Dominion Strategy Forum
Miscellaneous => General Discussion => Topic started by: 2.71828..... on July 03, 2014, 09:07:29 pm
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So right now I have what I affectionately call a "dumb" phone. As in, not a smart phone. However, as I am transitioning into a new phase of my life, I find that it is as good a time as any to make the jump into the world of smart phones. I can read online reviews and go to stores and listen to the "experts" as much as I want, but they just don't know how to play Dominion*, so I am not really sure if I can trust their advice**. So I turn to you, my fellow Dominion enthusiasts. What phone should I get? Any feedback is much appreciated.
*Some of these people might know how to play Dominion
**I am sure their advice is actually very good
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I like Android. I like how customizeable it is. Also, as a bonus, you get access to Androminion. ;)
As a counterpart, I think there are quite a few official board game apps that are still unavailable for Android. Agricola is a big one.
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I have been very happy with the Galaxy S4, so I'd probably get the S5 in your situation. It's pretty great for the cost as far as Android devices go. If you want to jailbreak/modify your phone, it's probably the best option for that.
Before this, I had an HTC phone. It gave me a lot of problems, but that was at the dawn of 4G, and they may have improved since then. It would frequently reset with no warning or eat battery life for no reason.
My wife uses the LG series, which she is happy with, but beware that they don't have external sdcard capability, so if you intended to store a lot of music or something (like me) it's not the best option. If you have unlimited data, you can use cloud storage though. Another difference is that those phones have their buttons on the back instead of the bottom, which I can't personally get behind.
If you are an Apple person you'd probably prefer getting the iphone, I guess. There are also more games and apps to choose on the apple store (though Android has improved in that regard).
Specifically Dominion related, there is a great randomizer (Dominion Shuffle) that you can get for free on Android. Woohoo.
No matter what you get, just know there will be a learning curve and you may not care for the thing at first. Once you learn the ins and outs, it's hard to go back to an old school phone, though.
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I'm no expert, but I have a Galaxy s4 and am very happy with it. Your opinion towards Apple will influence your view towards the iPhone. Most of my friends who have it are happy with it, I think the tech specs put it beneath the galaxy. If you think you'll play board games on your phone, I know there are a lot more official implementations available for iOS. People I know with the Lumia are also really happy and I think that phone's generated a lot of buzz. If you like the look and feel of Windows 8, that's probably a good choice. The Note is a good phone but huge. If you plan on carrying it in your pocket, choose something else. I'm voting s5 though! Really hard to go wrong with that.
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My first and only phone was an LG G2. I spent about 12+ hours researching online and came to the conclusion that it suited me the best. Yeah, it doesn't have additional memory available, but I don't take almost any pictures or videos--and there are a ton of free online cloud storage solutions available. I have everything that I want on it and am still nowhere near to filling up the 32 GB.
The rear-buttons are odd yes; the double tap feature rocks though, and I use it all the time. And it actually is a useful feature when you want to change volume while on the phone. At least for me, it struck the perfect balance between screen size and quality and having a very powerful processor--and one of the best things, a ten hour battery life. The screen is quite large and has a very thin bezel, so it's almost like you're just holding a screen. It's not necessarily the best in every single one of it's aspects, but it was the most balanced without having one outstandingly crappy stat.
Every other android phone I looked at just had some problem that I don't think I would have been OK with, from a sub-par screen, horrible battery life, bad speakers, or a weak processor.
I also own an iPod touch 5G which I am quite happy with. Although Apple has pretty much 0 customization, it is virus-free and definitely reliable. So yeah, I vote for either an LG or the iPhone. LG really has some unique stuff to offer that it's more direct competition doesn't though.
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LG G2 or the Samsung S5 for me. I prefer the LG more because I believe the battery is better/lasts longer, but they're both solid.
I don't like lack of customization on the iPhone, but that might be because I got used to how Android phones worked and iOS phones have slightly different interfaces that I can't change at all.
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**I am sure their advice is actually very good
They'll make you discard the best phone and buy two worse ones.
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Everything about Apple is horrible.
So just go with Google's Android, still not great, but more customization options.
And you can probably jailbreak it pretty easily to remove all of the Samsung crap.
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LG G2 or the Samsung S5 for me. I prefer the LG more because I believe the battery is better/lasts longer, but they're both solid.
I don't like lack of customization on the iPhone, but that might be because I got used to how Android phones worked and iOS phones have slightly different interfaces that I can't change at all.
S5 has a long battery life too...
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
Do you have a reference for those numbers? Especially the difference in malware is astonishing.
The statistical differences in technology are non-important, since you can check exactly what are you buying for each. What happens with other android or apple phones is not important. The malware thing may be significant, though.
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The iPhone 5 is pretty good and can be gotten for not too much refurbished. Not a huge fan of the S5 but it's pretty good as well. HTC is good if you don't care about the camera.
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
Do you have a reference for those numbers? Especially the difference in malware is astonishing.
The statistical differences in technology are non-important, since you can check exactly what are you buying for each. What happens with other android or apple phones is not important. The malware thing may be significant, though.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
Starts at 43:00 or so. Really liked the quote.
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
Do you have a reference for those numbers? Especially the difference in malware is astonishing.
The statistical differences in technology are non-important, since you can check exactly what are you buying for each. What happens with other android or apple phones is not important. The malware thing may be significant, though.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
Starts at 43:00 or so. Really liked the quote.
Can't watch without downloading Quicktime, boo.
Not sure I'd trust malware statistics given at an Apple dev conference. I'm searching for other reports on Google now... and hey, I found one on Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/03/24/report-97-of-mobile-malware-is-on-android-this-is-the-easy-way-you-stay-safe/).
And it brings up a very important point -- all that malware is from third party software. If you want to stay safe, you can just stick to downloading apps strictly from the Google Play Store. Problem solved. Android's competitors don't want to be clear about that though, because it's such a nice statistic for scaring consumers.
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Whether you choose iPhone or Android should depend on what you value. Don't believe anyone who states absolutes about which is better, because they are implicitly making an assumption that something is important that may not be important to you.
Is customizability important to you? Choose Android.
Do you have some particular preferences about form factor that an iPhone doesn't satisfy (such as large screen size)? Choose Android.
Do you care about an edge in availability and quality of apps, especially games? Choose iPhone.
Are you already invested in the Apple ecosystem to some degree (Mac, iTunes, etc.)? You may prefer an iPhone.
Personally, I use an iPhone because I had an iPod Touch before that and liked it. The reason I don't consider switching to Android is that its advantages are to me either negatives (customizability) or don't-care (larger screens).
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Whether you choose iPhone or Android should depend on what you value. Don't believe anyone who states absolutes about which is better, because they are implicitly making an assumption that something is important that may not be important to you. only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Fixed that for you.
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
Do you have a reference for those numbers? Especially the difference in malware is astonishing.
The statistical differences in technology are non-important, since you can check exactly what are you buying for each. What happens with other android or apple phones is not important. The malware thing may be significant, though.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
Starts at 43:00 or so. Really liked the quote.
Can't watch without downloading Quicktime, boo.
Not sure I'd trust malware statistics given at an Apple dev conference. I'm searching for other reports on Google now... and hey, I found one on Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/03/24/report-97-of-mobile-malware-is-on-android-this-is-the-easy-way-you-stay-safe/).
And it brings up a very important point -- all that malware is from third party software. If you want to stay safe, you can just stick to downloading apps strictly from the Google Play Store. Problem solved. Android's competitors don't want to be clear about that though, because it's such a nice statistic for scaring consumers.
Unless things have changed recently, isn't third party software downloaded from the Google Play Store, just like non-third party software is? Or do you mean only download apps made by Google themselves, which obviously would be terrible in terms of what you can get. From what I understand, both the Apple App Store and the Google play store contain mostly third party software; the difference is is that Apple has an extremely rigid approval policy to get anything added to their store, so obviously it will contain less malware (and less ability to get more types of things).
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Considering that 1/3 of android phones have 4-year old technology, less than 10% of their phones have the newest technology (compared to apple's 89%), and that 99% of all malaware happens on android phones, I think that iPhone 5 is a good idea. Runner-up is the Nokia.
Do you have a reference for those numbers? Especially the difference in malware is astonishing.
The statistical differences in technology are non-important, since you can check exactly what are you buying for each. What happens with other android or apple phones is not important. The malware thing may be significant, though.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
Starts at 43:00 or so. Really liked the quote.
Can't watch without downloading Quicktime, boo.
Not sure I'd trust malware statistics given at an Apple dev conference. I'm searching for other reports on Google now... and hey, I found one on Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/03/24/report-97-of-mobile-malware-is-on-android-this-is-the-easy-way-you-stay-safe/).
And it brings up a very important point -- all that malware is from third party software. If you want to stay safe, you can just stick to downloading apps strictly from the Google Play Store. Problem solved. Android's competitors don't want to be clear about that though, because it's such a nice statistic for scaring consumers.
Unless things have changed recently, isn't third party software downloaded from the Google Play Store, just like non-third party software is? Or do you mean only download apps made by Google themselves, which obviously would be terrible in terms of what you can get. From what I understand, both the Apple App Store and the Google play store contain mostly third party software; the difference is is that Apple has an extremely rigid approval policy to get anything added to their store, so obviously it will contain less malware (and less ability to get more types of things).
Sorry, misunderstanding here. When I say "third party", I mean apps downloaded from sources other than the Play Store. Even though Apple is more stringent, Google still has plenty of security precautions and virtually everything in the Play Store is just as safe as anything in Apple's App Store. However, you can also download and install apps from other sources. Amazon has its own Android app store and Samsung has a store too. There are less reputable sources too, and that's where all the malware comes from. Note that you can't install any of this stuff unless you specifically uncheck an option in one of the phone security settings menus and it specifically warns you that doing so is dangerous.