Misc please help me buy a smartphone

im gonna talk about things i like and dont like about phones and hope that together with all our pooled knowledge, we can figure out what are the best smartphones out right now and why.. and this discussion can also help out not only me but anyone else who is currently on the market for a new phone

personally, i have owned models of most major cell phone brands in my lifetime: apple, samsung, LG, and currently i am using a huawei. i have even owned a few blackberries (rip) way back when.

let me say first of all, nothing against china personally, but the huawei i am currently using is BY FAR the worst smartphone i have ever had the misfortune of coming into possession of. i dont know where to start about the things about it that piss me off. ill give one example though, i use my phone to listen to podcasts and music in my vehicle as im sure many other people do.. well wouldnt you know every now and then, not often but this happens every few days or so, my phone will automatically turn the volume right down and for me to turn it back up i have to read a message telling me about how listening to volume at a high volume can be damaging to my ears etc. this requires me pulling over since using a phone at the wheel is highly illegal and dangerous, quite the inconvenience. this drives me nuts and it's not even the thing i hate most about the phone

if i had to say one positive thing about it though i would say at the very least it is physically tough, i have dropped this thing numerous times and it is still kicking, not even any cracks on the screen.. the same cant be said about the backside however.

that said, i swear, to me it seems like EACH and EVERY phone that exists has at least some stupid quirky things about them that bugs me.. it's almost like all the phone companies all got together and agreed that each of them would make sure to include at least one quirky feature that bugs people, so it would be harder for us to distinguish a 'best'

that's just a theory of mine

now im going to try to list as many things as i can that i liked or didnt about all the various phones ive had over the years, and i invite everyone here to share their own experiences with their phones, good and bad, and together we can add things to this list and see if we cant find a phone that includes the majority or all of them

1. for starters right off the bat i remember one of the phones i had, had like, the most annoying thing when you were on yhe phone with somebody, as in a voice call, the ringer or text tone would sound off full blast in your ear . a person shouldnt have to put their phone on silent every time the want to call someone. ideally, my future phone would have some kind of option to decide how you want your phone to react while on calls etc.. im not sure how many phones offer this feature, if any. i think that most just have a basic default sound that sounds while you are on a voice call, this isnt a need but it would be nice to have some control over the feature

2. i remember when i had one of the LG'S had the option to have the a small red light blink if you had an unread text message. i always liked that feature. for example, your phone is on silent but you have it sitting on your desk or something where you can see it in your peripheral, you get a text message or a missed call and a small subtle light will start to blink so you can see you have recieved something without having to open your phone. my current phone doesnt have this feature and i cant remember if the apple did

3. something that has always bothered me about smartphones and im very curious/interested to find out if a phone exists that has this feature. i have always hated the camera apps that came with phones (i have always owned a digital camera, long before smartphones were a big thing). for one, a lot of them are missing key features any camera app should have. now, i know you can just download a third party camera app, and i have tried MANY of them, and just like how i said cell phone companies get together and make sure their phones all have annoying features, i feel like people who make the camera apps do the same thing, as far as im concerned they all suck. but the thing that bugs me the most is the shutter sound when you take a picture.. some of them allow you to turn it off, yes, but most of them dont.. and the ones that do have some other annoying quirk

4. i am extremely surprised of the amount of smartphone models that dont come with a basic notepad app. i am fairly certain the samsung i had didnt come with one, i think i had an s5. craziness

5. custom ring tones for contacts. now you would think this option comes standard on all smartphones.. i did. until i got this huawei, searched high and low for the option, it isnt there.

i have notes i have written down that are buried in my stuff somewhere where i have written down things i hated about various phones ive had. i have enough to make a bigger list than this but i dont know where those notes are and i dont have time to find them. i need a phone and im ggetting one within the next week 100%.. i will try to think of things during the next few days but regardless, i have to make a choice soon

i really hope some people participate. if no one has any input i will just try to make the best choice i can and report back

i know a lot of people speak highly of the google nexus.. then again i met a person who spoke highly of huawei and look at me now. maybe the google phone is the best, a lot of people swear by apple or samsung. personally as far as i can remember i had the best experience with LG. i really dont want to have to try them all but if it comes to that then that is what will have to happen

thank you for your time

Skimmed over a good portion of your post but still have questions:

Where are you located?
What is your budget?
How long are you hoping to keep your phone?
What are the top three features you are looking for in a phone?

I work in tech and I'm pretty knowledgable of this space so I'll help suggest some good devices but need more info to go off of

LMAO just buy an iPhone like all sheep

man i was really hoping people out their would share things that they liked and didn't like about their phones. it would be nice to try to find the ideal phone

either wayi'll tell you a story about my iphone, and you can believe it or not.. but i swear it's the truth

the first smartphone i ever bought, other than a blackberry.. was an iphone. i remember i was one of the people that held out the longest to get a smartphone. looking back, i think i wanted to wait as long as i could and let the technology improve before making my purchase. i finally bought the phone, it as an iphone. and i'll be completely honest with you, i fking loved it. i was so glad to have a nice phone, i loved everything about it. it was everything i had hoped it would be. i told myself: i will never have to buy another phone again. i will use this thing for the rest of my life, or at a minimum, 10 to 15 years. i didn't, and still don't, see any reason why i would have ever needed to upgrade. now, i am the kind of person, i am kind of a minimalist.. i try to get by using the absolute minimal possible. not with every aspect of life, i just pick and choose what technologies and activities to partake in.

now, i had this phone for AT LEAST three years.. maybe longer. and in that time, i swear to you, i did not change my habits one bit. i consistently used the same features, the same apps, never really had any games on it except for wolfenstein iirc. i just loved using it for all the basic functions it had, the camera, the notepad, texting people.. a few other random apps but i really kept it to the minimum. now, over the course of a few months, maybe the better part of a year, which was during the winter of 2015-2016.. i specifically noticed the phone taking longer to do things, at intervals, in an almost mechanical progression, and i fking said to myself, i swear apple is slowing down this phone purposely. i have changed absolutely nothing about my habits, haven't downloaded anything new.. and the phone is taking CONSIDERABLY longer just to send a basic text message, or to load a webpage. things that used to take under a second, were taking five seconds. i said to myself, apple is slowing down my phone purposely, i dont know why, maybe it's just to get on my nerves.. well wouldn't you know i threw my phone into a public garbage can, never to be seen again.

and then, i sht you not.. within months, a news story came out talking about how apple was caught, i dont know how or by who, this is going back so long i dont remember the specifics.. but basically apple was caught and admitted to purposely slowing down their older phones to coerce their customers into upgrading

that is a fact. i don't know where the article is.. maybe i will try to find it. if you search google enough for around those dates i mentioned, it would have been 2016 or 2017 at the latest, you will find the story. it's a true thing that happened

so basically since then i said to hell with apple, i will never support their company again.. they basically backstabbed their customers it's unforgivable

that said, i wouldn't be surprised if samsung and lg etc did the exact same thing

so yeah, apple is out of the question. thank you for the suggestion thoughthank you for your response

in response to your first question, i am located in canada.

as for my budget, im gonna say like $200.. been a while since i bought a phone but, it used to be you could get pretty much any phone on the market either for free or for a very nominal fee, correct? as in, i can get an $800-$1000 phone if i sign a contract.. i'm definitely not paying full price. i am willing to pay a hundo or two and sign a two year contract if my heart is set on a certain phone, know what i mean. but if, after all my research, i decide that all the top of the line phones are trash i might just buy a cheaper one outright with no contract.

i'll tell you funny story, remember when walmart used to (maybe they still do in some places, idk) sell pay as you go phones like right off the shelf. no contract nothing you could just go to walmart and buy a phone in a package for like $100-150.... well, one of the best, if not the best phone i ever had was an LG that i bought this way. this phone cost be about $150 i think around 2017-2018 and it was the lowest rung LG smartphone, and it was great, i really liked it.. a friend of mine actually went and bought the same phone and he really liked it too

how long am i hoping to keep it? as i previously mentioned, ideally, for the rest of my life. however i realize that's highly unlikely what with computers just crapping out on their own eventually and companies deliberately sabotaging them. i would hope to keep it for AT LEAST 10 years though

what features do i like? the top three? hard to say but maybe ideally, not a lot of bloatware if you know what i mean, a lot of customization, kind of minimalist if possible. another i would say is the ability to use it like a thumb drive. all phones might allow this now, im not sure, but i want to be able to load mp3s (that i have legally ripped from cd's i own of course) and videos to watch instead of having to stream. and number three i would say something very important for me is being able to have custom ring tones for each contact. i realize most phones should have this feature but wouldn't you know the phone i am currently using doesn't. crazy. honourable mentions to a phone that has a blinking light when you have an unread text message

thanks again to everyone who read my post, and i hope that some more people contribute. im going out on saturday to pick something up so god help me make the right decision

LOL u THINK IM READING THAT? KIK

Nice try AI chatbot.

god damn you guys are rough.

i wrote you a message that has heart and this is the thanks i get

tell me about your phones, did you ever have a phone you really liked and why? did you ever have a phone you really didnt like?

you guys are frigging useless.

i cannot believe not even one person could chime in with a, "oh i have a google nexus and it has all those features, i suggest to you to get the google nexus." or a, "my samsung also has that annoying feature with the camera shutter sound, so annoying, i get what you mean."

nothing

you guys are truly useless

i am about to go all in on a brand new phone and not one person could take a second out of their day and try to give me a little direction.

regardless. by this time tomorrow i will have made my decision and i will be sure to let everyone know how it goes

so i just found another super annoying thing about my phone, the huawei. fyi i ended up buying the motorola, i figured motorola is a company that only makes phones, it's their specialty, so they must have some kind of knowledge about the subject

anyway... so i usually listen to music/podcasts in my vehicle using a thumb drive. guess what i couldnt find my thumb drive so im like, no big deal ill just use the aux cord. so im drivin along listening to a podcast through my phone and someone calls me.. now, my phone is almost always on silent, especially when im driving.. on top of that i have do not disturb mode turned on. and wouldnt you know the phone starts ****ing ringing out of the speakers in my car!!

i swear to god man i hope huawei goes bankrupt and their building burns to the ground (as long as everyone gets out safe that is) i hope that their engineers end up poor and homeless