The search for a new phone continues
Last week, I mentioned how I am starting to search for a new phone. I laid out what I would require from my new phone, and also mentioned that I had narrowed it down to two choices: either the HTC EVO 4G LTE or the Samsung Galaxy S III. Well, after a lot of great conversation with all of you, and an interesting conversation with my boss, some things have changed in my search.
I work for a small computer company. When I say small, I mean really small. I am the only employee, and there are two guys that own the company. We are all friends, and it makes for a great work environment. When I mentioned to one of them that I was eligible for a phone upgrade, he started telling me about the benefits of all three of us having the same phone, and he was specifically talking about some of the sharing benefits that Samsung phones have. He really liked the idea of being able to instantly and easily share almost anything from one phone to another, or even automatically share pictures.
Now this is great news for me, because he told me if we all get the same phones, then the company will pay for my upgrade. That can be both good and bad – good because I would save over $200 of my own money for a new phone. Bad because I wouldn’t necessarily have free reign over what phone I choose.
The other good news is that, of the three of us, I am the mobile expert, so they defer to me on a lot of things related to mobile devices. This means that even though I won’t have the only say in what phone we choose, I will be the one doing a good part of the digging, and will basically present my case as to why I think we should get a certain phone.
Now even though my bosses really like the Samsung sharing apps, that doesn’t mean that they are 100% sold on getting a Samsung. However, I have Sprint service, and they both have Verizon. This means that whatever phone we choose will need to be available on both carriers. This eliminates the HTC EVO 4G LTE. Here are some of the phones I looked into this week.
Samsung Galaxy S III
I mentioned this phone last week, and it is still on my short list this week. It has one of the biggest screens on the market right now. It is very fast with its quad-core processor and 2GB RAM. It will be running Android 4.1 by the time we are ready to upgrade. Because of how popular the phone is, there is a large developer community. This is important because chances are pretty good that whatever device I get will be rooted shortly thereafter. Overall, I would say this phone is at the top of our list.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Speaking of large screens, the Galaxy Note 2 is due to be released at the end of the month. I was looking into the specs of the Note 2 this week, and I have to say I am impressed. Quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 5.5 inch screen, digitizer pen, and so much more. I spent 8 minutes watching the video on Samsung’s website, and when it was over I think I was drooling a little bit. This phone looks amazing. The biggest concern I have, however, is the size of the Note 2. While screen size is one of the cool things about this phone, it also makes it something that I would need to get used to. When I talked about it with my boss, the ability to have it fit easily in pockets was very important to him.
The Next Nexus
A few of you commented about the new Nexus that is supposedly coming out soon. You mentioned that if I love Android so much, then I should buy the pure Android Nexus. I am open to this idea, but there is one catch for me. If the rumors are true, LG will be making the next Nexus, and I don’t think I could bring myself to buy an LG phone. I’m sure there are a lot of people that will tell me they love their LG phones, and that’s great for you, but every time I have held an LG phone in my hands, I was never impressed.
November 25. That’s the day that one of my bosses becomes eligible for his upgrade. There’s a very good chance that someone will have a new phone available at Christmas time. If not, well, there are lots of other options out there.
So that’s where I’m at with the search for my next phone. But what about you – what other phones would you look at? What are your opinions of the ones listed here?
