Thinking about coming to Cricket for this phone

[cas8180]

So I am currently with boost. Now I have also heard that cricket uses sprint towers? I am just curious about data speed and service reception with cricket? I really like this phone a lot the specs are so much better than the Warp that just came out for boost. But boosts service is pretty damn good. So how does Cricket compare?

 

[the258]

Really depends on where you are at. Cricket does use Sprints towers, mainly on very large populated areas so i have heard.
I myself havent had any problems with Cricket and this phone is pretty damn awesome. The date seems quicker than the indulge i had even quicker on wifi. very smooth overall.

 

[Will24]

I want to get this phone but will it work in the 75052 area in TX and if so how would I pay the bill ?

 

[DXGypsy]

I get good service in NJ.

Cricket gets a bad rap but I've never had a serious problem with them.
I pay my bill over the phone by credit card.

One nice thing if you roll paycheck to paycheck like I do, if you miss your payment Cricket will shut off your calls BUT they let you keep your texts and internet running.
Hell, I went over a month and a half before and they never shut off my texts and net.

On top of that, they sent me a "gift text" that credited my ENTIRE back balance, so I got turned back on for free.

Yeah, I'm happy with Cricket.

 

[the258]

I want to get this phone but will it work in the 75052 area in TX and if so how would I pay the bill ?

Nationwide Coverage | Cricket Wireless
shows their is coverage.

 

[cas8180]

I get good service in NJ.

Cricket gets a bad rap but I've never had a serious problem with them.
I pay my bill over the phone by credit card.

One nice thing if you roll paycheck to paycheck like I do, if you miss your payment Cricket will shut off your calls BUT they let you keep your texts and internet running.
Hell, I went over a month and a half before and they never shut off my texts and net.

On top of that, they sent me a "gift text" that credited my ENTIRE back balance, so I got turned back on for free.

Yeah, I'm happy with Cricket.

That is super cool I actually think Virgin Mobile and Boost offer something like this too. I know for sure Virgin mobile does cause my friend was telling me about the free credit and service they "gifted him". I actually live in the Vegas area and I know we are supposed to get good coverage here. I am more or less concerned about data speeds? I also heard you only get 1gb of data per month? What happens after that? Do they just throttle you down or do they actually charge you? I think boost actually has the same limitation as cricket for the most part.

 

[Gmash]

That is super cool I actually think Virgin Mobile and Boost offer something like this too. I know for sure Virgin mobile does cause my friend was telling me about the free credit and service they "gifted him". I actually live in the Vegas area and I know we are supposed to get good coverage here. I am more or less concerned about data speeds? I also heard you only get 1gb of data per month? What happens after that? Do they just throttle you down or do they actually charge you? I think boost actually has the same limitation as cricket for the most part.

Yeah, they throttle you after 1GB. That's the worst thing about Cricket IMO. Their data speeds are pretty decent if you have a good signal, about 1-1.5 mbps down. Even after they throttle you, it's still usable for pretty much everything except streaming video. But Boost is supposed to be getting the LG Optimus Black. (they're calling it a different name, can't remember what. There was an article about it on Phandroid a few days ago). That's a pretty nice phone. You might want to look into that if you are happy with Boost. Also, Cricket has their own towers in their "home" areas, but they made an agreement with Sprint to use their towers so they could go nationwide. Boost and Virgin are both actually owned by Sprint.

 

[cas8180]

Yeah, they throttle you after 1GB. That's the worst thing about Cricket IMO. Their data speeds are pretty decent if you have a good signal, about 1-1.5 mbps down. Even after they throttle you, it's still usable for pretty much everything except streaming video. But Boost is supposed to be getting the LG Optimus Black. (they're calling it a different name, can't remember what. There was an article about it on Phandroid a few days ago). That's a pretty nice phone. You might want to look into that if you are happy with Boost. Also, Cricket has their own towers in their "home" areas, but they made an agreement with Sprint to use their towers so they could go nationwide. Boost and Virgin are both actually owned by Sprint.

Thanks Gmash thats very insightful. I actually did so some research on the LG Black and it actually got really good review (for its time) . However it really seems like the superstar of yesterday in the phone areana even prepaid. Spec for Spec wise the Mercury destroys it. The only thing that could possibly make it more appealing is to drop down past the $150 point. But if you look st boosts line up the best thing they got right now (in my opinion) is the ZTE Warp which I just got. Which almost has the exact same specs as the LG Black.

At the end of the day I really just want a phone + service that can serve all of my uses well:

-Surfing the Web
-texting
-Picture taking
-Video recording
-unlimited long distance
-good reception-
-good battery life

Its hard to find this even on post paid carriers as they all have high priced long distance plans which brought me to the prepaid world. And I have actually been pretty impressed with boosts service and I figured if Cricket was also using sprint towers as there primary towers (which I guess they are not) the service should be virtually the same if I wanted to switch over.

 

[cas8180]

Just picked up this phone! And so far I couldn't be happier. As luck would have it I actually went to cricket store to play with a demo unit immediately fell in love with it. So I jumped on craigslist and just so happened that someone was trying to sell there's that they had received as a gift. So I picked mine up for 140 bucks. Now I literally can't put it down!

 

[SpawnHyuuga]

Lucky son of a gun.

Enjoy it man. If you can Market Search for Mineceaft and GTA 3 I would love to know if the Mercury can play.

 

[Gmash]

Just picked up this phone! And so far I couldn't be happier. As luck would have it I actually went to cricket store to play with a demo unit immediately fell in love with it. So I jumped on craigslist and just so happened that someone was trying to sell there's that they had received as a gift. So I picked mine up for 140 bucks. Now I literally can't put it down!

Good deal! Welcome, We need all the members we can get in here!

 

[Gmash]

Lucky son of a gun.

Enjoy it man. If you can Market Search for Mineceaft and GTA 3 I would love to know if the Mercury can play.

Minecraft Pocket edition showed up, but not GTA3.

 

[cas8180]

Ya spec wise this phone is a monster I had both zte warp and the evo 3d. I have now turned both off and retired them to my electronics drawer. I even like the built in ui overlay way better than sense and the integrated task killer is so frickin sick. this guy has to be the Samsung galaxy s2 of prepaid phones. Anyone know what the word is on, on a possible ics upgrade?

 

[Gmash]

Ya spec wise this phone is a monster I had both zte warp and the evo 3d. I have now turned both off and retired them to my electronics drawer. I even like the built in ui overlay way better than sense and the integrated task killer is so frickin sick. this guy has to be the Samsung galaxy s2 of prepaid phones. Anyone know what the word is on, on a possible ics upgrade?

I didn't care for the stock ui, went back to GO Launcher. Even the transition effects that say they won't work on all phones are smoooth. I can't stop spinning my home screens around with the " cylinder" effect lol. Huawei is making an ICS ROM for these phones, but so far Cricket says they are "undecided" on whether they will upgrade or not. Let's hope they do the right thing for their customers this time and do it. So how is your Cricket service compared to Boost?

 

[cas8180]

Service seems on par so far haven't noticed Any difference at all
I wonder what kind of developer support we are going to get from the community

 

[SpawnHyuuga]

I didn't care for the stock ui, went back to GO Launcher. Even the transition effects that say they won't work on all phones are smoooth. I can't stop spinning my home screens around with the " cylinder" effect lol. Huawei is making an ICS ROM for these phones, but so far Cricket says they are "undecided" on whether they will upgrade or not. Let's hope they do the right thing for their customers this time and do it. So how is your Cricket service compared to Boost?

Huawei creates a Custom UI for this phone correct? Is it possible to disable it and use STOCK (Google) Gingerbread Launcher?

 

[the258]

tap settings>Home settings>Theme>Android Standard>Save.
stock Gingerbread UI.

 

[BlastGT1]

I want to get this phone but will it work in the 75052 area in TX and if so how would I pay the bill ?

You don't live too far from me, and I asked the same question about coverage recently. The word I got from a Cricket dealer is that the only service available to those of us who are in areas that Cricket previously did not cover is the PAYGo plan:

Prepaid Cell Phone Plans | Pay As You Go Phones | Cricket Wireless

If you want the entire Q&A that I had with him, check this thread:

Question About Cricket "Nationwide" Coverage