Looking for smartphone suggestions (Verizon android)

[hurley842002]

I'm late to the party & didn't have a chance to point out that ZeroLemon makes a 3000mAh battery that is the same size as the factory battery. You can get two of these as well as a rapid charger for $20 shipped from Amazon. With these and the stock battery I NEVER have to worry about finding a power source ever again. I carry a charged battery and use it as much as I want and then when it's almost dead I throw the fully charged one back in and swap the one off the charger to throw back in my pocket while the dead one charges. I've had this setup on a few phones and LOVE it. Not being beholden to power sources is an incredibly liberating feature and our last phone was a sealed battery. I swore I would never go that route and now having done it (HTC Evo LTE) I will never do it again. Ever. I love being able to swap out batteries whenever and just hammering my battery with use w/o a single care about battery life. I love HTC phones too and after two in a row (Evo LTE & Evo 4G before that) the One just wasn't in the same league as the SGS4. Sure, the One 'feels' fancier but it really isn't. I'll take a plastic housing (lighter) with better performance any day. That's the iPhone plan of attack and I've never been one to be distracted by shiny things. My first Android phone was a Motorola and I've had a couple and I refuse to own another one until they make some drastic changes in a lot of the things they do. They do a lot of little things unique from other manufacturers that make it a non-starter for me when Samsung & HTC have such good offerings. I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever you go with but that's my take even though it seems too late.

It's not completely too late (I have 14 days to return the phone for a small restocking fee), and I appreciate your input.

I guess I treat my phones like I treat cars. I'd take a car that will run a 1/4 mile a few minutes slower, that is more visually appealing to me, over a faster car that I can't visually get into.

[Jer]

It's not completely too late (I have 14 days to return the phone for a small restocking fee), and I appreciate your input.

I guess I treat my phones like I treat cars. I'd take a car that will run a 1/4 mile a few minutes slower, that is more visually appealing to me, over a faster car that I can't visually get into.

It's a car though, not a phone. Nobody will see you in your phone so who cares? Function is more important than form on a phone and I personally prefer the looks of the SGS4 over the HTC One anyway (button locations of the HTC One is god awful IMO). To me looks of a phone these days is overrated because when you get down to it they basically all look the same. So from that standpoint function is WAY more important than looks. I wouldn't want to be that much of a slave to fashion to where I'd take the One over a SGS4 just because of the look/feel of the device. To me, quad-core, changeable batteries, expandable memory, better camera, better software & all the other things the SGS4 comes with far outweighs the One. Like I said, I was also coming off of two HTC phones so I wanted to like the One better than the 4. The 4 is just a better phone no matter how you slice it. Samsung also is quicker with updates and as a result I should have JB 4.3 any day now.

[hurley842002]

It's a car though, not a phone. Nobody will see you in your phone so who cares? Function is more important than form on a phone and I personally prefer the looks of the SGS4 over the HTC One anyway (button locations of the HTC One is god awful IMO). To me looks of a phone these days is overrated because when you get down to it they basically all look the same. So from that standpoint function is WAY more important than looks. I wouldn't want to be that much of a slave to fashion to where I'd take the One over a SGS4 just because of the look/feel of the device. To me, quad-core, changeable batteries, expandable memory, better camera, better software & all the other things the SGS4 comes with far outweighs the One. Like I said, I was also coming off of two HTC phones so I wanted to like the One better than the 4. The 4 is just a better phone no matter how you slice it. Samsung also is quicker with updates and as a result I should have JB 4.3 any day now.

I can certainly understand if aesthetics in a phone isn't a priority for you, for me however, it is, and Samsung failed horribly.

I went from a quad core processor in my DNA to a dual core in my new Motorola, and with the exception of some very slight lag, I can't tell a difference. Downloads on this phone are actually faster, and I think the dual core is actually helping my battery life.

Like I said, I'm giving it a go and if I end up not wanting to keep it before 14 days is up, I can get something else.