iPhone 5

unclebiskabobka

Still rocking my 3gs with a broken screen.

Syndil

BlueFox wrote: »

Yes, you are probably right, although these plans by the various carriers certainly have the smell of price fixing and gouging. It is interesting how we can have so many plans, and so little competition. Fortunately, unlike electricity which is both a necessity and provided by a monopoly, phones are a not quite a necessity and provided by various vendors. At some point capitalism will kick in, and the price plummet to a more reasonable level.

Uh, no. The cellular industry is about as cutthroat as it can be. That's why you've got carriers and cellular manufacturers buying each other and suing each other into oblivion, trying to eek out any bit of an edge they can. Prices aren't going to go down, they are going to continue to go up.

Gadabout

Lasareath wrote: »

I think you'll be long dead when the plans costs $30 for voice & data so I guess you're stuck with that flip phone.

Actually, my personal phone is with TMobile and $30/month. I don't need a lot of talk time as most folks call my work phone.

Unlimited Data - the 1st 5gigs at 4g speeds
Unlimited Text
100 Minutes Talk
$32.34/mo with tax

You do have to buy your phone up front, so there is no purchase plan involved, but there is also no contract to fulfill. The phone isn't really anything special. Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, I picked up on sale for about $160. Thought I would give this a whirl until a phone comes out that I want.

Scott

maximillian

Gadabout, Me too. I use the following plan at $35/mo:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans/overview/

Bought an LG Android phone for like $140 (a year ago).
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/cell-phones/lg-optimus-elite-phone/features/

About 2.5GB of month for data and messaging but only 300 minutes of talk (which I don't use). Unlike someone else's comment, my phone has never crashed. The only negative is that the battery only lasts 1.5-2 days.

Although the audio is inferior to the quality of my iPod Touch, it is way easier to use. I get my music as FLAC. I can plug my phone into any computer and use it as a generic flash drive. Transfer my music and I can listen to it on the drive home. Using iTunes is the biggest pain that I dread even firing it up. I have to first convert the file to ALAC. Then sync the file with iTunes - at home since the computer there has my music library. Then I have to go through sync hell to ensure the files sync properly because most of the time they don't. For me, this Apple product doesn't "just work".

I upgraded to iOS 6 and it blew my 3700 songs off my device. I had to resync them all and it took over 2 hours to do so. Yes, I did a backup before-hand too. This would not have happened on my Android phone since the music is stored on a microSD card instead.

Sorry to rain down on this Apple thread. My intent is not to slam Apple. However, I did want to offer another perspective on plan pricing and personal use.

Syndil

It is nice that those types of plans are offered, especially for people who use their phone primarily as a PDA and don't do much talking. However 100 - 300 minutes isn't going to cut it for a lot of people. I could probably live with 300, but not 100.

AsSiMiLaTeD

A couple more updates:

- I did some more camera testing between the iPhone, One X and Galaxy 3 and the iPhone edges out the One X which edges out the Samsung, though not by alot in either case. Where the iPhone shines is in low light performance and both the iPhone and One X have a slight advantage over the Samsung when images are blown up, for anyone crazy enough to do that with cell phone pics. All that being said, the Nokia 920 SHOULD own all phones when it comes out.
- I watched the iFixit teardown video and this phone is much more repairable than previous models. It has a top down construction unlike previous models, which is great since the screen is the most likely thing to break, and now can be replaced in 5 minutes vs 45 minutes and without risk to the rest of the phone.

Gadabout

Syndil wrote: »

It is nice that those types of plans are offered, especially for people who use their phone primarily as a PDA and don't do much talking. However 100 - 300 minutes isn't going to cut it for a lot of people. I could probably live with 300, but not 100.

Your right. Certainly not for everyone. I suspect that plan is a teaser to show a low price and not too many folks take them up on it. On my personal phone I average about 25 - 40 minutes of talk time a month. Work is a different story.

Scott

Drenis

You guys get the best cell rates... my gosh do we get raped up here.

maggiefan

I went from Sprint to Virgin Mobile the 1st of this month. Their everything data plans are $35 for 300 minutes, $45 for 1200 minutes and $55 for unlimited minutes. All are unlimited text and data. Very nice change from $80. I don't feel like I gave up anything. Got the HTC One V. Nice phone for $150 at Radio Shack, no contract either.

Face

tonyb

I finally dumped my old sprint/nextel phone and got that waterproof one from Boost. I need something waterproof for work anyway. 55 bucks....unlimited everything, talk, text,web, and the costs goes down to 40 bucks if you pay on time for 1.5 years. Granted their coverage are isn't as good on a national level as the big boys, but for local use can't beat it.

maggiefan

I'm not sure about Boost but Virgin Mobile uses Sprint's network so I assume the coverage is the same. It's also owned by Sprint. They own another one of the no contract companys, can't remember which one.

Syndil

It's Boost. Boost used to be Nextel's prepaid company, so when Sprint bought Nextel, they got Boost. There are a few other prepaid companies that buy network access from Sprint but aren't owned by Sprint.

However with Boost, Virgin and the others, you don't get access to all of Sprint's coverage. That's part of the reason for the price difference between post-paid and prepaid services. Also they do not roam, whereas Sprint will give you free roaming.

Sherardp

Picked up my Iphone 5 yesterday and yes it is wicked. I got the white 64gb version, Airplay is sweet and works all over the house. Everything is much faster compare to my 4. Loving it.

AsSiMiLaTeD

A quick update on my end:

I had a pretty bad drop this morning, on to our tile kitchen floor from a 42" cabinet, it actually hit two surfaces. I grabbed a bag from the counter and the handle caught the phone. Our cabinets are granite, the phone slid across the higher bar countertop on it's face, landed on its corner on the granite of the standard 36" cabinet where the sink is, then bounced off and landed on the tile floor, face down. This was a pretty violent drop, as I was snatching a bag from the bar area and yanked the phone along with a good bit velocity.

NO DAMAGE! Not a single scratch, not even a minor one! When I saw the phone land face down I just knew it was toast, but turned it over and not a scratch. I very likely benefited from the fact that it landed face down, had it landed on a corner from that height there would have likely been at least some minor damage to the corner.

The funny thing is it didn't have a case on it. I originally had a Griffin Reveal (clear case with white bumper) on but the white bumper faded to a hideous yellow and broke so I took it off a couple days ago. I have a newer better case on order from Amazon but it's not here until Friday. So this phone survived that well without a case.

I wish I had video of the thing, I'm tempted to recreate the drop but don't wanna test my luck :biggrin:

exalted512

The iphone 5 has done very well in drop tests. I think second only to the lumia 920. Much better than the iphone's of the past. When/if I get the Nexus 4, I'll be buying Google's 'bumper' case for it. Double sided glass, while looks nice, isn't durable. I would have thought Google would have learned from Apple, but I guess not. And since it has wireless charging, I'm not sure if any other case would work.

I bought a 'clear coat' thing for my nexus 1. It lasted for a couple years before I needed to replace it (a couple of the edges were peeling up)...and it only cost me a couple of bucks to replace. (shipping). Sad thing is you have to send the old one back (understandable), but I never got around to putting the new one on and I noticed yesterday it had a small scratch on the screen. I've had the phone since it came out almost 3 years ago, I don't have a screen protector on it for a couple of months and it gets scratched. I felt like an idiot...lol. Anyway...HIGHLY recommend the clear coat product.
-Cody

evhudsons

my wife has the lifeproof case for the 4s, and it is more like wife proof. She has ruined plenty of phones dropping them, into water, leaving it out on the car etc. I think the lifeproof case is coming out for the iphone 5, I highly recommend this case as it is very good at drops and water. Some people swim with the case but I'm not that brave. I have the samsung galaxy s3 and have the same type of case made by seidio, and I feel it's necessary living in key west.

I almost went to iphone 4s just because of the case, but luckily they have one for my phone, and lifeproof is making one for iphone 5 soon. It isn't any bigger than a regular case, and does a dang good job protecting the phone. It's expensive, about $80, but that is better than most protection plans, warranties, or another new phone. I have a feeling the two companies making them now (lifeproof and seidio) will be cranking them out for other models soon.

Syndil

$80 for a case?? :eek:

evhudsons

yep, it ain't cheap, but neither are phones these days. I dropped my "spiderman" era phone in the dog water bowl once while cleaning the kitchen. That wasn't cheap either but far less than replacing an iphone for hundreds of dollars, and even a contract price of $200. I was using a $2 leather case on my iphone when it was soaked. There are only two brands of case makers making the form hugging waterPROOF cases for phones, and only for two models right now, the iphone 4/4s, and the galaxy s3. There are lots of workers who have dropped phones, or got them wet, and I'm sure common citizens too. Going to football games in Miami I take ziplocks for my phones, but with a waterproof case it isn't necessary. There are good phone pouches that come close to being a case, but not good enough to have on all the time. They could make the case cost more actually, and I would still buy them just like I would for Larry's rings. You might have insurance on the phone, but much of the time like any insurance you pay some kind of premium fee or deductible, and it's usually half of a contract price, still higher than $80. New plans may not be like that. I saw one that with insurance you only had to pay an extra $10. I'm pretty sure that even with my insurance plan I still would have to shuck out another $100 because it's cheaper than a new phone, from $200 to $600 plus for either iphone or galaxy s3. Plus, my time isn't worth it to wait in line at the local store for an hour, so $80 is perfect for me. It's kind of cool, when I get it dirty or finger prints on it, I just wash it. I'm not afraid to get photos even on the water in rain. And my bulldog can slobber on it all day long.

Syndil

I can replace my current phone for less than that, but then again, I won't buy iPhones.

Still can't get over $80 for a case. Suddenly I find myself humming Muse's "Madness" in my head.

Bugstyvy

My 4 is awesome, the wife has the 5 and now I hate her...