Considering switch from Sprint to Project Fi

[etherealfocus]

For my wife and myself. I've got an LG G2, she's got an HTC EVO 4G. Both feeling like it's time for an upgrade and the 5X 16GB looks pretty good.

We use well under a gig a month each so should be about $21/mo for each of us after refund.

I have crappy reception in my office (metal roof and walls) so seamless wifi calling/texting would be sweet.

Only downside is right now we're on a family plan paying $15 for her and $18 for me ($3/mo for visual voicemail on Sprint) so we'd actually be paying a little extra... $33 up to $42. No biggie.

Am I missing anything? Any good reason not to switch, or to go with someone else? Seamless wifi call/text is, as I mentioned, a big deal for us.

 

[vi edit]

Well, if you are already on sprint and that coverage has worked for you, then it's a no-brainer. It's Verizon users that tend to have the most issue switching.

I've been on Fi since last November. Really like the service. Your bill will be closer to $25 a month after taxes. But that's still not terrible. The wifi calling and texting is so much better than T-mobiles solution. I have zero reception in my office and just turn my phone to airplane mode and then enable the wifi. I don't even use the cellular radio during the day. It hops from access point to access point without issues. My battery life is fantastic and texts and calls come through reliably.

The 5x is a bit of a mixed bag. I would absolutely go with the 32gb. Just to give you enough breathing room for the future. The screen is nice on them, the format and size is very nice. The camera is also very good too. But for being a stock android device it's really buggy. It really got better with last months update. But prior to that I had to reboot it every 2-3 days or it would be a laggy, bogged down, unusable mess.


I have zero complaints for the price I pay for the service.

 

[etherealfocus]

Good info, thanks!

Makes sense on the 32GB upgrade... just kills me to reward them for removing SD card slots. I bought a nice 64GB USB drive for under $20 recently, and they're charging $50 for 16GB? *le sigh*

One concern here is that I notice both my G2 and the 5X have 2GB RAM. On the G2 it was mostly fine on 4.4 but when I updated to 5.0 I noticed lots of intermittent load time issues - opening Gchat/SMS, Chrome, hitting the Home button, etc. Seems like it might be a low RAM issue... do you have any issues like that on the 5X?

 

[vi edit]

The 5X is nothing remotely close to a "silky smooth" experience. There are definite studders, stalls, lags, and outright app crashes (camera is the most frequent). But I've had Google music bomb out, google maps hang, and the home key stop working.

If the size wasn't a concern I'd go to a 6p in a heartbeat. But I just don't want a phone that big.

 

[etherealfocus]

Hmm, this isn't sounding so hot anymore.

I checked out a specs comparison page and it looks like the G2 and 5X are almost the same phone - 5X has faster CPU/GPU (don't play games or watch video so don't care), laser autofocus, and 6.0/future updates. G2 is stuck on 5.0 but has OIS, 32GB storage, and I can get them all day long for $100 a pop on Swappa. And I haven't had an app crash or reset in months. I think my last stability issue was the 5.0 update failing a couple times.

So basically I'd be paying $250 plus $7/mo for better reception in the office, and getting instability in the process.

Ditto my wife, since I could upgrade her to a G2 for $100.

What about grabbing a Nexus 6 on ebay/swappa/whatever? Do those still crash a lot/have other annoying problems?

If so, maybe I should just waiting for the next round of Nexus devices and see if they work better. I wouldn't mind a 6" phone, but really can't justify dropping 500 bucks on a slightly better version of something that costs $100.

 

[vi edit]

I have a G2 and a 5X. I actually did the same upgrade path you did (except I was T-Mobile).

Here's my thoughts....

5X Pro's:
- Camera is WAAAAAY better on the 5X. Not even a comparison between the two.
- Screen is better. Much better blacks and the whites are much brighter. It's a great screen.
- Almost monthly updates
- Nice form factor/build quality. Matte back and finish are highly preferred over the G2 glossy back
- Finger print scanner is something I could never give up again
- Fi wifi support is 10x better than T-Mobiles
- No carrier lock on it. You can take it to any carrier you want and it will work.

G2 Pro's
Battery.
Battery.
Battery.
Knock on/off is nice

Seriously. Even with Doze the 5X has nothing on the G2 in pure standby time and life. The G2 is an endurance freak.

Performance wise...they are about a wash. There's a bit of LG bloat on the G2. The pull down is funky.

I don't want to completely bash the 5X. I think I saw deals for $199 for the 16 gig version if you sign up for Fi. That's really not a terrible value if you are not heavy on apps or music. The phone is fine most of the time. It's just that one time that you go to use the camera and it just pulls up a blank screen and you miss a picture that drive you insane. That might be 1 out of 50 times. But it's still something you think about.

The Nexus 6 is still a nice phone. The camera isn't stellar, but it's a solid device. It's just freakishly large.

 

[etherealfocus]

Camera, Fi wifi support, and unlocked are mostly all I care about. Screen on the G2 is fine for my modest needs, build quality doesn't matter since it lives in an Otter case, etc.

One big benefit you missed: solid international support. I don't care about the missing 4G, but just got back from a trip to Italy... had zero 3G/4G reception the entire time, and terrible voice quality. Spent the entire two weeks living on texting and offline maps. That sucked.

On the other hand, I'm already unhappy with the G2's battery life. Going lower than that would be pretty frustrating... although of course I could just buy a USB mobile charger.

 

[etherealfocus]

Alright, after discussing with the wife we agreed that camera and battery life basically cancel each other out, and we don't plan to go anywhere outside Sprint and Fi so unlocked isn't a big deal either.

Guess what it comes down to is whether indoor reception is worth $250 plus $7/mo... maybe 180 after selling the G2. I'm thinking yes.

Thanks for the info

 

[vi edit]

One thing I will tell you is that turning off the cellular radio when in poor (or no) reception areas and living off of wifi gives you significantly longer battery life.

If I left my cellular on, my phone would be dead by 3:00PM just sitting on my desk trying to search for a signal.

With that off, and wifi calling with Fi on, I can leave with 80% battery life at the end of the day. It's idle time is very good in that state.

 

[Sheep]

Does Project Fi actually work with phones other than the Nexus 5X, 6 and 6P? I know some people have gotten it to work on iPhones but that the process was a crapshoot and that some functionality may be lost on phones that aren't officially supported.

 

[vi edit]

I think you need a Nexus to activate the sim card. Then it will lock into either T-Mobile or Sprint depending on the phone. It won't auto switch or do wifi calling. But SMS, voice and data should work.

 

[midwestfisherman]

I'd think that sending smoke signals would be better than using Sprint!

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Does Project Fi actually work with phones other than the Nexus 5X, 6 and 6P? I know some people have gotten it to work on iPhones but that the process was a crapshoot and that some functionality may be lost on phones that aren't officially supported.

If you don't have one of the supported Nexus phones, then the SIM defaults to a T-Mobile SIM. The Nexus phone is required to unlock the Sprint network.

 

[monkey333]

I had a good experience with fi. Bought a nexus 6, paid my etf from Sprint. I was very impressed with fi's CS, head and shoulders above sprint. I did like the wifi calling and open wifi sites switching. My real gripe is the lack of phones. If I knew I could get the network support minus the sprint connectivity with a diff phone, I'd consider switching back.

 

[magomago]

I have a G2 and a 5X. I actually did the same upgrade path you did (except I was T-Mobile).

Here's my thoughts....

5X Pro's:
- Camera is WAAAAAY better on the 5X. Not even a comparison between the two.
- Screen is better. Much better blacks and the whites are much brighter. It's a great screen.
- Almost monthly updates
- Nice form factor/build quality. Matte back and finish are highly preferred over the G2 glossy back
- Finger print scanner is something I could never give up again
- Fi wifi support is 10x better than T-Mobiles
- No carrier lock on it. You can take it to any carrier you want and it will work.

G2 Pro's
Battery.
Battery.
Battery.
Knock on/off is nice

Seriously. Even with Doze the 5X has nothing on the G2 in pure standby time and life. The G2 is an endurance freak.

Performance wise...they are about a wash. There's a bit of LG bloat on the G2. The pull down is funky.

I don't want to completely bash the 5X. I think I saw deals for $199 for the 16 gig version if you sign up for Fi. That's really not a terrible value if you are not heavy on apps or music. The phone is fine most of the time. It's just that one time that you go to use the camera and it just pulls up a blank screen and you miss a picture that drive you insane. That might be 1 out of 50 times. But it's still something you think about.

The Nexus 6 is still a nice phone. The camera isn't stellar, but it's a solid device. It's just freakishly large.

How is better than Tmobiles?
I have TMO on an S5 and the wifi calling works fine for me. Its helped me out a few times and quality was good.

IIRC the only annoying part was I can't receive either SMS or MMS...I don't quite remember which one. But it might just be my phone - I have a custom rom on it that hasn't been updated since 4.4.2 and that could be the root cause.

 

[vi edit]

I had three different phones with T-Mobile and every one of them was flaky with wifi calling. I'd have to reboot/toggle things on/off. Wait for messages to come across hours later. Get the same message 4x. Ect. Plus the sound quality of calls through it was horrible. Not to mention that group messages and pictures only worked with the baked in messaging app...at least on LG. Oh plus you would randomly get that E-911 error or notification that Wifi calling wasn't available.

My experience with Fi is night and day better. It just works.

 

[etherealfocus]

So is wifi calling with Fi comparable/better than calling with VoLTE/HD Voice?

 

[vi edit]

No it's not that good, but it's highly dependent on your wifi quality. A good signal will sound better than a traditional cell call.

 

[etherealfocus]

Weird. Even most HD voice applications seem to need only 32-64kbps per stream. Any idea what the limitation is here? It'd have to be a really terrible wifi signal for it to be a bw limitation.