Alright I am looking for a new android phone here are my requirements
Dev Support (CM10 mostly)
Audio
Battery Life
Storage Space
Camera
Here are the phones I have looked at and why I don't like them.
Nexus 4 - 16gb of storage max is a joke
One X+ - weak battery life and camera
LG Optimus G - locked bootloader (WHY GOD WHY?)
S3 - ugly as sin when not black
I am on ATT and looking for unlocked, LTE doesn't matter as I won't be getting it soon anyway but HSPA+ is a must.
I have no problem importing either.
Feel free to convince me otherwise on the phones listed as well. WHY ISN'T THE LG OPTIMUS G UNLOCKED?!
Well I cant only really say something about the S3, I recently changed my iPhone 4 out for a S3 and I couldnt be happier. its really fast and in my opinion its by far the most beautiful phone out there right now.
The battery life isnt impressive, but from what I know, none of the high-end android phones have good battery life. but there are programs that can double the battery life, maybe even tripple..
You could check out the Asus Padfone 2, not sure when it's officially released, but it looks awesome.
I'll list out some options which have CM10 support.
-Nexus 4
-Galaxy Note 2
-Galaxy S 3 (But you don't like the look so don't get it.)
-HTC One X (As you said, battery life is sub-par)
That's most of the 'high-end' phones which have CM10 support as of now. As PvM Colton suggested the Asus Padfone 2 has the same specs as the LG Optimus G (namely the quadcore A15 aka s4 pro) but I don't know if it has CM10 support. You can try waiting for the HTC J Butterfly (5" screen, 1080p res which will go unused for a phone IMO)
Personally I would go with the Nexus 4. And i'm going to give my opinion on it, you don't necessarily have to agree. It has glass on both sides (gorilla glass 2 which is same strength as gorilla glass 1, but thinner therefore allowing more light to pass through), there is a plastic curve on both sides which means either way you place it down the glass itself won't touch the (flat) surface and the front screen is ever so slightly curved at the ends. It also has the S4 pro (quad core 1.5Ghz) and a HD resolution (1280 * 768) along with it's 8MP camera with the Sony sensor (I'll have to confirm which sensor it is later) and has HSPA+ enabled. It also uses IPS over SAMOLED.
Even though it's only 16gb storage, the second it comes out I'm paying $400 for one. That is INSANELY cheap. Nearly half of what the other phones are with similar or worse specs. In my mind it's a no brainer. Superb camera which beats the GS3 in macro and low lights (source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/02/nexus-4-review/) and also has a faster processor with better architecture (namely A15 28nm vs A9 32nm) and without a doubt will have massive developer support.
I actually still have my Nexus S which still has new roms and kernels coming out each day, and got JB a few days after the GNote2 came out.
Here's a review from the verge: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-nexus-4-review
If the Optimus G doesn't get unlocked in a few weeks here then yea I'll be picking up the nexus 4 and just dealing with not having all the music on my phone.
scraps, these are android phones not iPhones, you can buy better batteries and insert 64GB micro SD cards, both are fairly cheap
you can also set a CPU governer to where its underclocked to almost nothing while the screen is locked and custom brightness levels to extend battery life
also recently I bought a net 10 android phone, it was kinda crappy but it was cheap, I couldn't root it but, I could take out the SIM card, insert it into a phone that uses the same type of antenna as the AT&T and changed the APN settings to that of my old phone, I have it in a Sprint Phonton which is a heck of a lot better than the LG optimus logic and rooted
here's the best part, with net 10's $50 unlimited plan you get UNLIMITED DATA at at&ts 4G speeds. combine that with a rooted phone with mobile hot spot and you are in POVERTY HEAVEN, talk text, phone data and computer internet all for 50 bucks a month
great if you live in a ALL AT&T area like me
I think the low storage is a push from google towards cloud based storage, rather than local storage. Although many of our data plans can't handle it yet it'll be frustrating to keep HD video, music and apps under 16gb. I think USB OTG might help if you're on the go, but if you're at home get a router which supports network storage. Meaning you can connect a harddrive to your router and therefore access your network harddrive through any computer.
On android ES File Explorer allows this through the 'LAN' button. I often take my phone (Galaxy Note) and just watch stuff on my harddrive.
Except the nexus 4, optimus G and HTC One X+ have none of these besides the underclocking.
If it really affects you, go for a phone with it. Maybe a Galaxy Note2/S3? They're pretty fast on their own and allow hotswappable SD cards.
Had the note 1 and can't deal with it's size also the S3 as bad as it sounds is just too ugly for me.
I have been doing the samething. ES file explorer rocks!
just my 2 cents there, i would recommend:
1. Galaxy Note 2 international version -
The Good: sheer size and performance is awesome. development community is growing at xda developers forum. Future proof. The bad: camere could have been better, slow OS updates, plasticky build. Bloatware, bloatware, bloatware
2. Nexus line devices (eg, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, etc) - The good: first wave of new OS updates, free from bloatware, rooting is as easy as breathing, rock solid OS development community. The Bad: Bare bones OS, camera not as good as equally priced phone. glass back on Nexus 4? bad idea
that is all i can think of.