Android Phones on AT&T

[kc78]

I'm needing to go ahead and upgrade my phone soon. I'm looking through the current slate of AT&T phones and it looks as though the Samsung Galaxy S6 is the best option available now. I'm leaning towards the Active version as it has better battery life and I like the built in protection since my 1 year old has a bad habit of throwing everything he can grab.

Is this currently the best option or is there something else I should be considering. Also, is there any major upgrades right around the corner for any of these phones? The last time that I bought a phone, they released a major upgrade a month later.

 

[NoleInNC]

The S7 comes out in January I believe.

 

[Jax-Nole]

If a removable battery and sd card are important to you, you may want to look at something other than a Samsung. I currently have the LG V10 and could not be happier.

 

[LT4PLY]

The pro of the Samsung S series is they actually make a wide variety of accessories for them like the iPhone. They stick to a limited product line and that helps. My boss has the S5 active and likes it. My wife and I have the regular S5 and are both happy. I am not sure they didn't take a step backwards on the already mentioned lack of SD card and removable battery. The S5 has both and with the quality of the camera I do take a lot of pics and use the SD storage. I don't know that I would be worried about another model coming out soon... another model will always be coming out soon. My wife has had her GS5 for a year and a half and I have had mine for a year and both are doing great.

Here's a panorama of doak at one of the games I took. click the image for the full size. http://postimg.org/image/p6fhbeuwb/

 

[fsu1jreed]

If a removable battery and sd card are important to you, you may want to look at something other than a Samsung. I currently have the LG V10 and could not be happier.

My S5 does both of those, and it's also waterproof (1 meter of water for 30 minutes according to the box) which I can verify because it spent ~5 minutes in the deep end of my pool.

 

[Jax-Nole]

He was asking about the S6 line.

 

[fsu1jreed]

He was asking about the S6 line.

I didn't know the S6 doesn't do that......but he also said this at the end.

Is this currently the best option or is there something else I should be considering.

And KC, if you use an upgrade and not the Next program they will charge you an extra 35/month. If you settle on what phone you want and it's not one of the newest I would recommend buying it off of Ebay or Amazon, rather than accruing that charge.

 

[RTM58]

I have a Nexus 6, but the 6P is the new one. Love my Nexus 6.
Nexus 6: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/12/7200705/nexus-6-review
Nexus 6p: http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/20/9571535/nexus-6p-review

 

[TexSkills]

My S5 does both of those, and it's also waterproof (1 meter of water for 30 minutes according to the box) which I can verify because it spent ~5 minutes in the deep end of my pool.

I have a Galaxy Note 4 and I've heard the Note 5 and S6 have gone the iPhone route with non-removable SD cards and batteries. That might make me look elsewhere when I upgrade which is disappointing because this is my third Samsung phone from the Galaxy line.

 

[LT4PLY]

He was asking about the S6 line.

The S6 Active keeps the IP rating but the lack of fingerprint scanner and SD card may be a killer. The S5 might be the last great one?

 

[kc78]

The fingerprint scanners are practically worthless in my opinion and I've never had need of the SD card as long as I have the 64 GB model. Granted, I could have purchased the 32 model if it had SD card support. So I went with the S6 Active.

 

[LT4PLY]

The fingerprint scanners are practically worthless .....

huh? just swipe a finger to get into the phone, no password. I access my phone likely 100 times a day, without it I used to turn off the password all together but since it's so easy with the finger swipe I use it.

 

[kc78]

The false positive percentages for those fingerprint scanners is very, very high. Its better than most security, but you're not getting the level of security you think you're getting with it. It's nice, but not a huge deal either way for me.

 

[fsu1jreed]

I have a Galaxy Note 4 and I've heard the Note 5 and S6 have gone the iPhone route with non-removable SD cards and batteries. That might make me look elsewhere when I upgrade which is disappointing because this is my third Samsung phone from the Galaxy line.

Totally concur on that, but my S5 should last for a while.

 

[CobNole]

I have the Galaxy S6 edge+ and couldn't be happier. Battery life is killer. For those days that I use more, I use a Anker PowerCore+ 10050 with fast charge. I also use the Samsung Wireless fast-charger at home and I have one in the car too built into my phone cadie. I have a Meenova MicroUSB SD Card Reader with a 64GB MicroSD card on my keychain that I can plug in whenever I need the extra storage or want to move pics over.

 

[LT4PLY]

The false positive percentages for those fingerprint scanners is very, very high. Its better than most security, but you're not getting the level of security you think you're getting with it. It's nice, but not a huge deal either way for me.

I would love some data on the false positive issue. I have not heard of one, nor experienced one, and I just researched it and everything I read is there is effectively no chance of a false positive. After a few tries it defers to password too.

I am not looking for ultra security, just looking to make it so someone picks up my phone and they can't screw with it or if it gets lost I can remote wipe before anyone gets in to it. I have an a hole brother in law for example who thinks it's funny to change the language on people's phones.

 

[jamnolfin]

Get the Note, once you get a bigger phone you will never go back.

 

[mnole03]

I have a Galaxy Note 4 and I've heard the Note 5 and S6 have gone the iPhone route with non-removable SD cards and batteries. That might make me look elsewhere when I upgrade which is disappointing because this is my third Samsung phone from the Galaxy line.

Google dropped support for removable media from Android. I don't blame Samsung for not wanting to engineer around it.

 

[Jax-Nole]

Google dropped support for removable media from Android. I don't blame Samsung for not wanting to engineer around it.

It was rumored that Google was going down this path several years ago, but that is not the case any longer. http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmonckton/2015/05/31/googles-surprise-android-u-turn/

 

[mnole03]

It was rumored that Google was going down this path several years ago, but that is not the case any longer. http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmonckton/2015/05/31/googles-surprise-android-u-turn/

I hadn't really followed the M release. It seems like a 180, but it makes sense, since they've included a way to treat removable media as native storage.