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Recommendations for smartphone models

Mark of Zorro

先輩
4 Oct 2012
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Looks like I can't hold out any longer. I have been avoiding buying a smartphone because I cannot see any practical use for one. It does all sorts of $#!T I really don't need done and nobody else seems to really be making use of all those bells and whistles either. But, I am socially stuck without one apparently.

So I am prepared to kiss some more money goodbye into a monthly pit.

The question is, what model should I go for? Pretty much my only requirements are keeping cost down and ability to use Line, and of course, security. I suppose durability is also a plus.

One thing that turns me off to the Iphone 6 is the fingerprint lock. Yeah. I cannot tell you how much I want a device that is connected to the internet and also reads my fingerprint. Ummm....NOOOO! So if anyone has one, can you tell me if you can cover that with tape and just avoid that "feature"?

How are Aquos phones?
And Androids?
Galaxies?
 
Sounds like you want to just get the cheapest smartphone you can find. They can all use Line.

Get a durable case.
 
The fingerprint thing is more of a gimmick than anything else. You don't have to use it; there is also the option to use a PIN number.
 
Dotanbatan I assume you have this:
J0000012473.jpg


シャープ AQUOS Xx 304SH SoftBank 価格比較

Clicking on the link you gave goes to the Softbank top page which only pictures an Iphone6
 
Get iPhone 5 or 6. Either will serve you well enough. I've been on an iPhone 4 for a while (hand-me-down from my wife while she uses 5), but just upgrade to 5 when she bought the 6. I see little to no difference in the 5 vs. 4, but they say there are features you might want to use that aren't available on the 4. Big deal, I say, but it was no less expensive than extending our contract with the family plan, so I got the 5 hand-me-down.

Stay away from Android. Friend of mine has had nothing but trouble with the one he got his J wife. Using it and getting decent service to help are both his reasons for wanting to change.
 
Get iPhone 5 or 6. Either will serve you well enough. I've been on an iPhone 4 for a while (hand-me-down from my wife while she uses 5), but just upgrade to 5 when she bought the 6. I see little to no difference in the 5 vs. 4, but they say there are features you might want to use that aren't available on the 4. Big deal, I say, but it was no less expensive than extending our contract with the family plan, so I got the 5 hand-me-down.

Stay away from Android. Friend of mine has had nothing but trouble with the one he got his J wife. Using it and getting decent service to help are both his reasons for wanting to change.

I`ve had the exact opposite experience. My son and I both had iphone 4s and couldn`t wait for the contract period to end to get a different (non apple) phone. I often use my wife`s ipad and hate that too!

The Android OS is wonderful in my opinion. It is by far the market leader worldwide with almost 85% of sales - 283 million handsets in the third quarter of 2014 alone.
 
Thanks for all the advice.

I wound up getting the 304sh. A little annoyed that I had to buy the handset up front. I could not be approved for monthly payments. I had just enough money on me and I could not have gotten the more expensive Iphones anyway.

A little annoyed that the phone keeps telling me to make a google account. Trying to figure out if that is really necessary for various functions.

Also I have not seen anything specifically about GPS in the phone, but I am sure it reads GPS. Now I want to know how to disable it.

Any other advice specifically for the 304sh?
 
Well, I have found out that with the English language setting, the English is utter $#!T. It is so bad that whoever is behind it, the entire team, should just be taken out and shot. Its that bad.

I would strongly recommend that anyone who does not read Japanese not get this phone.

Even in Japanese the instruction manual itself is utter $#!T. Not much in there and probably the most useless and difficult to read manual I have ever seen for a phone.

Also the battery went from near 100 percent down to 77 percent overnight..doing nothing.
 
You may have been happier with this model:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1419909193.983531.jpg


Being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century must be a very traumatic experience.
 
Being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century must be a very traumatic experience.

It is quickly becoming traumatic, but the problem is not so much the age as the lack of information as to what is going on and the lack of options. Its damned frustrating.

For example so many of these user agreements claim to require more information than they actually need, and you can't just opt out of certain points.

Also there are applications running in the backround that I never gave permission to do that. I don't know what they are or what they are doing and if I shut one down I get a warning that I know is bogus half the time.

Its hard to tell if the people who designed these things are try to bamboozle me or are just way, way overly cautious. I get the feeling I made a huge mistake going android. One might say the iphones are too easy, but I just don't have anyone to get good information about these things from. I could tinker on my own until the end of time but there is just so much crappola to deal with. Crappola we all know never needed to be there.

Frankly, I think most people claiming comfort are just in denial and pretending everything is fine and they know exactly what is going on. I feel no shame in declaring that I am getting very little help, even from the lady at the phone shop, and so, am totally lost.
 
A fine example of disorganization...there is a tool to make shortcuts but if there is a tool to delete shortcuts, its not in the same menu. This is just madness.
 
A little annoyed that the phone keeps telling me to make a google account. Trying to figure out if that is really necessary for various functions.

Also I have not seen anything specifically about GPS in the phone, but I am sure it reads GPS. Now I want to know how to disable it.

You need to register a Google account to use some of the apps and features within Android. It`s a quick process to create an account.
To switch the GPS off, touch the top of the screen and slide your finger down. Deselect `Location` to switch off the GPS function. If the icon is white it is off.
If you scroll down you can access information related to the little icons you see at the top of the display.

The battery should not be running down like that. You may have apps running in the background or a battery problem.

I had some concerns about the apps and unwanted services after I bought my 304SH from Softbank and got the girl in the shop to go through them with me and deactivate those I didn`t need. She tried to rush through it with me, but I didn`t let her go until I understood the confusing array of options.
 
On my Android, to make a shortcut (to an app, widget, etc) you just press and hold on a blank spot until the menu pops up, and to get rid of it you press and hold on what you want to get rid of until a bin pops up at the bottom then drag it into the bin.

Google the name of the app you're not sure about + "bloatware" to find out whether things can be removed. A lot can, warnings or not.

Leaving on wifi can be a big power sink - there should be a breakdown of what's sucking your power in the settings.
 
Thank you Dotanbatan! I pretty much figured out all that before reading your post, but still, that you for being helpful and giving me reassurance that my thoughts were correct.

I still have apps claiming to require location information, but I think they cannot access GPS location if you have turned that bit you mentioned that off. I turned it off through settings>other settings>location though. From there there was a slide switch at the very top marked "location". I still don't like that its a software switch and not a physical switch though. But I guess even my paranoid mind thinks it unlikely its being secretly over-ridden as a software switch can be.

Some needless annoyances have been "delete" referred to as "peel off" (sigh). Just right-brained word garbage. And to peel off you have to touch and hold and I can find no other way to do it. There is no garbage can on the main screen and no drop down or pop up menu with delete on the main screen either. Also annoying is the term "widget" to refer to what is really just another application. The difference is not nearly great enough to bother with, but "main screen app" or "OS app" would have been more intuitive names. Widget is just a BS attempt to make something old look like something new. (sigh)

I found out that my SIL and my BIL (in-laws) are using android phones and that was a massive relief. I had assumed they were using iphones like my wife as they have their accounts joined up and get together when I am not around. I got some good info from them.

I have done a lot of things to attempt to reduce battery use. One thing I regret was not charging it fully before the first use, but, the lady at the shop (apparently) charged it to 30 percent and started using it, which is a no-no for many types of batteries. I don't know if that is true for lithium ion or not. But what is done is done I guess, and I did not even charge fully when I got home, but started using it right away. I got rid of some apps (and widgets) that were unnecessary and running in the background and reduced screen brightness severely. There is a battery app that nicely tells you what is using power by percentages, and the display is/was eating like 25 percent.

I will check with my in-laws on how fast their battery runs down. And if mine is way worse, I may go back to the shop and demand a replacement. But there may be some apps I can get rid of yet.

Some things I disabled were Yahoo finance and weather reports. They were checking for updates pretty constantly. I also disabled "maps" "tethering" Wifi spot settings, Google and Google search. Some of those maybe have not helped but some I don't trust and some were running without me giving authorization.

I still have things like jp.co.sharp.android,svi settings, com.qualcomm, wqcs service, and wireless output running and not sure what they are or if they are necessary.

It also seems google play runs no matter what which is pretty bogus. I read there are other services to use and you can get rid of google play altogether so I may look into that.
 
"Leaving on wifi can be a big power sink - there should be a breakdown of what's sucking your power in the settings."


Ah. That. I was thinking it would be a bit inconvenient to not leave that on, but yeah, I can see where it would be eating power constantly.

I am just worried I would forget and over-use my connection to the tower. Of course I want to use Wifi as much as I can.
 
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I have done a lot of things to attempt to reduce battery use. One thing I regret was not charging it fully before the first use, but, the lady at the shop (apparently) charged it to 30 percent and started using it, which is a no-no for many types of batteries. I don't know if that is true for lithium ion or not. But what is done is done I guess, and I did not even charge fully when I got home, but started using it right away. I got rid of some apps (and widgets) that were unnecessary and running in the background and reduced screen brightness severely. There is a battery app that nicely tells you what is using power by percentages, and the display is/was eating like 25 percent.

I will check with my in-laws on how fast their battery runs down. And if mine is way worse, I may go back to the shop and demand a replacement. But there may be some apps I can get rid of yet.

Some things I disabled were Yahoo finance and weather reports. They were checking for updates pretty constantly. I also disabled "maps" "tethering" Wifi spot settings, Google and Google search. Some of those maybe have not helped but some I don't trust and some were running without me giving authorization.

I still have things like jp.co.sharp.android,svi settings, com.qualcomm, wqcs service, and wireless output running and not sure what they are or if they are necessary.

It also seems google play runs no matter what which is pretty bogus. I read there are other services to use and you can get rid of google play altogether so I may look into that.
 
Well, I have learned the expensive way that "free" applications are not free. It could be a game as simple as Angry Birds, or a flashlight. They want to access my purchase history, my identity, my phone book, the network, my mail, my location, etc. And my choices are a) let them or b) don't install. And that's it.

I have learned you can install apps on Android to deny permissions and still often use these apps. But to do that you need to "root" the phone. There are apps for that, but currently I see none for the Sharp 304 SH and I am not happy about this. I had to pay 7man for this phone because I am black listed over BS from a Japanese town hall (who refused to give me garbage bag purchase tickets meaning for a year I threw away garbage in another town) and I could not rent to own. I paid. Its my phone. I pay for the services, and dammit, I want to use them without my personal information accessed and without my applications using my phone without permission.

I asked about it at the shop I bough the phone at, but they say I have to take it up with Google. Useless!

Looks like I should have gotten an iPhone or a more common Android using phone.
 
tho given your style, I'm not sure it would have helped much.

Dude, if you don't have anything clear or useful to say, let me just tell you that you need not say anything at all.

At least Mike began by saying something semi-useful.
 
Zorro, or Mark of Zorro, or Mark, or Dude,

1) anyone could review your posts in this present thread on your quest for a smartphone,

2) and compare those to your posts in your thread on request for info about LINE:
Line...what is the big friggen deal? | Japan Forum

3) along with your comments in your thread on The Interview:
The Interview | Japan Forum

Looking at those threads, your character, your modus operandi, your style, seems apparent (tho maybe not to you).

And, in one of those threads or elsewhere, you have described yourself as, and I'm abbreviating, a bull in a china closet.

So I don't really see what new point you're trying to make, when you say:

Dude, if you don't have anything clear or useful to say, let me just tell you that you need not say anything at all.
 
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So I don't really see what new point you're trying to make, when you say:

That is my line dude. Your short posts run the gamut between useless and nonsense.

Knowing to buy a different phone for reasons of not being able to control this one would have been helpful.

My style? Control freak. If someone said the 304SH will do a bunch of explicative you can't control, but you can control with other phones, that would have been a huge help.
 
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