Gadgetory

this episode of Android Weekly is brought to you by domain.com all right so let's jump off the hype train for a moment and talk about if these new flagship expensive phones are worth the hit to your wallet each year a handful of high-priced top-shelf devices are announced and treated like huge launch events along with major marketing campaigns while most of these devices live up to the hype there are plenty of viable alternatives flying below the radar of power users and casual consumers alike alright so as many of you know I just bought the Sony Xperia z3 compact and it's a great phone love it glad I paid the price I did for it but I did just give a perfectly good Nexus 5 to my teenage son and he loves it it's never slowed down never had a problem slick wonderful phone for a fraction of the price in the early days of Android off-the-charts specs and frequent software enhancements were driving forces when purchasing a new smartphone or tablet spec sheets certainly still play an important part but these days the playing field is much more leveled mid-range gear isn't so mid-range anymore and while I'm personally not a fan of OMS cranking out dozens of smartphones each year I do recognize the importance of being able to offer consumers budget-friendly handsets so let's not just talk about what's the best bang for your buck but are you getting a premium experience for that premium price a few years back most smartphone makers would release flagship hardware with unique designs that made them stand out compared to other devices in their categories however things have changed over the past couple of years although Android heavyweights like Samsung LG and HTC are now releasing mid-range and low-end handsets with design aesthetics almost identical to their respective annual flagship smartphones it's most likely a cost-effective measure this new trend makes some premium handsets feel a little less chic case in point let's talk about Motorola's Moto G well it may not pack the same punch as a flagship phone it's hardware is more than sufficient for the vast majority of users for around 180 bucks u.s. you can score a 5 inch 720p display a quad-core processor an 8 megapixel shooter and most vanilla build of Android not too shabby at all but the former Google company isn't the only place offering low-cost devices Chinese phone manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE are producing more budget-conscious handsets that wouldn't put a dent in your bank account a more recent example of this is the Asus zenfone 2 and mid-range device that offers speedy Intel processing and up to four gigabytes of RAM depending upon the configuration while it's priced aggressively the zenfone 2 performance and even aesthetics are more in line with what you'd expect from a flagship device sure the phone isn't perfect but our very own lon certainly was impressed with the performance of the handset in his recent review now of course we can't cover this topic without talking about the oneplus one a fantastic phone other than the Nexus device probably your best bang for the buck phone if you can get it oneplus has made it very difficult to get the phone with their invite system and even if it does get easier that's the dominant narrative that most people think about when they hear about the oneplus one so if you haven't invited or you have a friend who has an invite you're good to go if you're not you got to look at an alternative now let's talk about the Nexus 5 the phone is 18 months old and it's never slowed down never had a problem with it whatsoever it's a sleek premium looking and feeling device I gave it to my son when I bought then you compact phone from Sony and he plays intensive games on it all day if I let him and he's never had a problem with the phone do you really need to spend six seven hundred dollars when you can get an old Nexus 5 it's 18 months old for like I don't know 200 bucks now you got to think about that now what about you hardware geeks out there that have convinced yourself you absolutely need four K or you absolutely need three gigabytes of RAM you might want to reconsider that we've all got to ask ourselves the question does the added feature actually change the functional use of my device or is it just kind of sexy to have and then of course there is the hardcore geeks among us who will only really be happy with the latest possible specs now if your love for gadgets borders on obsession and you don't mind shelling out big bucks or committing to long service contracts there are some benefits to buying a brand new flagship device while the after mentioned alternative fit in with most budgets some of them will lack the amenities typically offered by big-ticket flagship handsets items like LTE network NFC support and full 1080p or 4k HD are among some of the more common features missing from budget-friendly smartphones number one recommendation here is save up for a little bit and buy the phone off contract if you can do that you are going to save a lot of money number two try and put your ego and check and seriously consider a device that's a year old the Samsung Galaxy s5 for example is a very powerful phone and quite a bit cheaper than the s6 the Nexus 5 the HTC m8 I mean look at the difference between the HTC m9 and the m8 very similar phones quite a bit cheaper consider that some of you may know my other job is to teach the Performing Arts to young people and when I chose the name for the company I wanted to make sure I had the dot-com so I chose the name undivided company and Gotha com why because dot-com gives the most credibility and trust out of any other domain extension that's one reason the second reason is if I choose a you know dot info or some other domain name I'm giving free traffic to the person who does own the dot-com when you buy domain names from domain.com you immediately get the power to control what people find when they search for you online and no domain name extensions tell your story with the same amount of trust like it does with a.com or.net domain name dot-com and dotnet domain name extensions and Jack credibility and your online presence and who doesn't want more credibility and you can also save fifteen percent on your domain names and web hosting when you use our coupon code Android at domain.com check out don't forget 15% off when you use our coupon code Android when you think domain names think domain.com thanks for watching android army my name is Jase love to connect with you right there on Google+ or Twitter or in the comments below you don't want to forget about the article that today's show is based on it's written by our own Android 30 staffer mark Kern linked up in the show links below you don't want to forget about my brothers and Android working super hard of your source for all things Android