I'm buying a new phone when I get my paycheck tomorrow, and want some final discourse as to which phone I choose. I have been eyeing the Nexus 5 and the OnePlus One. It just has to work in the US under AT&T and be under $350. Only requirements really, shoot!
Moto X and OnePlusOne are both good.
I have heard bad and good about Nexus 5, people seem to have varied experiences
Moto x (2013)-
Great phone with near stock android and fast updates to latest versions. It has a few added software tweaks that make it more useful, for example touchless control (your phone is trained to listen for your voice and when prompted you can do google searches or various commands such as "text john I'll see you in 5"). Most Moto xs are unlockable if you dont like the rom it comes with.
Nexus 5-
The purest android experience money can buy. Nothing special here just pure android, has the fastest update times since it comes right from google. Extremely easy to unlock and loads of support for custom roms. I can almost guarantee that there will be custom support for this phone long after google stops supporting it.
OnePlus One-
You've probably already seen Logan's videos on the phone. I've never used one but it sounds really nice. Cyanogenmod support is great (but if cyanogenmod is a selling point you can load it on to most android phones).
Htc One (M7) (used ebay)-
If you can find this phone in a good condition on ebay in your price range then I'd say consider it. Great build quality (if thats your thing) nice thick metal body and in my opinion feels great. A downside however is sense, htc's custom skin on android. I haven't played with sense for very long but I hear its not that bad. I like the visuals but personally I would unlock it and install a custom rom. (not sure how easy this is to unlock
Moto G (if you dont want to spend that much)-
Basically the same as the Moto X but some lower specs and no custom software tweaks from motorola, meaning the phone has stock android. Great budget phone, its a little more than half your budget.
Im assuming you are buying an off contract phone. If not here are some to consider:
Htc One (M8)
Nexus 6
Moto X (2014)
I can only recommend a Samsung or LG phone if you know you are going to unlock it and install a custom rom. Touch-Wiz and whatever LG does are awful. My parents for whatever reason bought phones and tablets from Samsung and there isnt a day that goes by that my mom doesn't complain about how slow and unresponsive it is.
I used to have an HTC One X and it was garbage. Front cam failed within a month, and I found Sense to be extremely unstable. It was also ridiculously bloated, it used 800MB of my 1GB at idle.
the Lg G2 is still a very nice phone and I think they are pretty cheap now that the g3 is out.
I have heard great reviews from trusted people about the One M7. The One X was released a year before the m7 and has much lower specs than the M7.
Basically whatever shit HTC pulled with the One X they fixed before making One M7
The G3 looks pretty good from what I have seen, it has a great screen but that screen also causes the software to turn down the brightness of the screen to stop it from overheating if it gets hot. Also there is the downside of not many apps being optimized for such a high res screen. I haven't personally used LG's software but from what I've heard its a little bloated and slow.
Nexus 5, Moto X, Moto G, One PlusOne, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Galaxy s3
I have the Moto G and the only issue I have with it is NFC. I wish it supports NFC. IMO go with the Nexus 5
Can you explain why you would choose the Nexus 5 over, say, the OnePlus One?
I have the one plus one in my hand right now. I don't care if there customers service sucks, I don't care in the software is buggy (it just crashed not five minutes ago) and I don't care if the bottom of my screen is yellow. This is hands down the best Android phone I have ever used. If I don't like something I can just change it. I could not do that on my 700$ galaxy, made of the cheapest plastic they could find. The one plus one is a fabulous device even if it was 600$. However it is not for everyone, if you don't like tinkering with your phone to get it to work perfectly then you should get another phone.
I really like my nexus 5 ;P the only downside i could think of might be battery life but when you compare it to other phones its pretty normal.
If you can get a oneplus one and you don't mind the size, then get that. But the nexus 5 is still a great option.
I just got an iPhone 5s refurbished on eBay for $325 and even though I'm coming from a nexus 4 the battery life is good so far and it's as smooth if not smoother than the nexus 4.
If you don't do a lot of fun stuff on your phone, want to use it for work only basically, and you're working with MS-Office, you might as well go for the new Microsoft Lumia 535 for 120 USD. It's a 5" phone, it does selfies quite well, it makes calls and does skype quite well, it has more office functionality.
If you want a very functional phone that does a lot of stuff, and you want a lot of choice in applications and high tech easy to use greatness, go for an Android phone, for instance the new Huawei Honor 6 which is about 250 USD and has a lot of features and a crazy good octocore SoC.
I'm still in school so business functionality is not too important. The Honor 6 looks badass for the price, but does it work well on American networks? I don't know much about phones yet so sorry for the n00b question.
I can't answer that for you I'm afraid. Look at the specs, and then look at what networks your carrier uses.
I'm not familiar with the networks problem in the US, when I go to the US with my German SIM, everything just works because I roam on all available networks, even when my SIM is T-Mobile, which is also a US carrier...
It's one of the things with carriers, that they refuse to collaborate and offer home market roaming... someone with a foreign SIM can use all carriers, but someone with a domestic SIM can't... there's just something about that that doesn't make much sense in my opinion lolz...