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Esteem or Connect 4G? Leaning Toward The Esteem But...

awhite91

awhite91

Well-Known Member
I've about had it with my current Optimus M that I've had for many months now freezing and rebooting constantly even on CM7 so I've decided to make an upgrade to another newer Metro phone. Up until I heard about the Connect coming in February, I was sold on the Esteem but now I'm in the middle. I've read recently that the Esteem has had issues with rebooting too. Have these been fixed or is it fixable by rooting and flashing another ROM? I only plan on keeping it stock long enough to get it home anyway lol.

Another issue I'm considering is Metro's End Of Life terms. I know the Optimus' EOL came around August of last year and it had been out since November 2010 if i'm not mistaken. I got my first one January of last year and it had been out a while I do remember. The Esteem has been out since September of last year and I'm afraid I'm going to buy one then in a few months Metro decide to end it's life and then I'm stuck.

On the flip side of this, there is the fact that the Esteem has been out for ~5 months now and has a solid user base and modder base. This has also given people time to find out the problems and quirks with the phone such as that reboot issue and for fixes to be pushed to users. With the Connect, there is none of that. It's an entirely new animal with its own characteristics and no established user base. It will be weeks or months before it's rooted, ROMed and OC'ed and until then we're stuck with stock bloatware and crap.

Finally as far as specs go, what is truly better about the Connect compared to the Esteem? I do know the Connect has a dual-core processor and a slightly smaller but brighter screen with NOVA but other than this it seems the Esteem outpowers the Connect. Please correct me if I'm wrong. For the price the Esteem's specs match up great and I can't fathom the Connect being much more than $349...I certainly know I wouldn't pay any more than that.

If you've read this far, kudos and thank you lol. I would just like some advice as to which would be the better route to go from peeps who have experience with the Esteem.
 
If I didn't have an Esteem and had the choice between the Connect and Esteem Id still go with the Esteem. Besides the 1gb of RAM and 1.2GHz dual core the Connect has nothing that impresses me. The screen on the Esteem is bigger, the front camera on the connect is a 0.3mp VGA (lame) the Esteem has a 1.3mp, no HDMI as far as I know on the connect. I was actually ready to buy the talked about dual core coming to Metro then they came out with the Connect and changed my mind. There are others coming tho. I know there's a dual core ZTE that's coming soon but don't know really any specs on it or which ZTE it is.
 
ShinySide said:
There are others coming tho. I know there's a dual core ZTE that's coming soon but don't know really any specs on it or which ZTE it is.
Click to expand...

Plus who knows exactly when that will be. Probably late this year.

Thanks this answered the specs part of my questions.
 
Can't answer the reboot issue, I've never had one and have bought 2 Esteems.

If you buy an Esteem now tho, you'll have to down grade the SW version because they updated them all to zvc which is unrootable at the moment. Unless you're lucky and for some reason get on with zvb.

As far as Metro pulling the Esteem soon.....I doubt it. People are buying them left and right and its an awesome phone. BUT we are talking about Metro so who knows.


Oh if you don't want to pay 350+ and wait for the rebate Wirefly.com has them for 300 out the door and LetsTalk.com did have them 279 out the door
 
try them both and be the judge. although development for the Esteem have grown and shown potential for the phone so add one point to the esteem.!
 
I also came from optimus m to esteem. Bought the esteem the first day it came out, Oct 3, iirc. The esteem is a major improvement over the m but like every company, there's always gonna be a greater and better phone coming in the future. Good thing about metro is you don't have to keep the same phone for two years.
 
I too am in this battle, while I avoided phones like the plague, I had to get one for work - I chose the huawei m835 over the galaxy as I didn't want to pay 299. I am looking for the esteem now, and should be getting one by next weekend. I don't know whether to wait for connect or not. I should check forums, but is it a better phone than esteem?
 
It's pretty much a toss up between the two, the biggest problem is that neither one will ever get ics from metro. :(
 
thx double - I am seeing that - and I guess I can hope for cm9/cmy - worried that I'll get a zvc, and wondering if I should just get galaxy nexus instead
 
i love the esteem, but waiting on the Connect also, dual core is better but than i love bigger screens.
 
The dual core and more ram is negligible to me. The Esteem is way more than enough for anything I do so in essence I would be paying $300+ for downgrades. Ill wait for a REAL upgrade.
 
Another thing, How bottom of the barrel is the dual core chip gonna be? I mean this is Metro we are talking about.
 
revogozoom said:
Another thing, How bottom of the barrel is the dual core chip gonna be? I mean this is Metro we are talking about.
Click to expand...

Exactly - that's my concern as well. The Esteem can and will do everything I need a phone to do... and especially when ICS/CM9 gets ported over.
Unless you're a hardcore gamer, I see no real need for the Connect... the RAM and single core Snapdragon in the Esteem will work nicely, and it has features I really like that the Connect simply doesn't have. (larger screen, HDMI, better cam, etc.)

Shiny hit the nail on the head - "Besides the 1gb of RAM and 1.2GHz dual core the Connect has nothing that impresses me."

X2
 
Like anniedroid said get the connect if your a hardcore gamer. Other then that the esteem is better in every way.
 
Well I suppose I'll commandeer my thread again :D (joking)

As revo/Shiny said, everything aside from the processor and RAM is a downgrade. I'd much rather have the better camera and bigger screen with a single core Snapdragon than a smaller screen and possibility of a cheap dual-core chip as said by revo. 1 GHz stock - 2 GHz on Gingersteem is way more than adequate for what I use my phone for. I've also read reports that people are getting 18 hours of battery on Gingersteem so that's great. If I have to carry a spare battery I'll just take the one out of my Optimus and keep it handy. No big deal.

ShinySide said:
Can't answer the reboot issue, I've never had one and have bought 2 Esteems.

If you buy an Esteem now tho, you'll have to down grade the SW version because they updated them all to zvc which is unrootable at the moment. Unless you're lucky and for some reason get on with zvb.

Oh if you don't want to pay 350+ and wait for the rebate Wirefly.com has them for 300 out the door and LetsTalk.com did have them 279 out the door
Click to expand...

Downgrading doesn't scare me. I noticed there was a guide thread for just that so I'm not worried. As far as the reboot issue goes, if it's not a widespread issue I won't worry about it. It's just coming from a phone already doing that I didn't want to go right into the same situation.

Everything you guys said is what I needed to hear. Again, established dev community that can offer advice counts for a lot. Thank you all for your help. I do believe I'm going to be getting the Esteem in the near future from LetsTalk if it stays at $279 although it did glitch earlier and say $299 so I fear $279 won't last much longer. The only problem with LT is that every time I try to check out and find the total they keep pushing me to add a $60 plan to my cart which I don't want to do. I plan to buy the phone and take it into my local Metro store and have my service switched from the $50 regular plan to the $50 4G LTE plan so my bill stays the same.

Do any of you know if Metro has any sort of upgrade program like turn in your existing phone and get a discount or anything like that?
 
awhite91 said:
Well I suppose I'll commandeer my thread again :D (joking)

As revo/Shiny said, everything aside from the processor and RAM is a downgrade. I'd much rather have the better camera and bigger screen with a single core Snapdragon than a smaller screen and possibility of a cheap dual-core chip as said by revo. 1 GHz stock - 2 GHz on Gingersteem is way more than adequate for what I use my phone for. I've also read reports that people are getting 18 hours of battery on Gingersteem so that's great. If I have to carry a spare battery I'll just take the one out of my Optimus and keep it handy. No big deal.



Downgrading doesn't scare me. I noticed there was a guide thread for just that so I'm not worried. As far as the reboot issue goes, if it's not a widespread issue I won't worry about it. It's just coming from a phone already doing that I didn't want to go right into the same situation.

Everything you guys said is what I needed to hear. Again, established dev community that can offer advice counts for a lot. Thank you all for your help. I do believe I'm going to be getting the Esteem in the near future from LetsTalk if it stays at $279 (although it did glitch earlier and say $299 so I fear $279 won't last much longer).

Do any of you know if Metro has any sort of upgrade program like turn in your existing phone and get a discount or anything like that?
Click to expand...

I actually remember them doing this in the past (I got like $30 for an old ass phone a couple years ago when I bought the Code) but I'm not sure if they still do. Either way you will probably get more if you sell your old phone yourself.
 
awhite91 said:
Well I suppose I'll commandeer my thread again :D (joking)

As revo/Shiny said, everything aside from the processor and RAM is a downgrade. I'd much rather have the better camera and bigger screen with a single core Snapdragon than a smaller screen and possibility of a cheap dual-core chip as said by revo. 1 GHz stock - 2 GHz on Gingersteem is way more than adequate for what I use my phone for. I've also read reports that people are getting 18 hours of battery on Gingersteem so that's great. If I have to carry a spare battery I'll just take the one out of my Optimus and keep it handy. No big deal.



Downgrading doesn't scare me. I noticed there was a guide thread for just that so I'm not worried. As far as the reboot issue goes, if it's not a widespread issue I won't worry about it. It's just coming from a phone already doing that I didn't want to go right into the same situation.

Everything you guys said is what I needed to hear. Again, established dev community that can offer advice counts for a lot. Thank you all for your help. I do believe I'm going to be getting the Esteem in the near future from LetsTalk if it stays at $279 (although it did glitch earlier and say $299 so I fear $279 won't last much longer).

Do any of you know if Metro has any sort of upgrade program like turn in your existing phone and get a discount or anything like that?
Click to expand...


The esteem uses a different battery then the optimus. To answer your question there is no upgrade discount with metro.
 
Man I didn't expect you guys to answer back so quick! Nice to know though. I won't waste my time trying to get a discount out of them. I could have sworn the Esteem battery and the Optimus battery look identical which is why I thought they were interchangeable. My mistake.

I did update the part regarding LetsTalk trying to force me to choose a plan between the time I posted and now while you guys were replying:

awhite91 said:
I do believe I'm going to be getting the Esteem in the near future from LetsTalk if it stays at $279 although it did glitch earlier and say $299 so I fear $279 won't last much longer. The only problem with LT is that every time I try to check out and find the total they keep pushing me to add a $60 plan to my cart which I don't want to do. I plan to buy the phone and take it into my local Metro store and have my service switched from the $50 regular plan to the $50 4G LTE plan so my bill stays the same.
Click to expand...
 
Yea. LetsTalk has it for $279 outright + tax and Wirefly has it for $299 outright + tax if it applies to you, whereas in a Metro store you have to pay $349 + tax + the $10 to get service transferred which knocks the bottom out of four hundred-dollar bills. Only after you play Russian Roulette with the mail-in rebate from MetroPCS is it $299 from there.
 
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