Agreed. They do so many things right as a company, and I
really want to love the Droid DNA-- the audio quality out of the headphone jack is just vastly superior to the S3 (US version, no Wolfson DAC for us 'Mericans
), the interface is great, the USB DAC funtionality works really well, the screen is great, battery life is impressive, reception is WAY better than my S3 (like WAAAY better), etc etc. But then they don't put a $%^&* memory card slot in it??
How can you miss something that basic??? And they don't even make an attempt to cover for it by offering multiple storage sizes-- which the S3 does, btw.
Samsung inevitably pisses me off with every device I purchase from them by embodying every possible corporate clusterhump on their firmware updates (proud owner of a 7.7 tablet that has tried-- and failed-- to do the ICS update almost
40 times now, with zero apparent effort at a fix from these clowns). But they have a memory card-- and I don't see how a music-carrying phone owner could possibly do without that.
HTC: give me a Droid DNA with a smaller screen (4.6-4.8 with a narrow body is about perfect), A MEMORY CARD SLOT accepting 64gb on top of reasonable internal storage (at least 16gb, preferably more), and a screen that is less prone to breaking, and I'm all in. I can even (almost) forgive the built-in battery thing, since the battery life on mine is pretty solid. Just don't sell me a damn car with no friggin' tires on it-- a top-tier smartphone in 2013 without a memory card slot is absolutely idiotic in the extreme (no offense, but I most certainly include Apple in that category).
IMO, HTC has always had a leg up on Samsung and everybody else in the user interface department-- the first generation Incredible on Verizon was vastly smoother and more polished than anything Motorola or Samsung had at the time, including the Galaxy S. They just can't seem to get everything together in one solid package. Best attempt they've had thus far (IMO, I haven't messed with the One X yet) was the Rezound-- but it didn't have the battery life of the newer devices, and it didn't have the headphone jack the DNA has.
Come back to us, HTC. I've already marked Motorola off my list for incompetence, and I'd love to be able to buy a device from you without having to apologize for some boneheaded lack of basic common sense. I'll be waiting with open arms, piles of headphones, and a beer full of Fat Tire 1554.