Which phone should I get?

[blc073]

I currently have an iPhone 6, but I am due for an upgrade. I am between the iPhone 6s Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S7, and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. 

I don't know a lot about phones and technology, so I am just looking for testimonials. Which is the best phone? 

Edited June 2, 2016 by blc073

[TakeruK]

What are you looking for in a phone? 

The "best phone" is probably a personal decision but here is my testimony:

I love my Nexus 5X that I just got a couple of months ago. Before that, I had the Nexus 5 and enjoyed that very much too. For me, the Nexus 5X is a perfect balance of features and price. I love the operating system on the Nexus 5X. Here are other things I enjoy about this phone:

1. A good (good enough for me) camera: 12.3MP is more than enough for my main use of this camera---quick snaps for facebook or twitter and/or viewing on the computer only (i.e. most of my vacation photos). I don't even have a separate camera because I don't have a use for higher quality photos at this time.

2. Fingerprint unlock option. It's on the back of the phone and my finger naturally goes there when picking up my phone and holding it. Very easy to use!

3. Being a Google phone means you get the Android OS updates first and your phone can always be up to date. In the past, old Samsung phones sometimes were not even capable of updating past a certain version of Android (not sure if this is still true for new phones). 

4. I like the battery life (with my typical use, I probably only use 50% battery from 8am to 6pm normally and around 70% battery if I have bluetooth on to sync my fitbit regularly --- I decided that "all day sync" on fitbit is not useful now though, especially since I mostly sit at my desk!). Note: I think I use more battery power than typical because my location on campus has terrible WiFi so the phone continually connects and disconnects.

5. Finally, my favourite thing about the 5X is Google's Project Fi as a phone carrier. The quality of the cell service is amazing and the price is the best I've seen ever. I pay $20 per month for the basic phone services (calls, text, voicemail) and then $10/GB of data, and they charge based on actual usage. My typical bill is about $25/month per line because I use about 0.5GB of data per month. There is no extra charge for international roaming for many countries and the 5X is designed for excellent WiFi calling abilities. I can call US phone numbers when I'm out of the country via WiFi calling for free (this week, I'm at a conference and need to deal with USPS and being on hold a lot). International data is typically charged at the same rate as domestic data. I especially like the "pay only for the data you use" model because our last provider, T-Mobile charges a fixed amount for a data bucket and the smallest bucket size is way too big for me. Since Project Fi runs on both the T-Mobile and Sprint networks, we are now getting the exact same coverage for 2/3 of the price (our very similar T-Mobile plan was $40/month per line).

[Neist]

I'd like to echo everything @TakeruK stated. I have Google Fi and a Nexus 5X, and I'm overjoyed with both.

If you use Google products, there's a lot of integration with the Fi service that you don't get with other services. For example, your Google and Fi accounts sync, so you can text from your desktop via Hangouts. If you get a voicemail, the voicemail is sent via Hangouts (all you have to do is play it). I can also answer my cell phone via Hangouts on my desktop. It doesn't distinguish the two; they are innately considered one platform.

Well, and it's cheap. Very cheap.  

[blc073]

Thanks for the feedback! I will definitely take a look at the Nexus 5X. 

[kimmibeans]

I have a similar question. I am debating between a Samsung Galaxy Edge and a Droid Turbo 2. I'm leaning toward the Turbo 2 because I've had Droids for about 4 years and I've loved them (except for the Droid 3, which was terrible and was sent to me by my insurance to replace my R2D2 Droid 2 which was amazing), but I've heard awesome things about the Galaxy Edge. Any advice?

[TakeruK]

10 hours ago, Neist said:

If you use Google products, there's a lot of integration with the Fi service that you don't get with other services. For example, your Google and Fi accounts sync, so you can text from your desktop via Hangouts. If you get a voicemail, the voicemail is sent via Hangouts (all you have to do is play it). I can also answer my cell phone via Hangouts on my desktop. It doesn't distinguish the two; they are innately considered one platform.

Oh yeah, I somehow forgot this! I hate texting so I'm so glad I can just respond to texts on my computer when I am at home or at work  

[spectastic]

can I have your old phone?

[juilletmercredi]

I have an iPhone 6S Plus. I recently had a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ for about 3-4 months, so I have recent experience with both Android and iOS. My job has a takeout program for most devices so I've also recently played with a Samsung Galaxy S7 and a Microsoft Lumia 950 (Windows Phone). I really wanted to try a Nexus 5X, but it didn't have the storage capacity I wanted - I wanted at least a 64 GB phone (I have 128 GB on my iPhone).

I agree that it's a personal choice, and frankly, I think the two major phone operating systems - Android and iOS - do pretty much the same things for the vast majority of users. Most major apps are going to be available on both systems in pretty short order; some apps come to iOS first but are pretty quickly put on Android. Each has its little idiosyncracies and quirks.

To be quite honest, I prefer Google's suite of services and offerings - Hangouts has always been more stable and better quality for me than FaceTime or Skype; I love Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Keep and Google Chrome. I absolutely love Google Now - it's a bit creepy, but it's a service that reads the patterns you make (searches, emails, commute, etc.) and then gives you useful information on that basis. For example, if you leave for work every morning around 8 am, at around 8 am every morning Google now will have your morning commute and a traffic report. It'll give you news based on what you searched recently. If you have flight confirmation emails in Gmail, it'll give you information about your flight (delayed, on time, gates, etc.) and ping you when it's time for you to leave for the airport. Google Calendar also automatically pulls things from your email and schedules them for you.

Most of these apps are available on iOS too - I use them all - but they aren't baked into the default experience they way they are with Android, and they made managing my life so much easier, if you are willing to accept the minor tradeoff in privacy. (Apple, for example, is still trying to make Apple Maps happen, and there's no way for me to make Google Maps my default on my phone.) I also loved that I could customize my Android phone with widgets - I could make it look however I wanted to, get my notifications however I wanted, put weather and email and even my bank account on my home screen so I didn't even have to go into apps to access that information. There's also the case that if you ever want a different phone on Android, you can do that, and Android phones come in a variety of styles and prices. You can also choose any of the many Android Wear watches if you want a smartwatch. With iOS you are locked into the iPhone and the Apple Watch. (and as someone who owns an Apple Watch - they are far uglier and clunkier than the Android watches, most of which are quite sleek and attractive. The features that third-party apps can use on Apple Watches are also far more limited than for Android Watches, but I find the Apple-only watch apps to be pretty useless for me, so honestly - the watch is not that useful for me at all.)

Samsung also has a couple of interesting things they've done in the last couple years. There's Samsung SideSync, which allows you to easily access files on your phone on your computer and also text from your computer (which is something I dearly miss - I have a Windows 10 computer, so no texting through my iPhone). They also have Samsung Milk music, which is a digital radio app that was actually really good. At the last minute I decided on the Edge+ because of the edge gimmick, but when I walked into the store I had originally planned on getting the Note 5 - because I still like to take notes on paper and I thought that the S Pen plus OneNote or Evernote would allow me to take notes on my phone. I still regret not getting the Note 5, even though I eventually sold the phone. (The edge added nothing to my experience; I hardly ever used it.) The S7 has a really beautiful screen and I think you get a free Samsung Gear. You also get wireless charging with some Samsung models, which is pretty nice!

But iPhones have their perks, too, which is ultimately why I switched back. First, I found Android OS releases far buggier than iOS releases - if I updated my iPhone I rarely experienced any OS problems, whereas my Edge+ was crashing all the time. Second, even after 3 months with my Android phone I felt like I didn't really know how to use it - I kept forgetting how to do things or find settings because the UI is not intuitive, and some settings are grouped poorly. iPhones also offered more storage than all but the most expensive Android phones, and while Android phones used to offer micro SD cards, fewer of them offer that anymore. (This was important to me because I have a lot of music and other apps - right now my phone has 45 GB worth of stuff on it, including 11 GB of music, and that 11 GB of music represents about 15% of my overall music collection. This is why I really needed a phone with at least 64 GB of storage, and why I decided the Nexus 5X ultimately wouldn't work for me even though I really wanted to try it.)

But the biggest thing - which probably doesn't really matter much to anyone else but me, lol - is third-party hardware support. I'm the kind of person who changes my phone case every month or so and likes cute external accessories and branded cases like Kate Spade and Isaac Mizrahi. If you walk into a Best Buy right now, I guarantee you there will be 4 walls full of cases for the two different iPhone sizes and about 1 wall for ALL of the different Android phones out there, including maybe 2 or 3 for the Samsung Edge+ and Note 5. If you don't have a Samsung phone  - ha! Good luck. There were more cases for the S6 and S7, but I wanted the big phone because I read on it all the time. I also make custom nerd culture cases (anime characters, pop culture, video games) on websites like Zazzle and Redbubble, and many of those websites didn't have a template for my Samsung phone but they did for the new iPhone as soon as it dropped. There is also a lot more hardware for iOS, like portable chargers (most support most phones, but a some only support iPhones), headphones with remotes and mics, and alarm clock/speaker systems.

Like I said, I could get all the Google apps on my iPhone pretty simply and completely free, but I couldn't solve the latter couple of issues easily with Android phones, so I switched back.