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Which Phone Brand do you think is best?

Which phone brand do you prefer and why?


  • Total voters
    54
Phone companies have come and gone, or just straight-up dropped out of the race. But among the many active phone brands avaialbale today which do you think is the best and the one you stick with?

Share with us in a post why you have chosen that specific brand, as well as why you recommend them.

There are many phone brands from HTC, Blackberry, Nokia, Apple, Samsung, and many others. Who do you choose?
 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
I'm still an iPhone guy, and don't see that changing for a while.

There are a number of reasons. Part of it is simply tight integration with the ecosystem: I can take calls on my Mac, headphones pair easily, that sort of thing.

Performance matters. The iPhone XS I have is consistently faster than Android devices both in terms of raw power and, importantly, in UI. It's wild to me that people accept occasional bouts of stuttering and lag in their Android phones. Heck, I have an Essential Phone with virtually stock Android on my desk and it's odd how often I have to reboot it just because it bogs down for no apparent reason.

Then there's software updates. I'm sorry, but Android's two years of major OS updates (often delayed by months) with only periodic security fixes just strikes me as shoddy, even with Google Play Services filling in some gaps. On an iPhone, you can download every update the millisecond it's ready, and you frequently get four or five years of those updates. This isn't including apps, which tend to get iOS updates first and often run best on Apple's platform.

The screen, camera and speaker quality is also very strong, even if there are areas where other phones do better (I won't doubt that the Pixel 3 takes better pics in some cases, though it also trails at times).

And finally... there's the Apple Watch. Like it or not, it's the best smartwatch on the planet, and I'm not going to give it up just so I can get an Android phone with a higher-res screen or wide-angle camera. You don't realize what you're missing by settling for most Wear OS or Tizen watches.
 

kingwingin

Member
Through my life I've used Motorola, Samsung, BlackBerry and apple.

Samsung has been my favourite. Last phone was a 6s, nust upgraded to an s10+. Dont think I'll leave android anytime soon, iOS is just too restricting.
 
I have no brand bias in phones actually. I just buy the one that has the features I like and will work for a few years.

If I had to say a brand I'd say Google as my last two phones were but I really don't care for Google anymore as a company but I think I am sol in that regard.
 
After Windows Phone (had a Nokia Lumia 920/640/1520) died I had to move somewhere, so I went to Android. After going through LG V10, Samsung Galaxy S7, and Samsung Galaxy S8, I'm now using an iPhone X and will never look back. That Android slowness is horrible, especially when you have to wait for your phone app to load your contacts, or when you want to share something it takes forever for it to even display the share window, then when taking pictures, you have to stay in the app for the picture to be loaded into memory, terrible.

So now I've been using iPhone for a month or so and I'm pretty happy with it.
 

haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
No reason not to stick with Apple. It's a little bit boring at this point, but it works and it does everything I need. I traded in my 6 for a XS Max a few months ago and I'm happy with it.
 
The one which will give me flagship phone with flat screen, no shitty notches or holes in the screen , solid battery life and mini-jack for headphones.

I've got zero brand loyalty to phone makers so the only time where I bought two phones from same company in a row was migration from Samsung Galaxy S to Note 2.
 
I swear to god if any of you vote Samsung...

I really don't like Google at this point, but I'm not spending $1000 on an iPhone (nor am I about to take out credit on one) so I'll stick with any Android I can find.
 

Fbh

Member
I've been with Samsung for a few years now and aside from the batteries being a bit iffy (and I don't just mean the exploding ones) I've been pretty happy and no other brand has given me enough reasons to change it.

They hit the right balance between design, quality, function and price for me.

I swear to god if any of you vote Samsung...

My S6 was great and my S8 is great, and waiting a bit and taking advantage of sales I didn't pay more than $380 for either of them. What's wrong with voting for Samsung?
 
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Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
My S6 was great and my S8 is great, and waiting a bit and taking advantage of sales I didn't pay more than $380 for either of them. What's wrong with voting for Samsung?

It mainly has to do with Samsung's approach to software. Its devices are prone to a software "decay" where it bogs down over time. There's also an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach where it piles on features, and will insist on creating proprietary equivalents to Google's apps even though they're frequently redundant or worse.

Samsung's phones are great hardware-wise, but there's always that gotcha with software.
 

Dark Star

Member
currently using OnePlus 6 and i'm pretty happy with it

i voted for Apple though, that is the best phone company all around

but price wise? i'd rather buy Android for features to cost ratio.
 
I'm more comfortable with Apple spying on me than Google. I don't care for macOS, but their shtick with consistent hardware really pays off for phones. I don't think I'll have to replace my 7 until it stops getting iOS updates because it's just so solid. I've seen plenty of shit online about "planned obsolescence" of phones, but mine feels about as snappy as the day I got it.

I was all for Windows 10 Mobile before, mind you. I think its design is much better, and the lack of apps/shitty ports of apps didn't really bother me. However, it's no better than Android in that it performs inconsistently due to varying hardware. I got the smaller version of their "flagship" phone - I think it was the Lumia 950 - and I wanted to love it but it was just too frustrating. It's a shame that MS pretty much abandoned it, but I guess it was inevitable.
 

Grinchy

Banned
They're all the same to me, but I'm not a phone guy. I'm still rocking an iPhone 6s. I'm getting pretty close to convincing myself to splurge on a S10+. It would be the first time I ever spent that much money on a phone.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Which part? Why am I not a phone guy? I dunno, they always felt like a dumb way to spend a lot of money. Why am I still rocking a 6s? It does what I need it to do and doesn't cost me anything. It still runs pretty fast too for what I use it for. Why am I thinking about getting a S10+? It looks like a sweet new toy that would last me a few more years and it would be the first time I had a cutting edge phone for its time.
 

daveonezero

Member
Well why would you buy a really expensive item if you don’t really care about it.

You can get 99% of that phone in a device half its cost.

Yeah I see buying a nice toy. If that’s the car I’d look to a lot of other devices. If you want it to last a long time a big company supported phone is important but you get way more value from say a Nokia or Pixel phone. Plus it doesn’t have the shit software
 
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Been about a year since I switched to Samsung, it's not bad but there definitely is signs of slowdown which were not as apparent with my previous phone, the iPhone 6. I know it's a pipe dream, but if Apple were to bring back the 3.5mm jack, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
 
After having to leave Windows Phone I went Android. Picked up an Honor 9, which is a sub brand of Huawei. Now have the Huawei P20. Great phone. Will probably get the P30 Pro in the next couple of months
 

waxer

Member
Huawei. Looking at upgrade to p30 pro from my mate 9.

I don't mind notches but the cut out cameras seem like a waste of space. Point of notch is to use either side as notification bar. The further you move down the less screen you have.
 

Rockondevil

Member
Sure Nokia once upon a time, however for quite a long time now iPhone is my go to. For the Android devices I don't mind the Google offerings, much better than being bloated down with another companies OS on top of your own.
Can't go wrong with Apple though, the OS and hardware just work flawlessly together it's nice not having to worry about possible future support or phone crashing etc.
Also a nice bonus that I don't have to give all my information to Google.
 

Mista

Banned
Always been an Apple lad but couple of years ago I decided to try android and went got the HTC M8 for my other phone. That phone was simply amazing! After it decided to try Samsung since everyone around me had one. It was the most garbage experience I ever had. Now my two phones are iPhone, main phone is iPhone X and secondary iPhone 7. Not going to change apple anytime soon
 
From a purely technical standpoint in 2019, Huawei. It leapfrogged samsung in camera tech this week when the P30 pro hit the market. They got even more phones on the line this year. Too bad Americans can't buy the best phones anymore, government bans are a bitch.
 
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Shifty

Member
Gonna throw my hat in for Xiaomi. The Mi A2 Lite I use at the moment is among the best value-for-money I've ever gotten out of a phone.

Shoutout to the one Blackberry voter too. I used to be hardcore like you, but alas no longer.
 
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From a purely technical standpoint in 2019, Huawei. It leapfrogged samsung in camera tech this week when the P30 pro hit the market. They got even more phones on the line this year. Too bad Americans can't buy the best phones anymore, government bans are a bitch.

I don't think people get how the ban works.

They can still be sold on online retailers, just not ground stores or ground strores with online sites.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I've had Sony phones for the past 8 years.
Never had a phone break on me, phones never freeze/crash and they remain fast for their lifespan with minimal slowdown.

Sony phones also have minimal manufacturer software that you don't need and all of mine have also had expandable storage.
 

Fbh

Member
It mainly has to do with Samsung's approach to software. Its devices are prone to a software "decay" where it bogs down over time. There's also an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach where it piles on features, and will insist on creating proprietary equivalents to Google's apps even though they're frequently redundant or worse.

Samsung's phones are great hardware-wise, but there's always that gotcha with software.

Can't say I've had issues with software "decay". When I upgraded to an S8 I gave my S6 to my sister and it's still working well.
Only thing I did before handing it over was having the battery replaced but I also know a ton of iPhone users that have had battery problems after 3-4 years.

The software thing is true though. They do indeed come with a lot of Samsung bloatware that's generally nowhere near as good as the goolge or other third party equivalent. The fucking "bixby" button on the S8 was annoying as hell too but thankfully with the latest update they have made it customizable (now it's my whatsapp button)
 

Skyr

Member
My smartphone history:
2008-2016 apple
2016-2018 samsung S7
since 2018 apple

I did like my S7 but also have to admit that I still prefer the iOS UI over Android, even after two years of use.

Also I wanted to go back to a smaller format, so the iPhone SE is perfect for me.
I really love it and and hope they will come up with a successor to it at some point.
 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
Can't say I've had issues with software "decay". When I upgraded to an S8 I gave my S6 to my sister and it's still working well.
Only thing I did before handing it over was having the battery replaced but I also know a ton of iPhone users that have had battery problems after 3-4 years.

The software thing is true though. They do indeed come with a lot of Samsung bloatware that's generally nowhere near as good as the goolge or other third party equivalent. The fucking "bixby" button on the S8 was annoying as hell too but thankfully with the latest update they have made it customizable (now it's my whatsapp button)

It seems to vary. Some people say their Samsung phones are fine, others watch theirs melt into a pile of software goo. Battery longevity, meanwhile, seems to be an issue with the tech industry as a whole... basically, we need next-gen batteries and more efficient processors to solve that problem.
 

kingbean

Member
I get my phones for free because I work for a data coms company that's also a cellular service company. I like my Samsung S9+ a lot.
 

Tesseract

Banned
IMO the moto line of android phones have been the best since their inception

and they're super affordable
 
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Grinchy

Banned
Well why would you buy a really expensive item if you don’t really care about it.

You can get 99% of that phone in a device half its cost.

Yeah I see buying a nice toy. If that’s the car I’d look to a lot of other devices. If you want it to last a long time a big company supported phone is important but you get way more value from say a Nokia or Pixel phone. Plus it doesn’t have the shit software
haha I dunno it's not really that big of a deal to me. I already jumped on the smart phone train later than most people and I've been frugal about it ever since. I feel like I'll splurge this time and see what the fuss is about and why people obsess over powerful new phones.

I have looked into all the new phones and the S10+ seems to be the best. The Pixel seems nice enough but the notch is just way too tall and the 4GB of RAM seems to lead to some sluggishness in some cases according to reviews and my buddy owning one telling me the same thing. The iPhone Xs Max is another one I am thinking about, but it starts at $1100 for less internal memory and I just don't like falling into Apple's trap of paying more than is needed just because of the logo.
 

daveonezero

Member
haha I dunno it's not really that big of a deal to me. I already jumped on the smart phone train later than most people and I've been frugal about it ever since. I feel like I'll splurge this time and see what the fuss is about and why people obsess over powerful new phones.

I have looked into all the new phones and the S10+ seems to be the best. The Pixel seems nice enough but the notch is just way too tall and the 4GB of RAM seems to lead to some sluggishness in some cases according to reviews and my buddy owning one telling me the same thing. The iPhone Xs Max is another one I am thinking about, but it starts at $1100 for less internal memory and I just don't like falling into Apple's trap of paying more than is needed just because of the logo.

Yeah I hear. Seriously then I'd wait to see what OnePlus 7 is going to be. It sounds like it won't have a notch but retractable selfie camera which for me is awesome as far as privacy goes not so much on durability but I would hardly use it so its not a big deal.

It will be their second gen in screen finger print scanner and they always have awesome specs. They have had 4 or 6gigs of ram since the beginning. New 7 will probably have more.

Samsung makes a great phone but I've never heard good things about their software.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Yeah I hear. Seriously then I'd wait to see what OnePlus 7 is going to be. It sounds like it won't have a notch but retractable selfie camera which for me is awesome as far as privacy goes not so much on durability but I would hardly use it so its not a big deal.

It will be their second gen in screen finger print scanner and they always have awesome specs. They have had 4 or 6gigs of ram since the beginning. New 7 will probably have more.

Samsung makes a great phone but I've never heard good things about their software.
Man, if I could choose to not have a stupid ass selfie camera on the front of a phone, I'd choose that every time. I have seen that retractable thing and it's a cool idea. I'll keep my eye out for that phone.

May last Samsung phone was a Galaxy S4 and I loved it. It felt so unrestricted compared to the iphone. I could just plug it into my PC and drag any files to it I wanted. The iPhone feels so closed off in comparison. But yeah, it came preinstalled with a ton of bloatware.
 
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daveonezero

Member
Yeah I think its a worthwhile trade off if you never use the thing.

The only feature the OnePlus line doesn't have is wireless charging. To me that is a positive as I am attached to their fast charging.

Plus if I'm getting android I want the as close to stock minimalist version of it. Then on top of that I take off/disable Google apps as much as possible.
 

Jaxx_377

Member
I have only used Samsung and have never had any issues with them so I never had any reason to change so I guess they get my vote by default
 
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