T-Mobile vs AT&T

[Githyanki]

I am wanting to get a note 4, and trying to decide the best way to do it. I am currently on AT&T, but I understand that if I order through them, my bootloader will be locked.
Next way would be to buy outright from Amazon, but thats a lot of money to drop at once.
Next way I can find is to switch to T-Mobile and they will finance it for 2 years. Same price as buying, so no interest. This may be the best way since the contract price is lower than AT&T enough that with the financing of the phone, it would be the same price.

Mainly what I want to know is if getting it from T-Mobile it would have a bootloader that is not encrypted so that I can unlock it, or do I have to go through Amazon to get that anyways, and then decide the T-Mobile vs AT&T thing separately?

Also, any thought on the T-Mobile vs AT&T for general usage?

Thanks!!
Githyanki

 

[chong67]

Are both available in your area? Then just use T-mobile.

 

[timelord65]

If call coverage is important to you. After all the Note 4 is actually a phone! Then go with AT&T. Too many dead zones with t-mobile, especially if you travel.

 

[rushmore]

Based on the title, seems like a reservoir dog fight to me

 

[Githyanki]

Thanks Timelord65. I didn't realize T-Mobile coverage for LTE was so spotty. It does cover my city, but there are enough gaps locally, and especially nationally to make me reconsider them.
I asked too early if the boot loader is encrypted, not enough people have received their devices to find out yet I guess. I will have to wait and see. If they are, and I have to go through Amazon to get my device, I may just stay with AT&T.

 

[mrao]

T-mobile note 4 does not have a locked bootloader like the att or vzw variants. If it helps, chainfire has already released cf-auto-root for the tmo note 4. Perhaps that will help you make your decision

 

[chong67]

Thanks Timelord65. I didn't realize T-Mobile coverage for LTE was so spotty. It does cover my city, but there are enough gaps locally, and especially nationally to make me reconsider them.
I asked too early if the boot loader is encrypted, not enough people have received their devices to find out yet I guess. I will have to wait and see. If they are, and I have to go through Amazon to get my device, I may just stay with AT&T.

By tomorrow Monday afternoon for sure as most Tmobile users will have it, you will know if the bootloader is unlock. Most expert says it will be unlocked like before.

 

[R=G]

Personally I think someone has to be damn near insane to go with AT&T over T mobile.

 

[CoreyV]

Personally I think someone has to be damn near insane to go with AT&T over T mobile.

Insane, or they just want decent LTE coverage?

Yes, I've looked hard at t mobile. I'll take pulling down 25 vs tmobile's 3g in my city. Call me insane...

 

[animeware]

I hate to root a device I used to do it I broke my device by doing it said to my self not doing it anymore.

 

[timelord65]

That's fine, no law says you have to root. That said its really hard to brick a phone even if installing custom roms. Just be sure to read the instructions thoroughly before rooting and installing custom roms. 99.9% of problems from rooting and roming is from user error.

 

[R=G]

Insane, or they just want decent LTE coverage?

Yes, I've looked hard at t mobile. I'll take pulling down 25 vs tmobile's 3g in my city. Call me insane...

U must live in a small little spot. Around here? We don't have those kind of ridiculous issues. I get 4G LTE. .downloading HD files at 3.4mb. I'm good. Unlimited across the board. I don't deal with limits.