Upgraded A New Smartphone

[Bankbeater]

My wife and I both got Samsung Blaze smartphones for Xmas.  The first thing I did to both phones was go in and modify the settings.  You can save a ton of battery life if you turn off some of the notification features.

[Glenn]

I have the Samsung Galaxy S3, after owning the HTC One.  Nice upgrade.  Another good choice is the Google Nexus, especially if you're an Android purist (no added bloatware!).  I didn't get it because I use wi-fi calling a lot, and the Nexus doesn't support it.  Otherwise, it's an excellent choice.

 

The Galaxy Note is a cool phone/tablet hybrid, but it's a bit big for my tastes. Some people love them though.

 

All these phones are fast!

[SirSnookalot]

For the record I returned my Razr M, so I'm back to using my Commando for awhile, I was planning on keeping the M despite a few annoyances.  Yesterday Pm I go out fishing for awhile.  I take a few pics just to check out the camera, it was ok but nothing earth shattering, no better than what I had.  I do check out a web site or 2 when I'm out and about and in the sunlight the display was almost impossible to make out.  I tinker with a few settings and no improvement, at first I thought just maybe this is due to an exceptionally bright day outside, WRONG.  Once I get home I took my old phone and placed it side by side with new one, the difference was night and day, excuse the pun.  My wife was outdoors as well and noticed the same dark screen on her M.  

 

I'll be very fair on my review of the phone, as with all new phones it's fast and working indoors with it was a pleasure.  I discovered that the exceptionally thin phones are not for me, but a skin really improved the feel and handling.  Despite the professional reviews on battery life, I didn't notice a significant improvement.  Jellybean works well and took just minutes to get comfortable with it.  Probably with any new Verizon phone, not just this one, Verizon has installed unremovable bloatware, rooting may alleviate some of that bloat but I did not check into doing it.  The overwhelming negative was the dark display when using outdoors.

My wife had taken some pics and wanted to upload them to her pc, I didn't feel like setting up a ftp server and client so I used the usb cable.  Once connected I was prompted to d/l Motorola software, no big deal but could have set up ftp in half the time.  Now this I didn't like, each time connecting via usb Verizon's backup assistance plus web page popped on the computer screen, just unneeded IMO.

[Root beer]

For the record I returned my Razr M, so I'm back to using my Commando for awhile, I was planning on keeping the M despite a few annoyances.  Yesterday Pm I go out fishing for awhile.  I take a few pics just to check out the camera, it was ok but nothing earth shattering, no better than what I had.  I do check out a web site or 2 when I'm out and about and in the sunlight the display was almost impossible to make out.  I tinker with a few settings and no improvement, at first I thought just maybe this is due to an exceptionally bright day outside, WRONG.  Once I get home I took my old phone and placed it side by side with new one, the difference was night and day, excuse the pun.  My wife was outdoors as well and noticed the same dark screen on her M.  

 

I'll be very fair on my review of the phone, as with all new phones it's fast and working indoors with it was a pleasure.  I discovered that the exceptionally thin phones are not for me, but a skin really improved the feel and handling.  Despite the professional reviews on battery life, I didn't notice a significant improvement.  Jellybean works well and took just minutes to get comfortable with it.  Probably with any new Verizon phone, not just this one, Verizon has installed unremovable bloatware, rooting may alleviate some of that bloat but I did not check into doing it.  The overwhelming negative was the dark display when using outdoors.

My wife had taken some pics and wanted to upload them to her pc, I didn't feel like setting up a ftp server and client so I used the usb cable.  Once connected I was prompted to d/l Motorola software, no big deal but could have set up ftp in half the time.  Now this I didn't like, each time connecting via usb Verizon's backup assistance plus web page popped on the computer screen, just unneeded IMO.

 

 

Battery life are sketchy for sure. Try using WiFi more often, that will save battery as opposed to using the towers. You can download an app that will shut down programs on your phone that are not being use to boost the battery. The iPhone definitely has a much, much better life than my HTC Incredible.