Switching to Android from Iphone

[tracker12]

Switched to IPhone after many years with an android phone. No regrets. Don't see me going back to a driod anytime son.

 

[davehc130]

well just don't put your samsung phone any where near anything you don't want burned to the ground....airlines and banning them due to all the exploding batteries have had.....and good luck with that google email....have you read the user agreement? They keep a copy of ALL YOUR EMAILS FOREVER and they state they have a right to use any of it....me I value my privacy and will stick with the iPhone....I have zero issues with memory....with iPhoto you can keep all your photos in the cloud and have access to them on your phone...I currently have over 55,000 photos and a 64 gig iPhone...with not storage issues at all...but I am upgrading to the new water proof iPhone, with the best camera in the industry...and my phone is unhackable.....and APPLE wont give the gov the ability to hack into it....remember the whole issue with the FBI demanding APPLE hack a phone...and they would NOT.....plus everything syncs between my email, calendar, contacts and phones.....

 

[dotman]

Verizon has the best coverage if that what u need also most expensive .Tmobile has the best bang for your buck with good coverage and fast LTE speeds. They just don't work here once you hit the mountains. In my case that's perfectly fine. I've had tmobile for 10+ yrs and have no plans to switch. I'm paying 70$ unlimited everything. Sprint has the worst coverage, and I AT&T has good coverage but the absolute worst company to deal with.

I like androids better then I phones, because you can put I a memory card and you can replace the battery. (on some phone they seem to be going with a sealed back so u can't take battery out) I won't get a phone if I can't do both. Not sure about s7. I know it has expandable memory not sure on battery, it's lighter and easier for me to carry an extra battery in back field for gps use or pictures.

They're will be a learning curve coming from iphone. You will like it once you have it figured out. No more cloud storage either. Everything saved to card, then card pulled and upload to computer. Easier,faster,safer. Cloud can be hacked. Androids are secure I've never had a problem in the many years and I use my phone to pay all bills,banking,trading...etc. Hard to beat a waterproof phone to. Good luck and take your time picking a phone, all phones are good, some just have different features. Samsung,nexus,htc you will be very happy with.

Really!!! Sprint has the worst coverage? Interesting considering I have used my Sprint phone everywhere from CO, ID and MT. While Verizon does have a monopoly in rural areas Sprint streamed music all the way from KC to Great Falls with very few and short periods of signal interruption. My buddies I hunted with in ID had to use my Sprint phone to call their wives since they had zero signal with AT&T. In most major cities Sprint is rated either the best or second best network with overall quality.

Disclaimer, I work for Sprint and have used my service all over the US for work and recreation. If you feel you'll have a lack of signal get a Delorme, add the cost of Sprint service and the cost of a Delorme service plus device cost and you'll still be cheaper then AT&T and Verizon with unlimited data 95% of the time when you are not in the middle of the mountains.

Google Sprint 3 Channel Agregation we just released in Chicago and KC, it blows all others away with our download speeds. Never been a better time to switch to Sprint. Samsung is a major Sprint partner in this new technology and the competition will have a difficult time offering a comparable service do to our vast spectrum holding of 2500, 1900 and 800mhz spectrum.

Now I don't recommend our service just because I work for Sprint, it truely is amazing service and the improvements over the last year have been amazing.

Now if you compare us to what we had 3+ years ago it wasn't the best but we by far are not the worst, heck research the third party signal testers and see for yourself.

 

[dotman]

So... my response to this is going to be long winded as I am a nerd who loves my gadgets and have a pretty vast experience with almost all manufacturers and service providers. I am a software engineer by trade so I can make just about any phone work for me, but I know this isn't the case for most people so for the purposes of this discussion I will be referring to stock phones and capabilities. I guess I will start with the simplest part which you must decide first: carriers.

There are 2 distinct groups of carriers: ones based on CDMA and ones based on GSM. These are old technologies but still drive cross compatibility and roaming contracts. CDMA is a digital 2nd generation phone technology that is only used in the USA, parts of Central America and Canada. Carriers that use CDMA include Nextel, Sprint and Verizon. The rest of the world uses a technology (and technologies derived from) GSM (HSPA). T-Mobile and AT&T along with most of the smaller carriers all run on GSM/HSPA. Because of that, if you travel out of the country, GSM carriers are your only choice. Why do you need to know this? Well you really don't other than for once simple detail. In order to help promote competition in the wireless space the government has forced the providers into providing "reasonable" roaming fees to allow smaller providers to even exist. However, this forced roaming arrangement only mandates they provide basic capability (no LTE roaming), so you will get voice, text and sometimes very limited slow data when roaming. Okay, so now that we know those things lets look at the big 4: AT&T expensive, slow, wide coverage. Verizon very expensive, acceptable LTE speeds but not the fastest, by far the best coverage. Sprint beyond terrible service, but you can roam on Verizon with free unlimited roaming (painfully slow data), dropped calls, cheap unlimited data packages. T-Mobile is my best value pick although they lost me as a customer when they removed the discount from my account without even telling me. They have very good service along all interstates and in most towns. They had the fastest service of all the providers I tried (25Mbps on HSPA+, 50+Mbps on LTE). The major downside is that once you get out of their coverage area they only allow 25Mb of free roaming data, but I was rarely in an area where I didn't have voice coverage if that's all you care about.

Okay, next devices. Now this is a very complicated area that has many factors. Most carriers have stopped subsidizing phones so you are going to now either be paying out of pocket or getting it financed for 24 months. The issue with getting it financed and purchasing it at the store is that you could get it cheaper online if you payed full price or even getting one used. Swappa.com is the best site for buying use phones and they do a very good job at making sure the phone isn't stolen and is in the condition claimed (go off seller rating). The issue now becomes are you ready to spend $650-800 on an S7 when you can get a Nexus 5X for $200 or a used S7 for $500. It's easiest to start with manufacturers first here so here we go:

HTC: Good hardware, they do way too much to the software (customization) so don't hold your breath that you will receive any software updates.

Samsung: Really good hardware, but their software customizations make things harder to use not simpler IMO. They will do software updates for a year and then leave you SOL. They have designed their customized software to make the transition from iOS easier but in doing so have made the overall user experience worse IMO.

LG: They had one good model of phone with the G3 but everything since has been complete crap. Stay away.

Motorola: Mediocre hardware, but they keep the software as close to stock android as possible so you get fast updates and a good user experience. The only things keeping me from switching to Moto is no waterproof and until recently no expandable storage.

Sony: This is what I have owned for the last 5 years. They aren't very big in the US, but are very popular oversees. This is mainly because they won't allow the carriers to corrupt their phones with bad software. They have more customization than Moto, but not nearly as much as Sammy or HTC. Good camera sensor, 100% waterproof (my phone sat in 3 feet of water buried in silt for 5 minutes while I tried to find it this summer), expandable storage are the reasons I have been a Sony fan. They don't make a phone compatible with Sprint and the only Verizon one is 4 years old (Z3V, what I own). AT&T and T-Mobile both will work with either the US or global unlocked versions of all of their phones. This was just announced this week: Sony Xperia XZ hands-on review - Review - PC Advisor (might be a while before you can get here, but watch ebay).

Google Nexus: These are phones made by other manufacturers that run stock android and are directly sold and maintained by Google. These phones receive software updates on day 1 of a new release (while they are the latest phone, as they get older it is delayed by a month or so). The new ones of these will be out this fall codenamed Merlin and Sailfish. The rumor is that the Nexus line will be growing in the next year. The problem I have had with Nexus phones is the lack of expandable storage (rumor of a 128GB version may have me rethinking my need for this) and lack of waterproof. I have a Nexus 7 tablet that is now 3.5 years old and runs like it is new with the latest software. I would seriously consider these if I were switching now. Also, if you do decide to go with these I would consider Project Fi, which is Google's new cell phone carrier that is mostly using T-Mobile's towers. They charge you only for the data you use. If you aren't a data hog I have heard people are keeping their bill between 40-50 a month.

So, now that I have given you the rundown of the phones; now I guess the case for Android. By default Android phones aren't encrypted like iPhones, but it is an option. Assuming that you have enabled that option and encrypted the drive then you will have the same security if not more options than your iPhone. Also, remote wipe isn't enabled by default; you must install an app by Google called Android Device Manager and then give it permissions to remotely wipe. One thing you will notice in switching from iOS is that there are a lot more free and ad supported apps.

If you want to discus any of this in more detail feel free to PM me your number.

FYI... I'm not going to tear apart everything but Nextel was never on CDMA, it was on IDEN which was developed by Motorola. Nextel and the IDEN network were shuttered in 2013 and that network and its 800mhz spectrum have been redeployed to CDMA and Sprint network coverage plus all the coverage Clearwire had is also now within the Sprint network again with upgrades to network hardware.

CDMA is still very relevant as both Sprint and Verizon use it for moving actual phone call traffic over, LTE technology is purely used for moving data.

Also most of your information is about 10 years old which in telcom is very outdated. Also while we Sprint do give you free roaming on Verizon's network (i.e. Cell sites only as actually wireless service runs over the telecom infrastructure in the ground) it is limited because Verizon customers come first on their network, so if there is heavy Verizon traffic Sprint calls will drop while on the Verizon network.

Sprint is the only US carrier using LTD (think that is the acronym) LTE tech in the US while every other carrier uses FTD LTE, again acronym might be messed up. Sprint is using what the rest of the world uses and you can get very cheap international plans that work in most countries vs the other carriers, also when traveling international to save money Sprint allows free wi-fi calling.

Now the LTE tech we are using allows us to split up our bandwidth, so we can allocate 80% for download or let it vary best on customer usage, the other carriers have a fixed download of 50% of their bandwidth. Our LTE will also allow for an easier upgrade to 5G which is coming. For our 3cca it is only a manufacturer software upgrade to allow for this.

Checkout the Nelison ratings on cell signals and you'll see our service is one of the most improved out of any industry.

 

[dotman]

Thanks fellas for the advice, gonna wait till the IPhone 7 comes out to determine what I want to do. I'm still leaning towards the S7 for external storage for all my pics and videos from my scouting trips when I use my phone skope and slightly better camera quality. I'm usually pretty safe as far as apps that are sensitive to money or personal info. I also don't demand a ton from my phone other than daily use,music, camera and occasional emails and social media....oh and of course tapatalk!!

Checkout the Freedom Unlimited plan from Sprint, also if you trade in your IPhone 6 you get a free IPhone 7.

 

[dotman]

COlineman78 nailed it. One thing that keeps me staying with Samsung is their auto brightness that you can see very well in direct sunlight. S7 has been flawless for me. Even my die-hard apple relatives give it props.

I've been with at&t for 9 years mainly because they treat me good. Coverage is decent where you expect it. Verizon coverage is huge in Colorado but not worth the extra $35 a month when it makes a difference 3 times a year. Sprint is a few years behind on network upgrades, not very clear on how their plans work, network is very small with out roaming. T-Mobile really is the best for your money and respectable coverage.

I guess getting info out about Sprint really Isn't working. Sprints network is way larger then Tmo's and much much better then both Tmo and AT&T and our plans are pretty simple, unlimited everything just decide if you want that or if you want multiple lines without unlimited data. Also we offer 50% off the current Tmo, Att and Verizon plans with exactly similar plans.

 

[dotman]

For whatever it may be worth, my girlfriend was a diehard iPhone lover. Had every single one as soon as they came out and wouldn't even look at another brand. She had major problems with all of them. From not turning on, headphone jack, all the way to battery exploding and destroying the entire phone. She finally got fed up and got a samsung after I repeatedly told her how much I liked my S5 (she went through probably 4 or 5 phones and I was still on #1). I've beat the crap out of my S5 and it's even gone swimming a few times (in a lake for extended periods). She now loves her samsung and swears she will never go back to an iPhone.

It took her a week or so to get used to it, but she's very happy she made the switch now.

Did you see the new Samsung Note 7 is catching fire, burned up a few vehicles and a house and Samsung has stopped selling it and recalled all of them.

Every manufacturer has issues and I swear they don't build them to last at all, that said I've been using iPhones for the last 4 years and will not go back to an android based phone.

 

[fngTony]

Dotman, sprint had so many years of bad owners, network, network type. All looks to be in the right direction now but its too soon to buy in. I will give sprint credit for not having an awful hipster add campaign like T-Mobile.

 

[dotman]

Dotman, sprint had so many years of bad owners, network, network type. All looks to be in the right direction now but its too soon to buy in. I will give sprint credit for not having an awful hipster add campaign like T-Mobile.

Well it is your money, I know it's hard to get people to trust after the old crappy performance. Good thing is many are coming back. When your ready to save a bunch of money to put towards hunting we'll be here . Just don't wait too long, I doubt our pricing stays low especially once 3cca is out to most major markets in the next year, 263mbps is a pretty good download speed.

Sprint 3CCA LTE service trial goes broad in Chicago

Network | Sprint Newsroom Easiest way to show third party testing in one link.

 

[fngTony]

Well it is your money, I know it's hard to get people to trust after the old crappy performance. Good thing is many are coming back. When your ready to save a bunch of money to put towards hunting we'll be here . Just don't wait too long, I doubt our pricing stays low especially once 3cca is out to most major markets in the next year, 263mbps is a pretty good download speed.

Sprint 3CCA LTE service trial goes broad in Chicago

My secret is having 5 lines and having 3 people pay pay me 160 a month so my wife and I only shell out 115 for our lines. That includes 20% off my data plan (employer discount). I feel I get what I pay for considering how sprint roams out west. I'll give up some speed for bigger data coverage. Sorry 1x and 3g on a CDMA network is garbage.

. Grey is roaming for sprint.

.

 

[dotman]

That I completely understand and agree with. Verizon's best acquisition was the small rural operators.

 

[fngTony]

True. I'm not a AT&T fanboy but customer service has been top notch for years. Don't get me started on Verizon customer service, I might get banned. Maybe with another year of growth I'll look into sprint.

 

[COlineman78]

FYI... I'm not going to tear apart everything but Nextel was never on CDMA, it was on IDEN which was developed by Motorola. Nextel and the IDEN network were shuttered in 2013 and that network and its 800mhz spectrum have been redeployed to CDMA and Sprint network coverage plus all the coverage Clearwire had is also now within the Sprint network again with upgrades to network hardware.

CDMA is still very relevant as both Sprint and Verizon use it for moving actual phone call traffic over, LTE technology is purely used for moving data.

I knew Nextel was iDEN for PTT but thought they still used CDMA for voice, but I was trying to keep with modern and last I knew Nextel was still around in central America using sprint tech, but could be wrong.

As far as CDMA being used for voice, I agree but probably only for a few more years as there is a push for HD voice calls which run over LTE. Also, Wifi calling is the stupidest thing ever because the ones I've tried (sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) haven't figured out the handover. You can't start a call on wifi and then leave your house.

So as far as my comments about sprint being the worst coverage, I stand by them as they are by far the worst in the Denver area IMO. My buddy who didn't bail when I did still can't make a call without disconnecting and he lives practically downtown. The problem is that the network was bad enough to begin with and then they screwed it up royally with the wimax rollout and then just sat on their hands trying to figure out what to do until finally rolled out LTE just over a year ago. I can also attest to Sprint's network speeds in Chicago being amazing, but in Denver they are still just barely pushing a 10mbps average. As a comparison I was getting 25-50mbps on T-Mobile with hspa+. On Verizon the speeds are slower with around 20mbps average on LTE, but I am writing to you from elk camp up near Oak Creek, CO with 18mbps; on Sprint you are roaming on 3g Verizon and you're lucky if you can ever download a web page. To be fair, T-Mobile and at&t are also both roaming here. One other major annoyance is that sprint deployed micro towers at the sporting venues, like mile high stadium, to try and help with the increased load and they work worse than if you were to just let it contest the tower. My brother was at the mile high showdown a week ago and couldn't send a text or load a sticker website even with full signal.

Sprint lost me as a customer and guaranteed I'd never give them another shot by promising network improvements that never came (customer service would say they were just months away for years). They have also gotten rid of the discount I used to get through work (so did T-Mobile, but Verizon and AT&T still offer one). They also doubled the protection plan price on me without telling me. Last of all I couldn't make a phone call without dropping at least once.

I am very happy with Verizon right now and probably won't change, but if I did I'd probably go back to T-Mobile or try project Fi.

I will say that unlimited sprint data was nice and they did have data along most major highways. I steamed Netflix most the way driving back from Vegas once.

 

[dotman]

I knew Nextel was iDEN for PTT but thought they still used CDMA for voice, but I was trying to keep with modern and last I knew Nextel was still around in central America using sprint tech, but could be wrong.

As far as CDMA being used for voice, I agree but probably only for a few more years as there is a push for HD voice calls which run over LTE. Also, Wifi calling is the stupidest thing ever because the ones I've tried (sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) haven't figured out the handover. You can't start a call on wifi and then leave your house.

So as far as my comments about sprint being the worst coverage, I stand by them as they are by far the worst in the Denver area IMO. My buddy who didn't bail when I did still can't make a call without disconnecting and he lives practically downtown. The problem is that the network was bad enough to begin with and then they screwed it up royally with the wimax rollout and then just sat on their hands trying to figure out what to do until finally rolled out LTE just over a year ago. I can also attest to Sprint's network speeds in Chicago being amazing, but in Denver they are still just barely pushing a 10mbps average. As a comparison I was getting 25-50mbps on T-Mobile with hspa+. On Verizon the speeds are slower with around 20mbps average on LTE, but I am writing to you from elk camp up near Oak Creek, CO with 18mbps; on Sprint you are roaming on 3g Verizon and you're lucky if you can ever download a web page. To be fair, T-Mobile and at&t are also both roaming here. One other major annoyance is that sprint deployed micro towers at the sporting venues, like mile high stadium, to try and help with the increased load and they work worse than if you were to just let it contest the tower. My brother was at the mile high showdown a week ago and couldn't send a text or load a sticker website even with full signal.

Sprint lost me as a customer and guaranteed I'd never give them another shot by promising network improvements that never came (customer service would say they were just months away for years). They have also gotten rid of the discount I used to get through work (so did T-Mobile, but Verizon and AT&T still offer one). They also doubled the protection plan price on me without telling me. Last of all I couldn't make a phone call without dropping at least once.

I am very happy with Verizon right now and probably won't change, but if I did I'd probably go back to T-Mobile or try project Fi.

I will say that unlimited sprint data was nice and they did have data along most major highways. I steamed Netflix most the way driving back from Vegas once.

That's interesting about the Denver market since Sprint is rated the best in the Denver metro. Now to take advantage of all the upgrades does require having one of the latest released phones.

 

[dotman]

Oh yes there may still be Nextel of Mexico operating but since Sprint never owned them I don't know their details. Sprint never was able to get IDEN and CDMA to play together, hence the worst merger in history. If you are thinking of the Boost platform yes it had a slow transition to CDMA and off of IDEN since it is still around but it was never part of Nextel, it was just started by Nextel.

 

[fngTony]

No one is bad in the metro area its when getting a few miles away. To be fair Colorado has geographical challenges and a sprint rep told me there is more politics here that causes delays in network builds.

 

[COlineman78]

That's interesting about the Denver market since Sprint is rated the best in the Denver metro. Now to take advantage of all the upgrades does require having one of the latest released phones.

They are now, but I jumped ship in 2012 when they were by far the worst. In 2014 they jumped from 40% to 80% and up to 92% last year. So they did finally fix the metro area recently, but Greeley where my parents used to live is still screwed up but that's for a different reason. They wanted to win the state farm contact so they changed their tower layouts and created a bunch of problems.

My biggest issue was that they kept promising the upgrades back in 2011 I think when wimax failed and it didn't happen for 4 more years even though they kept saying it was months away.

 

[TEmbry]

I'm ATT. Only other option is a local GCI or Verizon up here in Alaska. I travel too much to use the local carrier, and ATT is a bit cheaper with better coverage than Verizon so far here (been around longer).


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[dotman]

They are now, but I jumped ship in 2012 when they were by far the worst. In 2014 they jumped from 40% to 80% and up to 92% last year. So they did finally fix the metro area recently, but Greeley where my parents used to live is still screwed up but that's for a different reason. They wanted to win the state farm contact so they changed their tower layouts and created a bunch of problems.

My biggest issue was that they kept promising the upgrades back in 2011 I think when wimax failed and it didn't happen for 4 more years even though they kept saying it was months away.

Yeah that was a bad time for sure but we finally are making good progress. WiMAX was a bad decision.

 

[SUMMIT75]

So on the short and sweet what is gonna be a ok carrier as far as around the CO,ID and North West area OTHER than AT&T or Verizon?

I'm sorry but I'm paying a arm and a leg for AT&T and it was the same with Verizon. I can't wait for my contract to be up with AT&T. I mean let's face it, no carrier is perfect as far as coverage and I still have dropped calls and dead zones with both carriers before. Just looking for something that will let me get a call or text or pull up the weather every once in awhile when I'm on a peak hunting or something. I'm not picky and don't mind not having service every once in while. Heck we seemed to get by without it 15 years ago.


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