Smartphone Buying Guide 2013

Since many tech blogs are doing a smartphone buying guide thanks to the holiday shopping season, I’m going to do one too with my own bias. 😀 If you read my blog for sometime, you know how I feel about provider locking, so this guide will focus mostly on GSM unlocked phones and GSM carriers/MVNOs. It’s actually pretty easy since unlocked phones is not the norm in the US.

Carrier Choice

In the US, there are only two major GSM carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile. Among those two, T-Mobile offers the best bang for the buck, and also the carrier that has a lot of MVNOs. The catch is coverage. So I would check their coverage first. Another great way to check coverage is to ask friends and family members as it will give you better real-life testimonies. Note that the coverage on T-Mobile’s website is assuming you have a phone with AWS band support. Unfortunately, since the number of carriers that use this band is extremely small, most phone manufactures don’t bother supporting it. Luckily, T-Mobile has also started to refarm the 1900 band for 3G in some areas, which is more widely supported than AWS as AT&T also uses this band. You can check this site to see if your area is a refarmed area. Note that this site is generated from user input, so the data is definitely more limited.

If you are not lucky enough to be covered by T-Mobile, next step is AT&T. In general, AT&T is more expensive, and has less choice in MVNOs. Their 3G speed is also slower than T-Mobile’s HSPA+. The upside is coverage is better in general, although I have been in areas where T-Mobile actually has better coverage than AT&T. This is their site for their coverage. Again, better gauge is to ask your friends or family members as the general map coverage usually assume that you are outside, not indoors. AT&T uses 850 and 1900 bands for 3G, and they are supported by many phones.

LTE

Both AT&T and T-Mobile have started to offer LTE. The main advantage of LTE imo is the much lower latency. Browsing the internet under LTE feels more like a landline broadband than a cellular connection. Speed wise, however, is not much faster, at least in my experience. You see people on the internet bragging how much faster their LTE speed is, but so far in my experience in trying Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile’s LTE, I usually get around ~10-20Mbps down at best, which is not much different than a good HSPA+ connection.

T-Mobile uses LTE band 4, and AT&T uses band 4 and 17. In short, phones that supports AT&T LTE will support T-Mobile LTE by default. LTE coverage is still very limited. I would rather have a good HSPA+ coverage than a paltry LTE coverage.

If you really must have LTE, then your provider selection is more limited. So far, I think there are no T-Mobile MVNOs offering LTE service, so to get T-Mobile LTE, you have to get a T-Mobile plan. AT&T only offers LTE on their own plans and their MVNO Aio wireless (at lower speed of 8Mbps).

Picking Your Plan

I have posted quite a bit of discussions on different MVNOs in this, and this posts. Just to quickly recap and to update things a bit:

T-Mobile and Its MVNOs:
Cheapest with good amount of data: Ultra mobile. $19 a month gives you 250 minutes, unlimited SMS, and 50MB data. You can add 250MB for $5. This is the provider I’ve been using so far.
Best deal for heavy data user: T-Mobile monthly 4G. No need to go to Walmart. Just order the SIM online from T-Mobile themselves. $30 a month gives you 100 minutes, unlimited SMS, and 5GB data at 4G speed (2G speed afterwards). This deal is so good that T-Mobile themselves are not making it easy to find it.
For unlimited talk: Straight Talk offers either AT&T or T-Mobile SIM. $45 a month gives you unlimited voice, unlimited SMS, and 2.5GB high speed data. It’s good that they specify the limit now. Another option is Simple Mobile or Spot Mobile, both are offering $40 a month for unlimited voice, unlimited SMS, and 1GB high speed data.
$50 and up: If you are willing to spend more, Simple Mobile offers $50 plan that gives you 3GB of high speed data (unlimited voice and SMS). If you are a really big spender, T-Mobile will give you unlimited everything for $70 a month.
Longest expiration date: This is a great option for a backup SIM. Spot Mobile offers a pay-as-you-go plan with $5 good for 90days.

AT&T and Its MVNOs:
Cheapest with good amount of data: Airvoice Wireless offers $40 a month, unlimited minutes, unlimited SMS, and 1GB data.
Best deal for more data: Straight Talk. $45 a month, unlimited voice and SMS, 2.5GB high speed data.
$50 and up: Red Pocket offers $60 a month, unlimited voice and SMS, 3GB data. If money is no object, Aio Wireless has a $70 a month plan with unlimited voice, SMS, and 7GB data.
Longest expiration date: Airvoice Wireless pay-as-you-go has $10 credit that is good for 90 days.

As you can see, it is clear that T-Mobile offers more bang for the buck, so pray that you have good T-Mobile coverage. 🙂

Picking a Phone

You have decided on your carrier and your plan. Now’s the fun part, picking your phone. 🙂

Under $100:
The Lumia 520/521 is really a good Windows Phone 8 phone at this price range. Unfortunately, you will be stuck with either AT&T goPhone plans or T-Mobile’s prepaid plans unless you can get them unlocked. Seems like since it’s a popular phone, it is getting harder and harder to find unlocks for these phones. Another catch is the 521 T-Mobile version doesn’t seem to support band I (2100) for 3G based on the spec on T-Mobile website. Something to think about if you travel as band I is the most common band used for 3G in Asia and Europe. Caveat emptor. I would spend more money to get better flexibility of unlocked phones.

~$200:
Motorola’s Moto G. There is no contest here unless you start looking at used phones. $180 for 8GB, $200 for 16GB. 720p screen, quad-core Snapdragon 400, near stock Android. It’s not shipping yet, but it’s the best deal on paper right now. It even makes the Nexus looks expensive. 😀 No LTE, but at this price point, who cares. Do note that there are two versions being sold, a global version and a “US” version. The US version supports AWS, which is useful for T-Mobile coverage, at the expense of lacking 2100 band support (the frequency band used for 3G in most Asian and European countries). Both versions do support 850 and 1900 bands, so if your carrier is AT&T, or T-Mobile has refarmed the 1900 band in your area, my vote is for the global version.

If you are a Windows Phone fan, Microsoft is selling the HTC 8X unlocked for $250. 16GB, 720p SLCD gorilla glass screen, dual-core Snapdragon S4, quad-band HSPA (no AWS though), LTE support for AT&T and T-Mobile. It’s a much better phone than the Lumia 520, but value wise, imo the Moto G trumps this. Check out my quick impression of the HTC 8X.

~$400:
Google Nexus 5. Penta-band HSPA, LTE support for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, Snapdragon 800, 1080p screen, latest Android KitKat. 16GB is $350 and 32GB is $400. Hard to beat at this price point. The only downside is probably the camera app. Check out my impression here.

Sony Xperia ZR is available around $450. It’s no Snapdragon 800 like the Nexus 5 and no LTE, but it is still a decent phone with penta-band HSPA, quad-core processor, 1080p screen, 2GB RAM, 8GB storage with SD slot, and it’s water proof. Something to check out if you need a phone that can withstand the environment a little bit. If you don’t need the water proofing, the Xperia ZL is bigger, supports LTE, and has 16GB storage instead. It’s hard to beat the Nexus 5 though for your money.

~$600:
The HTC One is available unlocked in regular Sense or stock Android versions. Ironically, HTC used to sell this for cheaper at $580 before the Google Play stock Android version came out. Spec wise, it has been upped by the Nexus 5, but it is still quite a beast with 1080p screen, LTE support (both AT&T and T-Mobile), Snapdragon 600, 2GB RAM, and 32GB storage. It only has tri-band HSPA though, no AWS support. I prefer the Sense version due to HTC Zoe as an added value. The GPE version is just stock Android, and at that price, might as well save the money and get the Nexus 5 instead.

iPhone:
iPhone is unique as it is only made by Apple. I wouldn’t get the iPhone 5c (16GB for $550, 32GB for $650). It’s basically a cheapened iPhone 5. If you are going to spend some $600, might as well get the iPhone 5s. Starts at 16GB for $650 and up to a whooping $850 for 64GB. It’s magical. Of course, the iOS experience is unique on iPhones, so the price premium might be worth it.

Well, there you go, my smartphone buying guide for 2013. 😀 Imo the real winner this year is the Moto G. Motorola was going to delay the Moto G in the US until next year, but looks like they were wise enough to ship it by December 2nd instead, and still catch the holiday buying season. At $200 for its spec, it really does offer great value, even arguably better than the Nexus phones. At this point, you have to really love your carrier to still buy a carrier controlled phone with contract. Nexus 5 is changing the game again, bringing top high end spec at mid-range price. iPhone is as magical as ever, and Apple doesn’t seem to be bothered by the low cost offerings of Android.

Hopefully this can bring some perspective into the plethora buying guides thrown in by tech blogs that are mostly focused on carrier controlled phones. ^_^ What phone do you want from Santa?

 

Picking Your Wireless Carrier part 02: AT&T MVNOs

Now that we know how expensive it is to have a smartphone using the big carriers, how can we save money? Enter the MVNOs, short for Mobile Virtual Network Operator. What are they? They are virtual operators, meaning they don’t have any spectrum on their own, so they lease some from the big carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon) and resell it to consumers. Since they are competing against the companies that own those spectrum to begin with, MVNOs generally offer better prices to attract consumers, and most, if not all of them, offer their plans as contract free, as prepaid and/or pay-as-you-go.

Notice that I said no-contract. Although most MVNOs still sell phones under their brand (mostly outdated cheap phones), the idea is to bring your own phone. This means no subsidy. Considering the savings you would get on the monthly plans, you still end up cheaper, especially if you purchase your phone for cheap (ie. a Nexus 4, or second hand).

Before we go further, I need to point out that the concept of prepaid and pay-as-you-go is separate in the US. In most other countries, those terms are the same. You put in money in your account, and it will be deducted when you use the service.

In the US, the terms prepaid is not considered to be the same as pay-as-you-go. The classic definition of prepaid, where you put money on your account, and then your account is deducted when you make calls based on the per minute rate is called pay-as-you-go. The concept of prepaid in the US is similar to post-paid, meaning you pay a fixed amount on a monthly basis for a pre-determined service. The difference is you pay for the service in advance before you can use the service, pre-paid, compared to post-paid where you pay after you use the service at the end of the billing cycle. In the end, it’s the same thing, you pay in advance to use the service, but you will see the two different terms being used separately in most US wireless carriers’ sites. I probably will not cover pay-as-you-go plans as most MVNOs’ pay-as-you-go offerings are lousy (very expensive per minute/per SMS/per kb rates).

For this post, I am going to focus on AT&T and its MVNOs. Before looking at the MVNOs, let’s look at AT&T itself. AT&T offers a prepaid plan on its own, part of its go-phone plans. It’s a bit confusing as AT&T disallow smartphones on certain plans. I’m going to focus mainly on plans that you can use on smartphones with data plan. AT&T’s most economical prepaid plan for smartphone would be the $25 plan + data packs. The $25 per month plan gives you 250 minutes, unlimited text, and you can add on 1GB data for an additional $25. So basically it’s $50 a month for 250 minutes, unlimited text, and 1GB data. You can bump the data pack down to $15 for 200MB if you wish to. Moving up to $65 a month will give you unlimited minutes. Compare this to AT&T’s own post-paid plan for smartphones, where the cheapest option would be $60 a month for 450 minutes, no text, and a mere 300MB data, this is not a bad deal. The catch is that the go-phone coverage area is less extensive than the post-paid plans, but shouldn’t be an issue for most people that live in cities. You can get the SIM chip for free by going to AT&T stores. I would recommend going to an actual AT&T corporate store, not a reseller, as most resellers would try to charge you money and/or scam you.

Now, let’s take a look at the MVNOs. First I would like to mention Red Pocket. They are one of the bigger AT&T MVNOs. Their prepaid plans are very simple. The most economical one for smartphone usage would be the $50 a month plan that gives you unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 500MB of data. A fair trade-off compared to AT&T’s own go-phone plan. You get unlimited minutes, but less data. There is also a $55 a month plan that bum up the data quota to 1GB. Red Pocket is one of the few MVNOs that actually sells a nano-SIM for iPhone 5 users.

I would also like to point out that you can save up a bit more (a dollar or two) on your monthly cost by purchasing the refill PIN from 3rd party resellers. For example, the $49.99 PIN at pincheap.com is $47.99, no tax. Hey, those extra dollar adds up you know. 🙂

Next, another popular AT&T MVNO is Airvoice. For $40 a month, you get unlimited minutes, unlimited text, and 500MB data. It gets better already huh, especially when you compare to the post-paid plans from the big carriers that will cost you at least eighty ninety dollars per month. $55 a month bumps the data to 1GB. There is a catch with Airvoice though. Even though you have 500MB of data, you only have access to the first 200MB (I think. 400MB for the 1GB plan). For the rest, you have to call their customer service to enable it. This can be really inconvenient. So caveat emptor.

I would like to point out Airvoice’s pay-as-you-go plan. Although the rates are nothing special (10 cents a minute, 10 cents per SMS, $1 monthly charge), their lowest denomination, $10, is good for 90 days. This is a good pick for a backup phone, even if you are paying $1 per month to keep the line. Most other operators and carriers will only give you 30 days. Airvoice only sells a mini SIM chip, although you can search ebay or Amazon to find people selling a pre-cut SIM to micro/nano size easily (for cheaper too!)

Lastly, I want to mention good2go mobile. I don’t think it’s a well-known company, but it offers a neat feature. Its most economical plan would be $40 a month that gives you unlimited calls, unlimited text, and 250MB of data. For $50 a month, you get 1GB data. The neat thing about good2go is that you can add on some more data when you need it. So instead of paying $50 a month for 1GB of data that I might not use, I can just pick the $40 a month plan, and I can add 500MB data for $10 when I actually need it. They offer mini and micro SIM from their website.

Well, how about that. Looking back when the cheapest smartphone plan from the big carriers would cost you $80-$90 a month, now you are looking at less than $60 a month prices. Consider a typical 2 year contract. Let say you save $20 a month by going with an MVNO. In 2 years, you have saved $480, and that doesn’t include taxes that you have to pay on those post-paid plans. Add on to the fact that you can buy refill PINs for a dollar two less, that is quite a big savings. If you save $30 a month, that’s at least $720 in your pocket for two years! You can buy a new iPhone with that. Oh, and get this, if you finish your contract on those big carriers’ post-paid plans, your monthly plans are not getting any cheaper, even though technically you have fulfilled your subsidy.

As a side note, there used to be another large MVNO utilizing AT&T towers called Straight Talk. Straight Talk offered both AT&T SIM or T-Mobile SIM. You can find them at Walmart, but they also sell the SIMs on their website. Their plan is $45 a month ($50 with taxes if you buy the PIN from the website) for unlimited minutes, unlimited text, and “unlimited” data (which translates to about 2GB. Still, it’s not bad). Comparing the prices, Straight Talk had the best deal if you need a bit more data than the 1GB offered by the other MVNOs. Problem is, for some unknown reason, they no longer offer the AT&T version of their SIM on their website. Only T-Mobile SIM is listed now.

On my next post, I will explore T-Mobile MVNOs, where the selections are a ton more, and also the bang for the buck.

Addendum: I forgot to mention H2O wireless, another AT&T MVNO. They have decent plans, although fairly similar to the other MVNOs. $50 a month gives you unlimited minutes, text, international text, and 500MB data. $60 bumps the data to 2GB. $40 bumps the data down to 100MB. Mini and micro SIM are available for $10.