• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Straight Talk Nexus 5 Usage

I'm excited about getting my Nexus 5 this week, ordered 32GB white model at 1:17am November 1st and just got my shipment confirmation tonight. I sprung for the 2 day shipping so should have it here by Tuesday! Can't believe I got my order processed so quick after getting my order in so late. Anyway, this Nexus 5 is going to my wife. She currently has the white 16GB Nexus 4 so this should be a awesome upgrade. We are using straight talk with the at&t sim. I'll have to order her a new sim that supports LTE since she can now put it to use. I upgraded to the Note 3 last month and got the new LTE sim and have gotten up to 30mbps down at work!

I just wanted to see who else out there has adopted the unlocked pre-paid cell service route and how it has gone for you. We switched last year from our old Verizon plan and are saving about $1,500 a year. Plenty to upgrade our phones every year or in my case every 6 months... ;-)
 
How do you know what SIM to buy?

Well most new phones with the exception of the iPhone use the micro-Sim. The iPhone uses a special nano-Sim and older handsets used the regular full size Sim. A lot of tablets that come with 3G capabilities use regular or full size Sim cards still. Get the micro-sim from Walmart to save some versus straight talks website. The last micro-sim I bought cost me $5 with free site-to-store shipping. It arrived at my local Walmart in about two days. Good luck!
 
Upvote 0
How are the speeds after the first 2.5 GB of data?

I am not a heavy mobile data user. The biggest days I'll have will be downloading a podcast or two and just browsing the news sites, maybe streaming some Google music. I've never used that much to my knowledge since I've been on Straight Talk. My speeds have always been super fast and consistent here around Birmingham, AL.
 
Upvote 0
My wife is on AT&T Go Phone prepaid and it's $100/year. I plan to get a new SIM from AT&T and put it in her Nexus 5. She has WiFi available most of the time so she has minimal data needs but it's there if she needs it though it's relatively expensive. We might look into Straight Talk in the future.
 
Upvote 0
My wife is on AT&T Go Phone prepaid and it's $100/year. I plan to get a new SIM from AT&T and put it in her Nexus 5. She has WiFi available most of the time so she has minimal data needs but it's there if she needs it though it's relatively expensive. We might look into Straight Talk in the future.

I actually like the Gophone $60/month Smartphone plan, though part of it is I'm too lazy to jump through the hoops to switch to Straight Talk. It is more expensive, but you get 2GB of data and if you need more, you can add at $10/GB. I've been with Gophone since my first smartphone in 2009 (Nokia 5800) and I've never had to bother with apn settings and, while I haven't needed them often, I have found Gophone CS to be exceptional.

Saving $15/month on ST is nothing to sneeze at, so I'd never try to push someone to choose Gophone over ST, but I'm happy with it.

I tried the $30/month T-Mobile deal (100 minutes/unlimited texts/5 GB data) on my Nexus 4 and found my coverage, despite the optimistic coverage maps, to be too spotty. I may do it again for a month, in parallel, and see if it is any better with LTE, but I doubt it. That really is the best deal if you have coverage and don't talk much.
 
Upvote 0
I'm planning on giving TMobile a shot, prepaid. They have a $30/mo plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 5GB of 4G data. Speed capped after 5GB, and no overage charges for data.

If the coverage is good in my area, i'll gladly give up my VZ unlimited data for 5GB/$30 a month.

I'm on VZ now, but i'm going to put the N5 on tmobile and see how the service/coverage is.

Joe
 
Upvote 0
> I'm planning on giving TMobile a shot, prepaid. They have a
> $30/mo plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 5GB of
> 4G data. Speed capped after 5GB, and no overage charges for data.

That's very nice. I'm paying $75 at AT&T for 5 GB Data and 450 Minutes. I actually use far less than 1 GB/month but I have to get the 5 GB plan to get hotspot. AT&T and Verizon really know how to monetize their customers.
 
Upvote 0
I actually like the Gophone $60/month Smartphone plan, though part of it is I'm too lazy to jump through the hoops to switch to Straight Talk. It is more expensive, but you get 2GB of data and if you need more, you can add at $10/GB. I've been with Gophone since my first smartphone in 2009 (Nokia 5800) and I've never had to bother with apn settings and, while I haven't needed them often, I have found Gophone CS to be exceptional.

Saving $15/month on ST is nothing to sneeze at, so I'd never try to push someone to choose Gophone over ST, but I'm happy with it.

I tried the $30/month T-Mobile deal (100 minutes/unlimited texts/5 GB data) on my Nexus 4 and found my coverage, despite the optimistic coverage maps, to be too spotty. I may do it again for a month, in parallel, and see if it is any better with LTE, but I doubt it. That really is the best deal if you have coverage and don't talk much.

I've not tried the GOphone route with AT&T before. Yes they have switched to providing AT&T's LTE a few months ago. It was a huge jump in speeds for me, previously I was happy to get 5-6Mbps down and 1-2Mbps upload on HSPA+. Now I get AT&T LTE at work and home and regularly get 30MBps down and 5-6Mbps up.

Another tip if anyone here is thinking about switching, purchase your $45 unlimited refills on eBay. I pay for 6 months or even a year at a time and get huge discounts over the retail price plus no tax or shipping has ever been applied. I just renewed both my account and my wife until September of 2014 and only paid $215 for the 6 month renewal option. I've also seen 1 year cards going for around $410. That's an awesome deal if you can afford the upfront cost! $34.17 a month for AT&T LTE data up to 2.5GB's per month and unlimited talk and text all the time. We have certainly never looked back.

While I understand the initial setup is annoying and talking to straight talk's customer service leaves a lot to be desired the savings are undeniably sweet and it's so worth it once you make the switch. Heck after I set up both phones a year ago the only other call I've had to make to straight talk was to switch my Sim cards so I can access LTE data and update my APN settings two times. I recommend anyone who is on the fence about Straight Talk give it a month and try them out. Believe me you will love the service and wonder why you hadn't switched earlier. I've converted a few co-workers already and they are happy to be saving so much and getting the same or even better service than before.
 
Upvote 0
> I'm planning on giving TMobile a shot, prepaid. They have a
> $30/mo plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 5GB of
> 4G data. Speed capped after 5GB, and no overage charges for data.

That's very nice. I'm paying $75 at AT&T for 5 GB Data and 450 Minutes. I actually use far less than 1 GB/month but I have to get the 5 GB plan to get hotspot. AT&T and Verizon really know how to monetize their customers.

I had that same plan and was tired of paying the money and not having messaging.Now I have straight talk and don't miss at&t
 
Upvote 0
I read somewhere that AT&T includes roaming charges while the prepaid service variants may not so there may be better coverage overall with AT&T. I'm locked into a contract until next September so I'm stuck with AT&T (though I can lower my bill by losing hotspot) until then. Verizon is still a possibility for coverage reasons.
 
Upvote 0
I have had straight talk for a couple years now and I absolutely love it! I used to use GoPhone but did not like paying $50 for minimal minutes and only 1g of data. I used the data in a couple days, one if I decided tether. Although you can't tether on Straight Talk or they cut your data off (experienced that before so I don't advise it) it's $5 cheaper for unlimited everything. That was a no brainer at the time, and service was just as good as the GoPhone, which sucked in Hawaii anyway. Now that I live in Washington I usually have full service. This is the first time I'm hearing of LTE sims + service on ST and the 30/month tmobile plan is nice cause i don't ever call people, so now I am debating whether to order a new LTE sim or hop back to T-mobile since I already have a spare sim with them. Tmobile seems to be in my favor. I guess I can test both when I get my Nexus 5. Yay Google for pure unlocked Android. :)
 
Upvote 0
I've been with Sprint for 12+ years and I'm switching thanks to the Nexus 5.

I ordered the free T Mobile sim and plan to give it a shot for atleast a month. I probably won't use the entire 100 minutes or 5g of 4g.

If I'm not happy, I'll give Straight Talk a shot. Options are very nice right now.

Which begs the question, anyone in and around Denver and the burbs have experience with T Mobile or Straight Talk?

My wife is still on Sprint until next summer, but I'll happily pay the ETF once I figure out which service works best for us.
 
Upvote 0
Anyone actually have straight talk working with data on nexus 5.

New nexus 5 new straight talk customer

Tried all kinds of APN settings. Nothing is working.

I got my N5 this morning and activated new service with Straight Talk. Ported my number from Verizon, and I am getting LTE. I went to apn.straighttalkbyop.com and put in my phone and zip code (I had to select Nexus 4 if I remember correctly, since Nexus 5 wasn't an option). I entered what came up, powered the phone off and back on, and had LTE.

I've seen it switch between LTE and HSPA a couple times, but my speedtest on LTE pulled down 16-17 mbs and up was about 6.

I did have problems activating though. I entered everything on the website, and I got an error message saying the card I entered for my first month of service had already been used. Had to call customer service, and had a hard time understanding the gal I was talking to. I clled back to be sure there was indeed a month of service on my account, and the second rep confirmed there was. While I was on the phone with rep #2 my old phone quit working and my port was complete (took about 30 minutes to port from Verizon). Entered the apn info, and all has been well.

~Gary
 
  • Like
Reactions: ArmageddonX
Upvote 0
I got my N5 this morning and activated new service with Straight Talk. Ported my number from Verizon, and I am getting LTE. I went to apn.straighttalkbyop.com and put in my phone and zip code (I had to select Nexus 4 if I remember correctly, since Nexus 5 wasn't an option). I entered what came up, powered the phone off and back on, and had LTE.

I've seen it switch between LTE and HSPA a couple times, but my speedtest on LTE pulled down 16-17 mbs and up was about 6.

I did have problems activating though. I entered everything on the website, and I got an error message saying the card I entered for my first month of service had already been used. Had to call customer service, and had a hard time understanding the gal I was talking to. I clled back to be sure there was indeed a month of service on my account, and the second rep confirmed there was. While I was on the phone with rep #2 my old phone quit working and my port was complete (took about 30 minutes to port from Verizon). Entered the apn info, and all has been well.

~Gary

Did you end up using:

FIELD SETTINGS
NAME STRAIGHT_TALK
APN tfdata
MMSC http://mms-tf.net
MMS PROXY mms3.tracfone.com
MMS PORT 80
MMS_APN tfdata
 
Upvote 0
I've not tried the GOphone route with AT&T before. Yes they have switched to providing AT&T's LTE a few months ago. It was a huge jump in speeds for me, previously I was happy to get 5-6Mbps down and 1-2Mbps upload on HSPA+. Now I get AT&T LTE at work and home and regularly get 30MBps down and 5-6Mbps up.

Another tip if anyone here is thinking about switching, purchase your $45 unlimited refills on eBay. I pay for 6 months or even a year at a time and get huge discounts over the retail price plus no tax or shipping has ever been applied. I just renewed both my account and my wife until September of 2014 and only paid $215 for the 6 month renewal option. I've also seen 1 year cards going for around $410. That's an awesome deal if you can afford the upfront cost! $34.17 a month for AT&T LTE data up to 2.5GB's per month and unlimited talk and text all the time. We have certainly never looked back.

While I understand the initial setup is annoying and talking to straight talk's customer service leaves a lot to be desired the savings are undeniably sweet and it's so worth it once you make the switch. Heck after I set up both phones a year ago the only other call I've had to make to straight talk was to switch my Sim cards so I can access LTE data and update my APN settings two times. I recommend anyone who is on the fence about Straight Talk give it a month and try them out. Believe me you will love the service and wonder why you hadn't switched earlier. I've converted a few co-workers already and they are happy to be saving so much and getting the same or even better service than before.


Can you share a little more on the eBay multiple month ST cards? Trying to find 6 & 12 month options.
 
Upvote 0
Did you end up using:

FIELD SETTINGS
NAME STRAIGHT_TALK
APN tfdata
MMSC http://mms-tf.net
MMS PROXY mms3.tracfone.com
MMS PORT 80
MMS_APN tfdata

That was what I got from the website. I didn't see any place in the APN settings on the phone to enter the "MMS_APN: tfdata" entry, so I didn't do anything with that. Did you enter that some place? Maybe if you did you should try removing it. I didn't see any entry for MMS_APN in the settings anywhere.

Let us know.

~Gary
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones