Google Play Edition (Stock) HTC One and Galaxy S4 up for sale now..

[yourbeliefs]

Some early reviews have come in.. It definitely appears that there's no overall advantage over the other. Seems to come down to what you need more in a device and what you're willing to put up with. I'm debating whether or not to get one of these or an AT&T version. I REALLY like the idea of not extending my contract and having access to T-Mobile's LTE network as well, BUT the idea of throwing down $600+ for a phone isn't very appealing.

https://play.google.com/store/devices

 

[Neutron]

My wife and I were thinking the same thing when we had talked about switching from Verizon to Straight Talk. The sheer cost of getting a new smart phone would counter the savings per month.

 

[yourbeliefs]

My wife and I were thinking the same thing when we had talked about switching from Verizon to Straight Talk. The sheer cost of getting a new smartphone would counter the savings per month.

Yes it is quite an investment, but for hardware like this you need to pony up. If you need a decent smart phone for cheap though there's always the Nexus 4.. My thing is I NEED LTE. The lack of it was the only thing that stopped me from getting the N4. I just like all the freedom I have and the fact that I can switch to any carrier I want whenever I want and install any ROM that I want (without having to root, load another recovery/bootloader, etc.) I'm going to wait until some more reviews come out, although knowing my luck I'll make a decision and then it'll be out of stock for the foreseeable future.

 

[Neutron]

Yes it is quite an investment, but for hardware like this you need to pony up. If you need a decent smart phone for cheap though there's always the Nexus 4.. My thing is I NEED LTE. The lack of it was the only thing that stopped me from getting the N4. I just like all the freedom I have and the fact that I can switch to any carrier I want whenever I want and install any ROM that I want (without having to root, load another recovery/bootloader, etc.) I'm going to wait until some more reviews come out, although knowing my luck I'll make a decision and then it'll be out of stock for the foreseeable future.

I like the N4 but there's no CDMA version. Where we live the ONLY service that works without roaming is Verizon.

 

[mike123abc]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7107/...y-s-4-google-play-edition-review-nearly-nexus

A review of the play edition phones.

Although unadulterated Android is great, as I mentioned earlier I still can't shake that there's-something-missing feeling when using it. There's usually just more that I wind up installing and tweaking to feel at home on those devices. Even though I regularly critique OEM skins and software decisions, there's an undeniable certainty that HTC and Samsung respectively do add a lot to their software that makes things better. I ended up enjoying HTC's Sense 5 and found that it addressed a number of friction points, and even though I harp on TouchWiz a lot I do make frequent use of their notification center settings shortcuts and appreciate their camera UI. I keep going back to the Android camera UI since it remains, in a word, disappointing, and this is one of the places every OEM spends considerable time tweaking and changing things.

 

[yourbeliefs]

At the end of the day part of it does come down to preference. I've been a fan of Stock Android since 2.1 on my Nexus 1. I've never been a fan of Sense, and I definitely wasn't a fan of Touchwiz when I got my Samsung Skyrocket (I've constantly used AOSP roms on it.) Gizmodo has pointed out that the biggest problem of the S4 was that Touchwiz destroyed the performance. With that removed, it runs like a beast (as it should considering the hardware.) I'm still not 100% sold, because I'm still wondering how the Warranty works on these devices (as most places void warranties after flashing new Roms, but why else would you buy a phone with an unlocked bootloader?) Like I'm said I'm still waiting for some more reviews, but the early ones look promising.

http://gizmodo.com/galaxy-s4-and-htc-one-google-edition-hands-on-the-best-586723181