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ATT version with the Qualcomm LTE SOC. FWIW, the 'Hummingbird' in my previous phone, the ATT Captivate (Galaxy S 1) was complete trash too- and that damn thing couldn't lock GPS if it's life depended on it.

I've had two upgrades for it- First to ICS, and now JB, and it really hasn't improved much. A little- but I've still made calls to 911 because I held it wrong and not been able to hang up after it initiated (while mashing the End Call button the entire time). That's just one example, but the phone seriously has regular performance issues, and it's annoying as hell.

Airmantharp wrote:

ATT version with the Qualcomm LTE SOC. FWIW, the 'Hummingbird' in my previous phone, the ATT Captivate (Galaxy S 1) was complete trash too- and that damn thing couldn't lock GPS if it's life depended on it.

I've had two upgrades for it- First to ICS, and now JB, and it really hasn't improved much. A little- but I've still made calls to 911 because I held it wrong and not been able to hang up after it initiated (while mashing the End Call button the entire time). That's just one example, but the phone seriously has regular performance issues, and it's annoying as hell.

Ah yep, the old Galaxy S GPS issue. There was a solid six months' development on that alone, ended up needing to run specific software and update specific system files by region - the GPS in Hummingbird was absolute garbage. Yeah, the AT&T one was pretty average, even compared to the Exynos-based one, which got the good reviews at the time. A 1280x800 screen was just too much for the Adreno GPU at the time to handle properly. That SoC performed well in other, smaller devices, but really hit its limits in the Note.

In case you've never tried one, the Note II is a worthy update. Much-improved performance, a little easier in the hand, too. Mind you, the Note III is due for announcement in October, so depending upon when your upgrade falls, there'll be a couple of options.

Out of curiosity, you haven't tried any custom software on your Note? I generally find Root and a few relatively simple build.prop tweaks can eke a little extra performance out around the GUI. The Note is one phone where you kinda don't want to force 2D GPU rendering - it does struggle.

steelcity_ballin wrote:

Touchwiz (the default Samsung ROM) is a piece of crap. It's a hog, bloated, and ugly to boot. I'm on a much less capable phone than an S4 running CyanogenMod 4.2.2 currently. It's not perfect, but it's brought a second life to my phone while I wait for this contract to expire.

There's always the Google Play edition of the S4, or you can just root it and install the CyanogenMod firmware.

Airmantharp wrote:

You don't need eight cores and 2GB of RAM- but the two cores and 1GB of RAM in my Note 1 is seriously not enough. I cannot wait to get rid of this thing; sometimes it works okay, many times it's so slow you'd think I was running Vista on it.

It could be that the storage/flash controller is to blame, have you tried cleaning it up a little bit? 2 cores and 1GB of RAM should run JB easily

slowriot wrote:

Sadly microSD is becoming one of those features that gets removed for apparently no reason. It's the only major issue I have with my Nexus 4.

I used to think this way. But even after putting my entire music collection on my Galaxy Nexus, I still have gigabytes of storage left over. I really don't have a need for an expandable slot.

I suppose if I wanted to transfer files without a cable it would make sense. But then I'd need to haul around a micro-to-SD adapter.

Have you considered switching to T-Mobile? Their new Simple plans are actually really nice and you can use GSM phones. Check it out.

A 4 person family plan where everyone gets 500mb is $100 a month, with everyone getting 2.5gb of data it is only $140 a month, and with unlimited for everyone its $180. Not everyone has to be on the same plan either. So you can use unlimited data for yourself, then 500gb for everyone else and that will knock the monthly charge down to $120. Insane to get a 4 person family plan with data for only $120 a month.

The other interesting option is Solavei. They use T-Mobile's network, offer unlimited everything for $50 a month per line, *and* offer a referral fee if you get 3 people to sign up. Basically, every 3 people you get to sign up gets you $20 a month. If you get 4 total lines, the total cost would be $180 for unlimited everything (same as T-Mobile's plan), but you have the chance to save more as you get more people to sign up.

For a phone, I'd go with the Nexus 4. Its not cutting-edge, brand spanking new, but it does have pretty up to date specs, plus its only $350 for the 16gb version if you buy from Google Play. There is no better value phone out there that delivers this kind of performance. Unless you really want a specific style phone, or actually like HTC's or Samsung's skin for Android, there is very little reason not to go with a Nexus 4 - unless you want to the expandable storage as others have mentioned. *EDIT* - Noticed you really want the SD slot. If you really can't live without it, you'll probably have to go with an S4. If you only occassionally need to access stuff on the SD card, you can use a $2 OTG cable from Amazon and use a USB thumb drive with your phone. Not practical if you need access to more than 16gb of space all the time, but decent if you occassionally like to swap out music/pictures. Unfortunately, most of the better (IMO) phone now don't allow for SD cards, so your choices are more limited. Nice thing about a GSM Nexus phone is you will get day 1 updates to the newest version of Android - Key Lime Pie anyone?

I'm recommending T-Mobile because I am in a similar boat to you, except I am really tired of Verizon and want to switch. I'm doing the math to see if it is worth it to end my current contract a year early and switch my 3 person family plan over to T-Mobile with Nexus 4s for everyone. With cancelling the contract and getting the new phones, it seems like it would just be a wash, so I may just wait until the contract is up.

AustinW wrote:

I was gonna recommend the Google Play edition of the Galaxy S4, but if you scroll to the very bottom of this page, it says it only supports AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.

The S4 hardware works great on Verizon's network, they just give you lies about the hardware being different and won't add it to your account.

Source: Cloned the IDs of a broken VZW S4 onto a donor Google S4 and it worked perfectly.

Firestarter wrote:

Airmantharp wrote:

You don't need eight cores and 2GB of RAM- but the two cores and 1GB of RAM in my Note 1 is seriously not enough. I cannot wait to get rid of this thing; sometimes it works okay, many times it's so slow you'd think I was running Vista on it.

It could be that the storage/flash controller is to blame, have you tried cleaning it up a little bit? 2 cores and 1GB of RAM should run JB easily

This is something I need to look into- somehow the flash also seemed to take the butt of the blame on the original Galaxy S as well.

Still, I don't think it'd shake my perception of Samsung largely shipping 'promising' phones that beat the competition on paper but somehow falter and spoil the end-user experience. Apple doesn't pull that crap, and HTC doesn't appear to either for the most part. I would consider a Nexus/Google-branded phone as well, but it had better be relatively current hardware. My next upgrade is spring-summer next year, so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open .

Airmantharp wrote:

This is something I need to look into- somehow the flash also seemed to take the butt of the blame on the original Galaxy S as well.

Still, I don't think it'd shake my perception of Samsung largely shipping 'promising' phones that beat the competition on paper but somehow falter and spoil the end-user experience. Apple doesn't pull that crap, and HTC doesn't appear to either for the most part. I would consider a Nexus/Google-branded phone as well, but it had better be relatively current hardware. My next upgrade is spring-summer next year, so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open .

Samsung has managed to amass a large amount of followers over the last several years, just like Apple, that will seemingly buy their phones no matter what. Only reason I have a Samsung phone is because it was the current Nexus at the time (good ole Galaxy Nexus). The software is great, the hardware is decent, the design is forgettable and the materials are lame.

I'm really hoping Motorola makes a serious comback with the new round of DROIDs and the X phone so that we have a wider variety of phones to choose from. That all said, since I've gotten my Nexus 7 I don't use my phone nearly as much.

Airmantharp wrote:

This is something I need to look into- somehow the flash also seemed to take the butt of the blame on the original Galaxy S as well.

Still, I don't think it'd shake my perception of Samsung largely shipping 'promising' phones that beat the competition on paper but somehow falter and spoil the end-user experience. Apple doesn't pull that crap, and HTC doesn't appear to either for the most part. I would consider a Nexus/Google-branded phone as well, but it had better be relatively current hardware. My next upgrade is spring-summer next year, so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open .

Ugh. I'd MUCH rather use Touchwiz than the Sense overlay. Especially the version on the HTC One.

Honestly none of it really matters much to me as I will likely root and install a custom ROM for the foreseeable future. AOSP does everything I need it to do. I understand some people don't want to lose some of the "features" you get with the manufacturers software, but you can emulate most of that stuff with third party apps from the Play Store.

The Moto X is looking very promising. Here's to hoping.

southrncomfortjm wrote:

Have you considered switching to T-Mobile? Their new Simple plans are actually really nice and you can use GSM phones. Check it out.

I shopped around on other networks, but since I'm on a family plan with my parents, they had the ultimate say and they didn't particularly care to go through that. Also, Verizon is notorious for selling your phone # to everyone and everyone if you leave them. Like Over Attached Phone Carrier.

Well, I got the phone today. It's beautiful, and the box it came in is shockingly small. I'll post pictures once I get my old phone to play nice long enough to connect to my computer. I have run into a problem already though; the instructions tell me I have to install a SIM card...that I don't have. As far as I know, my Incredible doesn't have a SIM card, so once this phone gets charged a little bit I'm going to run over to the local verizon store and see wtf is up.

CampinCarl wrote:

Well, I got the phone today. It's beautiful, and the box it came in is shockingly small. I'll post pictures once I get my old phone to play nice long enough to connect to my computer. I have run into a problem already though; the instructions tell me I have to install a SIM card...that I don't have. As far as I know, my Incredible doesn't have a SIM card, so once this phone gets charged a little bit I'm going to run over to the local verizon store and see wtf is up.

VZW (and all other LTE) requires a SIM card. Purely 3G CDMA phones do not. Head over to VZW and they'll hook you up.