How about 4G phones?

[srt20]

So my wife and I are both due to upgrade. We both have Verizon and wont be switching. I have a Droid X and she has a OG Droid. My brother has the Samsung Charge and its a real nice phone, but is there anything better out there? Droid Razr, Nexus Galaxy, Bionic?

Main uses will be tethering to laptop, txt and maybe even some phone calls. Neither one of us are gamers. Call quality and loudness of ringer are important. Also front facing camera is wanted. Though skype is not available yet, correct?

Any phone techie guys on this site? Thanks

 

[Marty]

I have a Verizon Thunderbolt, all kinds of gizmo's, incredible download speeds in the 4g network. They claimed where we live we were on the 3g-4g border so I got it for a faster internet connection, that didnt work out so good. No faster than the Verizon wireless modem, and now after 6 months Verizon wants to charge a fee to use it as a pass through connection for a laptop or pc.

Front and rear cameras, and a ringer that will scare you! If all the features are turned on it goes through the battery pretty quick. Its pretty easy to turn stuff on and off as you need them. The navigation feature, set it on walk, it is the most detailed, zoomed in view I have ever seen. Tons of memory, you have to use the "sync" feature to download the pics and videos, kind of a pain. It would be nice if it had a card to pull out and stick in the pc.

 

[Stack]

I have the Thunderbolt, in Chicago I get about 13-15Mbps download speeds, just depends where you are as sometimes it can drop to 6-7 in a bad signal area. Task killer is a must, latest software upgrade has helped battery life and fixed my texting gremlins. Overall I like the phone, I use it to browse the web all the time, I have used my home computer once since July and that was for my fantasy football draft, I can do all my browsing on my phone.

Overall I like the phone and the 4g LTE is fast if it is in your area.

 

[psindust]

word on the street is, Kenwood is going to be unveiling a game changing phone next month, might want to investigate this a little more by checking it out on Google.

 

[polarisrider1]

We just got 4G in town, wife went for an upgrade and got the Droid Revolution it is 4G. It is bigger than my Droid2 with 3G and does not have a slide out key board. I would wait a bit, seems like the obsolete phones at an incredible rate.

 

[Hoosier]

I'm finally going to get on the smartphone bandwagon. I use Sprint, as I get a good discount on it. I'm looking at either the iphone 4S or the Galaxy II. What's better? I like the idea of the bigger screen on the Galaxy, but all the iphoners out there say there is no choice but the iphone.

I work on a computer most of the day but don't have a data plan yet for my phone, so this is all new to me.

 

[srt20]

Not sure about Sprint, but verizons Iphones are not 4G. I "think" its the same for the other carriers, but not positive. Might want to check first.

 

[Hoosier]

Not sure about Sprint, but verizons Iphones are not 4G. I "think" its the same for the other carriers, but not positive. Might want to check first.

That is true with Sprint also. I am not sure how much of an issue that will be to me. I am intrigued by the ability to tether the laptop, since I work offsite often and am always searching for wi fi.

 

[dcsnomo]

That is true with Sprint also. I am not sure how much of an issue that will be to me. I am intrigued by the ability to tether the laptop, since I work offsite often and am always searching for wi fi.

I use the Galaxy with Sprint and I have the wireless hotspot package so no tethering required. Nice phone, but not a lot of Sprint 4g service yet. Where there is 4g it flies!

 

[Hoosier]

Good to hear, DC. Supposedly we have 4G in parts of Indianapolis now, but I don't know for sure.

 

[harvest1121]

I do tether with a Blackberry when my wifi card will not work. The speeds are not that fast but it works. If you have Sprint unlimited get a program called tether its $50 and works well.

 

[srt20]

Yeah the only internet we have at the house is tethering off my wifes or my phone. We have a aircard but letting my dad use it. All of or internet is still on the unlimited plans. We use pdanet on our phones.

 

[dcsnomo]

The Sprint hotspot is great, because it allows others (up to 5) to use the connection. Tethering was not an option for us because the phone wouldn't work as a phone if it was tethered. Using the hotspot feature still allows full functionality to the phone.

On a trip last year we had the Galaxy doing all this at once, in the car:
Hot spot so my wife could do e-mails while we were driving (pretty cool in itself if you think about it)
Good blues playing through Pandora, phone plugged into car stereo
Navigating with Google maps, and when the directions came over the stereo it paused Pandora, so you went back to the same song
Taking phone calls
Receiving e-mails and texts
4g turned on
GPS turned on

Phone worked great....sucker got a little warm, but kept up to all tasks. I am really impressed by the phone, my problem is that the service up here is a hindrance to the phone.

 

[Hoosier]

The Sprint hotspot is great, because it allows others (up to 5) to use the connection. Tethering was not an option for us because the phone wouldn't work as a phone if it was tethered. Using the hotspot feature still allows full functionality to the phone.

On a trip last year we had the Galaxy doing all this at once, in the car:
Hot spot so my wife could do e-mails while we were driving (pretty cool in itself if you think about it)
Good blues playing through Pandora, phone plugged into car stereo
Navigating with Google maps, and when the directions came over the stereo it paused Pandora, so you went back to the same song
Taking phone calls
Receiving e-mails and texts
4g turned on
GPS turned on

Phone worked great....sucker got a little warm, but kept up to all tasks. I am really impressed by the phone, my problem is that the service up here is a hindrance to the phone.

How much more does it cost to get the hotspot feature (or is that included)?

 

[dcsnomo]

$29.95 per month

How much more does it cost to get the hotspot feature (or is that included)?