OT: Cellphone choice?

Micoo > has no service inside most industrial plants.

Most industrial plants resemble 'faraday cages'.
A lot of metal in the construction which inhibits electromagnetic waves . . .
Poet.

Ken Roach said:

I've never been able to convince myself to shell out $600+ for a premium phone.

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I paid a lot more than that... but I keep mine for years, my last one was a Note 3 and it still looks like the day I bought it, I use Otterbox or Pelican cases

Ken said:

rural South Eastern US

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Is there any part of the south east thats not rural

S9 company issued. Very happy with it.
When I had to pay for my phones myself I would always buy a previous-generation phone. 90% as good as the last gen and 50% the price.
And then replace it every 2-3 years.

Peter Nachtwey said:

I use Republic Wireless too but it is not the best when going outside of the US.
However, as long as there is a WIFI connection you are good to go.

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You have zero service outside the US, unless you have access to WiFi.

Project Fi here - Pixel 2.

Plus I use Google Hangouts so i can send and receive text on my PC.

Nice thing about Fi is that you can get up to 10 data sims for free and they use the same data as your phone.

Kinda handy if you are looking into tinkering around - check out: Particle Electron

I'm holding onto my iPhone 6s for dear life. Years ago I was an Android guy, but when work issued me an iPhone 5s ~ 2013 I soon become a convert. My experience with Android up to that point was after about 1 year of getting a new phone a major update would finally be released, and bring my phone to a screeching halt. I messed with custom ROMs and bootloaders to get the performance back on those Androids, but boy seeing my work iPhone get constant updates and continue to function like it did day one...

My current iPhone 6s shows no signs of slowing despite the inappropriate number of times I've dropped it (thanks tech21 case! And a new battery!)

Every now and then an Android phone will catch my eye, but then vendor customizations to Android quickly kill off the idea. A Google Pixel with stock Android is the most tempting but the price disparity between the Pixel and iPhone isn't nearly as compelling.

I'd love to get away from Verizon but nothing matches the coverage when I'm up in Northern WI.

The carrier has to nothing to do with the phone......Its either android or apple......I prefer android as its the linux vsd windows idea....Best phone for me and i think any engineer/technician should have one is any samsung note......the stuff you can do with the s-pen is amazing....The amount of breakdowns i have sorted by just being able to draw on photos etc is countless........site visits for a upcoming project is a breeze with the not as you can create pdf's straight from photos, write comments on it,,,,the list goes on....working abroad you can sign documents and send as pdf....cannot function anymore without a samsung note

Paully's5.0 said:

I'm holding onto my iPhone 6s for dear life.

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Same here. Had the battery replaced two weeks ago and it's back to how it was originally.
I did try Android's before but out of the two times I was negatively surprised. The first was the Google 7"tablet made by ASUS... nice all around, no skins to slow it down but a lot of software that would be expected was missing. It had a camera and no camera software, for example (and yes, I could download apps, but they'd generally be add riddled garbage which reminded me too much of Windows).

I had the Galaxy 2 when it came out, gorgeous screen, but reliability (like not getting out of bed because it decided to turn off or go on the brink over night), Samsung software locks and Network installed software just made me give it back to my manager and use the company's card on my then iPhone 4s.

However, now I'm not too sure what the upgrade path will be as I hate the face unlock gizmo because of lack of convenience and security and going back to typing an unlock pin will feel really awkward when I can have it done at a push of a button.

I know that it's pretty common for technically-minded people to be partial to Android, but I've been using iPhones since 2012 after I ditched Blackberry. I'm not really one to care too much about messing around with OSes or that kind of stuff, so I actually like the "standard issue" feel of iOS/iPhones. I've never upgraded out of necessity, usually my carrier would contact me and inform me of an upgrade or another carrier would have a better deal on plans compared to what my current carrier at the time was offering. Currently have an iPhone XR and the battery easily lasts 2 whole days with normal use.

Paully's5.0 said:

I'm holding onto my iPhone 6s for dear life. Years ago I was an Android guy, but when work issued me an iPhone 5s ~ 2013 I soon become a convert. My experience with Android up to that point was after about 1 year of getting a new phone a major update would finally be released, and bring my phone to a screeching halt. I messed with custom ROMs and bootloaders to get the performance back on those Androids, but boy seeing my work iPhone get constant updates and continue to function like it did day one...

My current iPhone 6s shows no signs of slowing despite the inappropriate number of times I've dropped it (thanks tech21 case! And a new battery!)

Every now and then an Android phone will catch my eye, but then vendor customizations to Android quickly kill off the idea. A Google Pixel with stock Android is the most tempting but the price disparity between the Pixel and iPhone isn't nearly as compelling.

I'd love to get away from Verizon but nothing matches the coverage when I'm up in Northern WI.

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Strange as what i have seen and heard is that on iphones you get to a point that you have to upgrade the os otherwise all apps would stop functioning.... Well these days with wifi etc theres no shortage of ways to update. Just always felt that apple was doing the whole microsoft thing by controlling options........and generally just being pricks

cardosocea said:

However, now I'm not too sure what the upgrade path will be as I hate the face unlock gizmo because of lack of convenience and security and going back to typing an unlock pin will feel really awkward when I can have it done at a push of a button.

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I'm currently using an iPhone X, and I rarely have any issues with the face scanning unlock. Have there been documented security issues with it? It works at about the same frequency as the thumb unlock did on early models. Sometimes I need to slightly adjust the alignment of the camera and rescan, just like sometimes I would have to adjust my thumb and rescan. Doesn't bother me!

I've used Apple since the iPhone 3Gs. No phone will be perfect, but Apple delivers a reliable product over and over again that doesn't just stop working for stupid reasons. The amount of vetting that goes into the app development means I never have to worry about viruses from their servers (though I've spent more than enough time tinkering with jailbreaking and 3rd party apps to know how to avoid malicious ones), and the UI, camera tech, screen quality, and many other important features are, as a whole, on the leading edge of tech. Sure, sometimes one feature is surpassed by androids, but Apple does a good job of keeping up and having their own points where they lead.

Samsung makes some really nice phones, and I would almost certainly move to a galaxy if I had to choose something else. But I'm happy with Apple currently!

For business here in the states, its hard to beat Verizon's coverage but it comes at the highest cost. I'm currently using the Pixel 2 XL, had a couple of the Galaxys but the battery usage on the Pixel is eye opening how little its down after two days. And the Pixel doesn't come with Verison's bloatware. I'll consider Google Fi next time, looks pretty good.

LoganB said:

I'm currently using an iPhone X, and I rarely have any issues with the face scanning unlock. Have there been documented security issues with it? It works at about the same frequency as the thumb unlock did on early models. Sometimes I need to slightly adjust the alignment of the camera and rescan, just like sometimes I would have to adjust my thumb and rescan. Doesn't bother me!

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I love the Face ID, the only thing that I think is a downgrade compared to Touch ID is not being able to easily unlock the phone while it's laying flat on my desk.

mylespetro said:

I love the Face ID, the only thing that I think is a downgrade compared to Touch ID is not being able to easily unlock the phone while it's laying flat on my desk.

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Agreed. I don't mind typing in my pin, but I don't like the 2-3 second wait while it searches for a face before asking for a pin. Would be nice if they added a button right on the wait screen that would allow to go to the pin entry right away.

Unlocked LG Stylo-4