My Favorite Smartphones [Early 2015]

The smartphone market has exploded with offerings from all sorts of manufacturers. Unless you keep up with the latest news on phones nobody can possibly keep up with the latest and greatest. I will list my favorites in no particular order except for my overall winner. The reasons which I like a specific phone differ greatly from the average consumer's point of view, however I won't allow that to interfere.

OnePlus One

Starting off the list is my overall favorite phone. It has been out for a while now and is still the king of phones in my opinion. Despite being impossible to buy the One is a very special phone. I recently purchased one and I really like everything about it. Starting with an off-contract price of $300 for the 16GB version and $350 for the 64GB version the One is all about being the best at everything including price. Packed with a Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, 5.5" 1080p display, 13MP camera, and finally a 3100mAh battery. OnePlus did something special with this phone in that it sips power very slowly. You never have to worry about battery life because this phone will get through the day and night without a problem. In my experience the phone will allow you to get 8 hours of screen on time! That's phenomenal considering the Droid Turbo with it's massive battery can't even claim that. If you are on a GSM carrier, especially an MVNO such as Straight Talk, this phone is absolutely the best phone on the market. OnePlus allows open purchasing of the phone every Tuesday so go to OnePlus.net and you can get the phone there. Also check Swappa.com for used models, I bought mine from here and it was in perfect condition. 

On a separate note the phone currently comes with Cyanogenmod as its OS which allows for some neat customization and better experience on Android overall. The other nice feature that some will appreciate is the ability to unlock the phone's bootloader and root it. There are many custom ROMs to choose from that allow you to really take customization and UI to a new level. 

DROID Turbo

Sorry non-Verizon users feel free to skip this section. The Turbo is a great example of a no compromises smartphone. It has the best battery, processor, RAM, screen, and physical design of any phone. It even has a 21MP camera, Motorola went all out to make a very powerful phone complete with all the neat Moto features such as Active Display, Touchless Controls, and automated features to change your settings depending on setting and location. The Droid Turbo is a max spec phone for anybody on Verizon who wants a phone with no drawbacks. Since the OnePlus cannot be used on Verizon I recommend this phone instead. 

The only drawback to the Turbo and the sole reason I won't be using an upgrade to get it is that the bootloader is locked down. This means I cannot use highly customized ROMs such as Cyanogenmod or Paranoid Android. Again, this is something that most users don't care about and it doesn't detract from the overall quality, speed, and functionality of the phone. The lack of an unlocked bootloader may be a deal breaker for me but unless you already care about that then this is irrelevant information.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Note 4 is the phone Samsung needed to get back into the swing of things. I'd still argue that they are riding the Galaxy SIII hype still. No phone since the SIII has changed mobile the way it did but back to the Note 4. Packed with all the specs you'd expect from a top tier device. The camera is amazing, most reviewers tout it as being the best Android camera out there. The screen, that beautiful screen, the huge display packed with tons of pixels makes a sharp high quality display. The Note 4 has excellent battery life, you won't have to worry about making it through the day on one charge. Anybody on any carrier looking for a phablet should be picking up one of these. Unless you're like me and want to root the Nexus 6 honestly can't touch this phone.