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Ingenium posted:Country/Provider: USA Android can pretty much let you customize every aspect of the phone, so go with that I guess. Though the one thing I'll say about Android is that it might be disappointing in the music department. Just about every Android phone can't drive a pair of mid-range IEMs properly. Verizon has great data speeds, but you can blow through 2 GB with LTE pretty quickly. Sprint on the other hand has unlimited data, but their 3G isn't that great and WiMax blows because the band it's on has poor building penetration. Pick your poison. Verizon will have the Galaxy Nexus. The Galaxy Nexus will pretty much be $299 but that's the same price as all the other LTE phones on Verizon and the non-LTE Android alternatives on Verizon suck. The Galaxy Nexus is the official Google phone, and you don't have to screw around for Android updates with it. Sprint has the Evo 3D and the Galaxy S II. They're both nice enough Android phones - see which one you like more in-store.
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Nov 28, 2011 15:08
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Country/Provider: United States, California, Verizon Current contract status: Eligible for upgrade Budget (phone/plan): Flexible My girlfriend's phone was stolen this weekend. We have Asurion insurance but she's really attached to her Samsung Rogue and is also concerned that she doesn't have control over what phone she will receive from them. Verizon doesn't offer it anymore, and we don't really want to pay cash for one online. She doesn't want to mess with Android (  ) and really wants a slide-out keyboard. Which of the featurephones offered by VZW would be the closest to the Rogue? Barring that, which Android model is the simplest, nearest comparison to the Rogue and seems most like a featurephone?
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Nov 28, 2011 21:59
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Clockwork Sputnik posted:Country/Provider: United States, California, Verizon I don't really blame her on Android. She could use an Android phone as a glorified dumbphone (my mom does this with her G2), but since Verizon doesn't have anything lower than their $30/month 2 GB data plan it might be a total waste. Go to the store, look at the messaging phones they have and check them out. Then buy one off eBay or Craigslist. It's not worth signing a contract over one of those things.
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Nov 29, 2011 01:29
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They have a $20/month 300MB plan. Also, paying Verizon's high pricing doesn't really make a lot of sense if you're not looking for an LTE smartphone. Consider using a less expensive carrier with more flexibility (unless you have some crazy employer discount with Verizon or live in a rural area with no coverage on the other guys). Also worst case you could just sign a contract, get an iPhone 4S with the contract, sell it on craigslist for a tidy profit, and spend less than half of said profit buying another Rogue. eBay completed listings show Rogues selling for $135 shipped, brand new in box, clean ESN. Substantially less if you'll tolerate a used one. Godzilla07 posted:Just about every Android phone can't drive a pair of mid-range IEMs properly. I've never heard anything good out of HTC on my Shure SE530 IEMs, and my understanding is that the "Beats" branding is mostly marketing and not an indication of the inclusion of a high quality DAC. kbar fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Nov 29, 2011 |
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Nov 29, 2011 01:47
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Alright, I'm also in California and am on Verizon as part of a a Family plan. My mom and I are both set for upgrades, but only she gets a discount. We don't even know how much it is anymore to be honest. I'm stuck with whatever their "best deal" is for whatever phone I'm interested in, unless she gets a phone that's free with a 2 Year activation and transfers the discount to the phone I get. She wants a smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, and it seems there aren't many options there. I honestly don't really know what she really wants outside of that, and she says she can make a quick decision, so I'll just say what I'd like to hopefully get some help. First of all I honestly don't know a lot about what makes certain smartphones better or worse than other. I don't know if I'd rather have a Android or iPhone, and just how much use I'd get out of either when it comes to stuff outside the basic phone functions. kalibar posted:kalibar, on phones and plans: - Decent audio since I don't have an iPod or other good MP3 Player, and my current phone sucks for it. - Good mobile web usage, but Apps would probably get around a good bit of that. - A physical QWERTY would be great, but not necessary. They seem few and far between, and I don't know if the ones with 'em are the Shitboxes-of-the-Week. I guess I'll just have to get used to a Virtual QWERTY. I see that Verizon will be getting the Galaxy Nexus, but I don't know how much it'd cost with a new 2 Year contract, but if it's anything like the Droid RAZR price wise after activation (only comparison I'm using it for), I can probably kiss that option goodbye unless I sell some stuff and put in a good chunk of the phone's cost myself. As I said, any advice would be nice. I just want to know what the gently caress I'm doing for the most part.
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Nov 29, 2011 09:22
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Volfogg posted:Alright, I'm also in California and am on Verizon as part of a a Family plan. My mom and I are both set for upgrades, but only she gets a discount. We don't even know how much it is anymore to be honest. I'm stuck with whatever their "best deal" is for whatever phone I'm interested in, unless she gets a phone that's free with a 2 Year activation and transfers the discount to the phone I get. Smartphones with keyboards are far between, and honestly 9 out of 10 people are fine without them. If you cant afford the galaxy nexus i would recommend waiting a month and save. You pay $30 a month for data alone, taking time to invest in the best value is a good idea.
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Nov 29, 2011 16:30
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I'm in Germany. Have the option of getting a plan with either the Galaxy S2 for 150€ or the Nexus S for 60€. How much better is the S2 than the Nexus S? Really don't want to wait for the Galaxy Nexus which would be 340€ anyways and that's too expensive. Pro Galaxy S2: -(much?) better hardware -SD cards Pro Nexus S: -software updates -looks nicer I really have no idea how much of a difference the better HW on the GS2 makes as opposed to the Nexus having the newer Android. Which of these makes the bigger difference?
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Nov 29, 2011 20:49
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kalibar posted:This is mostly accurate, but not entirely. The Nexus S and O.G. Galaxy S devices have a good DAC and a strong headphone amplifier. Anything on Voodoo Sound's list should be roughly equivalent to an iPhone in quality, provided you bother loading a Voodoo kernel. That's basically the Galaxy S and all its variants. This makes for zero known high-end Android phones on the market right now with a quality DAC. The iPhone is pretty much the simplest option for someone who really listens to music on their phone, and you get a current high-end smartphone to boot. Volfogg posted:Alright, I'm also in California and am on Verizon as part of a a Family plan. My mom and I are both set for upgrades, but only she gets a discount. We don't even know how much it is anymore to be honest. I'm stuck with whatever their "best deal" is for whatever phone I'm interested in, unless she gets a phone that's free with a 2 Year activation and transfers the discount to the phone I get. First off, check your upgrade status with Verizon. This handy little tool will let you check your upgrade. Second off, if your mom takes a supposedly "free" phone, that means it's free with the subsidy and 2-year contract. Verizon's alright for phone choices. You've really got your two basic options: iOS and the iPhone, and Android. Android has complete customization, Gmail and Maps. On Android, you can customize your phone however you want and do whatever you want with it. Gmail on Android is great if you're a heavy Gmail user, and Maps on Android is pretty nice with free turn-by-turn. iOS has great apps, and what can be a nicer overall experience. There's a reason why you see third-party apps paraded around in Apple commercials for the iPhone and iPad. The more controlled experience of iOS also lets Apple try and give a better experience - better camera performance, better battery life, etc... You don't have to screw around with iOS in order to get it to work well. For you, I'd go with an iPhone. Every high-end Android right now can't drive a pair of mid-range IEMs properly, let alone anything above that. It's also simpler dealing with music on iOS and other music playback apps on iOS are better, such as the Spotify app. The browsing experience is good on iOS like every other high-end smartphone these days, and apps are generally better on iOS. For your mother, try and convince her not to get a keyboarded phone. They're few and far between. The size and weight penalty isn't worth dealing with for keyboard phones these days. There's only one very specific use case for keyboard phones (SSH on your phone.) This is coming from an old keyboard addict. The iPhone should be fine enough for her - the software keyboard is excellent on it and still the best around. Plus she's more likely to not have problems with the iPhone.
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Nov 30, 2011 02:42
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Godzilla07 posted:First off, check your upgrade status with Verizon. This handy little tool will let you check your upgrade. Second off, if your mom takes a supposedly "free" phone, that means it's free with the subsidy and 2-year contract. Oh, I know that the "free" phone is really just to get you to sign yet another 2-Year Plan and the phone may not even be worth it. I just don't see us leaving Verizon anytime soon. More because she's perfectly fine with them and she hasn't had any complaints and just doesn't really see any reason to switch carriers. I will try to see if I can get her to get a non-keyboard phone though. I know they're pretty rare, and I've personally given up on getting a GOOD smartphone with a physical QWERTY. On my end, my main email account is a Gmail account, but I don't really send mails much. Free Turn-by-Turn does sound great though. Even better for my mom even though she's still set on getting a standard GPS. The music thing isn't a major necessity since I honestly rarely listen to much of my own music when I'm out. Even when I had an old iPod, I rarely used it outside of home really. It's one of those "it'd be nice, but I don't know how much I'd actually use it" sorts of things. This isn't trying to make it sound like I don't want an iPhone. If it's really the best option for me when it comes to what I would like to have, I'd get one. I mainly just think it would be a bit weird if both of us ended up with iPhones, even if they may be the best overall option. There's no real hurry, so I'm going to also look into how the Galaxy Nexus fares and may think about picking that up as my phone after it's Verizon release. Thanks for the posts though guys. I'm going to save some cash after the small bit of Christmas shopping I do to help cover a good chunk of whatever phone I end up getting.
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Nov 30, 2011 10:44
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Generally, I'd say that I disagree with Godzilla07's hyper-dismissive attitude toward Android -- I feel like he's very to quick recommend iPhones even if they're not necessarily appropriate, and Android is a wildly flexible operating system that's a lot of fun if you enjoy this kind of stuff. Yes, there are a lot of bad Android phones and yes, a lot of Android phones make really lovely audio players. These problems are solved by "not loving buying those phones."  The biggest reason I'd suggest avoiding iPhones is that you guys are paying high-rear end Verizon prices, and when you're paying high-rear end Verizon prices you should be getting access to their sweet, sweet LTE network. It is literally the only reason to pay Verizon. I cannot stress this enough. If LTE isn't important to both of you, switch to a cheaper carrier (T-Mobile) or to a carrier with faster 3G and better phone selection (AT&T). "Up for renewal" doesn't mean "time to take whatever crappy deal Verizon gives us," it means shop around. Hypothetically, using T-Mobile means you could get your mom an HTC G2 (arguably the best Android QWERTY slider in existence) while picking up an inexpensive Nexus S for yourself. That would put a stellar ICS-capable Android phone (and a fabulous audio-playing Android device) in your hands today, and would give Galaxy Nexus prices a few months to cool down at which point you could sell your NS and pick one up if you felt so inclined -- chances are, you'll be perfectly happy and won't care. Both devices will run CyanogenMod, neither "needs" to in order not to suck. As a bonus, T-Mobile has no-subsidy "Value" plans that would let you guys put together a plan with a generous chunk of data and voice minutes for a stupid-low price (probably half of what you pay Verizon now), and the phones I mentioned are inexpensively available via craigslist, SA-Mart, and eBay. As I said previously, T-Mobile's definitely a bit of a lesser carrier, but they work exceptionally well in most major cities and their 3G is faster than Verizon's and Sprint's 3G. I have my girlfriend and most of my family on T-Mobile -- they mostly call and text and a few of them have the $10 200MB/month data plans that they augment with WiFi at home/work, and they're all very pleased with the arrangement, the devices, and the pricing. I switched my line to Verizon because I'm addicted to data, and was able to get a grandfathered unlimited LTE plan by signing up when I did. On QWERTY keyboards: this is a weird lesson that a lot of people have to learn for themselves. Do you guys have Android smartphones currently? If not, I really do recommend throwing caution to the wind and spending a week or two with a touchscreen-only device. They're more robustly-built (and obviously thinner) than QWERTY sliders, they're much more pleasant in the hand and in the pocket, and you would be surprised at just how good you can get at throwing down keystrokes with nothing but thumbs + glass. I insisted on HTC QWERTY-slider smartphones all the way up until I tried an iPhone in '09 and after that there was no going back. For what it's worth, I can appreciate that loved ones (specifically moms and dads, if we're profiling) can be pretty rigid about trying this, so it's a good thing the HTC G2 exists. If you guys have to stay with Verizon and there's just no negotiation on this, that's sort of a tough one. My personal opinion is that all of Verizon's QWERTY phones are lovely, and if you guys don't already have data plans you're going to be incurring an extra $60/month between the two of you for really limited data allowances -- that would cover most of an entire plan for the two of you on T-Mobile Value. I guess in that situation I'd push your mom toward a Droid 4 "on paper" because it's got QWERTY, it's got good hardware underneath Motorola's shitware, it's got LTE, and would get her 4GB of data instead of 2GB. But in the real world, your mom would probably have a more pleasant experience on an iPhone -- it's devoid of shitware, it's very novice-friendly, and I've never met anyone that wasn't a smartphone enthusiast who has owned an iPhone that severely disliked it. You'd just be getting it for all the wrong economic reasons (most expensive carrier, most expensive data plan, low data allotment, slowest network). For you (assuming sticking with Verizon), this week is a real bad week to be renewing a contract. Regardless of whether or not you can afford to keep it, you should wait to sign your renewal until the Galaxy Nexus launches. If you can afford to keep it, great, you've got the best phone out there. If you need the money, you can probably sell it on release day easily for $600-700 which would get you at least $300 in profit. I'd take a chunk of that profit to craigslist and buy a Samsung Fascinate which can be had for about a hundred bucks, but is basically a Verizon Nexus S underneath and runs CyanogenMod beautifully. You won't get LTE, but you should at least be able to get the 4GB data plan in place by purchasing the Nexus -- I'd check at the store and make sure it'll stick when you switch to a non-LTE device. (For the record, I'm personally doing a short stint on a cheapo Fascinate w/ CM7 while my LTE Droid Charge sits in timeout for being a piece of poo poo. Verizon's current crop of LTE phones are unreasonably poor and the Galaxy Nexus is basically our forthcoming savior.) Also if you're dead-set on renewing and all (2?) of your lines are completely out of contract, take the time to call Verizon up and say you're thinking of switching to another carrier for better pricing. They'll likely be able to get you a recurring discount or discounted phone pricing to sign another contract if they think you're looking to leave and the "alternative" is that you guys re-up with a pair of cash-cow smartphones. kbar fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Nov 30, 2011 |
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Nov 30, 2011 13:44
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Kalibar is dead on with his last point (and overall), barter with these guys. Call Verizon (I doubt in store can do much), say cancel and it usually gets you right to retention. Just be firm and don't commit until it's what you are looking for, and or close to it.
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Nov 30, 2011 15:24
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This may be a stupid question, but is there a smartphone with a pre-paid plan worth getting? I was looking at the Straight Talk LG Optimus Q but when I saw it uses the Sprint network my heart sank. Is there a decent smart phone out there that doesn't require a contract with good coverage?
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Nov 30, 2011 23:50
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spasticColon posted:This may be a stupid question, but is there a smartphone with a pre-paid plan worth getting? I was looking at the Straight Talk LG Optimus Q but when I saw it uses the Sprint network my heart sank. Is there a decent smart phone out there that doesn't require a contract with good coverage? Yes. If you don't like sprint see if tmobile has better coverage. The those are the two best, although I don't think Verizon prepaid is terrible.
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Dec 1, 2011 03:58
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Duckman2008 posted:Yes. If you don't like sprint see if tmobile has better coverage. The those are the two best, although I don't think Verizon prepaid is terrible. After looking at a coverage map Sprint doesn't look too bad and it looks like tmobile is more or less the same in terms of coverage here in southern IL. But who has the best deal for pre-paid smart phones at the moment? And I hate to admit it but cell phones are one of the few technologies I'm somewhat tech illiterate on so please bear with me. I've been reading some of the FAQ and I understand most of it although some of it is  to me.
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Dec 1, 2011 04:46
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spasticColon posted:After looking at a coverage map Sprint doesn't look too bad and it looks like tmobile is more or less the same in terms of coverage here in southern IL. But who has the best deal for pre-paid smart phones at the moment? And I hate to admit it but cell phones are one of the few technologies I'm somewhat tech illiterate on so please bear with me. I've been reading some of the FAQ and I understand most of it although some of it is Virgin Mobile is sprint prepaid, same coverage minis roaming fyi. Plans are: $35 for 300 minutes. $45 for 1200 minutes $55 for unlimited All plans are unlimited text and web. Phone wise the triumph is best, Optimus also pretty good. Tmobile has an awesome plan that is $30 a month, unlimited text and data. Catch is you only get 100 minutes. I think their next plan up is $60, unlimited call, text and web. Note that unlimited data on both of those plans is actually throttled after 2gb. You have to buy your phone outright, but any tmobile phone is fine, you have a lot more to choose from. If I am wrong on tmobile someone please speak up.
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Dec 1, 2011 05:25
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If you buy your phone separately and use Google Voice for text, you can get a T-Mobile postpaid plan for $45/month that includes 2GB of HSPA+ data, 500 voice minutes, and free nights/weekends/mobile-to-mobile (add $5/month to that if you're too illiterate/lazy to set up GV and require carrier texting). The $30 plan is better for low-volume voice customers, but most people aren't that. Worrying about carrier coverage is pretty silly unless you have personally tried the carrier in your area and can attest to its deficiencies. All carriers offer good coverage in most areas, and all carriers lie like crazy on their coverage maps to make trouble spots appear fine. In spite of all the highly visible negative rhetoric, my pal in San Francisco uses AT&T without any real issues, for instance. Shop for price, features, and device first. Spend your initial trial period aggressively determining if the coverage is going to be acceptable for you. Most of the time, it's going to be fine -- and when it isn't, you'll notice quickly.
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Dec 1, 2011 06:44
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The first problem I'm running into is that I'm not sure what features I want or need. I don't use voice that much but I do text a lot and plan on using mobile web a lot as well but I'll use Wifi hotspots if I'm in range of course. The other problem is price. I really don't want to spend more than $200 on the phone if possible and if I buy the phone separately its going to cost a lot more than that unless there's something I'm missing. That's why pre-paid smartphones from Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile look attractive to me but I have this feeling there's a catch somewhere.
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Dec 1, 2011 08:27
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kalibar posted:If you guys have to stay with Verizon and there's just no negotiation on this, that's sort of a tough one. My personal opinion is that all of Verizon's QWERTY phones are lovely, and if you guys don't already have data plans you're going to be incurring an extra $60/month between the two of you for really limited data allowances -- that would cover most of an entire plan for the two of you on T-Mobile Value. I guess in that situation I'd push your mom toward a Droid 4 "on paper" because it's got QWERTY, it's got good hardware underneath Motorola's shitware, it's got LTE, and would get her 4GB of data instead of 2GB. But in the real world, your mom would probably have a more pleasant experience on an iPhone -- it's devoid of shitware, it's very novice-friendly, and I've never met anyone that wasn't a smartphone enthusiast who has owned an iPhone that severely disliked it. You'd just be getting it for all the wrong economic reasons (most expensive carrier, most expensive data plan, low data allotment, slowest network). Here's the thing. We have a grandfathered Unlimited Data plan. That's one reason she doesn't want to leave Verizon and one that I can understand and get behind. So provided we stay with Verizon, we should be good when it comes to Data. After talking to my mom, she's a bit better with a non-slider. I've said to her that an iPhone 4S may just be her best option, but here's her reasons for not really wanting one: - The battery as a whole. Non-Removable and Battery Life - You're stuck with the phone's storage/non-expandable memory. - "Doesn't run/support Flash" These are just her reasons. She hasn't really looked up the info on it though. I just asked her what her main problems with an iPhone were and that's what she said. We aren't on any set time limit to re-sign contracts, so I am personally going to wait until the Galaxy Nexus launches and go from there personally. If it ends up being I get the Nexus and she gets an iPhone, that wouldn't be TOO bad. We're probably not going to get new phones until around January though. She is going to call up Verizon to see what they'll do to keep us once she brings up canceling.
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Dec 1, 2011 10:04
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Volfogg posted:Here's the thing. We have a grandfathered Unlimited Data plan. That's one reason she doesn't want to leave Verizon and one that I can understand and get behind. So provided we stay with Verizon, we should be good when it comes to Data. There are reasons a not to get the 4S, but the ones she listed are not them. My big argument is simply LTE, but she may not need that. She could certainly get by with out it. spasticColon posted:The first problem I'm running into is that I'm not sure what features I want or need. I don't use voice that much but I do text a lot and plan on using mobile web a lot as well but I'll use Wifi hotspots if I'm in range of course. The other problem is price. I really don't want to spend more than $200 on the phone if possible and if I buy the phone separately its going to cost a lot more than that unless there's something I'm missing. That's why pre-paid smartphones from Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile look attractive to me but I have this feeling there's a catch somewhere. Check online prices of tmobile phones on craigslist and Ebay, the G2 specifically tends to be cheap and goon recommended.
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Dec 1, 2011 15:52
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Volfogg posted:Here's the thing. We have a grandfathered Unlimited Data plan. You should mention these conditions upfront. Also I don't want to pigeonhole your mom too badly, but based on her feedback about the 4S she's either:
The constrained storage complaint is essentially fiction; you can buy a 64GB iPhone, whereas the largest amount of storage available on any Verizon Android phone is 48GB, and that's a Motorola turd with a poor-quality DAC -- it also requires spending extra on a 32GB microSD card and spreading your data across two separate partitions (16GB and 32GB) to actually achieve that. Also, swapping microSD cards on modern phones is almost universally too much of a pain in the rear end to ever do. The only time you will do it is when you insert the large SD card you buy. I used to think I cared about removable storage; now I'm just frustrated that I can't have a 64GB or 128GB Android phone. I'm also a really picky power user with a lot of lossless music files -- an overwhelming majority of users will never need anywhere near 64GB of storage and are going to be perfectly fine on the 8GB entry-level iPhone. The battery complaint is sort of valid, but mostly not (unless she's already conditioned to swap batteries throughout the day in her current device). In spite of the internal battery, you can fairly easily augment the iPhone's capacity (in the rare event that it turns out to be a problem) using products like this one. Volfogg posted:If it ends up being I get the Nexus and she gets an iPhone, that wouldn't be TOO bad. Technically, waiting even a day longer than the Galaxy Nexus's release date to sign your contract (if you're going to do it anyway) is costing you money. You want to minimize the amount of time that you're out of contract but continuing to pay for service -- the only reasons to ever wait are suspicion of great deals coming shortly (e.g. the $0.01 smartphone deals we saw on Black Friday), or the forthcoming release of a game changing device -- like the Galaxy Nexus.
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Dec 1, 2011 18:04
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Country/Provider: US Sprint Current contract status: Upgrade late 2012. Budget (phone/plan): Plan is fine, about $200 max on a phone. Features I know I want: Hate my Optimus S. Currently on #2 (first one got replaced through the August insurance clemency), and this one's headphone jack just went again. Tried to buy a Evo 3D off of eBay for $200 and got scammed, but got my cash back and it went to better things like food at the time. Now that I have funding again, it'd be nice to have a not poo poo phone. I've seen the classic Epic 4G's floating around for $125 or so, is it still worth it as a stopgap, or should I hold out for post Christmas or something like that?
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Dec 2, 2011 07:08
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I'd get a Nexus S 4G if you're stuck with Sprint, it's the same phone as the Epic 4G but with awesome Google software support (and an impending Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade) instead of terrible Samsung support. The Sprint version is surprisingly reasonably-priced secondhand.
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Dec 2, 2011 07:14
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kalibar posted:I'd get a Nexus S 4G if you're stuck with Sprint, it's the same phone as the Epic 4G but with awesome Google software support (and an impending Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade) instead of terrible Samsung support. The Sprint version is surprisingly reasonably-priced secondhand. Seconding this, but emphasizing I woud get it used right now. Sprint hopefully has LTE launching mid to late 2012, so saving your upgrade for that is a good idea. You should be able to find the Nexus, Evo and Evo 3D for good prices on Ebay or craigslist. I would go nexus or 3D.
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Dec 2, 2011 16:26
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Yeah don't sign a Sprint contract (ever) but especially don't sign one for a WiMax phone.
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Dec 2, 2011 17:26
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T-Shaped posted:I've seen the classic Epic 4G's floating around for $125 or so, is it still worth it as a stopgap, or should I hold out for post Christmas or something like that? As for the Epic, I was quoted $105 for a trade in from Sprint shortly prior to the E4GT's release, I imagine that value might be less now. If you shop around and can find it for $100 or less, it might be satisfactory enough for you. I intend to keep mine until a desirable Sprint LTE device comes out. It has a few caveats though: The phone runs great with the latest Android update (Gingerbread), except they broke the GPS and the hardware keyboard responsiveness is still poo poo. Both problems are completely fixed with community hacks, but that puts the Epic squarely in the "must be hacked to be useful" category which the Nexus S is not in. As for hacking, the Epic still does not have official Cyanogenmod support, although that's just around the corner. There's unofficial builds that work pretty darn well, except no 4G, a 911 calling bug, and I think video acceleration. The latter two issues will be addressed before CM goes official, 4G who knows. Personally the hardware keyboard is a big win for me, and the device finally works to the point that I have relatively few complaints about it. I'd be shocked to hell if it got an official Ice Cream Sandwich update, which the Nexus S 4G will get, so that's a far better device if you don't need the keyboard and can afford it.
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Dec 2, 2011 23:15
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Are the Sharp FX, Sharp FX Plus, or Pantech Crossover any good for Android phones w/keyboard? I'm kind of limited when looking for hearing aid-compatible phones but narrowing options down on PhoneArena suggested those as a result and I don't know much about them. I tried the Crossover out in the store and didn't like it much, but I couldn't get a very good impression and I've never tried either of the Sharp phones. Suggestions? It seems like it's either that or the Captivate Glide if I want a physical keyboard, which I do.
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Dec 3, 2011 02:21
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SpecialAgentCooper posted:Are the Sharp FX, Sharp FX Plus, or Pantech Crossover any good for Android phones w/keyboard? SpecialAgentCooper posted:I'm kind of limited when looking for hearing aid-compatible phones but narrowing options down on PhoneArena suggested those as a result and I don't know much about them. SpecialAgentCooper posted:It seems like it's either that or the Captivate Glide if I want a physical keyboard, which I do. Hearing aid compatibility: that's something you'll have to test in store. According to the above link you're encouraged to try any device at a retail AT&T store. Hardware keyboard suck: Samsung's keyboard driver on past Android hardware keyboard devices has sucked. Or rather, it's poorly tuned. For example, on the Epic it drops keypresses, while on the Sidekick 4G it monopolizes the CPU annihilating battery life. I don't know about the Stratosphere or Captivate Glide yet. The problems with the keyboard driver can and have been trivially fixed in the phone hacking community. It's an utter mystery why Samsung has done nothing about it. Anyways, the point is to also try the keyboard extensively on the Glide and see if it's "good enough" for you. If so, you may be able to improve the overall experience by hacking the phone if that's something you ultimately feel comfortable doing. But the experience should at least be passable so you could use the phone stock if that's your preference. Edit: Actually, as a Tegra device the Glide's keyboard doesn't automatically suck. That's good news. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Dec 3, 2011 |
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Dec 3, 2011 18:48
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Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to try out the Glide in-store. Unfortunately, if the regular Captivate is only M3 then that's not too promising, although PhoneArena claims it's got T3 or T4. The difference between M4 and T4 is the microphone compatibility vs the telecoil compatibility. I honestly have no idea what microphone compatibility actually means - all I know is that without a telecoil, any cell phone will produce massive amounts of interference when it's set to "telephone mode". Basically, if you put a hearing aid next to a cell phone that's got a telecoil, or next to a landline phone, and set it to its telephone mode, the hearing aid shuts everything off except the magnetic signal that the speakers are emitting. It could be like this amazing noise cancellation...in theory. Let's just say that a lot of cell phones manufacturers can't be bothered to take care of it, so when you try to call while using them, it sounds like horrible dial-up modem screeching. I've had some that work beautifully, and basically give me complete noise cancellation (this term isn't actually correct here, since that's not how it's muting the other sounds, but it kind of describes the overall effect), but who knows how many phones will support it. Either way, thanks for the advice about the newer and older phones. Yes, I might be stingy for insisting on a hardware keyboard, but it makes/breaks the phone for me. I'll just have to try em out in person.
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Dec 3, 2011 23:03
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kalibar posted:The biggest reason I'd suggest avoiding iPhones is that you guys are paying high-rear end Verizon prices, and when you're paying high-rear end Verizon prices you should be getting access to their sweet, sweet LTE network. It is literally the only reason to pay Verizon. I cannot stress this enough. If LTE isn't important to both of you, switch to a cheaper carrier (T-Mobile) or to a carrier with faster 3G and better phone selection (AT&T). "Up for renewal" doesn't mean "time to take whatever crappy deal Verizon gives us," it means shop around. This is ridiculous. AT&T has the same rates as Verizon. And for that matter, Sprint & T-Mobile aren't really that much cheaper. Here's the reason you would want to pay for Verizon: Because it is reliable in your area. That's it. 4G is not worth it right now. If AT&T is more reliable in your area, pay for them. Same with Sprint & T-Mobile (aka Fantasy Land) 4G is too big a battery sucker and too spread out to be a selling point. AT&T doesn't have a wider phone selection, that is ridiculous. Android manufacturers have been vomiting out what feels like 3-5 phones a month on Verizon. They have a Windows Phone for anyone who feels like gambling on a 2 year contract.
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Dec 4, 2011 07:38
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Pretty incorrect. Leaving for-pay text messaging out of the equation (which everyone with a smartphone should do), Verizon is $70/month for voice and 2GB of Ev-DO Rev. A data whereas AT&T is $65/month for voice and 2GB of HSPA+ data. Wikipedia says Rev. A's max burst speed is 3.1 Mbps -- in reality, I rarely get over 1Mbps on Verizon's Ev-DO in my area. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4S supports 14.4Mbps HSPA+. In my area, AT&T HSPA+ is good for about 5-8Mbps in real world speeds. This will certainly vary by city, but not substantially. Paying $5/month more for slower Verizon speeds for some perceived "reliability" unless you can personally verify that the objectively-superior competitor doesn't work well in your area is a terrible choice. I generally tell everyone to stay away from Sprint, at least until they've got LTE running. Google Voice users have no reason at all to pay Sprint's extra $10/month over Verizon (or $15/month over AT&T) to get a texting bundle they don't need. EPRP levels the pricing to Verizon-level, but I still think it's generally a better idea to go with one of the other guys either for Verizon's LTE, AT&T's HSPA+ and LTE, or if for no other reason than to avoid supporting a company who's solution to the data pinch is random-rear end $10/month "premium data" fees whenever it decides "unlimited" needs to be redefined. The generalizations I make are done under the assumption that all carriers work rougly as well as one another in your area. Not surprisingly, this circumstance holds true in many areas, and it's extremely common for people to think "so and so doesn't work well in my area because my dumbass uncle who carries a Kyocera shitbox drops calls." People rarely test all the carriers and have an idea who works and who doesn't -- more often than not, they all just kinda work no better or worse than each other. I'm kinda bitchy about T-Mobile because of their missing HSPA coverage on the highways in my state, but even out here most T-Mobile customers are completely fine with their service. So yeah, objectively, 3G Verizon is a bad deal right now. Also Verizon's LTE is the loving truth, but admittedly their LTE phones are all pretty lovely -- forthcoming Galaxy Nexus excepted. Re: AT&T's device selection, I'm not talking about the phones in their lineup, you silly goose. I'm referring to the ability to use any UMTS 850/1900 phone you want. Heck, spendy folks are already importing Euro Galaxy Nexuses and using them on AT&T, and the Canadian carriers (Bell, Telus, and Rogers) have a huge cache of reasonably inexpensive AT&T-compatibile smartphones available. If you actually bother to look, there exists an AT&T-compatible version (or extremely similar version) of almost any phone sold on any carrier. kbar fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Dec 4, 2011 |
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Dec 4, 2011 09:06
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When you're paying that much, $5 isn't huge. And AT&T is unreliable (or outright unusable, and believe me I speak from experience) in enough places that it's worth it. I think Verizon is certainly good enough in most cases. I'm not pulling down a significant amount of data. Furthermore, by the time you're out of a 2 year contract on a great 3G phone that you sign up for now, LTE will hopefully be mature enough that it won't cause 4 hour battery life. Hell, my Incredible's battery life is unacceptable on just 3G. Nut Bunnies fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Dec 4, 2011 |
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Dec 4, 2011 09:38
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Country/Provider: USA/Verizon Current contract status: My mom, sister and I are all out of contract Budget (phone/plan): We are planning on keeping our current 700min/mo+unlimited texting option, and I (and possibly the other two) are looking at upgrading to smartphones. Features I know I want: I am torn between the Nexus and 4S - I do want to take advantage of the double data deal for LTE phones but in looking at the tech specs for the Nexus I don't know if it would significantly improve my phone experience over an iPhone, especially given that I've owned an iPod Touch and am familiar and comfortable with it. Is the Nexus really that much better? My mom and sister are both incredibly low tech and I'm not even sure if smartphones are ideal for them. My mom uses a feature phone with GPS and GPS is pretty much her only requirement for a new phone. I think they'd both end up using some of the smartphone features but I don't know if a 30/month data plan makes sense for them. I think if they do insist on smartphones I'll probably just have them get iPhone 4s to ease my tech support fees.
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Dec 4, 2011 19:26
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Nut Bunnies posted:When you're paying that much, $5 isn't huge. Nut Bunnies posted:And AT&T is unreliable (or outright unusable, and believe me I speak from experience) in enough places that it's worth it. But the carrier service quality field is much more even now. You might be right, AT&T may suck in areas you frequent and they're not worth your time. But if that's not something you've verified in the past year or so, it might be worth revisiting. As a general rule, Verizon and AT&T will have better voice coverage than Sprint and T-Mo since they have 850-band spectrum, which has superior building penetration. That benefit is somewhat marginal with free roaming, unless your house is in a dead spot. Data can be hit or miss across the board depending on which bands carriers are deploying 3G/4G data services, which towers provide 3G/4G data and their backhaul capacity, etc. Plus, all of the above is influenced by how good the radio is in your phone, and there are significant differences in reception quality between them. Nut Bunnies posted:Furthermore, by the time you're out of a 2 year contract on a great 3G phone that you sign up for now, LTE will hopefully be mature enough that it won't cause 4 hour battery life.
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Dec 4, 2011 19:50
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dantheman650 posted:Is the Nexus really that much better? iOS vs Android pretty much will always come down to ecosystem. If you're into iTunes, go iOS. If you're into Google, cloud poo poo, and likely to make solid use of 4 GB/mo LTE, go with Android (Galaxy Nexus). If you're into talking to your phone like a socially-inappropriate robot in a crowded elevator, go iPhone 4S. dantheman650 posted:My mom and sister are both incredibly low tech and I'm not even sure if smartphones are ideal for them. dantheman650 posted:My mom uses a feature phone with GPS and GPS is pretty much her only requirement for a new phone. Google Navigation on Android is actually a surprisingly good turn-by-turn navigation package. It has replaced my standalone Garmin in almost all circumstances. It's also free to use, aside from the usual $30/mo data plan requirement. Actually, Google Navigation is one of the few reasons I might recommend Android to someone over iOS. There's just no comparable free iOS equivalent. MapQuest will do turn-by-turn navigation, but it's overhead view. There's a bunch of paid apps to do it of course, ranging in one-time fees to subscription based. As for cost, consider that if you're all on smartphones you can sign up for Google Voice and drop the $30/mo unlimited text package that you're likely paying for, which itself pays for a second data plan. I assume you're also paying $10/mo for VZ Navigator on your mother's dumbphone, which can also be dropped for Google Navigation. So really, you're looking at $160/mo for all three of you to rock smartphones, vs $140/mo for one smartphone, one dumbphone, and one GPS+dumbphone. At that point I think the extra $20/mo is totally worth a vastly-superior phone experience for all three of you. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Dec 4, 2011 |
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Dec 4, 2011 20:08
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I live in Germany and I want an Android phone but what I have no idea about is whether I should get one with a contract or one without. Some say it's cheaper to get one with a contract and sell off the old phone when you get a new one after two years because it'll be unlocked then while others say the initial investment (about 550€ for a nexus, 660€ for a 4s) will pay off eventually. As for the phone itself, I want one with an alright camera/video camera and internet fast enough for internet messaging and things, nothing else much.
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Dec 4, 2011 21:30
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heiden posted:I live in Germany and I want an Android phone but what I have no idea about is whether I should get one with a contract or one without. Generally speaking, if you would pay more-per-month to get a subsidized phone on contract, it's usually cheaper over 24 months to purchase a device outright, even at retail price. The two exceptions are when (i) carriers have a crazy promo going where they're selling a $200 (subsidized) phone for 1¢ or something, and (ii) for carriers where you pay the same price a month whether you take a subsidized phone or not. Three of the four nationwide US carriers are like that, so folks are always upgrading phones on contracts in order to maximize their value. heiden posted:As for the phone itself, I want one with an alright camera/video camera and internet fast enough for internet messaging and things, nothing else much.
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Dec 4, 2011 21:58
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As usual, everything from BLarg! is completely accurate. Pro posts.
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Dec 5, 2011 01:35
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kalibar posted:Google Voice users have no reason at all to pay Sprint's extra $10/month over Verizon (or $15/month over AT&T) to get a texting bundle they don't need. Can you go in to a little more detail about this? All the explanations I've seen about GV texting indicate that you have to train all your contacts to text you at a different number than they call you. I don't really see that working for me. Am I missing something?
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Dec 5, 2011 03:45
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rockear posted:Can you go in to a little more detail about this? All the explanations I've seen about GV texting indicate that you have to train all your contacts to text you at a different number than they call you. I don't really see that working for me. Am I missing something? You're missing that you can port your number to Google Voice.
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Dec 5, 2011 03:56
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So if I'm reading correctly here that's something you need to do immediately before signing up for a new contract with your carrier? And I would lose my current number as well? I guess I'm out of luck in that case because I just signed a new contract and I don't really want to change my number.
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Dec 5, 2011 04:03
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