OT Verizon Smart Phones

[Michael Butash]

I have a galaxy nexus now, and I'm rather torn with it.  It's the second 
samsung android that has given me nothing but fits, and I'm thoroughly 
convinced samsung cannot make hardware to save their life.  I suffer 
from various issues from bluetooth/wifi instability, audio routing 
issues, simple reboots, you name it.  But the display is friggin' 
beautiful.  I snubbed a razr maxx because of the display, and cursed 
motorola for not having a 720p phone to compete at the time, as I'd take 
a moto phone any day.

I've had a bionic and droidx, and both were good until either getting 
crashed on concrete or taking a swim inadvertently.  Definitely noticed 
android usability got well improved with dual core going from dx to 
bionic, really looking forward to quad's.  Just need to fix the battery 
life, as my gnex kills me with ~5hr use on charge.

Service wise - I'm shopping right now after getting a +$900 phone bill 
this month from them.  I've considered for a while, as for 3 phones, 2 
with data, one 4g hotspot, I pay almost 250/mo, after a 21% employee 
discount.  Slapping me upside the face for voice overage charges, even 
after I upgraded to unlimited minutes this month to avoid it has really 
been a bit too much.  After years of that, it is starting to hurt just 
for the absurd cost alone.  This is twice vzw has got me to leave, 
though first time I came back after sprint proved absolutely horrid both 
in wireless and customer service.

A buddy went to straight-talk from att, which straight-talk uses att, 
and actually gets better quality service.  I've noticed just from 
talking to him and not getting disconnected 3 times on every call. 
460/mo I think for voice service is pretty damn reasonable, as I more or 
less consider voice legacy technology.  I'm not keen on giving up on 
vzw's 4g service, especially my unlimited data @30/mo, but I know it's 
only a matter of time before they just screw everyone with it anyways. 
I've also read Clear Wireless has very reasonable rates, planning to do 
some more research on them this weekend.

Vzw's new "shared data" is a joke, and more absurd than any of their 
current pricing.  I was actually looking forward to it, as between my 
hotspot and phone, I don't really use *that* much data.  Hotspot is more 
of a backup for work and really rarely used unless im traveling, so 
shared minutes should be a boon, but I'd pay well more than what I get 
today.  I'd like a connected tablet too, but can't justify another 
40-60/mo for one on a non-shared plan, and doesn't justify their shared 
at all.

As much as I like vzw's service, it's getting harder to justify their 
cost, especially when they screw with me with an absurd bill.

-mb


On 06/22/2012 08:45 AM, keith smith wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> This is very OT.
>
> I have been with verizon for 8 years. Voice only. It has been 4 years
> since I upgraded our phones. It is just my wife and I.
>
> We are thinking of going with smart phones.
>
> A friend suggested HTC phones because of the better quality of speaker
> and mic. Voice quality is very important to me.
>
> As it stands we can get unlimited voice for $120/mo, 1000 texts for
> $10/mo and 2G of data for each phone for $20/ea/mo. Total is about
> $170/mo + tax and fees.
>
> I like verizon because they have always provided top of the line service.
>
> I've briefly looked at Straigt-Talk, T-Mobile, and Sprint. My fear with
> these providers is quality of the call, availability, and dropped calls.
>
> Any suggestions on which phone to get? From prior conversations on this
> list it seems a Droid phone is the way to go. I don't think I will ever
> want to take the time to root my phone, however you never know.
>
> What about phone apps and other things I might not be thinking about?
>
> I appreciate all the feedback you will provide!
>
> Thank you in advance for your help!!
>
>
>
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
>
>
>
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