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900ftjesus posted:Where does this come from? I have never heard this before. The most plausible sounding explanation I've found so far comes from a HowardForums post: quote:On the issue about car chargers, a problem with the vehicles own charging system may be culprit in shortening battery life. The Motorola charger is set to provide a 5 volt DC current output of 550ma. Thats a little over 1/2 of 1 amp current flow. It's also a Direct Current output. This is critical because a vehicle alternator generates AC or Alternating Current and has a rectifier bridge to modify the output to DC current. I say modify because the bridge cannot completly get rid of AC ripple. A small amount of ripple is always present. So if the bridge is not working correctly, an excess amount of ripple is allowed into the electrical system and if the car charger adapter does not have any kind of "filtering" built into it's circuitry, that AC ripple will find it's way into the phone battery, shortening it's life.
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Mar 4, 2009 02:52
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Mar 5, 2009 00:13
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brc64 posted:I've heard it from numerous sources, including employees at the Sprint store. Some quick searching shows a variety of similar claims online, but I can't find anything substantial, so I guess it could be a myth. quote:Engine Cranks, under-voltage and over-voltage situations. Another very difficult task is maintaining stable 3.3, 5, 12, and -12V power to your PC. While car batteries are rated at 12V, they actually can provide voltage in between 7V (during engine cranks) or as high as hundreds of volts (load dump conditions). Most of the times, your battery will stay at 13.5V (while car is running) or 12V (when car is off), but extra precautions need to take place in order to prevent under and over-voltage situations. M1-ATX can operate as low as 5.7V and as high as 28V while providing strict regulation on all rails with input voltage clamping and reverse protection.
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Mar 8, 2009 22:14
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I think I want to skip the contracts/monthly/etc thing and go on a pay-as-you-go sorta thing for a while. My girlfriend uses maybe 60 minutes per month. I use maybe 200. I talk to my parents for 30-40 mins every week and occasionally calls to the girlfriend. The cheapest two phone plan comes with 700 minutes and costs us $100/mo and that's just a little excessive. I like text messaging a little but not a ton. I'm looking up phones and most of them look like they're absurdly basic, can I not buy a good/awesome phone and just use it on a prepaid plan? I like having a decent camera in the phone, I take a decent amount of stupid pictures with mine. I like being able to waste time playing games on a phone, waiting in a movie theater for a while tends to be really boring without something to play. I occasionally use the web, but I'd be happier with a wi-fi enabled phone over a data enabled phone since I live in SF and you can get free wi-fi drat near anywhere. is there any kind of good compromise out there? I don't have a problem paying for a good phone, I just don't like flushing hundreds of dollars of minutes down the drain every month like we're doing now.
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Mar 9, 2009 01:50
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Expiration Date posted:I think I want to skip the contracts/monthly/etc thing and go on a pay-as-you-go sorta thing for a while. Unless you've got a predisposition against the iPhone, an unlocked and jailbroken EDGE iPhone (3G version is worthless to you) fits your criteria really well. There's a buttload of cool games in the App Store (some free, some for-pay), the WiFi works great with a variety of network encryption types, its web browser is arguably the best web browser on a cellphone right now, and the camera is at least serviceable and will let you Photoswap with goons and random-rear end iPhone owners everywhere. The biggest criticism to be leveraged against iPhone owners are the hilariously large monthly bills they're forking over to AT&T, but if you're packing one unlocked (expect to spend $310-350) and paying under 10 bucks a month to use it, that's a pretty sweet way to go. (As a self-indulgent side note, I've got an EDGE iPhone up for sale at HoFo, send me an e-mail mentioning that you're a goon if interested and I'll knock $20 off my asking price  )If the iPhone doesn't appeal to you, there are a bunch of cool, high-end unlocked Nokia phones available that have a heavy focus on multimedia and work great with T-Mobile To Go. They don't have the resolution, screen size, and browser slickness of the iPhone, but many models do offer WiFi, and the Nokia Web browser is at least serviceable. The real draw to those phones is absolutely the multimedia stuff, though -- 5 megapixel cameras with autofocus and VGA video recording. I'd suggest checking out the N82, N95-3, and N85 to get your feet wet. They're not as cool for goofy-rear end games as the iPhone is, though I'm sure DrTran can tell you all about what Nokia's doing with the N-Gage gaming platform. I wasn't super impressed with it on the N82, but it's a step in the right direction. Hope this is helpful -- T-Mo To Go is tailor-made for customers like you.
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Mar 9, 2009 09:04
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kalibar posted:You want T-Mobile To Go. 10cent/minute pre-paid and you can use any sweet-rear end unlocked GSM phone on the planet. The only stipulation is that you do have to buy $100 worth of minutes per year (and they have to be consumed within a year from purchase date), so you end up paying T-Mobile a bare minimum of $8.33 per month. That will only be a "problem" if your minute usage is absurdly low, though -- as long as you average greater than 84 minutes a month, you're using everything you're paying for. Not quite. After you've added the $100 once, you can add whatever amount later and the minutes expire in a year. You do not have to put $100/year. My last manager uses so few minutes it's ridiculous. He put on $100 and just added $10 when they got ready to expire. I'm pretty sure he's got a bank of 1400 minutes by now.
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Mar 9, 2009 17:10
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I need to pick a phone but it's for use at the office so the options are limited and the plan/provider (Rogers, Canada) are not up to me. I was given the list below to choose from. I narrowed it down to the 5310 and W580 based on playing MP3s, having cameras and looks. Do any other phones stand out as worthwhile? Is one or the other of the 5310 and W580 particularly better? MOTOROLA K1 KRZR NOKIA 3555 5310 6086 SAMSUNG A516 A436R A736R A746 Sony Ericsson W580i W200a W350a
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Mar 9, 2009 17:12
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topenga posted:Not quite. After you've added the $100 once, you can add whatever amount later and the minutes expire in a year. You do not have to put $100/year. My last manager uses so few minutes it's ridiculous. He put on $100 and just added $10 when they got ready to expire. I'm pretty sure he's got a bank of 1400 minutes by now. I've also heard tales of the $100 cards showing up at Walmart for silly poo poo like $95.88 or whatever.
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Mar 9, 2009 17:47
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kalibar posted:poo poo, even better. Oh yeah. All the time. WalMart and Target. Hell, sometimes Target will run a special where you buy a $100 or $50 card and get a prepaid phone kit free. No lie.
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Mar 10, 2009 15:33
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slow crow fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Oct 12, 2013 |
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Mar 11, 2009 21:31
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It's been hell finding a phone to fit my needs. Can you help me goons? # Country/Provider: Canada or US # Current contract status: N/A # Budget (phone/plan): 300 and below for phone, 100 and below per month # Features I know I want: I'm a student in Canada who is up from Seattle. I'm looking for a phone that I can use year round both in Vancouver AND Seattle without getting poo poo on by roaming. I'd like to have internet access, enough to check my email and facebook as well as respond to mail. I want voicemail and a good texting plan. If this is NOT possible, then a canadian phone w/ internet (email/facebook), texting, voicemail and 500+ mins a month. Most of my calling is nights/weekends.
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Mar 13, 2009 01:36
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Sweet_Joke_Nectar posted:It's been hell finding a phone to fit my needs. Can you help me goons? An unlocked phone such as an N or E-series phone from Nokia should fit your needs. BlackBerrys suck if you're not going to pay for a data plan. Also, only Rogers has a BlackBerry plan. Fido has one but I haven't heard on how it's working. So go with an unlocked E or N-series phone which means you can't buy a Rogers E71 for example. The plan I can't really help you with but the N79 or N85 should fit your needs, it's just whether you prefer bar or slider phones. If you do lots of texting, then go with the E71 for its QWERTY keyboard.
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Mar 13, 2009 02:21
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# Country/Provider: T-Mobile/US # Current contract status: 8 months into a 1-year contract, but going unlocked # Budget (phone/plan): $350 # Features I know I want: I am unhappy with my BlackBerry. I'm doing battery pulls every 6 hours. I used to get a week of uptime with this phone. I am willing to go to a Curve 8900 or Bold however. It is also sluggish. Try Slacker. It sucks for Slacker, you can't even move the trackball when songs start playing because of the hourglass. I am willing to wait a few months since I have an 8700 for a backup phone, it's not bad. I'm looking for a good camera, stability, and preferably a QWERTY keypad. I also want Word document editing. I've been looking at the E71 but the camera is not so great. The N85 also looks interesting, but since I do a lot of messaging (2000+ e-mails and IMs), I don't know how I'd adjust to T9. From my experiences, I would rather use a touchscreen keyboard than T9. The phone is going to last at least a year because T-Mobile isn't getting 3G phones out in a timely manner.
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Mar 13, 2009 03:01
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I guess I'm realy trying to get some decent feedback about whether I should get an LG Viewty KU990 or a Samsung f480. They seem very similar and the reviews are bringing them up as being very close, but I trust goons much more than random jerks posting on phone forums. Are there any glaringly bad aspects of either? Or any other phones that would fit my specifications? Thanks, now here's my info. Country: Australia Provider: Optus Prepaid (I am open to others, looking at virgin for free calls and text to other virgin mobiles) Current contract status: Prepaid (looking to go onto a 24 month contract to get a decent phone) Current phone: Ancient Nokia 62something Budget: AU$300 outright for phone if it's super awesome/AU$35 per month max on a contract (although I guess I'd like some data included on that) Minimum features, or what you want to do with it: Mobile Phone - I don't like flip phones or sliders really - SMS capabilities - MP3 Ringtones - Internet capability (i'd like to use gmail, maybe irc?) - I like touchscreens, but that's not essential MP3 Player(not essential as I have an ipod) - Good interface, quick loading Video Player - Can play divx file format (preferably but not essential) - Preferably can also play mov and mp4 files - Preferable video out SD Card Support - Preferably SDHC 8gb+ Built in Camera - Preferably good quality and 3mp+ - Preferably video with decent quality and resolution in addition to stills GPS - Not necessary but a plus Other - Good battery life - Not too laggy when navigating between menus - Interface with Windows PC (not essential)
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Mar 13, 2009 08:34
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# Country/Provider: USA/ Currently Verizon but I'll go with anything # Current contract status: Out of it wooo! # Budget (phone/plan): $550 # Features required: Email, IM, SMS, web access, true gps. # Used for: Work and Personal As of right now I'm deciding between the Blackberry Bold, the upcoming Blackberry Curve 8900, and the iPhone 3G. I do use email often at work but I don't NEED my device to be my primary e-mail device as I have my laptop with me everywhere. I have a Samsung Glyde at the moment and it is the worst phone I've ever had. I used to have a blackberry curve prior to that but it was stolen. I loved the curve for IM and GPS which was what I mainly used it for. Any recommendations? reborn fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Mar 13, 2009 |
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Mar 13, 2009 21:45
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So I'm a Verizon customer ready for my NE2 upgrade and I'm currently using an ancient piece of poo poo 5+ year old Samsung that I don't even really know the model of (replacement an ex gave me after she ripped my totally decent LG in half ). NE2 upgrade is $100 off + $50 online discount, so money is not really an object for the most part. I don't mind paying a few bucks more than discount takes off if I get a great phone out of the deal. Just don't want something that's going to cost me $150+ after the discount. I'm a bit on the hard of hearing side and want to make sure whatever I get is LOUD AND loving CLEAR. This Samsung, whether by model or age, is a piece of garbage when it comes to that. It constantly cuts out for just a split second while people are talking, it's garbled and static-y at times, and very often, when I talk, it cuts out all incoming audio (not that I regularly talk over people, it's just nice to be able to hear when I'm doing it). I really liked the LG I used to have (VX8300) but I'm not particular on what brand of phone I get as long as it's LOUD AND CLEAR for someone with very mild hearing loss. My only other requirements are a dictionary for texting that is actually thorough (read: recognizes the word "nevermind" as a single word and maybe actually has a few common Spanish words such as "burrito" and "taco" without giving me garbled nonsense combinations instead), and bluetooth capabilities to go along with California's new bullshit law that I've been ignoring on principle. Sleek and professional looking would be a plus, as would toughness/"ruggedization" as I like to hike and it would be nice to know that I could drop my phone and not have it be ruined (not sure if these two are available together, but if so, that would be great - if not, I would prefer the phone to be tough). Long battery life is also a major plus in this vein. 2.0+ MP camera is preferable. Good, loud, receptive speakerphone is another big plus. MP3 player and memory card capability is another plus, but not a requirement by any means. The G'zOne Boulder looks kinda cool and would be great for me with a built in flashlight and compass, but I'd like to know if it meets up to my other standards. I see it only has a 1.3 MP camera but I don't really care about that all that much. Anyone have any info or suggestions? I've read that I should avoid Verizon brand phones at all costs so I'm not sure if this is really a good idea to get this phone or not. edit to clarify something: I don't actually have hearing loss,, per se, it's more that sometimes I have trouble understanding what the other person is saying because the phone garbles it up. So clarity is much more important than volume - if I turn the volume up to the highest setting on this lovely Samsung, it's not horrible. However, a phone that's "too loud" on the highest volume would be even better, for those times when my friends' lovely headsets they use while driving don't transfer sound very loudly.
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Mar 13, 2009 22:00
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I'm a Verizon customer I'm renewing my contract for two years + my NE2 discount + a corporate discount. So price is not really an issue. I currently use a Verizon HTC XV6800 which I like for the web browsing and full slide out keyboard. What I did not like about it was the touch screen for making calls. So I'm learning towards the HTC SMT5800 which has regular buttons for the phone. I also need the phone sync with my company's mobile exchange server for email. Through my company plan I am looking at the following models but I am open to other options: BlackBerry Storm 9530 HTC Touch Pro LG Voyager HTC SMT5800 Also my wife is looking at the LG ENV2, any feedback would be appreciated, thanks.
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Mar 14, 2009 00:55
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Can anyone tell me if there's any way I can get out of my Sprint contract early and not pay a fee? Don't they sometimes allow early terminations when they change the policy and give you a timeframe to make the switch? Their service and customer service is terrible and I want to switch to Verizon asap.
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Mar 16, 2009 17:01
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samoth posted:Can anyone tell me if there's any way I can get out of my Sprint contract early and not pay a fee? Don't they sometimes allow early terminations when they change the policy and give you a timeframe to make the switch? Their service and customer service is terrible and I want to switch to Verizon asap. As far as customer service, I've had the complete opposite experience as you. I've found Verizon customer service to be horrible but have had nothing but positive experiences with Sprint so far. If you're not happy, though, by all means, change providers. My understanding is that you can sometimes get out of a contract without an ETF if a significant change has been made to the contract to justify a breach of terms. I've heard it's pretty hard to make a case for that, though. The other option is to transfer responsibility of your plan to another party, basically letting somebody else take over the remainder of your contract. I think there's a website for that, but I don't know what it's called. Somebody else here might.
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Mar 16, 2009 18:37
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brc64 posted:Do you use data or just voice? I mainly ask because Sprint's voice service roams on Verizon's network, so you may not necessarily get any better service with Verizon. Data service could be another story, depending on the area. I have my phone and my fiance's phone on the same plan. She had text and voice, I just have voice. I was getting a discount through my old employer, but I got laid off. She now gets a verizon discount through her employer. Additionally, one of our good friends works for Verizon and would set us up with a deal and lots of freebies, and obviosuly the customer service would be great because we could just call him or his friends. The Sprint service I've had for the past 5-6 years has been pretty awful. I don't drop many calls, but there have been several times where I'll check my voicemail and see 10+ unopened messages from the past week because I never got any notice from it (could be a problem with the phone but it's happend on two different phones). Every time I call their CS I get people in India who I can't understand, and who can't understand me. I've also been mysteriously signed up for various plans, including Picture Pack (something like that) which you use texting to send pictures (though I have text disabled in my phone and my fiance didnt sign up for it) and i was once "upgraded" to a 2000 minute plan without my consent. Basically Sprint has been terrible to me and I can't wait to get out.
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Mar 16, 2009 20:58
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# Country/Provider: USA/Sprint # Current contract status: SERO - expires April # Budget (phone/plan): Signing for 2 more years of SERO + phone discount = price doesn't matter so much # Features I know I want: Smartphone, full qwerty, data, excellent call quality, GPS would rock but isn't necessary. My main concern would be finding a quality smartphone that I can continue my SERO plan with. I've heard that they refuse to continue SERO with some phones. Don't want Blackberry - I hear there's an extra monthly fee and that doesn't fly.
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Mar 17, 2009 21:00
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Haji posted:My main concern would be finding a quality smartphone that I can continue my SERO plan with. I've heard that they refuse to continue SERO with some phones. Don't want Blackberry - I hear there's an extra monthly fee and that doesn't fly. All three have GPS and Wi-Fi and WinMo Pro. Touch Pro is going to be the most-hackable, if you're into that (as many of us here are). Unless you've got a specific predisposition against HTC or slider phones, Touch Pro is your best choice -- it's the nicest phone on Sprint right now.
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Mar 18, 2009 07:39
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Thank you! Those all look like great phones.
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Mar 18, 2009 18:05
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# Country/Provider: USA/Cingular # Current contract status: None! Current plan is 450 Rollover & 5000 Night/Weekend & 1000 Mobile-To-Mobile Minutes for $40 a month. # Budget (phone/plan): ???/$cheap # Features required: Lots of texting and hopefully some sort of internet access? # Used for: Personal I have the charges automatically debited from my account, I don't ever look at the bill. It turns out that the past few months my bill has been $70+ because of excessive text message usage. Some how I have become a texting whore. I'm not even very good at it! I am intrigued by the HTC G1 Google phone and Google Voice. I love Google Voice and have been using Grandcentral since it started. T-Mobile has an option where you select your five favourite phone numbers and never pay a dime for talking to them. It has come to my attention that I can specify my google voice number as one of these favourites and then 99% of my phone calls will be routed through this "free" number. That sounds like a real winner. I was about to do it with the "myFaves 300 with FlexPay" $39.99 plan and be done when I realized that I have to pay another $39.99 on-top of that for unlimited texting/internet. However, adding unlimited messaging/voice to my current plan would be an extra $30, and so I am back up to $70. I guess I could do this and buy an unlocked G1? Does cingular have an option to do something like this as a prepay plan? I couldn't find anything similar on their site. Also, myworldphone sells an unlocked G1 for $500, or I can sign up as an android dev for $25 and buy a developer phone for $400. A developer phone is no different than what myworldphone would sell me, right? Or is all this stupid and I should just hang on for whatever other Android phones are coming down the pipe?
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Mar 19, 2009 01:44
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Cock Inspector posted:Country/Provider: Gainesville, FL, USA I posted this about 4 pages back, and didn't get any responses, so let's try something simpler: Need a replacement phone for ATT in Florida: Budget: Best bang for the buck, but hopefully $100-200. Only features he wants, and I quote: -looks decent -good reception (this is most important to me) -durable screen -pretty flat for pocket comfort He doesn't use it for music or browsing, but he texts and makes calls. Can I get a couple of suggestions? Thanks.
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Mar 19, 2009 02:35
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Country/ provider: usa/ att 2 year contract ends in may budget: <300 dollars - would really like to pay less than that though features: well the phone Im using now, a nokia N75, is getting a bit long in the tooth, Ive already had to replace the battery once, and its just generally old and slow and has a lovely camera. Im always on the internet so full 3g is required. I really like how S60 feels like a 'real os' for some reason...the memory and file management, customization, and running stuff in the background is really nice so Id like something that can cover all that. Also would like a decent screen! Im so loving sick of QVGA. I want a pretty screen! prefer: long battery life, decent camera, 3.5 mm headphone jack, snappy processor with lots of memory absolutely dont care about: gps, touchscreen any help at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Mar 19, 2009 05:48
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Me and the wifey are getting a divorce and will thus be severing our shared phone plan. As I will be back on the dating scene again someday (I'm only 26) I'm thinking of upgrading from the cheesy poo poo phone I got for free with the plan to something more modern and snazzy, with good email, texting, and communications abilities (you know, for talking to chicks). LOCATION - Orange County, CA, USA CURRENT PROVIDER - Verizon, year into my two year contract BUDGET - PHONE - $100-300 PLAN - I'd like to keep it less than $100.00 a month, if possible IMPORTANT TO ME - Texting, checking email, simple web reading, calling people NICE, NOT ESSENTIAL - Handy apps (weather, traffic, restaurants, whatever), MP3 I guess, WiFi maybe, slim design IRRELEVANT - Camera/Video I could stay on Verizon if there's something worth staying for. WiFi would be nice so I dont get raped with data charges. I'm not a crazy wiz-bang gadget guy, so being able to text, email, and check webpages is as complicated as it gets. Music would be nice but not mandatory. Camera/video I never use, don't care about. I like to travel, but after the divorce I won't have any money so I'm not worried about going international anytime soon. I'm more interested in good plans and providers, as I can be flexible on the phone price. It's the monthly bills I want to be careful with. That Dang Dad fucked around with this message at 12:31 on Mar 23, 2009 |
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Mar 23, 2009 12:29
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You should wash away the memories of your failed marriage (sorry goon) by dumping that worthless loving carrier. Friends don't let friends pay Verizon Wireless. Ironically, the ability to "text, email, and check webpages" actually does make you a pretty upper-tier customer, since it means you'll be buying a text package and (probably) an internet package. Using WiFi as your primary data access on a phone doesn't even sound convenient, and trust me on this, it's even less convenient than it sounds in practice. The cheapest way to "have it all" right now is via Sprint's sneaky EPRP plan -- $60/month for 500 minutes, unlimited SMS, unlimited fast-rear end 3.5G data. Check the Sprint thread here in Cellphone Shack or just go to http://sprint.com/everythingplus and use Russ McGuire's kindly-made-public login credentials of russ.s.mcguire@sprint.com / 383 to get into the site. I think Sprint still doles out referral cash or something, so on the off-chance you end up doing this, send me or some other Sprint goon a message and you can get free moneys (25 bucks). A backup solution if you're primarily focused with cost, you still want everything, and you're willing to put a little bit of legwork into your wireless plan (loving ridiculous, I know, since it's just so easy to march over to a mall kiosk and sign up to pay "$rape per month" for the next "goddamn forever") is hunt down a Sprint customer with a legacy SERO contract and work with them to have a "transfer of liability" done on it so that you can have it in your name. They pop up over at SprintUsers' and HowardForums' buy/sell forums from time to time -- expect to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $100-150, which is hilariously undervalued. The reason you'd want to do this is that the old SERO accounts (which many of us here in Cellphone Shack are still using and will continue using until the end of time) cost $30/month for the same poo poo as the EPRP plan mentioned above, they're just not sold anymore and the only way to get one is to take over someone else's plan. Since you'd recover your $150 investment in five months by having this plan, this would absolutely be worth your time to pursue, but most people just cannot be hosed to mess with it. If you want access to the best and hottest phones available for North American customers, you'll need to be on AT&T. This is going to be more expensive (expect to pay $75/month for everything if you're using an unlocked phone, or $90/month if you use one of AT&T's "high end" phones like the "AT&T Fuze" [lol] or the iPhone). Given your requirements coupled with Sprint's more than decent device selection and pricing scheme, there's really no reason to explore this. If you are convinced you can keep your total cost under $60/month (or $30/month if you can rock a liability transfer) and you're certain you want to punish yourself with WiFi-only data access, T-Mobile To Go is absolutely the best choice. You can buy any badass GSM phone in the world, you'll have no contract, and you'll pay $0.10/minute for talking, $0.10/SMS for sending SMS and $0.05/SMS for receiving SMS. There are actually a lot of people with such light wireless usage habits that this would be cost effective -- and as an added bonus, you can buy a nice Windows Mobile or S60 smartphone and supplement your usage with Skype. If you're planning to text like a fiend, this won't be cost effective -- $60/month only buys you 600 text messages on this plan. Good luck!
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Mar 24, 2009 21:45
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Waiting for AT&T to release new phones is killing me when my current w580i is annoying me to no end with its malfunctioning buttons. I don't want to wait a few more weeks for the Samsung A877 or the Nokia E71x only to find out that those aren't the phones I'm looking for. I need help choosing between these babies: - Palm Centro - Samsung Blackjack II (refurb) - Samsung Eternity - BlackBerry Bold (refurb) Country/Provider: USA/AT&T Note: I don't plan on getting a data plan for checking e-mail and stuff. I have unlimited texting on a family plan and will be upgrading. I'm really trying to get myself more organized, so I want a calendar that functions well and one that I will want to use. I also would like a QWERTY keyboard and OS that doesn't suck. My budget really should be low, but $199 for the Bold sounds nice. The main reason I'm considering it is because of WiFi which is everywhere at school. Which phone is the best for me? EDIT: Actually, scratch that BlackBerry Bold. I should probably just get a netbook if I definitely don't plan on getting a data plan any time soon. Xergiez fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Mar 24, 2009 |
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Mar 24, 2009 22:30
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kalibar posted:
Thank you for the info, that was really helpful. This part you said right here just baffles me. I can have unlimited text and data for $60.00 a month? Goddamn that seems like a steal. I'm paying somewhere in the $75/month range for limited minutes, texts, and no data included.
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Mar 25, 2009 03:00
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Anal Surgery posted:Thank you for the info, that was really helpful. This part you said right here just baffles me. I can have unlimited text and data for $60.00 a month? Goddamn that seems like a steal. I'm paying somewhere in the $75/month range for limited minutes, texts, and no data included. Most of Cellphone Shack pretty adamantly promoted the old $30/month Sprint plan when it was available, and the $59.99/month Sprint EPRP plan now -- Sprint's cheaper than the other guys anyway (though it bears repeating that you need to be an AT&T or T-Mobile customer for access to many of the best phones), and it's an even better deal with the "insider" discounts like EPRP and SERO.
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Mar 25, 2009 06:10
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Wow. I just had a seriously crappy customer service experience. Buy.com and newegg.com are running this deal with sprint wherein you can get a $100 rebate and the phones are marked down pretty low to begin with. I called buy.com up to extend my lovely SERO plan for another 2 years and pick up the HTC Touch Pro ($150 after the rebate) in the process and was informed that I would have to switch my plan to the new (expensive) version of SERO. When I told her that I wouldn't do that she said I could switch back to SERO after 6 months. Lady's full of poo poo. I'm holding on to my freaking SERO with a death grip! No way am I going to allow some idiot to trick me into losing it. She obviously had no clue what she was talking about and was spouting complete BS at me to get me to buy the product and lose my SERO. TL:DR Do I have to walk into a store to extend my SERO and get a new phone, or are any online stores capable of this? Did I just have a uniquely crappy experience or is this the norm?
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Mar 25, 2009 17:27
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My understanding is that it's a really dicey proposition to attempt to renew a SERO contract through anyone other than Sprint. When the Treo 800w came out and Best Buy had it for 50 bucks less than Sprint, there were some folks over at SprintUsers and TreoCentral who gambled their SERO accounts by renewing at Best Buy -- I think the results were about half and half. Some people were able to renew successfully, some people were told that it couldn't be done without a plan change. It's probably all contingent on how competent a Sprint employee the Best Buy rep got in touch with. If it were me, I'd call up Sprint and get transferred to retentions. Tell them that Retailer X has the Touch Pro at Price Y, and say that if they can match that price you'd love to renew your contract for 2 more years at the same rate plan. If you get any lip, you'd probably be better off taking whatever Sprint-priced phone has the best resale value for the lowest dollars out of pocket, and selling it to help pay for your own Touch Pro purchase from eBay. NIB Touch Pros are moving for $300-350, which isn't horrible.
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Mar 25, 2009 20:17
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Alright here's my deal: My company is paying for my calling plan. So it HAS to be Verizon. Right now they have me using some piece of poo poo water proof casio garbage. I don't know why. Anyways, I can buy my own Verizon phone, my budget is around $300. I want qwerty, and I want to e-mail and that kind of stuff. I don't need to browse the 'net or anything, just lots of e-mail and msging etc. I don't know much about phones. Please help!
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Mar 26, 2009 17:59
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I'm probably going to go with the EPRP through Sprint since that's about $30 less than what Verizon charges for an equivalent plan, but I'm not sure about what phone to get. The main things I'd like are web browsing and keyboard, preferrably with a decent sized screen. A camera would be nice, but if there are any really great phones that don't have one it's not a deal breaker. Right now I have an LG and my last phone was a Samsung, and I liked both brands pretty well, though I'm fine with trying something different. Price isn't a huge deal right now, so long as I get something I'm happy with. The Touch Pro and the Touch Diamond look cool, but I'm not sure what the difference is really. Other possibilities are maybe the Instinct, Rumor, or a Treo? I haven't paid attention to phones for a long time so I'm not sure what's good or bad these days.
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Mar 26, 2009 21:38
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Country/Provider:USA/Verizon Current contract status: I'm eligible for my new every two this weekend, and my contract is up July 28th. Budget (phone/plan): I'd really like to keep it around $60 a month or less if at all possible. Features I know I want: QWERTY keyboard, maybe a camera. I really only use my phone for texting and some talking. With Verizon's in-network calling I use maybe 200 anytime minutes and have the 500 text messaging plan. I make a lot of in-network calls and texts though, so my thoughts now is that it would be cheaper just to stay. Without Verizon I'd say I use a little less than 2000 according to my bill and 2000 text messages.
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Mar 27, 2009 00:35
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pompy posted:Alright here's my deal: If your company is paying for the data plan, then look at the Touch Pro or Curve 8330. Even though the Curve is a bit old, it's got a great keyboard and BlackBerrys are the king of e-mail. The Touch Pro is a nice device but Verizon crippled it a little bit. But I recommend the Curve. Also when you get your phone and before you activate it with the BES, upgrade to the 4.5 OS. It's like having a new phone. Go to the CrackBerry forums and install the latest OS for the 8330 with the instructions provided there. If you can wait to May, go for the 9630. It's nearly the perfect BlackBerry. It's a little bit larger than the 8900, but it has the Bold's keyboard and the improvements of the 8900 (camera, slightly better screen.)
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Mar 27, 2009 02:17
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# Country/Provider: USA/Sprint-Nextel Baltimore Md area/Panhandle of WV area # Current contract status: piggybacked on Dad's work plan 500 mins/unlimited nights/weekends. finally getting my own plan # Budget (phone/plan):I'd like to keep about the same amount of minutes, be as cheap as possible. I only really use my phone on nights and weekends anyways. Phone-I'd like to keep it ideally as one of the free phones or under $100 # Features I know I want: Either the sprint coverage in the WV area sucks or my phone does, but I am in WV during the week for work and near Baltimore on the weekends, so I'd like a phone that actually will work in both places. I don't text or e-mail or internet on the phone, so I really only need a voice plan. Just looking to get a recommendation on who would have the best coverage with a good solid phone. According to the coverage maps Verizon seems to have the best coverage in WV but after reading the whole thread I am weary of all the bad press they seem to be getting here. help me goons
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Mar 27, 2009 04:49
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Location: Twin Cities Current provider/contract: T-Mobile, out of contract Budget: ~$200 for phone, $60-70/month for plan Features: Flexibility, Multimedia, Web I don't use a lot of minutes for talking especially during the day. I think I could easily get by with 100 anytime minutes and never go over it, so really what I need is palm sized laptop that happens to be able to make phone calls. Most of my use will be as a media-player, web browser. I'm undecided between the G1 and the iPhone. I really like that the G1 has expandable memory and is at least semi-open source so it seems like it would be pretty flexible and open to development of new applications. Glancing through their app store though, it doesn't look like it hasn't really captured developers' attention the way the iPhone has but it might just need more time. I kind of like the slide-away keyboard, I prefer the tactile feedback versus the software keyboard. The iPhone's interface is arguably better and supposedly it is more intuitive to work with as far as syncing data (they charge $100/year for this?) but I get this impression that the iPhone is a closed system (i.e. No expandable memory slot). Apple has final say over applications released for the iPhone, or is that not accurate? Can you simply transfer music/movies to the iPhone from your computer or does everything have to go through iTunes? That is probably my biggest concern with the iPhone: I'm going to buy one and find out that Apple wants to police everything I do with it. So do I go for the open-yet-potentially-Betamax'd G1, or do I become a whore and join the iPhone cult?
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Mar 27, 2009 16:42
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Location: Western Washington Budget: <$200 up front, $20-30/year after. Features: Battery life, cheap pre-pay. I need a phone for emergencies, for a relative who refuses to buy a cellphone(   ). I need something that can sit in a car/bag for long periods, turned off, without the battery discharging. Ideally I'd like it to last a couple months, in case I forget to charge it when I stop by. Tough is good, as are large buttons and a clear display when dialing.I know t-mobile has a plan where your minutes last for 12 months if you buy a $100 package up front. Are there any better pre-pay plans? The cost per minute isn't important, just the cost to maintain 15-30 minutes per year.
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Mar 28, 2009 02:20
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