Cell Phone Plans: Can someone explain this to me?

[OBLAMA2009]

how good is that intercept phone? is the data service ok? i cant get rid of verizon but for $25 im almost tempted to get one of these in addition and get the unlimited plan. i pay way more than 60 for my landline every month


can someone tell me, if i live in a city like san francisco is it likely i will always be in a covered vm area? what about in a suburb of a big city? how will the data be

does best buy have the best deal on the intercept at 178?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i was just looking at their coverage map and it looks like they claim to have 3g coverage over the entire bay area. can anyone who has this deal verify this?

 

[gsaldivar]

Thanks Fenixgoon,

I saw your post about Best Buy's discount and I couldn't resist picking up a Samsung Intercept for a family member. The rep told me I have 30 days to return it if I want and there is NO restock fee, so that's perfect.

I haven't activated it yet, but I did connect it to my Wifi and was able to setup Gmail, Google Voice, Maps, and a few other apps with no problem. The screen isn't as sharp as I'm used to (I'm spoiled by my Incredible's AMOLED) and it is noticably slower, but this phone is simply unbeatable for the price...

Looking forward to gifting this toy. Thanks!

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Someone get back to us about the performance of this phone and speed and coverage of the service

 

[Fenixgoon]

Someone get back to us about the performance of this phone and speed and coverage of the service

i activated my phone today. ported my old # over without any issue. wifi works great so far. will toy around with the phone after work tomorrow.


edit: setting up wifi, downloading some basic apps (task killer advanced, acrobat reader, skype) all went flawlessly.

just as a note: if/when you link your phone to your email account(s), the phone will try to import your email contacts into its contact list. if you don't want this, you have to disable this under menu-->settings--->accounts/sync. i didn't want all my gmail contacts on my phone list.

 

[s44]

Don't use a task killer.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

let us know how fast the 3g in relation to your verizon experience and also how extensive the 3g coverage is/are there lots of dead spots in virgin coverage

 

[uli2000]

Wow, so much incorrect info.

1. A huge cost factor with cell phone contracts is the cost of the subsidy for discounted phones. Guess what, that free phone you get every two years isn't free. They just tack about an extra $20/month onto the price of the plan. They usually make the subsidy back in about a year, and the rest of the time, it's pure profit.

2. Sprint runs the same 3g as Verizon does, EVDO Rev. A. In fact, Sprint built out their network with 3g before Verizon did. Speeds are dependent on several factors, so one may be faster than the other in the same location.

3. Your coverage will be limited to Sprints' native network. No partner roaming. If you live in a major metro area, you should have no problems. And you should be fine in 99% of places people actually live, but don't get mad when you can't make a call in the middle of nowhere when others can.

 

[styrafoam]

If/when virgin upgrades the phone to 2.2 there are a couple of thing to watch for: namely you will lose your contacts if you don't sync them to google or otherwise back them up, and the samsung notepad app goes away with the update so back up any saved notes. You also lose the power saving toggles on the pulldown notification bar, but don't really need to back anything up for that.

http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa...ID=2&PROD_SUB_ID=557&PROD_ID=559&AT_ID=346222

I have an intercept on sprint, some phones got the update 2 weeks ago but it was put on hold as evidently it was redering a lot of phones unusable. Mine however went through and works great, its like a different phone. With 2.1 a task killer was a requirement. After exiting out of random games or apps you would notice the phone acting sluggish. Load up the task killer, kill whatever it was you closed, phone back to normal. With 2.2 the only time the phone seems to lag slightly is when its building a large list(like opening up 'manage applications') or occasionaly on large web pages. Another gripe i would have had before was constantly losing the data connection. Before i would have to go in and out of airplane mode to get the browser to work, now fixed also.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

If/when virgin upgrades the phone to 2.2 there are a couple of thing to watch for: namely you will lose your contacts if you don't sync them to google or otherwise back them up, and the samsung notepad app goes away with the update so back up any saved notes. You also lose the power saving toggles on the pulldown notification bar, but don't really need to back anything up for that.

http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa...ID=2&PROD_SUB_ID=557&PROD_ID=559&AT_ID=346222

I have an intercept on sprint, some phones got the update 2 weeks ago but it was put on hold as evidently it was redering a lot of phones unusable. Mine however went through and works great, its like a different phone. With 2.1 a task killer was a requirement. After exiting out of random games or apps you would notice the phone acting sluggish. Load up the task killer, kill whatever it was you closed, phone back to normal. With 2.2 the only time the phone seems to lag slightly is when its building a large list(like opening up 'manage applications') or occasionaly on large web pages. Another gripe i would have had before was constantly losing the data connection. Before i would have to go in and out of airplane mode to get the browser to work, now fixed also.

having an unstable data connection sounds like a headache. are you saying that it is totally stable once you load 2.2?

 

[styrafoam]

having an unstable data connection sounds like a headache. are you saying that it is totally stable once you load 2.2?

For me, yes. If i had to try and tie it to something i would say that it would happen in areas of poor reception. I rarely ever had problems at home or around town, but taking my phone into work(a factory) would drop the data connection pretty reliably. Could still get texts and make calls, but the browser would time out. The update to 2.2 solved it completely though, haven't had to go to airplane mode and back once.

 

[Fenixgoon]

let us know how fast the 3g in relation to your verizon experience and also how extensive the 3g coverage is/are there lots of dead spots in virgin coverage

Well I never used the web on my old vz phone but this seems reasonably fast. Streaming youtube videos works decently but the quality is low. The battery life really takes a hit when browsing the web orhaving lots of apps open. I'm still trying to figure things out though. So far I'm very pleased.

Just posted this from my phone

 

[Pliablemoose]

You're supposed to get Froyo by the end of the month, if you want, you can upgrade now... http://forum.sdx-developers.com/intercept-guides-and-tips/%28how-to%29-install-froyo-2-2-on-your-virgin-mobile-intercept!/msg129813/#msg129813

Also, refills are available here: http://www.callingmart.com/default.aspx

And a 3% off coupon is ca3p-1207

Brings the price to ~$24/month.

 

[stlc8tr]

2. Sprint runs the same 3g as Verizon does, EVDO Rev. A. In fact, Sprint built out their network with 3g before Verizon did. Speeds are dependent on several factors, so one may be faster than the other in the same location.

While this might be true, the Intercept (AFAIK) is only EVDO Rev.0.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

While this might be true, the Intercept (AFAIK) is only EVDO Rev.0.

what exactly does that mean/how much slower is that?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i went to the sprint store and checked this out yesterday and i would have to say it was very slow. id click on a link and it would take a noticeable amount of time for the device to respond, id think it hadnt clicked and push again and confuse the device into a temporary freeze. i also noticed that the browser couldnt handle drop downs on some web pages i use a lot (my iphone 3gs also couldnt, however). it really wasnt much better that my blackberry in terms of speed. while i was there a lady returned one because she said the battery life was poor and it froze up on her all the time. the sprint chick said she thought they were going to stop selling it (the sprint version). $25 is still a worthwhile deal but the experience is definitely 2nd or 3rd rate

 

[gsaldivar]

$25 is still a worthwhile deal but the experience is definitely 2nd or 3rd rate

Of course the experience isn't first rate, it's an entry level phone. I've also played with the Intercept at length and while it is noticeably slower than any of the flagship phones the from major providers, it's certainly usable from an entry level user perspective. As I own a Droid Incredible, I'm also used to a quick responsive Android experience. But once you slow down the "tapping" and adapt to the slower speed of the device (tap once instead of 10 times while waiting for the phone to respond, etc...) the phone works just fine.

 

[stlc8tr]

what exactly does that mean/how much slower is that?

According to the specs:

EVDO Rev A: 600Kbps - 1,400Kbps Down (with bursts to 3.1Mbps); 500Kbps-800Kbps Up (with bursts to 1.8Mbps)
EVDO Rev 0: 400 - 1000Kbps Down (with bursts to 2.0 Mbps); 50 - 100Kbps Up (with bursts to 144Kbps)

Latency is also suppose to be better with Rev A.