Going down the various rabbit holes of which phone and which MVNO to go to next. I had to get a new phone (Samsung A32 5g) when DISH made me stop using my Moto X4 last year. I’d only ever had Motorolas till then. I bit for $50 since I didn’t want to deal with the rabbit holes at that time. Not loving the Samsung at all for various reasons. I realize it’s a budget phone, but just No. So I think I’ve settled on the Pixel 6a which people seem to love for the price, especially now that the Pixel 7s are out. The complaints I’ve seen aren’t really a concern for me like the 60Hz refresh. Not a gamer. Not a thing. Battery life- according to the Samsung, I average around 3 hrs/day screen time so probably will be fine.
Might miss the extra storage, but at 128GB probably not. Sadly, even the lack of 3.5mm phone jack might not bother me. Love my wireless Sennheiser earbuds!. The only thing that concerns me is the possibility of overheating. Not sure when that happens though. Also, the idea of the (now 4 years) software updates is appealing.
AT&T is not the best where we are, and TMobile seems to be the best for coverage. Been checking out the options reviewed here like Mint and Tello, or even MobileX or Mobi seem very cool. Almost anyone else is cheaper for more data, from what I can tell. I don’t need a lot, but sometimes I do use more than that 1GB.
Interesting to note that at 5PM ET I called RW to have them unlock my phone. Got the message it was unlocked at 11PM. They said it could take 2 days. Imagine my surprise.
I think the pixel 6a is a great option for the price. I’ve not had any overheating issues with mine so far . The biggest issue I’ve had is the in screen fingerprint scanner which for me doesn’t work well with the couple of glass screen protectors I’ve tried. This weekend I switched to a thin film type protector and it seems to be much better so far.
I switched from RW to Boost Infinite in December. BI has only one base plan which is 30 GB of data. I like the service very much, but that’s more data than I need. T-Mobile coverage is not so good in my area. If I were switching now, I would probably try MobileX. They use the Verizon network.
We have the A32 5G and has met our needs. I have been thinking about getting our phones unlocked just in case we need to make a move.
For now we are staying on RW as it works and the prices with my legacy discount are a bit less than the competition. After all of the troubles of moving from a 1.0 plan to 5.0 I’m not really in the mood for another round. Where we live service coverage isn’t an issue and all of the big three have decent signals though at our house we only see 4G LTE from the Verizon network.
I suspect at some point DISH will do something that will makes us decide to switch providers. I would not have said that when RW was still an independent company. Whenever the time to move comes I will look around at what is available and move to the provider that best meets my needs.
Thanks for your responses! Sorry, crazy work week. So tired.
Got the Pixel 6a at BestBuy this week. No complaints! Love this little phone. Fits in my work jacket pocket. It’s like I’ve got my old Moto X4 back. Never got used to or liked the Samsung UI apparently.
Used it for 2 days without a case or screen protector with no issues despite how slippery it is (whose idea was that anyway). No fingerprint recognition issues. Got the Spigen Liquid Air Armor case which is GREAT. Otterbox seems cool, but a bit overkill for me. IQ Shield screen protector is perfect. No fingerprint issues. The naked Gorilla glass almost seems too sensitive, or slippery or something.
Only seems to get warm when updating software (there was a LOT of that).
Camera is quite good, though not a requirement for me. I’m happier that it works better as a phone than any of the Motorolas I’ve had which makes no sense historically for Motorola.
The cool thing is it is capable of dual SIM, so I get to try out Tello for a bit. TMobile does in fact seem to be the best where we are here and Tello fits my needs. Sadly, before long I will be porting my number over to them in the coming weeks. It really is sad because RW was so very cool for the 10 years I’ve been a part of it. Okay, for the first 9, anyway. Another GB/mo for $6 less a month on a better network just makes sense right now.
Tried to set up Mobile X with the Samsung A32 5g with no luck. Said it wasn’t compatible or some such.
I still plan to pop in here to see what’s new. This has always been such a smart, kind and gracious community.
I always thought the Pixels were big – I guess they got smaller?
My first smartphone was the Google Nexus 5. Later when I looked at Pixels, they were giant-sized!!
I have a Samsung S20 FE and I couldn’t imagine carrying around a bigger phone in my pocket. Next time, I may consider a flip phone, smart phone, if they come down in price.
. The biggest issue I’ve had is the in screen fingerprint scanner which for me doesn’t work well with the couple of glass screen protectors I’ve tried. This weekend I switched to a thin film type protector and it seems to be much better so far.