Iphone4/HTC EVO V 4G (VM) vs. Iphone5/SGS3 (Cricket)

[OSULugan]

I currently am a Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk customer. I wasn't very happy when VM pulled the fast one on changing their stance of keeping my rate locked in through phone upgrades. Also, I'm not overly impressed with the current data rate performance, but I'm not sure if that's a function of the service or the Optimus V that I currently have. Any option I choose will be doubled (my wife and I will both be upgrading).

Neither of the services I'm looking at have 4G coverage in my area, yet (but using it on business trips/vacations is a bonus). After looking at various options, I'm considering the following:

Stay on VM and
Upgrade to Iphone 4S @ $449.99 - Won't get 4G ever. Also, pretty expensive for 1 generation old technology. Plan would be $35/month

Upgrade to HTC EVO V 4G @ $149.99 - Gets 4G. Cheapest of the options. Plan stays @ $35/month

Move to Cricket Wireless and
Upgrade to Iphone 5 @ $449.99 - Won't get 4G yet. Plan would be $55/month

Upgrade to Samsung Galaxy S3 @ $379.99 - Gets 4G. Plan would be $60/month

I'm leaning toward the Iphone 5, even though it's the most expense. The SGS3 is a strong competitor in the feature department, but the $70 difference in price will be exhausted in 14 months of service fee differences. I think the 4S on VM is a non-competitor the more I think about it.

Any advice on whether the HTC EVO V 4G will help in the speed department using VM network over my Optimus V (even though I'll still be getting 3G connection most of the time)? Are the features of the SGS3 that much better than it? I know that they both are running Android 4.0, and the hardware is better on the SGS3. But is it $230 (and @$25/month) better?

 

[Red Storm]

Any reason why you have to stick with those carriers? There's T-Mobile and Straight Talk, which is what I would do. Better phone options, and most likely better network coverage and speed.

 

[MrX8503]

Have you worked out how much it is total? Phone price + monthly cost.

 

[OSULugan]

Any reason why you have to stick with those carriers? There's T-Mobile and Straight Talk, which is what I would do. Better phone options, and most likely better network coverage and speed.

I couldn't find a phone option I liked on Straight Talk to buy direct. Sure I could go buy an unlocked phone and then buy a SIM card from them. But it's kind of a hassle.

T-Mobile has the SGS3 at $549.99 and the plan would be the same as through Cricket. I could do the same thing as w/ Straight Talk (buy a T-Mobile phone and then activate w/ SIM Card), but again it's kind of a hassle.

Unless there's a good place to buy unlocked phones that work on these networks (and ideally a pair of them at a time), I'm not sure they factor into my decision much. I've checked newegg and amazon, and prices for unlocked phones through them don't seem worth it to me.

 

[ImDonly1]

Buying a phone is a hassle? Buy one from eBay, amazon, swappa, you could even buy them without contract at most corporate owned tmobile or AT&T stores. If you want an iphone then buy direct from apple, straight talk even sells the iphone direct. Going direct with tmobile or straight talk is way better than cricket or VM.

FYI cricket throttles after 1gb, has worse coverage, has less of a selection of phones, and has higher monthly prices. There is no advantage of cricket over straight talk or tmobile prepaid. Also you want to buy an iPhone 5 at full price for cricket, the thing is it is locked to cricket. Why not just buy an unlocked iPhone direct from apple for the same price and take it to straight talk or tmobile?

 

[OSULugan]

f you want an iphone then buy direct from apple, straight talk even sells the iphone direct. Going direct with tmobile or straight talk is way better than cricket or VM.

Buying from apple is $200 more than through cricket.

 

[maniac5999]

T mobile has a web only $30/mo 100min/5GB of HSPA+ 4G plan. It's cheaper than VM unless you're on a grandfathered 25/mo plan, or unless you need the extra 200 minutes. Buying a Nexus 4 and putting it on that plan would be cheapest, and get you a phone better than the S3. (Disclaimer, I'm on that plan with a Note 2)

 

[OSULugan]

So, I decided to go with the T-Mobile option afterall. It gave us a contract, but we're on the value plan, and I'm (relatively) happy with our rates.

Got 2 SGS3s for a total of approx $175 (the titanium gray one came in at $67, while the wife's white one came in at $99 as advertised). Signed up for the classic plan to get the phones at these prices. Once they arrived, and I activated, I then called them up to swap to the value plan. This reduced our monthly payment from $140 to $100. Of course, I had to pay a $400 transfer fee, but compared to the price of $500+ for each phone, the total of about $575 total was very attractive.

Now we've got the 2 SGS3s, and have a combined 1000 minutes, plus T-Mobile's Unlimited 4G service (which we get in this area!). Even better, unlike Virgin Mobile, we get unlimited nights/weekends and mobile-to-mobile. Sure, our plan doubled in cost (we were on grandfathered Beyond Talk $25/month plans), but the data rate is significantly better, and I am very happy after my first day with the SGS3 vs. the Optimus V.