I decided I want to get a new, smallish tablet, something that I can easily retrieve from my pocket. I stumbled upon the Nexus 6. It was fairly expensive (About $650). That kind of killed the deal for me. However, I noticed some payment options involving AT&T. A few to pay small sums of money over the course of several months, and one that's just a sum of money ($250) for a 2 year contract.

Now, I've never really owned a cell phone before. I don't know much about them or how their contracts or fees work. So I'm wondering, if I went and bought this phone for $250, would I get to just enjoy my phone with 2 years of service? Or am I going to suddenly get swamped with extra fees? If I understand correctly, you have to pay a fee if you decide to cancel it. What reason could I have to decide to cancel it, though?

The aforementioned phone is listed here. (Individual plan, New Account, 2-year contract)

I appreciate any advice, warnings and information you can give me.

Contracts suck man. I'd say go with T-Mobile or a company similar that offers prepaid plans. They're a lot cheaper and usually way better. T-Mobile has a plan that's $30/mo and it gives you unlimited text and data (I think) with 100 minutes calling, so if you don't call a lot of people, that's pretty good. Of course, you'd have to pay full price for the phone, but you get a lot more out of that sort of plan than a 2-year contract with at&t which probably gives you, what, unlimited talk and text with 2 gbs of data and then makes you pay for overages? I dunno.. It's really up to you and how you plan to use your phone.

Okay, had to delete my original response...but it looks like you get that price as long as you also buy a qualifying data/voice package. So it isn't $250 for phone service - the phone is $250 as long as you agree to pay their other fees.

You really should look at AT&T's website for more info. As is true with any contract it is ALWAYS important to do the research for yourself.

Going by AT&T's website, to get 6 GB data, it is $110/mo for the service AND $250 upfront for the phone as well as $40 in activation fees. There are also taxes/fees, usually amounting to at most another $10 that usually pop up, too.

EDIT:


YMMV based on location.

I also agree with using T-mobile.

You also have the option of using freedompop which does not support lots of phones (not nexus 6 I think) but you get like free 200 min talk and 500 text or upgrade to their paid plan.

Yikes, thanks for the information. I guess I'm just not really sure what to be looking for. Plus, if phone services are as shady as they seem to be protrayed as, I wouldn't have confidence that what I would find would be all that's to it.

Mostly, I'm just looking for a nice, reasonably powerful android device that could fit in my pocket and be used for browsing the web. Having the ability to make calls is not something I imagine I'd need to do a lot of, but would be nice in case I ever did. So limits there wouldn't be too devastating. The offers seemed pretty wonderful at a glance, I just wanted to be sure I'd be getting what I was seeing. I'm glad I asked. I take it the monthly ones are similar in fees?

I guess I don't do much gaming on the tablet I do have anymore. I should probably just look for something that meets my size desires, a good battery life, and is good enough to at least play videos and chat online nicely instead of looking for something exceptionally powerful for the sake of having power.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 29 2015, 1:00 am by Alzarath.

https://republicwireless.com/
Unlimited everything plus VoIP calling
Sprint network (good reception where I live in NC, but all roaming in SD, so check what you want)
25 MB/month roaming
Throttle speed after 5 GB
$400/$300/$200/$100 phones available (I have the $300 phone)
$5/month for just VoIP calling
$10/month for no data
$25/month for 3G
$45/month for 4G
No contract BTW.

If you purchase the 2 year contract with AT&T, you have to pay $40 per month, then you have to buy your data, so it works out to $80/month with 4 GB of data (about what I use on a heavy month) or $65/month for 1 GB of data.

I recommend getting a 2nd gen Nexus 7 if you want a cheap tablet. 7" is small enough to fit in large pockets and is one of the best tablets ever made.
If 7" is too big, then the Kindle Fire HD 6 is 6" and a badass tablet as well.

Buying a cell phone as a tablet is a dangerous prospect as cell phones are woefully expensive due to the extra parts required and the OMGCELLPHONE factor. The only galaxy device i would ever recommend is the Galaxy Note 2 and 3, which are big enough to no longer be in the cell phone size, but still have cell phone features.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 29 2015, 1:02 am by rockz.

I actually have a Nexus 7 (first gen, however). It's pretty nice, but the size is still a little too large for my tastes. Plus the battery drains very fast nowadays. I'd like something a little smaller. That's why I liked the look for the Nexus 6. Disappointing that it's so expensive. I'd preferrably like something sub-$300.


Alright. Thanks for the advice (everyone). I'll take the time to re-evaluate what I want out of a tablet/phone.


I'm not sure what use the $5 plan would be where there are things like Skype. Unless they're like, restricting you from using wifi as long as you're not paying them or something? That'd be pretty silly, I think.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 29 2015, 1:30 am by Alzarath.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the OnePlus One yet. It's a 5.5" screen (vs the 5.96" screen on the Nexus 6), which is fairly large as far as phones go, and you can just use your tablet if you want something larger for whatever reason. The 16GB model is $300 and the specs are competitive.

The only catch is that the phone is still in invite phase, but it's not hard to get an invite. You can probably just hit up one of your friends on Facebook who has spare invites.

If T-Mobile is going to be your carrier choice, there are benefits to buying a phone through them, such as WiFi calling (different from VoIP).

Anyone having an invite for the OnePlus One or having a friend with one? I'd really like to get it but it's pretty unknown here so I can't seem to find anyone with an invite.

As far as warnings go, just make sure you read your contract carefully. At least in Europe the companies love to have traps that make you pay outrageous sums when you use a specific service or under specific circumstances, often without notification.

$5 plan gives you a cell phone number to send and receive texts, the ability to turn on data or cell service on a per month basis, and it works fairly seamlessly with no setup. Skype needs a bit of setup and doesn't include unlimited texts.

Google voice apparently doesn't even let you answer calls over wifi, which is sad.

I also completely forgot about the oneplus one. If you just want a tabletish phone, then it seems to be the nuts.

I have AT&T. Nothing wrong with their contracts if you plan on fulfilling the terms (i.e. pay your bill), and I've never had any service issues anywhere. Doesn't mean you won't have issues though. If you wanted to switch to sprint or something halfway in then yeah you'd have to pay their early termination fee.

I paid some upfront fee like $250 or something a few years ago for the phone (my contract has since ended due to time), and about $60 a month for unlimited talk, text, and 3GB data per month. Though I do have a discount through my employer, the same plan I have would probably be more like $75 a month after taxes and stuff for people without the discount.

For now, devices that connect to Sprint cannot be used with any other provider in the USA (except for the Nexus 6 if you buy it direct from Google and maybe the Nexus 5) -- just something to be aware of. Current devices for Sprint are locked down so they won't connect to other services, even when they otherwise have the capability. Supposedly Sprint may be changing this policy for new devices released for Sprint this year, though.

If coverage area for the service matters to you, Verizon and AT&T have the most areas where their service works and T-Mobile and Sprint mostly have service in bigger cities (while they may allow connecting to another provider's network outside their coverage area, AKA "roaming", internet access is not guaranteed in those areas and you may be limited in how much you are allowed to use another provider's network per month). IIRC, based on coverage maps for T-Mobile and Sprint, I think Sprint showed better coverage than T-Mobile in the eastern USA, while T-Mobile showed better coverage in the areas west. I don't think Sprint has internet access at all when on another provider's network, while T-Mobile does in some areas.


If you mean the Google Voice app itself then you are correct; however, the Google Hangouts app can receive calls over wifi if you have a Google Voice phone number. You need the Hangouts Dialer app (which isn't actually an app) to enable the feature in Hangouts and sometimes you need to log out of Hangouts and then back in the first time you set it up on a phone to get the option to appear.

Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Jan 31 2015, 10:59 am by ShadowFlare.

Just a heads up on the OnePlus One: you no longer need an invite to order the phone... on Tuesdays.

Just checked their website, and it indeed looks like you can order one right now.

Thanks for the info Roy, a friend of mine bought it Tuesday and I just bought it. Randomly got an invite mailed.

Alz, if you're interested I can get back to you and report how it is once I've received it.

There are also reputable sites like Swappa.com to buy used phones that meet a high criteria for sale. My sister's phone got stolen (SGS 3) and she was smart and tracked the culprit. The little shit's parents had to pay for the damages to the phone (the kid freaked at chucked it in a glass of water to destroy it). We get her a Nexus 5 with 25% of the damages left.