metal and plastic, glass and love

For me, this month has been full of dangerous, exciting choices, but none have anywhere near the consequence as the decision I face tomorrow:  WHAT PHONE DO I GET?

My biennial upgrade is coming in tomorrow, and it couldn't come at a better time:  two tremendous competitors have recently been released in the past few weeks, in the form of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4, and there's no question in my mind that one of these two is the phone for me.

In this post, I'm going to explore what I like about each phone, and hope that I come to a decision by the end.  So strap yourselves in for:

SCOTTPHONE DECISION 2013!!!!

I'm so sorry about the lens flare.  I couldn't help myself.

Now, a few words before we begin.  I am a huge fan and advocate of Google's Android operating system; I am 100% attached to it and, therefore, unwilling to even consider an iPhone or Windows phone.  Even jailbroken iPhones are so limited in what they can do compared to Android that they hold no interest for a crazy-techy person like myself, and I don't really care for the software design, app ecosystem, or suite of associated services that Windows phones offer (that's not to say that Microsoft's services aren't excellent; they are, I just prefer Google's).

So why just these two phones?

There are a few requirements I have for a new phone.  It's gotta be Android.  It's gotta have the best screen available.  It's gotta be fast.  And it's gotta be available on Sprint.  Since I only get a new phone with an upgrade discount, cost is not an issue.

There a lot of other important and/or cool features that I would want to consider, but nearly all of those are covered when you limit your selections to the phones with the best screens.  And in this case, best screen means highest resolution, not most inches.

History and Brand Impressions

My first Android phone was the HTC EVO 4G, which I purchased in the summer of 2010.  It was amazing, and I loved it, but a great deal of my excitement was just having a smartphone; I'm sure I would have been similarly impressed with any Android phone at the time.  And while I greatly enjoyed using it, it turned out to be a lemon, needing regular repairs; the touchscreen never really worked properly, and I was without it for over a month at one point while Sprint tried to fix it.  Eventually they made good, but it was still a huge hassle.  I recognize that I just had terrible luck; although the EVO 4G was reported to have had several different issues with the screen, my issue in particular was one-in-a-million, so I didn't have very much ill will towards HTC despite the tremendous inconvenience.

That's why I was happy enough to purchase an HTC EVO 3D as my second phone, through Sprint's generous trade-in program.  All told, it has been a pretty good phone; it's now showing its age, and the 3D features were never more than a gimmick, but they didn't interfere with the phone at all.  The thing that has bothered me most about it is something that would never, ever affect the average user:  HTC never fully unlocked the phone's internal software, meaning I couldn't download and install whatever version of Android I liked.  That's one of my favorite things about using Android, and not having access to that has made me dislike the EVO 3D a lot more than it deserves.  It is, all in all, a spectacular and peppy phone that just never achieved its full potential.

So my history with HTC is checkered, but pretty good overall.  And the problems in design and security have, from all reports, been eliminated in the HTC One.  And, although I don't normally go in for such sentimental bunk, I do feel a warm and fuzzy sense of loyalty to HTC for making such cool phones for me to use, even if they haven't always worked exactly the way I wanted.

On the flipside, I've never owned a Samsung smartphone personally.  I have, however, owned a Samsung phone, the Upstage, that was the worst electronic device I have ever encountered in my entire life:

Oh, look.  It's the worst phone ever.

Just...just look at that thing.  Take a minute and realize that there are controls on both sides of it.  You can't use both sides at once, of course, so how would it know which side you wanted to use?  Answer:  it had no idea.  It was a constant battle to convince the phone that I didn't want to listen to music, or to convince the music player that I intended to make a call.  It just didn't work.  It was a living nightmare.

I understand that Samsung probably had all of the designers of the Upstage sacrificed on the altar of Cheukshin.  I understand that Android phones, with only one side that's meant to be used, are largely immune from most of the horrors that the Upstage inflicted on me.  I understand that a lot of people I know, including my wife, have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and love them.  I've held and used my wife's Galaxy S3 a little bit, and I found it to be very enjoyable to use.  I know that Samsung has historically been a much better supporter of opening its products to have their software modified than HTC has.

But...some scars just never really heal.

Design

So let's talk about the hardware design of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4.  I'm not so concerned about software design; as I said before, installing custom versions of software is something I love to do, so any of the default software design choices are probably going to get wiped out in short order.  What I'm left with is the hardware to consider.

Keep in mind, however, that I haven't actually held either of these, or even seen them in person.  I've read tons of reviews and looked at videos of them both in use, but I really won't be able to formulate my feelings until I know what it's like to touch them.

The Galaxy S4 has a good design, in that it stays out of your way and does its job, but nothing about its look excites me.  I do like the hardware button in the middle (sorry, Google and HTC; if I can't have zero physical buttons, then give me a real one, not just capacitative), but everything else is just par for the course. Reviews are describing Samsung as playing it safe with a design that works, but I like to live dangerously.

Something about the design of the HTC One just grabs me.  I feel like I'm looking at something new, special, and exciting.  This might just be a testament to the power of HTC's marketing team, but I really think that the phone is gorgeous.  Reviews have supported this idea, calling it essentially a joy to hold.  I want to hold things that are a joy to hold!  I don't really care too much about metal vs. plastic, but this might be a turning point for me.  Really, I'm not a very aesthetically-minded person in general; the fact that the physical appearance of this phone is even a factor bewilders me, but that's the way it is.

But...am I going to want a case for my phone?  Do I really need one?  If I get one, won't it just cover up the beautiful design?

Technical Specifications

These phones use the same processor and have the same amount of RAM, so performance-wise they should be identical.  However, some benchmarks have marked the Galaxy S4 out as having slightly higher performance when running games, somehow.  The Galaxy S4 also has about an hour more battery life, on average, but I'm never very far away from a charger, so I'm not too concerned about that.

They both have a 1080p screen, but the Galaxy S4's screen is slightly larger, meaning that there's better pixel density on the HTC One.  The Galaxy S4's visuals are also more highly saturated, meaning that the colors are more vivid (but less true to life).

The Galaxy S4 continues the trend of back-mounted, relatively crummy phone speakers; the HTC One, on the other hand, includes true front-mounted stereo speakers, for what is reportedly the best audio playback experience of any phone, ever.  As someone who likes to use his phone to play music while taking a shower, that's a very exciting prospect!  I can usually barely hear my phone with the water running, but apparently the HTC One's speakers are fantastically loud.

The most important points to me are the Galaxy S4's removable battery and microSD card slot.  The HTC One doesn't have those; that means that, with the HTC One, I can't carry around a spare battery, replace the battery if it goes bad, or increase my total amount of storage space.  But do I really need to do those things? Batteries are pretty reliable, and I'm so often near a charger.  If I really need that extra battery life, I can buy a portable charging pack for $20 (the cost of a spare battery).  And with excellent wifi and 4G everywhere, won't cloud storage be sufficient to provide me whatever files I need at the moment?

It's tough, because these devices offer two different solutions to a problem, when I don't even know if I have that problem yet.  How am I supposed to decide?  I can maximize my utility in this particular area with the Galaxy S4, but at what cost?

Other Stuff

There are a few other things worth mentioning.  First, there's the fact that the Galaxy S4's screen is reportedly especially sensitive; you can use it wearing gloves, and it has support for apps that let you hover over the screen, without touching it, to control it.  That's kind of cool, but it's unlikely to be widely adopted in general apps; that means I would probably not even being able to use it if I installed a custom version of Android.  As for using it with gloves, that's what capacitivate gloves and noses are for!

The Galaxy S4 comes with a few other features, like eye-tracking technology to scroll the screen, that the HTC One doesn't have.  But are these any more than a gimmick?  They also don't seem to work outside of Samsung's built-in software, and I saw how great gimmicks can be with the 3D on my EVO 3D that I left permanently turned off.

Conclusion

These are both amazing phones from great companies.  I won't really be able to decide until I've held them each in my hand.  And writing all this down, unfortunately, hasn't given me any clues as to what I should do!  I'm not good at dealing with two competing choices, as you can probably tell; a strong part of me wishes I could just have them both.  Unfortunately, that isn't always possible.

Thanks for listening to my rambling to myself.  As a reward, here is a poem by Pablo Neruda:

Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. 
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.