I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 because it's waterproof (useful, since my old phone took a dive into the toilet and died), is what the iPhone 6 is trying to emulate, meaning that I'd have the features that the latest iPhone wouldn't have.
Oneplus One. We were looking to move out of AT&T right about the time of the iPhone 6 announcement. Once that happened and I realized that it would never again be possible to get a small phone, I went over to T-mobile's site and looked up their price for a fully-loaded six plus. I don't remember the overall - it was a lot - but they'd sell me one on payments over two years for $59 a month. Then I got home and checked the mail and got a flier from Nissan. If I gave them a grand, they'd lease me a brand new Versa for two years for $79 a month. Granted - Nissan wanted a thousand dollars down. And granted: that's $20 a month more. But the fact that "phone payments" and "car payments" were in the same neighborhood broke something within me forever. Combine that with the value of either payment plan after two years (IE, zero) and I was pretty much done with Apple. Know what's great about a OnePlus? Since it cost like $350 all in, you don't have to nerf the shit out of it. Goodbye, Lifeproof. Goodbye, Otterbox. Hello skinny-ass Nillikin sleeve 'cuz when your phone is that goddamn big every extra bit you add to it is more bullshit. Best buddy bought the fully-loaded six plus. He keeps it in an otterbox. The assembly is bigger than a Texas Instruments graphing calculator.
Buggy, honestly. I'm recognizing the utility of Apple's walled garden, in that I have bullshit problems like "if you want to watch Youtube videos and play back visual voicemail, you have to flip the media player setting in developer options." I've yet to find a fitness tracker whose GPS doesn't reset regularly in the middle of a run and for three weeks my 3rd party keyboard (which is now OEM for cyanogen) didn't work with my 3rd party texting app. If the goddamn Nexus 6 weren't the size of a dinner plate I'd think about upgrading.
iPhone 5S. Basically, I used to work in the communication industry, and after trying multiple android devices over that period, I found the iPhone to be the perfect fit for my needs and how I use technology. Of course, I'm kind of in love with the Apple ecosystem anyway, having three different Apple devices I use. That's not to say I'm anti-android (and it's kind of ridiculous that that I have to say that for fear someone will get angry), and there were definitely android features I liked that haven't really been emulated or implemented in the iOS updates. I've just found what works best for me.
I also have an iPhone 5S. I bought it because I needed just any phone, and they gave me a great deal since it was the last generation--the thing works as it's supposed to, and the problems I do have with it I've been able to fix through jailbreaking.
Yeah, I got mine right as the 6 was getting released and it was on sale for a penny. I've also had a 4 and a 4S as well. The only problems I have at the moment are more app-related than software related, such as the app I use for reddit freezing up.
Nexus 5 (2nd hand) because I broke one too many Nexus 4s (self service screen replacement ftw). I personally see no point in having an Android device that isn't a Nexus device because they're always the most flexible option.
HTC One M8. I love it. It has been almost a year and a half now and I have no performance drops or anything. I only use it for internet, music, and general phone functions so I am not sure how it would handle me loading a bunch of games on to it. I love the IR Blaster which lets me use it as a remote for any TV. I rarely use the camera except to take pictures of things I need to remember or send to someone else. I know the camera is a big point of contention with HTC M8 and M9. The only thing I wish was that developers kept apps less buggy on android. iPhones always come first because it is a smaller set of devices wit ha large market share of users.If I ever get a map or blueprint for work I send it to my personal phone because the tools are much better with android and a much bigger screen. I also have an iPhone 5s for work. When I'm at my desk for a few days in a row the battery lasts a few days. I'm not a big fan of it, but it functions well enough as a phone. I find it harder to use when working with advanced settings, but it is great for someone who needs a phone that is simple to use. Overall, my HTC One M8 is my go to no matter what. Great battery and never has any problems. I'll stick with this until it is no longer supported or is falling too far behind.
I've got a Samsung Intensity 2, an OLD dumb-phone. Folks around me are telling me I need to upgrade to a smartphone. I know that if I did buy a smartphone, I'd be on it all the time looking up things on IMDB and Wikipedia. I'd be rude with it. I know how I sit around on my laptop all day; if I could do that when I left home, I probably would. I wouldn't be a good guy to my friends. I just have that obsessive personality.
I have the simplest and cheapest cell phone I was able to find on the current market for calls and SMS, and an apropriated Chinese smartphone for taking notes and making photos (local name: DNS S4700 or something). I make maybe one phone call a year when I'm not particularly active (one every half a year when I am) and send maybe ten messages when I'm active, so while costing ten times more (800 RUB vs 8 000 RUB), the smartphone also does ten times more things... It just so happens that 1 x 10 = 10.
I have an S5, because I'm a sucker. I went looking around one day at Best Buy, and to some personal circumstances, needed to get a new phone. I was teased in by some Samsung reps, and ended up walking out of the store with a Samsung Gear Live watch and an S5. Honestly, the S5 isn't that bad of a phone and the watch does everything I expected it to, but I just feel like I could have done better. I could have gotten a Nexus, which are pretty good phones. They also are easy to mod, so I could end up running Cyanogen on them. If I really wanted to, I could get Ubuntu on it, too. At the same time, there's a lot of phones that seem better, but the S5 hasn't been bad to me. I still feel like I could have done more research, though. I kind of miss my G2.
Oneplus One. Perfect phone for me, since I'm a tinkerer. I can do whatever I want with it, it has great specs, and it's cheap.
Moto X. Got it for Republic Wireless, and it turned out to be a great phone. The "rotate twice to bring up the camera" gesture shortcut is amazing, and has definitely gotten me some photos I would have missed otherwise. Plus Republic Wireless is cheap.
I just bought a Moto X 2014 last week. I really, really like the active display. While the rotation gesture to bring the camera is nice, I find that the pictures are more blurry than with the Google Camera. It's nice to take quick pictures, but if I have more than 3 seconds, I'll use Google Camera. I was a bit disappointed with the battery too, so I rooted it to install Greenify. I'll see how it goes.
I have a Google Nexus S it is about 4 and a half years old, rooted running CyanogenMod but I found it was having trouble and running out of memory a lot so I have been super aggressive and deleted... well almost everything. It has all the functionality I need; there's no app store or Google sync, but it is capable enough for checking emails, texting and making phone calls. I could upgrade again at some point, but don't like some of the recent happenings with Android and don't see myself making a switch to Windows phone or iPhone.
I have tried Firefox OS on my Nexus S, thought it was nice enough but the release I tried was way too slow and at that point I was still tied heavily into the Google ecosystem. I would like to try out the Ubuntu phone OS, though I prefer Fedora and have no idea if there's going to be any compatibility issues there if I ever get to swap back from my current Windows use.
Wasn't the original idea behind Ubuntu OS to be able to plug your phone in and use it as a mini-desktop? Did that ever get anywhere? I guess I would just expect the phone to be tied into Ubuntu's services (do they still have that cloud thing?) and so wouldn't be as good an experience if using other distros -- though I imagine some effort would be put into Windows and Mac. I am happy with sub-standard functionality if it fit my ethos and I was potentially able to work to improve the system, like early Android -- it felt a lot easier to get an app out there that people would use, now it seems almost impossible with so many big players in.
Very interesting, thank you! I may well look into this later in the year then, I just hope there would be support for the UK. I know that being able to take your work anywhere with you in your pocket and just sit down and connect instantly over your 4G data connection is appealing for me, I guess the gamble is would it be for the public in general?
I've had a Samsung Galaxy S5 for the past year or so. I love it. It's the perfect size, it's waterproof, it's durable, and, of course, an android device.
HTC One M7, largely for looks. I got it used, upgrading from a flip phone in March, and getting an iPhone was never a possibility. Not did I love the Galaxy's shape. The HTC One is a sharp phone, with the metal back and all, and I like the longer shape. The camera isn't a wonder, but that really wasn't.important for me. And, the battery life, even used, makes up not being able to swap batteries.
Samsung Galaxy S6. It is the best part of iPhone in physical design (metal, pretty durable, and very sleek), but the software is android. There are just things I like about the android more than I like about iOS. I had an iPhone 4 before and I ended up getting three straight defective devices within like a five to six month period. I switched to the galaxy phones, and haven't really looked back. I don't think there is something wrong with apple products I just chalk it up to superstition is all.
Samsung Galaxy S4. I've had it for about a year (I think I got it shortly before the S5 came out?) and I love it. I don't even use a case with it now as I tend to take pretty good care of my stuff and haven't had any bad drops with any of my phones--ever. I really like the size of it and the key feature for me on it is the easily removable battery, because I use it to just swap out batteries and go. I can't remember the last time I had a charger hooked up to this thing. Unfortunately, this means I won't be sticking with the galaxy line when I finally am due for an upgrade. Easy swapping of the battery is an essential feature for me, wish more phones weren't doing away with it.