Finally decided to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy S4 - What should my next phone be?

[ELECTRISK]

Finally decided to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy S4 - What should my next phone be?

I've been using my Samsung Galaxy S4 for the last 5 years and I've never really had any issues with it. It's gotten to the point now though that I really think it's time to upgrade. Its 16GB of internal storage is getting extremely annoying and many apps (like netflix) have updates that make them close to unusable with the specs in the phone. It's also getting pretty annoying just having a phone that looks this old, Many of my peers tell me that they think I should upgrade and recently I had someone tell me they think my phone looks similar to their dads. In addition to this, the outdated software is extremely buggy at times and I would like a phone that still receives software updates from the manufacturer. 

 

So once decided to upgrade I started shopping for my next phone. I watched many reviews on many phones but couldn't really find one phone that stood out from all the rest or that met all of my requirements. Am I missing something?

Here are my requirements for my next phone (listed in no particular order):

- Must have a 3.5mm headphone jack

- Must charge via Micro-usb or USB type C

- Must NOT be an iphone

- Must have a user-replaceable battery

- Must be compatible with an Otterbox Defender

- Must have a SIM AND Micro-SD card slot

- Must be compatible with the Verizon mobile network

- Internal storage must be a minimum of 32GB

- Must run a current version of android

- Must lack a notch

 

In addition to the requirements, I also have preferences that I would like my next phone to have (listed in no particular order)

- Wireless charging (Even with the otterbox defender case on)

- 1080p or higher display

- Stock battery of 2500mAh or above

- Fingerprint reader (Even with the otterbox defender case on)

- Ability to play music to 2 bluetooth speakers at once

-  Little to no bloatware

- Dedicated back button (Hardware preferred)

- Decent specs (≥3GB RAM, ≥1080p display, ≥2500mAh battery, etc.)

- Multitasking

 

For those who this may help, here is a list of features that I don't mind but don't care about either:

- Water resistance

- Face ID

- NFC

- Voice assistant dedicated button

- High quality camera(s)

 

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Detailed description of typical usage, workload, & expected lifetime:

I have a very flexible budget but any attempt to keep the price of the phone under $1,500 (USD) would be appreciated. 

I plan to use this phone for a very long time, a minimum of 5 years. I tend to take very good care of my phone and have no problem performing minor repairs myself (e.g. cracked screen), however I do like the ability to perform minor maintenance when I am going to have a phone this long without cracking out an iFixIt toolkit. I did list a user removable battery as a requirement as I know I'm going to eventually wear out the battery and in many situations I have found it incredible useful to carry a pre-charged second battery with me when I know I'm going to use my phone a lot that day. 

 

During the day, I mainly use my phone for decently normal purposes. I would consider myself a middle of the road type when it comes to usage. I listen to spotify through bluetooth headphones, I text friends, I may play an occasional game (Light games such as Paper.io 2) if I get bored, and I occasionally take a picture of an assignment to help friends. I do not use social media and so I have no need for a high quality selfie camera.

Once dismissed from school I use my phone in my vehicle to listen to music. I use a combination of downloaded songs from Spotify and ripped MP3s. I still have not made the full transition to spotify however am working on becoming less of a song pirate. Usually I have work once dismissed however sometimes I go into a city near me which often requires navigation. I currently use google maps to navigate however am looking at possible switching to Waze. If anyone had any advice as to which one is better for a user like me with 0.5GB of data please feel free to comment on that. Here is where multitasking would come in handy. When I am navigating in the city I tend to listen to music through my aux cable in my car however navigation is open. It would be really nice to have a phone that can have both spotify and google maps open at once while driving to prevent having to navigate between them while driving. In addition I recently got a backup and blind spot camera installed in my car because the blind spots in challengers are insane and the kit I got installed has an app you can download to prevent needing a monitor installed in the vehicle. I currently drive a 2013 Dodge Challenger R/T and it does not have a monitor that the backup cameras can be viewed on and they told me to just use my phone at the dealership so if possible a phone with 3 applications at once??

 

At night I use my phone to control smart home devices, listen to spotify, watch youtube videos, use TFA, use google calander, reply to messages on discord, etc. I would actually consider myself a pretty heavy user at night so having a battery that can keep up is important. 

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Any recommendations on what my next phone should be would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for not only reading this text wall but then helping me make my decision! I really appreciate it!

[Constantin]

Except the removable battery....(i think it;s a bit difficult in our days to find a removable battery on a decent phone)

I suggest the Galaxy S9 or S9+ 

[markr54632]

The newest "decent" phone that had a user replaceable battery I am aware of is the LG v20.

[ELECTRISK]

5 minutes ago, Constantin said:

Except the removable battery....(i think it;s a bit difficult in our days to find a removable battery on a decent phone)

I suggest the Galaxy S9 or S9+ 

Unfortunately the removable / user-replaceable battery is listed under the requirements. I am not really looking to consider phones that don't meet all the requirements. 

[ELECTRISK]

1 minute ago, markr54632 said:

The newest "decent" phone that had a user replaceable battery I am aware of is the LG v20.

Does the LG v20 meet the rest of the requirements listed in the original post?

[Constantin]

Just now, ELECTRISK said:

Does the LG v20 meet the rest of the requirements listed in the original post?

To be honest, i do not know.

But i use to have the LG G4, it was a fantastic phone!

[markr54632]

10 minutes ago, ELECTRISK said:

Does the LG v20 meet the rest of the requirements listed in the original post?

Yup. Smallest storage capacity is 64 gb. With the new software update it runs android 8.0 flawlessly. Doubtful it will get a 9.0 update though. The snapdragon processor is still snappy by today's standards. They still make an otterbox defender for it. It has a wonderful dac and headphone jack.

 

You don't have many choices with user replaceable battery.