My upgrade is March 1st. What do I do choose?!

[BL743]

Im moving from Blackberry! FINALLY. Longest two years ever.

I don't know what I should do...




Should I get the 4s since it's trade in value is the highest, and this way if the Nexus comes out soon I can put it towards that....


Im so unsure, I want a new phone on March 1st without a doubt... which one should I get?

Help!

 

[tybo31316]

Wait until the lte phones are released.

 

[SERO wireless]

Times have changed. A few things you should know:

1. Sprint is pulling a u-turn on 4G. They were using WiMax, but are now building an LTE network. The first cities will roll out LTE in 3Q this year. They'll support WiMax through 2015, but LTE is MUCH faster.

2. No Sprint phone you can buy today has an LTE antenna. The Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper will be the first.

3. All iPhones are 3G. If you're planning on selling an iPhone 4 do it before Apple rolls out the iPhone 5, or the new chips roll out since both events will reduce your resale value.

4. While the new phones have larger, brighter displays and dual-core CPUs they GUZZLE power. Many users report having to recharge in the middle of the day or keep their phone constantly on a charger at home/in the car/at work. You don't have to look too hard in the forums to find complaints about standby time and battery life.

5. The next-gen phones will have a low-power CPU core that sips power on standby and other cores that provide horsepower as needed. This will fix the battery problem, but those phones aren't available today.

I rolled over on 1 Feb and was also very excited about getting a new phone. After doing some research and learning the 5 points above I'm saving my Sprint contract credit for later in the year when the new LTE/low-power core phones roll out. In the meantime I got a phone with a massive battery out of pocket that has most of the features I want and decent battery life.

I admire your determination,but with two 4G phones coming out next month it seems kind of silly to buy a phone just to sell used less than 30 days later.

 

[prolongExistence]

Sure, assuming that LTE really does begin to roll out Q3 it would be worth it to buy a 4G phone. But obviously, and for good reason, they will target the major cities first. So, unless you live within a major city, it will most likely take at lest a year before we see LTE nationwide. So if they start in Q3 and it takes a year, that gives about a year & half before LTE is usable nationwide so is it really worth it to hold out for a new 4G phone. Of course, the first few that get released will cost an arm, leg, maybe even your first born & for what? A glimmer of hope that you may be able to use it for its full 4G potential in a year or 2.

 

[sparkeater79]

I am gettin a kick out of the "low power CPUs", the only way battery gets
better (with the current battery technology) is if they go bigger. you can tweek your roms and root and all that stuff but I dont believe that does much to help battery consumption. You just have to keep all unused apps closed and adjust your screen brightness (or use auto adjust). sometimes the battery that comes with the phone isn't up to par but that will only affect a small percentage of users. all these people who want to go for 2 -3 days without charging are stupid. Just plug your pbone in overnight and buy a car charger.

 

[blacksapphire08]

I am gettin a kick out of the "low power CPUs", the only way battery gets
better (with the current battery technology) is if they go bigger. you can tweek your roms and root and all that stuff but I dont believe that does much to help battery consumption. You just have to keep all unused apps closed and adjust your screen brightness (or use auto adjust). sometimes the battery that comes with the phone isn't up to par but that will only affect a small percentage of users. all these people who want to go for 2 -3 days without charging are stupid. Just plug your pbone in overnight and buy a car charger.

Sounds like you dont know what you're talking about. Rooting a phone and running a custom ROM can go a LOOOONG way towards improving battery life. The problem with the stock ROM is that it usually comes bloated full of apps that are looking for updates or running in the background (Facebook is a good example). Rooting also allows you to adjust your clocks on standby so you can use less battery. 2-3 days of battery life is absolutely possible on smaller phones like my Hero, and a full day to 1.5 days shouldnt be a problem for newer phones if you know what you're doing.

Of course if you talk on the phone constantly or surf with 4G then yeah battery life is gonna suck regardless.

 

[sparkeater79]

Point taken.... Still, why not plug it in when you sleep? I understand that doesn't help in the middle of the day, but I usually dont have a problem making it through an entire work day, seeing as how I am working during that period.

 

[prolongExistence]

My phone has the stock ROM and is usually off charge from 7am-midnight and I don't think I have ever seen my battery go below 20%. Not saying anything to discredit custom ROMs, I have never tried any. Just a point of reference.

 

[BPHusker]

I would wait for the new phones to be released. I think the MWC 2012 conference is in a few weeks. That is where they announced the EVO two years ago.