Phones!

[LoneWolf]

Just got my new phone today, and figured that a thread about this would be interesting.

 

What kind of phone do you have? Are you happy with it? What carrier? How much do you pay?

 

DISCUSS!

 

For me, I just got a new Nexus 4 16gb in the mail. So far I'm extremely happy with it, however I'm waiting for my SIM to arrive (Purchased from T-Mobile, going with their $30 Unlimited Data and Text + 100 Minutes) so it's hard to say.

 

Otherwise my phone I've been using for the past two years is a Pantech Ease on AT&T. Euuuugh. The name is the most ironic thing in the universe. So far it crashes at random, only allows up to about 180 messages stored on the phone before you have to start deleting if you wish to continue texting. It has recently ceased to accept voice calls and is fussy beyond belief when it comes to media messages. Glad to be ditching it.

[Dr. Orange]

I have a sideflip phone that can call and text. Made by Samsung on Sprint. I take pictures occasionally. 

 

B*tches can't stand all the swagger of my phone.

[CrypticQuery]

I currently have a Sony Xperia Ion running on Android's Ice Cream Sandwich.  I do like the phone in general, but I am finding that my distaste with smartphones as a whole are growing with each and every passing day. 

 

I would love to have something like the ridiculously tough, military-spec phones made by Sonim, however, and love the brick form-factor and simplicity of it them;

 

[Icy]

I don't have a phone.

[Arashikage]

I have a Samsung Galaxy SIII running 4.1.1 Jelly Bean.  I love it.  Especially with the dual core processor and gigabyte of RAM that I get with it.  I also love the customizability of the OS and the things it can do contrary to the iPhone which I upgraded from.  What an upgrade!

[Sarita]

I have an iPhone 4S, it's kinda idiot proof, and didn't realize how much I would love it until I got it. I probably wont need a new one until the 5S comes out, either, so I'll probably get a new 4S for free.

 

Though, once the 4S becomes difficult to find I'll probably move on to something else, I'm not too keen on the 5. The OS is great, though. I never felt the need to unlock it.

[Steph McCloud]

I have a verizon LG extravert. It gets the job done which is enough for me, but the parts of it that are touch screen don't respond to well. It does have a qwerty keyboard though, which I really enjoy but it's getting harder to find phones with one.

[DZComposer]

I have the red-headded step-child of the Nexus line: The Verizon Galaxy Nexus.

 

The poor thing. It's like having a nexus phone without the benefits of having a nexus phone! Sorry, Verizon says you do NOT, in fact, get the latest AOSP.

 

So, I rooted it and put Cyanogenmod on it. I even made my own boot animation: It starts like an iPhone: Apple logo shows, but then the Andorid mascot comes in and kicks it away. I love it.

 

I decided to skip the Nexus 4. Yeah, it has a nice price point, but what's the point in it being the flagship Android phone when the Galaxy S III still blew it out of the water? And with the Galaxy S4 coming out, I really want to see a new Nexus. A top-tier Nexus. Elsewise, my next phone may be an S4...

[LoneWolf]

I decided to skip the Nexus 4. Yeah, it has a nice price point, but what's the point in it being the flagship Android phone when the Galaxy S III still blew it out of the water? And with the Galaxy S4 coming out, I really want to see a new Nexus. A top-tier Nexus. Elsewise, my next phone may be an S4...

 

Ran a benchmark on the N4, it beats the GSIII in everything but HTML5, and the HTC One X+ still tops the SIII in both categories. Very happy with the speed. Also 2GB of RAM makes apps snap open and closed like it's no big deal, even with a live wallpaper running.

 

Also the sound quality is awesome, way better than my Nexus 7. Very clear, detailed, and no buzzing from interference. Very good. 

 

Still, an GSIII was originally what I was looking at before I decided to go no-contract. Seemed very sleek and the screen was very nice. Physical home and back buttons are a plus too. I do find the software buttons on both of my Nexus(es?) to be perfectly fine though.

[Arashikage]

The back button isn't a physical button, just the home button. But I couldn't be happier with the SIII.  Well I could if the battery was a little better like my Kindle Fire.

[DZComposer]

I just noticed T-Mobile does month-to-month terms on unlimited data for cheaper than Verizon. I was grandfathered in with unlimitied on VZW, but I hate Verizon.

 

Those of you with T-Moblie: Is it good? Any BS I should be aware of?

 

Of course I'm sure it isn't really unlimited, but is "unlimited" where there is a cap, but they won't tell you what it is. Seriously the FTC needs to ban this shit. Don't tell people there are no limits when there are.

[LoneWolf]

I just noticed T-Mobile does month-to-month terms on unlimited data for cheaper than Verizon. I was grandfathered in with unlimitied on VZW, but I hate Verizon.

 

Those of you with T-Moblie: Is it good? Any BS I should be aware of?

 

Of course I'm sure it isn't really unlimited, but is "unlimited" where there is a cap, but they won't tell you what it is. Seriously the FTC needs to ban this shit. Don't tell people there are no limits when there are.

 

As I said, going with their sort-of hidden plan from their site. You get only 100 minutes, but unlimited text and unlimited data (4G up to 5GB, throttled after that). Seems like a good deal, can't say anything about the service or customer treatment yet since I have yet to actually activate my N4, still waiting for the SIM to arrive.

[conaly]

Hi,

I have a Nokia Lumia 820 with Windows Phone 8. I like it. The variety of apps surely isn't as big as with iOS or Android phones, but the things I really need/want exist and work fine. WP8 has also a great compatibility with Windows 8, which I use on my notebook at school. Everything is connected through Microsoft Live-account.

Just two things I don't like:

- there has no file-browser. All accessible data on the phone can only be watched/read/deleted by compatible apps or via PC.

- you can not customize message sounds. Using mp3-files as ring tones works, but only for incoming calls, not for SMS, E-mail etc.

Currently there is also a small problem with some enterprise-wifi, but this will be fixed with the next big update, which also finally will include VPN-compatibility.

[Sideways]

I just noticed T-Mobile does month-to-month terms on unlimited data for cheaper than Verizon. I was grandfathered in with unlimitied on VZW, but I hate Verizon.

 

Those of you with T-Moblie: Is it good? Any BS I should be aware of?

 

Of course I'm sure it isn't really unlimited, but is "unlimited" where there is a cap, but they won't tell you what it is. Seriously the FTC needs to ban this shit. Don't tell people there are no limits when there are.

 

T-Mobile's coverage and speed lacks in comparison to ATT or Verizon. Generally, their unlimited 4G plans give you an amount of data (say 5 or 6GB) on full 4G speed, then after that it kicks down to their slower 3G speed. We sell T-Mobile prepaid at work, and hardly sell any. T-Mobile also 'hosts' Walmart Family Mobile, which is a postpaid no contract option that costs about $40 a month for Unlimited everything. If you're looking to get out of contract and save money, I recommend switching to Straight Talk. It's a tracfone product, but it's by far Walmart's BEST seller in prepaid.

 

A: $45 unlimited a month. No hidden costs. The only thing you CAN'T do on their service is use Mobile Hotspot or Tethering. If you're tech savvy, you could probably root and install custom firmware/software to get around it. I'm sure stock straighttalk android phones have software locks that prohibit those things.

 

B: They have a wide variety of phones that use all the main carriers. They have smartphones that use ATT's towers like the Samsung Galaxy S2. They have phones that use the Verizon towers, like the LG Showtime or the Samsung Proclaim. They also offer iPhone 4 and 5.

 

C. If you're not happy with the selection of phones, you can bring your own compatible phone. It has to be an ATT or T-Mobile compatible phone, or an Unlocked Phone. Newer Verizon phones that have a SIM card are not compatible. Blackberries or other Tracfone, Net10 or Straighttalk branded phones are also not compatible. At most all you have to do is swap out your SIM Card and update your APN.

 

I myself have an older AT&T Samsung Infuse. it's one of AT&T's first 4G phones but it's only HSPA+ and not LTE. Works well for me. It's currently stock, although I have rooted it in the past and installed ICS as well as Cyanogenmod, both iCS and JB flavors. After a while the phone slows down and I can't stand it so I put it back to stock. That's a pain because I have to go all the way back to Froyo and work back up to Gingerbread.

[DZComposer]

This is exactly the kind of bullshit that needs to be made illegal in data services marketing:

The site says this:

But:

Generally, their unlimited 4G plans give you an amount of data (say 5 or 6GB) on full 4G speed, then after that it kicks down to their slower 3G speed.

That sounds a helluvalot like a bait-and-switch to me.

[DoctorAllosaurus]

I've got one of those old rotary-dial phones, it's the best because I never get any calls from telemarketers, come to think of it I don't get any calls on the thing but that's okay I guess, nobody just talks anymore anyways.

 

 

 

In actuality I've got an old LG flip-phone, don't see myself upgrading any time soon as I rarely use my phone as is,

[Pgpaw3]

Samsung Galaxy SII. I'm with Telstra as I get I discount. I am very happy with it. I think I am on a $39 plan with 1gb of data and 3G.

[Redeemer]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace, I got it due to the cheapest contract that would let me have package data so that I could keep in touch with R3d while being outside. I used to use Skype on it but it is just literally a big heap of shit so I've moved to Viber. Whatsapp costs these days.

 

Do I like it? Most times. There are times I get mad because it restarts itself, or the apps freeze or it's just really, really slow. I am actually looking forward to getting a new phone, but that will happen when I move to Germany. I'll be taking on a pay as you go contract, because monthly ones are very deceiving and fuck Orange/T-Mobile.

 

However the phone itself has some good points. The camera is decent, and it's easy to navigate around. However its internal storage is a complete joke and it's always complaining I have too many apps, photos, contacts or text messages, when in reality I only have about 5 downloaded apps (and a bunch of never used pre-installed apps that I can't remove), maybe 20 photos, 20 contacts and 5 text messages. And for some reason it doesn't allow me to move any of these things to the 8gb memory card inserted.

 

TLDR; my phone's a piece of shit that I'm only relying on until something better enters my life.

[Sideways]

That's the downfall of a lot of prepaid smartphones, they have very little internal memory to store apps. My old LG Thrive which was a GoPhone (AT&T's prepaid service) had very little internal memory to store apps.

My Infuse has 16GB of internal space, at least 2GB is a dedicated partition to apps only.

[Arashikage]

The Galaxy Ace wasn't a very great phone, but is there a microSD slot?  If so, that's your space problem solved.  I would assume there is one because Samsung likes to put those things in their phones.  

 

The thing I really love about my Galaxy SIII is the 16gb of internal storage.  Plus there's a microSD slot that I can put an extra 64GB in if I want.  I haven't been able to find a MicroSD card that held a lot of space yet, but eventually I will find one for a good price.  

 

Other than that, a few annoying things are the battery life as I previously mentioned, and Smart Stay.  Unfortunately, with it on, after my phone finishes charging or gets unplugged from the charger, the backlight won't turn off without me having to turn it off myself, not even from the lock screen.  So if I don't feel a text message go off, my phone will be at 72% from 99% in less than an hour.  Luckily, this has been happening less and less since I got it, but it's still an issue sometimes.  

[Redeemer]

The Galaxy Ace wasn't a very great phone, but is there a microSD slot?  If so, that's your space problem solved.  I would assume there is one because Samsung likes to put those things in their phones.  

 

Yes, as I said I have a 8gb card inserted but I can't transfer anything onto it. The "transfer to SD card" button is forever greyed out.

[Kid_Cortet]

LG Viper Lite 4G. Got it at Best Buy for $1.05, that is not a typo, Best Buy just rocks that must. I suggest to anyone downloading the Zedge App, you can find almost any ringtone, message alert, wallpaper, etc. 

[Ori]

Technically it's not mine at all since I barely use the phone (what, did you actually expect me to have a social life? ), but I have a 2010/11 Nokia N8. On the up side it does calls and doesn't sound like a 1963 gramophone. On the down side, the memory card doesn't work and it can't play music for some reason saying that all files are corrupted, and it doesn't have internet connection not to mention the glitched browser. A.K.A. no Android, no nothing. Just a phone.

[Prince Elite]

I have an LG Xenon GR500F, I am very happy with it. I use Telstra (Australian Telco) and I have a prepaid plan, I don't call or text all that often so my credit usually expires before i have a chance to use it all. I have a long life credit plan though, takes months to expire. Applications, I don't need them

[Arashikage]

I'd been trying to get my Nintendo DS emulator working on my Galaxy, but it's really really greulingly slow.  I'm positive it's not the phone but the fact that we don't exactly have the technology to emulate a fairly new handheld console with phones just yet.  It works just fine on my computer, which should go without saying.  Gamecube?  Forget it, I could probably get it running at 4FPS but what's the point?

 

I have a Gameboy on it though, and a GBA, and an N64.  There's also a PS1 emulator I have, but it really doesn't work.  It gets to the bios, through it, to the game, but then sticks at a black screen, so I decided it wasn't worth it to give myself headaches to try and get it working.