Old phone is 2yrs old, time for an upgrade. Suggestions?

[vshah]

you can't see devices on the play store on a phone, need to go to play.google.com in your browser and hit the devices link under the shop menu

https://play.google.com/store/devices

 

[pantsaregood]

Ah, I didn't even know it wasn't out yet. No wonder the prices are so high - they're all for imported versions.

Still, that's $530, so still pretty expensive.

The upgrade after six months thing is kinda funny considering it's T-Mobile and there is no contract and no subsidy. You can upgrade as often as you want. You CAN choose to use their Jump program if you want but it's not a particularly good deal.

Phone prices aren't ever a "good deal," honestly - especially towards the high-end. Performance-wise, the Lumia 925 doesn't differentiate itself from the Lumia 521 by a particularly large amount (I know, this is different in the Android world), yet the Lumia 925 is $400 more expensive.

In all honesty, I strongly advise you at least take a look at the Lumia 521. "low end" in the world of Windows Phone is very different from "low end" in the world of Android.

 

[deadken]

Thanks again for the newest replies.

I didn't make it into a T-Mobile store today. I was looking forward to feeling / comparing the Nexus 4 to the GS4. Frankly, I'm liking the idea of not paying over $300 for the phone. I've looked on ebay and am quite surprised that people are paying the same amount or more for a used Nexus 4 as the price of a new one on the Google play store (BTW: Thanks for the heads up, but I mentioned that I had found in online on my PC after not being able to find it on my phone).

I hadn't even considered a Windows phone. I don't have anything against it... Well, that's not really true, but... While I'm at the T-Mobile store I'll ask to see a Nokia phone. It was a MUCH simpler time, but I gotta say I really was impressed on how well those Nokia 'stick' phones worked.

I'll post back after visiting the store and checking out the various phones in person. I agree with what others have said here that the feel of a phone in your hand makes a big difference.

BTW: I know that I don't use my phone for much other than calls and a few simple games (excluding tracking my runs and playing music during my runs). I'm thinking that a newer more powerful phone that is easier to see *might* change that.

 

[dagamer34]

Thanks again for the newest replies.

I didn't make it into a T-Mobile store today. I was looking forward to feeling / comparing the Nexus 4 to the GS4. Frankly, I'm liking the idea of not paying over $300 for the phone. I've looked on ebay and am quite surprised that people are paying the same amount or more for a used Nexus 4 as the price of a new one on the Google play store (BTW: Thanks for the heads up, but I mentioned that I had found in online on my PC after not being able to find it on my phone).

I hadn't even considered a Windows phone. I don't have anything against it... Well, that's not really true, but... While I'm at the T-Mobile store I'll ask to see a Nokia phone. It was a MUCH simpler time, but I gotta say I really was impressed on how well those Nokia 'stick' phones worked.

I'll post back after visiting the store and checking out the various phones in person. I agree with what others have said here that the feel of a phone in your hand makes a big difference.

BTW: I know that I don't use my phone for much other than calls and a few simple games (excluding tracking my runs and playing music during my runs). I'm thinking that a newer more powerful phone that is easier to see *might* change that.

Just recognize that the true cost of most phones are $600+ and should be treated accordingly. I think subsidies lead people to believe they are $200 until they meet the sticker shock of having to replace one full price. I don't think they'd be replacing a device that is frankly more expensive than the computer they likely own every two years (ASP of a laptop is $454).

 

[pantsaregood]

What exactly is it that you have against Windows Phones?

 

[Yreka]

Nexus 4 is a whole lot of phone for the money.. ( as it looks like you have already noticed from the resale value).. Very close to your daughters S3 in size and performance. If I were getting a new phone today it would be that or an unlocked S3 (with the nod to the S3 if you care about LTE, I personally don't)..

The subsidized phone game is very unappealing to me. It seems like a very poor value when you look at what you get vs simply paying cash for a "last gen" phone.

Then again, just my opinion ~ I seem to be past the need to have the biggest, fastest, best, and tend to weigh in value a bit more heavily than I used to.

Removable SD card used to be a very important feature to me as well, but I find with services like google music(to store music), pandora, netflix, and dropbox I use very little of my on-phone storage anymore & still manage to stay within 1-2GB of data useage per month. I have 16gb on-phone now, I think I have still 7-8GB free and that is with several ROMs, Nandroid backups, apps, and a whole bunch of other crap.

I could easily get by on 8GB with little effort (huge YMMV though obviously)

 

[deadken]

I just wanted to say thanks for the replies and help. I ordered a Nexus 4 the other day. I would have bought it from T-Mobile, but they were $80 over Google Play. I even said that I'd pay more to get it from them, but not $80 more. But, they wouldn't budge on the price.

I did check out the Nokia / Windows phones. The Nokia 521 seems to give you a lot for the money. But, I didn't care for it and I *might* have not been able to get some of the apps that I use.

The Nexus 4 seemed to have what I was looking for. I bought the 16GB just to never have to think about running out of memory. Even at $350 it was a good deal cheaper compared to the other phones I was considering. I *love* the idea of it not having non-removable preloaded apps (bloatware). I'm considering hacking into my old phone (after the Nexus 4 gets here) and seeing if it performs any better without the preloaded crap that I hate. Of course, I bet after the new phone gets here, I really probably won't be messing with my old phone.

Thanks again!

Edit: Good point. I should have said that I'll have less worries about running out of memory. But, it's becoming obvious to me that, I really don't use my phone like some other people do.

 

[Raduque]

Nexus 4 is a great device for the price. I think you'll really enjoy it.

I bought the 16GB just to never have to think about running out of memory.

Oh, that's funny. I've got a device with 32gb and a 32gb uSD card, and I'm running out of space. I only have one large game installed - the rest is pictures, video and music.

 

[deadken]

Update: My second day with the phone and I'm glad that I finally found someone at a T-Mobile store who knew what they were doing! She showed me a bunch of stuff and answered the questions that I had. I'm much happier with the phone now that I know what I was doing wrong (some things weren't very intuitive after coming from having the same Samsung phone for 2 years).

Quick question: Is there any way to get this phone to 4G/LTE without rooting it?

I'd think that if the hardware is there, they'd take advantage of it. But, from the little that I've read, you need to root it in order to get the higher speeds (which makes me think they are blocking the hardware, rather than taking advantage of it).

 

[Trombe]

Need to root and flash an older version of the radio firmware to get LTE access, but you should have access to their normal "4G" (I don't own Nexus 4, but I assume it's labelled as H or H+ next to the signal bars when connected) HSPA+ network without any modification.

As for why they disabled LTE by default, I'm sure Google not passing the LTE specs through the FCC had something to do with it.

 

[deadken]

Ahh, thank you very much for clearing that up. I have seen something with an H up on the top of the screen, but I didn't associate that with 4G speeds. After finding internet sites explaining how to 'unlock' the 4G feature on a Nexus 4 phone, I assumed (wrongly) that my phone was not 4G capable. The confusing part was that I've seen the phone as listed as a 3G phone, but listed as a 4G / LTE phone when I was in the T-Mobile store. I was concerned that I didn't have the faster speeds because I didn't buy the phone from T-Mobile (because it was $80 more).

I didn't know anything about that, but now I have an idea of why.

Thanks again.