OK, no that we have decided on an Android...which one? I decided that if I had to give up my Windows phone and try to embrace Android that I should give myself the best chances for success and choose a flagship phone. Get the latest and best that Android has to offer so that nothing can stand in my way of finding the enjoyment in the technology. This gave me just a few choices: Galaxy 7(Edge) or Note, LG G5 or V10, HTC 10, Motorola Turbo.
First, I started with the HTC because I had a HTC on Windows and loved it. Especially the audio. Well they screwed that up by changing the built in speaker array. The old phone had 2 front facing speakers to give you a great sounding stereo image. The new version has 1 front speaker and 1 rear, WTF. To top it off they still carry a stereo image...BUT the rear speaker has a greater amount of bass. This just sounded like a mess.
According to the reviews a lot of people had problems with the Motorolas not being reliable. Crashing apps and dropped calls also poor voice quality. The new Z seemed really cool, but they have some serious issues with not having a headphone jack (unacceptable) and connectivity.
I really had decided that the Galaxy 7 was the right choice, but got scarred of all the people complaining about how fragile it was. I had my last phone for 2 years and dropped it several times. Even a few times on pavement and the screen never cracked and it was never in a case. I hate cases. What is the point of having this beautiful phone and then putting it in a case?
Honestly, I spent about 2 weeks trying to figure out the right phone. I was going to get my wife the same one and buying 2 $700 phones is not to be taken lightly. Ultimately I decided to put aside my desire to have all of the coolest latest features because none of them really hit all of the marks, and to just focus on the things that were most important based on how I use the phone the most. I decided that the 2 most important things were durability, because I am clumsy and my wife is too and I don't like cases. Secondly, was sound quality, mostly in the headphone jack section. As most of you know I love music and sped a lot of time listening to music on my phone. I go to the gym on a daily bases and use ear buds. I refuse to use blue tooth because the audio quality sucks. I also use it as my main player in the car. I hook it up with an aux jack that goes from the headphone jack on the phone into the car sound system.
Being that the Galaxy's sound system was rated by professional reviewers as mediocre, being bested even by previous Galaxies and the fact that it was encased in glass and therefore very fragile. In fact I couldn't find anyone that had one that didn't have a cracked screen. That left this model off the table.
I almost gave up entirely, it seemed that every single model had some major problem with it. Than I found the LG V10. It was at least as durable as anything else and had an amazing sound system. In fact the headphone amp and DAC were made by Bang and Olfson. For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a big deal. The DAC is the most important thing in reproducing digital music and the amp is the second. B and O are a huge name in high end home audio. So this seemed like the only right choice. The phone was not without problems. Lots of complaints about battery life and overheating, but I think I can live with that.
After having the phone for about a month I am sure that I made the right choice. It feels really solid in your hand. The textured back makes it really hard to slip out of your hand. The sound is incredible. I haven't heard music sound this good in my car since the CD player died. The overheating issue wasn't that big of a problem. It's really not that bad. The battery life is a problem. It is really hard to get it to last through the day. Frequently, I have to charge it up in the middle of the day. At least it has a quick charge and it doesn't take that long. I also really love the second screen feature. In addition to giving you quick access to lots of stuff when the phone is active, it also lets you access some thing while the phone is not active and even locked like the flashlight and the music player...really nice feature.
In my next post I'm going to talk about setting up synced calendars and email accounts/contact list between the Android system and the Windows desktop.
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