So My Cell Contact is Up... iphone 5 or Galaxy S3?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by opendoor

I don't really like the term "subsidy" for phones. They're not subsidizing it, they're just amortizing the cost out over the term of the contract by charging higher monthly fees. A $500 discount on the purchase price of the phone works out to be a little under $14 a month over 36 months and companies easily make that back through ridiculous prices for wireless service in Canada.

Here's the cheapest reasonable Rogers plan for new customers that can be had with a subsidized phone which costs $66 + tax a month:

200 minutes
200MB data
6pm evening and weekends
Voicemail
Call Display

So that's $2526 + tax over 36 months for an iPhone or Galaxy S3 ($150 purchase price plus $2376 in monthly charges).


Now compare that to a place like Virgin Mobile where you buy the phone outright (though you can use their Supertab thing where you get 10% of your bill back every month):

200 minutes w/ unlimited incoming calls
300MB data
Canada wide calling (i.e. no long distance charges within Canada)
5 pm evening and weekends
Voicemail
Call Display

That costs $50 a month for a 36 month cost of of $2270 + tax ($650 purchase price plus $1800 in monthly charges less $180 from the Supertab).

So you get a better plan for $250 less over the 3 years and you also get an unlocked phone. Obviously some people are on sweetheart deals and don't pay anywhere near that for Rogers, but the idea that these companies are hurting from these "subsidies" is silly. They just make up for it with ridiculous charges and fees.

The problem is you're comparing two different services. Virgin pickybacks on other networks and you don't get the same reception as with Telus/Bell/Rogers. What your really getting with Virgin with a phone outright is 10% off your bill or a savings of about $6.00/month. So you're getting about $150 for signing a 3 year contract.

Telus also offers a discount on your monthly bill in lew of a phone discount.

[QuadCityImages]

T-Mobile in the US also offers a discounted "value plan" for those who bring their own phones. Verizon, on the other hand, gives you no benefit for buying a phone unsubsidized or unamortized... Also, in their never-ending quest to screw their most loyal customers, Verizon won't let those of us with grandfathered unlimited data plans upgrade at the subsidized price without switching to tiered data. So my choices are buy a phone outright somewhere, yet continue paying the "amortized" monthly price, or pay $70 a month more for the amount of data I use. So yeah, I've been looking at gently-used eBay Galaxy Nexi...

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by blankall

The problem is you're comparing two different services. Virgin pickybacks on other networks and you don't get the same reception as with Telus/Bell/Rogers. What your really getting with Virgin with a phone outright is 10% off your bill or a savings of about $6.00/month. So you're getting about $150 for signing a 3 year contract.

Telus also offers a discount on your monthly bill in lew of a phone discount.

Virgin=Bell service, which in Western Canada=Telus towers

Also Bell does the same in giving 10% off the monthly bill if it's a customer owned and maintained phone.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

[wooohooo]

Originally Posted by blankall

The problem is you're comparing two different services. Virgin pickybacks on other networks and you don't get the same reception as with Telus/Bell/Rogers. What your really getting with Virgin with a phone outright is 10% off your bill or a savings of about $6.00/month. So you're getting about $150 for signing a 3 year contract.

Telus also offers a discount on your monthly bill in lew of a phone discount.

I think you are confusing Virgin with Wind/Mobilicity as another poster commented on.

Koodoo = Telus
Virgin = Bell
Fido=Rogers

So any of those 'discount' carriers, you will have the same reception unless you go with Mobilicity or Wind as they have their own towers.

[billybob123]

I think he meant Koodoo instead of Virgin.

[endeavor]

OP: Any interest in a Windows phone at all? If you're choice is only Android or iOS, that's fine .

But Nokia just announced the Lumia 920 and 820.... possible release in November.
http://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/lumia920/

[bossy22]

I'm in this boat now. I'm in need of a new phone. I'm on a 3gs currently. Screen is cracked, but phone is still very usable. My contract is ending. I plan on purchasing an unlocked phone because I hate contracts and I use my phone in the US. The roaming costs me a fortune. I do have a pay as you go phone from Verizon, but that's for the kids. I'd prefer to just swap sim cards. Also, I don't plan to get a dataplan. I work from home and can use wifi if I choose to surf on a phone

I use my phone for:
- talking
- texting
- gps apps for running
- music
- taking pictures (My wife has a good slr. This is for the spur of the moment things, like when my kid is doing something goofy or like today at Safeway when we went outside and saw a firetruck. My kid loves firetrucks, so we stopped to look at it. The driver got out to say "Hi", and he put a fire hat on my kid and let him sit in the front seat. Awesome, and worth a picture)

- if I'm in a wifi zone, like at my cabin, starbucks, etc, I will check email, facebook, and twitter

so I'm choosing between the s3 and iphone 5. I try to read these forums and they're ridiculous with all of the fighting in the sandbox about who's toy is better than the other's.

Can anyone recommend any good non-biased reading regarding these two phones?

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by bossy22

I'm in this boat now. I'm in need of a new phone. I'm on a 3gs currently. Screen is cracked, but phone is still very usable. My contract is ending. I plan on purchasing an unlocked phone because I hate contracts and I use my phone in the US. The roaming costs me a fortune. I do have a pay as you go phone from Verizon, but that's for the kids. I'd prefer to just swap sim cards. Also, I don't plan to get a dataplan. I work from home and can use wifi if I choose to surf on a phone

I use my phone for:
- talking
- texting
- gps apps for running
- music
- taking pictures (My wife has a good slr. This is for the spur of the moment things, like when my kid is doing something goofy or like today at Safeway when we went outside and saw a firetruck. My kid loves firetrucks, so we stopped to look at it. The driver got out to say "Hi", and he put a fire hat on my kid and let him sit in the front seat. Awesome, and worth a picture)

- if I'm in a wifi zone, like at my cabin, starbucks, etc, I will check email, facebook, and twitter

so I'm choosing between the s3 and iphone 5. I try to read these forums and they're ridiculous with all of the fighting in the sandbox about who's toy is better than the other's.

Can anyone recommend any good non-biased reading regarding these two phones?

If you travel a lot and want an unlocked phone I would strongly consider a Nexus phone. They are factory unlocked and can be used on any GSM network, just pop in the SIM card. You can buy SIM cards from ebay from every carrier and activate them as you see fit, pay as you go.

Damn near any phone will do exactly what the other does.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by bossy22

I'm in this boat now. I'm in need of a new phone. I'm on a 3gs currently. Screen is cracked, but phone is still very usable. My contract is ending. I plan on purchasing an unlocked phone because I hate contracts and I use my phone in the US. The roaming costs me a fortune. I do have a pay as you go phone from Verizon, but that's for the kids. I'd prefer to just swap sim cards. Also, I don't plan to get a dataplan. I work from home and can use wifi if I choose to surf on a phone

I use my phone for:
- talking
- texting
- gps apps for running
- music
- taking pictures (My wife has a good slr. This is for the spur of the moment things, like when my kid is doing something goofy or like today at Safeway when we went outside and saw a firetruck. My kid loves firetrucks, so we stopped to look at it. The driver got out to say "Hi", and he put a fire hat on my kid and let him sit in the front seat. Awesome, and worth a picture)

- if I'm in a wifi zone, like at my cabin, starbucks, etc, I will check email, facebook, and twitter

so I'm choosing between the s3 and iphone 5. I try to read these forums and they're ridiculous with all of the fighting in the sandbox about who's toy is better than the other's.

Can anyone recommend any good non-biased reading regarding these two phones?

honestly from your needs, the only real difference between the two phones (right now) is GPS. i'm sure you've heard the mess Apple got themselves into with their homebrewed maps app, and Google maps hasn't made it into the app store yet (with no real word on when/if it will be there). beyond that, it depends on how invested you are in the Apple world. do you have a lot of purchased apps on your 3GS? do you have any other Apple products that you interface with your phone? if no, then i'd say get the S3 simply because it's cheaper with upgradeable storage and a removable battery (handy to have a spare if you travel a lot)

[Flaming Choy]

One thing you might want to consider is the size of the phone. Some people feel the S3 is a little big so that may have you lean one way over the other. Aside from that, they'll both do what you need them to do.

[Tinordi]

S3 has by far the better maps app so I would get that.

[bossy22]

I don't use the native GPS app for much. I use the running/cycling GPS apps like strava and runmeter

[QuadCityImages]

Android's Maps/GPS app requires data though, to some extent. I guess it depends on how far your runs are, because you can cache a decent size area so its available offline. So if you know you're running within a certain area, while you're on wifi you can select a box around that area to download. I don't know how Apple's maps app works without data service. I wish you could go to like maps.apple.com or something to be able to see Apple's maps without running iOS.

[ken0042]

Personally, I just bought an iPhone 5. However I did also consider the Galaxy. Here are a few of my "TSN Turning Points."

- The rest of the family has iOS devices. "Find my iPhone" app is used daily between all of us.
- Size of the Galaxy. I have access to an S2 and used it for a weekend. I'm used to the iPhone size which felt more comfortable.
- Going back to the iOS- it's nice to buy a game for my iPhone and my son also gets to play it on his phone or the iPad.
- Paying for apps again. Yes, I likely paid more for the iPhone than an S3, but I just couldn't justify buying all the apps again. (Especially Slingbox at $30.)

If you are a 3GS user; try to borrow a friend's Galaxy for a day or two. Both are great devices; you just need to see which is best for your needs.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

Android's Maps/GPS app requires data though, to some extent. I guess it depends on how far your runs are, because you can cache a decent size area so its available offline. So if you know you're running within a certain area, while you're on wifi you can select a box around that area to download. I don't know how Apple's maps app works without data service. I wish you could go to like maps.apple.com or something to be able to see Apple's maps without running iOS.

I didn't know that about Android. With strava on my iphone, I don't have data on, and can still use it. This has been the case in the US when I'm down in whitefish. I have data roaming turned off because I'm still on my contract with data. I can still use the app and it logs somewhat accurately.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Personally, I just bought an iPhone 5. However I did also consider the Galaxy. Here are a few of my "TSN Turning Points."

- The rest of the family has iOS devices. "Find my iPhone" app is used daily between all of us.
- Size of the Galaxy. I have access to an S2 and used it for a weekend. I'm used to the iPhone size which felt more comfortable.
- Going back to the iOS- it's nice to buy a game for my iPhone and my son also gets to play it on his phone or the iPad.
- Paying for apps again. Yes, I likely paid more for the iPhone than an S3, but I just couldn't justify buying all the apps again. (Especially Slingbox at $30.)

If you are a 3GS user; try to borrow a friend's Galaxy for a day or two. Both are great devices; you just need to see which is best for your needs.

Thanks, that's a good idea. I was leaning on the 5 until it came out. It didn't blow my mind, so I thought I'd explore other options. I do have Apple TV and a Mac, but figured if a different phone was the best suited for me, I'm sure I could make it all work.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by bossy22

I didn't know that about Android. With strava on my iphone, I don't have data on, and can still use it. This has been the case in the US when I'm down in whitefish. I have data roaming turned off because I'm still on my contract with data. I can still use the app and it logs somewhat accurately.

The maps part will want data for rendering street names and what not as well as increasing the accuracy of the GPS. GPS alone I haven't found to be worth much.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

[Jing]

Originally Posted by bossy22

I didn't know that about Android. With strava on my iphone, I don't have data on, and can still use it. This has been the case in the US when I'm down in whitefish. I have data roaming turned off because I'm still on my contract with data. I can still use the app and it logs somewhat accurately.

What he meant to say is Google maps for the most part requires data. If the phone is just utilizing GPS (and not a-gps or any data driven app like Google Maps) then you should be ok. I am pretty sure you have many options for apps that use the GPS but don't use data on android. For example, Endomondo is an app that uses GPS to track activities like running and cycling, and it does not need cellular data (you can upload your results with wifi when you get home).

[QuadCityImages]

Yeah, pure GPS doesn't care about anything other than locking onto 3+ satellites. If your app has a database of what is at a certain coordinate, or if you just want distance travelled rather than "here comes 7th Street, no need for data. Or if the app caches the GPS coordinates and matches them up with a map later. But semi-related, how does iOS maps do this? Same way as Google maps, I would assume.

[bossy22]

Cool, yeah something like Endomondo is all I need.