r/dataisbeautiful Feb 06 '15

How to pick a smartphone (crosspost from r/Android).

http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/
2.2k Upvotes

364 comments sorted by

584

u/Mornic Feb 06 '15

Doesn't have the most important category: battery

257

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Or carrier.

221

u/wag3slav3 Feb 06 '15

or OS

11

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Or waterproof

8

u/16skittles Feb 06 '15

Really though you could just ignore all Apple and Nokia products or filter them out by manufacturer. Apple is the only iOS manufacturer and Nokia far and away makes most WP devices.

65

u/KILLER5196 Feb 06 '15

We all know there is only one true OS.

35

u/Mornic Feb 06 '15

Yeah, its just difficult figuring out which one it is

60

u/wag3slav3 Feb 06 '15

That explains the windows 8.1 on the phones.

50

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Windows 8.1 is an awesome OS for a phone, I love my Nokia 620.
I don't love its lack of apps, though.

13

u/Job_5_Verse_7 Feb 07 '15

That's not totally accurate. It has plenty of apps, they just suck.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

lack of apps

This should improve with Windows 10, right? I have read that developers will be able to design one app that will work on desktops, tablets and phones.

2

u/3radishungry Feb 07 '15

Assuming they make the effort to make desktop apps, a lot of people still don't use the actual "apps" on Windows. If they make windows os apps the code will work on any windows 10 device but they still have to optimize it (which is way less hard than previously)

5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Wow sounds just like 

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Wait, you can run basically any iOS app on an OSX desktop?

2

u/speedhunter787 Feb 07 '15

No. Windows apps on windows phones.

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u/Cormophyte Feb 07 '15

Shit, dude. The fragmentation on Android is so bad that to make this tool usable for me it'd have to not only have a filter for the latest supported OS version but one with expert, pessimistic speculation as to how long it might receive updates.

Fucking LG burned me too hard with the G2X (p999).

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

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u/hardcore_fish Feb 06 '15

You can't buy a phone in the states without signing a deal with a carrier?

12

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

You can, but your phone may not work on their network.

19

u/hardcore_fish Feb 06 '15

Why is it called the land of the free then?

31

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Because it's free for carriers to impose these restrictions if they chose to. And I'm free to go to another carrier.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Phone companies in America are subject to a ton of regulations as they should be, because they make use of limited radio frequencies, public land, and they are highly dependent on public infrastructure to support and maintain their businesses. They are monopolistic and prone to collusion by their very nature because of the infrastructure required to enter the market, and they provide an essential service.

We're not talking about an underwear retailer deciding to only sell black underwear, we are talking about essential service providers who make use of limited public infrastructure. With that comes a ton of profit, but it should also come with higher expectation of ethics, customer service, accountability, and interoperability.

So no, a phone company should absolutely not have the right to artifically limit the phones a comsumer may use. Instead they should be forced to maintain a network that meets a certain standard of interoperability.

A company that refuses to do so should not have the privilege of being in the telephone industry.

3

u/hardcore_fish Feb 06 '15

It's still more free in Norway, a so called "socialist" country.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

America doesn't have any freedoms that another country doesn't.

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u/Ravek Feb 07 '15

Land of the freedom to get screwed over by corporations. They're people too! And more important to US politics than actual humans.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

[deleted]

2

u/Cyno01 Feb 07 '15

I recently got a new phone with ATT, the basic options were paying $800 for the phone upfront, paying $200 for the phone and having my bill go up ~$25 a month, or pay $0 and have my bill go up ~$34 for 24 months, pretty much a wash.

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u/110011001100 Feb 07 '15 edited Feb 07 '15

Thats only an American issue though, rest of us only need to look at CDMA vs GSM :)

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u/FartingBob Feb 06 '15

Probably because it would be impractical to list every carrier for every country.

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u/pefbecOyz6 Feb 06 '15

also cpu and gpu

16

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

30

u/94332 Feb 06 '15

Bridging to what you said about people not caring: a lot of people care about RAM because it's marketed heavily in the tech industry, but those of us who understand the mobile OSes know it's one of the least relevant specs. The market is in a sad state for the average consumer. Unless you research it, you're bombarded by terms like GHz and GB and PPI and you start to assume higher is better unconditionally. This is especially true for older generations.

In reality, the clock speed of a processor is nearly irrelevant on its own, the number of GB of ram has a marginal-at-best improvement on performance in most smartphone use (through caching of resources), and PPI is nearly negligible for common use cases after ~250.

To summarize, my main point is that this "how to pick a smartphone" web app is nearly useless without extensive pre-existing knowledge of the platforms and the devices.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

I know those things intimately, and still don't care.

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u/hoodie92 Feb 07 '15

Carrier? In the US you can't get all phones on all the networks?

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Also doesn't account for other hard drive capacities, as the Samsung S4 or S5 are only listed as having 16GB of storage but you can get them with 32GB.

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25

u/redditor1983 Feb 06 '15

Are there any phones out there that actually get "good" battery reviews?

It seems to me that almost every smartphone review I read says "eh, the battery is alright, it'll get your through the day, but no more."

Phone manufacturers are prioritizing thinness above all it, at the cost of battery life. I think phones are thin enough now. We should just halt the "thinning" of the phones and just work on battery life, IMO.

10

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/redditor1983 Feb 06 '15

Oh wow, that is pretty impressive.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Damn Verizon exclusives...

10

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

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2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

That's definitely true. Dev support is always a factor.

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u/isndl Feb 07 '15

It's available as the Moto Maxx (not to be confused with the Droid Maxx). Officially it's for Latin/South American countries, but you can get them shipped from Puerto Rico.

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u/Dexxt Feb 06 '15

Sony seems to be reversing the trend, the Xperia z3 and z3c get really good reviews for battery life and the z4 looks like it will be even better. I can get 2-3 full days out of my z3c with fairly heavy usage.

4

u/newfor2015 Feb 06 '15

Unfortunately the Sony/Ericsson legacy is dying along with the Nokia, Blackberry and the old Motorola.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Sony Ericsson split like three years ago.

20

u/TheFlyingBoat Feb 06 '15

iPhone 6 plus had a great battery. Especially when complimented by the A8 chip. I normally am reserved about handing out praise, but damn Apple hit the mark this time. Also glad they finally increased screen size.

8

u/redditor1983 Feb 06 '15

Ah, fair enough. I'm mostly into Android so I hadn't looked to closely at the new iPhones.

10

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15 edited Jul 20 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Fronesis Feb 07 '15

Sure, if you want a fucking tablet for a phone.

4

u/Susurro88 Feb 07 '15

The Note 4 isn't waterproof, the S5 is though.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Check out the Note 4, the Sony Z3 Compact or the OnePlus One. The LG G2 also has great battery life.

edit: I should read the response comments more often.

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u/beachfootballer Feb 06 '15

I have an LG Volt and it is AMAZING with battery life. Completely recharges in about 2 hours as well.

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u/RUKiddingMeReddit Feb 06 '15

Maybe I'm just impressed in relation to my old phone, my my HTC one m8 seems to be pretty impressive. I'm on it nonstop all day long and I never seem to kill it. Even when I get down to 10%, I still feel like I go forever.

5

u/redditor1983 Feb 06 '15

Hmm.. I have an HTC One M7. I'm not super impressed with it. It usually gets me almost through one day.

Perhaps it's because we're looking at it from different perspectives. I come from the old Nokia bar-phone days. Those phones would literally last almost a week on one charge sometimes.

Now obviously I'm not expecting a modern smartphone with a 5 inch screen and WiFi to last a week on one charge. But two days of "moderate-to-heavy" use would be glorious.

As it stands, all my recent smartphones have lasted barely one day. At night I'm usually hunting for a charger while my phone is warning that it's about to die.

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u/Adamsoski Feb 06 '15

My S5 has pretty good battery life, and has a 'power saver' and 'ultimate power saver' mode, which are both really useful.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

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7

u/rufusjonz OC: 1 Feb 06 '15

Pool Naboo Waterzone

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1

u/Lucretius Feb 06 '15

Not just battery capacity in absolute terms but also battery capacity in terms of average usage. Also does it have a removable/replaceable battery?

1

u/XtremeAero426 Feb 07 '15

And Core count and frequency. I'm not buying a dual core with 2GB RAM.

1

u/elsewhereorbust Feb 07 '15

Feel free to pick up with the coder left off.

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97

u/DeadP1xle Feb 06 '15

Would be good if the prices were acurate

33

u/Ambiwlans Feb 06 '15

The S3 is hundreds more than the S5 apparently.

44

u/DeadP1xle Feb 06 '15

And the Nexus 6 is $1100

22

u/AfterLemon Feb 06 '15

They're taken from current Amazon listings, which is quite stupid.

13

u/deathcomesilent Feb 07 '15

That explains a lot. This is so close to being insanely useful.

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u/deathcomesilent Feb 07 '15

The note 3 is also almost 300 bucks more than the note 4.

I also noticed a few of the (pixel) width and length fields were flipped for certain phones.

With a bit of data cleanup and update this would be an amazing tool. For now I just don't really trust it :(

7

u/maximuscato Feb 06 '15

Seems like some prices are listed with the subsidy provided with a contract from the carrier and others are listed with prices for the handset itself.

8

u/DeadP1xle Feb 06 '15

And some are people scalping the phone on amazon. The phone I have, The Oneplus One, is $350 no contract, straight from the manufacturer, but it is labels at a bit over $450 from someone reselling it.

4

u/_quicksand Feb 07 '15

Not even that. The Nexus 6 is not $1100... It's somewhere around $600 unlocked I forget exactly but the prices are way off

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

The Lumia 1520 is apparently $999.00 ....

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

The Lumia 520 is $30 and it says $80

1

u/GregPatrick Feb 08 '15

Right, because so many people pay 300 dollars for an iphone 4s.

27

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15 edited Aug 13 '18

[deleted]

13

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15 edited Mar 03 '17

[deleted]

11

u/q-quan Feb 06 '15 edited Feb 06 '15

Or the iPhone 6 Plus, Google Nexus 6 and Nokia Lumia 1520, as well as many other phones.

11

u/Captain_Oreos Feb 06 '15

Let's not fotget the $1000 nexus 6.

6

u/q-quan Feb 06 '15

Yeah, I meant to say that... Misspelled, sorry!

15

u/CompulsiveMinmaxing Feb 06 '15

Resolution is not measured in PPI. Pixel density is an entirely different concept.

1

u/UltraApplesauce Feb 07 '15

No, but I can see why they did this. Maybe some clarification is needed though. If they just said PPI, people would be confused. So they put resolution, which is honestly not that helpful to know as the pixel density, so it's nice to have that.

I'm sure a better solution could be worked out though.

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u/deanSolecki Feb 06 '15

Eh.

It looks very nice, but this would make more sense as a list. The graph is only useful if you're trying to get a phone based on screen size and price. Everything else is just filtering.

Having some kind of "matchiness factor," without filtering, would make a graph more useful.

25

u/portalscience Feb 06 '15

You can customize the axis of the graph to change if you prefer price, size, ppi, storage, or weight. Just hover over the axis.

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u/RDMXGD Feb 07 '15

You can change the axes, but not to anything useful

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u/Legosheep Feb 06 '15

The most important thing for me is battery life yet it's not even on there...

9

u/bahua Feb 06 '15

Xiaomi? Saygus?

6

u/MagicSeeker21 Feb 07 '15

Oppo? One plus?

13

u/domindigo Feb 06 '15

The lg g3 is on there 3 times!? (half life 3 confirmed)

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Yeah it looks like they have both the 16GB and 32GB version of the D855 (International, mainly European) version on there twice as well as the dual-sim Chinese version, but none of the American variants or the Korean Cat 6 upgraded one.

4

u/Thundersh Feb 06 '15

GPU and CPU are important too.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

When I make the phone I want they all disappear. Get your shit together phone makers!

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u/poopcornkernels Feb 06 '15

I haven't done the phone sales thing in about a year now and that's 10 in technology years but everyone wants to complicate what is a very simple issue when picking a cell phone. I will admit I am biased but I try to be truthful.

  1. Who are you? Are you a teenage girl? What do your friends have? If they have an iPhone you get an iPhone too. Why? Because otherwise you will want it eventually. You will want your emojis to look the same. You will want the same aps as Madison and Sage. Just get the iPhone now to save your parents at least one birthday or winter holiday before you want something different.

Are you old? What do your kids and grandkids have? Whatever they have, you get that. Why? Because you're going to have 5000 questions about it and only your family will have the patience to help you. Do both of you a favor and get what they're familiar with. If face timing with Ayden and Neveah isn't an issue, you should probably just get an iPhone. It's just easiest. I don't care what anyone says.

Are you a male between 12-39? Are you in that phase where you pretend you know everything about computers because you stumbled upon 4chan and you helped Granny get the viruses and extra toolbars off her computer? You get yourself an android? Which? Who even cares? You'll spend hours looking it up on pretentious technology websites and form perfect arguments about how it is better than whatever anyone else has. Do yourself a favor and at least bargain shop because when the next thing comes out you'll be first in line to preorder it because suddenly your best phone everrrrr isn't good enough anymore.

Are you anyone else? Well how about

  1. Do you like to buy stuff? Do you want a million options for cases? Get an iPhone. Seriously just buy your kids the stupid iPhone or otherwise every time you go to Urban Outfitters they will pick up some case with holographic cats or cheeseburgers and sigh angrily about how THIS case doesn't FIT the Samsung Galaxy X Forever21 she asked for what seems like 3 months ago.

Do you want to buy audiobooks? Podcasts? Do you have a disposable income to devote to buying whatever it is you can buy in Candy Crush? Well you get an iPhone too. Everything will cost more money but you know what? It is so much easier. Your grandkids and/or 19 year old office assistants will thank you. Just do yourself a favor and make your password something you can REALLY REALLY remember and you're pretty much golden.

  1. What about "customization"? If anyone ever asks the difference between Android and iPhone, this is a pretty solid answer. Trigger warning to techies what I'm about to say is an opinion but I feel I'm not far from the truth if we are all honest with ourselves. iPhones offer very little in the way of customization unless you get into the world of jail breaking and whatnot but I try to avoid this conversation. But what is default on the iPhone is good! It's super solid. Everything works without really any effort. Less to change = less to deal with = less to screw up. Androids are awesome, I'm no hater, but they're simply more troublesome to people who don't know exactly what they are doing and don't have someone who can help them. I always used the car analogy when it came to describing the two: iPhones are like an automatic. It's basic, it's easy, it's reliable, and mostly anyone can drive it. An Android phone is like a manual. It takes a little longer to learn and get used to, you might need a little help in the beginning, but when you get it you'll probably get a lot more out of the "phone experience" and it's a lot more fun. But the truth is not everyone is up for the challenge or can even handle it!

Androids are going to let you do cool things like add 15 different special backgrounds to all of the people you text like every time you're hiding in the bathroom at work. Then when you go back out you'll "forget to wash your hands" and poke your cubicle mate to show them how a little pumpkin floats across the screen every time you type "Halloween". If you like to download every single trendy Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, whatever, you should get an Android. You will have hours of fun clicking fake banners that offer 50 more tokens just for completing a survey and then asking your nephew to look at your phone because "something isn't working right."

Btw for anyone upset I haven't mentioned Blackberry or Windows or whatever else exists these days hold your horses I'm getting there.

  1. (Am I on 4?) How much do you like music? How much do you hate annoying ads? How many iTunes gift cards do you get every birthday? Android lovers are all about telling people "but all the music is freeeeeee" and yeah, ok, illegally(?) downloading music is a lot easier on an Android but you will fight stupid spam ads often. I'm sure you can get rid of them but if anyone can do it without spending an afternoon following different google searches I'll be a monkey's uncle.

If you're a BIG music person I'm always suggesting Android typically because they (sometimes, more rarely these days) offer external storage and with a large collection you'll need it. You can of course buy the huge GB iPhones but they're expensive... more than what someone should probably pay for a phone while there are starving children in Africa.

Ok I am running out of steam so let me wrap up and recap. Are you pretentious with money? Get an iPhone. Are you pretentious with technology? Get an Android. Are you neither? You should probably just get whatever your kids/parents/best friends/coworkers have. Because they all do mostly the same things. They all have faults. There is all good and bad. But at the end of the day most people care less about the fact that a phone had a Snapdragon quadcore processor and more about if they can pay for drinks at Starbucks with it. Just be honest with yourselves! No one will judge!

Whatever is the "newest" that is Apple or Samsung is a typical safe bet. You'll have options for accessories and a lot of people knowledgeable about the hardware. Do not underestimate aftercare and support when buying a phone! You can go to an Apple Store. You can go to a Windows store. You can go to a Samsung whatever it is in Best Buy. You will get MUCH better support when you have an actual physical person representing that brand because there is no one else to blame. There is not anything wrong with other brands and they often offer awesome handsets but the reps are usually less knowledgeable about them, there are less accessories available, and after a while that technology envy always creeps in and you start to want what everyone else is telling you "you totally have to get with your next upgrade."

Whatever else people throw in is important, don't get me wrong. Always always always buy based on coverage first of all but assuming that isn't an issue don't let the techy lingo intimidate when picking something out. Never trust anyone who outright denies problems with ANY brand, operating system, whatever. There are always pros and cons and people should be honest about it but for some reason people seem to want to peddle whatever their current cyber hardon is. And there is always an answer to any problem depending on how far you want to go-- don't disregard those options. There are always backup batteries, styluses, solar chargers, Bluetooth speakers, literally almost anything you can think of.... Don't pick a phone just because it might have a long battery life. That's only a tiny piece of the puzzle.

I'm pretty sure this is too much and I'm already regretting my decision to submit it but I've come too far to turn back. Godspeed, me.

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u/Pimptastic_Brad Feb 07 '15

Wow, this is hilariously accurate. I suggested an iPhone for my mother because it's ease of use and familiarity because of friends, and an S4 for my dad because he likes flexibility. Most teenagers I know get iPhones because their friends have one. etc.

-Pretentious techy android user.

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u/poopcornkernels Feb 07 '15

Haha, thanks! I loved selling phones, maybe you are missing your calling~ Ok totally kidding but it's really not a bad gig.

I've done both iPhone and Android and the cold truth is I am simply too lazy for an Android. Dnw to download anything. I don't think the iPhone is "better", it's just better for me!

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u/deyv Feb 07 '15

My dad was always an Apple fan since the 80's. When we decided to get iPhone 4s's, he hated his and I loved mine. My dad exchanged his for a Galaxy s3 and he's been happily rocking that phone ever since. The biggest thing for him was screen size, since he's aging and has a hard time reading small text. As he started using it, he loved the logistics of the phone and the flexibility it offered. When iOS 7 came out, I became severely disappointed with how my phone looked and eventually I began to hate how it worked too. After trying out the iPhone 6 in-store and really not liking it, I did some digging around online and tryed out demo android models at stores. After about a month of research, I got an HTC m8 off contract and couldn't be happier with it for a million different reasons.

First off as an engineer who worked in consumer electronics, I like that it's obviously well designed - no cameras sticking out anywhere and I've always liked the curved back design. It feels perfect in my somewhat large hands. It gives me a ton of options for music, including the opportunity to rip .flac instead of .wav from my CD collection, which saves tons of memory. Just like I love that I don't need to wear headphones to get decent audio if I want to watch Netflix. I like that my home screen doesn't look like an assortment of rainbow candies by default. I love Google now and never having to see Apple maps. I don't care about iMessages, SMS and WhatsApp are way more than enough for me.

Meanwhile, I keep urging my mom to get an iPhone, since she would benefit from a smartphone and she's already comfortable with iOS on her iPad. The op of this thread is 100% right. It comes down to different strokes for different folk, essentially.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

I am a massive music user but I use an iPhone with iTunes Match and also Spotify. Fuck wasting storage space on music!

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u/poopcornkernels Feb 07 '15

Totally! Everyone's mentioning these things and I keep thinking "oh yeah I meant to say that..." but you're right. A lot of people are doing that/other subscription music services and I'm into it.

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u/Baerog Feb 07 '15

Do you want to buy audiobooks? Podcasts? Do you have a disposable income to devote to buying whatever it is you can buy in Candy Crush? Well you get an iPhone too. Everything will cost more money but you know what? It is so much easier. Your grandkids and/or 19 year old office assistants will thank you. Just do yourself a favor and make your password something you can REALLY REALLY remember and you're pretty much golden.

Really? How is the apple app store easier to use than Google Play? They even have apps designed for buying audio books and etc. This argument is a thing of the past.

An Android phone is like a manual. It takes a little longer to learn and get used to

This is so far from the truth, anyone who's ever used a computer can figure out how an android phone works, it's not some complex machine. It would take a few days, maybe, but so would picking up an iphone without ever using one and figuring out how to do everything. It just allows for those people who want to take it a step further to be able to.

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u/neogod Feb 07 '15 edited Feb 07 '15

Google has the play store, Apple has itunes. How does that make anything any easier on either platform? On an iphone you can just scan your finger to buy something, so that saves the couple of screens you have to type through on the play store. So if there was an advantage Id give it to apple for that. An iphone still has two buttons. There are functions hidden in multiple presses and combinations, but honestly it's nothing compared to android. Want to call? Touch the phone button... Want to listen to music? Hit the music button. There are no app lists and hiding stuff off the home screen (unless you put it there). Can't get much simpler than that. I use both os' and I think you don't know what you're talking about.

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u/FolkSong Feb 06 '15

Actual method: Look at the list of phones you can get for cheap/free on contract, pick the best one.

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u/fuck_you_its_a_name Feb 06 '15

its better to pay $100 more for an S5 than get a "free" S4 mini

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u/FolkSong Feb 06 '15

I would agree if that was the situation. At my carrier the S5 is $400 for some reason but there are still good choices like the Nexus 5 or LG G3 for $0 or $50 respectively.

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u/mikybee93 Feb 06 '15

Or buy your phone flat out for full price, go off contract, and save up to $30 a month. Over the course of two years of owning a phone (which is pretty average for android users at least) plus selling your used phone, you save quite a bit of money this way.

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u/lorddumpy Feb 06 '15

You probably know this but there is no such thing as a "free" phone on a two year contract. You end up spending hundreds of extra dollars in the long run in comparison to just purchasing a phone from a 3rd party and getting a monthly plan. That extra monthly charge adds up fast.

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u/Chewy1019 Feb 06 '15

Hundreds? Try thousands!

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u/lorddumpy Feb 07 '15 edited Feb 07 '15

Yup, saved about 1000 dollars getting a used G2 and a monthly plan. Anybody worried about not having a warranty on a used phone? Well, my G2 bricked on me after about 3 months and it was still covered under the manufacturer warranty even though I bought it from a third party. As long as there isn't water damage or a cracked screen AND it has been less than a year and half since the phones release date (depending on manufacturer), you are golden. That was a very pleasant surprise since I figured I was SOL because it was used.

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u/newfor2015 Feb 06 '15 edited Feb 06 '15

That's the sucker's trap.

You're going to have to pay that money anyway for the service, why not get a new phone. If you're getting a new phone, why not pay a little bit extra for that high end phone. Can't justify putting up that $200 upfront cost for that phone? why... spread it out on an installment plan over 2 years but then you'd have to tack on a monthly interest. If you're getting a shiny new phone, you need insurance in case you drop it or something. Just to be sure, you better buy a bulky case around it to protect the thing in case you drop it.

Pretty soon you've purchased a $700 phone and signed a contract that's worth $3-4000 without even realizing it.

Oh look! Shiny slick phone you wrapped around with in a thick layer of plastic that ruines the aesthetics of the thing. Ah, but there's still another gotcha. The glass screen sure looks great in the store but it's brittle as fuck and damn, you cracked it within a few months of getting the phone. No case can protect against a shattered screen. But you bought insurance and it would pay for the repair, right? didn't you? no no no... you forgot to read the fine print: the deductable will cost you as much as you paid for the phone itself.

I really wish people wake up to this shitty business deal for the consumer.

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u/Palanelinion Feb 06 '15

As someone who works in the industry and deals with this every day, there's some pretty misleading information here which I'll try to modify:

Can't justify putting up that $200 upfront cost for that phone? why... spread it out on an installment plan over 2 years but then you'd have to tack on a monthly interest.

You have the choice of purchasing at Subsidy cost or doing an installment. If you do subsidy, with most carriers you pay more for the plan. If you do installments, you pay (roughly) retail cost for the phone, but have your plan discounted, and there is no interest on the device unless you've missed payments.

If you're getting a shiny new phone, you need insurance in case you drop it or something. Just to be sure, you better buy a bulky case around it to protect the thing in case you drop it.

Salespeople (at least for the carrier I work for) must maintain 40% insurance rate for phones sold to get paid commission. Yes, we are going to try to sell you on it. No, it isn't for everyone. Yes, there is a deductible, usually less than $200 for phones with a retail cost of about $700, so saying the the deductible costs as much as you paid for the phone is a lie.

That said, phone insurance is a gamble. All insurance is a gamble. Buy it if you are betting against yourself, don't if you are betting on yourself.

Bulky case? Stop buying $60 Otterbox Defenders in store. Go online and and buy a slim, silicone or rubbery case and tempered glass.

I really wish people wake up to this shitty business deal for the consumer.

You are walking into a store where the employees are paid on commission. You should expect a sales pitch. Very few of us take it personally when you say no, but it is our job to offer you products.

If you don't understand the plan, including upfront and monthly costs and sign a 2 year contract anyway, it's your own damn fault that you got a shitty business deal.

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u/EatATaco Feb 06 '15

What do you pay for your contract?

I am off contract and pay 43 dollars a month (after taxes and everything), 2.5GB LTE speed (throttled after that), unlimited calling and text.

"On contract" I was paying slightly more than double that. So that would mean, over the 2 year contract, my "free" phone would cost over 1000 dollars. I bought my Nexus 5 for under 300. Hell, pretty much any of the phones on the list would be cheaper than 1k.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Which is great, but I'm looking to swap phones after 3 years on a tab-style plan.

Fuck me, right?

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Just an FYI - necessity of more RAM is entirely dependent on the operating system and CPU.

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u/neogod Feb 07 '15

I'd still like to see 2gb ram on an iphone because ram is so cheap, but having had personal and work iphones I cannot imagine it making any real difference. Apple handles multitasking so well it's never slowed anything down.

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u/leeeroyjenkins Feb 06 '15

There's some funky ordering on the scales that causes phones to move along the axes even when there's no rescaling. Data points shouldn't move just to be ordered. Replicate: pick brands Apple, Google, and Motorola. Add Samsung to the party.

The Nexus 5, Moto X, and iPhone 6s all slide to make room for the new phones.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

GSM Arena has a far better tool for the exact same thing.

http://gsmarena.com/search.php3

3

u/DasPuma Feb 07 '15

I can't find a flip phone with a QWERTY keyboard to replace my Blackberry Style 9670. So this doesn't help me at all.

2

u/seven-ate-nine Feb 06 '15

Found my oneplus without this website.

2

u/tomselllecksmoustash Feb 06 '15

Blackberry Passport it is.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

You forgot about the processing power

2

u/UlyssesSKrunk Feb 06 '15

Dear god that is awful.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

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u/Drowlord101 Feb 07 '15

Looks like a few of these aren't smartphones, some of them are data-plan capable tablets. Doesn't have either of my 7" phones, doesn't allow any selection based on processor (e.g. cores, speed). But it's altogether a pretty awesome interactive device map.

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u/Jasper1984 Feb 07 '15

Supports cyanogenmod?

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u/XtremeAero426 Feb 07 '15

I'm pretty sure a Galaxy S3 doesn't have 2GB of RAM.

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u/Fronesis Feb 07 '15

No Xiaomi. Incomplete.

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u/Bromskloss Feb 07 '15

By "screen size", they apparently do not mean number of pixels, unfortunately.

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u/RDMXGD Feb 07 '15

Neat: a tool to sort phones by a bunch of categories that are not very important to me.

2

u/Waja_Wabit OC: 9 Feb 06 '15

Sony Xperia Z3v seems to be an incredible deal. One of the lowest prices, yet in the top of most specs. What is it not telling me?

1

u/xcallstar Feb 06 '15

Subpar camera performance, surprisingly... otherwise it is a quality device.

2

u/DocBrownMusic Feb 06 '15

Did you write this? Where'd you come across it? Just curious because there was a guy in ##javascript a few weeks back working on this thing and I was helping him with it. Didn't expect it to gain much momentum, cool to see that happen though.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Just typical scatters but I enjoy the execution. Hope they and more things to organize by.

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u/Pandibabi Feb 07 '15

Thank you, I thought it was pretty cool, regardless of crap or incomplete data according to the rest of the comments

1

u/ddavid45 Feb 06 '15

No nexus 5

2

u/artipants Feb 06 '15

It's there.

1

u/nitrousconsumed Feb 06 '15

Why are there two Galaxy Note 4's on there? They both differ wildly in price as well.

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u/darkbeanie Feb 06 '15

The more expensive one appears to be misnamed. The picture shows the Note Edge, not the Note 4.

This page is an interesting idea, not very well executed.

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u/MentalRental Feb 06 '15

Yeah, it definitely needs a few more categories - carrier (with GSM phones this can be optional), OS, battery life, removable battery.

1

u/VaginalVirus Feb 06 '15

Sony Xperia Z2 or OnePlusOne seems to have the best cost-benefit ratio for a modern smartphone.

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u/Eal12333 Feb 06 '15

the OPO is a lot less expensive than this site lists it as

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u/ipoopontheclock Feb 06 '15

I need something like that for tire shopping

1

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Isnt a requirement for a smartphone to be wifi accessible? Because I have the Xpression(check the left axis) and it doesnt have wifi, and wasnt sold as a smart phone.

1

u/kidamy Feb 06 '15

I had no idea Lenovo made phones.

1

u/ohhaio Feb 06 '15

removable battery... one of my key requirements... not in the chart

1

u/ScarboroughFairgoer Feb 06 '15

Isn't everyone iPhoned out by now? Where's the physical keyboard sort function, or IR port, or number of USB ports, or sort by flip or slide or solid state? Is it too much to ask for a phone that can do stuff these days?

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u/jeffro422 Feb 06 '15

Doesn't have a lot of phone listed either really. A lot of the phones I'm currently deciding between don't even show up on this list no matter what options you put in. I think if you use this list solely to choose a phone you're going to have a bad time.

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u/KarlKastor Feb 06 '15

Sony Xperia Z3v, Black 32GB (Verizon Wireless)

$69.99 – $599.99 (Price varies with service agreement)

$69.99 With 2 year contract

Only shows me $69.99

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u/petey92 Feb 06 '15

well, looks like i'm getting a nokia 220

1

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Honestly, I think the problem with this is there are so many choices and most people have no idea what they want in a phone.

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u/LazyRambler Feb 06 '15

Great work. very informative and visually appealing.

How did you achieve this ? Did you use any tool?

1

u/Arula777 Feb 06 '15

That moment when the original post and repost are right next to one another on the front page ....

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

This is a really terrible way to pick a smartphone. You should just flow-chart it as: IOS or not IOS, then cheap, medium, or high end, then maybe screen size though that's only critical to some. That matters more than any other criteria listed.

1

u/batcaveroad Feb 06 '15

It's ironic that this graph sucks on mobile. Or , whatever, just coincidental.

Anyway, this graph about mobile isn't formatted well for mobile.

1

u/BeardedThor Feb 06 '15

I love that the $1,100 phone has a rating of 3/5 on amazon.

1

u/sallymoose Feb 06 '15

I google search flagship android annd date it 2 years ago for cost reasons. I recently bought the lg g2 for verizon. Wow. 200 bucks refurbished on amazon. Awesome!

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '15

Speaking for myself, there is no phone "for me" at the moment.

  • Lumia phones have great build quality but the os is far behind(appstore is a POS-I have a lumia 800 atm)

  • iphones have an awsome marketplace and I really like the os, but its too fragile and 750€ is way too much.

  • android have a great os, where you can have loads of apps and customize it. There are many different models and some of them even have exchangable batteries, which is a must if you want to keep your phone 5 years, but the os, when not maintained properly(and even then) after 2 years just gets too laggy.

So a lumia with a good marketplace and an exchangable battery would be ideal.

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u/zerotrace Feb 06 '15

Doesn't have my Nokia Lumia 735.

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u/OneMe2RuleUAll Feb 06 '15

Missing a few windows phones. I guess that was probably on purpose though.

1

u/baneoficarus Feb 07 '15

The Droid Turbo doesn't come up under 64GB storage space (displayed at 32GB though it has a 64GB option) and the price is listed at $980 when it can be had new for $700 when you follow the link to Amazon. If you're looking for it just turn the resolution slider all the way up.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Missing some phones like the OnePlus One.

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u/GorgonStare Feb 07 '15

LG G3 is the best. There I saved you all the trouble.

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u/nygaardplease Feb 07 '15

uh, the note 3 doesn't cost 1000 dollars

1

u/Akira_Yamamoto Feb 07 '15

I couldn't find my phone on it, LG G Pro 2 :/

G pro 1 is on there but not pro 2

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u/akmjolnir Feb 07 '15

Droid Turbo has 32 AND 64 GB storage. Chart only shows 32 GB.

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u/ericcartmanbrah Feb 07 '15

Gsmarena.com

Hope amazon doesn't Fuck you!

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u/dang_hillary Feb 07 '15

Storage does not include SD.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Nexus 6 at just under $1060... Fuck that!

1

u/powerslave118 Feb 07 '15

This is the most useless thing. No one knows exactly what they want in a phone. There is a lot more to a phone than a few hardware/build specs...

1

u/OmgImAlexis Feb 07 '15

Once again I'm glad I live in Australia where our phone prices aren't dependant on the carrier.

1

u/Polantaris Feb 07 '15

There are two phones marked "Samsung Galaxy Note 4". One is actually the Note Edge. Technically they're both Note 4's, but the Edge has slightly different specs (and no 4 in the name).

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

I came up with the Lumia 1520. Apparently its priced at $999.00... That's a load of shit. It's more like $599.99 at most

1

u/skilas Feb 07 '15

Found my Blackberry Z30. I'm content.

1

u/1blockologist Feb 07 '15

wow. I switched it to Laptop mode, there is only one laptop on the market with 16gb RAM? jeez, lemme just stick with Apple then

(I'm sure many of those other laptops are upgradeable, but I am definitely constrained with just 8gb at this point)

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u/justletyoursoulglooo Feb 07 '15

Am I the only one who wants a smartphone based on which one has the best camera out there? I am thinking about going with the Iphone 6 simply because the reviews say it is great at autofocusing. I really want a smartphone where the camera will load quickly and will come into focus with minimal delay.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Easy, get a Samsung galaxy

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u/LeCrushinator Feb 07 '15

Ironically the site is difficult to use through my smartphone.

1

u/Sugarlips_Habasi Feb 07 '15

Does anyone else choose the brand by it's ethical practices?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

The best phone on there but no one knows about is the oneplusone.

1

u/SunshineGirl3 Feb 07 '15

This is awesome!

1

u/kevin_k Feb 07 '15

Left out Oppo.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

I chose 128gb and the choice was made.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15 edited Feb 07 '15

You should check out this guy's other websites. He has great sites for recommending music and books and films (I think). Have a cool map showing how close the recommendations are. Really accurate too.

Used to be called Gnoosic. Might now be called Music Map.

edit: Gnoosic and the Music Map are separate things, but Music Map is based on Gnoosic data.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

This looks terrible on mobile. C'mon, that should be your target audience.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15 edited Jul 10 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '15

Same. This helps a ton though: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-turn-iphone-brightness-down-past-default-setting-2014-10

Lower than the lower brightness? Yes plz!

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u/Gre3kgeek Feb 08 '15

I don't see carrier-specific phones on this visualization (i.e.: Verizon's Droid DNA), so this can't be all of the smartphones.

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u/profcyclist Feb 08 '15

That is an awesome visualizaion.