Smartphone money spent?

'01LS1 · June 17, 2015

Ordered the S6 Active yesterday(on AT&T only). The battery is much bigger(3550) than the regular S6 (2550). Though still not(easily) removable. But my S3 is still on its first battery at 3 years old & is only a 2100 mAh.

For those with storage issues, the cure is pretty cheap & much less expensive than buying a 128 gb carrier version of a phone. http://www.leefco.com/access-micro-sd-card-reader

Details with the S6Active one day in here. I like that it shows the contrast among the variants.

Chris · June 17, 2015

That battery sounds larger than my Note 4

'01LS1 · June 17, 2015

Yeah, need to correct the S6A has a 3500 mAh battery, not 3550. A friend of mine has the Note 4 as well & no complaints about battery life so far. Thinking it was in the 3200 range. Regardless, thinking Samsung should have put a little larger battery in the standard S6. Know they are always pushing for thinner though & am sure it is a tough balance between form & function.

Chevyguy85 · June 17, 2015

I'd rather have a thicker phone with more battery than a thin phone with less. Ooo another 1-3 mills...yeah I'll deal with it for the extra space for a battery. Maybe some passing cooling too.

'01LS1 · June 18, 2015

I'd rather have a thicker phone with more battery than a thin phone with less. Ooo another 1-3 mills...yeah I'll deal with it for the extra space for a battery. Maybe some passing cooling too.

Based on the comments I have seen when new devices(any brand) are brought to market, cannot imagine trying to design & sell those things. But am with ya, will opt for the larger battery every time vs a mil thinner.

Chris · June 18, 2015

Based on the comments I have seen when new devices(any brand) are brought to market, cannot imagine trying to design & sell those things. But am with ya, will opt for the larger battery every time vs a mil thinner.

I pretty much always have a Mophie Powerstation XL with me. So i am fine with a thinner phone

ember1205 · June 18, 2015

I've tried to keep my phone for at least the typical 2 year contract timeframe. I'm current at my 25th month with my phone but haven't found anything that I like to replace it so I'll just hang onto it for awhile yet.

Have you gone to your carrier to have them "undo" your contract and its associated pricing yet? If you haven't, you're still paying too much for your service because you're continuing to subsidize the cost of your phone.

I have been contract-free for over two years, and I will -never- go back to having a contract. Yes, I keep reasonably current with technology in terms of phones for myself and my wife, yes I pay what would seem to be "a lot" for them, but it actually saves me money over time.

When you purchase a new phone and sign a contract, you are locked into an agreement to pay a certain amount of money over a certain amount of time. In the case of the typical 2-year agreement, that extra expense you are agreeing to is $480 or more (based on $20 per month). If you buy an iPhone 6, you'll spend $200 at point of sale and spend another $480 over the next two years. That's $680 for an iPhone 6 with 16G RAM.

I bought my iPhone 6 64G for $575 used and in excellent condition. I pay ZERO extra dollars each month because of being under contract, can change carriers or drop service any time I want, and NEVER pay an "upgrade" or "activation" fee. At the end of a year (sometimes less), I will sell off my phone and buy something new. Typically, I would expect to be able to sell my phone for somewhere around $400 or maybe a little more (although the iPhone has a little more residual value than Android phones seem to). So, it costs me $175 to have that phone for a year. $350 over the course of two phones / two years. Compare that to the $680 cited above for a lower capacity device.

Now, compound that with the fact that my wife and I BOTH go through this cycle. I'm saving over $300/year and staying more current with technology than many have the opportunity to because of that contract.

Chevyguy85 · June 18, 2015

I pretty much always have a Mophie Powerstation XL with me. So i am fine with a thinner phone

I've got a spare battery and 2 or 3 battery packs but I'd still like a bigger battery regardless.

Chris · June 18, 2015

The note 4 battery pretty much does what i need. But while in class there is a battery pack and charger in my backpack.

ember1205 · June 18, 2015

I found that the biggest battery drain on my iPhone was the email. Four different Gmail accounts alone that were set to poll at 30 minutes, plus the ActiveSync push for my work email. I disabled the polling on ALL of the Gmail accounts, created an iCloud account, then configured each Gmail account to forward a copy of new messages to my iCloud account. That way, I get near realtime notifications of emails and the phone only poll when I want to go in and read the messages (polling is more power-consuming than push notifucation).

On my last Android phone (Galaxy S5), the battery held up quite well because the Gmail accounts were push notification. The issue I had with it was the fingerprint ID. The one on the iPhone works MUCH better than the "swipe" method that Samsung is using. And, because of work use policies pushed to my device, I would have to enter long passwords without the fingerprint piece.

I travel a lot, and have a couple of small batteries that I can use in a pinch. But, my iPhone typically can do about a day and a half between charges. If I know I'm going to be on a long stint away from power, I'll periodically flip the phone into airplane mode (like when I'm in customer meetings) to save power.

'01LS1 · June 18, 2015

I bought my iPhone 6 64G for $575 used and in excellent condition. I pay ZERO extra dollars each month because of being under contract, can change carriers or drop service any time I want, and NEVER pay an "upgrade" or "activation" fee. At the end of a year (sometimes less), I will sell off my phone and buy something new. Typically, I would expect to be able to sell my phone for somewhere around $400 or maybe a little more (although the iPhone has a little more residual value than Android phones seem to). So, it costs me $175 to have that phone for a year. $350 over the course of two phones / two years. Compare that to the $680 cited above for a lower capacity device.

Now, compound that with the fact that my wife and I BOTH go through this cycle. I'm saving over $300/year and staying more current with technology than many have the opportunity to because of that contract.

Be careful buying used. Have been seeing posts pop up where people are getting phones through Rent A Center(or similar places), using them a couple of months then selling them. The phones work when the new buyer purchases it, but then locks after X amount of time. New buyer is screwed at that point.

Agree though on the avoiding contract stuff. Think the carriers want to get away from it as well & the phone mfg's are wanting to run up the price structure too. Am guessing the Samsung S6 Edge was a price point test to see if people will spring for the extra $100-$200 variables & at what percentage of buyers.

ember1205 · June 18, 2015

Be careful buying used. Have been seeing posts pop up where people are getting phones through Rent A Center(or similar places), using them a couple of months then selling them. The phones work when the new buyer purchases it, but then locks after X amount of time. New buyer is screwed at that point.

Agree though on the avoiding contract stuff. Think the carriers want to get away from it as well & the phone mfg's are wanting to run up the price structure too. Am guessing the Samsung S6 Edge was a price point test to see if people will spring for the extra $100-$200 variables & at what percentage of buyers.

I either pay with PayPal (which gives a good length of time to go back after the seller if a problem crops up) or in person. And, I ask to meet at a store for my carrier. If I like the phone, I ask the carrier to review the information for it and make sure that it isn't "under obligation". Once they bless it, I'll do a transaction in cash.

Contracts have NEVER been good for the consumer. With so many phone choices now, and Samsung basically releasing a new "Next Big Thing" every year, the consumer no longer wants to be tied to them. The biggest advantage that I have is possessing all of the tools and knowledge to tear these things down and repair them if I have an issue crop up like a broken screen. That way, I can use them without worrying if it will be in saleable condition in 6 months to a year.

Samsung's price points are in line with the iPhone 6, but I don't see the loyal following for them like with the iPhone (people that will buy on day of release, and at full retail). And, personally, I don't understand the "Edge" part - it seems that this aspect works best when the phone isn't even in your hand. Dunno. There's a lot that I really like about Android phones, and I've had "ok" luck with Samsung (I had two of their S3's go South on me pretty quickly, including one that may have actually been bad out of the box). But, now that I work exclusively on a Mac, the integration between the two for text messaging is nice. Will I switch back? Probably, although I have no idea when it might happen.

'01LS1 · June 18, 2015

I either pay with PayPal (which gives a good length of time to go back after the seller if a problem crops up) or in person. And, I ask to meet at a store for my carrier. If I like the phone, I ask the carrier to review the information for it and make sure that it isn't "under obligation". Once they bless it, I'll do a transaction in cash.

Contracts have NEVER been good for the consumer. With so many phone choices now, and Samsung basically releasing a new "Next Big Thing" every year, the consumer no longer wants to be tied to them. The biggest advantage that I have is possessing all of the tools and knowledge to tear these things down and repair them if I have an issue crop up like a broken screen. That way, I can use them without worrying if it will be in saleable condition in 6 months to a year.

Samsung's price points are in line with the iPhone 6, but I don't see the loyal following for them like with the iPhone (people that will buy on day of release, and at full retail). And, personally, I don't understand the "Edge" part - it seems that this aspect works best when the phone isn't even in your hand. Dunno. There's a lot that I really like about Android phones, and I've had "ok" luck with Samsung (I had two of their S3's go South on me pretty quickly, including one that may have actually been bad out of the box). But, now that I work exclusively on a Mac, the integration between the two for text messaging is nice. Will I switch back? Probably, although I have no idea when it might happen.

Apple controls their entire system from the devices to the op systems. They have zero competition within their own system. Samsung is a mfg running an op system they do not own that has tons of competition at all price points & various formats. Unless Samsung can get their Tizen to be competitive(not likely in the near future) they will remain just another mfg among the many in the Android line up. Additionally, with cars coming with Apple/Android built in, it is going to be even tougher to get another op system to take hold. Just ask Microsoft & Blackberry. BB is rumored to be building an Android device in the near future.

The S6 Edge is cool in terms of how they mfg the glass at 800 degrees or what ever. But that is about as far as my interest went with that. Higher price point for little return(for me) & the sides are extremely thin when holding on to it. But it is selling better within the line up than Samsung expected. Would expect the Note 5 to follow suit this fall.

My S3 is 3 years old this month with zero issues & still on the original battery. Otherwise I may have looked elsewhere this go around. But the S6 Active just arrived a few minutes ago.

kstruckcountry · June 18, 2015

I am still on my 4s. Storage is completely full, battery life is terrible, but haven't found anything I like well enough to switch.

ember1205 · June 18, 2015

I am still on my 4s. Storage is completely full, battery life is terrible, but haven't found anything I like well enough to switch.

Why not "trade up" to a 5 or 5S? You could pick up a 5 for around $150. A 5S could likely be had for about $250.

As far as your phone goes: Do a full backup into iTunes and then do a complete wipe of the phone and restore the backup. That should reset the battery info and get you back to a more accurate representation of actual battery life. While charging the battery before it's dead doesn't really hurt the battery, it DOES "confuse" the software that keeps track of how long the battery will last at its current charge level. A factory wipe and restore will reset that software and allow the phone to learn the battery's capabilities again.