[Eatfoodnow]

I've been managing with a Tracfone device, but with my new job I need to make frequent phone calls and my text usage is also going up. I figure it's time to get a real phone.

I'm not very knowledgeable so if anything seems off, or if there's something important that I'm not even aware of, let me know.

What I'm looking for:
-Preferably Jelly Bean capable
-Supports 64gb sd cards
-Decent camera for video (I looked at some Galaxy S2 video and that looked good enough to me)
-No significant issues/problems
-At least 1GB of RAM
-Cheap as possible

That's all I can think of, I'll mainly use it for typical smartphone stuff, browsing the web, social apps, etc. I'll also use it for video recording (just amateur stuff, if I want better video I'll just buy a real camera), testing out web apps (pretty much any fairly up-to-date smartphone will work for this), and listening to music (off the SD card of course).

I'll be using the phone on either net10 or straight talk. I haven't completely decided yet so if you have any recommendations let me know. Coverage won't be that big of a problem because I'll be at OSU in the Fall and pretty much every service provider has a tower or two there.

Thanks!

 

[Liranan]

it's a hard choice because not many mid-range phones support 64GB SD cards.

The S2 is a very nice phone with a decent camera but it can take up to 32GB SD only.

 

[Eatfoodnow]

I ended up getting the LG 4X HD, but you could probably guess that from what I posted on your thread

It should get here sometime in the next couple days so if you're interested in it let me know and I'll do a little review or something.

 

[Liranan]

My S2 broke a few days ago and is now a very nice looking paperweight. I would like to see a review of the LG 4X HD, though I'm looking at getting the Note simply due to the number of available roms. The Note II is sadly beyond my price range, as is the LG 4X HD but a review for posterity would still be nice.

 

[Eatfoodnow]

The Note is a solid phone, personally it's too large for me, and i have decently large hands, but that's just a preference. Also the battery life is lackluster. The Note II is a really fantastic phone but yeah, it's just too much money (I was once thinking of waiting for the Note III but ditched that plan). The Note won't do you any wrong, and it'll be a solid phone, but I think you should put in a little more money for the LG 4X HD since it's such a good deal. The only main differences between it and the Galaxy S3 are: IPS vs. AMOLED (AMOLED on S3 is better, but IPS is still fantastic), $340 vs $420, and the LG has crummy stock software and a crummy stock ROM. The bootloader is unlocked/unlockable though, so you can just put on a custom ROM if you don't want to work around the stock stuff (which is still a viable option). So really it's $80 cheaper and the "inferior" screen is still amazing (and super bright too).

Check out the XDA-developers forums for the LG 4X HD if you're interested.

A good review online is here at Anandtech.

Once I get the phone I'll post my own review on here.

 

[Liranan]

Looked into the LG and it's beyond my price sadly. It looks good but I can't afford it so I will stick with the Note.

Looking forward to your review.