Looking for reliable Smartphone brand.

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Guess I should have written this before today since I plan on switching to Cricket wireless today, or tomorrow. Anyway, I'm looking for a smartphone brand that is (most importantly) reliable, fast, has a SDHC card slot and isn't more expensive than 150 dollars.

I'm not a big smartphone user and haven't kept up with the trend but I mostly surf the web, text, talk and use gasbuddy and auto maintenance apps.

My very first smartphone was an LG G2 and it just suddenly died on me 1.2 yrs into my contract, which forced me to hastily purchase an Asus Zenphone 2E GoPhone and it is very slow. can take up to 5 seconds to respond to my touch. Due to my experiences with those two brands, I do not want to purchase their products again.

My friends and coworkers say "you can't go wrong with Samsung" and I'm about to purchase either the Samsung Galaxy Amp Prime or their Amp 2. I don't mind the smaller footprint of the Amp 2 but hesitant of the 8 GB of memory verses the 16 GB on the Amp Prime.

I prefer Andriod over the iOS therefore the iPhones are out of the race.

Of the two choices I'm considering, which is the "smarter" choice, do you think?

Thanks for your input!
 
I would go for a Nexus 5 from Swappa.com. It's an excellent phone that holds up well against the latest models, and should be right in your price range. The LG G3 is another excellent handset, but I understand there may be some hesitation there for you.

I can't say I would recommend either of your choices. You should be able to find a gently used Samsung Galaxy S4 or possibly even S5 in your budget, if you have to have Samsung.

Swappa is a great place to buy/sell gently used devices at market value.
 
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In my opinion you absolutely can go wrong with Samsung. They're at that point apple used to be at, when they were first becoming insanely popular, and they'd make stupid mistakes on phone design and still had mediocre software.

My LG G3 has lasted for almost 2 years now with almost no wear on it. That's all I can suggest, LG G4 or G5. Guarantee you'll be happy with the G5, it has some awesome features. Get a case to go with whatever phone you get regardless. A nice medium thickness rubber one. The LG G2 I had before that only died because I slammed it in my car door and even after replacing the screen I'm pretty sure it screwed up the electronics inside. Other than that it still worked fine before that.

Be careful if you're on AT&T, they're desperate to ruin customer satisfaction ratings by neutering phones; removing features like FM radio and Qi wireless charging to try to squeeze every last cent out of their customers. Double check the ATT version has all the features, if you're with them of course.
 
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Samsung Galaxy J3

Whatever you get look for AMOLED screen as that type seems a little easier on the battery. It's because with AMOLED the phone can light only the pixels it needs to light and can leave other pixels powered off, thus saving a slight amount of power.

I have a Moto X 2nd Gen and love it but it has a big limitation and that is that it has no card slot to expand beyond the 16gb onboard memory. And it's camera could use an Image Stabilization feature.

I urge you to look at Republic Wireless as well. They are expanding their phones selection in July. My monthly bill is usually around $13.00 (thirteen dollars), unlimited talk and text and 1gb of cellular data. I use between 3 and 4gb of data per month, but 90% of it is when the phone is connected to WiFI so it's free. I'm on the $25/month plan. $10 of it is unlimited talk and text and 15 is 1gb cell data. Whatever cell data you don't use you get a refund on your next month's bill for it. They are preparing to expand their plan offerings in July and people who've signed on with one of the refund plans will (supposedly) be able to keep it ("if you like your plan, you can keep it...") but new customers after the July roll out will be offered more traditional plans that they claim will still be more competitive than, say, Cricket. They are also moving to a new carrier from Sprint, and it is thought that it will be T-Mobile.
 
Not sure if you have access to HTC phones ?? coming up on two years with one a fairly basic #510 series and its been dead reliable not sure on pricing now though.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Samsung Galaxy J3

Whatever you get look for AMOLED screen as that type seems a little easier on the battery. It's because with AMOLED the phone can light only the pixels it needs to light and can leave other pixels powered off, thus saving a slight amount of power.



Most phones have been AMOLED since 2013.
 
Originally Posted By: hemitom
Not sure if you have access to HTC phones ?? coming up on two years with one a fairly basic #510 series and its been dead reliable not sure on pricing now though.


Another solid recommendation! The HTC. M7 and M8 can fit his budget. Two more high-end, durable devices.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW


Most phones have been AMOLED since 2013.


LoL can you tell I just joined the Smartphone army only this past January? Look what I know, LoL. But, I can't say enough good about Republic Wireless. I'm around WiFi most of the time and so their refund plan works great for dirt cheap smart phone service with my usage pattern.
 
If you don't care about the camera Cricket has the Moto E for I think around $30. Very solid phone with a near plain Android interface, which helps avoid a lot of the lag problems due to the [censored] most phone companies install. Camera is not very good, but adequate for recording things.
 
Originally Posted By: horse123
In my opinion you absolutely can go wrong with Samsung. They're at that point apple used to be at, when they were first becoming insanely popular, and they'd make stupid mistakes on phone design and still had mediocre software.

My LG G3 has lasted for almost 2 years now with almost no wear on it. That's all I can suggest, LG G4 or G5. Guarantee you'll be happy with the G5, it has some awesome features. Get a case to go with whatever phone you get regardless. A nice medium thickness rubber one. The LG G2 I had before that only died because I slammed it in my car door and even after replacing the screen I'm pretty sure it screwed up the electronics inside. Other than that it still worked fine before that.

Be careful if you're on AT&T, they're desperate to ruin customer satisfaction ratings by neutering phones; removing features like FM radio and Qi wireless charging to try to squeeze every last cent out of their customers. Double check the ATT version has all the features, if you're with them of course.


I've had a LG G3 now for about a year and a half no problems what so ever.
 
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Look at Consumer Cellular they get the best customer satisfaction ratings in consumer magazines. They sell phones on a 2 year payment plan, but they are a no contract company. I have them and they use AT&T cell towers or in some cases T-Mobile.

I am sold on Nexus phones which I buy from Google. They have no carrier software and work as Android was designed to work. My family has two Nexus 5 and I have a Nexus 6.

I would also look at HTC and Samsung.

If you get a Nexus 6 you can use Project Fi (Google) as your carrier and they can use Spring or T-Mobile or WIFI for voice/text. And switch between them depending upon location.
 
Nexus 5X also works on Project fi and you can get the 16GB model for $199 if you sign up for a month of fi. I think the 32GB model is $249. The great thing about the Nexus phones is they get the security updates and others first, unlike most Androids on most carriers.
 
Thank you everyone for your input. Unfortunately, AT&T is the only tower out where I live. My 2 yr contract with them is up today and I have no choice but to go with a carrier that uses AT&T towers.

They do have a couple HTC phones, Desire 520 and 626. I will look into those two.

Cricket doesn't carry Nexus so I know nothing of them, but will research now. I'm worried that if I don't purchase a phone from cricket, they might say the phone doesn't work with their network, which would frustrate the [censored] out of me.
 
Another vote for an LG 3, 4 or 5. I've had Android smartphones since they first rolled out. Not a fan of Samsung since they like to load their phones with tons of bloatware. Of all the Android phones I've had, I love my G3 and current G4 for the most.
 
Originally Posted By: hemitom
Not sure if you have access to HTC phones ?? coming up on two years with one a fairly basic #510 series and its been dead reliable not sure on pricing now though.

I vote for HTC also....all they make is phones and my 2012 HTC Rezound still works like new (never do the software updates on things I don't use), with the exception that the screen seems to use more power now.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
I would go for a Nexus 5 from Swappa.com. It's an excellent phone that holds up well against the latest models, and should be right in your price range. The LG G3 is another excellent handset, but I understand there may be some hesitation there for you.

I can't say I would recommend either of your choices. You should be able to find a gently used Samsung Galaxy S4 or possibly even S5 in your budget, if you have to have Samsung.

Swappa is a great place to buy/sell gently used devices at market value.



+1 on swappa and an unlocked Nexus 5X.
 
So swappa.com is kind of like a craigslist, where people can put their used smartphones for sale. That's kinda cool. I will have to learn more about that site, like how reliable sellers are, etc.

Thanks, rooflessVW and curtis newton, for the recommendation.
 
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