So, if you haven’t already read about my phone breaking, please go here: My Phone Died.

I have been looking at the phones on the market, and giving them another once over. So far, it looks like I’ll end up purchasing the Samsung Galaxy S3. Even as I say it, I am shaking my head a little.

I intended to go HTC or Apple.
My current phone was a Samsung, and the build quality has always been lower than the other phones that I’ve played with. The thing was when I bought it, the choices were much more limited and it was a bit of an impulse buy. I wanted a smartphone, and so I went out and grabbed the beefiest non-Apple device I could find. It wasn’t and isn’t that I have anything against Apple, but more that I don’t feel like it is a brand that I identify with.

Samsung devices are powerful, but lack the two things that are important to me: build quality and battery life.

I’m sticking with Bell.
Another sentence that makes me shake my head a bit. This isn’t completely locked in yet, but to get out of the year long contract I have left, I would have to pay more than the upgrade fee. I am hoping to negotiate with Bell when I go to get my new phone, but I know I’m not in the strongest bargaining position.

My current plan suits me well enough, and Bell, while not the best company to have a contract with, isn’t treating me as horrible as they have in my past dealings with them.

Bell doesn’t have the HTC One X, a phone that would have been on my list, but it is exclusive to Rogers. The downsides of the HTC One X are lower specs, no user replaceable battery, and no expansion slot which makes it equivalent to the iPhone in many ways to me, and it seems to have a much better build quality than the Samsung Galaxy S3, and thus closer to the iPhone in build quality.

There wasn’t any point in picking the cheapest option.
I could have gone with a cheap option, but none of them were devices I wanted to stick with for three years, and if I bought a phone from the used market, I would have only had to stick with it for another year, but I wouldn’t be saving any money, and losing the manufacturers warranty.

So why not the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5?
Well, the iPhone 5 will be too expensive, and potentially not available to be in my hand and usable before I take my Thanksgiving trip to Annie’s place.

The iPhone 4S, while a solid device is “last generation” now, and while it is durable, relatively inexpensive, and has a decent battery life, it lacks expandable memory, and Swype, my favourite input solution.

And while I don’t need to be cutting edge when it comes to phones, I believe that the transition from one Android device to another will be easiest for me. I have become accustomed to certain things. I could complain about all the shortcomings of the Android OS, and the fractured marketplace of Android handsets, but at the end of the day, most of those things don’t affect me.

But…
Yes, I know everyone has an opinion, and even I’m not necessarily completely happy with the choices I have. To be perfectly honest, none of the devices in play currently meet all of my needs and feel right to me, but I am hoping to overcome many of the shortcomings of the choice I am making.

I can add a case to it to improve its durability and keep it looking more pristine. It will also let me add my own custom look, which is something I didn’t do last time. I had cases given to me, and bought a few myself, but most of the rubber cases made the device impossible to get in and out of my pants pocket because they were too grippy.

I can get extra batteries or a bigger battery and back to hold that bigger battery. I did this with my last phone, and it allowed me to heavily use my device and get more than a day out of my phone between charges.

I already have a memory card to give it more space, and I have plenty of micro-USB cables around to charge it. So there are more than a few advantages of getting the new Samsung phone. Hopefully, this one lasts longer than two years.

So when are you going to get the new phone?
I am going to play with the phone on Friday, and make my final purchase decision on Monday or Tuesday next week. At this point, I will have potentially had the opportunity to play with Tom’s new iPhone 5, be reasonably impressed, tempted to buy one, and probably still purchase the Samsung device.

If anyone has any tips on where I could save some money in making this purchase, or how to manipulate the Bell staff in giving me some kind of a discount, that would really make my day.

Also, a huge thanks to those that voted on the poll in my previous post. I really appreciated it!