The Samsung Galaxy s5
is, so far, a nice phone. We’ll see how long that opinion lasts.
Monday 23 Jun 2014
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- Beta tester for Rule 34
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I was thinking of that for my last phone, but it would have been $100 on my contract and the Droid Maxx was free, comparable specs, and I’m cheap.
I just passed off a Droid maxx, it was a good phone and worked fine but the charging port was starting to get flaky
Yep, we got the Droid Maxx, too, about a week ago. Like it so far.
My experience with the mini-USB charging ports is mixed. The one on my Kindle Fire wore out within a few months, to the point where it got very picky about the cable you used to charge it. (Notably, the one that came with it was the first to fail to charge it. Charged my phone no problem, but would NOT charge the Kindle.)
On the other hand, I still have a Kindle 2 whose charging port works fine.
I suspect it is a function of how many times you drop the unit with the charger plugged in, multiplied by the dead weight of the unit :) That’s the best explanation I’ve been able to come up with, anyway.
BTW, I hated the new Apple Lightning connector until I got used to it and realized how superior it was to a mini-USB. Apple really stole a march on Amazon with that. Maybe when it goes out of patent, Amazon will start using Lightning in newer Kindles.
That’s one thing I like about my ‘Regular” kindle; it needs charging like maybe four times a year.
Take it from someone who sees them brought in for service EVERY DAY:
1) be VERY careful with the charge port. It’s like glass.
2) In fact the entire PHONE is like glass. The back cover is eggshell-thin and the rest of it is equally fragile.
3) Samsung devices are VERY picky about charging current. If your phone won’t charge, chances are it’s the charger, because I think Samsung pays about $0.10 apiece for them.
4) If you ever have to get a refurbished phone as a replacement, Abandon All Hope etc. Their refurbed phones are frequently not refurbed all that well.
5) Keep everything backed up to Google or Dropbox or SD or SOMETHING.
6) I would not buy a Samsung phone with my own money. If it were given to me, I’d use it happily.
Speaking as someone who is heavily involved with warranty service on cell phones, I’d add that I rarely see Motorola or HTC phones brought in for warranty issues. I see Samsung phones all the time. Not sure how much is statistical sample size (since the Samsung phones are VERY popular) and how much is overall reliability of the hardware, but I do not see iPhones as much as I see Samsung phones. (iPhones are #2 after Samsung, though.)
But WTF, since I expect this is a work phone, none of that is really your problem. Heh.
Get the nifty hard case with the kickstand. It’s about $65 of the best dollars you’ll spend on an accessory, ever.
Did you know the S5 records video in 4K? Yep. Time to replace all your 1080p TV’s with something to show that off.
If you’re a Warhammer 40,000 fan, there’s a fun little blood and guts side scroller called Warhammer 40,000: Carnage that should tickle your fancy. I’m digging it.
Perfectly Clear is $2.99 in the Play Store, $199.99 as a Photoshop plugin. Get an EyeFi card for your camera, send your photos to your phone, use your phone to put your photos through Perfectly Clear, then set the EyeFi app to upload all photos to their servers which can be set to download them immediately to your home computer. I love a mobile workflow! Can’t remember the last time I used a card reader.
I have an Otterbox, because I’m apparently Butters. I guess I’ll just have to treat this one as if it were a Faberge egg. So far the interface is OK. Seems a bit slow, but I’m asking something the size of a pinochle deck to do what would have required a supercomputer just twenty years ago.