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Advice for a new prepaid phone?

Snake X

Snake X

Android Expert
I'm on the evo v on VM right now and I am getting upset about the random lags that the phone gets here and there, plus the single WiMax tower thats only available at my college and the amazingly low 200 KB/s average speeds on CMDA. Anyways, I have a feeling now is NOT the good time to buy a new phone with t-mo's LTE plans, a sales rep I talked to today confirming no contracts on march 27th, and the current line-up of phone options.

I'll start out saying that I will most likely have a $300 budget by the time I am set and ready for this upgrade, and I will be looking at T-mo's $30 a month plan... that is IF they still have it by next week when they take away contracts.

The best phone right now that immediately comes to mind is the nexus 4 unlocked from google. I really like the fact that they receive fast updates to the android OS and no bloatware. I'm still digging up a storm through research on the current options and figuring out what to avoid and what not to avoid. I don't know quite yet if I want to upgrade to LTE because of all the battery complaints. I just know right now that my friend has the One S and it gets 9-12 MB/s down on the hsdpa+ network. Will I be able to run off the same tower/bands that phone would run on if I'm using the nexus 4?

I'm also going to say that I'd rather pay below $35 a month for the nice unlimited data/texting plan (even if it is 5 GB at 4g, 5 GB is a LOT of data to burn through on mobile. Your not going to be on that thing for 7 hrs a day.) or any plan really. $40 max on my budget.

I just feel like I should wait to see what happens, but not too long or else I doubt I'll be able to sell my evo at near-mint for $120 (w/ case) due to the technology upgrades... then again, sprint isn't the fastest to upgrade their towers xD. I was one of the ones to buy the evo v 4g when it first came out just for that "4g" label at its initial $300 price point at radioshack before they officially announced it even. Bad, bad mistake.
 
Well I was in the same boat as well. Stupid me for being an early adopter and stupid virgin for being as spotty as a cheetah and as slow as a slug.

The 30 dollar prepaid plan is the way to go and it wont go away. They said thy were going to change contract plans, not prepaid.

I would go with the nexus 4 like you said. It is a great phone and in your budget with an excellent value. I personally just got an HTC amaze because I snatched one for 180 bucks unlocked. The nexus will work full speed with tmobile so dont worry about that because it had all the network bands and is unlocked. :)

Sprint is cheap and full of crap sorry guys. They had virgin outages for MONTHS!! :mad:. Despite this, some people still remain on virgin and are loyal. "are you serious..." lol. :rolleyes:
 
Also, you will get about the same speed as your buddy since you run on the same tower and hspa+ is excellent by itself anyway.

Lte is real 4g and great and extremely fast , but drains the battery too fast. It also has barely been deployed so I wouldn't care about that for right now.

Hspa is fast and actually 3g but way faster than wimax (slow but real 4g). Tmobile invented 3g on super steroids.
 
Yeah, and plus my only ray of hope for expanded WiMax died when I heard news sprint acquired Clear wire so now I know for sure now they sure aren't expanding it, lol.

Yeah, I'm sure that the technology won't drop like a rock, and I'll get good speeds seeing the outstanding coverage map. I *doubt* there's going to be any new prepaid phone that fully supports LTE that will be good if not better than the nexus 4. I mean what else can you expect? :p

edit: yeah T-mo is wonderful for their 3g management unlike SOMEONE *cough*sprint*cough* who takes 2 yrs to get to my area for anything improvement wise

Wow, I just read about the nexus 5 rumors, and I'm really loving what I see about that so far :)
 
I wouldn't worry about T-Mobile LTE and getting a phone that can use it right now. I don't know how long you typically hold on to phones, but their LTE won't be fully deployed until 2015-16. So as long as the HSPA+ service is good in your area you're fine and it certainly sounds like it is. I mean honestly for phones once you hit a certain speed the rest is just for bragging rights.
 
I'm done with vm as well my note 2 is on the way and ill be enjoying that $30 plan lol. Note 2 is a beast I was looking at nexus 4 as well but no sd card and removable battery killed it for me.
 
SuperAfnan said:
Well I was in the same boat as well. Stupid me for being an early adopter and stupid virgin for being as spotty as a cheetah and as slow as a slug.

The 30 dollar prepaid plan is the way to go and it wont go away. They said thy were going to change contract plans, not prepaid.

I would go with the nexus 4 like you said. It is a great phone and in your budget with an excellent value. I personally just got an HTC amaze because I snatched one for 180 bucks unlocked. The nexus will work full speed with tmobile so dont worry about that because it had all the network bands and is unlocked. :)

Sprint is cheap and full of crap sorry guys. They had virgin outages for MONTHS!! :mad:. Despite this, some people still remain on virgin and are loyal. "are you serious..." lol. :rolleyes:
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This is what I did. I got an Amaze used and it is in great shape. Tmobile's speeds in my area are phenomenal. $30 plan plus GoogleVoice/Talkatone and I'm all set.

But, the Nexus4 is a great phone for the price. IF you can afford it, get it.
 
narutoninjakid said:
I'm done with vm as well my note 2 is on the way and ill be enjoying that $30 plan lol. Note 2 is a beast I was looking at nexus 4 as well but no sd card and removable battery killed it for me.
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I couldn't imagine $500-$600 on a phone.. That's like as much as the cost of a decent laptop or computer x.x

I'm pretty much done with HTC. They make extravagant hardware, but software? Maybe the HTC One is finally catching up. They almost half-propriatize android in a sense with all their custom kernels/features. I'd love to get the HTC One at $300, but that's a dream inside a dream, if that.

After looking at the Nexus 5 rumors, bleh. I don't see a real reason to wait that long, and noone REALLY knows if it's going to have the rumored specs that are out there. They seem a bit outlandish in my opinion.
 
nexus 4 or if you wanna look around there are other pentaband phones out there get the $30 plan and if you really wanna get slick get grooveip or talkatone and make calls thru your data plan so you dont use up your minutes
 
tube517 said:
This is what I did. I got an Amaze used and it is in great shape. Tmobile's speeds in my area are phenomenal. $30 plan plus GoogleVoice/Talkatone and I'm all set.

But, the Nexus4 is a great phone for the price. IF you can afford it, get it.
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Yep, HTC makes great phones but this one is discontinued. Doesn't matter much to me though because of the awesome value I got it for.

I would have got a nexus but I didn't want to shell out 300 bucks for a new phone because I bought the evo v 4g on virgin mobile as an early adopter (dumbest mistake ever :screwy:). Now its EOL and not even worth 100 used.
 
SuperAfnan said:
Yep, HTC makes great phones but this one is discontinued. Doesn't matter much to me though because of the awesome value I got it for.

I would have got a nexus but I didn't want to shell out 300 bucks for a new phone because I bought the evo v 4g on virgin mobile as an early adopter (dumbest mistake ever :screwy:). Now its EOL and not even worth 100 used.
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I bought my Amaze used. I never buy any phones brand new or on launch day nor do I buy on contract. It's all off contract and prepaid for me. Never again will I get suckered into a contract.
 
One thing left I'm wondering.. would the equipment installment plan for $30 a month for 20 months be in addition to the monthly phone plan or would that include the phone plan? $30 a month for a plan + $30 a month for a subsidized phone... Well I see now how that would replace contracts but how would that work for people who still want to retain a low monthly fee, you know?
 
SuperAfnan said:
Yep, HTC makes great phones but this one is discontinued. Doesn't matter much to me though because of the awesome value I got it for.

I would have got a nexus but I didn't want to shell out 300 bucks for a new phone because I bought the evo v 4g on virgin mobile as an early adopter (dumbest mistake ever :screwy:). Now its EOL and not even worth 100 used.
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If a quad core powered phone with 2 GB of ram ever becomes worthless I WILL GIVE UP ON CAPITALISM AND JOIN THE AMISH.
 
NeXuS4 said:
If a quad core powered phone with 2 GB of ram ever becomes worthless I WILL GIVE UP ON CAPITALISM AND JOIN THE AMISH.
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From my experience and ebay the big name phones even android ones hold their value. The evo v was already outdated when it came out. Trust me I know I have one bought it for $300 at best buy and put insurance now going for $180 new in box lol I was like I might as well just keep it lol. 😪
 
I swear there's really beginning to be a fragment between the upgraded tech and how fast people can keep up with the phones :s
 
SuperAfnan said:
Less than that. 5 months and then something more powerful comes out. :eek:.
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They should limit it like they do with nvidia graphics cards to be honest. Is there truly a NEED to bring out the latest in hardware for the sole sake of pressuring upgrades in the next x (lets just say 8 or less) number of months?

Though, I don't really see anything topping the HTC One anytime soon, nor the nexus 4 (until whatever's revealed at google I/O is released but thats just 1 phone).
 
uknow said:
Yeah I agree theres not a phone out there better then the s3
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Opinions, opinions..

Anywho, somehow I got lucky and had a quite painless account deactivation experience. Now to flash the stock RUU and package it up and sell it + my zte warp.
 
Sorry but if you're on T-Mobile and you want a high end phone with a low bill you need to explain to me why you wouldn't get the nexus⁴ since it's "HPSA42" compatible and "4GLTE" compatible.

It's like having a freaking phone made out of peanut butter and chocolate.
 
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