Is the LTE (4G) service worth using on the xoom?

[WarJorge]

So this Black Friday, Verizon will be selling the Xoom at a sweet price of 199.99

The catch?

Need to sign up for a 2 year 4g LTE contract


I've been waiting patiently for a Tablet for quite some time and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to get an Asus Transformer for 249 at best buy so I'm considering this.

What I'm wondering is if it's worth having the 4g service? Is it really that necessary or useful? Just about every area has Wi-Fi, and Im not sure its worth payign 30 bucks a month to have internet in the car (After all, I have a cell phone)

 

[donas]

I have had a Xoom since the release and do not care for it.....as far as 4G service, as with most other devices, it is sucking my battery dry in a fraction of the time 3G did. My Xoom would easily last 4-5 days between charges and now I get a day maybe day and a half.

So, in summary----No (just my .02$)

 

[kennychaffin]

Wow! That's a hell of a price for a Xoom. I bought mine for 3x that and had to get a contract (3g) as well. I've used mine a lot, but not the 3G so much. Mostly around the house and at work for things like reading books, web and email. Once in a blue moon when my comcast internet goes down and I use the Xoom as a hotspot for my home.

IMO if you are going to be mostly in wifi range do it and get the cheapest contract.

Full Disclosure I do not have 4G and not planning on upgrading.

 

[bulldogmoe7]

dont have much of an opinion on this but it will be nice to have that service on demand. i had a wifi tab for less than a week and at times i wish i had data service. time i brought it with me to work and i got bored and had to fire up my phone hotspot and use it that way. but for the price at $199 i think its worth it.

 

[BusaRider]

Yes, yes it is.

 

[sethwardo]

I think it’s worth it. You can also use it to tether other devices off it as well. I have been using the device for almost a year now. I do find that leaving the wi/fi or 4g on all the time does drain the battery. A simple fix, when not using the device where a connection is needed like playing a game, reading a book or whatever, use the airplane mode to disable the wifi and 4g. I find doing this extends my battery significantly as its not synching even when not in use. Other than that, love the device and LOVE the 4g.

 

[daltekkie]

I definitely think it's worth it. Especially since the sales person I talked to (both over chat on vzw.com and in the store) told me that I could later change this line back to a non-smart phone and remove the required data plan which means I just paid $199 for a wifi device and not have to worry about the $1200 extra in data package, insurance, and taxes over the next 24 months.

Although, having the data in transit on the train or while someone else is driving is becoming slightly addictive. Still can't beat the price. I love it. LOVE IT! My poor little laptop is starting to get jealous. As are my coworkers. haha

 

[3devious]

I have the old $20/1gig plan. It's a decent deal now. In ares that LTE is available, it's decent. The browser still sucks and the Xoom is not stable enough. I think $200 on contract is a great deal.

 

[xfuchsiax]

I definitely think it's worth it. Especially since the sales person I talked to (both over chat on vzw.com and in the store) told me that I could later change this line back to a non-smart phone and remove the required data plan which means I just paid $199 for a wifi device and not have to worry about the $1200 extra in data package, insurance, and taxes over the next 24 months.

Wait, what? Isn't the $199 discount price based on agreeing to the contract? How could you change it and get to keep the XOOM?

 

[BusaRider]

Wait, what? Isn't the $199 discount price based on agreeing to the contract? How could you change it and get to keep the XOOM?

Yea I can't believe there isn't a huge early termination fee.

Also you can put it in CDMA only mode if you don't need the speed.

 

[daltekkie]

The contract is on the line, not the data plan. So as long as the line is active, whether it has a data plan or a phone on it, it fulfills the contract. I confirmed this with a second sales person before I purchased it.

 

[Ayrow]

I've had mine for about a year and I sent it in for the 4G upgrade.
It is faster, but not by huge amounts. If I would've had to pay for the upgrade, it wouldn't have been worth it.
Battery life has certainly taken a toll and the device doesn't seem to run as solid as before - more force closes on the browser and weird non-connectivity problems (!).
As long as I reboot the device every day or so, it runs smoother, but what a pain.

Worth it?

Not really, in my opinion.

 

[ckeegan]

I've had mine for about a year and I sent it in for the 4G upgrade.
It is faster, but not by huge amounts. If I would've had to pay for the upgrade, it wouldn't have been worth it.
Battery life has certainly taken a toll and the device doesn't seem to run as solid as before - more force closes on the browser and weird non-connectivity problems (!).
As long as I reboot the device every day or so, it runs smoother, but what a pain.

Worth it?

Not really, in my opinion.

i've had mine since it launched 9.5 months ago, and obviously 4G is faster since I got nowhere near 18 down, 10 up on 3G. Battery life declining since the 4G upgrade should be no surprise at all, but I'm still getting 3 full days out of my XOOM, compared to the 4.5-5 before the upgrade. 3 full days is still great.

I personally still don't think the $200 is worth it when a contract is involved. The number off tablets coming out now and into early 2012 is ridiculous, and prices will have nowhere to go but down.

 

[marctronixx]

here is a question i have for you kind folks.

what about the lot of you who have, say, sprint (or any other carrier) service as their mobile phone AND have a 3G/4G xoom AND pay for VZWs service?

are you happy with this arrangement?

would you rather get a wifi only model so as not to have a VZW bill AND a sprint bill? does it matter that you have both??

just a curious cat here...

 

[xfuchsiax]

The contract is on the line, not the data plan. So as long as the line is active, whether it has a data plan or a phone on it, it fulfills the contract. I confirmed this with a second sales person before I purchased it.

Have you by chance tried to do this yet? How did it go?

 

[daltekkie]

Have you by chance tried to do this yet? How did it go?

Actually no, not yet. I've been traveling a bit and the data plan has come in handy. I plan to in another month or so. I'll update how that goes.

 

[gallandof]

i just tried on my account(i purchased a xoom on the 22nd) and it let me switch the device and plan around. Not sure if a CS rep would be willing to do the same but it definitely works in our system

 

[00smurf]

Once you agree to the contract, you can do what you want with the device. You could of purchased it at the black Friday pricing of 199.99$ and then change the line to a feature phone if you have a family plan and only pay the 9.99$ secondary line charge. The only thing is the contract term of 24 months. That is at least for now until Verizon Wireless thinks of a way to make the data plan contractual. And I wouldn't put it past them to do such a thing in the future as they did the immediate 180 on the fee to pay your bill they tried to implement.

00smurf

 

[3devious]

I bought the Xoom at launch specifically because the data plan was $20 a month for an LTE plan. I only hope I can transfer that plan to a new device.

 

[FuturePrimitiv]

I have yet to activate data on my Xoom and I bought it during release week! I did however send it in for the lte upgrade. I do have lte on my Bionic though and i will say that the speed of lte is fantastic. If I didn't already have unlimited lte on my bionic I probably would go ahead and activate my Xoom but so far I've been able to get by using wifi and the hotspot device (Sprint, ugh!) provided for my job.