Going Retro

[SERO wireless]

The gory details:

I've recently relocated to an area that won't be getting 4G anytime soon, but does have massive WiMax coverage. I'm about 9 months away from contract renewal and the sweet, sweet subsidized new phone that comes with it. I came from an area with no 4G and sketchy at best WiMax coverage so I currently have a 3G phone to avoid paying Sprint's, "Pay for our damned network upgrade whether you can use it or not" fee. I have an option on a new Photon 4G for ~$250. Worth it?

1) I've been researching the Photon at xda. I know i can have Jellybean or 4G , but not both. Unfortunately, there are THOUSANDS of pages to read through on xda. What are the first few hacks/mods to try on my first day to maximize my Photon joy?

2) What accessories do you suggest? I'm considering an extended battery but I'm concerned about the added weight and thickness. A case is a must, but most cases won't accommodate an extended battery.

3) Is WiMax the promised land of 1Mbps+ connections, or is it a fancier version of the oversold, polluted cesspool that is Sprint's 3G network?

Any insights to the above mysteries from current and past Photon owners are greatly appreciated.

 

[anon(409656)]

Coming from one who has rooted, but still stock because I simply have not had time to sit down and dive into Flashing (and am honestly a noob where that is concerned), these a my few cents:

1) I use ADW launcher, Beautiful Widgets, Chomp SMS, Dolphin Browser, Battery Circle, K-9 mail and Evernote and Perfect Task Switcher as a start.

2) I don't employ an extended battery, but have had good luck with Juice Defender. The Photon has many built in battery saving features, and many here may disagree with using JD, but I have gotten up to 4 extra hours from my phone using it. I did not want the extra thickness of an extended battery, and I am not a full on power user, so the stock battery has worked well for me.

3) WiMax is a joke where I live, unless you are in the right part of town, standing out on the sidewalk. Sprint coverage is a bit of a joke, but you kinda get what you pay for with the exception of the special $10 upcharge you mentioned. In that case you dont get what you pay for!

I do plan to Flash, but you loose (potential) 4G and camcorder functionality. Trade off. This is what I plan to use: [ROM][JB-4.1.2]CM10 for Motorola Photon 20121127 (Unofficial) - xda-developers
Root access was pretty straightforward: How to ROOT your Photon 4G - Photon Torpedo Method - YouTube

 

[tirith]

The gory details:

I've recently relocated to an area that won't be getting 4G anytime soon, but does have massive WiMax coverage. I'm about 9 months away from contract renewal and the sweet, sweet subsidized new phone that comes with it. I came from an area with no 4G and sketchy at best WiMax coverage so I currently have a 3G phone to avoid paying Sprint's, "Pay for our damned network upgrade whether you can use it or not" fee. I have an option on a new Photon 4G for ~$250. Worth it?

1) I've been researching the Photon at xda. I know i can have Jellybean or 4G , but not both. Unfortunately, there are THOUSANDS of pages to read through on xda. What are the first few hacks/mods to try on my first day to maximize my Photon joy?

2) What accessories do you suggest? I'm considering an extended battery but I'm concerned about the added weight and thickness. A case is a must, but most cases won't accommodate an extended battery.

3) Is WiMax the promised land of 1Mbps+ connections, or is it a fancier version of the oversold, polluted cesspool that is Sprint's 3G network?

Any insights to the above mysteries from current and past Photon owners are greatly appreciated.

1) there is a way to retain 4g on other roms... there's a sticky here.

2) battery life wasn't too horrible for me... would last 14 hours on average.

3) depends where you are. I used to see 8+mbps regularly on wimax... now that my area has lte and I've upgraded to the note 2, I'm loving my speeds.


Swyped from my Galaxy Note II on the Now Network

 

[SERO wireless]

Thanks for your words of wisdom.

1) there is a way to retain 4g on other roms... there's a sticky here.

Sadly, while there is a stickied post the content has been removed. The post starts, "Removed due to complaints about cross posting..." I've gathered that the long road method allows you to use custom ROMs with 4G but the ROM must have keys. The Alien ROM had keys, but is no longer in circulation. The XDA page says that the long road method was superseded by nopudding4u, but I couldn't find a thread about nopudding4u on xda just a few threads of people complaining how nopudding4u doesn't work and asking someone to fix it. I hope to investigate this further when I have the time but I don't view this as a first-day hack.

 

[tirith]

I'll do some research on it and let you know

Basically works with any moto phone... try looking up droid3 or any other moto phone with 4g... atrix?

Swyped from my Galaxy Note II on the Now Network