Yes, it's my turn to ask for help. Enjoy the stimulant-induced wall of text.

I kind of want to lock in my Amazon trade-in for my iPhone 4s before it plummets. I've been an iPhone user since 2007--first, because I was an early adopter and there was nothing else out there to compete with the iPhone properly. Likewise, when the 3gs was released, there were very few compelling android-based devices out there to compete, according to reviews at least. By the time I went to the 4S over two years ago, it was essentially out of apathy. At this point, the landscape has changed considerably. I was ready to try out an Android phone, but the release of the iPhone 6 Plus has me considering that as well. Part of me has the feeling that I'm "missing out" on something by not going with an Android phone, and the other part of me kind of doesn't give a shite.

I'm getting tired of reading reviews of phones. For one thing, it's near impossible to read a review that doesn't have an agenda. Secondly, looking at hardware specs is not as helpful as I would hope, because it mostly boils down to the user experience and how well-utilized the hardware is in the first place. Even camera specs can be deceptive because of the marketing jargon and photography-specific terminology that I don't always fully understand, and the most valid comparison for me is simply looking at the same scene photographed by various phones. Hard to find that for a multi-way comparison. I did see such a comparison between the 6, 6 Plus, and the S5, and the low-light photos were considerably better on the iPhone.

I've made a similar post many months ago in the PC thread on the gaming board, but the reply was essentially "Nexus 5." I'll be clear right now: leave out the Nexus 5 in your recommendations. For one thing, the camera on it is not a big enough upgrade from the 4s, and the camera is one of the most important features to me (to an extent). Secondly, I'm on an old-school unlimited plan with AT&T, and I get subsidized phones. Might as well use it since it's built in to my service costs anyway. I'm placing my limit at $299 (and only for the right phone) subsidized price.

Honestly, one of my favorite things about my 4S is being able to Jailbreak and do things I'm not supposed to be doing, and I am not willing to give those up -- including the ad-free unlimited skip Pandora (which I know CAD has me covered there), acquiring apps I'm otherwise supposed to pay for, and unauthorized tethering on my unlimited plan. I really don't know much about how that's achieved on Android, so some enlightenment there would be helpful.

Another feature I'm looking for is a fairly significant boost in camera quality. I'm not necessarily looking for a camera that also happens to be phone, but a phone whose camera was given due diligence in the design process -- something that doesn't just snap high-ISO grainy garbage when indoors. Gotta get good snapshots of the kids, and I quickly learned with baby #1 that carrying around a dedicated camera at all times is not practical.

I also want a bigger screen than the iPhone 4s, which I realize narrows the selection down to approximately every phone.

For phones/tablets in general, I'm not a tinkerer. It's not to say I wouldn't be happy with some level of customization, but I just don't want people to assume that my ridiculous amount of screwing around on PCs translates to mobile devices. Outside of jailbreaking so that I can do things I'm not supposed to do, I'm fairly apathetic. Maybe Android will change my mind about this, because I will admit that the iOS happy little fenced-in petting zoo of an operating system has given me more of a "as long as it works" attitude. It does have its appeal in a way, and it's part of the reason why I am considering the iPhone 6 Plus among all the other options.

I'll also clarify that I am not tied to any ecosystem. I use a combination of Microsoft and Google alongside the iPhone, and use my main PC as a file server. I don't even use iTunes other than as the necessary gate to get media from PC to iPhone.

So anyways, all the above considered, I'd appreciate some suggestions and solid reasoning.

Try to tone down the typical fanboyism. You cannot fool me. If you only have experience with one or two phones, that's fine. Feel free to tell me what your phone can and can't do and how well it will fit my needs. Don't tell me it's the best, though.

This post was edited on 9/17/14 at 11:26 pm