Can I find a decent unlocked phone with pay-as-you-go voice & data?

[fbrdphreak]

Well I got my new Droid about 24 hours ago. Despite getting it for $50 in my pocket (after Bing CB), I'm not insanely wowed with the hardware, particularly for being locked into the 2 year contract.

My AT&T contract is already broken due to porting my number, so I need something regardless (and dear God, not AT&T). With all the changes coming in the mobile space this year (4G/LTE, WinMo7, future Android, Tegra 2), I'm starting to think I might be better to buy a decent unlocked phone (good tech is a must for me) and somehow do a pay-as-you-go setup.

That way I will have phone that has some resale when I'm done and I'm not locked into a contract.

I don't use many minutes, about 400 anytime. But do pay-as-you-go plans have unlimited N&W? What about data? I would definitely want data, but probably wouldn't use more than a few hundred MB per month.

Thanks for any insight...

 

[dguy6789]

Sounds to me like you'd want something with T-Mobile. It's not exactly pay as you go(I don't know any pay as you go setup that has a decent data plan), but they have plans that do not have any kind of contract and you can cancel at any time without any kind of fees. Their monthly charges are a lot less than AT&T and Verizon as well. You can get a contract-free 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile calling, unlimited text, unlimited internet plan for $59.99 a month at T-Mobile.

There's all kinds of T-Mobile phones. Your best bet would be to buy a phone outright instead of getting the subsidized version, that's how you can avoid the contract.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Yeah I guess "pay as you go" doesn't matter, as long as its no contract.

This sounds promising, but is it 3G?

 

[dguy6789]

Yep it's 3G. All the bells and whistles.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

LTE phones = not gonna come soon. the world's not done deploying yet. even if verizon deploys earlier than everyone else, the world dictates the phone market, not the US. you'll have limited phones and maybe not-that-great phones at first... maybe PC cards first in fact.

Buy a good unlocked 3G phone right now. You really need to remember that with the US, AT&T uses 850/1900 3G and T-Mobile uses 1700/2100 AWS. You're really screwed in terms of phones. You really have to pick one carrier or the other to stick with because I haven't seen a phone that's 850/1700/1900/2100 3G. There's 850/1900/2100 like the iPhone 3G(S) and the Moto Milestone I just purchased, but that 2100 is not the T-Mobile 2100. You really need it to say 1700. Now if you're going to forego 3G and you don't mind not having it, then you can buy any phone essentially.

If you want 3G:

With Tmo, you really have to stick to the carrier phones. Just unlock them. That and the Nexus One.

With AT&T you can get any carrier phone. Then you have the option of looking for a 1900 3G phone. I think in some regions of the world they have 1900 3G deployed on top of their 1900 2G. Those phones are more common unlocked. There's the Samsung Omnia i8000, Omnia HD and maybe a few other models. They aren't for North America, but having 1900 will help. Note that you will miss out on the 850 band. So know your area. SF Bay Area was all 1900, so I could've gone with one of those 2 phones above with no problem... although our coverage sucks so that's why AT&T has been pouring millions into this region and the upgrades are all 850 I hear.

You can also get some luck with NAM models like the Nokia N97, X6, Sony Ericsson X1a, X2a, etc. Those all support 850/1900. Remember, these are designed for the US and Canada and some other Americas regions. T-Mobile is probably the only carrier using 1700/2100 around here, so NAM doesn't really apply for them. But the benefit is these are not carrier locked, and will work on both 850 and 1900 frequencies giving you full 3G coverage in the US on AT&T.

Finally, you can be like me and import from Canada because some phones just aren't sold with an unlocked North America version. Telus carries the HTC Hero and Motorola Milestone for US frequencies. Australia's Telstra carries the HTC HD2 and HTC HD1 with US frequencies. You can import all of those for major $$$$ but that's the ONLY way of getting a version of the phone WITH ATT's 3G frequencies. Otherwise, all those phones only have UMTS 2100.

Bottom line is you gotta pick a carrier. It seems to me that AT&T has more options. While T-Mo got a lot of Android phones like the G1 and MyTouch, those models also hit Canada's Rogers I believe. You can import if you really want them and use them on AT&T. On the other hand T-Mo only gets what is released to them. All the other cool phones? Unlocked phones? Forget 3G.

 

[vshah]

unlocked nexus 1 would be my recommendation

 

[fbrdphreak]

Wow, thanks for the response Dlerium.

I was beginning to realize the same thing: locked or unlocked, each carrier is on a different frequency or tech, so you can still only really use that phone on that network regardless.

I'd be willing to pluck $300-500 down on a *good* 3G phone, assuming I could get most of that back if I sold it within a year. Then I could do a no-contract plan and have the option to switch phones or carriers depending what comes out next year (I'm really excited about WinMo7). I also need to run the numbers and see how much more it would really cost me to buy a new phone in a year, unsubsidized. I got this Droid with $50 back in my pocket, so aside from the contract and that the phone won't have much value in 6 months, it hasn't cost me much.

It doesn't sound like importing phones from another country has quite enough benefit me. What does depreciation on unlocked high end phones look like these days?

 

[Chapbass]

Nexus one or N900 on TMobile

 

[BigSmooth]

If you want 3G:

With Tmo, you really have to stick to the carrier phones. Just unlock them. That and the Nexus One.

Not true... some unlocked phones such as the Nokia N900 can use T-Mo's AWS 1700/2100 3G bands. There's not a ton of them, but they are out there.

 

[Fox5]

There's plenty of unlocked phones that work on ATT and Tmobile. ATT has more, but the cooler ones work on Tmobile's 3g. (nexus one, nokia n900)

Tmobile's month to month plan is the best option price wise too (only company to offer cheaper pricing for not getting a carrier phone), and they're due to roll out the fastest 3g speeds, faster than the initial 4g speeds, but probably the last to get 4g.

Don't think there's any good pay as you go data plans though.

Oh, to clarify, your best options on tmobile are probably the unlocked nexus one and the n900.
The n900 is a linux computer with packed to the gills hardware. High res screen, fm tuner, fm transmitter, 32GB built in space, tv out cable included, good quality camera, and free OVI GPS that can have the maps added to it so it doesn't need to use data. (ovi maps on the n900 sucks hard atm tho)
The n900 is a geeky device for geeks who want something to play around with.

The Nexus One has the fastest processor available in the mobile space, and is the premier google phone at the moment. Not big on the extras or storage space, but it's probably the better option for someone looking for a cool phone.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Not true... some unlocked phones such as the Nokia N900 can use T-Mo's AWS 1700/2100 3G bands. There's not a ton of them, but they are out there.

yeah, you're right. there are a few.. but not many. you can find a lot more for AT&T though. Either way it's difficult for both carriers.

Back when it was all about 2G, quadband phones were pretty widespread. Especially by 2006/2007, they were all going quadband. I remember Sony Ericsson holding out though on a lot of their nice phones.

Also locked or unlocked doesn't matter. If you're looking at smartphones, most of them are unlockable without too much trouble. There's custom roms and stuff out there. My Telus Milestone was a simple unlock code. Done. There's less branding on this thing than on most US carrier phones. For one the box doesn't mention Telus, there's no Telus logo inscribed on the handset like the Moto Droid with VZW... I'd be more worried about branding and custom software. There seems to be more of that on US phones than on other international phones. I know VZW has moved away from crippling phones, but this is certainly something I always look out for.

Anyway, if carrier is no concern to you, focus on the phone features. The Nexus One is nice, but I wanted AT&T so that was out of the question.

Buy phones unsubsidized is what the phone freaks do. It's how you stay on top of the market and always have the coolest stuff around. It's just gonna cost you an arm and a leg though ><

 

[boomhower]

I vote N1 and T-Mobile if they have 3G in your area.