Need a $200-250 Phone - Suggestions

[dpham00]

Yeah and they can sell you the phone with a good imei and immediately call and report the device stolen, leaving your unable to activate

Sent from my LG G Pad 8.3

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yeah and they can sell you the phone with a good imei and immediately call and report the device stolen, leaving your unable to activate

Sent from my LG G Pad 8.3

Good point.

Signed, an M8, Liquidsmooth, and the AC Forums App

 

[adammg84]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. My reasoning for wanting an SD card is I've been using an iPhone since the first one and always manage to fill it up with pictures, videos, music. iClouds storage isn't enough. so constantly backing up to PC. 16GB Moto G doesn't have LTE or SD. Probably could get by 8GB until my contract runs out and get S6 in the Spring subsidized.

 

[JeffDenver]

Google added official support back in. Not sure why the attitude of "Google is trying to kill SD cards" is so prevalent now.

How many Nexus devices have SD? How many Android phones allow Apps-to-SD support?

There's your answer.

Heck, there's a version of the Moto G with LTE and SD card support available. That was made when Google still owned Moto.

Towards the very end. And even thn that was a Moto decision...Google did not design the Moto G, Moto did.

I lost a weeks worth of vacation photos because my Nexus 5 did not have SD. So when it died, all the pictures and video I took died with it. So I am a little bitter about it.

 

[JeffDenver]

I'd use an SD card for movies and music but that's it. Game data from apps.. Or just may apps... Photos... Anything of that nature I wouldn't trust... They can randomly corrupt .

Have never had that happen once with any SD I have owned. Even SD cards from water damaged phones I've had. SD can survive submersion in water...something the internal memory on my Nexus 5 didn't.

All memory is subject to corruption...even internal memory. I am sure it happens on SD, but the fact that it has never happened on any of the many phones I have owned leads me to believe it is not common.

 

[B. Diddy]

SD corruption sure seems pretty common--on Samsung devices, anyway. I see at least one or two new threads about this every day. It's more common than you experience.

 

[mogelijk]

Have never had that happen once with any SD I have owned. Even SD cards from water damaged phones I've had. SD can survive submersion in water...something the internal memory on my Nexus 5 didn't.

All memory is subject to corruption...even internal memory. I am sure it happens on SD, but the fact that it has never happened on any of the many phones I have owned leads me to believe it is not common.

Which is a good argument for the Moto G; it is close to waterproof. There are some interesting YouTube videos where people have put them in water for 30 minutes and they keep working with no issues.

 

[JeffDenver]

And often fail with no warning.

Where is the source for these claims? Who exactly are they "often failing" for? I don't mean this sarcastically. I'd really like to know.

I have never seen this happen even once...not only with me, but with everyone I know who also uses SD. And I am talking years...I still use the cheap SD card I got for my 2009 Droid 1.

 

[B. Diddy]

If you read through as many of the posts on these forums as I do, you'd notice quite a few that discuss lost photos, music tracks, and other files on SD cards--usually from very frustrated users who cared a lot about those lost files. Or cards that just so being recognized by the device. Maybe we're jumping to conclusions, but I don't think so.

Posted via Android Central App.
Please excuse any typos or autocorrect derps.

 

[JeffDenver]

SD corruption sure seems pretty common--on Samsung devices, anyway. I see at least one or two new threads about this every day. It's more common than you experience.

Lots of friends and family with Samsung phones. My sister has gone through two Notes, my BF has a GS3. Boss and a coworker also use GS3. I am the go-to guy for tech support for all of them. None have had SD issues.

How many Samsung users are on this forum? Thousands? What is the ratio of complaints to the number of users? I am betting it is pretty low.

 

[mogelijk]

Where is the source for these claims? Who exactly are they "often failing" for? I don't mean this sarcastically. I'd really like to know.

I have never seen this happen even once...not only with me, but with everyone I know who also uses SD. And I am talking years...I still use the cheap SD card I got for my 2009 Droid 1.

A lot depends on usage; the heavier the usage, the faster they will fail. I've had a couple of tablets that I rooted, where you boot to the SD card, and those cards typically fail within a year.

 

[anon(50597)]

Where is the source for these claims? Who exactly are they "often failing" for? I don't mean this sarcastically. I'd really like to know.

I have never seen this happen even once...not only with me, but with everyone I know who also uses SD. And I am talking years...I still use the cheap SD card I got for my 2009 Droid 1.

I thought the same thing. Read about it when I had my S3. It didn't happen to me until one day.... then I understood. They weren't lying.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[JeffDenver]

I thought the same thing. Read about it when I had my S3. It didn't happen to me until one day.... then I understood. They weren't lying.p

I wish I'd been able to take the risk on my vacation. Instead the photos died when my phone died. There is something to be said for having a removable backup on your phone.

I just got a nexus 7 to replace my aging Asus tf7700...the SD on my transformer has worked great since I bought it in 2012.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

How many Nexus devices have SD? How many Android phones allow Apps-to-SD support?

There's your answer.


Towards the very end. And even thn that was a Moto decision...Google did not design the Moto G, Moto did.

I lost a weeks worth of vacation photos because my Nexus 5 did not have SD. So when it died, all the pictures and video I took died with it. So I am a little bitter about it.

You're looking at it wrong. SD card support is there, in Android, built-in by Google. I can move any app that supports it to SD card on my M8 or S5 (or any other device with Kit Kat and SD card slot). Remember, when ICS was released, official support was removed. So the way that manufacturers were doing it was technically "hacked" in, which is why there were issues with it (can't count how many Samsung/SD card slot issue threads I've seen over the years). Now look how that worked out for those same manufacturers when Google forced them all to do it the right way (right in this context means using the proper implementation of the API's).

"Towards the very end" Yeah, when support was added back in officially. That also happens to be when HTC put an SD card back in their devices. I'm sure that's not a coincidence.

Sounds like you lost your pictures because you didn't have proper backups in place to ensure that they were saved somewhere else. And remember, SD cards can and do go bad also. Just because you have an SD card does not make it a fool proof backup plan.

 

[B. Diddy]

Lots of friends and family with Samsung phones. My sister has gone through two Notes, my BF has a GS3. Boss and a coworker also use GS3. I am the go-to guy for tech support for all of them. None have had SD issues.

How many Samsung users are on this forum? Thousands? What is the ratio of complaints to the number of users? I am betting it is pretty low.

Tell you what--I'll ping you with the next few SD card issue threads that I come across, and maybe you can help them.

 

[JeffDenver]

You're looking at it wrong.

I disagree. Google is grudgingly allowing SD support because they don't want a backlash that taking away SD would cause. But they definitely don't like it, IMO, and are committed to throwing roadbloacks in our way to encourage us not to use it. They want us to use the stupid/slow/unreliable cloud. The cloud is not a replacement for local storage, and may never be.

This is far different from the days of the Nexus 1 when they embraced it.

Sounds like you lost your pictures because you didn't have proper backups in place to ensure that they were saved somewhere else.

Yeah, someplace like, oh I don't know...an SD card inside the phone? That would have been great.

I definitely learned my lesson though, and now that I don't have SD I will make sure to carry some other much-more-expensive-and-cumbersome backup solution along with me. It's part of the price I will have to pay to use Nexus devices now.

And remember, SD cards can and do go bad also.

As is evidenced by the zero (0) SD cards that have gone bad for me and friends and family over dozens of devices and 5 years time. But people on the internet have had problems, so it is clear I should completely ignore my own experiences and assume that every SD card has a high failure rate now.

Just because you have an SD card does not make it a fool proof backup plan.

Only 99.9%. I agree, thats much worse.

I have yet to see any actual figures on failure rates. Even estimated ones.

 

[Almeuit]

Have never had that happen once with any SD I have owned. Even SD cards from water damaged phones I've had. SD can survive submersion in water...something the internal memory on my Nexus 5 didn't.

All memory is subject to corruption...even internal memory. I am sure it happens on SD, but the fact that it has never happened on any of the many phones I have owned leads me to believe it is not common.

And I had it happen with all my SD cards... Reboot a phone... Instant corruption and needs reformatting...

Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen... That's definitely not a good way to think about things.

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[B. Diddy]

I wonder if maybe we should get this thread back on topic, regarding a good $200-250 phone for the OP?

 

[JeffDenver]

And I had it happen with all my SD cards... Reboot a phone... Instant corruption and needs reformatting...

That sounds more like a problem with the specific phone in particular than with SD cards in general.

Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen... That's definitely not a good way to think about things.

I agree. The reverse is true as well, don't you think? How many people are experiencing data corruption every time they reboot the phone? I don't think your experience is the norm.

 

[JeffDenver]

I wonder if maybe we should get this thread back on topic, regarding a good $200-250 phone for the OP?

I think we've solved that. Everyone seems to agree on the Moto G LTE.