Got my family G2s for $50 a piece through Verizon - with warranty! In fact, we already had to replace two of our phones due to SIM card overheating. I thought for sure Verizon would charge me for new phones, but nope; came to us in a couple of days totally free! Awesome Customer Support through Verizon!
Anyway, besides the terrible SIM card issues, I have severe issues with the included IR blaster. Its super weak (at first, I thought it was a problem with my original phone, but both replacements are just as bad!) You have to somehow contort your body and the phone and be less than 10 feet away from the device to get it to work (sometimes). I have soft-shell cases on these phones with a convenient rubberized hole poked out for the IR blaster. Since I have very little knowledge about IR function, is it possible to increase the strength of this feature by somehow adding some kind of amplifier externally to the phone. I'm thinking some kind of small zoom lens or crystal embedded into a phone's external protective cover opening. This would ultimately be a part of the cover, and not attached to the phone, but since my phone always has the protective cover on it, then great! My goal is to make the IR's blaster larger or more powerful somehow. Just don't know what to use. Anybody got any ideas here?
Other than my SIM and IR gripes, its been a super phone that is also super powerful! Yes, this processor was top notch last year. I think the new S5 has a Snapdragon 801 processor in it with a speed increase, but the graphics processors are the same... Doesn't seem like a huge improvement in my opinion...