Best Tmobile phone out right now is.....?

[onza]

I own the BB 8900. Looking to upgrade in a few months.

Which phone do you guys recommend?

 

[Lumathix]

Nexus 1 maybe?

 

[dguy6789]

The best one right now is either the Nexus One or HD2. There might be something better in a few months though. A few months is a long time in the smartphone world.

 

[pm]

Ditto what was said - Nexus One or HD2 depending on whether you are fan of Android or Windows Mobile.

The HD2 is gorgeous to look at. I want my next phone to have a 4.3" screen.

 

[Cuda1447]

Nexus 1 if you want to buy outside of a Tmobile store. HD2 currently available. If you want android the Mytouch Slide is a very nice phone, a bit dumbed down from the mytouch, more sense ui ish stuff, but if you want android in the store, that's the one I'd go with.

 

[onza]

I wonder what's in store in a few months. Do you guys have a general feeling for when Win mobile 7 is suppose to come out?

WinM 6.5 looks pretty decent right though..

 

[dguy6789]

Windows Phone 7 is supposed to come out at the end of this year. Windows Mobile 6.5 is very decent, but not without its own set of quirks. Windows Mobile 6.5 is pretty similar to Windows on the PC in a lot of ways. Windows Phone 7 dumbs everything down in favor of looking really fancy, having a few big buttons, and being really simple to use in general(Apple style).

I'd rather have Android than Windows Mobile 6.5 or 7 though.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'm betting that someone will port the final WP7 to the HD2, but I wouldn't base your purchase on it.

 

[dguy6789]

I recall reading that someone has already done that. Agreed that I wouldn't buy an HD2 expecting to ever use Windows Phone 7 on it though.

 

[Fox5]

Nokia N900, then get a cheaper even more plus plan. Over the 2 years you would have had a contract, it'll end up cheaper.

Just kidding about the n900, I like it a lot (if you have any interest in all that jail-breaking, rooting stuff, you'd probably be better off getting it, it's rooted right out of the box), but I'd say the nexus one (also bought off contract) would be a better phone for just about everyone.

 

[onza]

The 180.00 + 2yr contract is looking pretty nice on the nexus one.

 

[Cuda1447]

Nokia N900, then get a cheaper even more plus plan. Over the 2 years you would have had a contract, it'll end up cheaper.

Just kidding about the n900, I like it a lot (if you have any interest in all that jail-breaking, rooting stuff, you'd probably be better off getting it, it's rooted right out of the box), but I'd say the nexus one (also bought off contract) would be a better phone for just about everyone.

The no contract rate plan is a bad idea for a number of reasons. It's more of a marketing gimmick than anything, imo.

1. If you don't have a contract, you can bet your ass T-Mobile won't be going out of their way to give you discounts on anything if a situation should arise and you are deserving.
2. You miss out on all the promo's when upgrading your phone.
3. The math doesn't even work out to be advantageous for EM+ anymore. If you buy a smart phone, you can get the full discount once every 12 months. That means a $400 mytouch is $150. That's a savings of $250 twice over two years, so $500 savings. Most of us want to upgrade our phones more than once every two years, so it is safe to say we will own two phones in 24 months.
4. If you switch over to the EM+ rate plans, you can NEVER switch back to contracted plans. NEVER. EVER. The only way to do it, if you really really wanted to work the system, is to port your number out of T-Mobile, then port it back in and setup a new account. Not the ideal situation and a major pain in the ass.

 

[Fox5]

The no contract rate plan is a bad idea for a number of reasons. It's more of a marketing gimmick than anything, imo.

1. If you don't have a contract, you can bet your ass T-Mobile won't be going out of their way to give you discounts on anything if a situation should arise and you are deserving.
2. You miss out on all the promo's when upgrading your phone.
3. The math doesn't even work out to be advantageous for EM+ anymore. If you buy a smart phone, you can get the full discount once every 12 months. That means a $400 mytouch is $150. That's a savings of $250 twice over two years, so $500 savings. Most of us want to upgrade our phones more than once every two years, so it is safe to say we will own two phones in 24 months.
4. If you switch over to the EM+ rate plans, you can NEVER switch back to contracted plans. NEVER. EVER. The only way to do it, if you really really wanted to work the system, is to port your number out of T-Mobile, then port it back in and setup a new account. Not the ideal situation and a major pain in the ass.

Oh, I thought they were an upgraded phone every 2 years, not every one.
EM+ is at least $20 cheaper a month than EM, so over a year that's $240, which isn't enough to make up for the cost difference.
However, depending on your plan, it can work out cheaper.
It doesn't force you to buy a smart phone plan with a smart phone, so you can be a wifi only user (I am).

The family plans seem to shift in favor of the even more plan + phone upgrades, but the individual plans I think will still favor EM+. Plus, you get the option to use phones Tmobile doesn't carry.

500 minutes + unlimited texting + mandatory web service = $80 a month with Even More
500 minutes + unlimited texting + web for phones = $50 a month with Even More Plus.
$360 saved, you're basically breaking even at this point. If you wanted a cool smart phone without 3g Internet, you'll come out ahead. Wifi is available pretty much everywhere, I haven't had any big limitations not having Internet on my phone.

 

[rudeguy]

Link supporting Tmo giving full discounts after 12 months?

 

[Krazy4Real]

Hd2

 

[Deeko]

The no contract rate plan is a bad idea for a number of reasons. It's more of a marketing gimmick than anything, imo.

1. If you don't have a contract, you can bet your ass T-Mobile won't be going out of their way to give you discounts on anything if a situation should arise and you are deserving.
2. You miss out on all the promo's when upgrading your phone.
3. The math doesn't even work out to be advantageous for EM+ anymore. If you buy a smart phone, you can get the full discount once every 12 months. That means a $400 mytouch is $150. That's a savings of $250 twice over two years, so $500 savings. Most of us want to upgrade our phones more than once every two years, so it is safe to say we will own two phones in 24 months.
4. If you switch over to the EM+ rate plans, you can NEVER switch back to contracted plans. NEVER. EVER. The only way to do it, if you really really wanted to work the system, is to port your number out of T-Mobile, then port it back in and setup a new account. Not the ideal situation and a major pain in the ass.

-What if you buy phones like he suggested, that aren't actually sold by T-Mobile?
-What if you want to switch carriers freely?
-What if you upgrade phones more frequently than 12 months?

There are certainly situations where Even More Plus is worth it.

 

[Rottie]

If you are happy with Blackberry then why not get BB Bold 9700?

 

[Gooberlx2]

I recall reading that someone has already done that. Agreed that I wouldn't buy an HD2 expecting to ever use Windows Phone 7 on it though.

Yeah. they ported a beta/RC version...so it would lead to a good bet that the final/RTM will be ported. Having to rely on the community to support and release any updates is certainly a risk.

 

[Cuda1447]

-What if you buy phones like he suggested, that aren't actually sold by T-Mobile?
-What if you want to switch carriers freely?
-What if you upgrade phones more frequently than 12 months?

There are certainly situations where Even More Plus is worth it.

Eh, let me rephrase what I said. It can be worth it, in some situations. I think for the vast majority of people it is not worth it though. If you are in a family of say, 4 people, that $20-$30 savings per month is going to be far outweighed by the $200 discount you get on each phone, for 4 phones. Generally speaking. Now if you are buying cheap phones, than perhaps the EM+ is worth it.

If you buy phones not sold by T-Mobile, then thats fair. If I were to play devils advocate though, you could still buy phones from Tmo and throw them on Ebay and make a profit. But I realize most people won't go through that trouble.

If you switch carriers frequently, you just pay the ETF. Its prorated too, so if you stay with Tmo a year than your ETF is only $100, which is often a lot less than the discount you will get on your smart phone.

As for upgrading more often than every 12 months. Well, that doesn't seem like a good argument to me. Just because you upgrade more often than 12 months and might buy some phones outside of T-Mobile, doesn't mean that you can't take advantage of the discounts offered every 12 months (on smart phones).

Also, the wild card here, which I eluded to earlier, is that the wireless industry changes. Often very quickly. What is one thing today, may not be tomorrow. (Such as the recent BOGO offer on smart phones). If you switch to EM+, you don't really have a good option to switch back. So, if something comes out that is awesome for those contracted customers, you can never take advantage of it.

 

[Cuda1447]

Oh, one last BIG difference. On the contracted rate plans you can still get corporate discounts that are very nice. An example, AAA is 13% off your monthly bill. On the EM+ rate plans they are much more frequent and capped at 6% off your monthly bill. That right there eats up a chunk of the savings on EM+ plans.

 

[Deeko]

I get a 20% corporate discount on top of EM+.

Anyway, all three of those situations apply to me. I switch frequently, I buy whatever phone I think is best regardless of who sells it, and I itch like a druggie in rehab if I don't get a new phone every six months.

I realize for a lot of people EM+ isn't worth it, but for me, it is. I realize you "can't" switch off of EM+, but I bet if I went in to a T-Mobile store and said "look, switch me or I'm going to Verizon", they'll make it happen. They can be prodded to do a lot of things if you insist hard enough.

 

[Cuda1447]

I get a 20% corporate discount on top of EM+.

Anyway, all three of those situations apply to me. I switch frequently, I buy whatever phone I think is best regardless of who sells it, and I itch like a druggie in rehab if I don't get a new phone every six months.

I realize for a lot of people EM+ isn't worth it, but for me, it is. I realize you "can't" switch off of EM+, but I bet if I went in to a T-Mobile store and said "look, switch me or I'm going to Verizon", they'll make it happen. They can be prodded to do a lot of things if you insist hard enough.

I absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, know for a fact, that if you tell them to switch you or you're going to Verizon, they won't be able to do it. It's not a matter of want, its an internal system limitation. Like I said, the only way to switch back to a contract is to your number out, and then back in.

 

[Deeko]

I absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, know for a fact, that if you tell them to switch you or you're going to Verizon, they won't be able to do it. It's not a matter of want, its an internal system limitation. Like I said, the only way to switch back to a contract is to your number out, and then back in.

That's lots of things they "can't" do because the system doesn't allow it, and yet, the sales people still manage to get it done one way or another.

Anyway, I'm not planning on doing this anyway, despite your strangely vehement idea that discounts and not having a contract are bad things.

 

[onza]

I've been with Tmobile since 1998 (when they were voicestream). I think I'm perfectly fine with their service and will sign up with the 2year agreement.

 

[Cuda1447]

That's lots of things they "can't" do because the system doesn't allow it, and yet, the sales people still manage to get it done one way or another.

Anyway, I'm not planning on doing this anyway, despite your strangely vehement idea that discounts and not having a contract are bad things.

I'm not saying a bad thing, I'm saying it isn't as good a deal as some would have you believe. It is a good deal in some instances, though.

As far as them not being able to do it, let me tell you how I know. I work for T-Mobile. I ran into a situation recently, with a brand new account. The account was inadvertently put onto an EM+ rate plan and I needed to get it changed to a contracted rate plan. There was literally no possible way for ANYONE to do it. The account had to be canceled and a new one signed up. You don't have to believe me, but I think I have a bit more expertise on this than you do.