Which would you pick if you only knew manufacturer?

[tx_tuff]

I will be getting a new phone before the year is up and am coming form BlackBerry. The last phone I had before the BB was a LG flip phone. So I have not owned any of the newer smart phones made by HTC, Motorola or Samsung. Most of the new phones coming out are very close to each other in specs, so I'm just trying to find out about the manufacturers here. Please don't give me spec reasons. Thanks.

Lets say you had to pick a android phone from HTC. Motorola or Samsung and thats all you could know about it. No specs what so ever, just had to decide by manufacturer.

Which would you choice and why?

 

[rblacula]

tl;dr SAMSUNG

Well, Motoblur is awful, and so is TouchWiz. Sense is alright but is a battery drain and sometimes laggy on my friend's Evo3D. I'd get anything that is stock and not dinosaur tech. My friend has the Samsung Transform and wishes it would break because it's stuck on froyo and pretty much a tank. My other friend has the Samsung Captivate and likes it but it freaks out on her sometimes for no reason. Samsung's smartphones don't have the best build quality... Motorola phones are fantastic build quality. HTC is OK build quality, and has the best android skin. I'd go with any Nexus device or stock at the least. My Samsung Google Nexus S 4G from Sprint works amazing and the few issues I have are simple to fix. Dual core, while it does have advantages, means nothing if the software isn't there, as shown by the Evo3D. My friend has an Epic 4G Touch and absolutely adores the thing, hideous skin IMO aside. It really does come down to the phone. I'd recommend Samsung as long as you can get Cyanogenmod on it.

 

[Paul627g]

If I was going based on name/reputation for equipment... I would pick Samsung. They have great hardware and the beautiful AMOLED displays... Only problem with Sammy is they don't have the best reputation for OS updates....

HTC seems to be very on the cutting edge of keeping the customer current or first out of the gate with the newest updates but the hardware from what I heard is lacking...

Moto, I'm not to knowledgeable to date on them but from years ago before smart phones were "big" Motorola was a well made device... I mean really its Motorola.... You think Motorola you think cb radio's, walkie talkies, etc.. they have been in the wireless/communications game a long time.

Otherwise it all comes down to personal preference and what your carrier is offering..

 

[tx_tuff]

Damn was hoping for more help LOL. Thanks to the guys that responded.

 

[Moscow Desire]

Damn was hoping for more help LOL. Thanks to the guys that responded.

What kind of response did you expect?

Everyone has their favorite. And the argument could go on and on. Personally, HTC makes the best. As Paul627g above stated, HTC is great for pushing updates, and cutting edge devices, but you have to look at the specs before you buy. They sometimes do some strange things.

Example: The new Sensation XL (or something like that) just hit the streets here in moscow. $1100. Specs look great. 1.5DC processor, 16gbinternal, 8mp camera....but no SD Slot!!!! WTH were they thinking??? Or the (at one time) top selling Desire. 512mb internal memory. Ok, I can live with this as I rooted and Rommed. But still. Great devices, great support, but check the specs before you buy.

In a nutshell, Samsung or HTC ( both upper end models) and you can't go wrong.

 

[dmnall]

Well depending on your carrier, if you are verizon, you cannot go wrong with Droid Bionic *if buying now*, on Att even with the new Atrix 2, I still say the Samsung Galaxy S 2 is amazing, or if you want unadulterated android experience wait for the Galaxy Nexus *which seems to be a galaxy s 2 with out Touchwiz*. Sprint has the Galaxy S 2 as well. I can honestly say Touchwiz 3.0 was crap and overall Touchwiz 4.0 is not bad, too iphone like but it does have some features that I like. I would be running LauncherPro or GB Theme but I really like Touchwiz 4.0, some pretty cool features and it is nothing like what the i897 Captivate had with lockups, freezing. I have to say my vote is for Samsung especially since they are usually easier to flash since no bootloader is locked and if you want to unlock their gsm phones for use on other gsm carriers is Free and easy to do.

HTH,
Charlie

 

[Moscow Desire]

I have to say my vote is for Samsung especially since they are usually easier to flash since no bootloader is locked and if you want to unlock their gsm phones for use on other gsm carriers is Free and easy to do.

You can pretty much unlock any GSM device for use on other carriers. Although you will be missing some carrier exclusive offerings (4glte or Ltz for example) and will be relegated to 3g. Not such a bad deal.

But the root record has to go to Acer Iconia A550/A501. (ok, it's not a phone). Copy small apk to sd, install, reboot. Rooted!!!! I timed my self at less than 90 seconds! My HTC Desire took 5 minutes.

No Kyes, no Odin, no typing commands and no ADB. That's what makes for an easy root.

 

[Suntan]

Motorola.

For as much as everyone loves to be overly vocal about locked bootloaders and blur this/that, they have a reputation for making solid, high quality handsets with solid battery life. In addition they are well know to have good receiption/signal strength and the audio quality of their calls is second to none.

-Suntan

 

[Moscow Desire]

Motorola.

For as much as everyone loves to be overly vocal about locked bootloaders and blur this/that, they have a reputation for making solid, high quality handsets with solid battery life. In addition they are well know to have good receiption/signal strength and the audio quality of their calls is second to none.

-Suntan

They do have a couple decent devices, but remember, Motorola no longer manufactures hardly any devices, only skins devices from other companies these days.

 

[tx_tuff]

They do have a couple decent devices, but remember, Motorola no longer manufactures hardly any devices, only skins devices from other companies these days.

I did not know that, good to know.

 

[tx_tuff]

Thanks everybody, after yesterday I am pretty sure I will be picking between the Galaxy Nexus and RAZR. I figured there would be more people giving me reasons for which manufacturer based on pass experiences. Think I will just wait for both to come out and get my hands on them to decide.

 

[dmnall]

You can pretty much unlock any GSM device for use on other carriers. Although you will be missing some carrier exclusive offerings (4glte or Ltz for example) and will be relegated to 3g. Not such a bad deal.

But the root record has to go to Acer Iconia A550/A501. (ok, it's not a phone). Copy small apk to sd, install, reboot. Rooted!!!! I timed my self at less than 90 seconds! My HTC Desire took 5 minutes.

No Kyes, no Odin, no typing commands and no ADB. That's what makes for an easy root.

Yes it is true you can unlock any gsm device, however, some phones need an unlock code from either the carrier *free*, or an unlocking service. As for rooting the sgs2 yes you need Odin just to flash a kernel, but for the unlock, no commands, no adb, just a simple tool by Helroz called the GS Unlock without needing a pc, odin or adb to do for unlocking. Yes you will lose some of the carrier exclusive offerings, even using att as my current carrier, I do not use their apps at all pre-loaded on my phone. However when att launches their lte network, I will have to get a new phone if I want the higher speeds that lte provides, otherwise I am stuck on the hspa+ which honestly is not that bad at all. Verizon Wireless has LTE, but I am not sure if their lte phones will work on other providers just yet as from what I have heard has both the cdma and lte radios. As for the easiest rooting experience, Samsung GS Captivate *just download a flash when the phone was running Eclair*, rename the file as update.zip, reboot into recovery, flash update.zip reboot the phone rooted in less then 2 minuets, the sgs2 is a bit different, however, just needs odin to do it to get CWM and Rooting to work properly. The only reason to Kies is just for drivers for the sgs2 otherwise it is a useless program in my opinion.

Just my point is not all gsm phones are exactly 100% free for unlocking especially if you are not a customer of the carrier the phone is branded, then you have to actually go through an unlocking service unless the phone has the unlock code imbedded into it's firmware like Samsung does.

HTH,
Charlie

 

[pazzo02]

They do have a couple decent devices, but remember, Motorola no longer manufactures hardly any devices, only skins devices from other companies these days.

Where did you get that information? Unless you mean Motorola Mobility is now owned by Google, but the do indeed design and manufacture their own devices. A buddy of mine works in r&d in Libertyville (headquarters).

 

[Moscow Desire]

Where did you get that information? Unless you mean Motorola Mobility is now owned by Google, but the do indeed design and manufacture their own devices. A buddy of mine works in r&d in Libertyville (headquarters).

At least "somebody" get's it

Geeze you guys a slow this week

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

I've never owned a Motorola Android device...

If it were me, I would pick HTC over Samsung... but thats because the HTC dev community is top notch. I'm getting the next Nexus device though... I did not like my Samsung Epic, but the screen was great. HTC screens are in the middle... I like it better than the motorolas (however, that will change with the Droid RAZR). Its a really hard choice right now. I just like AOSP much better than any skin, and that is why I'm going with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus... assuming Verizon doesn't mess it up.

 

[SellnCLT85]

imo, all phones have their own positives & negatives. Like already mentioned, HTC at the moment has the better Dev community. So if your someone that would be interested in a lot of ROM's,Themes & Mods, HTC is a good pick. To me, Samsung's screens are superb! Lately they have used a little too much plastic, but the images are fantastic. Moto has the best/ consistent call quality hands down. I guess I should put the Galaxy in its on class?

Remember, initially all devices will have issues at the time of launch. After about 1 or 2 OTA's, the majority of the kinks are worked out.

 

[Moscow Desire]

I love when someone opens "a can full of worms"