Verizon: Samsung Galaxy S6 or... ?

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I went from Nexus 5 to Nexus 6. Neither was the very latest. The Nexus 6 easily fits in my shirt pocket and since its larger (with more space for an onscreen keyboard) you are less likely to have a typo when typing.

As long as I can fit the phone in my pocket and can hold it between thumb and fingers (not needing both hands to hold the phone) I am for larger phones.

I am a firm believer in buying the phone outright unlocked from the start.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Let's not get into any Android vs iOS discussions here, please.



My comment was serious.



Well, let's see. It is the equivalent of a Chevy/Ford discussion, where the person who started the thread said "I want to stick with Chevy", and you commented with "Ford".

Yep. That's serious all right.


No, it's only Chevy/ford when you want to play fanboi or wear blinders so firmly affixed to your head that you won't see another point.

My enterprise is rolling out iPhones in place of blackberries. There is no android option (at least not yet). That means thousands if not tens of thousands.

I'll say it for the record that I'd have preferred to stay with a standard old fashioned blackberry (my latest bold model has been sort of buggy, but all the others were rock solid and perfect), but to me it's telling that they are rolling out thousands of iPhones vs android. I couldn't care less if they handed me a droid or iPhone or something else, so long as it works. I long ago realized a smartphone is really poor for anything but a phone and a music player, so while I travel around 50% of the time, I bring a real personal laptop with me. Ditto for bringing an slr with me when I want to take photos, no matter how many MP the stupid phone makers want to advertise.

I'll not say any more, the op wants droid only and so be it. But as I'm going through an iPhone rollout now at work, it's on my mind, not because he says Chevy so I say ford.

When my time comes, ill onside the s6 active as it has a nice in hand feel and is rugged idea a bit as is. That said, by then an s7 might be out, as might be an iPhone 7. I do think there is a droid phone that benchmarks faster than the s6/note5 and iPhone 6s fwiw.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Thanks, everyone.

Those of you that own the S6, how is the battery life?

After owning my current Razr M for almost 3 years, I have gotten used to living with a non-removable battery. Granted, the battery life is a lot worse now than when it was new. I use a portable charger when I'm on the go and running low on juice.




I use Pandora for about an hour in the morning, some Web surfing/texting on breaks at work, and YouTube, BITOG, some phone calls, and texting in the evenings after work. It's at about 30%-50% by the time I'm off for bed. The nice thing though is it comes with a "fast charger", which actually does charge fast.
 
Originally Posted By: tomcruise
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Thanks, everyone. Those of you that own the S6, how is the battery life? After owning my current Razr M for almost 3 years, I have gotten used to living with a non-removable battery. Granted, the battery life is a lot worse now than when it was new. I use a portable charger when I'm on the go and running low on juice.
I use Pandora for about an hour in the morning, some Web surfing/texting on breaks at work, and YouTube, BITOG, some phone calls, and texting in the evenings after work. It's at about 30%-50% by the time I'm off for bed. The nice thing though is it comes with a "fast charger", which actually does charge fast.
+1 - I have Pandora on for about 2 hours during my morning 7 miles, then e-mail and calls all day long, plus texts and social networks. I have my power savings set to "high" and at 10PM or so, I usually have about 30-40% remaining. As Tom said, the fast charging feature is a huge plus.
 
Originally Posted By: tomcruise

The nice thing though is it comes with a "fast charger", which actually does charge fast.


That's a nice accessory in a pinch but id be really careful using it much. Gadget batteries are already minimally derated, and fast charging causes added heat and stress on cells optimized for energy density, not rate (magnitude of discharge or charge). If the battery was replaceable I'd say who cares, but fast charge, while convenient, is a calculated approach to planned obsolescence.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: tomcruise

The nice thing though is it comes with a "fast charger", which actually does charge fast.
That's a nice accessory in a pinch but id be really careful using it much. Gadget batteries are already minimally derated, and fast charging causes added heat and stress on cells optimized for energy density, not rate (magnitude of discharge or charge). If the battery was replaceable I'd say who cares, but fast charge, while convenient, is a calculated approach to planned obsolescence.
Not really, this is a built in feature in that the charger is fast, but the battery is designed to charge fast as well--I still use a "normal" charger from my old S5 and the phone still charges faster than my S5 did. Samsung did tons of testing on the battery before the S6 was released.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: tomcruise

The nice thing though is it comes with a "fast charger", which actually does charge fast.


That's a nice accessory in a pinch but id be really careful using it much. Gadget batteries are already minimally derated, and fast charging causes added heat and stress on cells optimized for energy density, not rate (magnitude of discharge or charge). If the battery was replaceable I'd say who cares, but fast charge, while convenient, is a calculated approach to planned obsolescence.



The charger that comes with the phone is a "fast charger" so unless you have a standard charger you don't have a choice. For that reason, I'm assuming it's not detrimental to the battery.
 
Argue as you desire but you can't change the physics of over potential induced oxidation, heat generation and material strain due to higher intercalation rates. Batteries designed for this are made for high rate and the high energy densities arent maintained. Point is, I've tested batteries under strenuous use go to thousands of cycles. Device batteries are already stressed to the point where a few hundred cycles is "good". Fast charging helps put another nail in the coffin. As long as you get to your two year refresh...

But as I said, it's a nice feature to have in a pinch, that's for sure.

Smart algorithms are being developed to optimize charge at different rates under different conditions, but I doubt high cycle count is on any phone maker's top ten list.

But if you own a phone outright, you may care more too...

Originally Posted By: tomcruise


The charger that comes with the phone is a "fast charger" so unless you have a standard charger you don't have a choice. For that reason, I'm assuming it's not detrimental to the battery.


That's interesting. I suppose that it's more like the de facto standard 2.1 A charger vs the 500-1000mA chargers that fit the USB standard. But when phone batteries are so big, a 1800mA battery still charges in like an hour vs 2-4, which is relatively "fast"!
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Argue as you desire but you can't change the physics of over potential induced oxidation, heat generation and material strain due to higher intercalation rates. Batteries designed for this are made for high rate and the high energy densities arent maintained. Point is, I've tested batteries under strenuous use go to thousands of cycles. Device batteries are already stressed to the point where a few hundred cycles is "good". Fast charging helps put another nail in the coffin.
Interesting, but it still does not explain why the S6 charges faster than the S5 when using the S5 charger which was not a "fast" charger.
 
I'm pretty happy with my new LG G4. It's pretty slim in the pocket without a case, and even slapping an Otterbox Commuter case it's still no thicker than my previous phone.
 
Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Argue as you desire but you can't change the physics of over potential induced oxidation, heat generation and material strain due to higher intercalation rates. Batteries designed for this are made for high rate and the high energy densities arent maintained. Point is, I've tested batteries under strenuous use go to thousands of cycles. Device batteries are already stressed to the point where a few hundred cycles is "good". Fast charging helps put another nail in the coffin.
Interesting, but it still does not explain why the S6 charges faster than the S5 when using the S5 charger which was not a "fast" charger.


The S5 charger is still a 2A charger AFAIK. The S5 probably doesn't use the same algorithm as the S6, and tapers current sooner or does something else.

But more importantly - the S5 has a 2800mAh battery while the S6 is only 2550mAh...
 
I'd take a very serious look at the Droid Turbo. I was in the exact same place as you last November. I had a Droid Razr M and loved the size. It was driving me crazy that all the new phones were so big but my battery life was getting pretty bad. I really liked Motorola's enhancements to Android and the Turbo's big battery drew me in. All I can say is I love my Turbo. After all that concern, the size difference was a complete non-issue. I use just about all the Motorola features on a daily basis (screen approach every time I pick it up ;-) ) The battery life is great as well. It's currently nearly a year old design but quite frankly, nothing that came out in 2015 so far makes a compelling case for an upgrade. If it being last fall's model bothers you, there is a Turbo 2 that should be out very shortly.
 
Originally Posted By: Canawler
I'd take a very serious look at the Droid Turbo. I was in the exact same place as you last November. I had a Droid Razr M and loved the size. It was driving me crazy that all the new phones were so big but my battery life was getting pretty bad. I really liked Motorola's enhancements to Android and the Turbo's big battery drew me in. All I can say is I love my Turbo. After all that concern, the size difference was a complete non-issue. I use just about all the Motorola features on a daily basis (screen approach every time I pick it up ;-) ) The battery life is great as well. It's currently nearly a year old design but quite frankly, nothing that came out in 2015 so far makes a compelling case for an upgrade. If it being last fall's model bothers you, there is a Turbo 2 that should be out very shortly.


Droid Turbo is $480 on Verizon. Moto X Pure Edition is $399 from Motorola. Moto X also comes with a fast charger and has an SD slot but doesn't have a replaceable battery. The trend is that the latest phone is usually the best phone, one it's 6 months to a year old, there's always something better that has come out since. You can also customize the color of your phone with the Moto X maker on their website. I didn't really care too much about it, but it came with a free bumper case so you still see the color of the back of the phone. I'm not too worried about the battery life, by the time it gets worn out, it's probably time for a new phone anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
... I'm not too worried about the battery life, by the time it gets worn out, it's probably time for a new phone anyway.

I'd say this depends on your situation. Aside from the valid points JHZR2 made about charging rate on battery longevity, and the normal variation in quality of the cells, heat is a big factor. When a phone or tablet is hot for extended periods, either due to environmental temperature or internal heat from heavy usage, the battery definitely deteriorates faster. In the summer I try to protect my phone from excess heat, because I have seen multiple cases of the toll one summer can take on a battery.

On the OP subject, I am a bit turned off by the direction Samsung has taken with the S6 - no more SD slot or replaceable battery. Those were some of the features of Galaxy phones I appreciated. If Samsung continues this way my S5 will be my last Galaxy. My S3 was a good phone too, and I agree that these phones are getting too big.
wink.gif
 
While it'd be nice to have an SD slot and replaceable battery, I feel that this would remove way too many potential devices from consideration. Very few devices these days offer these features, and the ones that do are typically on the large side, and my #1 priority is to keep it as small as possible while still offering good performance.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
The new nexus 5x is probably the best 5" phone

What about the new HTC One A9? There will be a Verizon version. The specs look pretty good. It has an SD card slot. The main downside seems to be a small battery - only 2150 mAh.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
What about the new HTC One A9? There will be a Verizon version. The specs look pretty good. It has an SD card slot. The main downside seems to be a small battery - only 2150 mAh.

Replying to myself here, in case anyone else is interested. The A9 seems to be getting OK reviews, but not stellar. Battery life doesn't seem to be an issue, but it gets dinged for mediocre speaker and camera.

Other than latest Android version and microSD slot, I'm not sure there is much benefit to getting the A9 over Galaxy S6. The A9 is somewhat cheaper though.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/10/27/htc-one-a9-review-pretty-pretty-pretty-good-pretty-good/
 
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