HTC One M8 Google Play Edition Questions

[gidgiddonihah]

I have had a Nexus 5 since the beginning of December and have gone through three different N5's. All of them dropped signal all of the time leading to 5-30% of time without signal (in Battery -> Cell Standby and several apps that recorded dropped signal). This has meant missed calls from work, home, and massively delayed texts from everyone. It also drops off of LTE all of the time. I waited with my second device for over half a year hoping an update would fix but neither 4.4.3 or 4.4.4 did anything to help. I am hoping that support will give me a refund (taken right from their warranty terms on the Play Store):

If you purchased a device or accessory from the Google Play store that is or becomes defective through no fault of your own, you may be entitled to a refund, replacement, or repair of your device. Please contact us and we'll work with you on next steps and replacement options.

I plan on using the refund money to go for a GPE device - as its hardware that doesn't have signal problems I and a huge thread on Google's support forums have and the OEM is part of the software design. I am just undecided on whether to grab a HTC One M8 or wait for the Samsung GS5. Any thoughts? I think if the GS5 were out now and I could grab it now I would lean toward the GS5 but both devices are great (very close, I could go either way). I just don't want to wait around using my backup S2 or iPhone 3GS for very long as neither phone is in very good condition. I am open to any thoughts or concerns.

Of course this is all dependent if I can get a refund or even an exchange and I pay the difference.

 

[Wildo6882]

I have had a Nexus 5 since the beginning of December and have gone through three different N5's. All of them dropped signal all of the time leading to 5-30% of time without signal (in Battery -> Cell Standby and several apps that recorded dropped signal). This has meant missed calls from work, home, and massively delayed texts from everyone. It also drops off of LTE all of the time. I waited with my second device for over half a year hoping an update would fix but neither 4.4.3 or 4.4.4 did anything to help. I am hoping that support will give me a refund (taken right from their warranty terms on the Play Store):

I plan on using the refund money to go for a GPE device - as its hardware that doesn't have signal problems I and a huge thread on Google's support forums have and the OEM is part of the software design. I am just undecided on whether to grab a HTC One M8 or wait for the Samsung GS5. Any thoughts? I think if the GS5 were out now and I could grab it now I would lean toward the GS5 but both devices are great (very close, I could go either way). I just don't want to wait around using my backup S2 or iPhone 3GS for very long as neither phone is in very good condition. I am open to any thoughts or concerns.

Of course this is all dependent if I can get a refund or even an exchange and I pay the difference.

This is my take on it:

I've had both. Aside from camera, the M8 is better in every aspect of being a phone. Better screen. Better battery. More storage options. Better sound. And the build quality is insane. I also found that I had much better signal with it. I don't have much issue with my N5, but the M8 seemed to have a very strong signal. If you could get a refund, and have the extra funds for the GPE M8, I'd go for it. I'm using an N5 now due to money constraints, but am thinking about getting the M8 again. It's just such a better phone all around. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll do my best to help you out.

 

[Wildo6882]

I have had a Nexus 5 since the beginning of December and have gone through three different N5's. All of them dropped signal all of the time leading to 5-30% of time without signal (in Battery -> Cell Standby and several apps that recorded dropped signal). This has meant missed calls from work, home, and massively delayed texts from everyone. It also drops off of LTE all of the time. I waited with my second device for over half a year hoping an update would fix but neither 4.4.3 or 4.4.4 did anything to help. I am hoping that support will give me a refund (taken right from their warranty terms on the Play Store):

I plan on using the refund money to go for a GPE device - as its hardware that doesn't have signal problems I and a huge thread on Google's support forums have and the OEM is part of the software design. I am just undecided on whether to grab a HTC One M8 or wait for the Samsung GS5. Any thoughts? I think if the GS5 were out now and I could grab it now I would lean toward the GS5 but both devices are great (very close, I could go either way). I just don't want to wait around using my backup S2 or iPhone 3GS for very long as neither phone is in very good condition. I am open to any thoughts or concerns.

Of course this is all dependent if I can get a refund or even an exchange and I pay the difference.

Not that I'm stalking you or anything, just so happened to read a post you had in another thread. So you had good luck with a refund from Google? They've been nothing but awesome to me for some issues I've had in the past. And always seem like they want to help. Now if they would just support their devices not purchased in the Play Store.

Too bad the Ole college thing is stopping you from getting the GPE M8. It's a great phone. It's just incredibly expensive. It's tough to stomach even 7 years out of law school - with two kids and a wife - which is why I'm not using one and still on the Nexus 5.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Not that I'm stalking you or anything, just so happened to read a post you had in another thread. So you had good luck with a refund from Google? They've been nothing but awesome to me for some issues I've had in the past. And always seem like they want to help. Now if they would just support their devices not purchased in the Play Store.

Too bad the Ole college thing is stopping you from getting the GPE M8. It's a great phone. It's just incredibly expensive. It's tough to stomach even 7 years out of law school - with two kids and a wife - which is why I'm not using one and still on the Nexus 5.

Yeah. Sorry I didn't post back. Been super busy lately and hadn't installed Tapatalk on the new phone. I was extremely impressed with the support - the guy was working on a refund request and brought a supervisor into the mix to approve it before I even talked about a refund. It made me want to get the M8, but I looked over finacials and I just couldn't pony the money.

 

[Wildo6882]

Yeah. Sorry I didn't post back. Been super busy lately and hadn't installed Tapatalk on the new phone. I was extremely impressed with the support - the guy was working on a refund request and brought a supervisor into the mix to approve it before I even talked about a refund. It made me want to get the M8, but I looked over finacials and I just couldn't pony the money.

Yeah, it's steep. That's why I sold the one I had and got the Nexus 5 again. It was like a $300 swing. The reception on that phone was so much better than this, though. And it was honestly a better phone all around, aside from the camera and no wireless charging. And honestly, the camera wasn't bad. It took quick decent shots, but you just couldn't zoom in much due to the lower pixel size. I've been looking around for a cheaper used one, but haven't found one yet. Hope you enjoy the new phone. I'm looking at the G3 right now to hold me over until I see the next Nexus products.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Yeah, it's steep. That's why I sold the one I had and got the Nexus 5 again. It was like a $300 swing. The reception on that phone was so much better than this, though. And it was honestly a better phone all around, aside from the camera and no wireless charging. And honestly, the camera wasn't bad. It took quick decent shots, but you just couldn't zoom in much due to the lower pixel size. I've been looking around for a cheaper used one, but haven't found one yet. Hope you enjoy the new phone. I'm looking at the G3 right now to hold me over until I see the next Nexus products.

I never used the wireless charging. I just knew that the reception stunk. I loved the Nexus 5 as a device. It was incredible, silky smooth and crazy fast. Very few compromises were made to me it that cheap. It just couldn't hold onto a signal which sort of makes it useless as a phone :/.

I am loving the Galaxy S5. I was rooted in less than 24 hours (my goal was to make it a month) with Towelroot. The only thing I didn't like was how it wasn't buttery smooth when compared to the N5. I took half an hour to disable all the Samsung and AT&T gunk (47 apps in total - and I'm not totally done yet) and now it runs almost as smooth.