I read websites like The Verge, Anandtech, Droid Life, and XDA-Developers religiously. Most of my YouTube subscriptions are centered around mobile computing/technology in general. Not a day goes by where I don't check Verizon and NewEgg to see what subsidized deals have changed or popped up. Does anyone else share this obsession? What is your current phone? Do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Favorite mobile operating system? Do you think Windows Phone 8 sucks? Thoughts on Android fragmentation? Why are iOS notifications so atrocious? This is the thread to discuss such things.

I have a dinosaur phone.

[img]http://www.cellphonesignal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/samsung-t369.jpg[/img]

I envy you. You're living a simpler life.. a better life.

And a cheaper one, too.

I have a Nexus 4 that I bought when it was released last November. Bought the phone outright so that I wouldn't owe anything on it and since it's unlocked I can use it with any carrier anywhere in the world.

I hate buying phones on contract. I just don't like knowing I have to pay for it for the next 2 years or so.

I always buy them used and they have to be GSM. Then I can use any carrier that uses sim cards that I want!

Plus prepaid plans are the best.

no contracts!
Gotta love that idea of being free!

I have a Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8, but that's because I work for Microsoft and they gave all their employees free phones last year. ¯\(°_o)/¯

To be honest, though, I think it's pretty solid. For the most part, it's well-built, responsive, and stable. Yes, the lack of app selection can be a bummer at times (the lack of a decent Gchat app still bugs me), but I'm not a huge app consumer in general, so it's not too much of a drawback.

My main gripe is that sometimes random apps will run rampant in the background and drain my battery, much to my dismay when I find that my phone has lost half its charge in an hour. I haven't used iOS, but I know that on Android, you can manually kill running apps yourself, which I found [i]really nice[/i].

Oh, and the mobile version of IE isn't super polished and will sometimes let me down. And the Lumia 920 is prone to some weird hardware glitches. But all in all, a pretty darn good smartphone if you ask me.

[quote="MrkJulio"]I hate buying phones on contract. I just don't like knowing I have to pay for it for the next 2 years or so.[/quote]
T-Mobile has some nice off-contract smartphones, in both Android and Windows Phone varieties.

Windows Phone was a huge dissapointment, I had an HTC device and it made me miserable. No 3rd party support what-so-ever and the whole thing felt restricted.

It's why I bought an unlocked phone and dropped my contract with Verizon.

[quote="Spike"]It's why I bought an unlocked phone and dropped my contract with Verizon.[/quote]
Lol, I dropped my contract with Verizon because it was costing me ~$150/month, for two basic-ass phones. Such a rip-off.

I have a $10 Tracfone. It's a tiny brick straight out of the late 90's. And it suits my needs just fine. I throw a couple bucks on it whenever my minutes are running low and can text/call on it. That's about it. There's a browser function, but it's hilariously bad. Smartphones are hella cool and all, but I can't afford one. And for that matter, I never felt like a smartphone added all that much value to my life. To each their own, of course.

I have a 50$/m unlimited data off-contract plan with T-Mobile now, I can use any device I want with it and drop the plan anytime. Much happier now.

[quote="Spike"]Windows Phone was a huge dissapointment, I had an HTC device and it made me miserable. No 3rd party support what-so-ever and the whole thing felt restricted.

It's why I bought an unlocked phone and dropped my contract with Verizon.[/quote]
Lol if you're referring to the 8X, most of my friends who got them have been severely disappointed by them too. Apparently that phone just straight-up sucks.

I just got a galaxy S6 cause fuck apple.

Seriously, iPhones and their shit-terrible iOS can burn in hell. Android phones are much better.

I managed to swipe an LG G4 when it was brand new, so I picked up a free 32gb sd card and an extra battery w/ external battery charger. It's the shit.


It's super fast, can have multiple applications running, has a badass camera, and its image quality is super crisp. It also gets crazy acoustics when I lay the phone on a flat surface, so its built-in speakers are pretty legit too. I would definitely recommend it to others.

I got an iPhone 6S last fall, I love it. I intend to use it as long as I can since I think updates will be pretty incremental for the next few years.

I'm actually an iOS developer now. Really nice platform for programming (at least in my experience.)

The Android OS is nice and I like the Nexus devices but I've found the majority of Android phones are junk and the main benefits of Android are that it allows you to do lots of stuff I'm not interested in doing in the first place.