I own an HTC One M7 and it’s a delicious phone. There are some things about it that have me thinking about getting the s6 this time. If it were the M9 vs the standard S6 I think I’d be tempted to go for HTC again, but the look of the S6 edge is extremely captivating, and seems to lend itself to better ergonomics. The Note edge (released last year) always seemed stupid to me, because android doesnt need more quick-launch buttons or an information ticker, but extending the actual normal screen contents around the curve is a great use IMO.
Hate me, but I’m a Samsung guy. Samsung always seems to make the highest end products that I can afford to pay for in single payment cash transactions. So I’ve got a Samsung TV, Samsung fridge, Samsung monitor, Samsung sound system, and of course, the Galaxy S5.
It’s the best phone I’ve ever owned, which isn’t saying much. I just recently this week managed to crack the screen on the S5 in an embarrassing alcohol related incident where I managed to misjudge the distance between where my clumsily dropped phone was and where my foot was going to land. I managed to pinch it between a pebble and my foot, so there’s now a very fine crack running across the short dimension of the screen about 1cm from the bottom where the button is. The touch functionality remains totally unaffected, and the fracture is only noticeable with the screen at full brightness. It probably isn’t waterproof anymore and that’s the biggest shame for me.
Wouldn’t have happened if I had put it in a protective case. Or if I wasn’t stumbling home drunk from a LAN party.
In any case the S6 and the M9 both look like awesome phones. My personally my main criteria is durability battery life. Everything else is secondary. And the LG’s all-metal case construction definitely gives it an edge in my opinion, but I don’t know if it’s actually stronger.
If I had to pick between the two, I’d rather the HTC. If it was a question of physical design alone, S6 Edge might interest me. TouchWiz is a deal breaker for me at this point. I had it on my previous phone. I have it on my (year and a half old) tablet. I find the performance unacceptable and I’m really not keen on seeing what they do to butcher the really elegant and workable design of Lollipop.
In terms of actual recommendations, I’d suggest either the Moto X (2nd generation) or the Nexus 6. Both really shine with Lollipop. Both are also a bit bigger than I like in a phone (but the Moto X is less gargantuan). I love my Moto X. It’s the first smart phone I’ve been happy with since my HTC Incredible (which technically still works).
It sounds kind of ridiculous to say this but the thing changed my life. I have to carry a phone around … and it’s the most pleasant experience I’ve had. Totally conformed itself to my life rather than trying to make me conform to it.
Man, hating on or judging people for the brand of things they buy is the territory of consumer whores, so there’s no judgement here.
For all the stuff that gets thrown around in the press/socials about Samsung being whatever, the opposite of the mainstream consensus is actually true IMO. In android phones, the S5 was THE phone of last year in my opinion, but got massively panned because people were actually reacting to the S4 and the talking points that got thrown around about it. The worst Samsung did on the S5 was bundle all those stupid apps that you cannot delete without root. The apps aren’t bad and are quite nicely designed and stable, but for me, everything I want is in the store. Touchwiz WAS awful, but from all reports of the Note 4 (Sammy’s most recent high-end phone) the UI is almost pure android. The S5’s version of Touchwiz is pretty unobtrusive too IMO.
The HTC M7’s metal case IS nice (and definitely very solid), but it’s not without problems. After an EPIC Clash of Clans sesh (4+ hours) I noticed the lens protector on the back camera (the little glass thing covering the actual lens) was cracked due to overheating. After a bit of googling it seems this is a fairly common problem, and even extends to the M8 - so I’m cautious about the M9 cause there’s no guarantees they’ve addressed that.
Most of any awful UI is fixable with downloaded launchers these days. My partner has a Huawei mate (chinese rip off of the note) and the UI was eye-gouge-worthy. After a bit of time on the store you could easily find KitKat launchers/themes (this is before 5.0 was released) for free and without ridiculous permissions.
MotoX is nice, but I always buy on contract to subsidise the phone price, which means that I like to get the latest I possibly can to future-proof the device. The Nexus 6 would definitely be my go-to option, but the fact that it’s also dating month by month, and the QHD screen is a dealbreaker for me since it CHEWS battery, and IMO isn’t useful on a phone.
The Xperia is a nice phone, but the screen is easily cracked (my bro cracked two) and are very expensive to replace. Samsung were really bad (which is why I got this M7 at the time) but they really have been improving drastically, but unfortunately for them they’ve burned enough people with their UI and stagnant design evolution.
The OnePlus One is the BEST phone you can get at that price. Sadly it’s not sold through Austalian carriers - and our bands are different from American ones.
Also, I noticed that I said “manage” about a million times in my post. What’s up with that? Is there something in my psychology causing that? Must be a lack of self confidence. Everything I do I “Just barely manage to do it.” XD
Yeah, I definitely agree some of the screen resolutions have gone overboard.
I may try rescuing my now-nearly-unusable tablet with that suggestion by
the way. Thanks for that. If my tab requires rooting to fix I’ll probably
forget about it and finally get a Fire instead when I get sick of basic
apps crashing after Samsung’s most recent update.
I like to tinker but tinkering on my reader or phone is stress I don’t
really need. Haha.
