By The critique-heavy souls at Consumer Reports have released their latest ratings for some of the world’s latest phones. The iPhone 5S and 5C were major points of interest, of course, with the relatively new devices being one of the hottest buys at retail right now. But are the anticipation and hype surrounding these phones indicative of their positioning on Consumer Reports’ latest list?
Actually, they aren’t. According to Consumer Reports, potential smartphone buyers might be more intrigued by Motorola’s latest offerings, of all people. Specifically, Verizon’s DROID line of phones were given high praise for all day battery life (two days in the case of the DROID MAXX, though reviews state the iPhone 5S lasts all day, as well), a sizable display, and unique features such as Active Notifications and Touchless Controls.
I echoed similar sentiments in my review and in a recent editorial. Despite beasts like the HTC One (review), Samsung Galaxy S4 (review) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (review), Motorola’s latest crop of devices have won me over for a few different reasons:
- Battery life.
- Simplicity
- Unique features that are more than just gimmicks
The devices’ biggest strength would appear to be the lack of custom skin. There are some custom bits here and there, but Motorola has left the experience mostly stock on these phones.
The DROID devices weren’t the only ones beating — or, at the least, meeting — the iPhones’ level, though. The Samsung Galaxy S4 remains Consumer Reports’ #1 overall phone, while devices like LG Optimus G and HTC One were all good enough to stand toe-to-toe with Apple’s latest and greatest.
Apple will sell smartphones regardless, but it’s nice to know that not everyone is willing to give it an automatic win just because it has a bitten piece of fruit on the back. Do you agree with Consumer Reports’ findings?
[via iSource]
The iPhone is a good phone but it’s not the end all be all of phones. It’s nice that people are starting to see that.
Yeah, I got a 5s for work last Friday, and has already rebooted on me twice. I haven’t had my Nexus 4 do that since I got it in January. Don’t get me wrong… it’s a nice phone, but I wouldn’t put it ahead of a good Android phone in either smoothness or stability.
My friend had the iphone 5s. He go it because he loves technology and also did a review on it for a site. But after 2 weeks he just sold it and got the note 3. It’s a matter of what you like and what you want to do with your phone.
“It just works” apparently went out the window after Steve.
I think it’s just a happy coincidence. It’s been doing that ever since GB came out.
Apple is trying to compete with android, which is moving too fast for them so they slip up. They’d like to go back to the old days when they operated in a tech vacuum and followed their own pace.
yea I just got one to for work and it sucks reboots at least once a day and is so compared to my note 2
Droid Maxx is the best phone I have ever owned. Glad to see it get the recognition it deserves.
David Pat, weren’t you praising Apple in older articles?
A guy can’t change his mind?
I guess you’re asking the obvious….
I think the iPhone is one of the best smartphones on the market but the Droid MAXX is my choice because of battery life and I rather have Android for my phone. I like my iPad more than my Nexus 10 though.
Great to see Motorola ship good products again. I thought Google made a mistake by buying them, hope they prove me wrong.
Patience Grasshoppa..
I hate that these phones are Verizon exclusives
They have GSM radios. If you live outside the US, you should be able to import one and use it. If you live in the US, I’ve heard tell they work just fine on AT&T HSPA+ as well.
Everyone else gets a Nexus, let us VZW’s have something.
NO! Nothing for V!!!!!!
Why aren’t all these awesome phones released on every carrier instead? wouldn’t they make more money that way?
The Moto X isn’t.
read up before posting
Am I missing something? Feel free to educate me.
The Droid Maxx is the only phone I’m excited for, but the 32gb w/o microSD slot is the only reason I can’t make it work for me. The Note 3 is the only phone out that satisfies my needs, but I’m getting tired of Samsungs bs on my Note 2, and the Note 3 probably won’t even be unlocked.
Supposed developer edition Note 3 coming to VZW.
Yes, but there won’t be much development for it because not many people will buy it at $700-800. Also, I’m not paying $700 for a Note 3.
I would love to own the droid maxx but I would never go with verizon. That is why I can’t wait for another moto x with better specs although the moto x has received some really high praise.
This is very simple… and all the cell phone maker needs to take note. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how fast the cpu is, how high your screen resolution is, how big your ram is, how big your rom is, or how nice your camera is, all it really matters for majority of consumer is the battery life. You need battery for a phone to work, without it the best phone is just a paper weight.
Battery Life! Battery Life! Battery Life!!
Word up. We need better batteries, not better fingerprint sensors.
Battery life on the G2 is pretty amazing, and available on all carriers. Give it a shot.
I don’t agree. Since the Note 2 and specially with the Note 3 I have had no problems with battery life. I can power use the device the whole day and still have some juice left when I’m going to bed. Charging a phone every night shouldn’t be a big deal because we charge ourselves every night as well.
You just completely supported Dr. Droid’s statement. If you couldn’t get through the day with your phone, you’d be screaming Battery Life! Battery Life! Battery Life!! But since you don’t have to, you forget that many people do.
There are phones out there which the battery is not an issue anymore. He and everybody else should go for these devices and really prove to the manufacturers how battery is more important than any other feature in the phone, if that was the case, of course.
Yeah, Note2 is backed up by a pretty big battery. Don’t give me wrong, I am looking to get a new phone 1st quarter of next year. The first criteria will be great battery life. I am on AT&T right now, and none of their phones have good battery beside the Notes. However, I do want a phone with screen about 4.7″-5″ because Note is a bit too big for me. I’ll see what phones are out there by that time. I know it sounds crazy… but I need a phone with about 5000mAh of battery… Sometime I use my phone to record data in the field for work and I need sometime that i can use continuously for 3+ hrs
You might want to take a serious look at the Moto X
it resembles the htc ones beautiful design so it is definitely worth giving a chance
I do like the look and the functionality. However… the 2200 mAh battery throw that phone out of the running list. I wouldn’t mind go with a Chinese OEM if they can give me 4000mAh. And yes I do need a battery that big for my job.
Don’t focus so much on battery size as battery life. You don’t need that big a battery, you need a phone that will last X hours under your usage.
Apparently the X does it a lot better than the other guys. I mean, if (theoretically) a 500mAh battery could give a phone 2 days of usage, would you really care that it’s 500mAh? It’s just a number. The 2 days of usage would be the important part of it.
First quarter next year is probably when the GS5 will be released. If I had to guess it will be a whole new phone from scratch. I hope that at least.
and you base your conjecture on what? i foresee more of the same ugly based on past ugly. thats a reasonable guess right
Based on the fact that the GS4 hasn’t sold as many units as they wanted, based on the fact that many people are starting to think exactly what you just said, based on the fact that the iPhone 6 most likely will also be a very new different device as well, based on the fact that, by then, Samsung will probably be able to make the flexible display in mass quantities… do you need more reasons? Based on increase of competition with Chinese OEMs, Sony, LG and even Nokia that now belongs to Microsoft…
Considering how close the GS3 and GS4 look i would hope so. People are getting bored with “Galaxy” this and that. Maybe they should launch the “Samsung Universe” or “Samsung Omni”
Yep, they are probably kinda copying the Apple lame strategy of the iphone 5 and 5S for example, at least when it comes to design. Changing too much a cellphone that is very successful is always very risky tho. But I do believe is time now. Samsung had a phone called OMNIA already. :)
Lol , then “Samsung Universe” it is, ha ha.
and what phone might your recommend there Fel Pe?
The Note 2, Note 3 and Droid MAXX are the best battery results out there.
battery life? lets address performance:
Eclectech
• a day ago
−
You folks talk about the Note 3 likes it’s this Godsend device. Well I spent some quality time with one and I was not blown away. The pleather is a step up from the plastic and the screen is beautiful but I’m no fan of the software and even with the Snapdragon 800, the phone still manages to stutter at times, especially when using the S Pen. I wouldn’t be too quick to write this HTC One Max off as it may prove to be just as competent of a performer as the new Note.
My Note2 goes two days on one charge.
was that when you misplaced your phone and found it a couple of days later (and it was turned off during that time)? or do you mean in your average use (where you keep it turned off when not using it)?
need specifics please…
On normal use, I don’t spend my time on YouTube or games nor music. That’s why it’s good.
oh then thats nominal use. many people use their phones for streaming music, watching video and browsing the web. my htc one may go only a few hours before i have to recharge because i do those things. in the end, the cost-benefit ratio is worth it i suppose
that explains why you can go two days though im surprised you cant go longer than that under nominal use
I really don’t get why an Android fan site is still acting as if Apple’s phones are the standard by which every other phone should be measured.
I also don’t get why Phandroid ignores Consumer Report’s comment that the iPhone 5s has “so-so battery life.”
To a certain point they are the standard because it is what people buy. So if a company wants to compete and make money they have to compare to what the competition is at the time and right now it is the iphone, even though most of the times there are better choices out there.
the best selling individual handset is the standard. That means no matter how much everyone on this site loves android over iphone… iOS/iphone has something that most android phones do not in the eyes of much of the general consumer market… and the general consumer has a lot to say about whether or your favorite OEM is either in or out of business.
Typical person that chooses to look the other way.
It’s because the iPhone is the best-selling SINGLE model out there. The iPhone 5S sold more phones in one weekend than Samsung did in an entire month. That alone kinda sets the bar don’t you think?
The iPhone 5C isn’t doing so well however.
Moto X is without question the best phone I have ever used; and I have tried them all.
“…and I have tried them all.””
BS
dont whine
Actually I have. Too bad your cant comprehend that.
Yea, I love the Moto X. It’s the perfect size, near stock Android interface, great specs, incredible battery life and gorgeous NON-PENTILE amoled display.
The only thing holding me back from getting it is the sub-par camera. It’s far below the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5, let alone improved 5S from what I’ve seen. That’s unacceptable to me.
The Moto X is definitely the best phone I’ve had!
The latest update has helped the camera a ton but I don’t use it much so it doesn’t stand out to me.
Oh nice, I haven’t seen a good comparison of that update. Moto X is definitely my favorite Android phone right now.
Would the Moto X camera be an upgrade from the GNex piece of shite camera?
Pentile amoled is not an issue according to gsmarena reviews. Moto X is a cool phone but it doest compare to other flagships.
did they say that amoled screens render whites with a bluish tint? I can spot a samsung phone owner from a mile away because when they hold their phone up to their face i can see the color blue emanating from their screen and reflecting off their face. they look like smurfs
Amoled screens are not perfect, but they are waaaaay ahead of LCD.
i will agree that amoled has deeper blacks but i’ll take white whites over blue whites any day. blue screens are so signature samsung
Deeper blacks? LCD has no black AT ALL. At least the, now not so much, bluish tone to the screen make it much more comfortable on the eyes. What does not having total black give you? A clean screen!! Because it really washes it out. :P
real sunlight is not blue. mother nature gave us white light because a blue sunlight is NOT NATURAL. that’s why whenever i see a samsung screen I get annoyed because it looks unnatural. i like white light and most people do too im sure
amoleds are flawed. they render whites with a bluish hue. that is NOT normal i dont care how you rationalize it
I just got mine yeaterday and it is definitely the best phone I have ever had too!
shill
lol, read the comment I’m replying to you idiot. I just got my MOTO X yesterday! That is why I am here “looking at Motorola”.
trolls are the worst, but there is nothing worse than a dumbass troll.
ooops i goofed. sorry. its weird but i could have sworn you were responding to someone that said the moto x sucked and that they went out and bought a note 3.
if you look at the context of my response you’ll see i thought you bought the samsung, lol!
i apologize for accusing you of being a samsung shill. you are not.
you’ve made a very good choice in not getting the note 3 and getting the moto x.
Honest mistake, its cool.
I am very happy with my decision to go with the Moto X. It has certainly passed my expectations!
Have u tried the NOTE 3? I’m pretty sure you haven’t. (By the way, my granny says the same thing about her iPhone).
seriously this guy works for samsung. He keeps defending the company in every phandroid article even if its not related. seriously, stfu and hide your hard on for samsung
And therefor you work for Motorola since you are defending it against a Samsung defender?
Nope I have an HTC One. I don’t believe everyone needs to carry a massive phone and every phone has their advantages…seriously, look at this guys comment history, his opinion no longer matters
Lol someone has been stalking me. Or at least my comments.
You have a fan. You owe him an autograph.
me too. ill be your groupie
LOL yeah, now I have one more comment stalker.
I’ve only been on these discussions couple days and you are everywhere Fel Pe. darkins 101 has a point. I don’t think you are a fan boy. However, you appear to be a hybrid Samsung marketer/shill. tell me I am wrong, lol
Ive been here just since last week as well… been having too much free time, plus got so excited with my note 3, that i cannot put it away, thats why LOL
darkins seems to be under the impression that you are a long time contributor on these blogs. now, is there anything else you might want to tell me Fel Pe before I find them out myself?
Well just check how many comments I’ve posted with my disquss account: 394 TOTAL. That’s nothing compared to most people here. I’m a tech consumer enthusiast, I’ve had so many smartphones and tablets so far and I also like to believe I know about the trends. Back in 2010 with the GS2 I knew it for a fact that Samsung has got the market in their hands, I just wish I had bought more stocks back then. I was always a defensor of biger screens, when people would say that 5″ screens were too big that would just drive me nuts. Mark my words, 5.5 to 6 is gonna be 2015 standard for smartphones. It’s just a matter of looking at the bigger picture, the business, the products, the trends, the evolution… people never like whats different until they try and realize what they were missing. Some realize early, some take forever. It’s just how our minds work.
394?!…thats nothing?!….nothing?…….ha, nothing relative to who? joe blogger with 200,000 posts?!
lol, i have several dozen at most. so hilarious
Girl please, start looking how many comments other people have.
hey i resent being called that. i told you im new here. i don’t have 394 posts like you do. i havent the slightest how to do that yet
nothing wrong with defending a company but read Fel Pe’s posts and you will see that he does so as if his life depended on it. well in his case his stock ownership in samsung does depend on it i guess
Better have a hard on for Samsung than have a hard on for DavidB23 like yourself have.
lol, why did you admit that? now EVERYONE knows there is a conflict of interest which puts everyone on notice that we should NOT listen to anything you say. man, whatever credibility youve worked to attain (assuming there is any remaining) is now shot.
I don’t buy stocks based on my personal smartphone preferences. That’d be childish and plain dumb. (Thats why, even tho I always hated apple products I still bought their stocks).
I have tried all the phones available on major carriers. I have a job that allows me to use any phone I want. I find the samsung products to be bloated with duplicate 2nd rate sw. There are much better products available.
Whats the job? (if I may ask). TouchWizz is heavy indeed, but that’s because is the OS with the most features and options out there. You can turn most of the motion gesture and audio off if you don’t use them and want the device to be faster and more energy efficient.
I concur. will have to expose him for what he is now…
I played around with the Note 3 in store … certainly a nice piece of hardware, but just too big for my preferences. 4.7″-5″ is about ideal for my needs, including being able to comfortably keep it in my front jeans pocket (and no I don’t wear skinny jeans, just “slim/fitted” jeans) … One/S4/X are all good for me in that category.
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3,Motorola-Moto-X/phones/7984,7885#/phones/size/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3,Motorola-Moto-X,Samsung-Galaxy-S4,HTC-One/phones/7984,7885,7597,7678
Believe me, I wear skinny jeans and even with them the Note 3 doesn’t bother, or to be more correct, it bothers just the same than my GS3 did long time ago. The whole point with the Note 3 is that the gains in screen real state and battery are far greater than any disadvantage than its size brings. It is just a matter of using it for a week and you will never want to go back to smaller screen phones. (Notice I said Note 3, not all phablets are the same, the ONE MAX and the Z Ultra are indeed too big and too heavy to the point that they do bother MUCH more than a 5″ screen phone and even the 5.7″ Note 3.
Did anyone see Eclectics post from the sprint blog from yesterday? He has actually used the note 3 and was NOT impressed. here is the full text of his post:
Eclectech
• a day ago
−
You folks talk about the Note 3 likes it’s this Godsend device. Well I spent some quality time with one and I was not blown away. The pleather is a step up from the plastic and the screen is beautiful but I’m no fan of the software and even with the Snapdragon 800, the phone still manages to stutter at times, especially when using the S Pen. I wouldn’t be too quick to write this HTC One Max off as it may prove to be just as competent of a performer as the new Note.
Yes, I have tried the note 3. Aside from it being embarrassingly large; it still stutters just like the S4. I have never seen the MotoX stutter once. Samsung cannot make processors fast enough to deal with their bloated sw. Note 3 is a good phone if you like huge over-saturated and stuttery cartoons with a ton of features and duplicate 2nd rate sw (like S voice) that nobody uses.
need help I’m in England and have a s4 phone 16gb or so I thought the total space is 9.23 gb 2.5 are for apps, software and other bits which leaves me about 7gb where did the other 6gb go please tell I’m all eyes
Generally, a 16 GB phone only have available about 13 GB. Those 3 GB is reserved for the partition file system and Android system files (ROM).
I’ve heard that the Galaxy S4, instead of only use 3 GB for the latter, it uses as much as 6 GB. That’s why you only have a available 9.23 GB available…
That really sucks…
Phone manufacturers should really provide the storage they advertise and add a little bit extra to cover up the storage they use, instead of cutting it from the storage available for the user.
Thank you for your reply my mind is at ease ha
No problem!
Check this out.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/154594-the-galaxy-s4-16gb-has-just-8-8gb-of-free-space-when-will-device-makers-stop-lying
This man should be applauded for not being childish and telling the OP their in the wrong place to ask that question. Kudos to Darkbiotic!
Thanks!
I will always help if I can.
wow! can you believe that , totally false, I have a s3mini too and that is more or less telling me the same thing cheers mate
A 16GB microsd costs incredibly cheap these days… (thought it’d be worth to point it out).
Even 32GB cards are pretty cheap these days.
Yup, 32GB is around 25 bucks, the 64GB is around 50 bucks. Now you know why some OEM’s dont like to put memory card slot. Apple charges 200 more for the 64GB version when a 64GB flash card for them probably costs 5 dollars more than a 32GB or 10 dollars more than a 16GB. So they make MUCH more money selling a 64GB phone than a 16GB. If the phone had memory card slot people would just buy the 16GB and buy a memory card from another company (sandisk or so)…
Wow, i remember when i had my T-mobile G2, i had to get my 32GB on sale from Groupon or something, it was $35. I think the retail price at that time was $60. They didnt even have 64GB cards at the time either…..Technology, gotta love it.
Yeah, they change prices very quickly. Did you know that Sandisk has already developed the new generation of MicroSds (since 2011 if I’m not mistaken) and they are going all the way up to 2TB!! Can you imagine a microsd with 2 tera bytes capacity? Amazing uh? Of course they are gonna take forever to realease them. Sandinsk (and other companies that make microsd cards) wants to make sure they will profit the maximum they can with every version of the card (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1024GB and 2048GB). Yup, gotta love technology.
Can phones even handle cards as big as a TB ?
now I understand the Samsung principle. to compensate for Samsung bloat and shortcomings in the storage department only requires buying a cheap sd card. to compensate for their ugliness therefore required lots of what many consider to be gimmicky features.
… ok I get it now. thanks.
LOL, Samsung is great (and clever) because they make so many things, for example they make memory cards as well, so for them is no big deal putting the memory card slot because they still can profit later again selling the memory card for you to put in the phone. In fact, the Samsung memory division in the second most profitable division they have after smartphones. (Much better than TV’s, Appliances, Audio and a dozen more things they make).
then they need to add a new creative designer, screen engineer and ethics department then. this should address the galaxy ugliness, blue screen and public relations nightmares such as the relatively recent paid-student fiasco
Samsung’s software + Andoird take up a lot of space so yes you’ll end up with around 9gig of free space.
Samsung doesn’t mind because you can add a micro sd card for very cheap.
there isn’t much you can do.
Motorola is just for Verizon users. (They like to overpay for things).
The irony in that statement, when made in an article discussing Apple products….is enough to make the internetz explode.
Article discussing apple products? I thought this was about consumer reports. I’m also pretty sure the article mention many other companies, I’ll list here in case you missed them: Motorola, Apple, Samsung, LG and HTC.
notice how he put samsung third on the list but he was dying to put it first but didnt want to come off as a samsung shill
LOL, youre funny. I put in the order of relevance in the article. :P
why did you do that? if i was you i would have put samsung first.
Fanboy much?
I’m am a Samsung fan indeed, finally someone is able to step it up against apple. If wasn’t for Samsung, today we would have flagship phones like in 2010.
I am a fan of whichever Android phone happens to catch my eye when I am due for a new one.
At the moment, I have a Droid Maxx, and I love it. Battery life, screen size, useful voice control, all things you can’t get on an Apple.
I like that Androids are similar, but different. In the Apple world, you either have one or you don’t. There really is no personalization with owning an iOS product.
I feel sad at my office every time I hear an iPhone ring, or an email or text notification come in….because I know 7 or 8 people are now checking to see if it was them.
Yeah, not like you can get a modern Motorola phone on the other 3 carriers… Oh wait…
Modern with specs like a GS3? Hmmm
Specs worse than the GS3, my cousin has the Moto X and personally it’s crap in my opinion, screen is old , camera is crap and processor is decent for mild tasks
I didn’t want to humiliate the moto X that much but now that you did I embrace it.
I thought samsung shills operated alone but here we have a samsung shill tagteam duo…wow
Alone? Nobody sells more smartphones than Samsung. What does that tell you?
that they have such a large advertising budget that they can pay marketing agents, pundits, students and shills to hype their phones and denigrate other smartphones and manufacturers?
Nothing would matter if they didn’t have a product good enough to justify their marketing expenses. If HTC products are so amazing then why there aren’t lines of companies bidding to acquire/invest in the company??
you know as well as i do that people respond to advertising being the sheep that we are. my focus is on htc products not the day to day operations of the corporation. HTC has very good smartphones THAT I KNOW
“Unique features that are more than just gimmicks”
You mean like shaking to launch the subpar camera? Most people would rather have a really great camera.
After the software update they pushed out, it is a great camera
Nothing to see here. Just verification of what we already know :)
Yep… just like what the author said… most Android “features” are just gimmicks.
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The big game changer for these motorola phones (especially the droid brand) is the build quality.
I had no build quality complaints about any of the Motorola phones I have owned and I have owned a bunch of them going back to the Star-Tac.
I switched from Motorola to Samsung because I liked the features better, but my wife and I had Droid II global phones and they were built like tanks as was my Droid after that. They all still work and this is after I accidentally spilled a large quantity of water on my Droid II.
Wait everyone doesn’t want a Nexus?
Nope.
Wait wait wait wait..
Is moto X made out of Plastic??? Why is it that I don’t seen anyone bashing “PLASTIC = CHEAP!!! !”..
lower end phones can be forgiven for being made of plastic. Flagship devices however are held to a much higher standard
Yep, flagships need to have at least S800, 13MP cam, 3000mha removable battery, memory card slot, 3GB of RAM…….. got it? Haha
and which phone would you recommend there Fel Pe. I was considering the note 3 until i read this:
Eclectech
• a day ago
−
You folks talk about the Note 3 likes it’s this Godsend device. Well I spent some quality time with one and I was not blown away. The pleather is a step up from the plastic and the screen is beautiful but I’m no fan of the software and even with the Snapdragon 800, the phone still manages to stutter at times, especially when using the S Pen. I wouldn’t be too quick to write this HTC One Max off as it may prove to be just as competent of a performer as the new Note.
Well, the article says that the One Max MAY be as competent as the Note 3, and says that the Note 3 manages to stutter when the S-Pen is in use. Guess what, no other phone has the S-PEN to start with. Yes, TouchWizz might be a bit heavy but that is because it offers endless more options than ANY other OS. Most of them tho, you can disable and make the device faster if that is what you want. In my case I turned 98% of the motion and audio features off because I don’t use them and it does make the device faster and saves battery. I dont need to mention the huge bezels and ABSURD weight of the MAX, right? I’m pretty sure people will realize that much better when the phone really is out. Now for anyone saying that I love Samsung and ONLY them, thats not true, so I’m gonna lista my fav phones as of now. 1. Note 3, (Probably Nexus 5 as 2nd) 2. Sony Z1, 3. LG G2, 4. GS4. 5. HTC ONE, 6. Z Ultra, 7. One MAX, 8. Moto X.
wow, we have something in common. that lineup corresponds to my very own list. what a coincidence!
…its the one i call my device aesthetics list which starts off from the most hideous to the most beautiful!
Lol, based on looks then would be totally different, the ONE probably first then Sony phones them moto, then LG and Samsung tied in last place. But hey, I’m plenty beatiful and I use the phone with a cool spigen case so it’s all good =P
impressive. of course I agree with you but even if i didn’t, that was the most unshill-like effort I’ve seen from you yet
to say thats its ok that the s-pen is flawed because it is a samsung exclusive which no one else has, fails to address the core issue which is that it is a flawed technology. hence, the reason why other manufacturers don’t want it.
just like i hate the fingerprint scanner on the back of the one max because it detracts from the aesthetics of the device, i don’t want a stylus pen device that will detract from the user experience of my devices
Folks, I realize that we live in a polarized world, but can’t anyone play nice????
I happen to like the stylus on my Note and it is one of the things that sold me on the phone, but there are lots of phones without it. If you don’t want a stylus, buy something else, but don’t tell the rest of us it isn’t useful for our purposes.
BTW, the Note does suffer from the ability to shoot ones foot by running too many things at once, including multitasking on multiple screens, but I have never seen mine stutter with any reasonable combination of open apps and I have watched streaming video while doing email in a separate window.
My only complaint about the stylus, aside from the replacement cost if you lose one, is that it automatically opens alternate versions of apps when you pull it out. I suspect that this is configurable, but I haven’t configured it so can’t say for sure.
I never said a stylus was unnecessary nor did I say it could not be useful to others. It’s just that many note owners think their phones are superior because they have it and other phones don’t. The point I was trying to make was that it didnt matter if they have it. If it doesnt work properly, it could negatively impact function and diminish user experience.
For me it would be nice to have a stylus but it is not a selling point for me and I surely do not want it at all if it malfunctions and causes me frustration and inconvenience
Here the Final Words of the best Review of the ONE MAX yet (GSMARENA):
Unfortunately, even a solid foundation like this one is not always enough considering the kind of competition that the One Max is facing. With a price-tag matching that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the HTC phablet can’t afford any compromise if it so much as hopes to win this around. Sadly, it does make a fair share of those.
The UltraPixel camera is basically a one-trick pony (with only low light photos worth their salt), and without OIS even that might be an overstatement. There’s also the chipset, which while certainly snappy, is not the stuff flagships are made of these days. Snapdragon 600 is good enough, but Snapdragon 800 is better and it makes for a difference that you can actually feel.
The less than optimal usage of the available space at the front is also somewhat of an issue. With a screen diagonal that’s only a fraction of an inch bigger than that of the Galaxy Note 3, the One Max is 13mm taller, 3mm wider and 2mm thicker than the Note, which for some is already too big.
The pictures on the ONE are phenomenal in all light settings. Theyre even better than most of the pics on my wife’s GS4 which has a weird habit of blurring.
I won’t deny that the ONE takes amazing pics at night in the clubs, the ONE has OIS (Optical image stabilization) and it’s a shame that the ONE MAX doesn’t (go figure why HTC removed that feature). The GS4 doesn’t have as well, so you need the photographer to be much more steady to get good pics, otherwise they will get blurred.
Yea my wife isnt too steady i guess. lol. The darkest pics i take are in my living room at night, and they come out as if i have a flash on. Its way cool.
what do you mean by “go figure why htc removed that feature”?
… where is the irony you are alluding to?
Because it was a great feature that the ONE has, HTC should have put that on the One Max, inf fact the One Max should be a more powerful phone with more features, when in reality the regular ONE is more powerful and has more features.
i see. i’ll have to agree with you on that. why htc would choose to leave out the OIS is a mystery to me. for a company that is riding on the success of the htc one to come out with a phablet that that does not keep the momentum going for htc is lame-headed. they should hang the individual responsible. do they still hang people in Taiwan or chop their heads off? anyway, either way would be a befitting punishment for the person responsible.
as far as power, i don’t think that is so much an issue for me. the two phones have the same chip and my htc one is fast, stutter free and has handled everything i’ve thrown at it without fail. it should not impact the max at all.
however, i don’t like the ugly fingerprint scanner which ruins the beautiful lines and impacts what was once a stylistically cohesive design from front to back. the person at htc that was responsible for ruining that aspect should meet the same demise as the OIS guy above.
I bought the Note II 4 months ago, so can’t comment first hand on the Note III, but I found it a hard choice between the HTC One, the Galaxy S4 and the Note II. I ended up dropping the HTC from consideration because it lacked the SD slot and removable battery, but it was a hard decision as the screen is gorgeous and really pops out of a side by side comparison with any phone including the godlike iPhone.
I had my reservations because of the size and all the Samsung extras, but I have grown to love the size and like all Android devices, I have chosen what I liked of the included apps and dumped what I didn’t.
I will say, that I get lots of admiring looks from others when they see what the Note can do. The competition among HTC, Motorola and Samsung is producing some awesome phones and I love having the problem of choosing among them.
i came to android from iphone 4 which didnt have a removable battery or sd card so unlike you those features mean nothing to me. In fact i would prefer not to have those if it means having to have a removable back which will diminish the phone’s structural rigidity. Believe me when i say that if HTC ever put a removable back to accomodate a replaceable battery and sd card, I’ll be done with the One.That is one of the reasons I’m really disappointed in the One Max.
I understand you can remove certain apps but that doesnt mean that the samsungs are not bloated. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest the GS4 and Note 3 have issues with lag and stutter.
Admiring looks from people seeing all the features your note has doesnt say much. I don’t use a case on my htc one and I get a similar reaction. People are always curious about different phones
Are you kidding me? This phone is as expensive as the SGS4 and HTC one.
The price defines all.
a high price does not necessarily dictate whether a phone is a flagship
No; its usability does. MotoX has a great design and highly usable and helpful features and is fast and stutter free.. Best phone on the market.
Because “Hyperglaze” turns the plastic into ugly undesirable slippery garbage IMO. I wouldn’t mind if they stopped using that method and opted for something like the plastic on the htc One X. I think the Galaxy line would appeal to me much more than.
the one x . and its beautifully designed plastic unibody was the only reason i jumped over to android from my trusty ip4. i finally tired of the latters small screen and having to jailbreak and lose data every time there was a os update. if not for the one x i would never have converted to android because all other android phones at that time were ugly ugly ugly, samsungs especially and they still are, lol. i’d be embarrassed to carry a samsung.
unfortunately i cracked my one x screen but the one came out soon afterward which i bought and.havent regretted it. i wont get the one max though because it is too big for my needs and that ugly fingerprint scanner really detracts from the beauty of the design not to mention the htc one mini-like plastic trim,
now maybe if samsung had a beautiful solid build like htc one and they ditched that bluish amoled screen, i wouldnt be so harsh with them but their phones are so hideously ugly, especially with the sloping top and bottom edges…eeeech i can puke looking at them
I really get tired of the whole plastic thing. You guys do know that a Corvette has a plastic body and I have never heard anyone call it a low end car.
I have no issue if you prefer the feel of a metal cased phone, although it does add to the challenge for the antenna designer, but don’t tell me and everyone else what to like. I LIKE the feel of my Samsung Note II. I picked up Motorola, HTC and iPhones before choosing it.
To me, the metal block phones feel like unfinished prototypes as we always carved out a block of metal to make a demo before committing to molds for consumer devices. That is my feeling. I don’t tell everyone else they need to share it.
One of the great things about an open ecosystem is that you can find a wide verity of sizes and styles available in Android.
These are flagship devices and they are expected to have a premium feel and build. I understand you want to downplay the issue of plastic but build material and feel is a relevant factor for many people when choosing a smartphone. This isnt just the opinion of many people in these discussions, but there seems to be much consensus among industry reviewers as well.
No one is telling you to get a metal phone.I am merely expressing my opinion about the samsung’s plastic build and based on industry reviews and opinions expressed in these blogs, I am not alone in my belief that plastic is ugly, flimsy and makes a phone look cheap. If you like plastic and it works for you that’s fine. But that doesnt diminish others’ opinions that it is flimsy and gives off a feeling of cheapness. I’m sorry that you feel metal makes a phone look and feel unfinished and doesnt work for your needs but I can respect your opinion.
It isn’t…well it is I guess. It’s reportedly a composite material which in Motorola’s case means Kevlar, but some other sites report it’s kevlar and another composite(aka plastic to schmoes like me).
What Motorola does that a certain other OEM doesn’t, or at least isn’t as consistent at, is make whatever plastic they’re using feel of higher quality.
Is this another unabashedly pro Motorolla article because Google bought them and theyve entered sainthood ?
Not surprised. I know a lot of Apple users who are frustrated with the iphone but continue to get the new one because they are lock into Apple’s ecosystem and don’t want to buy everything again. Android phones are always going to be faster and more user friendly despite the stereotype that it’s the other way around spread about by the media.
I am amused by your post because the one thing that will prevent me from getting any Apple device is their ecosystem. On any phone but Apple, I can simply copy my photos or music from my PC to my phone using a USB cable. Apple wants to run everything through some cloud site. When transferring a whole library to my phone this takes a long time at home upload speeds.
As a local techie, I get lots of requests to help people with their Kindle, iOS device, PC etc. More and more, I am seeing those who got iOS devices for the simple to use ecosystem dropping them in favor of Android and even, horror of horrors, Windows phones. Too much frustration with not finding the book they want in the Apple universe and having problems with open source stuff not working.
This is really sad to me because it looks like Apple;s greed making a perfectly fine device more and more undesirable.
Just for proper disclaimers, I work with Apple devices at work, but own Android.
Doesn’t matter… iphone 5s will continue to sell well. It’s a matter of advertising, not functionality.
Yep, and thats the really sad part.
That’s not sad. If it is REALLY about marketing, then you just need to build an advertising campaign to compete. However that doesn’t seem to be the case. While most folks around here won’t really give Apple devices much credibility – they are addressing the needs of their users better than most Android devices and *surprise* the Android devices that seem to be more focussed on the user experience are competing. Not rocket science – its all about the user experience, not the features.
I think the success of the iPhone has zero to do with “user experience” and more to do with what you said earlier in your comment ,”advertising”. I used to own an iPhone, a few actually, and now im on my 4th Android phone. The user experience is above and beyond the experience on the iPhone.
Each of us has different reasons for using a device and for what they expect from a device. I develop apps so I move through the ecosystem across all the platforms. I started out on iOS and I still like iOS although these days I’m more an Android person, but I see value in other OSes including BB10 and Windows Phone. They all have some things that are nice about them, but at the end of the day advertising is thee to increase awareness – it gets people to try things, but its up to the product and the sales team to actually convert. Advertising itself doesn’t sell products, otherwise there would be a huge shift to Microsoft products right now given they are greatly increasing their advertising spend.
Apple has a huge advantage in trialability through their stores. People who are drawn in by the advertising, can try to the product in a friendly environment by people who know the product and they can convert users. Microsoft has recognized this and launched their own stores as a result. Trialability is EXTREMELY important for product conversion. Many Android devices simply don’t have that opportunity, being relegated to a stand at Best Buy or the local telco store. They may not be pushed, the person introducing the product may not have familiarity to sell it properly (note this is also related to hipshare), etc.
When the trial takes place, the user will be shown how to solve their problems with the device within that user experience. If it solves their problems then they are highly likely to purchase the product. Android, for better or worse, is filled with options. Options increase the time it takes for people to solve their problems. People find too many options confusing. WHile many of us will find those options liberating – the average mass market user simply will not. A simplified user experience for Android will greatly impact the impression that users have of the device – making it easier to discover that they can solve their problems with it. The more advanced devices that expose functionality easily (like the new interfaces for the MotoX, Google Now, etc) do that and THOSE things will encourage users to purchase. Things like eye tracking, unlocking the device with your nipple, etc. are NOT likely to drive users to purchase. They are technology solutions that try to convince the user that they have a problem. While there may be unarticulated needs there, the users don’t care if those needs are met… but they DO care if they can easily communicate with their friends. Hell BBM kept Blackberry viable for far longer than should have ever happened, but the simple fact was that users wanted connectivity and that’s how they got it. When Hangouts eliminates the obvious advantage that Facetime and iMessage have – the switching costs go waaaaaay down.
Anyways, its never just advertising. Never ever ever ever….
Well maybe where i erred was in the word “never”. Obviously people try a device. But where Apple succeeds and others fail is that 1st generation iPhone users just buy the new device, they dont try it, they just buy it because its new. I have several personal friends that buy the new iPhones and iPads each year the moment theyre available. Their reasoning: Its new, its Apple, its awesome. If most smartphone users were like us, try a device, then make a decision, Apple would not have the success it has had and continues to have.
You see lots of Windows phone ads? on TV ? I barely see or hear anything about Windows Phone where i am. Not more or even equal to Apple or Android.
Don’t disagree with that at all. Lots of value having a positive experience driving the next purchase. Lots of auto manufacturers thrive off that. “Well my last car was a Lexus and it ran for 200k miles and there is a new one so that one must be cool too.” That’s a huge advantage for the first mover in the market.
Going to be interesting watching that happen with Tesla over the long haul given its stellar marks. I won’t say its going to be impossible, but its going to be damned hard to get a Tesla owner to buy another brand any time soon.
As for Windows Phone/Surface/etc. yes, they are pushing them quite heavily. They are clearly targeting a younger demographic (see them on gaming sites, gaming shows, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, etc). They are still terrible though because they are trying to position themselves against the iPad – that ship has sailed.
I can not see any number of how many consumers were taking part on the survey. And considering that 5c and 5s are new devices, and that the availability of 5s is limited. I think that reports like that harms the tech blogs and it impresses me that the author of the article is not being judgemental about that…
It “impresses” you that the author of the article is not being judgmental about that? I think you are looking for another word buddy.
In a negative way…
I gathered that. Just use better enrish next time, yes?
It is called sarcasm
I just looked at Verizon’s site and they have the Droid Maxx for $199, wasn’t it $299? Did they drop the price already?
Kudos, Motorola. I’d have one of your phones if the N5 wasn’t around the corner. Glad to see the company turning around. Now it just needs to figure out how to be profitable.
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