new phone time

Z

zed

Legend
Time to update my phone

+ waterproof
+ large battery
+ plastic
+ good GPS
+ fast OS updates
+ > 5" // though most phones fit in here nowadays

+- camera // not important for me but I wouldnt turn my nose up at something good

- physical button on front
- wireless charging
- metal

Possible candidates
LG G4, sony Z5 sony Z3, oneplus, Nexus 6, nexus 5x, nexus 6p, Moto X Play/Pure
What others should I take a look at?
Also whats the best phone website? http://www.gsmarena.com/ http://www.phonearena.com/ something else
ta guys
 
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You put waterproof as your first point, if it really is that important, then surely the choice is an easy one? If waterproof would be nice but you'd weigh up other factors above it, then the selection you made is probably your best bet for android phones that don't have front buttons.
 
zed said:
Time to update my phone

+ waterproof
+ large battery
+ plastic
+ good GPS
+ fast OS updates
+ > 5" // though most phones fit in here nowadays

+- camera // not important for me but I wouldnt turn my nose up at something good

- physical button on front
- wireless charging
- metal

Possible candidates
LG G4, sony Z5 sony Z3, oneplus, Nexus 6, nexus 5x, nexus 6p
What others should I take a look at?
Also whats the best phone website? http://www.gsmarena.com/ http://www.phonearena.com/ something else
ta guys
Click to expand...
Might want to added the Moto X Play/Pure to the list.

Shame the X's are only splash proof, unlike the fully waterproof G. Hopefully next year's will be, as other than that the Play is the ideal phone for me.
 
if waterproof is important, maybe avoid Z5 series? despite it having IP rating, Sony forbid the phone to function under water. you must only used it while out of water. Sony's explanation is because IP rating achieved by testing the phone in clinical condition and not used.

on the other hand, with Z3 series, sony allows and encourage underwater use.
 
zed said:
Time to update my phone

+ waterproof
+ large battery
+ plastic
+ good GPS
+ fast OS updates
+ > 5" // though most phones fit in here nowadays

+- camera // not important for me but I wouldnt turn my nose up at something good

- physical button on front
- wireless charging
- metal

Possible candidates
LG G4, sony Z5 sony Z3, oneplus, Nexus 6, nexus 5x, nexus 6p
What others should I take a look at?
Also whats the best phone website? http://www.gsmarena.com/ http://www.phonearena.com/ something else
ta guys
Click to expand...

Your possible candidates don't really match your requirements.

- I don't know about the G4 but out of the other phones you listed only the Z3 has an IP rating
- The Sony's and 6P are made out of glass/aluminum. Later on you even mention metal as a downside. Don't know about the G4 and oneplus.
- Only the Nexus will truly have fast updates even after next year's flagship is launched.

If you really want a waterproof phone I think your choices are limited and you will have to forget about some of the other things you want. If you can live without the waterpoofing then the 5x seems to tick most of your boxes.

Personally I'm looking at the 6P right now. I wasn't really looking for a new phone but my provider is currently ripping me off for 30 bucks a month for just providing me a phone number (no free calls or data included!) so i might as well cancel and put that money to better use. Shame because my HTC One M7 is still kicking the but of a lot of mid range phones I think.

Phones I considered:

Blackberry priv:

+ Hardware keyboard
+ Secure

- Root impossible so now way to block ads
- Keyboard might not play nice very nice with Japanese input
- Costs a fortune

Samsung note 5

+ CPU, camera, build quality etc all seem pretty good

+/- Touchwiz. I don't really like how it looks but it got some pretty neat features that make good use of the big screen

- Expensive
- No SD slot and max 64GB storage
- No MHL (more on this later)

Nexus 6P

+ Metal
+ Good hardware
+ Fastest updates
+ The 64GB model offers a fairly good price/performance

+/- Camera not the best but not as poor as previous Nexii either

- No SD slot
- NO FUCKING MHL OR MIRACAST. I know google wants to push their crapcast but seriously it sucks. MHL adapters will cost you 15 bucks and wherever you go you can watch the movies on your phone on a tv. Try travelling with a crapcast and actually watch anything. To begin with it doesn't support any of the formats your average movie will be in. That is if you can be bothered to work with wifi hotspots and whatnot so you can actually get the fucking crapcast to work.

So we went from a 15 bucks solutions that just works on every tv with a hdmi port to something that is going to require a lot more effort. The easiest solution would be to get a windows stick like intel compute but that is going to set you back 150 bucks and I wouldn't be comfortable with carrying that around in my backpack where ever I go, even in bad weather. MHL adapters won't really break. A pc on a stick will.

So the next best solution is a android stick, one that can run openelec but forget about getting audio on your dts files otherwise. Should set you back about 40 bucks. Set up your phone as a wifehotspot with ftp server for openelec to connect to, use the openelec remote app on your phone for controlling the stick. If you can get some kind of remote desktop app running on the android stick you could also just use MX player.

Either way, the potential for things going wrong is rather large.
 
btw Sony always keeps updating their Z series to latest android includng the old models (now the orignal Z is deprecated). BUT they always release the update very-very late compared to Samsung and Nexus.
 
To be honest, only the Z5 seems to check all the points. The Z3 is a model with some time, so its updates won't last a lot.

As for Sony backing out of the waterproof part, it's purely for warranty reasons because some people started to abuse its rating (diving for long periods below 1m, etc.).
AFAIK, the Z5 is as much waterproofed as the Z3.


Updates on Sony's Z smartphones aren't really fast, but they're steady for at least 2 years or more.
 
waterproof isnt like #1 its just one of the things I would like to have, due to my phone often getting wet (I stick it in a plastic bag),
thanks cheapchips never heard of those phones, just had a look they look pretty good I'll stick them on my shortlist
@tongue of colicab, yes its very unlikely there will be a phone that ticks all my boxes, Im just trying to find one that meets most. eg SD slot would prolly be a negative for me. it wouldnt stop me but I'ld prefer without.

 
I'm wary of SD slots for storage after reading how flash cards can lose their contents in hours when stored in a hot car for example. If it takes hours at 50C, how long exactly will it last at 25? Not an eternity, that's for sure. :p

Flash cards use the cheapest shit chips available. They're not reliable storage.
 
My flash card faster than my internal flash though. Dunno the reliability but never got problem with it.
 
zed said:
waterproof isnt like #1 its just one of the things I would like to have, due to my phone often getting wet (I stick it in a plastic bag),
thanks cheapchips never heard of those phones, just had a look they look pretty good I'll stick them on my shortlist
@tongue of colicab, yes its very unlikely there will be a phone that ticks all my boxes, Im just trying to find one that meets most. eg SD slot would prolly be a negative for me. it wouldnt stop me but I'ld prefer without.
Click to expand...

In that case I'd say it's between Sony and a Nexus depending on whether you rather have a waterproof phone or the fastest updates.

For the best of both worlds you might decide to root the Sony and go with CM or a ASOP rom, that should make for fairly quick updates. Assuming you can be bothered with that.

Grall said:
I'm wary of SD slots for storage after reading how flash cards can lose their contents in hours when stored in a hot car for example. If it takes hours at 50C, how long exactly will it last at 25? Not an eternity, that's for sure. :p

Flash cards use the cheapest shit chips available. They're not reliable storage.
Click to expand...

Never had any problems in close to a decade of using sd cards in phones. Maybe sd storage is more vulnerable, otoh the advantage is that if your phone dies you can just take out the sd card and probably save your data.
 
agree, go to sony and root it if you want fast update. Sony have very very active custom rom development. BUT sometime its too active and confusing to choose to install which ROM.

btw Z5 use new sensor so usually the image quality will get better with every new sony update. Usually the quality will taper when the 2nd gen device get released (at least that what i got from following Z series, personally i never bought them, no money).
 
With Android M, Google finally enabled the optional app data cloud backup. So it's maybe become like I cloud?
 
Personally, given it's only a few months until the 2016 flagships are released, I'd wait for those A72 devices. Hopefully A72 will be able to sustain its performance far better than the A57 phones, I'm sure that ARM designed the A57 primarily for micro servers, I can't remember where I read that, but it could well be true!
 
Turbotab said:
Personally, given it's only a few months until the 2016 flagships are released, I'd wait for those A72 devices. Hopefully A72 will be able to sustain its performance far better than the A57 phones, I'm sure that ARM designed the A57 primarily for micro servers, I can't remember where I read that, but it could well be true!
Click to expand...
I have zero interest in CPU speed, every smartphone I've ever owned has been more than fast enuf, though what are the upcoming phones and when are they coming out?, Im prolly off to china next month and are wanting something before then are new flagships coming out soon? (before christmas).
Grall said:
iCloud all the way baybee...! :LOL:
Click to expand...
yes surely everyone uses google docs etc, but even then are ppl creating content on their phones (typing stuff, making music etc) sure some would be but it would be at the low end, most ofthe stuff I assume would be music/films etc where I assume the phone doesnt have the sole copy.
 
I think I'll order a nexus 6, it looks to be the closest fit to what I want. Unless someone else has a better option, the only major downside with it, is its screen to be very dull.
 
zed said:
I think I'll order a nexus 6, it looks to be the closest fit to what I want. Unless someone else has a better option, the only major downside with it, is its screen to be very dull.
Click to expand...

Talking about the devil... I was thinking of posting the exact same thing right now.

I've had a look a the 6P last week and the screen brightness is very low, only 370nits. My HTC one M7 does something like 450 and some of the newer phones do 600+.

When I had a look at the 6 in stores I almost couldn't believe how low the brightness was compared to my M7. Honestly I don't understand why Google put such a crappy screen in the 6P. Maybe if it was 200 euros cheaper but at well over 600 euros I expect a screen that at the very least isn't worse than that of a 3 year old phone... You will not be able to use this phone outside if you live somewhere the sun shines.

My M7 does decent in direct sunlight when browsing but video already is much harder. Even in the shade on the beach last year some videos where hard to see so the low brightness on the 6P is definitely a deal breaker for me which is sad because it's about the only high end sim free phone you can get where I live (without resorting to slightly dodgy amazon shops that add 400 euro's to the price of a phone just because it has double the memory...)

I've decided to hold out until August next year and see what is on the market by then. If the snapdragon 820 turns out really good there might be some good devices out by then or, with a bit of luck, the Galaxy 6 plus or Note 5 will have dropped in price (even though I'm not a big fan of Samsung phones).
 
The galaxy S6+ is about the same price here as the nexus 6p. Though I was talking about the nexus 6 (which is even duller than the 6p) they're quite cheap at the moment so even though Im not getting the phone I want, I wont feel bad getting another phone in 6 months time.
Gah theres nothing that stands out at all, even though I hate samsung (real button & OS bloat) the galaxy s5 & s6 or note's are serious contenders, very nice screens, decent battery
Has anyone installed stock android on a recent galaxy?
 
I guess it depends on the price. Around here it's still 380 euros which is rather much to spend on something you don't really want.

For 200 euros, maybe.
 
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