My Nexus 4 is on the way & I have a few questions...

[thejlw]

I ordered the 16gb Nexus 4 on Sunday and the projected ship time was before March 29th. To my surprise and delight I got a tracking notification early this morning and the phone is projected to be her by the end of the day Wednesday. This is a good thing but I thought I'd have more time to clear up a few things I have questions on...

Where to start...

1. Is there any difference between T-Mobile prepaid & Straight Talk (T-Mobile sim) ?

2. Is it tough to switch sims on Straight Talk? From what I've read T-Mobile is the way to go as far as data speeds but AT&T may be better from a coverage standpoint. I don't quite understand this though as I thought AT&T supported HSPA+ as well.

3. Can I start off with a number on T-Mobile and/or Straight Talk to try it out and then after I feel comfortable with one of the services port my number? I would imagine that would be just obtaining a new sim from Tmo or Straight Talk.

4. When T-Mo throttles speeds how slow are we talking? I work out of my house so the bulk of my data would be running off of my wifi but in the event I'm 'out and about' for an extended period of time what are my limitations if I exceed my data allotment? Can I still run navigation at throttled speeds?

5. I've never used pre-paid before but if I go with Tmo I imagine I can just change plan from month to month..? Can you switch a plan part way through the month or do you have to wait until the next 'cycle'? Do you lose anything by switching plans 'mid-month' ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[chubb]

I ordered the 16gb Nexus 4 on Sunday and the projected ship time was before March 29th. To my surprise and delight I got a tracking notification early this morning and the phone is projected to be her by the end of the day Wednesday. This is a good thing but I thought I'd have more time to clear up a few things I have questions on...

Where to start...

1. Is there any difference between T-Mobile prepaid & Straight Talk (T-Mobile sim) ?

Straight talk has gray areas with their "unlimited data". There are data caps, just no hard number.

2. Is it tough to switch sims on Straight Talk? From what I've read T-Mobile is the way to go as far as data speeds but AT&T may be better from a coverage standpoint. I don't quite understand this though as I thought AT&T supported HSPA+ as well.

Difference is the Nexus 4 supports HSPA+42 which AT&T does not have, they max at HSPA+21 which is half the theoretical speed. Plus Straight Talk is not offering AT&T sims right now, so the only way to buy them is off ebay for $50-$100 bucks. I've heard there is no guarantee they will activate it though, not sure how correct that rumor is.

3. Can I start off with a number on T-Mobile and/or Straight Talk to try it out and then after I feel comfortable with one of the services port my number? I would imagine that would be just obtaining a new sim from Tmo or Straight Talk.

You should be able too, but I couldn't port a number from verizon to AT&T for some odd reason.

4. When T-Mo throttles speeds how slow are we talking? I work out of my house so the bulk of my data would be running off of my wifi but in the event I'm 'out and about' for an extended period of time what are my limitations if I exceed my data allotment? Can I still run navigation at throttled speeds?

You get throttled to edge, which is about 200 kbps, At those speeds, I wouldn't rely on using navigation. I am sure you could use it, but you would probably be moving faster than it loads.

5. I've never used pre-paid before but if I go with Tmo I imagine I can just change plan from month to month..? Can you switch a plan part way through the month or do you have to wait until the next 'cycle'? Do you lose anything by switching plans 'mid-month' ?

You can switch, but not halfway through. When I tried it said the changes would take place at the beginning of the next cycle.

Thanks in advance!

 

[runtmms]

Which T-Mobile plan(s) are you looking at? If you're not in a rush you might want to wait for T-Mobile's big announcement about new service plans. I believe it is scheduled for the 26th.

When I was comparing plans I thought Solavei best fit my needs on the T-Mobile network. One thing they have that you don't get from T-Mobile directly is 2g data roaming in "service partner areas." T-Mobile prepaid only does voice roaming in those areas. (Of course, that could change with their announcement.) I don't know about Straight Talk.

Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei

 

[thejlw]

Which T-Mobile plan(s) are you looking at? If you're not in a rush you might want to wait for T-Mobile's big announcement about new service plans. I believe it is scheduled for the 26th.

Yeah I may hold off for a couple of days. From what I've read it sounds like the $50 Tmo plan will get a bump to 500mb 4g data vs. the current 100mb. This may be enough for me as I spend the bulk of my time using wifi.

How long have you been on Solavei? You're happy with it?

 

[thejlw]

2. Is it tough to switch sims on Straight Talk? From what I've read T-Mobile is the way to go as far as data speeds but AT&T may be better from a coverage standpoint. I don't quite understand this though as I thought AT&T supported HSPA+ as well.

Difference is the Nexus 4 supports HSPA+42 which AT&T does not have, they max at HSPA+21 which is half the theoretical speed. Plus Straight Talk is not offering AT&T sims right now, so the only way to buy them is off ebay for $50-$100 bucks. I've heard there is no guarantee they will activate it though, not sure how correct that rumor is.

So doesn't that make it impossible to active a Nexus 4 without cutting the regular sim down to micro size? I thought Straight Talk doesn't provide micro sims for TMo

 

[runtmms]

Yeah I may hold off for a couple of days. From what I've read it sounds like the $50 Tmo plan will get a bump to 500mb 4g data vs. the current 100mb.

How long have you been on Solavei? You're happy with it?

My husband and I both switched to Solavei in January. No problems for us. Came off of Sprint and have zero regrets. Some users had MMS issues early this month - it affected a limited number of people, mine always worked - a friend of mine had no MMS for a couple days.

I dismissed Solavei when I was first looking because I wasn't sure about them being new and the whole sign up thing. I finally decided I couldn't justify paying T-Mobile $50 for 100MB when I could get 4GB on the same network for $49 (~$55 after taxes.) The data roaming and conditional call forwarding is also nice - T-Mobile prepaid currently does neither. (I ported my number to Google Voice - don't know if I'd do that again or not...)

The referral program is optional and costs nothing. Solavei now pays me back some every month. I can't complain about that. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Sent from my Nexus 4 on Solavei