Monday, October 17, 2016

Replacement Smartphone

I love my Nexus 4. But like Hank the cat, it has a finite life.

It's done well for about six years. Hank lasted 14. Good work both.

But the Nexus won't hold a charge and times (and smartphones) have changed.

AT&T said I had an upgrade available.

The upgrade is to pay for a ~$600 phone at $20 per month for 30 months, or words to that effect, at zero interest.

Nice, but, hmmm.

20x30 = 600

So where's the beef? I guess in stretching it out.

OK, but you also have to sign a contract for 30 months, during which the phone is locked to AT&T.

May work for some, but I move around a lot, so it doesn't work for me.

-----

OK, back  to the drawing board: Find Another Phone.

Well, thank you very much:
     http://newatlas.com/smartphone-comparison-2016/43277/

Outstandingly comprehensive review of all the current versions and the many alphabet soup options (OIS, AMOLED, etc. (and I'm an engineer...)).

Good, indeed excellent, work, Will Shanklin, thank you.

He only lacks an easy comparison chart that I constructed today. My choice is the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

YMMV:


Parameter LG Nexus 4 HTC 10 Samsung Galaxy S7 Samsung Galaxy S7 edge LG G5 Huawei/ Google Nexus 6P
H mm 140 146 142 151 149 159
W mm 72 72 70 73 74 78
D mm 10 9 7.9 7.7 7.7 7.3
Wt g
161 152 157 159 178
Build Aluminium Aluminium Glass Aluminium Glass Aluminium Aluminium Aluminium
Black x
x x
x
Silver
x x x x
Gray
x

x x
Display in 4 5.2 5.1 5.5 5.3 5.7
Resolution
2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440
ppi
564 577 534 401 518
Display type
IPS AMOLED AMOLED IPS AMOLED
Pressure sensitive
No No No No No
Always on
No Optional Optional Optional No
mAh
3000 3000 3600 2800 3450
Fast charging
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Wireless charging No No Yes Yes No No
Removable battery No No No No Yes No
Camera megapixels
12 12 12 16 12
Aperture (rear) f/
1.8 1.7 1.7 1.8 2
OIS
Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Processor
Snapdragon 820 Snapdragon 820 Snapdragon 820 Snapdragon 820 Snapdragon 810
RAM
4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB 3GB
Storage GB
32, 64 32, 64, 128 32, 64, 128 32 32, 64, 128
MicroSD
Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Fingerprint sensor
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Water resistance
IP53 IP68 IP68 Yes No
Price
$650.00 $670.00 $790.00 $630.00 $500.00

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