Help me choose my first Android, please.

[ruraltx]

Hi folks - I'm new here and hoping to get some advice on picking my first Android phone and carrier. Due to location, my options aren't stellar, but I've made lists of what I want from the device and what service is available from carriers in our area, along with some thoughts on plans, that should help narrow things down.

First, the carriers:
T-Mobile - only has 2G data, with an occasional pocket of 3G in places that I don't often go.
AT&T - has "4G" but it's really HSPA+ rather than LTE.
Verizon - has very good 4G LTE coverage.
Sprint - has decent 3G coverage, but only WIMAX as its 4G offering here right now, though they are are supposed to be rolling out LTE in the next couple of months.
Straight Talk - as best I can tell, in this area they piggy back on AT&T for GSM and Sprint for CDMA. It's hard to be sure on the latter, but I spent a while copying IMEI codes from ebay listings and putting them into their site and it seemed to like the Sprint ones but not the Verizon ones.

Next, the phone:
I want a QWERTY keyboard and some flavour of 4G, though I don't mind using 3G as well.
I want to be able to tether it to a laptop (even if that means rooting it or installing a 3rd party app).
My best guess is that I'll need 5-10GB of data per month.

Finally, there's plans:
T-Mobile's $70 unlimited offering would be ideal for me, if only they had a network in these parts that wasn't made out of cheese.
Verizon's $140 for 10GB is more than I want to spend and its Prepaid plans top out at 4GB, which is too low.
AT&T also want $140 for 10GB and it's prepaid plan tops out at 3GB.
Sprint has a prepaid plan for $60 with unlimited data (throttled do 3G after 2.5GB) and also has a $100 Business plan with unlimited data and 5GB of hotspot data that would be ideal, if only they'd completed the LTE rollout.

So, my thinking is that it might be best to do this in stages. Start out with a WIMAX device on Sprint (if I could get one cheap enough) on their $60 prepaid plan, then ditch that and move to an LTE device on their $100 plan once the LTE rollout is completed.

For the first device, with my wanting a QWERTY keyboard as well as WIMAX, I've been thinking of the HTC EVO Shift, which can be had for $20 to $40, if you time it right.

So, that's my thinking. Now, please tell me everything that I've gotten wrong.

 

[kate]

From your description it looks like Sprint is a good option.

Once they have 4G LTE in your area the LG Mach and Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE are two LTE sliders you can use. I believe those are the only two.

 

[ruraltx]

Thanks kate.

Unfortunately, I appear to have hit a snag. I've spoken with reps from Sprint and Virgin (still waiting to hear back from Boost) and it doesn't look good for my plan.

Sprint will not activate a Sprint HTC EVO Shift on a "Sprint as you go" plan (only on a contract) and Virgin won't activate a Sprint one, period. Which is a bummer, as neither of them offer a current phone that has both WIMAX and a keyboard. It's not on the list of Sprint devices that Boost will activate, either and native Boost Evo Shifts seem to be around $200, which is more than I'd want to spend on something that I only plan on keeping for a few months.

So, it looks like my options with the Evo Shift are limited to Straight Talk ($45, unlimited data, throttled at 2.5GB) or Net10 ($60, unlimited data, throttled at 3.5GB). I think that they both piggyback on Sprint round here and Straight Talk seems the better deal.

I've plugged a good IMEI from an ebay listing into both their sites but don't seem to be able to get a definite answer on whether it will work. Straight Talk's says that they need more info then tries to sell me an activation code, while Net10's just gives me gibberish (in both Firefox and IE).

But, if I'm going with a multi-network MVNO, perhaps I should revisit AT&T. Can anybody recommend a good GSM device that supports 4G HSPA+and has a keyboard?