Upgrading Out of Contract Company Phone: Which phone to pick poll

[FerraraZ]

Let me preface this poll with the type of user that I am. I would say I'm a phone enthusiast and this smartphone will be my company phone (work for a mobile device management company; PM's welcomed).

The company started me with an iPhone 4S and LTE alone is the reason why I want to switch but not to an iPhone 5 but rather a high end Android device. I love iPhone but I also love Android devices and the 5 is just overpriced when you consider the Android alternatives. I plan on rooting and rom'ing but the ROMS are not as essential as rooting.

Anyway lets have a discussion of the phones listed for Verizon. DNA is obviously in the lead but I'm not so sure it is the clear cut winner on just the fact that the hardware is better. The bootloader is locked and the battery life is differing WILDLY from review to review, I would hate to replicate a Thunderbolt experience!

 

[Medion]

It's a tough call. Traditionally, Motorola has been more miss than hit in terms of official updates and community support (custom ROMs). So aside from battery life, I'd avoid the RAZR. When you buy Motorola, you need to assume that whatever firmware is on it today is the same firmware that will be on it in the future. Be pleasantly surprised when they do actually update.

HTC is better in this regard. With few exceptions, their handsets tend to see one major update, sometimes two. Also, they tend to have a rabid community following, although that locked bootloader is a red flag. When they take too long for a custom unlock, by then the community has passed it by. I'd wait on the DNA to see how long it takes for the community to get behind it.

The Galaxy S3 is the winner, IMO. As a Samsung flagship, it will have the longest official support (Samsung tends to do 18-24 months of Android updates on their flagship devices). Also, the USA versions are still officially supported by Cyanogen (the international version is not due to Exynos).

The funny thing is that I consider the S3 to be the least impressive of the three devices (hardware, build quality, battery life, when taken cumulatively). But the official and community support are what make it great. But if undecided, hold out a little longer to see if the community gets behind the DNA.

 

[ComputerBox34]

Razr Maxx HD without a doubt

 

[FerraraZ]

It's a tough call. Traditionally, Motorola has been more miss than hit in terms of official updates and community support (custom ROMs). So aside from battery life, I'd avoid the RAZR. When you buy Motorola, you need to assume that whatever firmware is on it today is the same firmware that will be on it in the future. Be pleasantly surprised when they do actually update.

HTC is better in this regard. With few exceptions, their handsets tend to see one major update, sometimes two. Also, they tend to have a rabid community following, although that locked bootloader is a red flag. When they take too long for a custom unlock, by then the community has passed it by. I'd wait on the DNA to see how long it takes for the community to get behind it.

The Galaxy S3 is the winner, IMO. As a Samsung flagship, it will have the longest official support (Samsung tends to do 18-24 months of Android updates on their flagship devices). Also, the USA versions are still officially supported by Cyanogen (the international version is not due to Exynos).

The funny thing is that I consider the S3 to be the least impressive of the three devices (hardware, build quality, battery life, when taken cumulatively). But the official and community support are what make it great. But if undecided, hold out a little longer to see if the community gets behind the DNA.

You make valid points especially in your final paragraph. As far as development support thats really a variable that we'll never know. I would like to think phone sales are a major reason why some phones get CM or Bugless etc. but I'm not sure if I would cut out Motorola devices from receiving updates now. Since Google's acquisition, Motorola has not put out many devices but as provided ICS updates to EOL devices such as Bionic.

 

[ComputerBox34]

It's a tough call. Traditionally, Motorola has been more miss than hit in terms of official updates and community support (custom ROMs). So aside from battery life, I'd avoid the RAZR. When you buy Motorola, you need to assume that whatever firmware is on it today is the same firmware that will be on it in the future. Be pleasantly surprised when they do actually update.

HTC is better in this regard. With few exceptions, their handsets tend to see one major update, sometimes two. Also, they tend to have a rabid community following, although that locked bootloader is a red flag. When they take too long for a custom unlock, by then the community has passed it by. I'd wait on the DNA to see how long it takes for the community to get behind it.

The Galaxy S3 is the winner, IMO. As a Samsung flagship, it will have the longest official support (Samsung tends to do 18-24 months of Android updates on their flagship devices). Also, the USA versions are still officially supported by Cyanogen (the international version is not due to Exynos).

The funny thing is that I consider the S3 to be the least impressive of the three devices (hardware, build quality, battery life, when taken cumulatively). But the official and community support are what make it great. But if undecided, hold out a little longer to see if the community gets behind the DNA.

With Google at the helm, you will see updates on Moto much more often. They are already publicly testing the JB update and promised to have it rolling out before 2013. They already made good on the promise for the Razr M, I have no doubt that they will do the same for the HD. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the Razr HD gets JB before the Galaxy S3 does on verizon

 

[Medion]

As far as development support thats really a variable that we'll never know. I would like to think phone sales are a major reason why some phones get CM or Bugless etc. but I'm not sure if I would cut out Motorola devices from receiving updates now. Since Google's acquisition, Motorola has not put out many devices but as provided ICS updates to EOL devices such as Bionic.

We had an update thread on this forum. Search under my profile for topics I've started. Basically, the Galaxy S2 (released February 2011) is getting the 4.1 update. Samsung will likely support the Galaxy S3 until the release of the Galaxy S5. Of course, I'm assuming based on their history. By Moto's history, only two of their phones released in 2011 are getting 4.1. updates, the Bionic and RAZR (and only the Verizon-branded versions, not the global versions). That shows that it is likely a Verizon contractual thing. So far, Google hasn't intervened on software updates. It would be a bad idea to assume that they will.

With Google at the helm, you will see updates on Moto much more often. They are already publicly testing the JB update and promised to have it rolling out before 2013. They already made good on the promise for the Razr M, I have no doubt that they will do the same for the HD. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the Razr HD gets JB before the Galaxy S3 does on verizon

As I was explaining earlier, we can't predict what they WILL do, but we can look at what they HAVE done. And so far, Motorola has been one of the quickest to abandon phone support. If you buy a phone and your primary reason is expectation of updates, you don't buy Motorola (yet). Doing so is akin to battered wife syndrome. "He promised he'd REALLY change this time!" /WHACK

And then there was his concern of custom ROMs. Motorola is one of the least supported OEMs in the development community. HTC is among the best in that regard. This is largely to do with bootloaders, but also has a lot to do with the SOC. Qualcomm is awesome about open-sourcing everything for the Snapdragon SOCs, whereas TI, Nvidia, and Samsung keep theirs locked down. That's why the Snapdragon S4-based USA Galaxy S3 receives so much more official support than the international Exynos model. HTC is one of the largest users of Snapdragon SOCs. The HTC Droid Incredible and Nexus One (Snapdragon S1) were the easiest phones I've ever developed on.

 

[ilkhan]

I think all 3 are good options. HD MAXX for battery life, S3 for community support, DNA for... IDK, gotta be something.

 

[rive22]

From that list the Galaxy S3 without a doubt.

Though have you considered the Note II?

 

[ComputerBox34]

We had an update thread on this forum. Search under my profile for topics I've started. Basically, the Galaxy S2 (released February 2011) is getting the 4.1 update. Samsung will likely support the Galaxy S3 until the release of the Galaxy S5. Of course, I'm assuming based on their history. By Moto's history, only two of their phones released in 2011 are getting 4.1. updates, the Bionic and RAZR (and only the Verizon-branded versions, not the global versions). That shows that it is likely a Verizon contractual thing. So far, Google hasn't intervened on software updates. It would be a bad idea to assume that they will.



As I was explaining earlier, we can't predict what they WILL do, but we can look at what they HAVE done. And so far, Motorola has been one of the quickest to abandon phone support. If you buy a phone and your primary reason is expectation of updates, you don't buy Motorola (yet). Doing so is akin to battered wife syndrome. "He promised he'd REALLY change this time!" /WHACK

And then there was his concern of custom ROMs. Motorola is one of the least supported OEMs in the development community. HTC is among the best in that regard. This is largely to do with bootloaders, but also has a lot to do with the SOC. Qualcomm is awesome about open-sourcing everything for the Snapdragon SOCs, whereas TI, Nvidia, and Samsung keep theirs locked down. That's why the Snapdragon S4-based USA Galaxy S3 receives so much more official support than the international Exynos model. HTC is one of the largest users of Snapdragon SOCs. The HTC Droid Incredible and Nexus One (Snapdragon S1) were the easiest phones I've ever developed on.

Isn't this a corporate phone meant for work? I don't know how a company is going to feel about someone loading custom software on their phone.

I have confidence that Motorola will make good on their promises about updates. So far they seem to be on top of their game.

 

[Medion]

Isn't this a corporate phone meant for work? I don't know how a company is going to feel about someone loading custom software on their phone.

The OP stated that he would root and use custom ROMs, hence why I took rooting and romming into account.

I have confidence that Motorola will make good on their promises about updates. So far they seem to be on top of their game.

I wish you luck. They've been pretty bad so far. But anyone can change, just look at Samsung. Prior to the Galaxy line, they were the worst at Windows Mobile and Android updates. Now, they're arguably the best. Maybe Motorola has reformed and will unseat them. But, I don't gamble. I go with the track record until the other guy establishes a track record.

 

[FerraraZ]

Isn't this a corporate phone meant for work? I don't know how a company is going to feel about someone loading custom software on their phone.

I have confidence that Motorola will make good on their promises about updates. So far they seem to be on top of their game.

Again I work for a mobile application company and this device is not a typical corporate phone.

1. I am purchasing it for myself out of contract
2. We have no rules on rooting/jailbreaking as this is part of our business to be educated.
3. There are no Exchange or WiFi restrictions towards rooting

These are all wonderful points and I guess I was expecting these forums to be more divided but am glad to see that there are points for each device to be made.

 

[Medion]

Just an FYI, looking at Cyanogen support for a phone is a good way (but not the only way) to tell how much AOSP support you're going to get from the community, since most AOSP-based ROMs are merely based on Cyanogen's source. Here's the list of phones OFFICIALLY supported by the last Cyanogen build, M2.

Galaxy Nexus GSM (maguro)
Galaxy Nexus VZW (toro)
Galaxy Nexus Sprint (toroplus)
Galaxy S2 GT-I9100G (i9100g)
Galaxy S2 AT&T LTE (skyrocket)
Galaxy S2 T-Mobile (hercules)
Galaxy S (galaxysmtd)
Galaxy S B (galaxysbmtd)
Captivate (captivatemtd)
Galaxy S3 Sprint (d2spr)
Galaxy S3 VZW (d2vzw)
Galaxy S3 AT&T (d2att)
Galaxy S3 TMO (d2tmo)
Galaxy S3 US Cellular (d2usc)
Motorola Xoom (wingray/stingray)
Nexus S (crespo)
Nexus S 4G (crespo4g)
Galaxy Note AT&T (quincyatt)
Galaxy Note T-Mobile (quincytmo)
Google Nexus 7 (grouper)
LG Nitro HD (p930)
LG Optimus Black (p970)
LG Optimus LTE SKT (su640)
Sony Xperia Acro S (hikari)
Sony Xperia S (nozomi)

Disappointing as they've all but abandoned HTC (due to recent locking of bootloaders). Motrola isn't present outside of the Xoom tablet. Samsung is only present in the form of Nexus devices and the Snapdragon-based USA variants (as well as the Exynos-based OG Galaxy S, which has a lot in common with the Nexus S).

So basically, if you want AOSP-based options, The SGS3 kills the RAZR HD MAXX and the DNA at this time. Yes, those phones MAY receive Cyanogen ports from other developers, as my SGS2 i9100 has. However, for my phone and the international SGS3 i9300, CM10 is a buggy affair.

 

[Medion]

And here's direct links to the state of CM10 on each device.

HTC Droid DNA - nonexistant at this time, but be patient.

Samsung Galaxy S3 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1840414
Unofficial nightlies, but you can get the latest "Stable" M2 release from the Cyanogen homepage.

Motrola Droid RAZR HD - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1975922
NOTE: That is only for the developer edition and is in ALPHA at the moment. This will NOT work on the standard model sold through Verizon.

 

[OCgamer666]

What are the top 3 things you use your phone for?

 

[FerraraZ]

What are the top 3 things you use your phone for?

Yikes top three huh? I doubt I can place them in order but I would say

Email
SMS
Spotify/Music
RSS Feed (pulse/flipboard etc)
Podcasts

I dont know those are just what I've been doing lately. With an Android device I plan to tinker alot more, setup NFC tags in the car/work/home and even begin dabbling into the Android SDK.

 

[OCgamer666]

Yikes top three huh? I doubt I can place them in order but I would say

Email
SMS
Spotify/Music
RSS Feed (pulse/flipboard etc)
Podcasts

I dont know those are just what I've been doing lately. With an Android device I plan to tinker alot more, setup NFC tags in the car/work/home and even begin dabbling into the Android SDK.

RSS/Posdcasts will be about the same because you will likely use an app for those. I see Email, SMS, and Music as being the three that are most impacted by the phone you choose. Go to the Verizon store with a set of your headphones to test music on all 3. Then test the SMS and Email clients on all three. Pick the phone you feel works best with the features you actually use.

All 3 use the same DAC provided by the Qualcomm chip-sets so they all should have similar quality.

 

[CHANG3D]

A company phone for a mobile device management company for an enthusiast?

Out of those 3 choices, the Motorola RAZR Maxx HD is clearly the best choice.

Reasons:
1) superior battery life compared to the other two phones.
2) all three phones are based off the same internals so pick one with the better reliability. And clearly from the phone drop tests, you should eliminate the galaxy s3 from the list. The GS3 makes the iPhone 4/4S look good in that regard.
3) official support. Motorola in this generation has been updating or testing updates in a timely fashion. HTC also has a good track record on that, but are they going bankrupted? Pretty much only supports their flagship devices. While the GS3 is a flagship, but due to the reason #2, I would bet my life on it.

But what about the Galaxy Note 2? Verizon is releasing it on November 27th. It's got a good battery life, a better dac than the other three, and it's got a stylus. The touchwiz on the note is different enough for an "enthusiast" device. The drop tests also proved it to be much better than the S3. Only disadvantage I suppose is that you must get a case because the plastic back is to slippery.

So I strongly recommend you to add the Note 2 to the list. Between the Note 2 or the RAZR Maxx HD, you can't lose.

 

[Trimlock]

Note2

Screen size
Windows
Battery
Simultaneous Messaging

 

[radeon962]

If it's straight up work phone, nothing has battery life like the Maxx. S3 or DNA are better multi-media type devices, but the Maxx does everything and lasts forever.

 

[T4rd]

Are you planning on paying full retail for it? If you want to save some money, the GS3 is the clear choice because I see them consistently posted on Craigslist for $350 or so or on Swappa for not much more than that.

The DNA seems like a great phone as long as you don't mind mediocre battery life and limited storage (I personally think 11 usable GBs is way too small for a high end phone like that). It seems that the display is hands down the best out there and a lot of reviewers are saying it's almost (key word) worth those trade-offs. I'm sure I would agree if I saw a 440+ PPI display, but ultimately I couldn't forgive its lack of battery life (if it's as bad as a lot of reviews are saying) and limited storage just to have a pretty display.

The Razr Maxx HD is a great phone as long as you don't mind the slow/non-existant (esp. after the first year or so) updates and locked bootloader. It seems to be for people that aren't desk workers and are running around a lot, so battery life is priority 1 for them. Otherwise, the internals are identical to the GS3 minus 1 GB of RAM, so I would go with the GS3 for the added specs since I'm always around power anyways. Not sure if that's true for you though.

The GS3 is a great middle ground that doesn't really have any huge cons against it that I can think of. It gets updated relatively quickly compared to other OEMs (esp. if you're willing to root since Verizon drags ass on OTAs), it has decent battery life and you can swap batteries if need be. It has expandable storage. It just doesn't excel in any certain area; the display is certainly adequate, but not the best compared to the newer SLCD2 phones out there (One X, Optimus G, DNA), build quality seems to get knocked on from a lot of people (though I've used one and think it's fine, I'm a function > form guy though).

If I was about to go pay full retail for any new phone on Verizon though, I'd be picking up a Note 2 right now (or whenever it launches here soon). It seems to have no real drawbacks other than size if you can't handle it. The added utility of the S-Pen and Touchwiz UI is really intriguing to me and I think I could use it as a nice middle-ground between a smart phone and tablet. Plus the battery life on that thing seems to rival the Razr Maxx HD and iPhone 5 pretty easily.

 

[FerraraZ]

Are you planning on paying full retail for it? If you want to save some money, the GS3 is the clear choice because I see them consistently posted on Craigslist for $350 or so or on Swappa for not much more than that.

The DNA seems like a great phone as long as you don't mind mediocre battery life and limited storage (I personally think 11 usable GBs is way too small for a high end phone like that). It seems that the display is hands down the best out there and a lot of reviewers are saying it's almost (key word) worth those trade-offs. I'm sure I would agree if I saw a 440+ PPI display, but ultimately I couldn't forgive its lack of battery life (if it's as bad as a lot of reviews are saying) and limited storage just to have a pretty display.

The Razr Maxx HD is a great phone as long as you don't mind the slow/non-existant (esp. after the first year or so) updates and locked bootloader. It seems to be for people that aren't desk workers and are running around a lot, so battery life is priority 1 for them. Otherwise, the internals are identical to the GS3 minus 1 GB of RAM, so I would go with the GS3 for the added specs since I'm always around power anyways. Not sure if that's true for you though.

The GS3 is a great middle ground that doesn't really have any huge cons against it that I can think of. It gets updated relatively quickly compared to other OEMs (esp. if you're willing to root since Verizon drags ass on OTAs), it has decent battery life and you can swap batteries if need be. It has expandable storage. It just doesn't excel in any certain area; the display is certainly adequate, but not the best compared to the newer SLCD2 phones out there (One X, Optimus G, DNA), build quality seems to get knocked on from a lot of people (though I've used one and think it's fine, I'm a function > form guy though).

If I was about to go pay full retail for any new phone on Verizon though, I'd be picking up a Note 2 right now (or whenever it launches here soon). It seems to have no real drawbacks other than size if you can't handle it. The added utility of the S-Pen and Touchwiz UI is really intriguing to me and I think I could use it as a nice middle-ground between a smart phone and tablet. Plus the battery life on that thing seems to rival the Razr Maxx HD and iPhone 5 pretty easily.

The only thing that is incorrect in your post is that you condem the DNA for having bad battery life while you state the S3 has decent battery life. The DNA provides better battery life than the S3, the Verge are the only review site to find the battery life poor.

 

[Skripka]

The only thing that is incorrect in your post is that you condem the DNA for having bad battery life while you state the S3 has decent battery life. The DNA provides better battery life than the S3, the Verge are the only review site to find the battery life poor.

Yup DNA gets decent to good battery life...although the stock ROM has most of the flaws of its Sense predecessors. Also S3 has a better camera, although it has a pentile screen.

 

[Trimlock]

The only thing that is incorrect in your post is that you condem the DNA for having bad battery life while you state the S3 has decent battery life. The DNA provides better battery life than the S3, the Verge are the only review site to find the battery life poor.

Which is good news, with that screen and 'only' a 2030 mAh battery bodes well for the new gucci phones coming out in a few months.

 

[HookemAZ]

S3 is a great work phone. Still my phone of choice for the road.

 

[you2]

For a company phone reliability and reception should be premium; not custom roms. Anyways I would go with the razr max hd (for very long battery life and good reception) followed by the htc dna. Galaxy s3 is probably a better entertainment device but has trouble in poor 3g areas and weak cellular areas.