Sprint customers on contract & looking to upgrade - SEE INSIDE

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Impulse

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 5, 2001
Messages
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Apparently the contract buyout program that all the blogs advertised a few months ago is still running... Basically you pay a sort of reduced ETF and they reset your upgrade date for you, between 12-15 months (since last renewal) it's $165 and between like 9-12 mo. it's $125. Not bad at all imo, new phone ends up coming out to $365 worst case scenario, before you even sell the old one.

I intend to upgrade from the EVO 3D to the 4G LTE, there's that one Best Buy offer they announced thru the Superbowl for $50 off... I'm thinking it might end up being the best option unless someone like Wirefly or does pre-orders for like $175 w/waived activation (which is currently $36 btw). Anyway, even if I can't sell or trade in the 3D for more than $100 I'd still be able to get the new one for $215-ish + tax/activation (and activation isn't terribly hard to have waived, specially on Sprint).

The original Sprint docs stated this offer expires today, no clue if that was inaccurate or they'll just renew it... The retentions dept. rep couldn't tell me either, best she could do was try and put a note on my account so they'd have to grant it to me thru the end of the month even if it disappears.

I'm an impatient mofo tho and my 12 months wouldn't be up until the end of July so I just went ahead and did it now just in case. It beats the hell out of paying full price imo. My only other option was trying to game the system by upgrading my free Airave line thru a 3rd party and not activating the phone on it (if that loophole even still works) but I figure this keeps me in good standing, it's easier, and possibly helps Sprint. /shrug
 
My contract on my Evo 3D doesn't expire until September, but I'm going to wait it out. I want to get a native ICS phone, and HTC is dragging their ass in the sand getting the update out for the E3D. I'm sure there will be a LOT more LTE phones offered this fall/winter, so I'll wait.
 
I wouldn't be so sure, Qualcomm had a big jump on everyone on A15 silicon with the S4/Krait... Either way, the new EVO comes with ICS, Sense seems tones down (not that I've ever minded it much), and the only faults I can find are the non-removable battery and meh-looking back. Frankly I've swapped batteries on my EVO 3D like half a dozen times tops, mostly when I travel.

ICS, best screen out there, kickstand, good camera, very slim profile, decent sized battery, microSD, camera button, fastest SoC out atm (tho the GPU is more evolutionary than revolutionary), 28nm integrated LTE for efficiency, MHL, 16GB internal, good aluminum construction, NFC, I'm so sold. I'm also tired of the chunky EVOs I've had thru the last two years with their mediocre cameras, glad I sold the original for $150 at least, the 3D was a nice performance boost
 
Silly sprint customers. Hopefully you guys actually get real 4g, the wimax was poop
 
Bman123 said:
Silly sprint customers. Hopefully you guys actually get real 4g, the wimax was poop
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Wimax is fine for me, but yes it did suck for the majority of users that didn't get it. Its what happens when you backed the wrong format :/ . Would you rather they pumped billions upon billions more in making it to a few more random places before they gave up?
 
Bman123 said:
Silly sprint customers. Hopefully you guys actually get real 4g, the wimax was poop
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Real 4g? Srsly? You do realize "4g LTE" isn't real 4g either per the 4G specification. The spec 4g spec was severely watered down, and labeled LTE to make it sound like a feature, rather than something that fell short of specified goals..
 
Who cares what some random spec sheet says? It's still an order of magnitude improvement over 3G/EVDO... And if I had the option to switch to Verizon I would, but they left Puerto Rico years ago.

T-Mobile isn't any better coverage-wise, and I'd rather gouge my eyes than go back to AT&T, specially after the caps and all the other crap they've pulled the last two years (on top of the multiple bad CS experiences I had).

So yeah, I'm sticking with Sprint until they either raise prices or throw unlimited data out the window; and if they manage to erect a halfway decent LTE network, everyone wins anyway. Not what the thread is about tho!
 
Impulse said:
I wouldn't be so sure, Qualcomm had a big jump on everyone on A15 silicon with the S4/Krait
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Gotta agree with impulse on this one. I'm pretty sure i read somewhere that samsung said they won't have A15's in phones until early next year. I think the evo 4g LTE would be a solid phone to have hold someone over until 2013.
 
Impulse said:
Who cares what some random spec sheet says? It's still an order of magnitude improvement over 3G/EVDO... And if I had the option to switch to Verizon I would, but they left Puerto Rico years ago.
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Why care? Because lazy telecoms will be lazy. LTE (and WiMax TBH) was only authorized to get the 4G sticker under the condition that those technologies were forerunners to compliant tech. True 4G is per the standard 100 megabit/second peak in high movement, and 1 gigabit/second in near stationary scenarios.

LTE-advanced which should meet the actual 4G standard, if it ever comes to exist anywhere in the US should blow LTE out of the water and put landline ISPs to shame...presuming it comes to exist like CEOs have bragged about. Given the general state of fat laziness of US ISPs, I'm not holding my breath. By the time Sprint LTE phones become common LTE-advanced radios will be being deployed, making LTE devices obsolete...presuming braggart CEOs aren't just spewing hot air about their LTE-A deployment time tables.
 
I could see Samsung releasing some interim models on Qualcomm SoCs tho, not like it'd be the first time... I'm not sure they'd wanna do a whole SGS3 line around it tho. No clue what Googorola and LG are up to tho, LG seems very focused on the mid-to-low end lately.

Frankly I'm not sure what they could do to really overshadow the One line this year... A much faster GPU would be one thing, since current S4 designs just have an older 2xx Adreno clocked twice as fast, and Samsung has had a knack for ending up with the best GPU... But that'd be hard to do if they end up using S4, unless they do a very late winter release with the new S4 + Adreno 3xx variant.

Most games on Android are coded down to the lowest common denominator tho... :/ Except like Tegra versions.

The only other thing I can think of that would cause a splash is some sorta pentaband world phone but I dunno how feasible that really is unless it's just a GSM deal and they mostly ignore LTE (which admittedly is mostly VZW customers and a few AT&T markets right now).
 
Sprint made that statement last year that they would be agreesively moving to LTE-advanced in 2013, we'll have to see if it actually happens
 
I think its more likely that samsung would push those 4412 A9-quad cores they got in the S3 though i would love for it to rock a A15 instead. I'm doing ok on my evo 3d so i'll wait until samsung shows its hand before I jump on an upgrade.
 
Impulse said:
The only other thing I can think of that would cause a splash is some sorta pentaband world phone but I dunno how feasible that really is unless it's just a GSM deal and they mostly ignore LTE (which admittedly is mostly VZW customers and a few AT&T markets right now).
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A refresh of the HTC EVO Design 4G perhaps? They fit WiMax, tri-band CDMA, WCDMA (IIRC), and dual-band GSM radios in it.... with on-board LTE I don't see why they couldn't do it again.
 
Skripka said:
LTE-advanced which should meet the actual 4G standard, if it ever comes to exist anywhere in the US should blow LTE out of the water and put landline ISPs to shame...presuming it comes to exist like CEOs have bragged about. Given the general state of fat laziness of US ISPs, I'm not holding my breath. By the time Sprint LTE phones become common LTE-advanced radios will be being deployed, making LTE devices obsolete...presuming braggart CEOs aren't just spewing hot air about their LTE-A deployment time tables.
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I don't care what they call it, but you're day dreaming if you think the carriers are soon gonna overhaul their nascent LTE networks... Truth be told, even their current LTE implementation blows most DSL/cable out of the water down here in PR. Doesn't do me much good whether it's 15MB/s or 50MB/s with a 3GB monthly cap tho!
 
Skripka said:
A refresh of the HTC EVO Design 4G perhaps? They fit WiMax, tri-band CDMA, WCDMA (IIRC), and dual-band GSM radios in it.... with on-board LTE I don't see why they couldn't do it again.
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It's a possibility, tho I meant what Samsung could do (i think you got that). The Photon had a similar conflagration no? Only with a Tegra SoC... I dunno what someone like Samsung really gains from that, beyond sticking it to carriers with (mostly) a single SKU. I guess that in itself would be worthwhile, not necessarily my ideal device atm but it'd be a big deal.

HTC for it's part could probably trot out a One X Max type rehash by year's end if Krait battery life ends up a disappointment. I'm anxious for AT&T to release their variant so we can get a hint of how Krait + LTE runs.
 
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