Still Deciding

[757Dave]

OK, still trying to decide on my and wife's phone upgrade. Currently have HTC Tunderbolt. Which phone would you recommend to your parents? (Yes we are not spring chickens ) S4 or the S3 or wait for the HTC One? Just looking for your opinions. Thanks.

 

[Golfdriver97]

OK, still trying to decide on my and wife's phone upgrade. Currently have HTC Tunderbolt. Which phone would you recommend to your parents? (Yes we are not spring chickens ) S4 or the S3 or wait for the HTC One? Just looking for your opinions. Thanks.

Hard to say. Things to consider: With HTC you are already used to Sense (the user interface) so the learning curve is considerably less. However, the S3 and S4 have an Easy Mode which trims down the User interface and is aimed at new smartphone users. Out of the box Samsung has a lot of tutorial pages, meaning when you turn it on for the first time, it pops up a teaching page that has a diagram of what to do for X feature. HTC I believe, has the same thing. Performance specifications are roughly the same.

I am a Samsung user, and I agree that the screen on the HTC is better. Arguments have been started over photo quality, (I don't take a lot of pics, so I don't care). Personally, I like having, at the very least, an SD card slot. I like having some things separated from my internal storage, like wallpapers, music, back ups, and the pictures and videos that I do have, to allow more space for Apps, which for the most part, can only be stored on the Internal Storage.

The HTC and the S4 should see support for a while. The S3 is about halfway through it's life. It will most likely get Android version 4.2, but 4.3 in my opinion is questionable, and if it does get 4.3, anything higher is highly doubtful.

I would say this: Take your current phone. What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? Make that list, and see what HTC and the S4 both offer to meet your needs. (I suggest the S4 due to support from Samsung. If money is an object, get the S3)

No matter what, you are choosing a top of the line device, or in the case of the S3, a former one, which is still very solid. Best of luck in your shopping, have fun playing, and most importantly, choose a device that YOU like, and if someone has a beef that you picked X over Y, smile and walk away.

 

[757Dave]

Thanks for the quick response. We are leaning toward the s3. And I don't think that the s4 offers us that much more for the price. You have given us some very useful information and I do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the quick response. We are leaning toward the s3. And I don't think that the s4 offers us that much more for the price. You have given us some very useful information and I do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

No sweat. As long as you guys don't really care which version of Android you are running (most people don't even know there are different versions of Android) then the S3 will be a solid choice. If you have a Best Buy near you, I would check them out. I got mine there in October for about $100. At the time I got their insurance plan which was a lot better than Sprint's.

Best of luck with your upgrade.

 

[757Dave]

Thanks again. We will probably go this weekend and get the s3.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks again. We will probably go this weekend and get the s3.

Cool. Any questions, problems, I will try to help out as much as I can.

 

[757Dave]

Well, didn't wait for the weekend. Wife and I go into the store "just to look one more time," and she decides that we are going to get the phone. Go in to get the s3, walk out with the s4. She, who counts every penny twice, decides that she just can't be on a 2 yr contract with the potential of it becoming outdated before we can upgrade again. So, I guess I'm off to the verizon s4 forum. Again, thanks for all your help.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Well, didn't wait for the weekend. Wife and I go into the store "just to look one more time," and she decides that we are going to get the phone. Go in to get the s3, walk out with the s4. She, who counts every penny twice, decides that she just can't be on a 2 yr contract with the potential of it becoming outdated before we can upgrade again. So, I guess I'm off to the verizon s4 forum. Again, thanks for all your help.

Hey, no problem. Although, her logic is pretty sound; This way, Samsung will keep you up to date on the version of Android as opposed to you placing a custom ROM on the S3.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[mikeccc123]

I just switched from the thunderbolt to the S4 and absolutely love it. I was going to wait for the HTC One since I'm used to HTC, but the S4 is really easy to get used too. I think you made a great choice.

 

[757Dave]

Thanks. The s4 is truely amazing to use. Hope to see you over on the Verizon s4 forum.