Flex, G2, or Nexus 5?

[mayford5]

Okay here is the deal.  I am due for an upgrade and I have had my eye on the G2 to replace my OG.

 

So I would like all opinions.  I like my LGOG but the keyboard has been horrible at predictions and really horrible at auto correct.  Are these things better on the G2 or the Flex or did you just end up purchasing Swype anyway.

 

The G2 is cheap and the Flex is not bad either but for $40 more than the Flex I can get a Note3.  Is the Flex worth the price you are paying Vs the G2 or the Note3?  

 

Any help would be highly appreciated.

 

Thank you

Andrew

[Destroyallcubes]

Okay here is the deal.  I am due for an upgrade and I have had my eye on the G2 to replace my OG.

 

So I would like all opinions.  I like my LGOG but the keyboard has been horrible at predictions and really horrible at auto correct.  Are these things better on the G2 or the Flex or did you just end up purchasing Swype anyway.

 

The G2 is cheap and the Flex is not bad either but for $40 more than the Flex I can get a Note3.  Is the Flex worth the price you are paying Vs the G2 or the Note3?  

 

Any help would be highly appreciated.

 

Thank you

Andrew

If you want the larger screen I'd say go with the flex, since it is Tri-band capable. If you want to get triband and like the LGOG I'd say go with the g2. If you want to save the most and want pure android go with the n5

[mrrogers1]

I bought the N5 for my wife and I took it back, it was too much of a compromise. I have had my G2 since early December and honestly couldn't be happier or more impressed with it. N5 compromises on battery, screen and features BUT you can't argue with the advantage of having Pure Android OS and updates.  I didn't want to have to get too extreme or search too much (for a rom that I could trust, it's my wife after all) and definitely not WORRY about the wife's device being 100% reliable so I thought the N5 would be good for her.  Problem is, it was to much of a compromise when I know just how good the G2 is.  I'd liken the N5 to a CJ6 Jeep and the G2 to a new Wrangler Sport Unlimited. It all really started with the CJ5/6 series and if you want some pure, easy to mod, cheap and plentiful parts to add to type of off road fun, CJ can't be beat. If you want full featured, every day driven comfort, rugged (enough) but sexy out of the box fun, you're gonna spend more but get much more at the same time. 

 

Jury is still out on the Flex as it's only been on the "Sprint Streets" for a few days but it looks like it's going to be a good one.  Not sure if the large screen is enough to draw folks from the G2 but it's the main quantifiable difference between it and the G2 because everything else "seems" to be on par with the G2. I'm not sure how the battery is so far (still early) but the G2 has set the bar QUITE high.  As a heavy user, I typically am seeing 19-23hr of up time on battery with 4-5hr of screen time.  Light users are seeing as high as 40 plus hours on 1 charge. 

 

G2 just needs to be rooted and a little (ok, maybe a lot) UI overhaul because LG's design team did some strange things in addition to using a pretty gross blue all over the place. We've done what LG should have done from the git go with our rom and added some much needed curb appeal and performance and even additional battery life (yes, shameless plug but I'm not saying anything that isn't true) in our rom >>>> Team D3rp LG G2 Rom (Our Spark compatible rom will be posted in the coming days.)

 

*Oh, on predictions, I never ever use stock keyboards as OEM's NEVER pay enough attention on them to make them stellar.  Swiftkey has been and will continue to be my (and most people I know would agree) go to for non-OEM keyboards. You can grab a "Trial" version from the Play Store OR better yet, they have a pretty good beta program and the latest beta has the numbers as a seperate row as well as emoji's built in, just google it, you'll find it.  

 

Good luck man! 

[ericdabbs]

Don't get the Note 3.  It should be out of the question since it is NOT a triband LTE device.  Unless you absolutely love the S-pen feature and cannot live without SVLTE then get the Note 3 but I still wouldn't advise it.  I personally have a G2 and I love it.  Don't know much about the G Flex but it should be a solid device.  It is a big screen that will satisfy anyone who loves big screens but the verdict is still too early on the G Flex.  I always tell people to go to a Sprint store and try it out.  There is nothing that I could say or do that can replace your first hand experience with playing with each of the phones.

[Mondays In Flames]

I'd say the N5 for convenience, and ease of use.

 

But the LG G2 has a massively beautiful screen. So go to a store and play with both, it all comes down to personal preference. Even though I think the G2 is one of the more good looking phones out there, the N5's understated utilitarian look appeals to me, and the phone just disappears into the background at times. It does everything marvelously, and there's nothing it can't do.

 

I haven't played with the G2 too much, but I will say that if you don't mind overly customized skins, then the G2 might just be for you.

 

 

-Luis

[mrrogers1]

I'd say the N5 for convenience, and ease of use.

 

But the LG G2 has a massively beautiful screen. So go to a store and play with both, it all comes down to personal preference. Even though I think the G2 is one of the more good looking phones out there, the N5's understated utilitarian look appeals to me, and the phone just disappears into the background at times. It does everything marvelously, and there's nothing it can't do.

 

I haven't played with the G2 too much, but I will say that if you don't mind overly customized skins, then the G2 might just be for you.

 

 

-Luis

 

.... except last all day after being abused for hours. 

 

I agree with Eric, Note 3 shouldn't be on the table, it's very core (it was THE RF device to have prior to the NV1 training reaching optimal speeds) was neglected for some really odd reason and with the network rollout happening, it's very dated and incapable of playing with the big boys at this point.  Now, I saw someone that was in one of those markets where they can't even light up band 25 and 41 despite hardware being in place which makes the true advantages of the tri-band devlce moot, but I think those situations and markets aren't that wide spread. 

[Nickel]

For keyboards, if you don't want to spend the money on Swiftkey, then Google puts out the stock android keyboard in the play store

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin

[mayford5]

So did they fix some of the issues with the radios or software of the G2?  I believe they had an article a while back on the main wall about it.

 

Here

 

Circuit Switched Fallback I believe is what they called what they were incompatible with.

[mrrogers1]

So did they fix some of the issues with the radios or software of the G2?  I believe they had an article a while back on the main wall about it.

 

Here

 

Circuit Switched Fallback I believe is what they called what they were incompatible with.

 

That is not a problem with the handset (all Tri-band devices), it's a problem with the towers being upgraded.  There (from what we have been told and have seen) has been a shift from rushing to get "a" tower 4G accepted to getting them fully up and running on the NV hardware which includes the Base station, RRU's and Antenna first, then accepting them as 3G and 3G/800 voice towers.  That enables the Tri-band devices to actually use that tower once it is 4G LTE accepted as the eCSFB software can be loaded. 

 

Now, I live in a market that they had only done half a dozen 4G only towers before the NV Team (people that call the shots) had the revelation that they really need to NOT deliver like that and need to upgrade "up to" the point of 4G LTE first, you know, the all new "Spark" network and all.  So they brought everything up (which was pretty crazy with legacy equipment being turned off and new NV being turned on for ALL Sprint users to utilize) such as 3G/800 voice on most towers in a relatively short period of time.  Now, when we get a LTE accepted tower, the eCSFB software patch is typically pushed to the tower anywhere between 12 and 48hr. 

[mayford5]

That is not a problem with the handset (all Tri-band devices), it's a problem with the towers being upgraded.  There (from what we have been told and have seen) has been a shift from rushing to get "a" tower 4G accepted to getting them fully up and running on the NV hardware which includes the Base station, RRU's and Antenna first, then accepting them as 3G and 3G/800 voice towers.  That enables the Tri-band devices to actually use that tower once it is 4G LTE accepted as the eCSFB software can be loaded. 

 

Now, I live in a market that they had only done half a dozen 4G only towers before the NV Team (people that call the shots) had the revelation that they really need to NOT deliver like that and need to upgrade "up to" the point of 4G LTE first, you know, the all new "Spark" network and all.  So they brought everything up (which was pretty crazy with legacy equipment being turned off and new NV being turned on for ALL Sprint users to utilize) such as 3G/800 voice on most towers in a relatively short period of time.  Now, when we get a LTE accepted tower, the eCSFB software patch is typically pushed to the tower anywhere between 12 and 48hr. 

 

 

Sounds like I am going to pull the trigger on the G2 then.  My LGOG is getting pretty rough looking.  Thanks guys(and gals if any)

[Ascertion]

G2 is awesome except for slight static via bluetooth in vehicles at louder volumes, and signal connectivity isn't as strong as let's say the Nexus 5, but that's only because the Nexus 5 is a beast.  G2 has great battery life and it runs any games I throw at it easily.  If you're into modding your device, the G2 has some options, but not as many as the Nexus 5.

 

The Nexus 5 has great RF performance and it's also a beast at running anything you throw at it (gaming wise), however, the battery life is shorter than the G2s.  (It'll be slightly better than the LGOG you currently have in battery life.)

 

The Flex is a very new device so I'm not sure how it runs with RF, but it does use the same Snapdragon 800 chipset and the screen resolution is 720p so it'll actually run faster than the N5/G2 because it has less pixels to push for performance, however, it is a 720p screen so if you're wanting 1080p then this device isn't optimal.  (The LGOG has a 720p screen.)  The battery life on the Flex is going to be INSANE.  Literally. 

 

Hope I helped.

[ericdabbs]

Ascertion, on 10 Feb 2014 - 4:23 PM, said:G2 is awesome except for slight static via bluetooth in vehicles at louder volumes, and signal connectivity isn't as strong as let's say the Nexus 5, but that's only because the Nexus 5 is a beast. G2 has great battery life and it runs any games I throw at it easily. If you're into modding your device, the G2 has some options, but not as many as the Nexus 5.

 

The Nexus 5 has great RF performance and it's also a beast at running anything you throw at it (gaming wise), however, the battery life is shorter than the G2s. (It'll be slightly better than the LGOG you currently have in battery life.)

 

Well the N5 .15 radio is a beast. The N5 .17 .23 radio not so much based on what I have read. The verdict is still out there on whether the new Spark update radio will have the .15 radio RF performance along with supporting B26 and B41. Either way if you are a N5 owner and download the Spark update, you will have to use the new Spark update radio regardless of the RF performance. If you have the Spark update firmware installed and then flash the old .15 radio then you are not getting B26 and B41 accessibility and lose the Spark functionality.

 

EDIT:  Updated correct reference to .23 radio instead of the .17 radio since that was wrong radio version.  Thanks lilotimz.

Edited February 11, 2014 by ericdabbs

[lilotimz]

Well the N5 .15 radio is a beast. The N5 .17 radio not so much based on what I have read. The verdict is still out there on whether the new Spark update radio will have the .15 radio RF performance along with supporting B26 and B41. Either way if you are a N5 owner and download the Spark update, you will have to use the new Spark update radio regardless of the RF performance. If you have the Spark update firmware installed and then flash the old .15 radio then you are not getting B26 and B41 accessibility and lose the Spark functionality.

.17 and .15 are the amazing radio. .23 and after is the bad ones.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

 

[ericdabbs]

.17 and .15 are the amazing radio. .23 and after is the bad ones.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Sorry I misquoted the wrong versions.  I knew one of latter ones were not as good.  My goodness the N5 already has 3 versions out there?  I thought it was just .15 and .17.

[Destroyallcubes]

Sorry I misquoted the wrong versions.  I knew one of latter ones were not as good.  My goodness the N5 already has 3 versions out there?  I thought it was just .15 and .17.

there is also a .13 and one other. But those are pretty release. People are confirming b41 with .15 on the nexus forum. The .15 has an issue connecting to LTE sites with ecsfb issues. No idea about b26 if there are any b26 sites in Dallas I try and check them out, and compare to the .17, as well as the new baseband when it comes out.

[mayford5]

G2 is awesome except for slight static via bluetooth in vehicles at louder volumes, and signal connectivity isn't as strong as let's say the Nexus 5, but that's only because the Nexus 5 is a beast. G2 has great battery life and it runs any games I throw at it easily. If you're into modding your device, the G2 has some options, but not as many as the Nexus 5.

 

The Nexus 5 has great RF performance and it's also a beast at running anything you throw at it (gaming wise), however, the battery life is shorter than the G2s. (It'll be slightly better than the LGOG you currently have in battery life.)

 

The Flex is a very new device so I'm not sure how it runs with RF, but it does use the same Snapdragon 800 chipset and the screen resolution is 720p so it'll actually run faster than the N5/G2 because it has less pixels to push for performance, however, it is a 720p screen so if you're wanting 1080p then this device isn't optimal. (The LGOG has a 720p screen.) The battery life on the Flex is going to be INSANE. Literally.

 

Hope I helped.

Yes you did. I will probably stick with the g2 for the price and the battery life. I like to play with roms but don't really have the time any more with school,work,and family. Would love to throw down the cash for the flex but i think i will wait for the next generation of flexy phones before i own one. The unknown is fun but not when i depend on it like i do.

 

Thanks all.

[cdk]

.17 and .15 are the amazing radio. .23 and after is the bad ones.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Maybe I am the lone exception, but the performance of .23 on my Nexus 5 has been equal to what I saw on .17.

[Fraydog]

Anyone have any idea how good the RF performance on the G Flex is?

[Nickel]

Anyone have any idea how good the RF performance on the G Flex is?

I think bmoses said it was pretty good, you could try asking him in the G Flex users thread.

[bmoses]

Anyone have any idea how good the RF performance on the G Flex is?

 

i will try and do some comparisons to my coworkers N5 tomorrow at work. our building is killer on signal so it will be a good comparison. All i have had to compare to so far was my previous phone, EVO 4G LTE, and my wifes iphone5. the flex is way better than the EVO and from what i have seen so far at least on par with the iphone.

 

when i was in the store looking at it before i got it i was comparing to my EVO and it was about 6-7dbm better when they were side by side, this was with a tower literally right behind the store though so it wasn't a weak signal by any means.