I currently have a Galaxy Note II running SlimKat (Android 4.2.4) and lately my phone has been giving lots of problems; USB connection is finicky, headphone jack doesn't work anymore, burn marks on the screen (no idea how that happened), a few software bugs, etc. I've been putting up with it for the most part, but the final straw was at a concert, the phone just had a bunch of problemstook piss poor pictures, and I lost a huge chunk of battery with GPS (lost 45% for 1.5 hours worth of GPS; again, 3100mAh battery). The pictures were really bad. The video wasn't bad, but the still pictures were blurry and full of artifacts/noise, no matter what adjustments I made, in terms of quality, resolution, exposures, scene modes, etc.
I know phones in general take poor low-light pictures; it's just physics. However, I'd like to know if you know of any decent phones that can take decent low-light pictures, and have excellent low-usage battery life - I listen to lots of music, sometimes stream over Pandora. My phone can do it, but it's because of the sheer battery size because my phone gets stuck in a wake locks (culprit is mdm_hsic_pm0; no idea how it's caused, or know of any work arounds) constantly. Usual usage is 1-3% an hour, but in a wake lock spikes up to 7-10% an hour, and my days can be longer than 10 hours
In addition, I need a phone with strong AOSP support, either officially, or community development and somewhat affordable. $600 or less, off-contract.
TL;DR - I need a new phone, with the following requirements:
- Good low-light pictures (I don't use flash)
- good battery life (10+ hrs of light usage; low screen-on time; lots of music)
- $600 or less off-contract
- AOSP support (Officially, or stable community developed)
- Expandable storage (ie Micro SD)
- AWS (T-Mobile HSPA+) and LTE support
- Large screen with small bezel
Phones I have been considering:
- Note 3/Note 4 (I really liked my Note when it worked)
- Moto X Gen 2
- Moto G LTE
- OnePlus One (if I could get a darn invite)
Any other phones worth considering? Which do you think best suites my needs?