Which phone is best?

[Arizona Willie]

I have resisted getting a Smart Phone because I saw little / no need for it.
I sit in front of a computer all day with a landline at hand.
I did get a flip phone from Fry's / Kroger because it only cost $20 and $5 / month.
I figured it was good to have in case I broke down on the road or needed to call home from the grocery store.
Only used it a few times.

Then, my wife called my phone and got someone else!!!
Discovered this morning that in January I-Wireless took it upon themselves to close my account because it wasn't used enough!!

The account was fully paid but they gave my number away.

It was a crappy phone anyway.

I checked and they did stop charging my account the $5/ mo though.

So, I'm thinking of joining the 21st Century and breaking down and paying those pirates
$50 / month.

Those phone do play some nice tricks such as bank deposits and paying the check with your phone. I can do the bank deposits with my old Xoom tablet but I have no idea how much longer they will keep updating the OS and apps for that ancient piece of equipment.

I lean towards Windows phones simply for compatability, although I don't know if that is really much of an issue or not.

I < WILL NOT > buy an Apple phone.

Period.

So, presuming I stay with Windows phones which one do you folks think is best and why

I know I'm inviting a storm of responses but that's just fine.

My wife just signed for 2 years with Verizon ... she doesn't have a Smart Phone either.
I figured I would go with Verizon. Can probably get them to fold her account into a Family account of some type.

Verizon seems to offer 3 Windows Smart Phones:
Lumia 735
LG Lancet
HTC ONE (M8)

Which one of those do you think is best?
Price is an object but not the only or necessarily most important one.

If you have a Windows phone do you see any benefit to it over an Android?
If so, what?

Thanks for your responses.

 

[hughlle]

Me personally, HTC M8. It's a touch large, the camera while not as good as rovals will still take perfectly good shots for a phone. and I imagine they can be had pretty cheap these days (was on ebay looking at sale price for my M7 and saw that they were all selling for about £130, figured better just to keep the thing). I just love the build quality and ergonomics etc of the HTC one line. Sexy things.

While i've not used a windows phone, i imagine the benefit would be complete integratio with your surface, which would rock. The only drawbacks i could think of that might be present would be if you want things like core google apps, youtube, maps etc, not sure if those are as good on phone vs android, if they even exist. I've installed onenote on my phone and tablet, and tbh they utterly suck, so i'm very interested to see how a windows phone would mesh with me and the surface products.

Other than camera, i really have little use for a smartphone either. I've no interest in watching youtube or playing games or this or that. If it can text and call and wake me up in the morning, job done Don't see any genuine reason to upgrade beyond my M7, it does all a phone needs to do for me.

 

[sharpuser]

@Arizona Willie,

Your post is of the high maintenance type.

By that, I mean it would help if you named your criteria.

You don't mention if you need to make calls.
Or receive calls.
Or access the Web.
Or email.
Or listen to music.
Or view videos.
Or provide WiFi for your Surface.

The only thing you name specifically is that you don't want an Apple phone, apparently no matter how good it is in any of these categories.

There are some good phones out there of various brands. Competition has been very healthy.

 

[Arizona Willie]

Nobody has ever called < me > high maintenance before but I've sure had a couple of wives who were

I just need a phone mostly for emergencies.

I'm in front of a computer all day with a phone at my left hand.

But I've had an old flip phone I bought for when I was out and about in case of a breakdown or if I need to call home from the grocery store or something and I-wireless recently cancelled my account BECAUSE I DIDN'T USE IT even though it was fully paid on auto pay. I couldn't believe they would do that. They don't even deny the account was fully paid.

So I figure it's time to join the 21st century and get a smart phone so I can:

1) make calls
2) pay at checkouts via apps
3) deposit checks electronically via apps from my banks.
4) maybe read books while waiting in doctors office or something
5) take pictures ( while probably last on my list it is of fair importance ... I had to use my old phone once when my truck was involved in an accident at the Emission Control place where they check your vehicle. I wasn't even in the truck. They had it up on a rack and all of a sudden the engine roared ( the testers did that ) and it suddenly came off the rack backward. They didn't get it in park right. Also nice to be able to take good pictures of places you go without my big ol' heavy Canon camera hanging around my neck.
6) probably something I haven't even thought of yet.

Since I use Windows computers I lean towards Windows phones thinking about compatibility but I wonder how much compatibilty is really an issue anymore. Android apps take pictures in the standard formats and Open Office or some other program would probably put out windows readable spreadsheets etc. if I just couldn't wait until I got home. But I probably wouldn't have much use for that really.

I'm been retired for 19 years so work is not a problem except for getting your mouth washed out with soap for using that word around our house

We're so anti-work I even hire house cleaners so my owner doesn't have to push a vacuum around.

She likes that.

Happy wife --- happy life.

I've just been wondering which is the best way to go

Android

or Windows

Like the HTC 8 but the 9 is supposed to be out but Verizon just lists the HTC 8.

I'm thinking if I go with Windows I should wait until they bring them out with W10 already installed maybe.

I'm not in a big hurry to make up my mind.
I can take my time to try to make a good decision and do plenty of research so if I'm not happy it will be my own fault.

But I like to get a lot of people's opinions.

Opinions here and other forums count much more than the opinions on the phone company websites because they puff their own crap and post fake reviews.
===================

@Arizona Willie,

Your post is of the high maintenance type.

By that, I mean it would help if you named your criteria.

You don't mention if you need to make calls.
Or receive calls.
Or access the Web.
Or email.
Or listen to music.
Or view videos.
Or provide WiFi for your Surface.

The only thing you name specifically is that you don't want an Apple phone, apparently no matter how good it is in any of these categories.

There are some good phones out there of various brands. Competition has been very healthy.

 

[Compusmurf]

#3 is tough. Your bank actually have an app for Windows phone? No? You are SOL. Mine supports Icrap and Android.

 

[Compusmurf]

Microsoft is now producing real apps on android. I have android phone and windows phone. I use android for almost everything other than testing stuff in win phone.

 

[jrioux]

I have resisted getting a Smart Phone because I saw little / no need for it...

Willie, My wife and I were in the same boat as you last year so we bought two no-contract Lumia 520s from Microsoft for $49 each and subscribed to Consumer Cellular (www.consumercellular.com).

Consumer Cellular piggy backs on AT&T's network, so you need to get a phone that is compatible. We now pay less than $30 per month in total for a telephone-only family plan with the two of us sharing minutes. We get our email through wifi. Consumer Cellular lets you buy the minutes, texts and data that you need and you can change what you get monthly. There's also a 5% discount for AARP members.

We've been very happy with our Lumia, especially considering the price. MS now offers an AT&T Lumia 635 with no contract for $49. Connecting the AT&T phones to Consumer Cellular was a breeze.

We had Verizon before and in our area the isn't a noticeable difference in service with AT&T.

Good luck!

 

[sharpuser]

I am iPhone, but got friends whom are Lumina. They really like.

 

[Arizona Willie]

Actually both Wells Fargo and Ally have apps for Windows phones, or so they tell me. Now I have to use the Android apps on my old Xoom tablet.

#3 is tough. Your bank actually have an app for Windows phone? No? You are SOL. Mine supports Icrap and Android.

 

[Compusmurf]

Win phone is a decent os straddled with carrier issues and no apps compared to the other 2. I hope win 10 changes all that. Seriously!

 

[hughlle]

re HTC M9, for your stated needs, there really doesn't seem much point in going for a current generation flagship when you can get a prior flagship for a fraction of the price that will do everything you've stated as wanting the phone to do. I have also heard absolutely nothing regarding a windows M9 so i think it's M8 or nothing for the HTC One line.

 

[Arizona Willie]

I wouldn't mind an M8 but it seems the one's available are " pre-owned " and that makes me leery.

First of all it makes me wonder why the previous owners got rid of them.
Second I wonder what kind of condition the phones are in ... no way of knowing if they were ever dropped or thrown at someone

My owner has an adopted daughter and she got one of those " pre-owned " and when she calls us the name of an Indian guy shows up ( India type Indian ) and they claim they can't get rid of his name and put hers in.

That's on T-mobile.

Seems like a pretty crappy deal that they can't even put the right name on the Caller ID.

Who knows what evil little gems might be planted in a used phone.

re HTC M9, for your stated needs, there really doesn't seem much point in going for a current generation flagship when you can get a prior flagship for a fraction of the price that will do everything you've stated as wanting the phone to do. I have also heard absolutely nothing regarding a windows M9 so i think it's M8 or nothing for the HTC One line.