[Android] Have any of the phones released this year impressed you?

I follow phone releases closely and I have been really disappointed by everything on offer this year. Even if you take out the overheating of the Snapdragon 810 from the equation, there has yet to be a real "wow" device in my eyes.

Samsung finally got their build quality up to snuff but axed removable batteries and expandable storage in the process, HTC released the M9 here with really minor tweaks making it more of a side grade to the M8 while releasing the killer M9 Plus as an exclusive in the Asian market, LG devices always sit wrong with me, Sony doesn't really even seem to be trying anymore.

Hopefully Google has something great with the next Nexus, although if rumors of it being LG made are true, I'm not all that enthusiastic.

I may end up keeping my Nexus 6 until the Note 5 at this rate and even then, if the Note 5 doesn't have the rumored front facing speakers (you never know the utility until you actually have a phone with them) I may still keep my Nexus 6.

What do you guys think? Anything out now or on the horizon?

 

What do you have against LG? If I picked a phone right now it would be the LG G3, Motorola Droid Turbo, or the Sony Z3v. Of course thats with the limted offerings from Verizon.

Have you looked at the Saygus V2, its coming out on May, 22. It has Dual SD slots, something that isn't on very many phones.

 

I bought the LG G2x from T-Mobile... The first dual core phone... And the way that LG abandoned that phone has stuck with me ever since. My roommate got the G Flex and had nothing but problems. The G2 overheated so much that Brave Frontier added a part to their FAQ that specifically said not to charge the phone while playing the game. Plus I have big hands so tiny bezels lead to thumb strain.

That Saugus would be a downgrade for me on a few fronts. My Nexus 6 is 1440p (and it does make a usability difference) and has a snapdragon 805 instead of the 801. Nice specs otherwise but if it doesn't have band 4 LTE I can't use it anyway (T-Mobile)

 

By "this year" do you mean "calendar year 2015" or "the past twelve months"? If it's the former, the Galaxy S6's camera impressed me (though I'm otherwise unexcited about that phone), but otherwise, there haven't been a lot of new Android handsets so far this year. If it's the latter, the following have impressed me:

Xperia Z3 Compact: small form factor with high-end specs and build, a product Android has been lacking for a LONG time. And two-day battery life is just icing on the cake.

Moto G (2014): the value proposition here is AMAZING. 70% of the user experience of most flagships for 30% of the price.

Moto X (2014): Similar value: 95% of the user experience of an Apple/Samsung flagship for 70% of the price. And the attention to detail is great, from the easy-to-hold build (beats both the GS6 and the iPhone 6 here), to the high-quality-feeling buttons (and the textured power button that you can tell apart from the volume rocker in your pocket), and the awesome hardware customization options offered by Moto Maker.

 

I'm really interested in the Huawei Watch and the LG Urbane. They really look like upscale mechanical watches.

 

As long as they don't have slide-out QWERTY keyboard, or nice thin qwerty keyboard case at least - NOT interested.

 

I'm not SONY fans and Z3 is my first try for SONY, but I need to say Z3 battery life is amazing

 

As long as someone bumped the thread, I'd like to update my post: the LG G4, OnePlus Two, and Moto X (2015) have all impressed me a great deal.

Have you seen the leaks of the Blackberry Venice, their Android slider-phone allegedly launching in November 2015?



https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/616971638643494912

 

Mitlov, yes. Portait keyboard with minimalistic layout doesn't look very promising. For reference, I'm using Droid 4 with PC-style remapped landscape slide-out 5-row keyboard that has all the frequently used key combos easily available, and by far is the most comfortable phone keyboard I ever used.

 

I'm stuck on Verizon for business, the Z3v support from Verizon is pathetic. They abandoned a flagship phone 89 days after release. Hasn't been updated since January 20th, no lollipop for us. I still can't make a call and check the internet after it was promised in November of '14. Droid turbo speakers are trash. I wouldn't mind trading for an m9 or G4. I have never owned a true HTC or LG. I did however love my Nexus 4. I'd still be using it if not for being on Verizon. Interesting thing is a note 4 is more expensive then a Z3v, though the Z3v trade in through Verizon is worth like $85 more.

 

In the past, when I was out looking for a new phone, I would be really excited like a small kid...... now nothing excites me, they are just small upgrades that don't give you any real world difference or let me do anything better..more mega pixels, more RAM, more CPU speed, but I don't feel it when I use the phone......

They are just going backwards, now even the Note 5 will not have removable battery or an SD card slot......going to hang on to my Note 4 a bit longer although I really feel like I want something new but nothing interest me at the moment.....

I heard BlackBerry might come out with a phone running Android, I am really looking forward to that, I want a real keyboard badly but don't want to use the limited in apps BB OS

 

Sony's Blog still promises Lollipop for the Z3V...though I'm not sure how realistic that is. (I have a Z3V too).

 

Yea that's what is frustrating me. I'm active on XDA, someone said a rep has told them the updates will come at the end of the month. I talked to a high tier tech 3 weeks ago about the lack of an update, they were astonished that nothing was in the pipeline at that time. Worst flagship support I've seen second only to the Sgs1 on t-mobile with the launch of the Sgs1 4g. I have been trolling all of verizon's twitter profiles with memes.

 

The answer is no. I'm waiting for a newer version of the galaxy s5, i don't care who makes it. The s5 was ace with all the features: sd card, removable battery, waterproofing, etc, it just seemed to do everything right but it has a bit of a washed out design today.

S5 is still top dog in my books; something can look as good as it likes, but if it doesn;t function it fails. No phone released since the s5 does everything i want it to do.

 

So far... I'll be keeping my Nexus 6 this year. Nothing evenly remotely interesting on the pipeline now that it's all been confirmed the Note 5 is a larger S6. Front facing speakers as a loss are no go for me.