Need help deciding if I should wait, or buy now? Please help!

[kitts21j]

Hey All,

I'm a total noob when it comes to this fourm, android OS and even a smartphone. Actually I don't even own a smartphone......(dork). Any ways I am looking to upgrade to a "adult" phone, I'm 36 so I guess it's time. I am really not sure if I want to spend $150-$200 on one of the current phones available. Or opt for a last years phone(s3) fo $.97. I guess what I'm worried about is if the S3 will be totally out dated by the time my next upgrade(2yrs.) is do. I mean that will make the S3 almost 3-4 yrs old. Any help or thoughts would be great. Also I was looking into a lumia 920, any thoughts on this platform?

 

[T Android]

Hey All,

I'm a total noob when it comes to this fourm, android OS and even a smartphone. Actually I don't even own a smartphone......(dork). Any ways I am looking to upgrade to a "adult" phone, I'm 36 so I guess it's time. I am really not sure if I want to spend $150-$200 on one of the current phones available. Or opt for a last years phone(s3) fo $.97. I guess what I'm worried about is if the S3 will be totally out dated by the time my next upgrade(2yrs.) is do. I mean that will make the S3 almost 3-4 yrs old. Any help or thoughts would be great. Also I was looking into a lumia 920, any thoughts on this platform?

The S3 gets updates slowly but it will get Key Lime Pie so it won't really be out-dated. The choice is up to you. Welcome to Android Central!!!

 

[garublador]

I guess what I'm worried about is if the S3 will be totally out dated by the time my next upgrade(2yrs.) is do. I mean that will make the S3 almost 3-4 yrs old.

That's sort of the million dollar question right now. Right now phones from 3-4 years ago are horribly outdated. However, Android has come a long way since then as has mobile computing in general. Some believe that the need to upgrade as often just to get decent performance won't be as important so slightly older/lower power phones won't be as bad in the future. It's still all new territory, though so anything is possible. My guess is that in two years a S3 will perform better than something like a Droid X does now, but I'm not super confident in that. I got the S4 over the S3 when I upgraded in May (from a Droid X2 that was painfully slow at the time), FWIW.

If you look over the life of the phone, it's about $8/month to get the S4 over the S3. If that's worth the peace of mind in knowing that you did what you could to avoid getting stuck with a slow phone for 6 or so months then it's worth going for the nicer phone.

If you look at what's coming down the pipeline there's nothing that's supposed to be head and shoulders above the S4. The Motorola X has some nice extras and there are a couple new Motorola phones that have nice batteries, but they all seem to be about the same "generation" as the S4. I'd just upgrade now. That will put you that many months closer to your next upgrade.

I can't really comment on the 920. The Windows phones haven't really proven themselves worthy to me to be worth moving away from Android so I don't know much about them.

 

[trivor]

The first thing to do is check out the size of some of the premium phones. Personally, I find the larger phones (S3/S4/HTC One) a little too big for me). There is nothing wrong with being on a budget but buying a new phone has to last for 2 years and you want to be happy with it at purchase. IF you're going to Verizon (I currenlty have a Samsung S3 which works great) you have some great choices - the S3 (currently on sale @ $49 and with robust enough hardware - dual core CPU, 2 GB ram, 16 GB on board with Micro SD expansion, to continue getting updates for quite a while and Samsung has been pretty good at updates, the S4 - an upgraded S3 with a 1080P screen, the new Droids - Ultra Mini (nice 4.3" 720P screen) but no memory expansion and sealed battery, the Ultra and Ultra Maxx, the HTC One are all phones that will be great for you. Go to the stores and start playing around with some of the phones, when you find one you like look at some reviews to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the different phones. I would lean toward a higher end phone that is more likely to be future proof (for getting upgrades) than saving a couple of dollars upfront on an older phone. JMHO (Just my humble opinion).

 

[kitts21j]

Thanks for all the replies so far. It is great to have a willing community to share there experiences with you. So thank you. I would like to up grade to a smartphone mainly for the apps, web surfing and quick pictures. Gaming and movies are not as important, but it would be a nice bonus.

So I know that the Windows phone is really limited in some respects. I have done some research on all of my options and they(nokia 920) seem to have a pretty good OS ,but are lacking in the apps department. But I find Nokias apps that come on the phone intriguing. I also am impressed with the camera. I guess I would be like many of my fellow parents who would use there phone for all those quick shots of there kids and family, that they might have missed not carrying around there regular camera. The only draw back to this phone right now, is that there doesn't seem to be any place I can find one to physically hold and use. None of the stores around me seem to have them in stock. So I am running off all of the reviews I found on the web. It also seems that this OS is kind of right in the middle of Apple and Android in it's customizable features.

My wife has the Iphone 5 and loves it, but I find the screen just a bit to small, but since I have owned several Ipods I am comfortable with OS. There choice of apps is very extensive. I also like the camera on this phone, as I have seen what it can do first hand. Although the lack of features on the camera app is a little annoying. I mean Panorama ,and HDR that's it really??? So it is a possibility, but would be my least favorite.

The Galaxy phones S3/ S4 both seem like quality phones with good OS, although I am not at all familiar with how they work. I was a little concerned with the S3 camera quality when I reviewed it on Youtube. Then again I have never had any real experience with them outside of the store, so I don't know how they truly preform. A friend just got the S4 and he loves it(he is a big apple / Microsoft hatter) He is also a big gamer and bought it mostly for that reason. I am not( a hatter or gamer), so that part doesn't matter so much. Would I notice a huge difference in the dual-core, compared to the quad core for normal everyday use? How difficult is the android OS to get use to? Is the camera on the S3 really that bad?

I do listen to a lot of music and pod-cast's so the HTC ONE has really caught my eye. I forgot to mention that phone in my OP. I also think it is one of the nicer looking phone available right now. FWIW . The OS is close to the S3/S4 if I am correct. The camera on this one is also nice. I like the features that are built into it.

This was pretty long winded and I apologize for that. But I have been researching this for quit a while now, and still coming up confused, and unsure of what I really want. Oh and I my phone carrier is AT&T. Again thanks for all the incite. I do appreciate it.

 

[garublador]

My wife has an iPhone 5 and I have an S4. The cameras on them are pretty similar, and my understanding is that the camera on the One will be about the same as well. For pictures of kids her phone's camera seems a bit quicker to respond, but the difference is small. Mine seems to take the picture and then look like it's taking the picture (the animations and sound come after the shot is captures rather than at the same time as it's captured) so the difference might only be superficial. Hers might be a bit better in lower light and mine might be a bit better outdoors, but the difference is small either way. My understanding is that the One will be better indoors (lower light) but won't be as good at "blowing up" the images because of the lower megapixel count. There's a chance some, or most of these minor drawbacks can be somewhat accounted for by someone who knows how to work a camera better than me as well.

I don't know how the S3 camera compares. I have seen an analysis that shows that the S4 display is significantly better, than the S3, though.

IMO, the cosmetic differences between the OS on the One and the OS on the S4 are moot. Both of them have a lot of customization options (i.e. install a different launcher and customize it, which isn't all that hard). Unless you do something specific with the camera or audio (use the internal speaker a lot) you'll get very similar performance between the two.

 

[the1m.polo]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=304029
What should you buy????? Get help here

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[the1m.polo]

The key here is the s3 gets updated... That's more than u can say about most androids... The older the phone gets the slower the updates come.. But when u have a major market phone like the galaxy series u improve your chances of OEM support

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