Because Android is free to use, a lot of different manufacturers release a lot of different Android phones over the course of a year. Some of these phones are first-rate but many of them aren’t. A recent Reddit thread asked Android users to pick out the worst Android phones they’ve ever owned and it contains both some predictable answers and some surprises. Let’s go through their most popular answers.
The LG G3 Stylus
- “Got it for free with my contract, the screen is ultra sensitive, if a little drop of water touches the screen, it becomes unusable for a few minutes, even if my hands are sweating a little bit. The RAM Management is terrible, I can’t have 2 apps running in the background.”
- “It came default with text reading enabled but it was so laggy and so slow and I spend more than two hours trying to get it into activation mode. I’m a pretty calm mellow guy but I wanted to throw it against the wall.”
The LG G2x
Why it was so bad:
- “Holy s—, f— that phone. shudders No explanation needed.”
- “I got it cause it was compatible with my network and it claimed to be ‘pure Android.’ Except for the part where LG then decided never to update it to ICS even though the phone hadn’t even been out for a year when they stopped supporting it.”
- “The G2x was my first Android phone and also the reason I stopped buying LG and decided to get a Galaxy S3 for my next phone.”
- “Fun story, I got mugged in a dark alley once and the robbers took this piece of s— excuse for a phone from me. I kinda felt sorry for them. Also, insurance reimbursed me the full price, allowing me to buy a brand new Nexus 5 for a couple hundred bucks less. Everything went better than expected, I guess.”
HTC Thunderbolt
- “The phone’s battery was atrocious even when new, and one day died in 11 minutes (with no usage). On top of that, when connected to bluetooth, if I was streaming music and happened to get a phone call the phone would lock up. Hardware keys, everything was dead, only way to bring it back to life was a battery pull. I pity anyone who owned or still happens to own that phone.”
- “The Thunderbolt quite literally stopped me from selling HTC phones (I work retail T-Mo/Best Buy) for a few years. Only picked back up selling them with the M8 release.”
- “When I bought it, I immediately bought the bigger battery, but it made the phone a hideous monstrosity. Was nice having LTE back then when it was new, but Verizon took so long on updates that I had to get into custom roms to get Ice Cream Sandwich.”
- “The idea of a kickstand as a FEATURE was pretty awesome for a while, but then when I got it, the kickstand turned out to be flimsy and the pivot point was wonky. I think my screen simply stopped working after a little while, too.”
The Nexus 6
Why it was so bad:
- “I paid $729 after taxes (at release) for a device running Lollipop that was complete and utter s— at the time. The camera takes an incredibly long time for the first shot- which is often filled with noise unless you used HDR- which takes even more time. The battery life for me – regardless of kernal and ROM – was about 3 hrs SOT (average) and once I saw 5 hrs when I wasn’t using GP services. Charging takes 2+ hours unless you’re using Quick Charge. Meanwhile my 2 year old Nexus 5 has better SOT, seems to have better performance, camera produces pretty much the same results, and cost 1/2 the price.”
- “My Nexus 6 broke after 5 months (back raising, constant overheating, HORRIBLE performance), and I had to talk Moto support for 3 months (!) before they agreed to get me a new goddamned phone. They got it sent through some super s— third party support company, which is known for being absolutely horrible and which Moto for some reason works with. Well, turns out my brand new replacement was broken out of the box as well.”
The Galaxy Nexus
- “Absolutely terrible battery life (even with the extended model) and performance. Potato camera. Just bad.”
- “Mine was so laggy by the end of its life. Upgrade to Nexus 5 was by far the biggest leap I’ve made in terms of awesomeness.”
- “Battery life was abysmal. I actually still have it and it now stays on my bedside table as a dedicated alarm clock (plugged in 24/7 out of necessity).”
To see all of the worst Android phones, check out the full Reddit thread at this link.
