Phone to get or wait for on At&T

[alent1234]

looking at sprint's family plan prices for smart phones, they are beyond ridiculous unless you absolutely need unlimited data

 

[Dulanic]

Compared to who? I am not a defender of Sprint but they have one of the lowest post paid pricing plans out of most. All companies are a ripoff now unless you go prepaid. If you go 2GB(3 for AT&T) for = minutes (or close 1500 sprint 1400 others) Sprint is 180 the other 2 are 220.

 

[AstroManLuca]

looking at sprint's family plan prices for smart phones, they are beyond ridiculous unless you absolutely need unlimited data

No worse than Verizon or AT&T. T-Mobile is the only contract provider that is cheaper.

Looking at the current prices for family plans, this is what you get. I'm using the smallest number of available minutes since most people don't need more than that, unlimited texting since it's only slightly more than limited texting, and mid-tier smartphone data on all lines:

Verizon
700 minutes - $70 (2 lines) + $10 each additional line
Unlimited messages - $30 (all lines)
2 GB data (actually 4 GB with current promotions) - $30 per line
2 smartphones - $160
3 smartphones - $200
4 smartphones - $240

AT&T
550 minutes - $60 (2 lines) + $10 each additional line
Unlimited messages - $30 (all lines)
3 GB data - $30 per line
2 smartphones - $150
3 smartphones - $190
4 smartphones - $240
Note: to get more than 3 phones on an AT&T family plan you have to go up to the 700 shared minute plan so that adds an extra $10/mo, making it identical to Verizon's pricing.

Sprint
1500 minutes, unlimited messages, unlimited data - $130 (2 lines) + $20 each additional line
"Advanced data" - $10 per smartphone
2 smartphones - $150
3 smartphones - $180
4 smartphones - $210
As you can see, Sprint isn't really cheaper for two smartphones, but the value starts to stand out when you have more phones. And you get tons more minutes. Since you get free calling to ALL mobile phones, not just Sprint phones, you will basically never run out. But their 3G data is slow, 4G WiMax is on the way out, and 4G LTE isn't here yet.

T-Mobile
1000 minutes, unlimited messages, unlimited data (throttled after 2 GB) - $120 (2 lines) + $30 each additional line
2 smartphones - $120
3 smartphones - $150
4 smartphones - $180
T-Mobile has the cheapest traditional contract plan. It starts under Sprint's price and costs $30 for each additional one. The problem is that T-Mobile has the worst overall coverage of the four.

One thing to note is that Verizon and AT&T are more "a la carte" with their services than Sprint and T-Mobile. With Verizon and AT&T, you can have just one smartphone with data and if you just want feature phones for the other lines, you don't have to pay for data or messages if you don't want to. They both offer individual line texting plans so if some people want texts and others don't, it's sometimes cheaper to do that than to buy unlimited texting across all lines. T-Mobile rolls messages into their plans but data is still on a per-line basis. Sprint is the one where you really need to have a smartphone on every line because their smartphone plans all include unlimited data for all lines. So for instance, if you have 1 smartphone and 2 dumbphones on a Sprint family plan, you're paying exactly the same as 3 smartphones, and it's just a total waste of money.

Another option is prepaid. Straight Talk offers unlimited minutes and messages + 2 GB of data for a single phone for $45 a month. You can bring your own T-Mobile or AT&T compatible smartphone and just buy a sim card from them for $15. Of course you have to buy a phone for full price with no subsidy, but the monthly cost savings is worth it. Although if you're piggybacking on your parents' plan, you might not save much at all - adding a smartphone to an existing AT&T plan is $40 extra.

 

[Yuriman]

Astro, I came up with the same numbers and on paper it looks like you get more on Sprint's network for the same $$.

I'm thinking we're going to opt for ~1500 minutes shared over 5 lines and ~3GB of data, though I may drop the data for the rest of the family's phones down to minimum and bump mine up a little since I do a lot of streaming. I figure 300MB is probably enough if all you really use your iPhone for is to check maps and the weather occasionally, right?

I'm thinking I'll either stick with AT&T and add a line when we renew (4->5), or move over to Sprint and ebay the family's current iPhone 4's. I don't think you can go prepaid if you have a few stubborn people who insist on having the latest iPhones on your plan, can you?

 

[dguy6789]

Sprint is cheaper but I would hardly say you get more for the money. Sprint is getting less for less money. You get significantly worse data speeds, coverage, and general reliability than everyone else with them.

 

[Yuriman]

Sprint is cheaper but I would hardly say you get more for the money. Sprint is getting less for less money. You get significantly worse data speeds, coverage, and general reliability than everyone else with them.

In that case would you recommend sticking with AT&T and renegotiating the contract? My father-in-law somehow managed to get a $320 a month contract for 4 iPhones 2 years ago and I figure we can cut at least $100 off of that.

Is there anything I need to know before calling them? How much is open to negotiation?

 

[dguy6789]

Verizon > ATT > Tmobile > Sprint in order of most desirable carrier to be on in the US in terms of pure network quality. You can try to get things cheaper on ATT but I can't really say how good your odds of being successful are or not. I know Verizon is pretty open about giving people discounts and credits if they threaten to leave.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Astro, I came up with the same numbers and on paper it looks like you get more on Sprint's network for the same $$.

Not exactly... you get more minutes that you will never use because you're only charged for calling landlines before 7 pm. Anything after 7 and any calls to mobile phones are unlimited. I'm on a 3-line Sprint plan right now and we average maybe 200 anytime minutes a month, with the vast majority of minutes being AnyMobile or night/weekends.

The problem with Sprint is data speeds. I don't know about you, but if I'm paying $100+ a month for a cell phone, I expect my phone to be frickin awesome. That's not happening on Sprint's slow-as-molasses 3G network, and their 4G is available only in a few locations and drains your battery really quickly. Sprint's 3G is by far the slowest of the major carriers and is on par with what you get from T-Mobile after you go over the data cap and they start throttling you. And unlimited data really doesn't matter when you're on ISDN-like speeds.

I'm thinking we're going to opt for ~1500 minutes shared over 5 lines and ~3GB of data, though I may drop the data for the rest of the family's phones down to minimum and bump mine up a little since I do a lot of streaming. I figure 300MB is probably enough if all you really use your iPhone for is to check maps and the weather occasionally, right?

If that's all you do, you're probably okay... but if that's all you are using, why have an iPhone? Kind of a waste of money if you ask me. And 1500 minutes? Do you really talk on the phone that much?

If you're using 1500 minutes but only a few MB of data, why not spend tons less money and get a flip phone? Better reception, better voice quality, better battery life.

I'm thinking I'll either stick with AT&T and add a line when we renew (4->5), or move over to Sprint and ebay the family's current iPhone 4's. I don't think you can go prepaid if you have a few stubborn people who insist on having the latest iPhones on your plan, can you?

You can't go prepaid unless you're willing to buy a device for full price. With a contract plan you can buy a brand new phone every 2 years for the subsidized price. Without a contract, you have to put down more money up front to buy something, and you might have to get a slightly older phone to save money, but you save a lot of money on a monthly basis.

You can put any AT&T iPhone on Straight Talk for $45 a month though. Once your family members' contracts expire, they can just buy Straight Talk sims, stick them in their AT&T iPhones, and they'll spend a lot less. Of course if they want a NEW iPhone, they'll have to pony up because they're really expensive to buy without a contract.

Note - if they want to keep their existing phone numbers if they go to Straight Talk, they'll have to port their numbers AFTER any contracts are expired but BEFORE canceling their AT&T plan.

 

[jhansman]

To address the OP original question, when I was ready for an upgrade, I thought about an iPhone for about 3 min., did a little research, and opted for the Moto Atrix 2; cost me $50 for an refurb (new, as far as I could tell) and a 2-yr. reup. Great phone; 4.3" display, none of that Blur crap, rootable, and quick as can be. Love it.

 

[Yuriman]

If that's all you do, you're probably okay... but if that's all you are using, why have an iPhone? Kind of a waste of money if you ask me. And 1500 minutes? Do you really talk on the phone that much?

If you're using 1500 minutes but only a few MB of data, why not spend tons less money and get a flip phone? Better reception, better voice quality, better battery life.

While I agree, I doubt I can talk them out of getting smartphones so I'm just trying to minimize the cost.

You can't go prepaid unless you're willing to buy a device for full price. With a contract plan you can buy a brand new phone every 2 years for the subsidized price. Without a contract, you have to put down more money up front to buy something, and you might have to get a slightly older phone to save money, but you save a lot of money on a monthly basis.

You can put any AT&T iPhone on Straight Talk for $45 a month though. Once your family members' contracts expire, they can just buy Straight Talk sims, stick them in their AT&T iPhones, and they'll spend a lot less. Of course if they want a NEW iPhone, they'll have to pony up because they're really expensive to buy without a contract.

I wasn't aware you could do that with an iPhone but it stands to reason. The current state of phones is as follows:

2x iPhone 4 in good working condition
1x 3GS with a shattered screen
1x iPhone 4 that went through the wash
+ need one additional line added

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and father-in-law will all wish to have iPhones, but I think they're happy with the 4's performance. We need one replaced, however, and two new smartphones on top of that. I was looking at a refurb iPhone4 and 2x refurb Galaxy 2 S or equivalent, depending on the carrier we choose. How is Straight-Talk's coverage and service? $45 x 5 per month doesn't seem very much cheaper than going with a family plan, which comes in around $250 for 5 lines and has subsidized phones.

We can try something less than 1500 minutes, but how do you feel about unlimited texting? I don't think we use very many texts and the android devices will probably use google voice for texting, so I'm thinking it might be cheaper to go pay-per-text.

EDIT: The wording on AT&T's site suggests that we wouldn't get unlimited mobile to mobile unless we got the unlimited texting package.

 

[evident]

get an international SGS2, sign up for media net plan, get unlimited $15/month 3g internet

 

[AstroManLuca]

To address the OP original question, when I was ready for an upgrade, I thought about an iPhone for about 3 min., did a little research, and opted for the Moto Atrix 2; cost me $50 for an refurb (new, as far as I could tell) and a 2-yr. reup. Great phone; 4.3" display, none of that Blur crap, rootable, and quick as can be. Love it.

Personally I don't think it's worth signing a new contract and using up a phone subsidy just to buy a smartphone. On the other hand, $50 for an Atrix 2 isn't a bad price. But in two years you may have wished you had picked up the best one money can buy. An extra $150 to get a higher end device is peanuts compared to the aggregate monthly cost of the plan you signed up for, which is measured in the thousands of dollars.

I wasn't aware you could do that with an iPhone but it stands to reason. The current state of phones is as follows:

2x iPhone 4 in good working condition
1x 3GS with a shattered screen
1x iPhone 4 that went through the wash
+ need one additional line added

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and father-in-law will all wish to have iPhones, but I think they're happy with the 4's performance. We need one replaced, however, and two new smartphones on top of that. I was looking at a refurb iPhone4 and 2x refurb Galaxy 2 S or equivalent, depending on the carrier we choose. How is Straight-Talk's coverage and service? $45 x 5 per month doesn't seem very much cheaper than going with a family plan, which comes in around $250 for 5 lines and has subsidized phones.

True. Straight Talk is a great option for one or two people, as it's much cheaper than any of the contract carriers per month, but when you get into large numbers of phones on the same plan it loses its advantage. Compare a 2-person family share plan on AT&T ($150 before taxes) to two Straight Talk plans ($45 each, $90 total, and you only pay sales tax). The taxes can add up; last month my 3-line Sprint bill had about $18 worth of taxes and fees.

So if your family is better off staying with AT&T, you may as well use those phone subsidies to buy new phones, at least to replace the broken ones. I mean, there's no real advantage to not using them, other than being able to stay off contract. But that's not a huge advantage if you're happy with the service and don't want to change.

We can try something less than 1500 minutes, but how do you feel about unlimited texting? I don't think we use very many texts and the android devices will probably use google voice for texting, so I'm thinking it might be cheaper to go pay-per-text.

EDIT: The wording on AT&T's site suggests that we wouldn't get unlimited mobile to mobile unless we got the unlimited texting package.

Huh, I don't see a 1500 minute family plan on their website. They have 550, 700, 1400, 2100, and unlimited minutes. All of them include unlimited calls to other AT&T mobile phones and have rollover minutes. You can probably find out how many minutes are used per month to get a sense of what kind of plan is the best fit.

As for messaging, the only options are either $20 per line for unlimited texts, or $30 for unlimited texts across all lines. Or you can pay per message. I did notice a $20 unlimited texting plan that also includes unlimited mobile to mobile calling, but that's for individual plans only.

If you don't use a lot of texts then Google Voice might be an option for free text messages, but I don't know much about it. I think the issue would be people would have to send text messages to a different number for you to get them through GV, unless you port your number to GV, and then you have to set up forwarding and pay the port-in fee... I don't know. There's a lot of stuff to think about.

 

[Yuriman]

Much appreciated! Will discuss it over the dinner table tonight.

 

[Yuriman]

Going to pull the trigger on two Galaxy S II's tomorrow on AT&T, any final thoughts? I'd love to get the One X but I can't budget in an extra $130 right now (plus the wait for it to come out).

Any other suggestions on phones with better cameras, better resolutions or bigger screens? Or is the GS2 definitely the phone to get in this generation?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Going to pull the trigger on two Galaxy S II's tomorrow on AT&T, any final thoughts? I'd love to get the One X but I can't budget in an extra $130 right now (plus the wait for it to come out).

Any other suggestions on phones with better cameras, better resolutions or bigger screens? Or is the GS2 definitely the phone to get in this generation?

The One X is the only phone for At&t that is an upgrade from the Galaxy S2 in my opinion. Even though the S2 is fairly old it's still one of the most powerful devices out there and has much more polished software than any of the other Gingerbread devices.

 

[Yuriman]

Thanks, it just feels weird thinking about going to a smaller screen resolution than I've been using for the past 3 years on my OGDroid.

Is the S2 still the best device if I'm not planning on sticking with the stock ROM? I get the impression it's still going to be but may as well ask.

 

[swilli89]

Going to pull the trigger on two Galaxy S II's tomorrow on AT&T, any final thoughts? I'd love to get the One X but I can't budget in an extra $130 right now (plus the wait for it to come out).

Any other suggestions on phones with better cameras, better resolutions or bigger screens? Or is the GS2 definitely the phone to get in this generation?

NO. I do not recommend buying any phone that doesn't come stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Samsung galaxy s2 uses last generation tech.

The HTC One X is the phone to get. Anandtech did a little piece on it's CPU, the next generation Qualcomm S4 Krait. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5563/qualcomms-snapdragon-s4-krait-vs-nvidias-tegra-3

See the galaxy s2 way down there? And the HTC One X's screen has a superior resolution (720p) as well as better looking, SLCD2 4.7 inch display . On top of all of that, early birds are reporting very good battery life and great build quality. http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1539

 

[poofyhairguy]

NO. I do not recommend buying any phone that doesn't come stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The AT&T i777 SGS2 has nice ICS ROMs.

The Samsung galaxy s2 uses last generation tech.

Much of this generation will have A9-based designs, and the Mali GPU was easily the best of the last generation in Androidland which makes it midrange this year. Hell the freaking S4 can't beat my Prime's Tegra 3 on the GPU side, so the Exynos SGS2 is still among the high-end even after the HTC One X hits.

Its only real downside is the screen resolution, but I personally love that WVGA provides maximum compatibility with decent pixel density compared to many tablets. Plus games are much smoother than on a GNex.

See the galaxy s2 way down there?

Here is my i777's scores at stock speeds in ICS:

See how that beats everything on the chart?

Given the OP's parameters I think the i777 is a good choice. The HTC One X is about to be AT&T's overall best phone, but the i777 provides the best value.

 

[swilli89]

=

See how that beats everything on the chart?

All I actually see is your abstract score on your phone. So many variables can affect that. That's the nice thing about standardized tests done by websites like Anandtech. None of those phones are overclocked, and they all use the stock browser to provide a meaningful comparison

 

[poofyhairguy]

All I actually see is your abstract score on your phone. So many variables can affect that. That's the nice thing about standardized tests done by websites like Anandtech. None of those phones are overclocked, and they all use the stock browser to provide a meaningful comparison

Seeing as how OP is going to be using the phone as a phone and is not reviewing it for a website, it seems the meaningful comparison would be based on how it is in real world use. I could easily pop out a guide for OP to get where I am, which is basically just a i777 plus ICS (AOKP). Just because a phone has ICS by default shouldn't give it an automatic advantage when the OP seems open to ROMing.

But you are right about the browsers- those other ICS devices on the scale above are just using the stock browser instead of the superior Chrome. Here is the i777 with the stock ICS browser:

That isn't as high obviously, but it still would be at the top of that chart.

And you are also correct that none of the phones in the chart are overclocked, and neither is mine. In fact I am running at the stock speeds with the stock governor.

The only special sauce my phone has is whatever magic Google baked in ICS. All the SGS2 needs is a little ICS love to compete with other current high-end phones (except on resolution as I mentioned).

Judging the merit of a phone by a single score where the OS makes such a huge difference on that score and the new phone by default has the new OS seems to not be a meaningful comparison as well if the OP is willing to ROM for value.

 

[swilli89]

Well all of that is great. Don't get defensive about your SGS2. They are great phones, but they have been surpassed and do not represent a "better value" as they cost the same as brand new tech like the One X. The OP states his main 2 criteria are camera and screen size. I'm not sure which has the better camera as I think they are both 8 MP, but the one X has a much larger screen.

And for all the Galaxy love, I wonder why no one has mentioned that Samsung is announcing the SGS3 on May 3rd. I think it would be a bad decision to buy before then.

 

[dagamer34]

Well all of that is great. Don't get defensive about your SGS2. They are great phones, but they have been surpassed and do not represent a "better value" as they cost the same as brand new tech like the One X. The OP states his main 2 criteria are camera and screen size. I'm not sure which has the better camera as I think they are both 8 MP, but the one X has a much larger screen.

And for all the Galaxy love, I wonder why no one has mentioned that Samsung is announcing the SGS3 on May 3rd. I think it would be a bad decision to buy before then.

From a hardware standpoint, it's already pretty clear what the SGS3 will be. The real question is will it be worth waiting for the reviews after the announcement (which will probably take a good month or two).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Well all of that is great. Don't get defensive about your SGS2. They are great phones, but they have been surpassed and do not represent a "better value" as they cost the same as brand new tech like the One X.

Sorry I wasn't trying to be snarky about the SGS2, I just don't want OP to think the device is so inferior because it lacked ICS in that chart. I think it is the best phone on AT&T now, and will be until the One X hits.

At worst (at the AT&T website) the SGS2 costs half what the One X will cost, at best (Amazon Wireless) the i777 can be had for a fourth what the One X will cost. I agree the phone has been surpassed on some things such as resolution, but armed with ICS its SoC still provides a good value for the money.

And for all the Galaxy love, I wonder why no one has mentioned that Samsung is announcing the SGS3 on May 3rd. I think it would be a bad decision to buy before then.

OP seems intent on getting a phone from AT&T, so the SGS3 announcement is almost irrelevant if buying soon is a priority. The Int. SGS2 was released in May and AT&T took until October to release the i777. You can go crazy waiting for them to release their version.

If the OP needs to buy soon it seems the choice is clear- the One X for the overall best experience, or the i777 for the best value. Nothing else in AT&T's current or near current (as in the release date has been announced) lineup matters.

 

[stlc8tr]

NO. I do not recommend buying any phone that doesn't come stock with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Samsung galaxy s2 uses last generation tech.

ICS runs fine on the GS2 but it's no contest between the One X and the GS2, IMO. The screen on the One X is *that* good.

Don't be pound foolish. Wait for the One X.

 

[Yuriman]

ICS runs fine on the GS2 but it's no contest between the One X and the GS2, IMO. The screen on the One X is *that* good.

Don't be pound foolish. Wait for the One X.

I'm pound foolish- my mother-in-law offered to pay for the GS2 so I took her up on the offer, in part because I couldn't find the One X cheaper than $150. I really agonized over the decision but I'm sure I'll be happy with the phone.

Should be here Friday, I already have a ROM lined up for it.

I decided to install a new ROM on my OG today and I'm quite impressed, will be a little sad to leave it. Decided to do a farewell benchmark:

OGDroid, I'll miss you! GS2 here I come!