phone and make some changes to use it.

Manufacturers (or maybe more specifically their marketing departments) have convinced users that more pixels equal better cameras and pictures. To an extent, I don't blame them. Pixel count is fairly easily understood. Try explaining things like image stabilization, color accuracy, aperture, lens quality, image noise, etc to the average consumer and watch their eyes glaze over. I ended up going with the G4 largely because of the camera. 16MP, but also hits many other high points. If you think 5-6 MB is high, try 20+ when including RAW files associated with them. Lol, but I love the extra editing abilities it opens up. Plus, storage isn't much of an issue anymore, so there's simply less concern for picture file sizes.

I can't really comment on the call volume since I haven't used it, but again, every phone is going to be different. There may be other phones out there better suited to your needs.

A couple you may want to look into are the LG flagships. The G4 I mentioned has multi-colored LED notification, one of the highest rated cameras even at a lower pixel count than the X Play, and I've been satisfied with the call volume in noisy environments. Other high points for it are a removable battery and sd card support. There's also the V10, which is the G4's newer, slightly bigger brother. You get more RAM, manual video recording controls, a small secondary ticker display in lieu of a notification LED that looks more useful, and is reportedly built more rugged.

This is the nature of Android. Tons of options to choose from, but that does sometimes make choosing hard. For me, the prefect phone hasn't been released. I've always had to sacrifice something. I will say the G4 has come the closest so far. The only thing it lacks is front facing stereo speakers. I could also add optical zooming into the mix too, but I'm not aware of that existing in any phone yet.

 

[MotoXTC]

Excellent reply, thanks so much!
I was interested in the G4, but at the time my carrier did not have it, nor can I justify purchasing one full out cash.
A few weeks later, and I see my carrier has it, but for $5 more a month than what I'm currently paying with the X Play. Which is all ready much more than I am used to.
Perhaps, all I can do is wait and become more educated with these devices, and ensure my next phone comes more close to what I want.
Don't get me wrong, the X Play is a great phone for the price, battery life is insane!
There's just a few "taken for granted" features I soley miss from my old Blackberry.