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alakath posted:I'm looking to get off of Sprint (which is awful in my area) and switch to either AT&T or Verizon. Both have equally stellar coverage in my area, both anecdotally and according to maps. Verizon has somewhat better coverage and iPhones 5 are GSM unlocked, as noted above. AT&T's data speeds outside LTE areas will be much better than Verizon's though. Other than that, there's no real difference.
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Dec 21, 2012 20:51
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I'm finally entering smartphone territory when my upgrade rolls around and I'll be dropping from 2 devices (phone and ipod) to 1. I was initially just going to go with an iPhone 4, but have recently considered bumping up to a 4S, primarily for the larger storage space and a higher-res camera. It may also be worth mentioning that I'm very regularly around wifi and anticipate little to no data usage. Besides cheaper cost, is there anything else that sets the 4 ahead of the 4S? In the other direction, are there any particularly compelling reasons I should drop another $100 and shoot for a 5? Ratatozsk fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Dec 24, 2012 |
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Dec 24, 2012 00:22
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Ratatozsk posted:Besides cheaper cost, is there anything else that sets the 4 ahead of the 4S? In the other direction, are there any particularly compelling reasons I should drop another $100 and shoot for a 5? Naffer fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Dec 24, 2012 |
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Dec 24, 2012 02:39
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Naffer posted:Which provider? Verizon's 4 and 4s are stuck on their slow 3g network. The 5 can use their really fast lte network. ATT has pretty fast 3g so it is less of an issue. I'm on Verizon, but if I'm only using it for calls and doing all data stuff via wifi connection, does it really matter?
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Dec 24, 2012 02:49
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I can't believe current Verizon customers are paying 90 loving dollars a month (more like a hundred after taxes) for voice, a single gigabyte of data, and a mostly-deprecated messaging service. Voice and 2 gigs on Straight Talk for $45 a month looks pretty amazing by comparison, unless AT&T is some kind of unreasonable shitshow where you live. It's really hard to reconcile that they're letting motherfuckers like me slink by paying $49/month for unlimited LTE and a voice bucket while totally bending over new customers. Wonder how long before they borrow a page from Sprint's historic "Irritate SERO Users Until They loving Give Up" playbook and disallow activations of new handsets on unlimited plans...
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Dec 24, 2012 07:52
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Ratatozsk posted:I'm finally entering smartphone territory when my upgrade rolls around and I'll be dropping from 2 devices (phone and ipod) to 1. I was initially just going to go with an iPhone 4, but have recently considered bumping up to a 4S, primarily for the larger storage space and a higher-res camera. Sucks to say it, but if you want an iPhone on Verizon you should still consider the iPhone 5. Regardless of how little you think you will use it, your uses will change (and likely in the use more direction). 3G is just really slow on Verizon, you are looking at 1MB download versus 10-20MB Downloads for LTE. Yeah, LTE on Verizon is worth a one time $200 for a phone. Get the 5. And yes, 8GB is way too little storage for an iPhone, 16 should do fine for most people. kbar posted:I can't believe current Verizon customers are paying 90 loving dollars a month (more like a hundred after taxes) for voice, a single gigabyte of data, and a mostly-deprecated messaging service. Voice and 2 gigs on Straight Talk for $45 a month looks pretty amazing by comparison, unless AT&T is some kind of unreasonable shitshow where you live. Well they are trying to irritate you by not allowing any more subsidized phones. I'm sure they will find more ways unfortunately.
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Dec 24, 2012 12:25
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Duckman2008 posted:Well they are trying to irritate you by not allowing any more subsidized phones. I'm sure they will find more ways unfortunately. Speaking of, I'm in the market for a new off-contact phone in an attempt to keep my unlimited data. I was going to upgrade my Thunderbolt to a GS3 but was wondering where to pick it up from. Is buying it here from Amazon the best idea? I can just backup my apps and app-data (not system data!) to SD, pull the 32GB micro-SD card from my Thunderbolt, and insert it into the GS3 and run a restore, correct?
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Dec 25, 2012 16:17
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900ftjesus posted:
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Dec 26, 2012 05:25
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It depends on how much you are paying on that family plan. If its only $30-50 (or free) for your portion then yeah, its pretty cheap. If you are paying for all of it you may want to switch. Why do you need jailbreaking/rooting? This comes down to individual opinions, but personally I have found fewer and fewer reasons and don't bother anymore (the only reason i can think of for sprint is tethering). Android on Sprint is easy, the Galaxy S3 is really the only one worth buying. So if you go android on Sprint, there ya go. Personally, I would get the iPhone 5 or S3 over the 4S for sure, if you stick with Sprint LTE will be slow in rollout most likely but it makes a huge difference once it hits. Between the 5 and S3 its a tough call, I've used both and the 5 does have a better app selection, but I still think the 5's screen is a bit small for watching video (narrow might be the better word). If you really really need to root/jailbreak, then get the S3. Edit: I should add that the Note II is a good buy if you are ok with the size of it. Otherwise, TMobile has very well priced prepaid options, AT&T and Verizon are a bit more but you do get significantly better coverage in most areas outside of cities.
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Dec 26, 2012 16:46
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kbar posted:I can't believe current Verizon customers are paying 90 loving dollars a month (more like a hundred after taxes) for voice, a single gigabyte of data, and a mostly-deprecated messaging service. Voice and 2 gigs on Straight Talk for $45 a month looks pretty amazing by comparison, unless AT&T is some kind of unreasonable shitshow where you live. Already the case, unless you pay retail price for the new phone.
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Dec 27, 2012 16:19
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I resigned on my att family plan and upgraded my phone to the sg3, but I'm intrigued by the HTC one x plus. Does anybody have this phone and why did you pick it over the sg3? The sg3 came out to $233 so I'm already a bit peeved because it seems to be cheaper at $120 on amazon. I haven't unwrapped the box yet.
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Dec 27, 2012 19:34
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ethanol posted:I resigned on my att family plan and upgraded my phone to the sg3, but I'm intrigued by the HTC one x plus. Does anybody have this phone and why did you pick it over the sg3? The sg3 came out to $233 so I'm already a bit peeved because it seems to be cheaper at $120 on amazon. I haven't unwrapped the box yet. HTC has been meh on their phone quality lately, and the one x original didn't have the best build quality (not awful, but more issues than it should have had). I would keep the S3 personally. Double check the pricing on amazon, sometimes their new customer and upgrade pricing is different (because they make more commission from new customers). Otherwise amazon is also cheaper because you sign a contract saying you will keep the phone plan and features for 6 months. Works for some people, just keep all that in mind.
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Dec 27, 2012 20:59
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So unlike the rest of the world I'm in the small minority of people who haven't gotten into Smart Phones at all the past few years, only because data plans are expensive. I found out recently (Well I've assumed this for awhile) that people are able to use their smart phones to make free calls as long as they're connected to a wireless network. This is great for me because except when I'm driving I'm usually around a wireless connection and I plan to just get a pre-paid phone for emergency calls. So now I'm here just looking for a recommendation. I really just want to do the following with the phone I get. Make free calls when connected to a wireless router. Browse the Internet. Emulators (Snes, nes, gen, etc) Comics Listen to audio books/music when I drive. Any recommendations will be appreciated. Thanks.
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Dec 27, 2012 21:28
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anakha posted:The Galaxy W came out in 2011 and runs on a version of Android two generations old. I'd advise to stay away from it. Cheers for that. I ended up getting the Xperia, and I'm very happy with it. Slightly boggled that I can play Dead Space on a phone, but I guess I'm just behind the curve. 
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Dec 28, 2012 00:17
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You can't update the Android version? edit: I forgot to mention that my price range is <= $200-210 The Xperia is in that range and it seems like a good phone. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 01:43
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Orange_Lazarus posted:You can't update the Android version? For the Sola? Not without rooting it.
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Dec 28, 2012 05:08
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My Sola runs on 4.04, having automatically updated the instant it entered a wifi hotspot.
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Dec 28, 2012 07:20
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If I were to buy an unlocked Xperia would I have access to all of the phones features without a phone/data plan? I remember playing with someone's smart phone a long time ago and it locked me out unless I was connected to their Verizon account. Like I said earlier I just want to get one of those VOIP apps and make free calls from home/work through a wireless connection. I really have no need for a data plan.
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Dec 28, 2012 15:34
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Orange_Lazarus posted:So unlike the rest of the world I'm in the small minority of people who haven't gotten into Smart Phones at all the past few years, only because data plans are expensive. I found out recently (Well I've assumed this for awhile) that people are able to use their smart phones to make free calls as long as they're connected to a wireless network. This is great for me because except when I'm driving I'm usually around a wireless connection and I plan to just get a pre-paid phone for emergency calls. Depends on your price range, and from what I can tell you essentially want an iPod touch that makes phone calls over wifi correct? If so, the nexus 4 is $350 for the 16GB version, so that would likely be your best buy. You can use groove IP with google voice for calling over wifi last I checked. Keep in mind what you should get potentially changes if you want cell service on it as well.
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Dec 28, 2012 16:24
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Thanks. Where did you the Nexus 4 at that price? Amazon has it listed for $500+ Even at $350 it's probably out of my price range.
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Dec 28, 2012 16:58
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Thanks. Where did you the Nexus 4 at that price? Amazon has it listed for $500+ play.google.com At any rate, if you buy a new phone off contract in the $200 range, you are going to get something with little to no support from either the manufacturer or community. If you're willing to buy used, you can probably find a GSM Galaxy Nexus in that price range which would be a far better choice by virtually every measure. Endless Mike fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 17:00
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edit: What kind of support would I be missing out on from the community/manufacturer if I don't have a phone contract?
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Dec 28, 2012 17:36
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Orange_Lazarus posted:You can't update the Android version? Android updates aren't like updates for Windows or OS X or whatever, where if you've got the drivers then you can make it work. Instead, the OS is custom-built for the hardware, and for most users that means they come from the hardware manufacturer. The general attitude of hardware companies, especially for budget phones, is "you want an update for our old hardware? gently caress you, buy new hardware instead." For instance, low-end Xperia models released just a few months ago, like the Sola and U, aren't ever going to get a major version past 4.0 (the current version is 4.2, released in November). And, in that market, Sony actually did pretty well; the phones shipped with 2.3. The only major corporate-backed exceptions are the Nexus devices, which get their support directly from Google and usually have updates that go until the hardware actually can't handle the latest OS features. There are also hobbyists who build custom ROMs for their devices, which can give you another way to update your OS when the manufacturer cuts off support. The quality can range from near-stock (or even better in some cases; some stock ROMs really stink) to near-useless depending on the openness of the hardware and the activity of the dev community. Flagship phones tend to get good support; random budget phones don't get much love. e: Orange_Lazarus posted:edit: What kind of support would I be missing out on from the community/manufacturer if I don't have a phone contract? The problem isn't the lack of a contract, it's the fact that $200 with no carrier subsidy gets you a pretty low-end phone. Low-end phones don't get much manufacturer support because they want to cut costs. They usually don't get much support from phone geeks because there's not much to geek out over. Space Gopher fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 17:47
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Thanks, now that makes a lot more sense now. So I'm guessing a $350 phone like the 16GB Nexus 4 would be one of the phones that does receive community/manufacturer support right?
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Dec 28, 2012 18:23
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Thanks, now that makes a lot more sense now. The Nexus 4 is a bit of an anomaly in costing $350. It's priced significantly lower than its direct competitors. You'd really have to get into the $500+ range to get something similar. That said, it will get plenty of support as it's Google's phone and will be updated before anything else. Similarly, the community will work on it tons.
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Dec 28, 2012 18:47
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Endless Mike posted:The Nexus 4 is a bit of an anomaly in costing $350. It's priced significantly lower than its direct competitors. You'd really have to get into the $500+ range to get something similar. That said, it will get plenty of support as it's Google's phone and will be updated before anything else. Similarly, the community will work on it tons. For reference, $350 on T-Mobile's prepaid site will get you a Galaxy S II which was released about a year and a half ago and has half the CPU and a lower resolution screen. No wonder it's been sold out for months.
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Dec 28, 2012 19:02
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My friend is staying in San Diego for 4 months, and we are trying to find out how plans work in USA. She owns a Samsung Galaxy 3 and will be using that. She will not use it to talk more than 5 hours/month and will not be calling outside California. Max data usage 1GB and preferably 3G. With these requirements what plan would work best for her? Also how long time is one tied to the plan until one can cancel free of charge?
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Dec 29, 2012 20:18
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Da Monk posted:My friend is staying in San Diego for 4 months, and we are trying to find out how plans work in USA. She owns a Samsung Galaxy 3 and will be using that. Tmobile prepaid plan of $30 a month has 100 mins, unlimited texting and 5GB of data. Only issue is whether her galaxy is comparable with tmobile 3G.
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Dec 29, 2012 22:35
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Adding a dumbphone to a family plan for a low-volume user. Just need the basic ability to make and receive calls -- stuff like ease of texting or the camera are nice but far secondary to reliability and voice quality. The options AT&T gives that don't require a data plan: Would really prefer one of the super-cheap ones. Anything stand out? Is refurbished something to avoid at all costs? The Breeze III and A340 seem reasonably well-reviewed; didn't love what I saw of the Swift from Googling. Thanks!
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Dec 30, 2012 18:34
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A Violence Gang posted:Adding a dumbphone to a family plan for a low-volume user. Just need the basic ability to make and receive calls -- stuff like ease of texting or the camera are nice but far secondary to reliability and voice quality. The options AT&T gives that don't require a data plan: Either phone is fine. Signing a contract for a dumb phone is not that great value wise anymore, get a cheap flip phone off Craigslist and stay off contract, or use the contract to get an iPhone 5 and flip it for $500.
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Dec 30, 2012 19:48
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Duckman2008 posted:Tmobile prepaid plan of $30 a month has 100 mins, unlimited texting and 5GB of data. Only issue is whether her galaxy is comparable with tmobile 3G.
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Dec 30, 2012 23:35
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Duckman2008 posted:Either phone is fine. Signing a contract for a dumb phone is not that great value wise anymore, get a cheap flip phone off Craigslist and stay off contract, or use the contract to get an iPhone 5 and flip it for $500. You could also just buy a cheap prepaid phone, and avoid all the potential issues of a used phone with no warranty and a potentially questionable ESN. And, if they're seriously low-volume, it might even be cheaper to just go with the prepaid plan instead of adding them onto the family line.
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Dec 31, 2012 00:11
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I think adding it to the family plan is only like $10/month but I will consider prepaid. Definitely don't want to deal with Craigslist or anything potentially sketchy. Mostly just wanted to make sure no one pointed out one of those models as a notoriously bad one. Thanks!
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Dec 31, 2012 00:48
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Endless Mike posted:According to wiki, S3's are pentaband, so it should work fine with T-Mobile's 3G.
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Dec 31, 2012 00:54
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ExcessBLarg! posted:The T-Mo model is/does, but I'm not sure the international ones are/do.
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Dec 31, 2012 03:39
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Endless Mike posted:Samsung's site says it does 2100: http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxys3/specifications.html I suppose there's confusion here because both bands use nearly the same downlink frequency range (in the 2100s), and sometimes AWS is referred to as 1700/2100. But unless the specs advertise 1700 or "AWS" band support, it likely won't work on T-Mo. That is, unless T-Mo has already done a significant roll-out of their Band II (1900 "PCS") 3G service in San Diego, but I know nothing about that.
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Dec 31, 2012 16:43
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Country/Provider:USA-Montana/Verizon Current contract status: Month to Month Budget (phone/plan): $350+$100/$100 or less. Features I know I want: Unlimited Talk/Text, light data, Nationwide Coverage without roaming fees. Current Usage: 300 Peak Minutes/1000 off peak per month, 90% mobile to mobile or weekend calls to family. About 250 texts sent/received. Data usage is less than 2MB per month. Nationwide coverage is preferred because of business travel. We've been off contract for three years and Verizon is starting to get bitchy about our phones being old and I feel like we can get more value for the $95 a month we pay for our current family plan, I might be wrong. I'd like a Nexus 4 once they're back in stock and would primarily use it over wifi (I have it at home,work and on the commute) and to check email/text/take pictures/etc. She wants a phone that makes calls & sends texts and doesn't care about anything else. I have zero customer loyalty to Verizon, but we do get a 10% monthly discount through her employer. I'm open to prepaid, contract, month to month, separate plans, whatever.
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Jan 1, 2013 22:12
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Country/Provider: Australia - Optus/Virgin Mobile Contract: None, prepaid. Will want unlocked phone. Budget: $400-600 Features I want: Solid battery life, but I'm a sucker for the other bells and whistles. The less bloatware the better. Later versions of Android would be sweet, as would a good camera. Current usage: primarily web browsing and messaging. I had an order with Google for a Nexus 4 sitting for about a month but they couldn't charge my card properly and ended up cancelling it. Cool. No orders are being taken and the only way of getting one is paying some scalper $600. Since the main pulling point of the Nexus 4 was its price, I'm now led to believe there can be solid competitors with it if the price got spiked by 50%. Any suggestions? e: Never mind, whittled one of them down to $500. I think I can bite the bullet at that much.
Blackclaw fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 03:37
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Country/Provider: USA, T-Mobile Contract: T-Mobile 2 year Budget: $200-ish? Features: Android, solid processing power, at least a step up from my Atrix (See below) On my family's plan which switched over from AT&T to T-Mobile. Folks got my Motorola Atrix unlocked and changed over, but it recently took a fall and cracked the glass. My local repair place wants $100 to repair it, but since I've been having a lot of compatability issues with my phone on this network (it drops the signal immediately after I text or call, won't send images, etc) I'm considering just getting a new phone. Since we've only just gotten into this contract, do I have any options of picking up a comparable phone on this network for under $200?
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Jan 2, 2013 21:08
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Kraven Moorhed posted:Country/Provider: USA, T-Mobile Since nobody has responded yet . . . you likely want a phone with a HSDPA 1700 radio for high-speed data on T-Mobile, which the Atrix does not have. However, T-Mobile is rolling out HSPA+ coverage at 1900 MHz, but I don't know if that applies to your area. A used Nexus S will probably be under $200 and will have Jelly Bean, unlike the Atrix which will never officially go beyond Gingerbread. Spec-wise it is comparable to, but somewhat lesser than, the Atrix. If you want 1700 MHz support, get the i9020T variant rather than i9020A. A used Galaxy Nexus will be more than $200 but will be equivalent to or better than the Atrix in most respects. It has a larger screen than the Atrix which might be a pro or con depending on your preferences. It has no MicroSD slot and no fingerprint reader, but if you don't need those things it is overall a nice step up from the Atrix.
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