Thinking about switching from Sprint for vibrant

[fulanit01]

Have a few questions about it:
- Has there been any news about capping data? Did a google search and didn't see anything
- Does T-mobile lock their android app installs like AT&T does?
- How hard is it to get an employee discount on Tmobile? Can I simply submit a valid email address?
- The advertised 2-line family plan is $139.99; is that before taxes? Several sites comparing contract costs state that Sprint and Tmobile come out equal, but Sprint is 129.99 before tax.
- Anything else I should be curious about?

Thanks!

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

1) no, infact, they are releasing a new HSPA+ with reported 21mbps download which comes out to about 2.625MBps which is only slightly higher than what I've gotten on Sprint before, but then again, where I was living I should have had worn Tin-Foil hats cause the tower was on the property (apartment complex).
2) no
3) dunno
4) before taxes
5) Coverage is more spotty? It really depends on your location, and if you travel a lot.

 

[whippingboy]

Sprint's $129 plan is BEFORE you add $10 4g per handset. The Epic will be victim to the additional fee.

That said- Sprint is the ONLY network where ALL Mobile to Mobile on ANY network (not just Sprint to Sprint) does not count against your minutes.

I'd rather have the keyboard of the Epic- but I know it's not for everyone.

That and I miss Tmobile's customer service- July 4th weekend I was treated terribly by Sprint for a week and issues are still not quite resolved...(where's my replacement phone they promised!)

 

[Shadnic]

You know, I've been waiting for the Epic even though technically I like the look of the Vibrant a lot more (I don't need a physical keyboard). I hadn't even "thought" about switching to t-mobile until I saw this thread :/

With sprint you can get a discount on a new phone once a year by being a "premier member"...though if you cancel your contract after one year, you're probably still hit with ETF fees, right? I'll probably hold out for the epic still, but now I'm just curious...

 

[jayty97]

I just did it last night... the future is moving toward soft keyboards... That was my biggest gripe. I have had countless reception issues with sprint (south of Boston) and their customer service reps talk out of there rears... will feed you whatever you want to hear. Before switching, I called t-mobile to talk to customer care and get a feel for what to expect. I asked the woman about there 3g upgrades and schedule and she said something I never heard a rep say before... she didn't know. She would get more information for me if I wanted... I was just testing her though and she passed with flying colors! A 15 minute call, she was polite, went over contract details and was very helpful. Now the Vibrant, I am in awe with. I just came from the evo and in my opinion it is a better device in almost every way... and gdamn it's light! I will be on a road trip thisweekend and will test out their service... so far, so good...

- no capped data
-the device already has root and is the most like the international versions than the other us major releases.
-no discount here, so don't know
-before taxes
- T-mobile only has a 15 day trial period... be careful from buying from 3rd party stores as they usually add on their own early termination fee on top of t-mobile's for a period of time... read the fine print!

 

[whippingboy]

ETF fees are cheapest on Sprint: $200 and reduced $10 a month after the 1st 6months. So after a year- you're looking at $140 to leave Sprint.

Sprint premiere does give you the 12month upgrade- which is awesome.

Sprint has great price benefits- but doesn't work in all areas and their customer service is like playing russian roulette some days you're lucky- other days agonizing pain that makes you wish for death.

I really really miss Tmobile's Customer Service- but I had more dropped calls in my area in 2months than I've had in 2years of Sprint - again-VERY dependent on your location and I'd even say phone however.

 

[fulanit01]

It was a tough decision for me. Played with the Vibrant and feel it is a phone worth switching carriers for. Unfortunately, T-mobile didn't offer a corporate discount with my employer and the Vibrant wasn't SO good as to justify an increase in my contract cost over the Evo.

 

[voghan]

I bought a vibrant on Friday. The screen is great, love touchwiz but not thrilled with the 3g coverage. At my office I'm on edge which totally sucks. I love the look and feel of this phone but the network sucks compared to Sprint's. I'm not interested in the extra bulk of a keyboard that the Epic will have. I thankfully didn't switch my number or kill my hero yet. I have ten more days to decide.

 

[ballroomdru]

That and I miss Tmobile's customer service- July 4th weekend I was treated terribly by Sprint for a week and issues are still not quite resolved...(where's my replacement phone they promised!)

When you call and they ask have you called about this issue before say yes. If the phone is not in your hands or at least a tracking number in your hands when they ask was your issue resolved say no. Do this twice in the same day and you will get a very good phone call generally.

 

[youngzayiles]

I bought a vibrant on Friday. The screen is great, love touchwiz but not thrilled with the 3g coverage. At my office I'm on edge which totally sucks. I love the look and feel of this phone but the network sucks compared to Sprint's. I'm not interested in the extra bulk of a keyboard that the Epic will have. I thankfully didn't switch my number or kill my hero yet. I have ten more days to decide.

I have to agree... Man I had t-mobile before sprint and coverage was horrible... at home I think I dropped a call every 10 mins... Id have to play with the vibrant just think touch wiz looks cartoonish... I think it would have been better with vanilla android...

 

[voghan]

I don't use any of the widgets but love the dialer. You can filter contacts for just those with numbers and like how you swipe a contact to call them. The screen is crazy. I'm running at lowest brightness and its perfect for me. With heavy use the battery melts like butter. After three hours of fairly constant use I've got the battery at 58%. Hope that improves as I break in the phone. A lot of browsing and reading the kindle app.

 

[whippingboy]

I went to Tmobile Friday to monkey with the phone- all you people complaining about touchwiz and "too iphone like" ... I'm sorry- but YOU'RE CRAZY! No iphone can do what this does. HTC Sense on Evo is perhaps a bit too much like a refined sense from the HD2- not a bad thing- but I'd still love to see sense work on the feature set some more.

Samsung with Touchwiz 3 did just that. From the phone dialer, to the contacts, (why in the HTC scroll list there's no alphabet speed scrolling?) to the calendar to the corporate account profile settings- to the improved email, to the arrange your app tray option where you can sort/arrange apps in any order and add as many app tray pages as you like!!! Samsung has really started from scratch. Their widgets are kinda blah- but that's what the android market is for.

Now on to the screen- WOW! Be sure to turn off the auto dimmer- otherwise it may be a bit dim to your liking- this thing is razor sharp and eyeopening color! Vibrant doesn't begin to describe it. Viewing angle is EXTREMELY impressive. Avatar's color is so good I'd actually argue it's up there with Samsung's BEST LED tvs! That being said- Avatar is sharp and colorful- but they are clipping frames. I can't say what the framerate is- but this is not the 24fps of the film material nor are they doubling frames as is common with LED tvs. It's not too obvious during dialog- but fast action I see it. It's acceptable I guess- the sharpness and color I never thought I'd see on a phone so it's a tradeoff- I just hope it's not a video processing flaw in the hardware.

Youtube is not the HD app from what I could see either- but I'm not a hardcore YT user so maybe I missed a setting somewhere.

The phone is amazingly light- too light actually, and the chrome rim and back cover...sorry- kinda cheap feeling. Not sure that's a dealbreaker as I always use a case for any phone- so once you wrap it- who cares? The bump on the bottom back I guess is for ergonomics, which in some respects is nice, but doesn't do anything for the looks of the phone. I actually think the back of this phone rather blah design wise.

Camera is good for pics inside the tmobile store...but I really don't understand not having flash.

The biggest thing I noticed is this phone is fast fast fast- no matter what I did to try to get the phone to hang up somewhere- on an app or switching from app to app- it responded very quickly.

Now I will say the phone is almost as big as the EVO and yet the screen is smaller- but I'll take the color and sharpness of the Samsungs.

 

[movieaddict]

ive used both phones evo and samsung vibrant, and the vibrant in my opinion does everything better then evo. plus my battery lasts longer on my vibrant then the evo.

 

[epakrat75]

1) no, infact, they are releasing a new HSPA+ with reported 21mbps download which comes out to about 2.625MBps which is only slightly higher than what I've gotten on Sprint before..

That's some nice area you're living in but even Sprint's own website says you shouldn't expect anything near that fast on their network.

4G Wireless Broadband Network from Sprint

4G ~ 3 - 6 Mbps
3G ~ 600 Kbps - 1.4 Mbps

Based on these official Sprint numbers, it would seem to make the T-Mobile 21Mbps (2.625 MBps) network claim ~ 3.5 times faster than Sprint's fastest 4G 6Mbps (0.75 MBps) claim. That's pretty awesome!