Help me choose my next phone

[mio_cuggino]

Yeah... Cricket plans are awesome. They are an AT&T MVNO so I basically get AT&T coverage for the family at less than 1/2 the cost. It costs me $5 additional to add unlimited talk/data/text in Canada+Mexico as well (50% of usage must be in the US).

The major US carriers entice folks into getting into 2 year+ contracts with subsidized costs for phones.
Many folks are stuck on this endless annual/semiannual upgrade trap. But if you do the math, it's always much cheaper getting an unlocked phone and going with an lower cost MVNO. Besides... carrier locked Android phones really suck with all the carrier bloatware... Who is Verizon kidding? I'm going to pay $5/month to use VZ Navigator vs the free and better Google Maps or Waze?

Sound familiar?

"buy the plan, we'll give you a really good deal n the phone"
"buy the blades, we'll give you a really good deal on the razor"

Check out HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource which is based in Canada (Toronto I think). Lots of good info there.

Thank you, much appreciated.
I had a good chuckle at the shaving parallel you outlined.

 

[MntnMan62]

Might I suggest two cans and a long piece of string?

 

[ShaverGN]

I have my phone set so that the battery goes almost 4 DAYS before needing charged.

I have Galaxy S8+ and it doesn't even last me a day. What are your secret setting?

 

[Mick]

Mine has been on for 14 hrs 43 min and it sez estimated remaining is 56 hrs 45 min. 85% battery remaing

My settings are

Mid custom

Always on display = off (clock display)
Brightness -10%
Screen rez = HD+ (lowest)
Speed limiter = on
Background network = off

I only allow MS Outlook, Message+, Voicemail, and Sophos security to run in the background. Everything else waits until I power on to sync.

This gives me 60 hour +/- runtime on a charge.

I use my 8s+ for most email and browsing (using it now for this post).

 

[redfalconf35]

and have the whole family on the Cricket unlimited talk/data/text plan... $100 (or under) for 5 lines

How did you get such a good deal on Cricket? They're advertising $110 for 2 fully unlimited lines for me. I pay about that for AT&T (for 12GB, which is as much as we ever use) after my corporate discount, thus my hesitation to switch.

 

[eelhc]

How did you get such a good deal on Cricket? They're advertising $110 for 2 fully unlimited lines for me. I pay about that for AT&T (for 12GB, which is as much as we ever use) after my corporate discount, thus my hesitation to switch.

Sorry to the OP for Hijacking...

I have the 5 lines for $100 promo price...

Family Cell Phone Plans: 5 Lines for $100 | Best Family Deals | Cricket

I have the $40/Month plan on 5 lines (each line gets unlimited data/text/voice... 1st 4GB for each line at 4G - 20GB total, throttled after that for each line). They will do a progressive $10 discount on each additional line:

• 1st line $40
• 2nd line $30 ($10 discount)
• 3rd line $20 ($20 discount)
• 4th line $10 ($30 discount)
• 5th line Free ($40 discount)

$100 total with all tax and fees included. This promotion has been going on for a couple of years but rumor has it it may end at the end of this month.

But wait... it gets better. I purchase Cricket pre-pay cards from Target to pay my bill (electronic/email delivery). With my Target Red Card, I get 5% off. I'm paying $95/Month for 5 lines.

But wait again... It gets better still. Target or Best Buy will have 10% discount sales on Cricket prepay cards once in a while. So depending on where I buy the cards from, it could be as low as $85.50/month (10% off and double dip with Target Red Card 5% off).

I had a corporate discount with AT&T as well... I've been saving ~$100/month since I switched my 5 lines to Cricket last year. Pretty darned significant. That's a LOT of brushes, soaps, razors...

Unlocked GSM phones will work on Cricket.... AT&T locked phones will work as well but for some reason they don't get OS updates.

I've not noticed ANY difference in service quality.

 

[mio_cuggino]

Might I suggest two cans and a long piece of string?

You know, some days I think I should.

 

[mio_cuggino]

Mine has been on for 14 hrs 43 min and it sez estimated remaining is 56 hrs 45 min. 85% battery remaing

My settings are

Mid custom

Always on display = off (clock display)
Brightness -10%
Screen rez = HD+ (lowest)
Speed limiter = on
Background network = off

I only allow MS Outlook, Message+, Voicemail, and Sophos security to run in the background. Everything else waits until I power on to sync.

This gives me 60 hour +/- runtime on a charge.

I use my 8s+ for most email and browsing (using it now for this post).

Thank you. This is very helpful. I too was curious about your settings to obtain such awesome battery life.

 

[mio_cuggino]

Sorry to the OP for Hijacking...

I have the 5 lines for $100 promo price...

Family Cell Phone Plans: 5 Lines for $100 | Best Family Deals | Cricket

I have the $40/Month plan on 5 lines (each line gets unlimited data/text/voice... 1st 4GB for each line at 4G - 20GB total, throttled after that for each line). They will do a progressive $10 discount on each additional line:

• 1st line $40
• 2nd line $30 ($10 discount)
• 3rd line $20 ($20 discount)
• 4th line $10 ($30 discount)
• 5th line Free ($40 discount)

$100 total with all tax and fees included. This promotion has been going on for a couple of years but rumor has it it may end at the end of this month.

But wait... it gets better. I purchase Cricket pre-pay cards from Target to pay my bill (electronic/email delivery). With my Target Red Card, I get 5% off. I'm paying $95/Month for 5 lines.

But wait again... It gets better still. Target or Best Buy will have 10% discount sales on Cricket prepay cards once in a while. So depending on where I buy the cards from, it could be as low as $85.50/month (10% off and double dip with Target Red Card 5% off).

I had a corporate discount with AT&T as well... I've been saving ~$100/month since I switched my 5 lines to Cricket last year. Pretty darned significant. That's a LOT of brushes, soaps, razors...

Unlocked GSM phones will work on Cricket.... AT&T locked phones will work as well but for some reason they don't get OS updates.

I've not noticed ANY difference in service quality.

 

[mio_cuggino]

Well, then...here's a little thread resurrection.
It's finally happened.
My place of employment has implemented security changes to their email system, and my work Calendar will no longer sync with my trusty Blackberry Z10's calendar app.
So, today, I walked to my mobile provider and asked them to give me a new SIM.
I went for a Samsung A70, previously purchased for this sad day.
I am know spending time getting frustrated at the A70 for not doing what I want it to do, and for not behaving the way I want it to. Why am I supposed to input my email to access all the native apps?
RIP BB Z10.
Now get off my lawn!