What phone to buy?

[AIO]

Hi!

I currently have a very crappy no-name android smart phone, that does not function well (e.g. touchscreen  will try to guess what I want by doing things before I press it). Thus I am looking for a new phone, luckily for me I have +/- an unlimited budget. The only real things I care about are: speed, aesthetics, good screen. The phones that I currently have been looking at are the Samsung galaxy s7 and the oneplus three.  Any suggestions? 

 

Thanks in advance, 

AIO

[Wander Away]

Well, I was about to say depending on how much you want to spend, either a s7 or a oneplus 3, but, I actually read your post, and... yeah, there goes that. 

I personally would get a oneplus 3, just because its cheaper, and not missing that much features. 

Plus, since I got an Oculus Rift, I don't really need the higher resolution on the s7 for VR.

[Haydenp10]

I have the  S7 Edge and it's an absolutely amazing phone! I highly suggest you purchase it!

[ForgottenT]

I'd say go with the s7, samsung phones are amazing, they're gorgeous (especially the screens) They're powerful, and gets updates fast, personally I'm using an s6 Edge+ right now, but I might just get the note 7 when it comes out (basically the edge+ version of the s7).

[TriFlix Films]

iPhone....

*It's a Joke*

 

Never go iPhone.

[AIO]

5 minutes ago, Wander Away said:

Well, I was about to say depending on how much you want to spend, either a s7 or a oneplus 3, but, I actually read your post, and... yeah, there goes that. 

I personally would get a oneplus 3, just because its cheaper, and not missing that much features. 

Plus, since I got an Oculus Rift, I don't really need the higher resolution on the s7 for VR.

I like the Oneplus three for its big screen and the price is certainly nice, but I live in Hong Kong where it is quite humid, and am worried that it will degrade the Oneplus's performance. 

[AIO]

4 minutes ago, Haydenp10 said:

I have the  S7 Edge and it's an absolutely amazing phone! I highly suggest you purchase it!

Do you actively use the 'edge' on the S7 Edge? To me it seems rather arbitrary. 

[dizmo]

With an unlimited budget I wouldn't go with a OnePlus phone. Sure, they're nice, but there are definitely better devices out there. I'd go with the S7 Edge, or if you can wait a little longer, perhaps the Note7.

 

If you're a media buff, there's also the Axon 7. I believe the premium model is already available where you are. Ticks almost every box for me, though I think the battery consumption won't be as good as the Samsung phones.

3 minutes ago, AIO said:

Do you actively use the 'edge' on the S7 Edge? To me it seems rather arbitrary. 

I'd pick the Edge more for the much larger battery and bigger screen than the edge features.

2 minutes ago, AIO said:

I like the Oneplus three for its big screen and the price is certainly nice, but I live in Hong Kong where it is quite humid, and am worried that it will degrade the Oneplus's performance. 

I don't think you'll see the phones performance degrade from humidity.

[AIO]

4 minutes ago, TriFlix Films said:

iPhone....

*It's a Joke*

 

Never go iPhone.

iPhone can be nice for people who just want a phone that does all the basic things that they expect. I see it like this: iPhone is one trick pony and android is more like a jack of all trades

[AIO]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

With an unlimited budget I wouldn't go with a OnePlus phone. Sure, they're nice, but there are definitely better devices out there. I'd go with the S7 Edge, or if you can wait a little longer, perhaps the Note7.

 

If you're a media buff, there's also the Axon 7. I believe the premium model is already available where you are. Ticks almost every box for me, though I think the battery consumption won't be as good as the Samsung phones.

I'd pick the Edge more for the much larger battery and bigger screen than the edge features.

I don't think you'll see the phones performance degrade from humidity.

Thanks for the advice, I will try out the S7 Edge and vanilla S7 in a retail store to see which one is most comfortable for me. 

[Fraser Cow]

One plus 3 or samsung s7

[Aytex]

One plus 3, Samsung's software is shit (lol touchwiz) but some poeple enjoy it. Their software gets sluggish the more you use it.

[TriFlix Films]

7 minutes ago, AIO said:

iPhone can be nice for people who just want a phone that does all the basic things that they expect. I see it like this: iPhone is one trick pony and android is more like a jack of all trades

If you're a tech enthusiast and like tinkering... I would never suggestion iPhone. Yes they have their place in the market, but generally (for this forum anyways) the techheads go for Android.

 

Also, I don't like companies monitoring my buisness... if I bought a product with my money, its 100% mine. Although I believe they have since made changes to allow for the disabling of these "features." Even if it's to help the company understand their clients more... personally I don't like it.

 

You said you were in China if I read correctly so perhaps (depending on your location) you're already used to being monitored. (Didn't mean this in a condesending way just saying, if it's something you don't mind then perhaps iPhone would be a viable option).

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, Aytex said:

One plus 3, Samsung's software is shit (lol touchwiz) but some poeple enjoy it. Their software gets sluggish the more you use it.

It's reeeeeally not that bad Especially on the Note5 and newer. Throw a launcher over top and it's perfectly fine. I use Nova, and I'd use it on whatever phone I'd get. I've noticed no slow downs.

3 minutes ago, TriFlix Films said:

If you're a tech enthusiast and like tinkering... I would never suggestion iPhone. Yes they have their place in the market, but generally (for this forum anyways) the techheads go for Android.

 

Also, I don't like companies monitoring my buisness... if I bought a product with my money, its 100% mine. Although I believe they have since made changes to allow for the disabling of these "features." Even if it's to help the company understand their clients more... personally I don't like it.

 

You said you were in China if I read correctly so perhaps (depending on your location) you're already used to being monitored. (Didn't mean this in a condesending way just saying, if it's something you don't mind then perhaps iPhone would be a viable option).

Haha, and you think Google doesn't know what you do?

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

It's reeeeeally not that bad Especially on the Note5 and newer. Throw a launcher over top and it's perfectly fine. I use Nova, and I'd use it on whatever phone I'd get. I've noticed no slow downs.

Haha, and you think Google doesn't know what you do?

also not to mention the extremely locked bootloader

[TriFlix Films]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

It's reeeeeally not that bad Especially on the Note5 and newer. Throw a launcher over top and it's perfectly fine. I use Nova, and I'd use it on whatever phone I'd get. I've noticed no slow downs.

Haha, and you think Google doesn't know what you do?

Haha, you think I use google?

 

In all honesty, I love my Note 4 and If the Note 7 is anything like it... that would likely be my pick. Only current complaint is the battery life is below par imho

[TheGamingBarrel]

24 minutes ago, AIO said:

Do you actively use the 'edge' on the S7 Edge? To me it seems rather arbitrary. 

It is incredibly pointless, however it is like a smart watch, you dont eralise its (not very) usefulness till you dont have it.

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Aytex said:

also not to mention the extremely locked bootloader

Haha, I don't blame them much for that. It's something suuuuch a small fraction of their user base probably uses.

I know it's not something I look for in a phone.

2 minutes ago, TriFlix Films said:

Haha, you think I use google?

 

In all honesty, I love my Note 4 and If the Note 7 is anything like it... that would likely be my pick. Only current complaint is the battery life is below par imho

Well, you use at least one of their services. Android. You use something other than Google Maps?

Really? You find the battery life poor? I find the battery life on my Note5 to be excellent. The 7 is rumored to have 1000mah more juice, and with the Exynos processor (fingers crossed that Canada gets those instead of the SD), it's battery life should be epic. So torn between that and the Axon 7.

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Haha, I don't blame them much for that. It's something suuuuch a small fraction of their user base probably uses.

I know it's not something I look for in a phone.

I say the oppossite... You clearly never head of http://www.xda-developers.com/ lots of people root their phones <3

[Darkseth]

15 minutes ago, AIO said:

Do you actively use the 'edge' on the S7 Edge? To me it seems rather arbitrary. 

Hey buddy.

i have an s7 Edge since 5th March (got it a few days early from preorder bonus), and also have the Gear VR.

 

I chose the S7 Edge over the S7 Mainly because of the bigger Battery (3600 instead 3000), which can give you like up to 20-25% longer battery Life.

Second reason: 5.5" instead 5.1" (i've been using an HTC one M8, which was 5.0", but was quite large due to the speakers. My s7 edge is just a few mm larger.

 

my Opinion about the Edge itself: I wouldn't actually be Sad, if it was an edge-less screen tbh...

i Mainly use it to swipe in some shortcuts i dont want to see on the screen (calculator, Clock (because that wakes me up every morning) mainly). And sometimes the 2 row wide edge-widget for Ram Usage, and Data Usage (data usage is sometimes handy. Swipe in, check it, swipe out. done.).

The Edges aren't much disturbing when watching stuff. You get used to it. And I at least, don't notice any negatives there really. Like i said, i got used to it, and its there. Thats it.

But the Curve does feel quite nice, when sliding over it.

 

Depending where you life, i would take the s7 over the Oneplus 3. If your Region has the Exynos model, take it. With the Exynos CPU the Phone lasts like 15-35% longer, than with the Snapdragon 820 CPU. It's been tested.

And that combined with the large 3600 mAh battery from the S7 edge.. I got 7,5 hours screen-on-time a few times

 

Things, that the S7 does better than the Oneplus 3:

- Camera. it's almost without any compromises. Daylight is very good, and Low Light is very good. this is where the OP3 camera suffers a Bit behind the S7 camera. And it focuses really fast.....

- Display. It's not just sharper, it's better calibrated, and MUCH (!!!) Brighter. Calibration got slightly better on the Op3 with a recent update. Resolution however can be a bummer on the OP3. 1080p would normally be "okay" in 5.5", but keep in Mind, that it's an Amoled screen with a diamond-Pentile Matrix. That means, 2 Subpixel per Pixel, instead of 3. that*s 33% less sub-pixels. Very sensible Eyes (as such from the reviewer Erica Griffin) can actually notice the Diamond-Matrix with bare Eyes. Many shouldn't see a difference tho. for VR, definitely S7. I can tell you from my experience, VR with a 1440p Phone in front of your Eyes, and you can see the Pixels. You can see them VERY clear. I can't imagine, how much worse 1080p would be here. it does the job, but you can see the pixels, which should hurt your eyes after a while more, than having a sharper screen.

- Battery Life. At least on the exynos model, it's a good bunch higher.

- Support. Oneplus has only chinese support, so if anything's with the phone, you might have to ship it back to china. Not so with Samsung.

- Wireless Charging

- IP68

 

Things, that the Oneplus 3 does better:

- Price. 399 is a good Price, for a good phone. It's not a flaggship killer, it's a slight cheaper Flaggship alternative with a few minor negative aspects.

- Dual sim (!!)

- 6gb ram, altho a bit agressive Ram Management. Easy changeable with Root... 

- ... Root is very easy, and so are custom Roms.

 

Oh yeah. i'm using my S7 edge without Root, fully stock. first Android phone ever, where i feel ZERO desire to actually Root it, or flash a custom Rom, because it runs really well.

After almost 4 months now, i don#t really feel any slowdowns.

Touchwiz is very far from shit There are MUCH shittier ones out there, like some chinese UIs.

Touchwiz changed last year a Lot, and this year also. I personally enjoy some features so much, i don't want to change the UI to a stock Android one, even if there was a fully stable Cyanogenmod~.

But that's my opinion (i was a Nexus 9 user, and now Pixel C. I know, how stock android feels. Also, from my HTC one M8, where i used the Official GPE Rom for a few months.)

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Aytex said:

I say the oppossite... You clearly never head of http://www.xda-developers.com/ lots of people root their phones <3

I have, but how many people are on there out of the tens upon tens of millions with Samsung phones? Very small. They only have around 300,000 active members. Of which not all have Samsung phones.

Even on top of that, I'm sure not all members are into rooting.

[Haydenp10]

30 minutes ago, AIO said:

Do you actively use the 'edge' on the S7 Edge? To me it seems rather arbitrary. 

I have to say, I don't use it that much but it's worth the extra money than the normal s7 as it's got a better battery, bigger, cooler screen etc.

[TriFlix Films]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Really? You find the battery life poor? I find the battery life on my Note5 to be excellent. The 7 is rumored to have 1000mah more juice, and with the Exynos processor (fingers crossed that Canada gets those instead of the SD), it's battery life should be epic. So torn between that and the Axon 7.

I had the Droid Razr Max prior to the Note 4 along with unlimited data... you could stream YouTube Videos for a couple hours, I was spoiled by the Age of Rapid Technology haha. The Note 4 was having issues with shutting off at 50% and 4G draining the battery very fast, which I why Marshmellow was such a crucial update, it's seemed to resolve the battery drain issue however 4G still eats the battery pretty fast.

 

Just wish they would have continued the Razr Max series, but is Battery Life > Note's Stylis? hahaha

 

 

[Aytex]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I have, but how many people are on there out of the tens upon tens of millions with Samsung phones? Very small. They only have around 300,000 active members. Of which not all have Samsung phones.

Even on top of that, I'm sure not all members are into rooting.

oh your talking about samsung users

i thought you were talking about android users in general :^)

[AIO]

4 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Hey buddy.

i have an s7 Edge since 5th March (got it a few days early from preorder bonus), and also have the Gear VR.

 

I chose the S7 Edge over the S7 Mainly because of the bigger Battery (3600 instead 3000), which can give you like up to 20-25% longer battery Life.

Second reason: 5.5" instead 5.1" (i've been using an HTC one M8, which was 5.0", but was quite large due to the speakers. My s7 edge is just a few mm larger.

 

my Opinion about the Edge itself: I wouldn't actually be Sad, if it was an edge-less screen tbh...

i Mainly use it to swipe in some shortcuts i dont want to see on the screen (calculator, Clock (because that wakes me up every morning) mainly). And sometimes the 2 row wide edge-widget for Ram Usage, and Data Usage (data usage is sometimes handy. Swipe in, check it, swipe out. done.).

The Edges aren't much disturbing when watching stuff. You get used to it. And I at least, don't notice any negatives there really. Like i said, i got used to it, and its there. Thats it.

But the Curve does feel quite nice, when sliding over it.

 

Depending where you life, i would take the s7 over the Oneplus 3. If your Region has the Exynos model, take it. With the Exynos CPU the Phone lasts like 15-35% longer, than with the Snapdragon 820 CPU. It's been tested.

And that combined with the large 3600 mAh battery from the S7 edge.. I got 7,5 hours screen-on-time a few times

 

Things, that the S7 does better than the Oneplus 3:

- Camera. it's almost without any compromises. Daylight is very good, and Low Light is very good. this is where the OP3 camera suffers a Bit behind the S7 camera. And it focuses really fast.....

- Display. It's not just sharper, it's better calibrated, and MUCH (!!!) Brighter. Calibration got slightly better on the Op3 with a recent update. Resolution however can be a bummer on the OP3. 1080p would normally be "okay" in 5.5", but keep in Mind, that it's an Amoled screen with a diamond-Pentile Matrix. That means, 2 Subpixel per Pixel, instead of 3. that*s 33% less sub-pixels. Very sensible Eyes (as such from the reviewer Erica Griffin) can actually notice the Diamond-Matrix with bare Eyes. Many shouldn't see a difference tho. for VR, definitely S7. I can tell you from my experience, VR with a 1440p Phone in front of your Eyes, and you can see the Pixels. You can see them VERY clear. I can't imagine, how much worse 1080p would be here. it does the job, but you can see the pixels, which should hurt your eyes after a while more, than having a sharper screen.

- Battery Life. At least on the exynos model, it's a good bunch higher.

- Support. Oneplus has only chinese support, so if anything's with the phone, you might have to ship it back to china. Not so with Samsung.

- Wireless Charging

- IP68

 

Things, that the Oneplus 3 does better:

- Price. 399 is a good Price, for a good phone. It's not a flaggship killer, it's a slight cheaper Flaggship alternative with a few minor negative aspects.

- Dual sim (!!)

- 6gb ram, altho a bit agressive Ram Management. Easy changeable with Root... 

- ... Root is very easy, and so are custom Roms.

 

Oh yeah. i'm using my S7 edge without Root, fully stock. first Android phone ever, where i feel ZERO desire to actually Root it, or flash a custom Rom, because it runs really well.

After almost 4 months now, i don#t really feel any slowdowns.

Touchwiz is very far from shit There are MUCH shittier ones out there, like some chinese UIs.

Touchwiz changed last year a Lot, and this year also. I personally enjoy some features so much, i don't want to change the UI to a stock Android one, even if there was a fully stable Cyanogenmod~.

But that's my opinion (i was a Nexus 9 user, and now Pixel C. I know, how stock android feels. Also, from my HTC one M8, where i used the Official GPE Rom for a few months.)

Wow, thanks a lot for that in-depth commentary. I guess I will go with the S7 edge then .