[Moto Maxx General] ChazzMatt:
I agree with your views on the current Nexus line-up. Google lost their way after the 2013 LG Nexus 5. First the 2014 6" Nexus 6 whale! (When they were testing a 5.2" version! It would have been FANTASTIC!) Then they tried to remedy that huge mistake that by releasing TWO Nexus phones in 2015 -- both SMALLER than the Whale (see, they admitted they screwed up) . BUT, they made the smaller 5.2" Nexus phone have low-end specs. 2GB RAM, 1080p? That's what my 2013 Nexus phone had! Why should I buy another? :rolleyes:

Plus, neither Nexus this year has Qi wireless, when Google promoted that standard heavily in Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and even the whale Nexus 6 (and at least one of their Nexus tablets). Now they are ditching it? Their excuse about the new USB Type-C Charging Port charging port replacing Qi wireless is ridiculous. It's not either/or -- you can have BOTH. :rolleyes: (Samsung has BOTH with the Galaxy S7.) Fine, put a faster USB charging port in, but STILL give me Qi wireless. If I don't want to plug my phone in, then I don't want to plug my phone in. DON'T FORCE ME TO. Yeah, sometimes I have to plug my phone in, but when I don't that's less stress on the USB port -- which is the greatest point of hardware failure in smartphones (besides cracked screens). Qi wireless is very handy, and once you have it you don't want to give it up. :good: I have tilted charging pads in the living room, bedroom, plus even at my mother's house when we go visit her.

I've always liked LG phones, having owned several -- but yeah the newest LG G5 seems very gimmicky. I do like they reduced the screen size a little, from 5.5" to 5.3". On the LG G3 and LG G4, 5.5" was at the edge of my comfort zone. But rather than radical change, they should have just improved the G4 some more, as the the G4 was an improvement on the G3 and before that the G2 (on which the LG Nexus 5 was based). But with the G5 all-metal body, no Qi wireless. :rolleyes: And they went gimmicky with that break-away bottom, which some reviewer say doesn't unlock very well.

Last year's LG G4 was an excellent phone. I actually won one last summer in an AT&T contest. I installed a Qi wireless sticker I got off eBay behind the back cover to enable that functionality, instead of buying the stupid "folio" case" the carriers try to foist on you. But after that, the LG G4 stayed in the box for months, and I recently sold it on eBay. The AT&T version bootloader couldn't be unlocked at that time (haven't checked recently, and other carrier versions can be unlocked), and I loved my Quark so much. As far as specs, the only advantages of the LG G4 over the Quark was slightly faster CPU and rear camera OIS. I liked the size of the Quark better (5.2" vs 5.5"), so the Quark won.

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As for alternatives, the new HTC 10 seems to be excellent, except with the all-metal body it also doesn't have Qi wireless. Until I confirmed that, it really caught my interest for a few minutes. For people who don't care about wireless charging (I do), it might be a phone to consider.

From reviews, they've toned down the HTC Sense UI interface considerably, and it has great specs.

The HTC 10 will be available in four color combinations: Carbon Grey, Glacier Silver, Topaz Gold and Camellia Red.

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_10-7884.php

5.2", 1440p

Snapdragon 820

4GB RAM

rear camera OIS

fantastic audio

32/64GB internal memory

microSD card for up to 200GB more memory

decent battery -- 3000 mAh (same as Samsung's Galaxy S7), but not as good as our 3900 mAh

turbo charging

fingerprint scanner (which I don't care about, but matches Samsung Galaxy S7)

While HTC hasn't used AMOLED screen technology (it's Super LCD 5), it claims the display on the 10 looks like it could be, as it's boosted color saturation and brightness for a better look.

It also claims the HTC 10 has the world's fastest touchscreen, with very low latency - that means instant reactions whenever your finger prods the display.

Lots of bands:

If only it had Qi wireless! :rolleyes:

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I'm keeping my Quarks for several more months, at least until the 2 year mark near the end of 2016. I'll see if Google gets their act together to give us a reasonable sized Nexus phone with top tier specs, or if Lenovo/Motorola launches something good. Who know, Sony may even surprise us?

Whatever eventually replaces my Quarks will have to have bootloader unlock and full root capability. Not buying any phone without that in hand. ;)

If forced to, I could buy a 2015 Moto X Force (Kinzie), the successor to our Quarks. By that time (end of 2016) the price will have really gone down and perhaps there will be more XDA development? "Kinzie" already has Motorola stock Marshmallow, unlock-able bootloader, root, "unofficial" TWRP and "unofficial" CM12.1.

The Droid Turbo 2/Moto X Force are sharing the same XDA forum -- just like Quark did for almost a year. But they don't have someone like [MENTION=2228410]Skrilax_CZ[/MENTION] to put out official CM ROM or [MENTION=5747496]baybutcher27[/MENTION] to pull together official TWRP recovery + a couple of other ROMs. ;) Their CM 12.1 doesn't even have the "improved" Ambient Display [MENTION=2228410]Skrilax_CZ[/MENTION] put into our CM ROMs, which mimics Moto Display with IR sensor response. All they have is the "regular" Android Ambient Display.

We (Quark) are actually better off than them (Kinzie), development-wise, even if they have a "newer" phone!

Motorola Droid Turbo 2/Moto X Force

http://xdaforums.com/droid-turbo-2

These are specs for the Moto X Force: