Smartphones

Noodleface · Sep 20, 2014

Got a question for you bros in the know.

Me and the wife are on a family plan (Verizon) and have iPhone 4. They're basically unusable at this point, incredibly slow, laggy, can't do shit on them. I'm about 6 months from an upgrade and she is somewhere between 3-6 months, can't remember. Will Verizon allow us to do the trade-in for the iPhone 6 or do they not allow early upgrades in this case?

If we're on a family plan will they buyout our individual cancellations (and not affect other family members) if we switch to T-mobile/Sprint?

Palum · Sep 20, 2014

NoodleAnus_sl said:
Got a question for you bros in the know.

Me and the wife are on a family plan (Verizon) and have iPhone 4. They're basically unusable at this point, incredibly slow, laggy, can't do shit on them. I'm about 6 months from an upgrade and she is somewhere between 3-6 months, can't remember. Will Verizon allow us to do the trade-in for the iPhone 6 or do they not allow early upgrades in this case?

If we're on a family plan will they buyout our individual cancellations (and not affect other family members) if we switch to T-mobile/Sprint?

Good luck with Verizon on that one. Sometimes they may do it if you extend your contract the extra time if you speak to the right people (probably retention). I'd play it off as you want to stay with Verizon but have little choice to look for other services which will buy out your contract because your phone is dying. But of course you would reconsider if you could get a new phone...

But just curious, does everyone have such few concerns with switching cell providers? I've known plenty of people who go after special offers and end up fucked with shitty service.

Antarius · Sep 20, 2014

Most people, by definition, live in higher density population areas and all four of the networks service is ok in the biggest 40 cities or so. It's mostly only out in the boonies that you still have problems, and that's regional so you know more or less what you're getting. Ex: Midwest, Verizon has the best network, but both att and sprint are ok to use, and Cingular is crap unless you don't often leave the city (2g in rural areas). In NEO Verizon has always had a monopoly in the rural parts of the state, but att built up their 3G network the best, and then kind of languished with their lte rollout, and sprint seems to have more/better lte service even though their 3G was terrible/late, so it flip flops and changes a little, but the general trends stay mostly the same.

Vaclav · Sep 20, 2014

Palum_sl said:
Good luck with Verizon on that one. Sometimes they may do it if you extend your contract the extra time if you speak to the right people (probably retention). I'd play it off as you want to stay with Verizon but have little choice to look for other services which will buy out your contract because your phone is dying. But of course you would reconsider if you could get a new phone...

But just curious, does everyone have such few concerns with switching cell providers? I've known plenty of people who go after special offers and end up fucked with shitty service.

Depends where you're at, Palum. Places like AZ are much more prone to having truly bad carrier areas I'd imagine.

But like right now on my trip to the new house in FL, Sprint is rarely outside of LTE and yet to lose phone signal the entire time down I-95. And they're considered Tier 3 quality in most of these areas.

Neph_sl · Sep 20, 2014

Did most people on these boards who got a 6 get the regular 6 or the 6+? Seems like regular 6 to me.

Malkav · Sep 20, 2014

Got the 6+ yesterday. Really love it so far. First time on ios, was an Android user previously.

Cad · Sep 20, 2014

Sprint is garbage in Dallas, for example. No building penetration and the 3g data is slow as dogshit. As long as you're on LTE its ok, and LTE is more widespread now. I guess I've been on ATT for about 2 years.

Still considering between the 6 and 6+, I think the 6+ would be "better" while using but I don't think I could carry it in my pocket. Having a huge phone in my pocket would get annoying.

Tarrant · Sep 20, 2014

Cad_sl said:
Sprint is garbage in Dallas, for example. No building penetration and the 3g data is slow as dogshit. As long as you're on LTE its ok, and LTE is more widespread now. I guess I've been on ATT for about 2 years.

Still considering between the 6 and 6+, I think the 6+ would be "better" while using but I don't think I could carry it in my pocket. Having a huge phone in my pocket would get annoying.

Well 3g inherently has almost no building penetration, that's not exclusive to Sprint. They are currently rolling out their LTE nation wide, which you've acknowledged is improving.

I have a 6+ for work. It's a larger iPhone, I'm not sure what else I expected but my Note 3 is still my preferred phone of use. Not an android fanboi, I own tons of Apple products, I'm just not impressed with their phones anymore and haven't been since the 3Gs.

Duppin_sl · Sep 20, 2014

I basically can't move off Verizon until I move to a different apartment. I live in an apartment building built in 1949, and it's built like a goddamn bunker. I can't even get a signal in my apartment with GSM.

Palum · Sep 20, 2014

Tarrant_sl said:
Well 3g inherently has almost no building penetration, that's not exclusive to Sprint. They are currently rolling out their LTE nation wide, which you've acknowledged is improving.

I have a 6+ for work. It's a larger iPhone, I'm not sure what else I expected but my Note 3 is still my preferred phone of use. Not an android fanboi, I own tons of Apple products, I'm just not impressed with their phones anymore and haven't been since the 3Gs.

Yea but tower saturation is something networks control.

Ritley · Sep 20, 2014

Tarrant_sl said:
Well 3g inherently has almost no building penetration, that's not exclusive to Sprint. They are currently rolling out their LTE nation wide, which you've acknowledged is improving.

I have a 6+ for work. It's a larger iPhone, I'm not sure what else I expected but my Note 3 is still my preferred phone of use. Not an android fanboi, I own tons of Apple products, I'm just not impressed with their phones anymore and haven't been since the 3Gs.

It's not that you don't get 3G signal indoors, it's just that their 3G everywhere is completely unusable no matter the signal strength. You can't even browse standard webpages in most locations in 3G in my experience.

In Indy almost everywhere has LTE, so sprint is really good for me. Probably about 1/3-2/3 of the price of other major carriers once subsidy is factored in

Some of it is phone too, I went from the 5 to the 6+, and I get LTE in places where I never have before

Vaclav · Sep 20, 2014

Depends on which 3G area, not sure if different 3G areas have different tech with Sprint but there's a range of how good some 3G areas are vs others in my experience.

Crone · Sep 21, 2014

Anyone recommend a good dumb phone that works on CDMA? Mother in law not ready to take the plunge into a smartphone, but don't feel like getting raped at the verizon store.

Antarius · Sep 21, 2014

There is a dumb phone thread, but I wouldn't recommend one, if all she wants is the ability to call 911, buy one of those 40 dollar prepaid phone, if she wants to be "connected" mobile, get a cheap android phone and use sprint or T-Mobile for a cheap plan.

Leadsalad · Sep 21, 2014

Antarius_sl said:
There is a dumb phone thread, but I wouldn't recommend one, if all she wants is the ability to call 911, buy one of those 40 dollar prepaid phone, if she wants to be "connected" mobile, get a cheap android phone and use sprint or T-Mobile for a cheap plan.

Problem with a cell for 911 is location identification vs a landline.

BrutulTM · Sep 22, 2014

Antarius_sl said:
There is a dumb phone thread, but I wouldn't recommend one, if all she wants is the ability to call 911, buy one of those 40 dollar prepaid phone, if she wants to be "connected" mobile, get a cheap android phone and use sprint or T-Mobile for a cheap plan.

This is bad advice for people that live in rural areas since Sprint and TMO will have no coverage. Around here it's Verizon or nothing so going to a smartphone is an extra $40 a month. I do wish that there were some dumb phones with a half decent UI though. My mom tries to text but all the dumb phones make it so complicated clicking through menus and shit on a tiny screen. A smartphone would be much easier to use but paying $40 a month just to make texting easier is nuts.

Siliconemelons · Sep 22, 2014

Its an old "dumbphone" that was released around the "what makes a smart phone a smart phone..." era- the LG Lotus- I think they make a Lotus 2- it was sprint and it had an awesome keyboard and a great UI- it did everything, exchange push etc. but it didn't have calendar and I needed that so I moved to my much loved Palm Pre.

This was back when they put effort into feature phones- so maybe that would be one to get cheap off ebay.. now days featurephones are so generic and crap they are virtually useless.

Crone · Sep 22, 2014

Mother in law has been ok with her lg env2, and lg octane. One of them that flips open horizontally, and has the full keyboard. Will probably just start browsing Amazon to see what they have that works on Verizon. She's on our family plan so it has to stay Verizon.

BrutulTM · Sep 22, 2014

My sister used a samsung brightside before she went to a smartphone. It has a touchscreen and a qwerty slider. We are going to let Mom try her old phone but it seems like it might be nice to bypass the part where you have to arrow through a bunch of shitty menus. I can't say much about it because I haven't actually gotten my hands on it yet but my sister says she liked it and it was easy to text on. Mom had the env2 before that and she could text on it but fucked it up about 50% of the time or better. My only concern about the brightside is that she will break it because she is really fucking hard on stuff and she actually broke the inside screen on the Env2 somehow.

New Verizon Samsung Brightside U380 Blue QWERTY Slider No Contract Cell Phone 887276019352 | eBay

opiate82 · Sep 22, 2014

Duppin_sl said:
I basically can't move off Verizon until I move to a different apartment. I live in an apartment building built in 1949, and it's built like a goddamn bunker. I can't even get a signal in my apartment with GSM.

I think TMO has a deal where they will give you a free little box that hooks to your internet and gives you service for your situation. At least I am pretty sure Legere mentioned something to that effect in between hurling insults at the other carriers last time he spoke.

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