Eligible for a Verizon Upgrade

[insmek]

Hey there! My Verizon account is eligible for an upgrade, and I'm looking for recommendations as to what I should get and who I should get do the upgrade through. A little bit of browsing seems to suggest that Amazon Wireless offers better pricing than getting the phones directly through Verizon, but I'm not sure if there's anywhere that's cheaper still.

As far as phones go, right now I have a rooted Samsung Fascinate running the AOKP ROM with Android 4.0.4, overclocked to 1.5 Ghz. I'm looking to probably stick with Android (though I'm open to anything!) and I'm hoping for a bump in screen size, speed, and battery life--and something with Jelly Bean right off the bat, if I can get it.

Price wise, I'd like to keep it under $100 if possible. I could maybe stretch that to $150 if the deal is sweet enough (free shipping, no upgrade fees, AWESOME PHONE OF EPIC AWESOMENESS).

Thanks for any help that I can get!

EDIT:

Right now I'm split three ways: The Samsung Galaxy S III for $150, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for $30, or the Motorola RAZR MAXX for $70. There's obviously pro's and con's with each, and I just can't decide.

[glo]

You'll be hard pressed to find anything better than the S3 feature wise (aside from the Note2).

On a side note, WTF is up with Verizon's plan costs? I almost had a heart attack when I saw what it would cost for a single unlimited line. Have you looked into other carriers? I picked up my S3 for $150 with T-Mobile and I'm only dishing out $70 a month for everything.

[insmek]

You'll be hard pressed to find anything better than the S3 feature wise (aside from the Note2).

On a side note, WTF is up with Verizon's plan costs? I almost had a heart attack when I saw what it would cost for a single unlimited line. Have you looked into other carriers? I picked up my S3 for $150 with T-Mobile and I'm only dishing out $70 a month for everything.

Honestly, I'd love to go with another carrier, but one of the lines on my family plan is locked in through November 2013, and to be honest with how much I travel it's realistically only AT&T or Verizon for me, and I wouldn't be saving any money switching to AT&T.

[Deleted]

Take a look at the nokia lumia 920. Altho i think it is only AT&T in the states.

Also if you are gonna look at the reviews, please ignore the weight and camera issues. Weight is something you should feel in the store, and the camera was most likely not set to 4:3.
The camera was also a bit overhyped, it does make excelent dark shots (better than any other phone), but with light shots its on par with other phones i think.


It does have WP8, i dont know if thats an issue with you?

[insmek]

I'm totally open to WP8. It's just a matter of finding the right device for the right price.

Also: The LG Spectrum II just came out, and it seems to be pretty similar to the GSIII for a lower price. Thoughts?

[glo]

I'm totally open to WP8. It's just a matter of finding the right device for the right price.

Also: The LG Spectrum II just came out, and it seems to be pretty similar to the GSIII for a lower price. Thoughts?

Spectrum has (almost exactly) half the battery life of the S3, half the RAM (2GB vs 1GB) and comes with ICS instead of Jelly Bean. Few other differences here and there, but the three mentioned are huge.

[Deleted]

I'm totally open to WP8. It's just a matter of finding the right device for the right price.

Than i would def take a look there as well. You got the 2 lumia's, 920 is the flagship of nokia, and i think even WP8. And the 820, with the same hardware, but amoled screen, lower res, not the pureview camera. Both have the abundance of nokia apps (drive, music and some others)

And than we have HTC with the 8x and 8s. 8x is pretty much the same as the one x i think. I know less about the 8s. Samsung also will launch one, which will be pretty much be the galaxy but than with WP8.

I would def take a look at the lumia's. Altho im not sure how phones are sorted in the US (exclusive to providers and stuff like that)

[insmek]

Spectrum has (almost exactly) half the battery life of the S3, half the RAM (2GB vs 1GB) and comes with ICS instead of Jelly Bean. Few other differences here and there, but the three mentioned are huge.

ICS and 1GB of RAM don't bother me much, but half the battery life definitely gives me pause.

I've also started looking at the Droid RAZR HD in addition to the GS3. It has a slightly smaller screen, but the build quality is reported to be higher and the battery life to be better.

Argh! Too many choices. @_@

[Tampwn]

Hey there! My Verizon account is eligible for an upgrade, and I'm looking for recommendations as to what I should get and who I should get do the upgrade through. A little bit of browsing seems to suggest that Amazon Wireless offers better pricing than getting the phones directly through Verizon, but I'm not sure if there's anywhere that's cheaper still.

As far as phones go, right now I have a rooted Samsung Fascinate running the AOKP ROM with Android 4.0.4, overclocked to 1.5 Ghz. I'm looking to probably stick with Android (though I'm open to anything!) and I'm hoping for a bump in screen size, speed, and battery life--and something with Jelly Bean right off the bat, if I can get it.

Price wise, I'd like to keep it under $100 if possible. I could maybe stretch that to $150 if the deal is sweet enough (free shipping, no upgrade fees, AWESOME PHONE OF EPIC AWESOMENESS).

Thanks for any help that I can get!

EDIT:

Right now I'm split three ways: The Samsung Galaxy S III for $150, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for $30, or the Motorola RAZR MAXX for $70. There's obviously pro's and con's with each, and I just can't decide.

If you're looking to upgrade soon I'd highly recommend waiting for Black Friday. You'll find a lot of wicked deals then. I've been out of the loop on Android since I made the switch to Apple a while ago but from what I've heard the SIII seems to be the top dog right now. Sam's Club has the SIII on sale this Black Friday for $0.96. Needless to say, it's pretty much free

It seems like you're leaning towards Droids and there's nothing wrong with that. However, speaking from 3 years of nothing but headaches from Droid phones I switched to iPhone and will never ever look back. There are some things I miss from the Droids, but over all at the end of the day I decided I wanted a phone that actually worked when I needed it to. Terrible battery life, frequent glitches/freezing, laggy scrolling/screen transitions got me to switch. I'm certainly not an Apple fanboy as I did use 3 different Android phones over 3 years (each phone being the flagship model at the time) and had nothing but problems.

I got the iPhone 5 on release and it's been a wonderful experience. Phone has not frozen once. I have never used 100% of the battery in one day, regardless of how heavy my use is. Build quality is amazing. Thin, light and sexy. It is very durable (see this drop test comparing the SIII and iPhone 5)

Ultimately you should get what you like, not what others tell you you should like. Android is a great OS and an excellent alternative to iOS however, when it comes to hardware/software optimization and end user experience (not which has better specs on paper) there is no other phone on the planet I'd trade my iPhone 5 for. Good luck

[insmek]

Well, I ended up taking a chance and going with the LG Spectrum 2. I was on the fence, but the price--$69.99--and the pedigree of the Optimus LTE2 (even with the reduction in RAM) ended up convincing me. Plus, it's a little bit exciting to know that I'll be at the forefront of usage with it, given how new it is to the US market.