Need advice about new phone
 

My phone broke, go a replacement phone and it did the same thing. For the 3 months I had it it wojld ring to let me know I was recieving a call, message, wouldn't recognize that an SD card was in it, tell me I was out of message space when I check it is only less than 1/4 full. So I am changing. Big problem was that when I called Virgin Mobile to request a refund of the phone even though it was past the 30 days. The phone had numerous troubles. So my husband just encouraged me to take my loss and move on. But I am stubborn and at least have then admit to me that it was a deficient phone and apologize that some of the associates were very rude to me. So I eventuallly told them that never, never wanted to deal with them.

So in doing research on different phones the ones that have the features I want are Virgin Mobile:eek: The one I am looking at is the HTC EVO V 4g. Has anyone had that one? Radio Shck has one on sale so i don't know if Best Buy would match that price or not. I could just buy it at Radio Shack but I have a gift card from Best Buy that has about $120 left on it.

I can't believe how my spending has evolved through the years. My first phone cost $10 and did nothing but call some one. The next one was $20 and I could text and take pictures, lousy one but I could take them. So my last one was to me very expensive at $70!!!!! Now this one is $299. I think that you have to pay more to get a better product.

So.....any advice?

I have the HTC EVO 4G

I LOVE MY PHONE!!! (whoops...caps lock)

the only thing I dont like about my phone was the battery life, but I have an extended battery for it which lasts for a long time. Makes the phone a little bigger, but I dont mind that.

I got my extended battery cheap from Amazon. Cheaper than buying the extended battery from Sprint. No problems with it so far.

I have silicone covers for my EVO. They work great with my numb fingers.

my phone has kept me sane thru this flare. I love using it's voice recognition software to write facebook posts.

Doydie, what do people mostly use in your area for good service? Vermont is "up there." (Surprise!)

I don't know if you are near any of the bigger cities that might get better coverage. Talk to friends and see what they use and are happy with.

We have T-mobile (me) and ATT (SO). I have been able to use mine anywhere except inside my house. :( So's works very well everywhere.

Best to you, ANN
Edited to add: I thought you lived in Vermont. So sorry. I am apparently confused.

I have the Iphone 4 with siri. LOVE IT! it was expensive but I would be completely lost without it. I have verizon and get coverage in 95% of the areas we go to in NH. I had a prepaid Tmobile before that got NO service almost everywhere and was a ok phone for emergencies but when its time to get a new contract I shall seek out the new iphone again. LOVE IT.

My son uses trac phones and loves them. He gets coverage everywhere, and gets good apps.

My daughter uses a prepaid ATT phone and loves it. She gets good coverage and has fun apps.

One of my friends just got the jitterbug and while it has no apps, its only $14 a month and its a great little phone.

I wanted to get an iPhone, until I got my EVO. I compared my EVO to my sister's iPhone. My phone does everything an iPhone does but the Siri thing where Siri talks back. I can use the voice rec to verbally enter things into google to search stuff.

I like that I can change my battery if I want, and can add more memory to it with a bigger SD card if I want to.

I still wouldnt mind an iPhone someday...maybe next phone.

Erin what is an extended battery? I can purchase the I Phone now through Virgin Mobile with a no contract price. So I would assume the monthly fee would be $35 but the cost of the phone is about $569!!!:eek: I can't believe that up to about this time last year I got the courage to go from a $10 phone to a $20 phone. In May I paid $80 and it was real hard to do that. Now I am considering $300

the iPhone cant use an extended battery. Apple apparently doesnt want people to be able to upgrade things on their phones (not knocking Apple. I have two Apple computers and an iPad. I love Apple)

The extended battery that I have for my EVO is one that lasts longer than the battery that comes with the phone. I play with my phone a lot, and some of the apps are battery vampires. So I bought the bigger battery. Which is literally bigger. Makes the phone a bit bigger, but not enough to cause problems.

I got my EVO for $24 at Sam's Club. If I'd been able to wait a day or two, I'd have gotten an iPhone, but my old phone died that morning and I needed to replace it that day. My old phone was rude and died 2 days before my phone carrier got the iPhone.

So do they charge less for a phone because you are signing a contract? The price I have listed is $299

we signed a contract. (two years?) that was last october...

I hope that phone lasts another year. I use it a LOT! Especially the last few weeks. Easier to talk to my friends on facebook with it, and no where near as heavy as my ipad to carry around

at first my battery was like a thirsty dragon at a watering hole. Then I figured it out. I start whatever music/book or thing I want to use, and if I am not looking at the phone, I click the screen OFF! I also click OFF the "use your current position" option that many Apps use. They use alot of energy to keep track of where you are. Its ok for things like google maps, but why does the radio need to know where I am? Why does my coupon code finder need to know where I am? They dont! I also have a charger cord in the car and plug it in while I play my book. it charges and plays at the same time. Now I rarely drop below 50% battery. once a month I do allow it to run completely dry and recharge it to keep the battery cycle fresh. I also have an app that reduces battery usage.

I had a wonderful Otter case for it that if you dropped it nothing would happen. Tough stuff! but when I tried to talk to siri it would misunderstand me. Frustrating when you say Find a bakery and she says " looking for bakersfield" or "looking for batteries" UGH! so I took the case off and just like that she was understanding me again. There was a plastic sheet that spread across the screen and I think the voice vibrated it causing distortion.

I have a year left on my contract. by then the new iphone will be out and the rush for it will be over.

Have you thought about a tablet with phone connection? its a larger screen, you can make phone calls just like your cell phone. They have several options out there. this way those fun apps are played in 10inches instead of 2. Much easier for visual folks who squint at tiny screens. I think I will switch to an IPAD or something with my phone number attached to it.

If I hate to open up my checkbook to pay $300 I can not rationalize to myself that I should pay for an Ipad. I have a nook color and enjoy it for my reading and apps. I have a car charger which lets me use it anywhere. It has wi fi. I know I would have to pay for it, but this particular phone is a hot spot. Since it is no contract I can do it for just one month such as on vacation and my Nook could have it's wi fi on that.

I would also consider this:

Where you are located (rural vs city) is very important.

This summer our Sprint...which we have had for almost 10 yrs stopped working upNorth. The digital roaming was blocked.
Then a man at the laundromat told me his Verizon also stopped.
Both use a tower close to us. In fact Sprint was the first major carrier to work for us with the new small cellphones.

We had coverage for one week, then nothing for 4 weeks. Couldn't even call locally up there. All the locals there now use AT &T... and I think this is because AT & T uses a different electronic form to carry the calls. I was 2/3 of the way home last Sunday when my Sprint phone started working again.

So I think you need to consider your carrier, as much as your doodads on the phone. We are going to switch to AT & T as a result of this summer's experience. Sprint's emergency number wouldn't even work, and we had to boat into a marina and use their land line to call for help. Our son's iPhone when he visited for 4 days, did work, and we used it one time to call Sprint for help. One out of 3 calls, Sprint refused to even help. The two others reprogrammed our phones, but that only lasted one day, and we were dead again. Goodbye Sprint!

Thanks for that bit of advice. We live in a good size area in southwestern Indiana. I know that was one main problem I ahd with my cheapo Tracfone. I will have to ask that of Virgin Mobile

just a FYI for everyone:

I subscribe to Consumers Reports and they just listed the Samsung Galaxy S 111 the best phone they have ever tested. (October 2012 page 39) $200 and up depending on the gigabytes.

Available for At&t, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon.

Just thought I'd pass that along

We know some people upNorth with TracPhones. One cousin of ours has two of them. She claims one only works in the NYstate area, and her vacation phone is programed only to work in
the Eastern UP area.

Many of the UP people are using TracPhones up there only. And all of them now use AT & T... so that is what we are going to investigate now.

I have a Samsung thru Verizon. Nothing too fancy, but I like it. I am on my DD's contract, cost about 20.00 per month. I gave my last automatic update cell to my Granddaughter. I like staying simple stupid..:D I can do messaging and a few other things I don't use.:rolleyes::)

I never had any trouble at all with my Tracfone. But I just felt I needed more. I guess I never investigated whether they had some more APPS that I eanted and what kind of minutes you used up using those apps. Well I guess I did have trouble getting coverage and my basic basic phone had the regular old touch tome type ohone screen and it made texting pretty difficult. I can take 3D pictures with this phone and it even has a front facing camera so I can video caht. I have figured out the front facing camera but not the video chat.

So I did buy my phone. I did go to Sprint And AT&T to see if they could make a plan for the very limited needs and it was still to expensive a monthly fee under contract. So I went and got the HTC EVO V 4G It's a lot of phone for me!!I was trying to listen while my daughter show me what some of the things did and the apps. My mond just feels bom boozled. is that still a term? I still have to set up my contacts and figure out where I wrote down my password for my router is and get connected that way. I think my daughter was anxious to get on out of the house anyway. She got divorced late last year and is just now dating and she had her new guy meeting her at the dog park. Those make nice first dates.

Dejibo- What a great suggestion for an Ipad with the telephone capability!! I didn't know that Ipads had that. I currently have an older model Iphone, no Siri however, but I may well consider your suggestion when it is time for a new phone. I like the idea of a larger visual output and still having the phone capabilities. It sounds like a great solution for those who have difficulty with the smaller size of the Iphone screen, but still like its features and apps.

Here's something I don't understand though..... how does the Ipad tablet work like a phone? Is there some kind of earpiece/speaker combination? Surely you don't want every call to be "on speaker phone", and to hold a tablet up to your face would be just silly.

Can you tell me a bit more about that option? Thank you.

There are apps that you can use like Skype, Whistletalk and google voice (tons more coming) and if you get the Ipad that has the 4g stuff (not just wifi) you can connect anywhere, just like a cell phone. So you dont need a hot spot or to be at your home wifi connection to use it. it can be used in the car or in the hospital or the hotel.

http://www.labnol.org/software/make-...on-ipad/19561/

http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/06/make-...ad-ipod-touch/

http://www.geeklawblog.com/2011/02/i...one-using.html

I had an IPOD touch that I used with skypes PAID service. It provided me with a phone number all my own, and as long as I was in range of an internet connection (wi fi) folks could call me. If i was out of range they left a message on voicemail. it worked great for couple of years for me. I almost never used the phone and loved my touch. (it was $59 a year for that #, im sure the price is higher now) The the hubby decided after a cell phone tower went up in our town it was time for us to return to the age of technology. He got me the Iphone with siri and I love it! The screen is really small so its great to push a button and say gimme! and she does.

I wish there was some kind of communication I could use that would automatically connect my land line phone book to my new cell phone. Of course I haven't gone through my land line phne book to see what needs to be weeded out. I still have my Moms nimber in it and she died about 18 months ago. But this is a pain!

Just visited the kiosk at Costco.... and looked and the Galaxy SIII -- the sales rep pointed out that this is the only smart phone that responds to fingernails, on the screen. Real fingernails that is. Fake nails don't work. This is an added bonus for us gals! Looks like we can get 550 min/month, internet and family with 2 phones for $90. (does not include texting which we don't really do) I would get the Samsung (and it is $199 and hubby would get the LG small flip phone which was pretty nice too for $20.
At Costco the activation for both is refunded and all accessories are free... does that sound like a good deal?

Sounds good but we don't have a costco, the monthly plan is still to much for me and the only communication my daughter really does is texting. She only has 300 minutes a month for talking and she reserves those for business,etc. I have had to learn how to text. It was hard but my phone has a lot of helps for me. It anticipates spelling and lots of other things.

Galaxy SIII has issues. If you do not live in a 4G area you are more likely to have issues with calls or text messages. There is a software update available but it doesn't fix all issues as of today. I sell them and I'm aware of the issues. Consumer reports doesn't know all of the details but it is better than it used to be. :-)

Well, my son has an iphone that is 4G. It worked upNorth, where our old Sprint went dead for 4 weeks that is far from 4G. His is AT&T.

One Galaxy review I read (for the Sprint system) had many many complaints (Best Buy). But when I read the AT &T Galaxy entries, there were none of those.
It appears on one review that Sprint is upgrading all over and interrupting service.

Thanks ewizabeth, we will still look into it. There is no hurry, as we need this done before next summer. Our Sprint still works here at home.

All of the residents upNorth, now have AT&T... they recommended that to us. So we are switching to that carrier.
Our son's iPhone (AT &T) worked both calling, texting and internet where we are located there. He has the newest iPhone, which will be replaced by the new 5 coming out.

We don't really text... I call people and if they are unavailable, I leave a voice message. We don't use our phones so much like young people do. Texting on this carrier is $30 extra!
We are looking at 550 rollover minutes (by next summer it will be quite high for us because we don't use all our minutes monthly) and 3GB data for internet.

Ewizabeth, do you know how to check to see if an area is covered? Back in the early days, this was hit and miss, and that is why we did Sprint, because it was the only carrier at one time upNorth that worked. So this summer was a bummer, and very scary because we rely on our phones for safety communications and traveling stuff.

So.....

I went on AT &T's chat, and was moved to a special tech who did coverage. Our home zip is 4G. Our vacation one is NOT.

This tech has both the Samsung 3S and iphone 4. The Samsung worked for her recently in a non-4G area. She said she was surprised. But the iphone 4 is only .99 cents compared to the
newer Samsung @ 199.00.

Since we are not techies, we have to decide whether to get
the older iphone, or not. Any suggestions? This AT & T rep suggested the iphone as the best option, at this time.

I'll run this past the son too. We have a PC and not an Apple, so syncing to each other...is that a problem? Moving off some music from my PC to the phone? Or moving pictures from the phone to the PC?

this may help you determine coverage (by wireless provider)
http://opensignalmaps.com/network-coverage-maps/

According to those maps, none of them have coverage much where we are.

This summer Sprint worked for us until Aug 3. After that NOTHING. On Aug 26 coming home, I hit activity about 1/2 home, near Standish Mich. It sort of reflected the Olympics. And at first we thought it WAS the Olympics clogging up the towers.
But 3 calls to Sprint, and the techs all said it was digital roaming failure because of work being done etc, blah blah.

We met a guy also up there who lost his Verizon coverage at the same time. None of the AT & T people were affected.
In fact EVERYONE up there now has AT & T and that is why we are exploring that carrier more.

That map is outdated for Verizon. Go to www.vzw.com and click on coverage or maps and you'll get a current map that you can pinpoint down to a more accurate area with a zip code search. Verizon has more 4G coverage than all other carriers put together. They support their network the most as well. You should search for your vacation area and see Mrs D. It might be covered or on the fringe. AT&T and the others cater to more highly populated areas and not much in between.

BTW Wiz, if I turn any further left, I'll be right..:eek::D