New Cell Phone Time: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs LG G3

I'm nearing the magical "upgrade date" on my cell plan (Verizon) and my aging Samsung Galaxy S3 is in dire straits:

-The charging port quit months ago, and I have to use an armada of backup batteries and a battery wall charger that does not charge in the car (which is a GIANT PITA)

-The phone resets on its own all the time at random, and sometimes gets stuck in a reboot loop and I have to pull the battery to start up again

-Sometimes it says my memory is corrupted when I restart it, and if I pull the battery and restart again, that goes away.

-The GPS has been wonky for the past year, and for someone who drives a lot, this is bad. It always leaves me hanging in the worst situations.

What I want in a phone is one that has a removable, replaceable battery, a decent sized screen, a good camera, runs Android, and an SD card slot that can take a 128GB card for my music so I don't have to carry around my phone AND my iPod all over the place like I do now. Also, like many of you, I am a cheap SOB, so I want something on the cheap.

The two phones that have crossed my radar that meet these requirements are the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the LG G3. They are last year's Android flagships, but they are still WAY better than my S3. They both share the same quad-core chipset, but certain versions of the G3 have an extra GB of RAM over the S5.

I'm leaning toward the LG G3 right now, because it has a bigger screen, cleaner interface, and it has more RAM. Also, I have found it for $0.01 with upgrade. What I don't like is that all of the buttons are on the rear of the phone, which might be weird to get used to.

What I like about the S5 is that it's water and dust resistant, and I am used to the TouchWiz OS that Samsung uses because of my S3. It also has a USB 4.0 port with fast charging. But it's more expensive than the LG phone and it runs the risk of being a total POS like my S3.

Anyone have either one of these phones? How do you like them? Any issues with either one?

I had a G3 for almost a year before I replaced it with my Note 4. It's a great phone, nice big screen, thin bezels, very clean on the front, it seemed to get updates pretty quickly, and I got used to the rear buttons pretty quickly. Also, they have the "knock code" thing you can use to activate/unlock it, which is very cool and makes the rear buttons even less of an issue. Both these phones have removable batteries and SD slots, which are becoming more and more rare (S6 doesn't have them), so that's good. Advantages of the S5, other than the stuff you mentioned, it has an AMOLED screen, which I personally prefer and was a big reason I went back to Samsung. Also, the Galaxy S line is very popular so it's easy to find cases and accessories pretty much anywhere. And Touchwiz is not the smoking pile of E36 M3 it once was, it's actually become quite tolerable since the days when I had an S4 a couple of years ago.

In the end I went with the G3 and that's probably what I'd recommend for you.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

I have looked into the Note 4, and it would be perfect for my needs, but I can't justify the price right now.

I have a Lifeproof case on my S3, and it's gotten brittle and cracked all over the place from repeatedly having to take it off all the time to swap the batteries, but I like the "sandwich" cases like that. I looked on Amazon and there are a ton for both phones.

SilverFleet wrote: In reply to Tom_Spangler: I have looked into the Note 4, and it would be perfect for my needs, but I can't justify the price right now. I have a Lifeproof case on my S3, and it's gotten brittle and cracked all over the place from repeatedly having to take it off all the time to swap the batteries, but I like the "sandwich" cases like that. I looked on Amazon and there are a ton for both phones.

Well, both newer phones should have significantly better battery life than your S3, so you shouldn't need to be swapping as often, anyhow.

I've had an S5 for about a year and a half. I upgraded from a Droid RAZR Maxx. The S5 and the G3 were the two phones I was looking at. While I liked both, I ultimately ended up with the S5. I liked the screen and the camera on the S5 better than the G3. Also, the IP67 rating on the S5 was a plus as well. I do know that the S5 can handle a 128GB MicroSD card (I have a 32GB in now but I'm going to get a 64GB for the same reason as you).

My S5 has been rock solid in the time I have had it. Every smartphone I have owned prior had a Otterbox Defender case. Ironically, I never dropped my phone are got it wet so with my S5, I bought a Spigen Tough Armor case. For a $20 case, it really impressed me. It is very well made and doesn't add much bulk. I also bought a tempered glass screen protector since the case doesn't have a built-in one.

I then spent $99 on an Element Recon Pro Ops case. The $20 Spigen was made better.

Issues? Well, the charging port cover broke off after about 3 months. You can buy replacement covers now and they are easy to replace. The heartbeat sensor is really gimmicky and I never use it. I hate how phones are touted with having an amazing camera but don't have a dedicated camera button now, just a "soft" button. I hate Touch-Wiz with a burning passion so the first thing I did was install GO Launcher EX. I like it a lot better than the stock UI. I wanted a black S5 but all they had were white when I bought mine but that is personal preference.

Put hands on both, they are both great phones.

EDIT: Oh and the battery life is easily twice as long as my RAZR Maxx. I have no complaints about the S5's battery life at all.

I've had a S5 since Xmas, coming from an S3 for 2-3 years prior. So far no issues and love it. I'm a little jealous over SWMBO's LG G4's camera though (full manual settings like a DSLR).

I had 2 Galaxy S3's fail on me like you described. Failing charging port and batteries. I swear something was happening with my 2nd one where it was killing the batteries and they wouldnt take more than 50% charge. I really liked the phone but hated that they seemed to crap out so quick. Before the Galaxy's I also had an LG that also crapped out in one year. (Thats real fun when you have a 2 year contract with each phone)

After falling back repeatedly on an ancient Motorola Droid X that just wouldnt die, I went Motorola again with a Droid Turbo. It doesnt check your boxes of a removable battery or SD card slot, but I am hoping it lasts as long as that dinosaur Droid X. Phone was free w/ 2 year contract at Costco.

In reply to failboat:

My Dad and sister had the Droid Turbo, and I couldn't stand it. I have had very bad luck with Motorola devices. My dad's had tons of issues, too. Hopefully you have better luck with yours!

I don't think I'd consider getting anything other than free or damn near free phones when it's time to sign a contract. Maybe I've had good luck with my past phones.

I've had an S5 sport for almost a year. I find the screen/phone to be slightly too wide to handle one handed operation, but not impossible. Phone works AMAZING, although that might be slightly exaggerated since I switched from an original samsung galaxy (which took up to 5 minutes to switch from wifi to data when i'd leave the house). If you don't like/want white or black, go for the s5 sport. Should be exactly the same as the s5, but is water resistant and comes in red or blue.

The only thing I like about the Samsung is the AMOLED screen. The G3 is what I would choose between the two.

In reply to SilverFleet:

I supposed planned obsolescence is to be expected with anything cellular anymore. I am hoping this phone lasts me at least the term of my contract.

The last LG phone I had was the LG Ally, which was the second ever Android Verizon device, following the original Droid. It had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and was extremely lacking in memory and they never updated the thing, but it was a solidly built phone. If fact, all of the old pre-smartphone LG's I had were pretty good.

I went to a HTC Incredible 2 after that, and it had a great camera (still better than the S3!) but the GUI was unstable and unsupported after about 6 months. The S3 was issue-free for about 10 months, and then started to be a POS. My wife's S3 didn't even make it a year before it died and she had to replace it with a used iPhone 4S.

failboat wrote: In reply to SilverFleet: I supposed planned obsolescence is to be expected with anything cellular anymore. I am hoping this phone lasts me at least the term of my contract.

Yes, but not as much as it used to be. 4-5 years ago the technology was improving by leaps, now the changes are smaller and more incremental. A 2-year-old flagship phone like an HTC One M7 or a Galaxy S4 is still a very capable device in 2015. My daughter is still using the GS4 we got for my wife in the spring of 2013, and it's fine. And she uses the heck out of it, like most teenagers.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

I agree even the S3 is a perfectly fine phone and I would still be using mine, I would say I really liked it....If they (I HAD 2!!!!) would have berkeleying worked for more than a year. My past 3 new phones crapped out in a year, I am praying this new one doesn't.

I had my gs4 since the day it came out. Took it to war zones, races, dropped it in questionable places. Was one tough cookie. Finally lost it's life in May. I could've upgraded to the gs6 but I picked the gs5 instead. It feels even tougher than the gs4 and works better. I love it. If you had any of the previous galaxy s phones and liked them then you'll love the gs5. GS5.

My wife has had an S5 for about 8 months now. She seems quite happy with it. I understand they're water resistant, and it seems to get out of its own way. I don't see what the fuss is about, except that it seems to be a fairly solid little phone. Nothing remarkable, except that it's less self-loathing than a lot of customized phones. I nearly bought the same phone, till I learned the Nexus 6 was in.

I would suggest adding the Motorola X and Motorola G to your list.

I moved from the S3 to the Moto X and love it. So I would second adding the Moto X to the list.

I'm going to pass on the Motorola stuff. No expandable memory and no removable battery makes it a non-starter for me. And after watching other family members deal with their recent Motorola phones and having them repeatedly replaced for all sorts of issues, I don't want to go down that road.

And there's something to be said about these phones I'm looking at. The G3 is a year old, and it has more processing power than my laptop! That just blows me away.

I shop for phones by searching for which are the easiest to root/rom so I can do whatever I want to them. The S5 was in the running but I think Verizon's latest patch made that harder.

I went from a "droid Razr" to a Galaxy S5 last year. Have had no issues with the phone other than the preinstalled programs I don't use but that is on every phone nowadays. So I guess it don't count. I think it's easier to use than the Razr I had before. I opted for the leather folding cover case with window since I keep it in my pocket. The cover works great and does what it's supposed but does take getting used to.

Another candidate has appeared: the HTC One M9. Anyone have this phone?

Pros:

-Most up to date specs and operating system

-Awesome audio quality and stereo speakers on the unit

-OCTO-CORE processor LOL WUT

-Metal Case

-20MP Camera

-SD Card slot

-has a built-in FM Radio, which is good to have

Cons:

-No removable battery

-HTC Sense is intrusive

-screen not as large as others

I had an HTC phone before: the Incredible 2. I loved it at first. The camera was fantastic, and I still like it better than the S3's camera. Sense was cool at first, and I enjoyed the widgets that were built in... until they slowly began to glitch out. About a year in, the Sense software stopped getting updated and it stopped getting along with Android. It was also a 3G phone with no LTE and that was a PITA sometimes.

The other thing that I really don't like is the non-removable battery. What happens when it craps out, like they all do in about a year?

Sorry for annoying you all with this, but you guys and gals DO know everything.

I went from DroidX to an S3, now in an S5 Active. I'm sold. When this one dies, I'll most likely stick with Samsung.

I'm gonna bump this up, because I'm posting from my new Galaxy S5! After going back and forth for some time, and messing with the G3, the One M9, and the S5, I went with another Samsung. The familiarity and the awesome screen won me over. After hearing the sales guy tell me he BENT a G3, I also wanted to go the rugged route. And I didn't like the M9 at all.

Side note: Verizon is changing their plans to be like other carriers and they will no longer have service contracts. They will also no longer have discounted phones; you will have to do the payments plan or pay full price up front. This starts 8/13.

Another side note: after shopping around, I ended up getting the phone at Target of all places. They charge sales tax on the actual purchase, not the full retail price like some other places. And since I didn't have a shiny penny on me to buy the phone, the dude opened and closed the drawer and called it good. Definitely without a doubt the easiest phone buying experience I have ever had. No canoe!

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