Apple, Samsung, HTC, BlackBerry, Motorola, Kyocera, Pantech… almost too many to list. There are so many different brand names out there that we see on our phones each time we look at them, turn them on, or sometimes even have a signature ring or text tone. We’ve all probably gone through our fair share of phones that we love, and consequently phones that we loathed. Have you ever had an experience with a manufacturer that was either so bad or so good that you’d never look back?

I personally haven’t had any incidents with a phone so irritating that I would curse the name of a brand. Operating system would be a different story, but not brand name. However, working for Sprint I would have some customers that would come in on almost a daily occurrence just begging for a completely different phone, because they’d already gone through two or three of the same brand (different models) and were still having issues. The most popular one would be people trying to get out of their BlackBerry phones, but I think a lot of the time that was just because they got that little taste of what smartphones could do and wanted an upgrade to something better.

When it comes to praising a manufacturer, I’d have to go with HTC. I’ve always had good luck with their phones, and they seem to make very good hardware. The only blunder I had with them was the HTC Hero, and that was just because I was irritated that the metal on the bottom half of the phone scratched off very easily on both my original and my replacement device. But the device itself held up very nicely. I also have to praise HTC for their myTouch 3G Slide. The device was one of my favorites in the hand and the keyboard was fantastic. I will say that I was most disappointed that the HTC EVO 4G Shift had a terrible keyboard, and didn’t feel good at all. Maybe it’s just because I’m lazy and don’t like to push my keyboard out all the time, but the way the myTouch 3G Slide’s keyboard just kind of snapped out when I pushed felt solid.

I’ve never really heard anything bad said about iPhones in regards to the overall design of the device, unless you count my mother who went from an HTC EVO 4G to an iPhone 3GS (carrier switch). I can’t really say much about Androids because so many manufacturers make them, so it’s a whole different ballgame there. When it comes to Apple, they’re one company that makes one type of phone, so it’s easy to point fingers and either say exactly how you feel about them.

Apple may not be the most innovative (anymore) but they do know how to make their phones fast and do the job they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it. As I’ve said before, I hardly ever experience any lag between app switching and I’ve yet to experience a force close on an app. Operating system wise it’s probably the best I’ve used both for simplicity and performance. I was happy about this as I purchased the iPhone expecting to hate it, and assuming everyone loved it simply because it was made by Apple, but as it turns out this phone was a gateway for me to buying one or two other Apple products that have also served me well, and I can safely say that Apple is a brand that I trust.

Speaking of Apple brings me to my next point. There are the people who choose their phones based on past experiences – good or bad – and then you have the people who base their phone choice on what other people think and what’s hot at the time. There’s nothing wrong with that, except for when people do that, there’s a higher chance that person will be returning to the store in a few days. My recommendation for anyone, whether you’re using a contract carrier or prepaid, to do research on a device before purchasing it so you know what to expect beforehand. Now, odds are if something is just that popular it probably works pretty well. However, just because it works well for somebody else doesn’t necessarily mean it would work well for you!

Regardless how you choose your phones, readers, I would like to know if you choose your phones based on who makes it, or is it every phone deserving of a chance regardless of your experience of a particular manufacturer’s past?  Let me know what you think!