WHY would anyone pay 400-600 for a 3g phone?

[Santilli]

Hi
I've been looking at Tmobiles' options. Samsung Galaxy is kind of cool, but, it's 3g. WHY would anyone pay that kind of money when a 4g is around 500 bucks?

Seems what I am after requires Android 2.2, or, it won't play, flash stuff, mainly surfline.com,
etc. My current 5230 and 1900 connection is slow, but, without the 4g, not much point in getting a phone with 2.2, since the overall experience with a 3g phone sucks...

 

[Mercutio]

My Evo was $300 with a $100 rebate. It's arguably the nicest phone on the market right now, though I'll concede that Verizon also has some sweet Android phones.

Part of the reason people are willing to pay extra is that they're accustomed to the Apple tax associated with iphones and for better or for worse (for worse, actually, all the way around), that's had an impact on the marketplace.

 

[Will Rickards]

Unless you are in a market that is covered in the 4G area, it is a useless feature of the phone.

The money for the phone is for the display, processor, etc. The evo is nice, the newer samsungs are supposedly better in the graphics department.

 

[Stereodude]

Why would anyone pay 400-600 for any phone?

I have a phone to *gasp* make phone calls. I don't need it to take pictures, play mp3s, surf the web, text message people. I just want a good quality durable phone that excels at making phone calls (ie: good reception, good sound quality, good battery life, and a decent speaker phone).

 

[ddrueding]

You don't pay $400-600 for a phone. You pay $100 for a phone and $250-450 for a PDA and $50 for a portable music player with the added bonus of not needing to carry/charge three different devices.

Here is the phone I got for my grandmother.

 

[Sol]

Agreed, the ability to make and receive calls is handy, but it's one of the functions of my phone that I use the least (Only notably surpassed by playing music which I have never attempted with it). As for 3G or 4G, I find the experience on 3G perfectly fine for everything I want to do on my phone, generally coverage and network providers seem to be more of a bottle-neck than technology.

And let's be clear, when you say 4G you mean Sprints 4G, which only Sprint will ever use since the rest of the industry has now basically standardized on other, incompatible, tech. Maybe being forever locked to a single provider is par for the course in the US but if you're locked in anyway you may as well get a subsidized phone.

By the time my contract is up I'll have payed 600 quid for my Galaxy S (and likely have made and received less than an hour of, non-voip, calls on it). For my money things like the quality of the screen, and the responsiveness definitely trump the top download speed in importance. And generally I find when I really need the speed (Like if I want to upgrade all of my apps at once) I'm usually somewhere where I can use WiFi anyway.
Plus the phone would have been about 450 without a contract anyway and it's not like I could have gotten a monthly connection with data for 6.25 a month by itself. (Also I live in Europe so no 4G option anyway)

 

[MaxBurn]

Most smart phones actually cost a good deal more than that without the subsidies.

Honestly the phone cost is such a small portion of your overall multiple thousand dollar multiple year commitment I don't know why you would skimp and get a crappy handset. Seems like we just get screwed with cellphones in the US. Could be worse though, think Canada is not a happy situation.

 

[Handruin]

Hi
I've been looking at Tmobiles' options. Samsung Galaxy is kind of cool, but, it's 3g. WHY would anyone pay that kind of money when a 4g is around 500 bucks?

Seems what I am after requires Android 2.2, or, it won't play, flash stuff, mainly surfline.com,
etc. My current 5230 and 1900 connection is slow, but, without the 4g, not much point in getting a phone with 2.2, since the overall experience with a 3g phone sucks...

The Pros and Cons of Adopting 4G Android Phones Today.

 

[Santilli]

I was comparing top line phones in 3g and 4g, plus the Galaxy, at TMobile. The 3G just wasn't fast enough to do streaming video well, and web pages loaded pretty slowly. Reminds me of before broadband. I guess TMobile is onboard with the 4g network, and, they don't charge extra for it in their plans.
Handruin: Good article. Enjoyed it.

"Secondly, the "4G" you buy today is unlikely to be compatible with the "4G" of tomorrow. Right now "4G" is just a marketing term more so than a standard. When you buy in early you are likely to find that when 4G finally does make it widespread and to your area, that your phone is incompatible. A lot of early "3G" adoptors found this out the hard way as well. "

I wonder about this comment.

Anyone have any information on TMobiles' 4G?

 

[LunarMist]

Yeah I would like one of those.

 

[Stereodude]

4G is just going to be used as an excuse to charge you more for data while imposing data caps that didn't exist before.

 

[Mercutio]

4G is just going to be used as an excuse to charge you more for data while imposing data caps that didn't exist before.

Your fault for being on a service with data limits if that's important to you. Honestly, 5GB/month for most plans is probably plenty for the vast majority of users. The only way I could get above that on my other phone was if I tried really hard

 

[LunarMist]

So what does an ordinary person choose with a reasonable long term TCO (phone+device) that incorporates the e-mail, web and phone?

 

[Stereodude]

Your fault for being on a service with data limits if that's important to you.

No, not my fault. I don't have a data plan. :wink:

 

[Pradeep]

I was comparing top line phones in 3g and 4g, plus the Galaxy, at TMobile. The 3G just wasn't fast enough to do streaming video well, and web pages loaded pretty slowly. Reminds me of before broadband. I guess TMobile is onboard with the 4g network, and, they don't charge extra for it in their plans.
Handruin: Good article. Enjoyed it.

"Secondly, the "4G" you buy today is unlikely to be compatible with the "4G" of tomorrow. Right now "4G" is just a marketing term more so than a standard. When you buy in early you are likely to find that when 4G finally does make it widespread and to your area, that your phone is incompatible. A lot of early "3G" adoptors found this out the hard way as well. "

I wonder about this comment.

Anyone have any information on TMobiles' 4G?

Tmobile "4G" is actually HSPA+

http://consumerist.com/2010/11/how-fast-is-t-mobiles-4g-data-network.html

 

[Pradeep]

T-mobile Galaxy S with HSPA+ support coming Feb 23rd

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/25/t-mobile-releases-streak-7-and-galaxy-s-4g-in-february-g-slate/

 

[Mercutio]

No, not my fault. I don't have a data plan. :wink:

Data plans are awesome. Nothing like web browsing in the john.

 

[ddrueding]

Data plans are awesome. Nothing like web browsing in the john.

No WiFi in the bathroom?

 

[Mercutio]

No WiFi in the bathroom?

People ask awkward questions when you carry a laptop to your daily 8:15AM appointment.

 

[ddrueding]

People ask awkward questions when you carry a laptop to your daily 8:15AM appointment.

Ah. My co-workers are too afraid to ask, I suppose. But my phone also has WiFi.

 

[Santilli]

I'm sure they will change, but, my data plan is 10 bucks, for very slow speeds, and, the browser doesn't do flash. I'd like a phone with an actual browser that made surfing the web easy, or, a light laptop I can throw in my bag, something like the Panasonic CF-37, but with a modern operating system.

 

[Mercutio]

Ah. My co-workers are too afraid to ask, I suppose. But my phone also has WiFi.

802.11, on every phone I've messed with, chews through a battery a lot faster than data service.

 

[Handruin]

Your fault for being on a service with data limits if that's important to you. Honestly, 5GB/month for most plans is probably plenty for the vast majority of users. The only way I could get above that on my other phone was if I tried really hard

The alternative is going with Sprint which has terrible coverage/service, so having unlimited data plans don't matter anyway unless you live right under a cell tower.

 

[Mercutio]

The alternative is going with Sprint which has terrible coverage/service, so having unlimited data plans don't matter anyway unless you live right under a cell tower.

I don't think you're in a position to judge that, iphone-boy.

 

[Handruin]

Of course I am. I was formerly a Sprint customer. My GF is currently a Sprint customer and she has lousy service. I'd rather be an iphone-boy than anything on Sprint. I don't think you're in a position to judge since you're not an iPhone user. Unless if you secretly owned one but would never admit to it.

 

[Mercutio]

Of course I am. I was formerly a Sprint customer. My GF is currently a Sprint customer and she has lousy service. I'd rather be an iphone-boy than anything on Sprint. I don't think you're in a position to judge since you're not an iPhone user. Unless if you secretly owned one but would never admit to it.

Enough of my customers are that I get to deal with the dropped call network on a regular basis.

 

[Handruin]

Enough of my customers are that I get to deal with the dropped call network on a regular basis.

They're probably dropped calls from the Sprint users on the other end. :-D

 

[Mercutio]

You know you're talking to an AT&T user in Chicago when they say things like "Sorry about that. I got too close to a building." when they resume their conversation.

True story.

 

[Handruin]

You know you're talking to an AT&T user in Chicago when they say things like "Sorry about that. I got too close to a building." when they resume their conversation.

True story.

Or a Sprint user inside that says hold on, I need to go out on the porch so you can hear me. Also a true story.

 

[LunarMist]

Oh my, you two play nice.

What about that Verizon dude on the TV wearing glasses and always having some signal problem?

 

[Handruin]

This guy?

 

[ddrueding]

Which is funny, because Verizon (IIRC) has the best coverage.

 

[Handruin]

That would also be my opinion.

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, that doofus. Some people at work have exchanged their BB for the Verizon kind. I still have the old one.

 

[Handruin]

I would exchange my iPhone for the Verizon kind.

 

[Santilli]

Handruin:
Besides the Apple tax, and being made by Apple, what specific things don't you like about the iphone, and, what do you like?

S

 

[Handruin]

Handruin:
Besides the Apple tax, and being made by Apple, what specific things don't you like about the iphone, and, what do you like?

S

What tax are you referring to? The price of the phone was similar to other smart phones which offer similar and sometime less features.

Things I don't like about the iPhone (I can only speak regarding the 3GS, I don't have the iPhone 4):

• Occasional use of iTunes required for software updates.
• No removable battery. (hasn't yet been an issue in 1.5 years)
• Can't customize the message which display on phone when locked (without jailbreaking the phone)
• It costs extra to tether, but that's more about AT&T than the iPhone.
• Previously stuck to AT&T, but now Verizon will be an option come Feb 10th.
• People always trying to find a reason to tell you why having an iPhone is so terrible or stupid.
• I could nitpick other little things, but anyone who says their phone is perfect is full of it.

What I like about the phone:
The phone works very well as a tiny portable computer (much like any smart phone). I'm very efficient with it; it is fluid and performs well (UI interaction).
It's easy to find apps that can do hundreds of useful things. I have between 75-100 apps for various things and I've only paid for one of them ($0.99), so you can get a lot without spending a lot.

 

[Mercutio]

I suspect I'm going to want to purchase something to do Remote Desktop/VNC stuff for my Evo, and possibly an 802.11 site survey application. Those are things that are missing from my phone that I'm going to need.

 

[Will Rickards]

Coverage is very dependent on the area. I used to have verizon which was great coverage except at my brother's house where only at&t gets a decent signal. Sprint doesn't work there either. We call it the dead zone. He lives semi-near some high voltage towers so I'm guessing that is the problem. He's contacted verizon about it (was a customer) but they were unhelpful, wouldn't even comp him one of those router like things to get signal in your house.

On the otherhand I have coverage even in my basement office with both verizon and sprint.

 

[Mercutio]

Gmail is ironically not very good through an Android phone. Email is fine, but if I navigate to the site because I need to do folder management or look at an old message, none of the available views show me things I need to see, at least not with the builtin browser or Firefox for Android.