Greetings programs! I figure it's about time for me to ditch the obamaphone (read: my income is too high to keep the free one next time they check) and thus i need to get back in the real world of cellphones... the only problem is that I have no idea who's good/cheap/etc these days and what's a good company to sell my eternal soul to in order to take on the mark of the beast (aka.why we haven't been microchipped yet =)

Before my tracfone days I was with Verizon paying appx 90-100/month for unlimited data on my trusty old Droid RAZR/HDs and Droid Turbo/2 phones. Outside of GOAT build quality / durability on Motorola phones, you generally got what you paid for with verizon (great signal strength + bandwith, great customer service, great $5/month warranty program) but of course you basically had to drop $100/month to get that, and methinks that nowadays you can prolly get unlimited somewhere for something like $50-65/month, amirite?

I know T-Mobile is a pretty good network and they hook you up.with a bunch of shit on Tuesdays (plus free mlb.tv is always great) but how are their prices and how is their network? are they way better than, say, Sprint (who I believe is also up there with a solid network with a solid price for unlimited) ?? do they get you over a barrel when you need to get a new phone?

or hell, does anyone know of any these little janky no-name (read: best buy or Wal-Mart or target wireless) companies that.maybe use a big ol T-Mobile or verizon or Sprint network but don't charge nearly as much for unlimited?

I'm open for any/all suggestions, and in terms of the kind of phone I'd want I've stepped down from my old Motorola loyalist platform and nowadays I'm willing to accept anything modern and durable with a quality battery life. Thats probably one of the biggest things for me: battery life, as when I first got into computerphones circa 2013 having a ~3300mAh battery really made a difference as opposed to a ~1500-2000mAh battery. IDk if batteries as a whole have gotten bigger+cheaper over the last 6+ years, but really i just want a phone that can survive a day in my pocket both physically and mentally (read: battery wise)

anyone got any good war stories from.phone companies over the last couple's years? Tips or advice on who to join/avoid/etc? do what 2Pac taught you to do and hit [me] up!

so long and thanks for all the fish!

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What's your budget? I've heard good things about Googlefi - either pay 70$ for unlimited everything or 20$ for unlimited calling/texting plus pay-per-use data which starts at 10$/GB.

I think 70$ is generally the cheapest plan you can find for unlimited everything unless you're on a family plan. For phones, I love me some pure Android but the Google Pixel line (the only phone that offers pure Android) is inferior to the top Samsung phones hardware-wise despite costing the same amount of money, generally. So I personally can't justify buying a Pixel over a Samsung phone despite the software experiencing being better. I think you can get a new or new-ish Samsung Note 9 off of ebay for around 350$. Good battery life. You also might want to look into the One Plus 7 phones for battery life and good prices.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Tip o' the cap ... fired up Tron right now.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I have Google Fi with a Moto G7. I have the $20+10/gb plan, my average bill is about $50-55 depending how much I am traveling and how much I use the phone for navigation. But I don't watch a lot of video, am connected to WiFi at home, and have about 10 hours of Spotify music local to the phone.

Connection is primary TMo with Sprint as a backup and US Cellular as a last resort for rural areas. Phones are solid but not wonderful, the Pixel family is a bit of a disaster and not worth it for the price.

The other nice thing about Fi is that they will give you an extra data only sim on request. I put that into an old Nexus 5 connected once and put it into airplane mode with my wifi, and put Ooma on it for connectivity to my home phone so I have emergency calling if my primary phone dies either temporarily or permanently. The N5 is really light and sits in a pocket in my travel bag.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

+1 on the One Plus rec. Had a One Plus 6 for six months or so and then flipped it on ebay for $50 less than I paid for it. They tend to sell out on the new market so hold resale value. Realme X2 Pro looks like decent competition for OnePlus in the flagship-device-at-half-the-price space. I think Realme might be related to Oppo? Unfortunately Realme doesn't ship to the US. You can find em not too marked up on Amz, ebay et al.

As far as pure android, I think devices designated 'Android One' devices are stock android that get updates on the same schedule as the Pixel? Nokia (pretty much all Nokia devices), some Motorola and maybe Xiaomi devices are Android One. Last few Nokia devices I've tried have been disappointments. 7.1 had the widespread usb port going bad issue. 7.2 felt sluggish/buggy to use. Nokia used to be rock solid in the hardware department. Not so much these days.

If you're looking for battery life, Motorola just released the Motorola G Power with a 5000mAh battery for $249. Motorolas are either stock (if they're Android One devices) or close to stock Android. Looks like they dropped the numeric model designation, so instead of this year's being G8 Power it's just G Power. Also means last year's G7 Power can be picked up for half-price. Check Motorola's website, they're always running specials with discounts and throw-ins on various devices.

Tello is the cheapest and best format for plans right now. Uses sprint networks. $39 a month for unlimited (up to 25GB of data)

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

These days I can technically afford anything, but I figure that unlimited should have come down to like ~$60-75/month as opposed to the ~100/month I was paying Verizon for unlimited up until Jan 2018. Ideally I'd love to be in that $50-75/month range for unlimited, plus I've learned that the ~$5-10/month insurance generally is a good thing to have.

But i definitely want unlimited so I can get back to internet radio in.my house.

Is this Google Fi stuff does that piggyback off of other cellphone companies? Ideally I don't wanna have a hard cap and pay extra (and I know most unlimited plans technically throttle your bandwidth around ~25gb, i even had that kick in with Verizon where after a cpl months of using it as my primary home internet connection (hitting 50-60gb/month streaming cable TV and whatnot) it'd be 500k after 25gb. Is Google Fi fast but technically limited?

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Cricket, 50$ month unlimited . You can get an Android for 90$

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4 of us on Sprint. Completely unlimited data $215 per month. We buy our phones elsewhere whenever we need them, which is not often.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."