• What country are you in? This helps me determine availability as well as radio support/performance.
• What price range are you considering/how price sensitive are you?
• How many years do you go between upgrades?
• If in the US, are you willing to pick up a subsidized phone attached to a 2 year contract?
• How durable does your device need to be? Are drops a regular occurrence? Do you have kids or pets?
• How important is customizability?
• How important is ease of use? How comfortable are you with new technology/interfaces?
• What are you using currently?
• Do you have a lot of music and/or other digital content associated with one platform or another? Are you married to one platform or another for any particular reason?
• How long do you spend away from outlets during the day? How important is multi day battery life?
• Do you have size considerations? Are you comfortable with a large phone, or is one handed use important?
• Do you need the fastest, baddest ass device?
• How often do you take pics and in what conditions? Are you an avid smartphone snapper and value good IQ? Do you want to mess with settings or have your pictures just come out great?
• Any other specific use cases you want to be considered? Do you attend a lot of concerts and need to get a good audio recording? Do you film adventures with your smartphone?

I know you already helped me a bit before, but I figured I'd participate and get any other advice you have. I'll be buying the new phone on New Year's Eve.

1) US

2) up to $300 with contract

3) I have been upgrading every 2 years, but mostly because other problems I'll describe below.

4) Contract is how I have always done it. I prefer Verizon.

5) I never drop my phone and have never used a case. I am considering it because in the 4 years I've been using smart phones I've had 4 separate phones. I keep having to get them replaced because at my violin shop I use fine steel wool and it somehow collects on the speaker through the opening while in my pocket and the speaker gets crackly and useless. I need suggestions for a case, if necessary, that will protect against this.

6) Customization isn't very important.

7) Completely foreign can be annoying but I can deal with it. Both of my phones have been HTC so I am familiar with Sense and it takes me a second to figure out things on my boss' Samsung when I have to be tech support. I briefly owned a iPod Touch from the iPhone 3g generation so I am somewhat familiar with iOS, but I'm sure it is quite different now.

8 HTC DNA which currently has an unusuable speaker and the headphone port no longer works.

9) I am not tied to anything, but I use Windows computers and iOS devices can be annoying to interface. All of my music is in flac so whatever device that can handle that would be a bonus.

10) Multi day battery is not important, but more is always good. My DNA was originally supposed to not be great about battery life, but I have had no problems at all.

11) My first phone, the original Droid Incredible, was about 4 inch, but thick. The DNA is about 5 inch but thinner. At first I thought the DNA was too big, but as I tried it in the store the thinness made it easy to pocket. I don't think I would want anything much larger, especially if I'll be using a case this time.

12) I don't need the best, but I tend to get top quality stuff anyway. I can afford it, so why not.

13) It would be handy to hav e a better camera. I usually use my old point and shoot for anything that needs to be high quality, even though it isn't all that great.

14) I have a wireless charging pad I would like to keep using, so the phone and case need to be compatible. Regarding the case, I hate grippy rubber, so the cases need to be hard/slick.

I like the HTC One M8 which has the best audio quality of the phones I've tested. I use a 128GB microSD with it on T-Mobile and a Nexus 6 for Verizon (too big for normal people).

Amen to that, especially those glorious front-firing speakers.

I'm curious though, do you use aa case on your M8? II found it too damn slippery otherwise.

Is there an Android version of Siri? Co-worker has an iPhone and uses Siri often. Seems handy to set alarms/timers, place calls/text and look up information quickly.

Went by Verizon today, but they were closing early so only got about 15 mins to look around. Liked the One M8 and the Turbo. Both have their speakers on the front, so I'm not sure how to protect them from the steel wool I use. I'll have to go back another day to spend more time with more models.

Is there an Android version of Siri? Co-worker has an iPhone and uses Siri often. Seems handy to set alarms/timers, place calls/text and look up information quickly.

Went by Verizon today, but they were closing early so only got about 15 mins to look around. Liked the One M8 and the Turbo. Both have their speakers on the front, so I'm not sure how to protect them from the steel wool I use. I'll have to go back another day to spend more time with more models.

Google now. It's pretty close to siri in function, though it prefer certain keywords for triggering action, it's not as "talkative" as siri.

As for protection against the steel wool, I know there are flip cases that covers the whole front, it should sit flush against the speaker for the m8 and droid turbo.

Case for m8: http://www.amazon.com/HTC-One-M8-Terrapin-Feature/dp/B00IJ5ZNKK/ref=sr_1_8?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1420119894&sr=1-8&keywords=one+m8+flip+case

Case for droid turbo: http://www.amazon.com/Abacus24-7-Wallet-Leather-Motorola-Pockets/dp/B00Q2XISGM/ref=sr_1_2?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1420120786&sr=1-2&keywords=droid+turbo+flip+case

Cool, thanks. Now to find a case that protects the speaker and is still compatible with wireless charging...