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[Q] Developers Next Phone (Android)... HTC, Samsung, Motorola, other?

Hello All. I am just wondering about how developers feel about the bootlock from Motorola versus the lack of support from Samsung, and the battery woes of HTC. What kind of phone are you guys planning on getting?
My personal view seems that Samsung makes a pretty good phone, and who cares if they don't support it because DEVs make better roms anyway. What do you all think? What is the phone of choice?

I'm curious about this as well. I'm looking at all the next gen stuff and wondering which tablets and phones will end up being supported by devs and most of all CM. I'd like to get an xoom or a galaxy tab 10", but if all the devs are planning on buying the HTC flyer I'd go that way just to ensure I have the the dev's device of choice. I guess the best bet is to wait for everything to be released and see what happens?

Bump ........

Well I'm no dev, but I'm planning on sticking with Samsung more than likely. You're totally right- even though Samsung doesn't support it, devs do (better than Samsung ever could), and the hardware is better than anything out there.
Anyways, why do we all root and use custom ROMs? Because we're dissatisfied with stock software. So company support doesn't matter much to me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

You asked about phones. IMO, tablets are a different topic entirely (different use cases, different pocket! ), so all I'll say is that when I get a tablet, I'll just get the best one for the best price I can afford
As for my next phone: I'm kinda bummed. I'm VERY happy with my Desire HD, but NFC has caught my attention, so my next phone will be:
-slightly smaller than the DHD
-have NFC
-have the best screen (outdoor visibility) I can find
-last a full day with heavy usage (my DHD fits the bill after using JuiceDefender and SetCPU)
As for who makes it: I don't care, as long as it's rootable (and everything seems to get rooted ). But my last couple of phones have been HTC, as they seem to jibe with my upgrade curve

wow... Guess Devs aren't reading my lowly post. haha

[Q] Noob question - NS right for me?

I have about $500 to buy a new unlocked phone and I'm looking at the Nexus S. Until recently I'd just choose the cheapest phone the phone plan offered, so I'm really overwhelmed with this choice. Any advice is appreciated!
I need:
A fast phone (I HATE waiting on apps to open, waiting for screens to change, etc.)
A camera of some kind
Android OS
Ability to root and (probably) install Cyanogen
Good battery life
I don't need:
Music player
Super wonderful camera
HD whatever (I don't even totally get what that whole deal is lol)
I'd also like fast internet... but I have a 3g phone now and rarely even see it say 3g in the data icon. It doesn't seem to make a difference anyway because it takes a million years to load a web site no matter what. I've had it in two different states with supposed 3g coverage so I know it's available. In short, 4g would be nice but it's not a dealbreaker.
So... should I take the plunge on the Nexus S? Or look at another phone or wait for a new release? I've been looking at all kinds of phones for a couple days and I'm just confused. Thanks!

why not wait until Galaxy S II comes out in Aug/Sept

Your first 4 needs are pretty much standard in any high-end Android phone these days. Battery life is subjective on how you use the phone so it's a bit hard to narrow it down for you in that regard as well.
If you gave a more specific criteria, then maybe we could help you further but so far the Nexus S does fit the bill for what you need (but so do many other phones).

As usual, as soon as I post I find the answer... Nexus Prime coming out later this year. 4g and dual-core processor so it sounds like what I want now basically. I guess I'll have to suffer my chipped up old mytouch 3g snail for a little longer.
Thanks!

Hello,
When I consider your expectations, I can say that "yes Nexus S is right for you"
Because I have Nexus S since 10 days, i can not explain taste of pure Android
so fast, stability and reliable.
Absolutely when the nexus series is released, i will buy it

The Nexus S is a great phone for a variety of reasons. As someone who started as a complete novice and has since been bitten by the Android bug pretty hard, I'll try to give you some pros and cons.
The big "con," at least on first examination, is the hardware. Yeah, there are more powerful phones out there; but don't let specs fool you. I went from a Galaxy S to the Atrix because I was lured in by the dual core processor, gb of RAM, etc. Specs don't tell the whole story. The Nexus S is smoother, faster, and more stable than the Atrix, by FAR. I figured I could solve any problems with the Atrix by running CM7 as I had on my Galaxy S...but ROMs are in short supply for the Atrix. The Nexus S, on the other hand, is pretty much perfect straight out of the box (well, once you set it up to your liking).
The elephant in the room when it comes to choosing a new phone these days is Ice Cream Sandwich. No matter what, when ICS comes out, it's going to take time to make it onto most devices, even through unofficial channels. The Nexus S, on the other hand, will get an official update asap. As someone who also uses Honeycomb (3.2), I can tell you the ICS update is probably going to be fantastic.
So, you can get a phone with superior hardware and then jump through hoops to make it smooth, stable, and fast, or you can get a Nexus S. You'll have a great phone as soon as you power it on, and you'll have ICS as soon as it's available.
I've had a Galaxy S, two Atrix 4Gs, a Nook Color with Gingerbread, a Xoom with 3.0/3.1/3.2, and a Nexus S 4G- I can honestly tell you that nothing is better than pure Google. You will have official updates as soon as they're available, and you'll have those updates incorporated into custom ROMs sooner as a result. Everyone else will be jumping through hoops and dealing with buggy ROMs to get the same features.

I been thinking about picking up a Nexus S 4G but the only thing that's stopping me is fear of it not being dual core. not sure how smooth Icecream sandwich would be on it since it's not a dual core phone and the last thing on my mind would the next Nexus phone coming out... the thing is that there's been a lot of speculation that it's going to come out with a 4.3 inch screen which i don't really like in phones.... I like phones that can actually fit in skinny jeans -.-

This phone is still being sold?

Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)

a cheaper alternative maybe? or its just that good..

That's exactly what manufacturers wants to hear from consumers. Why buy phones that have lasting dollar values and gets frequent software updates when you can buy a new expensive one every year that doesn't have great built quality and with zero to almost no software update?
Android can use a bit cleaning up on the performance side, even the Galaxy Note stock rom have hiccups because of the bloatness, with quadcore phones they'll have more excuss to bloat and put animations in. Windows Phone 7 seems to do fine with single core. It's not like my Galaxy S is struggling with any of the new games at 800x480 resolution.

Well we already know Samsung said "Nope, ain't gonna happen" for ICS on the Captivate even in spite of builds being made available by the talented folk here at XDA and at other places online. The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based, and I get higher benchmarks with this ROM than the stock KK4 AT&T Gingerbread 2.3.5 ROM with:
- Quadrant
- Antutu
- Vellamo (with Vellamo I actually get slightly higher scores than a Galaxy Nexus, unbelievable)
and several others I've tried recently. So much for being "inadequate" or an underpowered device...
So, Samsung, stop whining and making excuses and just give us some ICS source so people can make a pure ROM I suppose.
Doc's v9 is nice since it's currently a beta and completely unthemed, but a lot of stuff won't install properly on it from Play (although I can install them from the APKs if I remember to manually save them in between ROM swaps).
It's a great phone, it has a beautiful design overall (one of my all time favorites, with the HD2 still being the king of all smartphones to me), USB and headphone connections on the top - I hate it when they're on the sides or bottom, and the main draw being the Super AMOLED display.
People still buy 'em, so Samsung keeps making 'em and AT&T keeps selling 'em.
Works for me.

Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade.. and the hardware itself is getting old(while still running ICS thanks to our great community, it raises the question how much farther will the phone be able to be updated..)
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The R&D and tooling have long been paid for and there are still people buying. It's practically free money for them. The longer they're made, the cheaper they can get. The cheaper they can get, the more they're sold.
I sought this phone out actively because I liked my Epic and knew how to root & fix it easily. I didn't want a contract and for $250 brand new vs $600 for a Note it was a no-brainer.

Snow_fox said:
Anyone have any idea why they are still producing this phone? It just seems strange they would still be making new ones when most early adopts are already up for an upgrade..
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Click to collapse
Simple, it sells. And with it running 2.3.5, it's very much up to date OS wise. It's not ICS, but at this point what is?
The early adopters are a rather small crowd of people that seems large to us because they are the tech obsesses folks that make xda what it is. They count for next to nothing compared to the "average user."
This phone is exactly what Samsung aimed for it to be, a Flagship. It was way a head of the curve when it first came out, and is still a great phone. It's been muddied by the early releases but, the fact that Samsung still won out (and is the top selling android manufacturer) means it really was an excellent device (and family of devices).
It's time is almost up though, because ICS really is beyond its abilities.
br0adband said:
The excuse that "the hardware isn't capable of running ICS adequately" is always a crock because I'm running Doc's Master v8 right now, ICS 4.0.3 based
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But it can't. We don't even have half the features, almost everything new to ICS has been stripped out because we don't have the hardware for it. Sure, the core OS can be made to run on our phone, but even at that we can't run it properly. The things your comparing against are to that of 2.2, ICS is not some dinky internal tweaks. It's a whole new OS, it's 4.0 not 2.4. Now I'll admit that most of the new parts to ICS are little more then shiny buttons that don't serve us much good. But it's rather easy to dismiss things you've never been able to do before. Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.

DaNaRkI said:
Once you get your hands on a phone actually built for ICS, that is then made future-proof like the ours was, you'll look back at the cappy and laugh at it.
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Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better. Then the Galaxy Note came out and I can't wait to see what ICS can really do on that device, but since I can't actually afford one I guess that won't matter anyway.
Found this Captivate on craigslist for $60 and it's been fantastic since the moment I bought it. I swear the SGS feels more responsive and stable running a "hack" ROM of the same OS than the Nexus did/does. Yes it could just be some placebo effect, I suppose. A benchmark using Vellamo puts this SGS running an ICS ROM (at 1.2 GHz) outpacing the Nexus, go figure - a single core device running an unofficial hack of an OS besting the dual core flagship device for that very OS... ain't it cool?
There may be some aspects of ICS that the SGS can't do (NFC, etc) but they just so happen to be features I don't give a damn about, either so... it all works out in the end.

phone is sold
as long as ppl buy it.
u can get iPhone3gs u know - @ great price.

br0adband said:
Had a Galaxy Nexus - the flagship Android 4.0 device - and couldn't stand it so I returned it and decided to wait on something better.
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The Galaxy Nexus is not a flagship, just like the Nexus S was not. It's a debut phone and like the other Nexus phones, a developers phone. It's mean to showcase the abilities of ICS, not push the limits of a phone. Our phone came out before the Nexus S, yet that phone has a lot of the exact same internals. Why? ours was made future-proofed, nothing better was needed for GB. The Galaxy Nexus was also not top of the line at it's release, just compare it to an SGS2. Future proof would have meant that LTE was designed into the phone at start, not added later.
But you do bring up a very good point that I already admitted to, most of the new abilities are rather unnecessary for a phone. But I don't doubt that once a good ICS phone comes out we'll find ways to work them into our daily life. Just like we have for all the unnecessary things that the Cappy can do now.

The Captivate is a pretty solid phone still. I still have mine kicking around that I use now for playing music since my Galaxy Nexus doesnt have external memory (and apps are getting bigger and bigger in size so I need all the space I can get) so this phone does quite well for that.
I think I would still be using this phone if it had a bigger screen (I got big hands) and if Samsung was continuing to update this.

i use my spare captivate as a skype phone (between rom tests).
and where is the phone still being sold?

Scream @ HTC on their FB page for an update!

This was a good idea (however fruitless it may turn out to be) that I stole from the Galaxy 7.7 forum.
Go to https://www.facebook.com/htcusa and simply post this:
Dear HTC,
Update the MyTouch 4G Slide to Android 4.0+!!!
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Honestly I don't think anyone would care whether it was ICS or Jelly Bean at this point, but the phone desperately needs an update to the stock ROM. Would be nice if we could get at least ICS with Sense 4!

Not gonna work
Sent from my myTouch 4G Slide using xda premium

way too late at this point

There might (just might) be an update coming from HTC at some point. One of the gov't agencies (can't remember if it was FTC or FCC) ruled against HTC last month in a major case. The result is that HTC will have to update a LOT of older phones in order to comply with the ruling. There were rumors that HTC had been working on an ICS update for our phone but ceased work due to budget issues. So, to comply with the gov't ruling, they might resume work on what they've done and release the update. Or, they could just release some lame-ass patch just to comply. But, regardless, there will probably be some sort of update coming from HTC/T-Mobile for this phone in the coming months.
EDIT: It was the FTC, here is the ruling: http://ftc.gov/opa/2013/02/htc.shtm

WangChung81 said:
This was a good idea (however fruitless it may turn out to be) that I stole from the Galaxy 7.7 forum.
Go to https://www.facebook.com/htcusa and simply post this:
Honestly I don't think anyone would care whether it was ICS or Jelly Bean at this point, but the phone desperately needs an update to the stock ROM. Would be nice if we could get at least ICS with Sense 4!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done; and answer.....from HTC USA
HTC USA Sorry, .... The MyTouch 4g Slide will not be upgraded to ICS.
maybe more post on their side will change something...((
P.S I'm very fu. angry because there is nothing good / new with slide keyb, and, despite the fact that this equipment has a good performance, they do not want to update it, but it does not give anything with slide. ahhhh!!!!!

HTC deserve all the spam for not updating this device. Its all their fault because they didn't market it as a high end device which it is. And also failed to release an international version. The DS is a great device and still deserves more from HTC

We ALL understand your frustrations. But I'm afraid this flagship has already sailed. This is really a Sensation with a slideout KB and look what they've done for it. But really the only thing that big companies like HTC pay any attention to is marketshare. You know....their own bottom line.
Do what you will but when the time comes, I'm taking my business elsewhere. When they finally figure out that people are sick of being taken in on a worthy $500 phone by sending it out with a big hole in the hull & they all know it's sinking they MAY rethink their business model. But until that happens I'd love to see them have to name the next "biggie" they put out the Titanic.
Maybe they will see then that THEY weren't sunk by an iceberg but by a little ole Ice Cream Sandwich. KWIM?

WeekendsR2Short said:
We ALL understand your frustrations. But I'm afraid this flagship has already sailed. This is really a Sensation with a slideout KB and look what they've done for it. But really the only thing that big companies like HTC pay any attention to is marketshare. You know....their own bottom line.
Do what you will but when the time comes, I'm taking my business elsewhere. When they finally figure out that people are sick of being taken in on a worthy $500 phone by sending it out with a big hole in the hull & they all know it's sinking they MAY rethink their business model. But until that happens I'd love to see them have to name the next "biggie" they put out the Titanic.
Maybe they will see then that THEY weren't sunk by an iceberg but by a little ole Ice Cream Sandwich. KWIM?
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I'm definitely NOT buying HTC anymore. They suckered me in twice, on this phone and a Flyer tablet. Never again. And I think a lot of people feel the same way, HTC is sinking, their sales are in the toilet, nobody is buying their stuff.

!!11111
Fuzi0719 said:
I'm definitely NOT buying HTC anymore. They suckered me in twice, on this phone and a Flyer tablet. Never again. And I think a lot of people feel the same way, HTC is sinking, their sales are in the toilet, nobody is buying their stuff.
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I'm definitely in agreement here, and it seems that a lot of us share the same feelings ever since HTC and Tmo decided to pretend our phone never happened. I only found out about the phone because it was an insurance replacement for my g2, which apparently wasn't available at all for replacement (refurb or not). I hadn't heard anything about the MT4GS, and the phone had released about a week prior to my swap, which goes to show you how Tmo dropped the ball on marketing. I will say that it was a marked improvement over the g2 and that i've enjoyed my time with it for the most part. However, even bone stock I would get random soft reboots and other quirks that generally went away once I rooted and rom'd.
It wound up being my third HTC phone in a row, and probably my last for some time because of the way we got treated on this device. Not to mention their current lineup (minus DNA) is pretty meh. A friend has a One X that I've had some time on, which is a pretty cool phone mind you, but not that impressive. I guess I'm going to take business to Samsung for the next one, as they irk me the least out of the android OEMs these days. I'd jump on an N4, but the whole cloud thing doesn't go over too well when you don't have consistent 4g or wifi all the time. Unfortunately, New England's geography wreaks havoc on signal in a lot of places and reliance on cloud storage just isn't ideal. Locally stored files ftw.
At the time, the official excuse for our device not getting updated was something about user experience and not working out to expectations, but as we all know that is a load of bull, since the devs here have pulled out the stops in keeping the device up to date. Granted not everything works 100% on these roms, without any source we're doing pretty darn good in this corner and there are no complaints from me about their hard work. Members of this community (and beyond) have attempted to get HTC to budge to no avail... about a year ago. There's no hope at this point of any official anything. And that sucks.
As an aside, has anyone else noticed how visually similar our mysense and sense 4 are? I definitely remember seeing the sense 4 launcher when it first dropped on a few phones and thinking that it looked a lot like our stock one.
I tried not to wall of text but I can't help it. Sorry guys and gals.

I've been looking at the Sony phones. For many years, I never considered anything Sony (after their rootkit fiasco), but that was a long time ago and I do believe their corporate policies are not as draconian. For their Android phones, they're putting out some really nice hardware and they are UPDATING them regularly. Even some of their older stuff is getting updates to JB. And their build quality is markedly better than Samsung. The Nexus phones are probably my primary interest because I'm just tired of hoping for updates. But, I'll probably wait until the next Nexus as I'm just not blown over by the Nexus 4.

Fuzi0719 said:
I've been looking at the Sony phones. For many years, I never considered anything Sony (after their rootkit fiasco), but that was a long time ago and I do believe their corporate policies are not as draconian. For their Android phones, they're putting out some really nice hardware and they are UPDATING them regularly. Even some of their older stuff is getting updates to JB. And their build quality is markedly better than Samsung. The Nexus phones are probably my primary interest because I'm just tired of hoping for updates. But, I'll probably wait until the next Nexus as I'm just not blown over by the Nexus 4.
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Click to collapse
With only chatter about what the next Nexus "might" be I'll stick with my Nexus 4. There is not.... Let me say that again while I still can...there is not a faster device out there. Yeah of course some have huge screens and huge 6k mah batteries but they still can't keep up.
I don't keep much on my phone so I rock the 8GB with zero issues.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Fuzi0719 said:
I've been looking at the Sony phones. For many years, I never considered anything Sony (after their rootkit fiasco), but that was a long time ago and I do believe their corporate policies are not as draconian. For their Android phones, they're putting out some really nice hardware and they are UPDATING them regularly. Even some of their older stuff is getting updates to JB. And their build quality is markedly better than Samsung. The Nexus phones are probably my primary interest because I'm just tired of hoping for updates. But, I'll probably wait until the next Nexus as I'm just not blown over by the Nexus 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at Sony phones too. Pretty sure I'm going to get my gf and I the Z/ZL (she's a klutz, so she needs the waterproofing :silly
If the leaks of the SG4 are real, it's just a huge honkin phone/mini Note 3. I don't WANT a giant screen held to my face, and when I want to watch a movie or do some power browsing I have a TABLET for that.

[Q] Some basics I need covered :)

Hi,
So I'm new to Android, and I've only had a Nexus 7 for a week (I sold it) which I rooted and had some custom roms for.
I wanted the Xperia Z, but it's shape is too square and thus bulky. I like that this Razr HD is a bit water resistant, has excellent battery, the keflav back, and is a less cumbersome size.
But- i'm concerned as this device isn't one of the more popular. Does this mean i will have to wait much longer for upgrades even if rooted? And less support in future? could some apps not run/be designed for this device?
Basically- Im someone who keeps their phone for ages. Im still using a jailbroken 3GS happily. As much as i dont like apple- its good that i can always run the latest OS...
Just wanted thoughts on all this. Cheers

ycon said:
Hi,
So I'm new to Android, and I've only had a Nexus 7 for a week (I sold it) which I rooted and had some custom roms for.
I wanted the Xperia Z, but it's shape is too square and thus bulky. I like that this Razr HD is a bit water resistant, has excellent battery, the keflav back, and is a less cumbersome size.
But- i'm concerned as this device isn't one of the more popular. Does this mean i will have to wait much longer for upgrades even if rooted? And less support in future? could some apps not run/be designed for this device?
Basically- Im someone who keeps their phone for ages. Im still using a jailbroken 3GS happily. As much as i dont like apple- its good that i can always run the latest OS...
Just wanted thoughts on all this. Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Official upgrades for android devices are at the whim of the manufacturer and the carrier unless we're talking about a nexus device which gets updates directly from Google. On Verizon updates typically take longer to come out due to what they say is extensive testing, but recently they've been better about it imo. Unofficial updates are governed by the amount and quality of developers on that particular device. For moto phones we have a nice core of developers that keep us up to date. Now that the newest moto phones have had their bootloaders unlocked, development has really picked up. The development scene on Android is a lot different and more complicated then the Apple side. Due to the amount of high end android devices that are released every year the development scene moves pretty quickly. That isn't to say older devices aren't dev'd for but it is a possibility to consider. In the moto world devices as far back as the droid 3 are still actively supported. Many of us started out with moto and have never left.
Don't worry about the apps. Unless the device falls really behind in the os version all apps will be supported. It's not like apple where if your phone doesn't have the latest update a third of the apps don't work. There are apps coded specifically for features only available on the latest Android version but those are very few due to people wanting to make money lol.
sent from my xt926 RAZR maxx hd

Cheers for that really helpful response.
It all seems pretty good to me with app compatibility.
So- if I understand correctly, if I unlock the bootloader & root my phone, I wont have to rely on Moto/my carrier for the OS updates?
Are there any other general things I should know before saying no to more mainstream (GS4) device?
Cheers

ycon said:
Cheers for that really helpful response.
It all seems pretty good to me with app compatibility.
So- if I understand correctly, if I unlock the bootloader & root my phone, I wont have to rely on Moto/my carrier for the OS updates?
Are there any other general things I should know before saying no to more mainstream (GS4) device?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes to your first question. Technically you would only need root to stop carrier updates but none of the new roms are being developed for locked devices.
Firstly know that the HD has basically the same innards as the gs3 except with 1gb less ram and a less impressive camera. The two monster phones out/coming out right now are the gs4 and the HTC one with a new nexus hopefully out soon. The gs4 represents some of the best hardware available (with newer still coming out later this year) and will have a lot of Dev focus. Out of those 3 phones Verizon will only be getting the gs4 most likely. In terms of what phone to get I would say you need to physically handle each before making a decision. If you must be on Verizon then the gs4 would be a great choice but some people don't like the build materials and feel of the phone (similar to gs3). People sticking with moto appreciate the solid feel, excellent materials, amazing radio strength, and battery life.
sent from my xt926 RAZR maxx hd

koftheworld;4080229The gs4 represents some of the best hardware available (with newer still coming out later this year) and will have a lot of Dev focus. Out of those 3 phones Verizon will only be getting the gs4 most likely. In terms of what phone to get I would say you need to physically handle each before making a decision. If you must be on Verizon then the gs4 would be a great choice but some people don't like the build materials and feel of the phone (similar to gs3). People sticking with moto appreciate the solid feel said:
Cheers for that. I am not on Verizon (I'm in Australia), I'll buy the phone unlocked.
I have had a look at the GS4, HTC One and Razr all together.
The GS4 is my favourite in terms of size, but I'd rather sacrifice the power (Quad core) for the longer battery, better call reception, stronger build, and lower price of the Razr HD.
I might jsut have to wait for the new Nexus phone to come out. I've heard Google will be subsidizing it, so the price might be right.
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