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A few questions, soon to buy a N4!

Hello everyone, new to this branch of the site, have spent most of my time (too much probably) in the Virgin Mobile Triumph forums. The upside is that there's an amazing bunch of developers for it and I get to hop from it to the Nexus 4! The downside is, it's the absolute best Android phone I've ever used to this point (excluding my tablet).

First, Straight Talk gets far better area coverage where I am. I'm not much in need of high speeds or anything as I'm near wifi 95% of the time, I'm just concerned about coverage. I'm not certain how to buy the sim card from them as silly as that sounds. I've gone to their site in multiple browsers, clicked 'Sim Cards', put in my zip code and click through to get to a page showing nothing but a banner promoting free shipping on new orders over $14.99. Am I missing something? Also, ST users out there, clarify for me exactly the right SIM to choose. I've been choosing (to no avail as far as getting anything to the cart) the "Unlocked GSM Phone (Phone must operate in 850 and 1900 MHz bands)" option, is that correct? And if I ever manage to get to the final stages, how do I specify to them that I want the AT&T service instead of T-mobile?

T-mobile currently has their SIM card activation kit for free, I'd really like to give that a try as well for a month to see which I prefer. The micro-SIM option is what I'd need? There isn't specifically a no-contract option that I've missed (aside from the one that comes with a months card)?

Aside from that, I'd love to hear from anyone who may have also come from the Motorola Triumph if any of you are out there? Maybe you've just used one? How do you feel about the differences? I'm actually fairly happy with Virgin Mobile for the most part, but it's time to move on to bigger and better things.

I'm so beyond ready to get off the low-end train and move to a quad core 1.5 from a single core 1ghz. The RAM might've been the biggest selling point though, I currently have a phone with 500mb's of RAM and it can make multitasking kind of a pain.

Thanks to any and all, I apologize for the book, excited I guess. Haha.
 
I can't take credit for this idea - I read it in a different thread... T-Mobile has daily prepaid offerings. I don't have first hand experience but this seems like a great way to find out if the coverage is what you need without paying for a whole month.

T-Mobile coverage works for me. I found Solavei to be the best provider option for my situation.
 
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May I ask why Solavei? I've heard of them in about half the articles I've read and am curious for sure.

T-mobile seems like the better but I fear losing signal a lot, I've read that a lot of people seem to lose service inside buildings and in small towns. I live in a small town, just trying to pick the best option for actual call coverage versus speed. Still think T-mobile is worth the shot? Their $50 plan doesn't look bad to be honest, I do need unlimited talk and text, data just occasionally though.
 
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May I ask why Solavei? I've heard of them in about half the articles I've read and am curious for sure.

T-mobile seems like the better but I fear losing signal a lot, I've read that a lot of people seem to lose service inside buildings and in small towns. I live in a small town, just trying to pick the best option for actual call coverage versus speed. Still think T-mobile is worth the shot? Their $50 plan doesn't look bad to be honest, I do need unlimited talk and text, data just occasionally though.

I think Tmobile is the cheapest to try. You can order a sim card online for a buck and try their daily unlimited plan for $4/day if you want to try the data. I've had bad experiences going to the store though, lying sobs. ST costs 60-65 for the first month.
 
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May I ask why Solavei? I've heard of them in about half the articles I've read and am curious for sure.

Here are my reasons for choosing Solavei. (First, you have to be happy with T Mobile's prepaid coverage - they are a T-Mobile MVNO. ) $49 for unlimited talk /text /data. The data isn't throttled until 4GB. This makes it a better value than the $50 or $60 T Mobile plans. I don't need a lot of data on a regular basis, but it's nice to know I have it if I want it. Straight Talk is $4 cheaper, but I am not a fan of all the reports of seemingly random throttling. I do like having a clearly defined plan. (This is a personal thing, but it seemed to me like the Straight Talk website was designed to make it difficult to find out details about their service. I hate that.)

Solavei also supports conditional call forwarding. This makes it easy to use Google Voice for consolidated voicemail (my GV number and my sim's number). From what I've read neither Straight Talk or T Mobile prepaid support conditional call forwarding... Correct me if I'm wrong.

I had already decided to go with T-Mobile directly when I first heard about Solavei. Based on the above my choice was pretty easy.

Solavei is also doing the affiliate sign up thing. They are paying back customers on a recurring monthly basis when others sign up through their links. This has the intriguing potential to make a plan that I think is a good value to start with effectively less expensive. I have no problem telling my friends and family about it because I'm happy with the service and the price.

But it all comes back to you have to be happy with their coverage.
 
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Aside from that, I'd love to hear from anyone who may have also come from the Motorola Triumph if any of you are out there? Maybe you've just used one? How do you feel about the differences? I'm actually fairly happy with Virgin Mobile for the most part, but it's time to move on to bigger and better things.

Ex Moto Triumph user here. I went from the Optimus V > Morotola Triumph > HTC Evo V 4G > Nexus 4.

Oh how I don't miss my Triumph. The touch screen would randomly turn unresponsive, the phone would freeze up, the lack of RAM really slowed the phone down, etc.. I was satisfied with the Evo V 4G, but when the Nexus 4 came out I just couldn't resist the 1.5Ghz quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and HD screen. I'm also seeing much better data speeds than I ever saw on Virgin Mobile. You'll be in love when you finally get the Nexus 4. I know I was.
 
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Here are my reasons for choosing Solavei. (First, you have to be happy with T Mobile's prepaid coverage - they are a T-Mobile MVNO. ) $49 for unlimited talk /text /data. The data isn't throttled until 4GB. This makes it a better value than the $50 or $60 T Mobile plans. I don't need a lot of data on a regular basis, but it's nice to know I have it if I want it. Straight Talk is $4 cheaper, but I am not a fan of all the reports of seemingly random throttling. I do like having a clearly defined plan. (This is a personal thing, but it seemed to me like the Straight Talk website was designed to make it difficult to find out details about their service. I hate that.)

Solavei also supports conditional call forwarding. This makes it easy to use Google Voice for consolidated voicemail (my GV number and my sim's number). From what I've read neither Straight Talk or T Mobile prepaid support conditional call forwarding... Correct me if I'm wrong.

I had already decided to go with T-Mobile directly when I first heard about Solavei. Based on the above my choice was pretty easy.

Solavei is also doing the affiliate sign up thing. They are paying back customers on a recurring monthly basis when others sign up through their links. This has the intriguing potential to make a plan that I think is a good value to start with effectively less expensive. I have no problem telling my friends and family about it because I'm happy with the service and the price.

But it all comes back to you have to be happy with their coverage.

I deeeefinitely prefer that price to T-Mobile's prices. If I may, how much is their SIM card to buy and is their shipping fairly fast? I think I will give Solavei first shot at it, if that doesn't work out due to T-Mobile coverage, then I'll try ST. Thanks for the reply, very helpful info!



Ex Moto Triumph user here. I went from the Optimus V > Morotola Triumph > HTC Evo V 4G > Nexus 4.

Oh how I don't miss my Triumph. The touch screen would randomly turn unresponsive, the phone would freeze up, the lack of RAM really slowed the phone down, etc.. I was satisfied with the Evo V 4G, but when the Nexus 4 came out I just couldn't resist the 1.5Ghz quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and HD screen. I'm also seeing much better data speeds than I ever saw on Virgin Mobile. You'll be in love when you finally get the Nexus 4. I know I was.

I definitely get extremely irritated at how many times I have to push an icon to actually get it to take. The unresponsiveness drives me crazy. And, like you said, the RAM has been an issue with the latest ROM I've been using though it's made the phone a pretty decent experience all around considering the hardware, that's saying a lot really.

My VM service has been pretty great, but data (when actually used) has been quite slow. I stick to wifi but it defeats the purpose in lots of cases like when on the road. Thanks, I'm glad to hear that. I can't wait to get my hands off my Triumph and on the Nexus 4. I'm ready to get up in the Android world instead of floating around water level.
 
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I deeeefinitely prefer that price to T-Mobile's prices. If I may, how much is their SIM card to buy and is their shipping fairly fast? I think I will give Solavei first shot at it, if that doesn't work out due to T-Mobile coverage, then I'll try ST. Thanks for the reply, very helpful info!

The sim is $9. They say 3-5 days shipping. They shipped mine same day I ordered and it got to Colorado in 3 days.
 
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If you're not happy with T-Mobile's coverage and you go to Straight Talk then you will have to get an AT&T sim card.

I can't stress enough though how freaking horrible Straight Talk's customer service is.

There is an entire thread on these very forums full of people complaining about it. Sorry if you can't use your phone everywhere but this phone is GSM and that's just a sacrifice the people who pay $300-$350 for a phone worth twice that much will have to make.

Also note that you get voice and text roaming off AT&T towers if you're using T-Mobile.
 
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Is that true for the prepaid plans? I thought they just did the "roaming partner" thing, and it was all reflected on their coverage map.

Talked to a rep in the T-Mobile store yesterday and she said roaming was included on all plans, even prepaid. I specifically asked that question. They also had Nexus 4 (16gb only) for sale in the store. She said a LG rep came in last Friday to explain the features of the phone to the sales staff. They had installed a screen saver on the BACK of the phone but not on the front. Guess the rep recommended it. :D
 
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Talked to a rep in the T-Mobile store yesterday and she said roaming was included on all plans, even prepaid. I specifically asked that question. They also had Nexus 4 (16gb only) for sale in the store. She said a LG rep came in last Friday to explain the features of the phone to the sales staff. They had installed a screen saver on the BACK of the phone but not on the front. Guess the rep recommended it. :D

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just making sure I understand. From everything l've read on the T-Mobile site, and their support forum, the only place you can roam is where there is an agreement with a service partner - this is on their map. This is what they call roaming and is included with prepaid. In fact there is a thread where the customer service representative talks about them only having roaming agreements with AT&T in some areas.
support.t-mobile.com/message/212130#212130
support.t-mobile.com/message/207469#207469
 
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ptel may be an option to try as well. 40month unlim every. but not much highspeed until throttled (only 250mb) . Prepaid Wireless Cell Phone Service, Pay As You Go - PTel Mobile (PlatinumTel)

Tmobile30/month is what I plan on using (already have the sim) but I still am using my triumph at the moment since I had paid a few weeks in advance on my plan and it is still active.


The N4 just kills the triumph. It is simply the best experience on Android that there is. So fast and responsive. It is just amazing. I REALLY hate going back to my triumph to call people, Been using N4 24/7 on wi-fi and I love it. So glad I made the jump and actually got a great top of the line phone without contract and low cost prepaid monthly options.

Basically on VM the 25/month grandfather plan is great and the triumph is one of the last phones that can still stay on that plan. It is a great plan but the triumph has been annoying from day 1, but I stuck with it due to the 25 plan and the 4.1 in screen.

I would probably jump over and buy the htc evo 4g for 140 if i was going to stay on VM.. however, that doesnt make much since because the N4 also kills the evo and I would be losing the 25 plan for the vm 35 plan.. so.. it just makes more since to me to pay extra for a way better phone while keeping my monthly phone bill around the same (tmobile 30month)
 
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ptel may be an option to try as well. 40month unlim every. but not much highspeed until throttled (only 250mb) . Prepaid Wireless Cell Phone Service, Pay As You Go - PTel Mobile (PlatinumTel)

Tmobile30/month is what I plan on using (already have the sim) but I still am using my triumph at the moment since I had paid a few weeks in advance on my plan and it is still active.


The N4 just kills the triumph. It is simply the best experience on Android that there is. So fast and responsive. It is just amazing. I REALLY hate going back to my triumph to call people, Been using N4 24/7 on wi-fi and I love it. So glad I made the jump and actually got a great top of the line phone without contract and low cost prepaid monthly options.

Basically on VM the 25/month grandfather plan is great and the triumph is one of the last phones that can still stay on that plan. It is a great plan but the triumph has been annoying from day 1, but I stuck with it due to the 25 plan and the 4.1 in screen.

I would probably jump over and buy the htc evo 4g for 140 if i was going to stay on VM.. however, that doesnt make much since because the N4 also kills the evo and I would be losing the 25 plan for the vm 35 plan.. so.. it just makes more since to me to pay extra for a way better phone while keeping my monthly phone bill around the same (tmobile 30month)

That's great to hear, I'm excited to see what a difference it really is. My Triumph grates beneath my skin. The devs have done so much to make it usable, but it just isn't going any further than that due to hardware limitation and Motorola offering no source code to work with. I'm glad to be able to finally jump ship, enough of Motorola I say!
 
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That's great to hear, I'm excited to see what a difference it really is. My Triumph grates beneath my skin. The devs have done so much to make it usable, but it just isn't going any further than that due to hardware limitation and Motorola offering no source code to work with. I'm glad to be able to finally jump ship, enough of Motorola I say!

enough of motorola you say??? oh you'll be back!!! once the Google MOTOROLA X phone comes out! :D

so yeah keep your nexus 4 mint people! you'd be selling it in a heartbeat and be pounding google play again for that new google X!!! btw i plan on not sleeping and putting my browser on an auto-refresh every 2 seconds that day!!! LMAO!!!! it's a vicious cycle from here on out! :p
 
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