Keep 2 year old S3, upgrade to LG G3 or wait

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Vengance_01

Supreme [H]ardness
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I dropped my S3 a week ago and while the touch screen works 100%, the glass is now cracked in several places. I had my S3 for 2 years and starting to show its age a bit. I really like the G3 and that would be my pick for a new phone. But I am really not wanting to pay 600$ for a phone(T-mobile so it would be 25$ a month interest free)

So I see 3 options

1) Fix on my own the glass or just deal with the glass
2) Get the LG G3. Then sell my S3 for at least 100$
3) Get a used/new phone thats better then the S3 and has T-mobile LTE radio for around 250$ max. Then sell my S3 for at least 100$
 
Certainly can't go wrong with the G3. But if you want to avoid the additional financing of one, you can usually find a Moto X for around $250 used. That would certainly be a moderate upgrade without breaking the bank. I got my mom a like-new (Verizon) 32GB Moto X for $260 on Swappa a few months ago. For some reason I don't even see the Moto X listed for T-Mobile on Swappa though. I know the Moto X is available on T-Mobile.. odd. Prolly just find an unlocked or AT&T (maybe even Verizon as a lot of their newer phones fully support T-Mobile's bands) one, as I'm sure it will work fine even on LTE.
 
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450 said:
fix the glass
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I would advise against doing it yourself, Samsung was stupid in the way they designed their displays. Who the hell uses industrial glue to seal the glass to the screen and the surrounding casing???
 
I went through this debate recently. I have a S3 that works fine and in good physical shape. The G3 is the first phone I've seen that I actually feel would be a good replacement.

My two biggest issues with the S3 are a) battery life and b) random lag/sluggishness. I'm not a heavy phone user apart from phone calls, so it's not like I really have a need for a much better phone. The G3 would address both of these issues.

However, I've chosen to wait. Now that Android L is announced I want to see what phones are coming out in the next few months. Apple seems to have had a major philosophical change with IOS 8 and screen sizes, so I'm very curious about that as well.

If nothing else, the G3 will likely drop in price when the Fall line of phones is released.

Personally, I'm hoping for a Nexus phone with great battery life. If you can wait for a month or do I'd recommend just waiting.
 
I upgraded from my S3 to the G3 after 2 years. Best thing I ever did...Battery life stands out first and foremost but it's beautiful. Not too big, mostly screen with little edge and fast. I really like the button-less edges. Very happy with the upgrade, you won't be disappointed.
 
Why would you finance a phone when its likely to be obsolete by the time you're done paying for it? If you need to finance a phone to purchase it, its probably not a good idea to buy it no matter how nice it is.
 
ssnyder28 said:
Why would you finance a phone when its likely to be obsolete by the time you're done paying for it? If you need to finance a phone to purchase it, its probably not a good idea to buy it no matter how nice it is.
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I can pay it off any time and its just splitting up the payments. I just got Married and got back from my honeymoon so the wallet is hurting a little bit atm. Plus my wife has been not working this summer due to being a school employee.

I think I have narrowed my choices down to 2:

Get a Moto G LTE Model for 219$+tax or go through with the full 600$ LG G3 phone.
 
ssnyder28 said:
Why would you finance a phone when its likely to be obsolete by the time you're done paying for it? If you need to finance a phone to purchase it, its probably not a good idea to buy it no matter how nice it is.
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Why not finance it if it's interest free? There's literally no penalty to financing it at 0% and it makes it easier to swallow the cost of the phone.

Now if it wasn't interest free, then I would agree with you (depending on the interest rate though). And I doubt it would be obsolete by the time he pays it off. I think you have to pay it off in less than a year or 6 months if you want to upgrade early.

Vengance_01 said:
I think I have narrowed my choices down to 2:

Get a Moto G LTE Model for 219$+tax or go through with the full 600$ LG G3 phone.
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I wouldn't get a Moto G for $220 when you can easily get a Moto X for around $250 used on Swappa or here on [H]. Here's one for $200, just not sure if the AT&T Moto X will work on TMo LTE (would assume so). There's a few other threads as well I saw.
 
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If you are looking at a new phone anyway, the $20 gamble is worth it, even if for resale value.
 
You're probably going to have to fix the glass in order to sell it anyway...
 
Thanks for all the comments. Went to the T-Mobile Store on my break and picked up the LG G3. So far I really like it. The bloat is very minimal. I like LGs skin so far. Its different from Touch wiz and I like that. Will root it, strip off anything I don't want and start tweaking home screen and everything tonight. I was worried about the size but LG did a great job. The curved design and thin bezel really helps. Love the feel in the hand, it reminds me very much of the nexus 5 which I like alot. Its not that bad size wise compared to my S3.
 
Vengance_01 said:
Its only a cracked Glass. The touch screen is 100% working.
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You can destroy the touchscreen if you aren't careful with getting the glass off.

ssnyder28 said:
Why would you finance a phone when its likely to be obsolete by the time you're done paying for it? If you need to finance a phone to purchase it, its probably not a good idea to buy it no matter how nice it is.
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What do you think a 2 year contract subsidy is? I hate when people think they are getting a bargain by going with a 2 year contract
 
I have a tmobile s3 as primary and a unlocked AT&T iPhone 4 that works very well on tmobile just if any ones curious I would think any recent android unlocked would be fine.
 
Domini said:
What do you think a 2 year contract subsidy is? I hate when people think they are getting a bargain by going with a 2 year contract
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I guess it depends on you look at it. Do you plan on changing carriers? Are you ok with your plan? Etc. You used to pay extra for 2yr contracts per line ($40/mo) but now with MobileShare its significantly cheaper.
 
Riddlinkidstoner said:
I guess it depends on you look at it. Do you plan on changing carriers? Are you ok with your plan? Etc. You used to pay extra for 2yr contracts per line ($40/mo) but now with MobileShare its significantly cheaper.
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Its baked into your payment. Its why you have an ETF
 
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