Cell Phones, Newest or Oldest?

[Ballenxj]

What do most of you use for communication, hotspot, etc?
Do you use the latest and greatest, or have an older one that still does what you need?
Reliability and battery life is important. Please make that a consideration.
PS, while we're at it, what service provider do you use/prefer, and what plan?

 

[jeanontheroad]

I have a Samsung S4 and love it. DH brags about never having his phone with him and intending to get a no frills flip phone when he switches his service to Verizon. DH is delusional. He is forever telling me to send this or find that retailer or look up the weather. He likes the new phones. He just wants a secretary.

Oh, 2 hotspots. I love my tmobile, but it's useless out west. That's what the Verizon is for.

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I have a Samsung phone and tablet and an Apple laptop and an old terminally ill Nook Color. NOTHING beats my old Nook for battery life - 8 hours plus, even with some videos sprinkled in. Had a newer Nook. It sucked. Among other things, the battery lasted only about half the time.

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One more thing. We have a cheapy solar charger from Harbor Freight. Cost about $20. It is not fast, but it works for the phone. Have not trier the tablet and I am sure it would not work for the laptop.

 

[kyonu]

I have T mobile, and while they do not get service on the road or in rural areas, their speeds are off the charts. I get 10MB speeds consistently on 4G, and their hotspot works wonderfully.

However they are prone to the same problem everyone else is prone to... Limited data. I would immediately switch to any carrier that has true unlimited data, without throttling, even if it's twice the price.

I use a Nexus 5 phone (downgraded/upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy Note II), and I love it. I have big hands, and it fits perfectly. Features are off the charts and it has a huge WiFi detection range. It only costs $350 on Goggle Play, all their phones are unlocked (except Verizon's since they use a different type of SIM), and can be jail broken easily. I haven't done it, but I will soon do it in order to get a WiFi hotspot. Carrier's don't like it when you use a WiFi hotspot, so they turn off your WiFi when turning on HotSpot so you have to use Data. It's a silly scheme, but jailbreaking the phone will help this problem.

It's a very reliable phone, and has never dropped a call. It's battery life isn't amazing, but its thinner than almost any other phone, and it's super light weight. It's blazing fast and launches any program very quickly. It can handle anything I throw at it.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I used to have my HTC Evo 4G on Sprint and it was actually unlimited at $88/mo. It was great...never throttled. Had service for 2 yrs, but for 8 mo it was our only connection and I was burning up the gigs daily.
I got 2 extended life batts off eBay, but they were only good for about a year...the original still works well.
Now, it has no cell service and we use it as a pocket computer on wifi.
Camera is good, does good video.
Tough old phone (4 yrs).
Can't tether using Sprint without ponying up an extra 30 bucks, or get the phone rooted.

Now, we each have a Tracfone and just use wifi where we can get it....its a budget thing
The two cheapo Tracfones (both double minute) cost us $17.50/mo total thru their online site (tracfone dot com) to have minutes/time added automatically. Since we don't make lots of calls, we are way ahead, so I turned off the automatic thing and we're good thru May at this point. At this rate its costing us a little over $100/yr for both phones.

Haven't had much problem finding all the wifi we need, except when we boondock in the desert. Even then, neighbors had wifi we used to check emails.

As far as hotspot plans...most people we talk to prefer Verizon.

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BTW....Tracfone has great coverage since they use several companies towers. We get a good signal when others can't with their expensive phones, like out in "nowhere" Nevada. Sprint sure sucked out there.

 

[Lucky mike]

I use Milinicom for Internet....its a no contract system that uses Verizons system.....20 gigs for 70 bucks. and 7 bucks a month for a Tracfone..

Millinicom is great for streaming , majic jack, and fast internet...so overall for the 70 bucks to have phone TV and internet its not a bad deal.....and I never have connection problems...at 20 gigs they start to throttle you down but I never had it happen...and with the no contract its just a matter of paying the bill and on it goes

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I've heard good words about Milinicom too.

 

[noor100]

I think, oldest phones best re best to use. These are also strong phones due to signals.

 

[minimotos95]

i'm grandfathered in on verizons unlimited data.
about a year ago i upgraded from a original droid to the razr maxx which was nice until i fried it using a cheapo USB charger in someone elses vehicle within 3 months of getting it,
now i am using the 3g casio commando(i think they came out in 2011?) and couldn't be happier, it's new enough that it will do wifi hotspots but still cheap, waterproof, has a fully functioning GPS even without cell signals, and is even harder to destroy than the original droid was.
4g is nice but 3g will get the job done

 

[Ballenxj]

4g is nice but 3g will get the job done

I bought a 3g ipad a while ago on the advice of a self proclaimed techy that told me 4g is nice, but you could burn through data real fast without realizing you have, where 3g will get the job done sufficiently. He advised me to stay away from things like Google Earth while using these plans as it was very data consumptive. Any thoughts on this?

 

[blars]

I have an old T-mobile flip phone with the best prepaid plan for someone who does not use it -- $100 first year, $10/year after that keeps it active and the ballance rolls over. (Got it online, last I checked years ago they still offered it changing the offer a little every couple of months.) I leave the phone off most of the time, no signal many places. I plan on getting a verizon phone with no plan for 911 calls. (911 works even if you don't pay.)

For data, I have a millenicom/verizon 3g stick they no longer offer. $60/month for 20 gigs.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I'm not a even close to being a techie, but I can't really tell the diff between 3 or 4G.
Never did movie downloads and such, but 3G worked fine for Youtube and other streaming. I guess it depends on your need for speed or whatever that extra Gig is for.

 

[Zil]

here is a link that has been posted here many times. But it is worth repeating.
Technomadia http://www.technomadia.com/category/technology/mobile-technology/

 

[user 423]

+1 on the T-Mobile Pay-as-you-Go plan. It only costs about $15/mo. as it's just a basic phone for me. The Nokia 3595 bar phone that I've had for 8 years is built like a tank. I've dropped it a dozen times or more and it keeps on tickin'. I just got my first GPS, an older Garmin Nuvi 40LM and still figuring it out. Acer laptop fills out the toy list.

I'm looking into a mifi. I've heard so much about Verizon having the best coverage.

Did someone say that Millenicom uses the Verizon network?

 

[Lucky mike]

yes Millinicom is on the Verizon Network.....no contract.....20 + gigs a month...70 bucks!!

 

[user 423]

Oh okay, I'm checking Zil's link. Thanks!

 

[Ballenxj]

Oh okay, I'm checking Zil's link. Thanks!

WONDERFUL link! I've breezed through it, and now saved it to go back and read again, and again. Thanks Zil!

 

[SternWake]

I just got my first Smartphone. A Samsung S4 mini. It is a lot to figure out, being a smart phone Dummy

A was paying 70$ a month for At&T and a dumbphone, but the browser was so clunky I did not even use what I was paying for, and each month my contempt for At&T would compound on itself.

I signed up on the Ting Network.. They use Sprint towers, and you only pay for what you use. Perhaps not the best for massive Data users, but I suspect my new bill will be under 30$.

Nice thing about having a Phone with Wifi, is that I use the powerhog laptop a lot less, which uses a lot less battery power.

 

[minimotos95]

Thanks for that link Zil.
Ballenxj, Using the same apps with both I could see using more data with 4g only if you are doing more in the same amount of time, which is very possible on 4g, but when I had 4g my data usage was the same as with 3g, my usage primarily being light web browsing, music and video streaming.
I did notice slightly worse battery life when using 4g compared to 3g. about 30 minutes less on what was normally a 8 hour charge, that's a hair over 5% so not really enough to matter.

I don't know how service is now but last year if you were somewhere that had 4g service you were also close enough to civilization to get free wifi with a short drive, walk or ride. which obviously doesn't use data,

 

[Ballenxj]

Brandon, you make some very good points about if in a 4g area, you are close to major population, and battery usage of 3g vs 4g. Sounds like 3g is the best way to go if you're on a budget.