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Comment by Sven7 | Hacker News Reader

I hope they compete on price. $600 phones are ridiculous.

$600 telephones might be ridiculous. $600 cutting-edge computers that fit in your pocket? Seems totally justifiable.

Tell me one thing you do with a $600 computer that fits in your pocket that you cant do with a $200 computer that fits in your pocket.

Play Bad Piggies.

I swear to god the phone is about to melt down when this thing is done. It must be working every CPU and GPU at 101%.

Run the auto-updated version of an app, that uses twice the RAM to do the same work the previous version did.

This x100. Thought it was just me. Over 6 month period of time my phone went from snappy to laggy, with really no new apps installed - just updates.

It of course depends on a lot of factors, but a number of Android devices have performance degradation over time, so it can't always be blamed on app upgrades. See for example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grilledmon... and googling whatever specific device you have for the thousands of other people with the same problem.

Hmm. Only the $600 computer has the feature that I feel better that I am not contributing toward a race to the bottom in computer design.

That is very nice of you. I try to buy things that I actually need and use, so to me the $600 pocket fitting computer is still pretty ridiculous.

They can't be made for less so if the value isn't there for you, stay out of that market (I never have or will bought a 3D TV for this reason). Buy your "dumb phone" and be happy.

I'd gladly pay 1k for decent battery (2 days actual use) and a keyboard. No &$@#+=! Soft touch "buttons" for back, etc.

What phone do you use? And whats it typically used for?

i still have a nexus one with a extended seidio battery. the original battery, since day one, when it reaches 20% the phone shut off. typical google hardware quality... using swype since day one. i think I would have been back to dumb nokia phone if it wasn't for swype. ...after i spend weeks creating a custom linux "language" for it. (select a language you don't have a dictionary for, and create all commands manually in the custom user dict)

I mostly use the phone for GPS and reading email. i'd reply to emails as well, but too painful. Often i have to use it to comunicate or type things. it's not a hardcore usage. i don't even use SSH much on it. It took me 2 years to find out that car chargers are crippled by apple deals and did not charge my phone correctly, so using it as GPS plugged in, i could only get 6h of use. After a little soldering to get a proper car charger, i get a little more, but the phone burns hot.

wife and everyone at work has the samsung ones (s3, s4 and note2) the note 2 i simply can't use for 2 min without pressing the back button accidentally! my nexus one is the opposite. i can't activate the damn buttons one the first try! ever! some people even try and try and just handle me back so i can press the soft button for them (have to press with the 'meaty' part of the finger for it to work).

anyway, i will probably set for the S4 active (with lower camera, cpu and much inferior screen, but at least slightly rugged and has actual buttons)... because a GSM android phone with a qwerty keyboard is non-existent.

i hold my breath at launch for the backflip. excellent keyboard! until i realized it had the worst cpu ever, and as of today, it only runs android 1.5

for good historic phones i've used with good keyboard, #1 was a nokia 6820 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6820-565.php (maybe same as e70)

I'm still carrying around a nexus one as well. Did you have to deal with the broken power button issue? Every day I feel like an idiot having to plug it in, unplug it and plug it in again in just the right way to get it to short circuit on again...

I like my Nexus 4's soft touch buttons, thanks. It really depends upon personal taste.

Nexus 4 doesn't have any soft keys, it has the onscreen UI

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