[ale] [OT] Cell phones

Sun Aug 28 14:54:08 EDT 2016

T-Mobile now has a home cell spot that you can tie into your internet that gives me full bars LTE, were I barely could get a phone signal before.
They want a $25 deposit, but they waived the fee for me because I am a long term customer. I'd push for that if you've been with them for awhile.
Make sure you let them know you have little to no service.
You don't want the repeater, it produced only very marginal improvements for me when I had it.
No wifi calling needed at home, but doesn't solve the problem in basements and computer centers where I often work.
One other point.
Marshmallow is supposed to support VoLT calling now. If your carrier supports it (I know t-Mobile and Verizon do), the custom roms I have used contain it. 
-jt

James Taylor
678-697-9420
james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com

>>> Greg Clifton <gccfof5 at gmail.com> 8/28/2016 10:49 AM >>> 
I'll throw in here too. I've been researching phone options for a couple of
weeks since the wife lost her [Sony Xpera] phone in the home theater seats
and the screen got cracked and the digitizer hosed and I'm still learning
about new brands I've never heard of, like the UMI mentioned above. From my
quest, I have learned that there a quite a number of tier 2 manufacturers
that offer quite a lot of bang for the buck. There are several quite
impressive offerings in the ~$300-400 range including the likes of One+ 3,
but the UMI Super is quite close in specs to the One+ for only $200, pretty
amazing!

We're with T-Mobile, but don't get good reception at home, so rely on their
WiFi calling feature. I am not confident enough to try a custom ROM install
plus, I suspect we would lose the WiFi calling feature if I did a CM or
such. We just ordered a 32GB Nexus 5X on Friday (which I assume will not
come with WiFi calling) from Amazon for $279 with the thought of taking it
to Google Fi, if the T-Mobile Extended coverage doesn't work for home
calling. It was ordered Prime, but delivery is not till 9/2, presumably
because it will be shipping with Nougat installed.

In summary, I find that one can get tons more performance and features on
an Android phone for WAY less money than on iPhone. With performance going
up and prices coming down continually, [at a $200 price point] it seems to
me that they are pretty much becoming throw away devices after the expected
2-3 year useful life. When you think of the thousands of $ we have all
spent on computers over the years that are no longer supported, $100-200
per year in today's dollars for such impressive technology isn't so bad.

On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Calvin Harrigan <calvin.harrigan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the offer, wish I had seen it earlier.  I ended up getting a
> Nexus 5X from Fry's on sale.
>
>
> On 08/19/2016 03:22 PM, James Taylor wrote:
>
>> I'd recommend the onePlus3 if you are looking in the $300 rang phone with
>> pretty much flagship features and a vanillish Android OS.
>> If you want to spend even less, with higher specs and a 5.5" diagonal
>> screen, the UMI Super or Umi Max is an excellent value.
>> I bought a super for my daughter at a promo price of $189, and it has
>> 4gb ram, 32GB of storage, expandable to 128GB. Marshamallow (Androd 6) and
>> no bloat.
>> If you want a good deal on a new, in the box T-Mobile HTC10, I have an
>> extra that I found I didn't need, and is looking for a home.
>>
>> -jt
>>
>>
>> James Taylor
>> 678-697-9420
>> james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
>>
>>
>>
>> Calvin Harrigan <calvin.harrigan at gmail.com> 8/18/2016 9:08 PM >>>
>>>>>
>>>> On 08/18/2016 04:29 PM, Solomon Peachy wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 04:18:05PM -0400, Calvin Harrigan wrote:
>>>
>>>> With that said, what would be a good cell replacement phone for the
>>>> Nexus 4?
>>>>
>>> Without knowing what features you prioritize and your carrier, It's hard
>>> to offer meaningful suggestions.  Personally, I'm pretty happy [1] with
>>> the Sony Z3 Compact I picked up a couple of months ago.  It's small but
>>> not low-end, Sony is still supporting it, and plays nicely with
>>> Cyanogen.
>>>
>>> [1] As happy as I can be without having a physical keyboard. Sigh...
>>>
>>>   - Solomon
>>>
>>>
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>>
>> Sorry about that.  I'm on T-Mobile.  It needs only to make calls,
>> tether, navigation and most importantly as close to vanilla android as
>> possible.  I have a work phone from sprint that is just embarrassingly
>> stuffed with bloat-ware, a lot of which cannot be uninstalled.  I have
>> maybe 2 other apps over stock installed.  I'm usually around a full
>> computer, so browsing on a 4.7" screen isn't very palatable.
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>>
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