Took a further look at the Z3V today as well as a first time look at the Moto X, both of which are 99 cents (2yr contract) for Mother's Day. The Moto X was not very impressive. Sound quality was fairly good, both speaker and headphone, but the rest of the phone felt unfinished, cheap. The controls weren't as responsive and just felt sluggish in general.

I'd looked at the Z3V before, but it was more of a quick glance, I never tried the speakers or used headphones with it. The Z3V feels a heck of a lot more premium than the Moto X. I loaded up the Walkman app and liked what I saw. Compared to the default music players of other phones this one looked great and felt well organized. It was also one of very few phones I've looked at during all of this that actually had some music on board. The sound quality was excellent (for a phone) and drove my UERMs well, losing just a bit of detail towards the top frequencies. Even the stereo speakers sounded nice until near maximum volume. The UI feels similar enough to Sense that I can transition easily. I will truly miss the internet browser from the HTC phones, though. The side-slide pie-style thumb menu is so nice.

Think I'll pick up the Z3V, despite it being basically a slightly updated Z2, and hold out for a more cutting edge phone next time. Now the question is... white or black?

Well that didn't take long.

www.gsmarena.com/nokia_rumored_to_return_to_making_phones_next_year-news-11976.php

It's a lot more along the lines of "the Nokia badge will return to being on phones." I'm not waiting with bated breath. Nokia's efforts with Android so far have been absolute dogshit, and it makes their jump into Windows Phone seem less stupid in hindsight. Imagine them trying to take on Samsung/HTC/Moto with the garbage they've put out so far.

It's a lot more along the lines of "the Nokia badge will return to being on phones." I'm not waiting with bated breath. Nokia's efforts with Android so far have been absolute dogshit, and it makes their jump into Windows Phone seem less stupid in hindsight. Imagine them trying to take on Samsung/HTC/Moto with the garbage they've put out so far.

What efforts are you referring to? The new N1 tablet which is the only mobile device they make and hass gotten more positive feedback than the iPad? Or the prior half-ass Android phantom devices prior to the Microsoft sale that were used for leverage during the acquisition process? Or do you mean the cheap and free phones Nokia was making for third world countries? Honestly I'm not quite sure what you're on about there.

If the N8 had twice as much memory as it did, I'd still be on Symbian tbh. For my needs, I'd still take a 1020 or 1520 over most Android or Apple devices out there. Heck, the only reason I have an Android phone is the N8 wasn't waterproof and died horribly, and windows phone didn't have the Torque app.

We'll see what happens now that Nokia mobile is based out of Shanghai. Could be better or worse. Time will tell. Honestly, I could give two f**ks about Apple and Samsung's little circle jerk. I don't think Nokia's strategy is, "We must destroy Apple and Samsung NOOWWWW!!!"

Might be interesting to see if Sony and Nokia want to try and share resources in some fashion. Just a random thought.

You also have more options in terms of BYOD with ATT, as the EU doesn't use 1700 AWS as far as I'm aware, so EU market phones tend not to have it. That means pretty much any phone from anywhere that uses GSM, like my imported Galaxy Note 1 for example, has full HSPA+ support everywhere, whereas on T-mobile it's pretty much worthless - EDGE or very limited 3G where T-mobile has 850/1900.

Meh, that's pretty much BS. My last two phones were a N8 and Moto 4G on T-mobile. They don't offer the devices so I BYOD on tmobile just fine. I've also been to nearly 10 countries over the past half year and have free unlimited 3G+ speeds, free texts, and .20c a minute calls in everyone except Vietnam which doesn't have an agreement in place. Nobody out there has a better intl plan than that I know of. Nobody.

Not to mention Verizon is so freaking awesome, they provide no reception where I live ironically. All my friends come to my house with Verizon and nada. Plus they have shit call quality, the compression is awful. I can barely understand wtf anyone on Verizon is saying around here. No thanks.

ATT?  Yeah, I'm not giving those cocksuckers a cent if I can help it.

What efforts are you referring to? The new N1 tablet which is the only mobile device they make and hass gotten more positive feedback than the iPad? Or the prior half-ass Android phantom devices prior to the Microsoft sale that were used for leverage during the acquisition process? Or do you mean the cheap and free phones Nokia was making for third world countries? Honestly I'm not quite sure what you're on about there.

If the N8 had twice as much memory as it did, I'd still be on Symbian tbh. For my needs, I'd still take a 1020 or 1520 over most Android or Apple devices out there. Heck, the only reason I have an Android phone is the N8 wasn't waterproof and died horribly, and windows phone didn't have the Torque app.

We'll see what happens now that Nokia mobile is based out of Shanghai. Could be better or worse. Time will tell. Honestly, I could give two f**ks about Apple and Samsung's little circle jerk. I don't think Nokia's strategy is, "We must destroy Apple and Samsung NOOWWWW!!!"

Might be interesting to see if Sony and Nokia want to try and share resources in some fashion. Just a random thought.

The one phone they've made so far running Android was the god awful Nokia X. You're right that we'll have to wait and see what they can come up with, but like I said, I'm not holding my breath. I don't think they're going to do a pure stock phone, and though I'm sure people would appreciate it if they did, the Nexus 6 is already there, and the rest of Moto's devices are also pretty close to stock. If they make a value play, they'll be unlikely to be able to outmatch the Moto E or Moto G, and at the high-end, they'll run into the GS6. Nokia supposedly didn't go this route initially because they wouldn't be able to differentiate themselves in the market, though of course the real story is much closer to MS handing them a big bucket of cash so they'd shack up with WP, which would fail, devalue Nokia, and then MS could swoop in and buy it.

Now they're back where they started, and the established players are all stronger than they were before. Certainly Samsung's industrial design is light years ahead of where it was when Nokia abandoned Symbian and MeeGo for WP.

I don't think Sony wants to get in bed with another mobile player, not after the Ericsson mess. I think some sort of partnership with HTC might be smarter. Outside of their one flagship, nobody really cares about anything HTC makes.