New Phone Suggestions

[dochielomn]

Ok, so my contract with Verizon has been expired for awhile now and I'm looking for (potentially both) a new phone (my droid bionic appears to be slowing down and having issues) and which carrier/provider has the best deal. Under Verizon, i have a family plan (which I pay for) and I have my mom and dad under this plan. My mom doesn't use the phone and treats it as emergecny only. My dad uses his phone quite a bit. Right now, I recently switched to unlimited minutes and txts and share 2 GB date (i'm the only one with a smartphone and i use about 1 GB of data per month). If my dad also had data on his phone, I'm guessing there would be a problem and I don't want to deal with this so hence I am the only using data for the time being. So any suggestions/recommendations on a new phone to get or what's coming out that would be good? I don't think I would want an iPhone mainly because i'd rather go against what everone else seems to be doing (in getting an iPhone). I think my verizon bill is somewhere in the neighborhood fo $170 a month so i'm not sure if Spring or AT&T would be cheaper for what I'm looking for. Unlimited minutes is a requirement and i don't really txt that often (think my maxium was like 500 txts in 1 month) but obviously i would need some sort of txt plan and data plan. So, I leave this to the forum- discuss.

[kevm14]

I'd say to check out the Lumia Icon at a Verizon store but you won't make it 2 minutes before some breathless idiot is going to sell you a Galaxy S4.

As far as plans, I would stick to AT&T or T-Mobile. The thing with AT&T is, you will retain the good service you enjoy now (some differences but AT&T is almost as good, and better in some areas), but save money, if you buy the phones off contract.

AT&T pricing is pretty easy. First, choose your data bucket.

Code: Select all

Shared data 300MB 1GB 2GB 4GB 6GB 8GB 10GB 15GB 20GB 30GB 40GB 50GB 
Monthly cost $20  $45 $55 $70 $80 $90 $100 $130 $150 $225 $300 $375 

I am on the 2GB bucket for $55.

Then you add devices. If you decide you want to use the device subsidy and sign a 2 year contract, here are your rates:
$40/line for a smartphone
$30/line for a feature phone (the site says $20 but that's what I'm paying for contract-free so I dunno what the answer is - it's $20 or $30)

So a 2GB bucket plus 1 smartphone and 2 feature phones would be $155 or $135 depending on feature phone pricing. If everyone has smartphones, then that would be $175.

Unlimited minutes and text.

But if you do contract-free and pay full price for the phone, that $40/line smartphone becomes $25/line. So 2GB of data and 3 off contract smartphones would be $130. You get a 15% discount on the $55 data bucket saving $8.25 there.

T-Mobile is different. No shared data buckets. Each line gets its own data. Unlimited minutes and text. Wifi calling (if you don't have signal but have wifi). International roaming is included, meaning you can go to a shitload of countries, and call or text the US, as part of your plan (countries included here: http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage.html#globalcoverage). Example plan for you:
Line 1, 2.5GB (speeds slowed after 2.5GB so it's technically unlimited)
Line 2, 500MB (same deal, unlimited but slowed after 500MB)
Line 3, 500MB (same)

You buy the phones off contract. The whole thing? $100/mo. I know right? Plus there's a 15% discount which means it would be $85 (before taxes/fees, like anything else).

IF you want to subsidize the phone, you can just take the phone's cost and divide it by 24 and pay for it monthly (no interest). Your ETF becomes just paying off the balance on the phone.

[dochielomn]

So what exactly is wrong with the Galaxy S4? Or aren't they coming out with a Galaxy S5 soon i think?

[kevm14]

I'm not a big fan of any of the phones Samsung makes. They are more popular than the iPhone. The S5 was just announced but more importantly, I think what they do with Android is awful and makes the phone look and run like crap. If you go Android, I would at least recommend something with a late version of it that runs no skins (like a Nexus 5 perhaps).

Now here's a thought: what do you do, and what would you like to do, with your phone? What's important?

[Adam]

So what exactly is wrong with the Galaxy S4?

Ed has very high opinions of is Galaxy S2.

[dochielomn]

On, so in terms of what requirements i'd be look at for my next phone:

Long Battery life
Fast Processor
Reliable Processor
Quick/Reliable Response from Keyboard

In terms of what I want from my carrier/provider:

Great coverage

Those are probably it. I don't really care about camera or the size. Just want something that is relatively fast and reliable and isn't going to freeze up on me as well as something that the battery doesn't drain that easily. So, what's out there? If the iPhone is my best bet to meet those requirements, then I guess I'd bite the bullet and look to get one.

[kevm14]

Lumia Icon may be worth taking a look at at least if you stay with Verizon. The iPhone 5S actually doesn't have super great battery life.

[dochielomn]

Ok, what about other phones under AT&T or TMobile and such? Also, obviousy, how much I am paying per provider is something that would factor in as I'm looking to save money.

[kevm14]

Here's an interesting anecdote about someone switching from Android to Windows Phone:

Funny enough, I did this myself over the weekend.

I’m on day 4 with my Lumia 925, coming from 2-years of the Android experience.

Android has many great things (customization being one of my favorites) and, since it’s a dominant OS, you get the latest and greatest from every app developer. There are many other aspects that can make you hate it – which is what tipped the balance in favor of WP (just as you, I don’t like the iPhone either, so it’s out of the question for me).

I’ve been following the OS (WP) for a few years now and I think it’s a good time to jump in, specially since 8.1 is just around the corner. Just as GrzegorzWidla says, we’re really close to its launch, so you could wait and get the new hardware that will definitely be introduced with 8.1, or be like me and impulse-buy-your-preferred-WP-and-ditch-your-old-Android-device

There’s a huge difference between the two ecosystems and you will feel it. As pika2000 says, it’s specially true if you’re deep in Google’s services (they’re really not interested in developing anything for WP at this moment). Switching your stuff to Microsoft’s is really not hard and your phone will love it.

My first day was hard… really hard. As I mentioned, it was sort of an impulse buy (I had made up my mind, but switched prior to what I planned), so I got the worse buyers-remorse ever – until the phone started winning me over. Nokia’s phones are brilliant and WP is a delight to use. Sure is not as customizable as Android but it does everything so smoothly and effortlessly I’m just surprised.

Unlike Android, I’m still waiting for this thing to start acting up… but it just never does. Now, it seems that no one has stressed enough how stable WP is. As others point out, the integration with MS’ services is great, I dare say better than Android with Google’s.

Of course, is not all peaches and cream. If you do switch, be ready to find a much smaller app store. Out of the big names, ones are flat out missing (for instance, anything from Google, Flipbooard), others are there but haven’t seen an update in a looong time (I’m looking at you, IMdb). As time goes by, if WP continues to gain market share, this will change. To me, this is by no means a deal breaker – everything I need and use is there (there’s even a great GMail alternative called MetroMail, it’s very very good).

Overall, if you make an informed decision and are ready to face the trade-offs, it’s very much a recommended change.

[dochielomn]

It's an interesting read but didn't really sell me on that I had to get a windows phone.