[Moto Maxx General] Septfox:
There is no "including" CDMA, Snapdragon radios can use every band under the sun by default. It comes down to whether manufacturers want to jump through Verizon and the FCC's hoops to enable it state-side. Well, and I suppose there are minor physical considerations like antenna size, but that's the beauty of designing and manufacturing your own handsets; you can put in whatever you please. <insert headphone jack-based stab at Apple here>

Key thing being "at some point in time". Verizon's not going to shut their CDMA towers off until they know that they'll lose the minimum number of customers doing it; once they get enough LTE towers set up, they'll "generously" offer to "upgrade" customers who're using CDMA/VoLTE-less devices, possibly at a "reduced price".

Until then, Verizon CDMA has the best coverage here in the states, particularly in rural areas. Sitting here at my desk, I have minimum signal, but still enough to call out clearly; my boss's T-Mobile phone wouldn't be so lucky.

Of course, the above is likely to change too, as we get closer to CDMA being completely defunct...more GSM towers going up, T-Mobile, Sprint and their MVNOs getting ready to snap up older Verizon customers when they realize that they were talked into buying a phone using dead-end cellular technology this late into the game.

It's going to be interesting to see how Verizon plans to exert control and keep customers, once CDMA is gone. They're going to need to adopt a different strategy, to continue making buying their locked-down phones appealing, since the whole "because our network is the best and only OUR radios are configured to work on it!" thing will be out.

Sure, being able to buy a phone over a two-year contract is nice (well I mean, contracts are nice if you like being at the mercy of the universe's sense of humor, personally I'd rather buy outright), but all carriers offer that sort of thing nowadays...and they don't sell "exclusives" that are gimped versions of the real thing. Usually.

Oh come on, people don't buy copycat phones because they're trying to make a fashion statement, they buy them because they're cheaper than getting an S#, iphone, uhh...whatever else is competing with those in a given year.

To be honest, I see nothing wrong with there being a bunch of "me too" phones out there. They create competition, the higher-end ones (such as those by Xiaomi and OnePlus) put some pressure on the big players like Apple/Samsung/Lenovo to keep their prices from staying stupid-high for more than a few months at most. The low- to mid-range ones offer anyone low on cash an opportunity to have a frankly more than adequate handset. Gone are the days where "only" spending $150 on a phone meant you were getting something almost uselessly slow.

No argument here. It's not a completely fair comparison since we're talking old flagship next to newish mid-range phone, but putting my "old" 1440p AMOLED screen next to my mother's g4 Plus 1080p IPS screen...the image quality, contrast and pixel response difference is night and day. Literally the only thing hers has going for it is maximum brightness.

And even two AMOLED screens, the higher-res version is going to win. The only way I can see someone not telling a difference is if they either need glasses, or never use their phone for an extended period of time.

If it weren't for the large price difference when I was shopping, I would have bought an Axon 7 over the Turbo, despite it being slightly bigger. It really is a fantastic package aside from the lack of Qi charging, which is livable as far as I'm concerned. Just couldn't justify the $100+ difference for a used one at the time, and I badly needed a new phone.

Nokia has the distinct advantage of a legendary brand name, without the disadvantage of being seen as "business-only" like Blackberry. They've already put out some Android phones that have been fairly well-received, so...why not? If they can manage the specs they're pushing without being too insanely overpriced (*coughBB-Privcough*), they should do fine...enough to continue experimenting, anyway.

It helps too that the concept images for the Nokia 9 thus far have painted a drop-dead gorgeous handset. If it's reasonably sturdy, looks good, and is fast, people might even be willing to overlook its lack of a headphone jack (which I suspect is a reality).