[General Questions and Answers] Good Son 5:
tonygamble, I'm someone who typically has no problems getting away from big brand devices as I generally like to support small businesses, and I especially don't find have a brand like Samsung written across my device as a positive - but rather a negative.

A few years back, when my big brand device crapped out on me right before I was about to go traveling, I opted for a cheaper replacement that I could get quickly. Also, since I was about to be traveling internationally, band compatibility with North America (like Planterz mentioned) was not an issue for me. So I got a, unlocked Blu Dash 5.0. It came with a lot of bloatware that the setting for which were all written in Chinese - not exactly accessible for me when I tried to remove it. Eventually, due to several hours lurking at this very forum, I got that crap off there and got it looking decent with Nova launcher. As a travel phone, it worked just fine, connecting to most wifi and basic voice/text as needed. So all in all, not a bad experience with fairly limited phone.

Fast forward to today, and I am in the market for a new phone once again. I am trying to stay within the $250 to $350 range, so again I am looking at smaller brand phones. But this time the phone must be compatible with all the popular North American wireless bands, so that removes a lot of the phones direct from Asia. Also, from the vast majority of reviews that I have read of phones within that price range, none of the smaller brand phones seem to have good cameras. For example, I was considering the Asus Zenfone 2 (despite it's look) because of processing and storage capabilities, but overall reviews of the camera seems to be pretty bad. I really like the look/design of the Elephone phone, but I can't find many reviews of it, and the ones I can don't speak to highly of the build quality, functionality of the finger-print scanner, and one called the camera a "pure let down." I was leaning toward a Sony Xperia Z3 until I went into Best Buy and I came to find the camera speed was slower than my Blu phone. Sure, if everything was perfectly still it would take nice photos, but I want something a little more user-friendly. So I am considering a HTC M8, Moto Maxx, or maybe a One+ .... but I am strongly leaning towards an LG G4. Bigger brand then I would usually go for, but it appears to be best phone for the price to me at the moment -

So I am currently looking at an unlocked LG G4 on Amazon for $299 (with a US warranty). It is has a leather back, which I am sure feels decent, but I will just stick a case on it so it is of no significance really. To me it seems like it is the best combination of having a good and versatile camera + expandable storage + processing capabilities + a removable/replaceable battery (not a "must" for me, but nice to have) and it is in the range of $250 to $350. Has anyone here had experience with the G4?

Is there a better phone out there in that range? Or, alternatively, are there any phone's in the $350 to $450 range that are so much better that I should save up for them? Any advice and input will be much appreciated.

---------- Post added at 01:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:24 AM ----------

Will it forever be impossible to root the V10 and G4?

Also, how do you think the V10 stacks up to the other phones in its price range?