Smartphone choice?

OK, come August my contract expires with my present supplier of mobile phone. I am 99% sure I will stay with this carrier as a, they have never messed with my charges, b, be their charges are very low anyway, c, they piggy back on to the main carrier (Moviestar) here in Spain so signal is rarely an issue.

Like many my phone is my like my 'filofax', apart from the usual phone and text messages, it is my alarm clock, diary, med reminder, and carries my business contacts and information about the work I do for them. During flight travel I watch video's and listen to music, I tend to update the customer/work information on a laptop WIN 7 on TB 19 and copy to the SD card in the phone so nothing about any of that is unusual.

I do this with my present Galaxy S4 and have some issues which I need to resolve with my next phone.

The first issue is I had always used MS office and MS mobile and synched between them, I had been using Dropbox (50Gb) but whenever I did any work on the phone and tried to upload to drop box the MS mobile would not allow me to access Dropbox but instead forced me to the MS cloud One drive, but if pushed in one direction I go elsewhere. Also I like to 'see' miles in the folder format that I store them, I do not want to have to split up the files/folders. I went to Polaris office but this is not much good in mobile use. So eventually went to 'Wordpress' and it works perfect except you cannot save a Wordpress file to an SD card only to the device, also of note is it 'wants' me to save it online to Wordpress online files, I have not worked this out yet but, I prefer to save to SD in case the phone goes up the wall, easy to pull out and plug to another phone job done.

Then there was the battery issue, S4 battery goes flat and I can bang in a spare, on rare occasions I have needed the spare battery I carry.

My options with my present carrier are: Galaxy S6 and Sony Xperia Aqua), I was actually thinking I could get a S5 which may be an option but need to find out? To keep a good customer (which I am) they often make deals with phones not normally shown and you can barter a little to finalise what will be a two year contract, so if you have other ideas then feel free to throw them out there.

So, Galaxy S6 has no battery access, no SD card slot (apparently), a friends Sony Xperia seemed a good choice until Google locked them out of their own phone last week WTF!!!! Turns out there is a software glitch? And again sealed battery.

So considering my S4 has been such a great phone the real issue is office style software which I need (word processing and spread sheet), battery I can get around but SD what I call 'stable storage' is very important. Oh just to throw another swerve ball in I do not 'do' 'Apple' so iphone is a non runner.

Any phones that are as fast and useful as my S4 out there?

Now boys and girls no fighting....and....GO!!

TIA

Tranquillo

 

Well list the phones that you carrier allows you to pick from and we will see which one is best, or provide a link, but finding an new model that has an removable battery and an microsd slot might not be possible.

John.

 

Hi and thanks for the reply, so removable battery is a thing of the past or is fast becoming so?

Difficult to list what they have for various reasons. Model of phones vary from one individual to another. Sounds odd but, when my S3 broke after I sat on it and I was about two months from the end of contract. I asked if they would repair it and they said no problem but, how about an upgrade? I thought this odd and asked what they had to offer. The S3 having been a great phone I looked for through the catalogue for something compatible and there was no S4 shown. Decided on a repair and a change of carrier at the end of the of the month, the girl asked me to wait a moment and made a phone call.

She then offered me an S4!! I said but you do not carry that phone despite at least one other carrier doing so? No problem they will give me a S4 'Libre'. This is Spanish for 'free' and unlocked and not tied to any carrier, went back a couple of days later and picked it up, put in the SIM, and away I went 15 mins later with a new S4 Libre. Competition here for customers contracts is quite fierce, Vodafone, Orange, Moviestar, and Yoigo (piggy backed to Moviestar) are the only real options, Vodafone I would not touch with a barge pole, their bills are astronomical and customer service sucks beyond belief. Orange expect you to sign up for a two year contract with another carrier and cancel within 6 days, then they give you a 200 euro discount as the franchise gets 'brownie' points and better deals the following year......go figure.

Moviestar are 'normally' too expensive, I do have an internet dongle with them which I use for work and it is quite frankly brilliant, they may make me an offer so they have all of my custom but, they do employ some shady business tactics so not sure about them.

So I would prefer to stay with Yoigo which is an up and coming carrier for the reasons in my first post, not only that the carriers deal 'carrots' are getting less and less as wasapp, facetime, and so Skype offer free calls, I guess I will end up with the S6, and jump the S5 despite it being a fixed battery.

Thoughts?

Tranquillo

 

Tranquillo, how about Galaxy Note, or LG G-something? G4 vs S6.

 

Thanks for that Starlight5, I read the reviews and just see the processor speeds on the LG appear to be slower but there is the SD and battery option. The Note appears to have issues with the display with reviewers preferring note 4 to the present offering, this would be a backward step in comparison with my present S4.

Bloody nightmare out there!

Thanks again

Tranquillo

 

Tranquillo, I believe even Note 3 is a major step forward S4. YMMV. Also, G Pro line may be worth a look if you're considering simple G's not high-end enough.

 

I had seen the G pro line and even got quite interested and then..........

http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-g-pro-line-kill-572866/

So still thinking, thanks for the thought though.

Tranquillo

 

Seems there will be a few phone announcements in August, and the 3rd gen Moto X might not be that far off. I'm honestly at a loss when it comes to recommending a current phone to you. You could get the Xperia Z3+ if you don't want the G4, I guess. Mildly evolutionary, but it does have a more powerful SoC than the G4 (at a price) while retaining a microSD slot and a long battery life.

http://www.gsmarena.com/specs_for_the_3rd_generation_moto_x_leak_55inch_screen_is_in-news-13263.php

As for LG's G Pro line, I tend to believe in the expression "where there's smoke, there's fire".

http://www.phonearena.com/news/LG-t...this-year-tips-CEO-is-that-you-G4-Pro_id71867

 

Well as is sod's law, I folded my jeans over the back of the chair and my G4 took a dive to the tiled floor and cracked the screen!! It all still works fine but, WTF happened about phone must survive a 1 metre fall without damage?

Anyway, still no consensus and lack of replies indicates there are no real conclusions/answers to my dilemma.

I will keep and eye out and try to make my G$ hold out until next month.

Thanks again

Tranquillo