New and Considering Android: G3 vs HTC M8

[LeoRex]

A lot of people will regret rooting when patches and updates come out. You will need to be prepared to do more footwork during those times.

True... being a tech nerd.... stuff like that doesn't phase me in the slightest. The only thing I have to watch for, like you say, is an update that shuts something down. But I'm not really worried about that to be honest. T-Mobile doesn't seem to care all that much about such things (and they are the only one in the world that had LG unlock the bootloader for them)

 

[petaf]

I think a lot of people are just used to it. But it is far faster to navigate with soft-keys. Even the fastest phones are going to be slowed down by the time it takes you to depress the home key IMO.

It doesn't seem like it should be a big deal, but pressing the home key is something you do on a phone a lot.

Slowed down by pressing a physical button?? If you're in that much of a hurry I feel bad for you.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[metrix]

After reading more, I'm thinking I need to change the title to this thread to "New and Considering Android: G3 vs Nexus 5"

I'm having to buy on contract. Currently both phones are $99 bucks with a 2 year commitment.

16GB Nexus 5 or 32 GB G3

>.<

 

[casaout]

What about buying the M8 for Windows (announced yesterday)?

 

[srkmagnus]

After reading more, I'm thinking I need to change the title to this thread to "New and Considering Android: G3 vs Nexus 5"

I'm having to buy on contract. Currently both phones are $99 bucks with a 2 year commitment.

16GB Nexus 5 or 32 GB G3

>.<

I don't think you can go wrong with either device. Both are solid devices and will continue to be through your contract term.

 

[JeffDenver]

Slowed down by pressing a physical button?? If you're in that much of a hurry I feel bad for you.

I agree, convenience is so overrated. Why do you need a smartphone at all? If you are in so much of a hurry that you really can't wait till you get to a PC to view web pages, I feel bad for you.

 

[JeffDenver]

After reading more, I'm thinking I need to change the title to this thread to "New and Considering Android: G3 vs Nexus 5"

I'm having to buy on contract. Currently both phones are $99 bucks with a 2 year commitment.

16GB Nexus 5 or 32 GB G3

IMO you should forego the contract and just pay retail for the Nexus. You can get a Nexus, retail, for as little as $350 new. You will save more over the life of that contract without a phone subsidy, and you can upgrade quicker in the future if you want to.

Nexus phones also tend to hold their value very well. They probably have the best resale value of any Android phone.

Google Nexus 5 Unlocked Black D820 LG 16GB GSM V D 820 Phone New in Box | eBay

These are GSM phones of course...so no Verizon.

The G3 is actually a great phone hardware-wise. It has a better CPU, display, and camera than the Nexus. But it is not a guarantee it will get updates (LG has a very mixed history on that), and the Nexus will be closer to an iPhone-like experience. I used a G3 last week setting it up for a friend...I found it to be a LOT laggier than the Nexus. Some people are less sensitive to lag than others, so it might not bother you. But in my experience, former iPhone users tend to be very sensitive to that.

This is a good example of the UI speed of the Nexus. I can tell you from personal experience, the G3 and M8 are not going to be this smooth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6wskPyKhA

 

[LeoRex]

a good example of the UI speed of the Nexus. I can tell you from personal experience, the G3 and M8 are not going to be this smooth.

Yep. In terms of smooth operation, it'll go Nexus 5 - M8 - G3. The M8 is actually not that far behind the Nexus though. HTC did a good job with the newer Sense UI (HTC's version of Android). They seem to moving towards, not away, from stock Android... to the point where it is more theme than UI overhaul. The G3's Optimus UI was also moved in that direction. I've said this before, with a few minor tweaks, the G3's UI looks pretty close to some of the Nexus 5 themes I've seen... other than the lack of the Quick Settings panel, the changes are mostly cosmetic.

I haven't found the G3's UI to be that laggy (I'm a former Nexus user by the way)... but I've tweaked a few things and replaced it's stock launcher (the homescreen interface) with the Google Now Launcher, which is what the Nexus 5 uses. The Google launcher is noticeably smoother than the stock launcher... It's at the point where it doesn't really register any lag or jitter at all, and it's only when I use my wife's stock Nexus 5 that I notice any difference. If not for that direct comparison, it wouldn't even register as lag.

By the way, Samsung's Touchwiz interface.... if you are relatively new to Android, you'll hear plenty of people gripe about the interface on those Galaxy devices. For good reason... it's a bloated mess. Samsung touches everything. Google worked extremely hard in recent versions of Android to make it smooth, efficient, clean and modern. Samsung threw all of that into the trash and mucks with every window, dialogue box button and menu and we end up with a slow, busy and cartoonishly cheap-looking interface... and it really impacts the experience. I've seen videos showing a Moto X side by side with the vastly more powerful S5 and if you didn't know better, you'd say that the Moto had the better hardware. I had a Galaxy SIII and when I loaded a custom ROM based off of stock Android (rather than Touchwiz), it was like night and day... it was a different phone.

So.. hmm... G3, M8, Nexus 5.... it depends on how you weight things.. all three devices are pretty good. The only significant outlier is the M8's camera... it's quite sub-standard and (I think) really detracts from what is otherwise an incredible device. If it had a good shooter, on par with the Nexus 5, nevermind the frontrunning shooters in the S5 and G3, it'd be tough to beat... but that camera is like a 4 megapixel boat anchor.

 

[JeffDenver]

Just an FYI...LG has not been quick on updates.

Source - The state of Android updates: Who’s fast, who’s slow, and why | Ars Technica

If you get an LG G3, you better be prepared to wait.

 

[ultravisitor]

After reading more, I'm thinking I need to change the title to this thread to "New and Considering Android: G3 vs Nexus 5"

I'm having to buy on contract. Currently both phones are $99 bucks with a 2 year commitment.

16GB Nexus 5 or 32 GB G3

>.<

Wait. Motorola is announcing new phones on September 4.

 

[metrix]

If you get an LG G3, you better be prepared to wait.

Yea that's what has me tied up right now. If they were speedy on the updates, relatively speaking, I might've gone with the G3 by now. However, it look like they take their sweet time. I just remember waiting for months for the Evo to get any updates.

Right now it's looking like I'll have to wait and see what's coming early September. By then we should hear something about the new phones, perhaps including a new Nexus phone.

 

[LGElectronics]

Hi Metrix,
Hopefully I am not violating any forum policy with this, but as far as the support for the screen you can rest assured that LG will and can provide full support for it, but not only that, the lay out of the phone has been extremely thoroughly and well thought out making repairs easy for Authorized Repair Providers. You can check this following article out on that to set your mind at ease with this issue![http://www.ubreakifix.com/blog/lg-g3-teardown/]^IV

 

[JeffDenver]

Hi Metrix,
Hopefully I am not violating any forum policy with this, but as far as the support for the screen you can rest assured that LG will and can provide full support for it, but not only that, the lay out of the phone has been extremely thoroughly and well thought out making repairs easy for Authorized Repair Providers. You can check this following article out on that to set your mind at ease with this issue![http://www.ubreakifix.com/blog/lg-g3-teardown/]^IV

Thing is, LG's actual history of updates does not support what you're saying. They are slow as molasses in actually pushing updates...and who knows for how long (will the G3 get whatever is after Android L? Who knows?).

This would be much less of an issue if LG would just support vanilla android. But like every other vendor, they want to load down Android with crap no one asked for, and cannot remove. So we end up with a skin that is tedious and difficult to update, and updates take forever because of it.

I love the G3 hardware (and LG hardare in general actually). But LG's skin is a bloated mess (even worse than touchwiz, which must have taken effort) and makes the phone much more tedious to use than it needs to be.

 

[metrix]

Thing is, LG's actual history of updates does not support what you're saying. They are slow as molasses in actually pushing updates...and who knows for how long (will the G3 get whatever is after Android L? Who knows?).

This would be much less of an issue if LG would just support vanilla android. But like every other vendor, they want to load down Android with crap no one asked for, and cannot remove. So we end up with a skin that is tedious and difficult to update, and updates take forever because of it.

I love the G3 hardware (and LG hardare in general actually). But LG's skin is a bloated mess (even worse than touchwiz, which must have taken effort) and makes the phone much more tedious to use than it needs to be.

This echoes my concerns very much. If they could at least guarantee an update to whatever is after android L, I might jump!

 

[LeoRex]

TI love the G3 hardware (and LG hardare in general actually). But LG's skin is a bloated mess (even worse than touchwiz, which must have taken effort) and makes the phone much more tedious to use than it needs to be.

I have to disagree with you on that one. Almost a month in with the G3 and I haven't found their UI heavy at all. The stock launcher is a bit clumsy in my opinion, but I swapped that out for the Google Now Launcher. The rest of the interface.... settings, dialogues, etc.... their changes are mostly cosmetic and not necessarily some drastic overhaul. It's moved to a more flat kind of style, with more contemporary coloring and style. Touchwiz is orders of magnitude more intrusive.

 

[JeffDenver]

I have to disagree with you on that one. Almost a month in with the G3 and I haven't found their UI heavy at all.

I was setting up a G3 for a friend of mine last week...the lag is pretty awful when multi-tasking. Being used to a Nexus, it was a night and day difference for me. I understand it is pushing more pixels because of the larger display, but even so, it's additional hardware should easily compensate for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv8VPkJhvy8

This is the kind of stuff I saw myself. I also saw it with the lock screen and going to and from the multi-task screen (which, btw, is another thing I don't like about the G3...it looks messy and I actually found it harder to use)

Either it's a touch-response issue with the display, or it's a skin issue. Either way, it is real. People are not imagining it.

 

[LeoRex]

Well yep... I do see it get all whacky when scrolling through those emoji's... on both the stock KB and Swiftkey (I just went in and looked). But that is, by far, the most extreme example of UI jerk I've run into so far. Then again, I don't use emoji's.

It's not the smoothest of phones, and I've seen videos of people showing UI responsive issues, and many of those problems I haven't run into yet on mine. I have a strong suspicion that there is a fair bit of variability, in terms of performance, on this model. I've seen plenty of videos like you posted, but I don't see a lot of it. New line of phones, who knows.... but the one I have doesn't run hot, lag much or act twitchy. I know people aren't imagining it.... but in the same vein, I'm not imagining that I'm NOT seeing a lot of these problems.

 

[JeffDenver]

Well yep... I do see it get all whacky when scrolling through those emoji's... on both the stock KB and Swiftkey (I just went in and looked). But that is, by far, the most extreme example of UI jerk I've run into so far. Then again, I don't use emoji's.

If you don't care about it, it's not a problem. Not everyone cares about a perfectly smooth UI. But when people complain about lag, this is what they're talking about.

IMO it's not a hardware issue...it is entirely the LG skin doing that. The hardware should be able to handle this UI without breaking a sweat.

It's not the smoothest of phones, and I've seen videos of people showing UI responsive issues, and many of those problems I haven't run into yet on mine.

I think it is something that only surfaces during multi-tasking. I've seen video demos "demonstrating" that the G3 has no lag...but they are always doing only one thing at a time.

 

[petvas72]

I f you are used to having iPhones then get the M8. It has the best design and quality of any device currently available, at least on par with the iPhone 5S. Don't get confused from the specs. They mean nothing.
The M8 has better software than the G3, better build quality, better speakers, and a two year software update guarantee. If you believe that the better display resolution of the G3 makes a difference compared to 1080p, then you will surprised how it really doesn't.
I love Apple and always had iPhones. The M8 is fantastic.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[metrix]

I f you are used to having iPhones then get the M8. It has the best design and quality of any device currently available, at least on par with the iPhone 5S. Don't get confused from the specs. They mean nothing.
The M8 has better software than the G3, better build quality, better speakers, and a two year software update guarantee. If you believe that the better display resolution of the G3 makes a difference compared to 1080p, then you will surprised how it really doesn't.
I love Apple and always had iPhones. The M8 is fantastic.

Posted via the Android Central App

The M8 is a decent phone but personally if I were to go on design it would be the G3 hands down. However the 2 year update guarantee is pretty good. I'm curious if other OEM's offer that (specifically LG).

All in all, I think the Nexus will be the way to go. Hopefully I can hold out (waiting until first week of Sept at least anyway) and we'll get more news of the next Nexus phone. Second choice is the G3. Gorgeous, great stats, but the OEM software is a bummer.