Textured Soy Protein's totally arbitrary $600-or-less holiday 2018 unlocked Android smartphone buying guide! (UPDATED WITH EVEN MORE PRICE DROPS)

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 12/11/2018 at 11:30 • Filed to: None

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Hey, you, person shopping for a new phone this holiday season but after Black Friday and Cyber Monday! I know about phones, especially unlocked ones! I pay too much attention to them even though both I and my wife have perfectly good phones we don’t plan to replace anytime soon. My OCD is your gain!

I posted this last week, but resurfacing because of a bunch of price drops: Asus Zenfone 5Z, BLU Vivo XI+, Honor 7X & View 10, LG Stylo 4 & V35 Amazon Prime Exclusives, Moto G6 & Z3 Play, Nokia 6.1, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Sony XA2, XA2 Ultra & XZ2 Compact. I also have a purgatory section for deals that have lapsed but (maybe?) will come back.

Most of you are probably used to buying your phones directly from your carrier, or from a retailer like Best Buy that gives deals on carrier versions of phones. Well, quit doing that shit! Unless of course that’s the best move for you. But is it really the best move for you? Perhaps not!

But...cell phone plans are a different rabbit hole that I’m not going to fuck with right now. I thought about it, and started typing it out, but it just pissed me off. We shall revisit it later. On to the fun stuff: new gadgets to play with!

An unlocked phone is a phone you buy totally outside of anything to do with a cell phone carrier. You can put any carrier’s SIM card in an unlocked phone, and it’ll work just fine as long as the phone has the right radio frequency bands for your carrier. There are international and North American variants of phones, and for the sake of brevity (har har) I’m sticking only with North American variants.

Also, 600 bucks is a lot of money, amirite? Yes, there are many phones available for more than $600, but y’all can figure that out on your own.

Cheat sheet for brands that’ll work with networks (and there’s more details after the phone links).

AT&T - everything, for the most part

T-Mobile - almost everything, but a lot of T-Mobile’s network expansion over the past year is on LTE Band 71 which many unlocked phones still lack. Unless specifically noted, the phones that I say “work” on T-Mobile don’t actually have Band 71. You can check the T-Mobile Band 71 map !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The only phones on this list with Band 71 are the Motorola Z3 Play and the OnePlus 6 and 6T.

Verizon, Sprint, U.S. Cellular - Motorola, LG, Samsung; and the OnePlus 6T works on Verizon but not confirmed for Sprint or U.S. Cellular.

On to the phones! I’ve put the ones I think are good buys in italics.

Sub-$200

Nokia 3.1 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! & !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Mediatek MT6750N, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.2" 18:9 720p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android One for reasonably quick updates

AT&T & T-Mobile only

Headphone jack

Motorola X4 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 630, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.2" 16:9 1080p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android but little to no updates

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

This is an older but still higher-spec phone than the G6. Unless you’re in love with the bigger screen on the G6, the X4 gets you faster guts, NFC and a marginally better camera.

Honor 7X - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (the Huawei Mate SE is identical and $20-50 more)

Huawei Kirin 659, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.9" 18:9 1080p LCD screen

Huawei EMUI skin over Android

AT&T & T-Mobile only (no T-Mobile wifi calling)

Headphone jack

Motorola G6 Play - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 427, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.7" 18:9 720p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android but little to no updates

Compatible with all US carriers

Headphone jack

Don’t buy this phone while the higher-spec regular G6 is available for basically the same price!

LG Stylo 4 Amazon Prime Exclusive - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 450, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

6.2" 18:9 1080p LCD screen

LG skin over Android plus a bunch of preinstalled Amazon apps

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

It has a stylus but without as many gimmicks as the Samsung Galaxy Note

Nokia 6.1 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 630, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.5" 16:9 1080p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android One for reasonably quick updates

AT&T & T-Mobile only

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

Motorola G6 32 GB / 3 GB RAM - $185 at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with coupon; $200 at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 450, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1080p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android but slow updates

Compatible with all US carriers

Headphone jack

$200-$300

Sony XA2 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 630, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.2" 16:9 1080p LCD screen

Mostly stock, clean Android with sorta ok updates

AT&T & T-Mobile only

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

Moto G6 4 GB/64 GB - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for Prime Exclusive version, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 450, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1080p LCD screen

Clean, stock Android but slow updates

Compatible with all US carriers

Headphone jack

BLU Vivo XI+ 64 GB storage + 4 GB RAM !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , 128 GB storage + 6 GB RAM !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Mediatek Helio P60, 4-6 GB RAM, 64-128 GB storage, microSD

6.2" 19:9 1080p notched LCD screen

BLU skin that’s a mix of good extra features and some clunkiness

AT&T & T-Mobile only (no T-Mobile wifi calling)

3D face unlock kinda like Apple

Wireless charging

Sony XA2 Ultra - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 630, 4 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

6.0” 16:9 1080p LCD screen

Mostly stock, clean Android with sorta ok updates

AT&T & T-Mobile only

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

$300-400

Nokia 7.1 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 636, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

5.8" 19:9 1080p HDR notched LCD screen

Clean, stock Android One for reasonably quick updates

AT&T & T-Mobile only

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

LG G6 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Prime Exclusive version), !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 821, 4 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, microSD

5.7" 18:9 1440p LCD screen

LG skin over Android, Amazon apps on the Amazon version

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

Wireless charging

Water resistant

Motorola Z3 Play - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Prime Exclusive version); !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 636, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1080p AMOLED screen

Clean, stock Android, slow-ish updates, Amazon version comes pre-loaded with Amazon apps

Compatible with all US carriers including T-Mobile Band 71

NFC for Google Pay

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Honor View 10 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Huawei Kirin 970, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1080p LCD screen

Huawei EMUI skin over Android

AT&T and T-Mobile only (no T-Mobile wifi calling)

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

IR Blaster!

$400-500

LG G6+ - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 821, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, microSD

5.7" 18:9 LCD screen

LG skin over Android

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

Wireless charging

Water resistant

Sony XZ2 Compact - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 845, 4 GB RAM 64 GB storage, microSD

5.0" 18:9 1080p fancy LCD screen

Mostly-stock Android, not super speedy updates

AT&T and T-Mobile only

NFC for Google Pay

Water resistant

It’s small if you like that sort of thing

Asus Zenfone 5Z - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 845, 6 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

6.2" 19:9 1080p notched LCD screen

Asus skin over Android, supposedly trying to be better about updates

AT&T and T-Mobile only (no T-Mobile wifi calling)

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

OnePlus 6 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 845, 8 GB RAM, 128 or 256 GB storage

6.3" 19:9 1080p notched AMOLED screen

Nice clean nearly-stock OnePlus skin with pretty solid update track record

AT&T & T-Mobile (including Band 71) only

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

$500-600

LG V30+ - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 835, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1440p OLED screen

LG skin over Android

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack with fancy DAC

Wireless charging

Water resistant

Huawei Mate 10 Pro - $500 at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Huawei Kirin 970, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1080p AMOLED screen

Huawei EMUI skin over Android

AT&T and T-Mobile only (no T-Mobile wifi calling)

NFC for Google Pay

Stereo speakers

IR Blaster!

Water resistant

Bigass 4000 mAh battery

Samsung Galaxy S8 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 835, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

5.8" 18:9 1440p AMOLED screen but Samsung’s software defaults to 1080p in the settings because Samsung thinks we’re stupid

Samsung skin over Android, with decent security update speed but OS updates take longer

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack

Wireless charging

Water resistant

LG V35 Amazon Prime Exclusive - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 845, 6 GB RAM, 6 GB storage, microSD

6.0" 18:9 1440p OLED screen

LG skin over Android, pre-loaded Amazon apps

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

Headphone jack with fancy DAC

Wireless charging

Water resistant

(The V35 is basically the body of the V30 with the guts and camera of the G7)

OnePlus 6T - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Snapdragon 845, 6-8 GB RAM, 128-256 GB storage

6.4" 19.5:9 1080p notched AMOLED screen

Nice clean nearly-stock OnePlus skin with pretty solid update track record

AT&T, T-Mobile (including Band 71) and Verizon compatible

Headphone jack

In-display fingerprint sensor that’s cool but kinda wonky, apparently

Purgatory

Essential PH-1 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! but this is a clearance deal for store pickup only, and Best Buy’s website says there aren’t any left in any stores within 250 miles of me in the DC burbs.

Snapdragon 835, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB storage

5.8" 17.5:9 1440p-ish notched LCD screen

Clean stock Android with updates basically same day as Pixel devices (but how long this will last, who knows?)

Compatible with all US carriers

NFC for Google Pay

LG G7 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (had been below the $600 threshold but it’s not at the moment)

Snapdragon 845, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

6.1" 19.5:9 1440p fancy LCD screen

LG skin over Android

Compatible with all US carriers

Headphone jack with fancy DAC

Boombox speaker gimmick for extra bass

Wireless charging

Water resistant

Incomplete unlocked phone carrier compatibility appendix time!

Each of the carriers is better or worse at blocking unlocked phones from accessing certain network features. Here are the basics.

Verizon

Verizon’s old 2g network is based on CDMA technology. Nowadays you don’t need a phone with a CDMA radio to work on Verizon, if that phone has the correct LTE bands to work on Verizon, and Verizon has certified that phone to work on its network. Because Verizon primarily does voice calls over its LTE network now. Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls use data traffic, not an old-school phone network. This is how you get those HD voice calls that sound a little too clear, like the person is inside your head.

VoLTE is also the only way you can get voice & data at the same time on Verizon. A while back, some Verizon-specific versions of phones could do a trick where they used the LTE network for data and the CDMA network for voice at the same time, but unlocked phones can’t do that trick.

You definitely don’t want to fuck with an LTE-only Verizon phone if you use Verizon’s Go Unlimited or any of their prepaid plans, because Verizon throttles the shit out of data traffic on these plans any time you’re in an area where the network is busy, so much so that phones on these plans often can’t make VoLTE calls and fall back to CDMA. Live in a major city? Good luck with that!

Anyway, there are very few LTE-0nly Verizon phones. HTC is the main company that makes them, and I have a hard time recommending HTC phones at the moment, even if I did way back in the day go through no less than 3 different HTC Windows Mobile phones from 2006-09. Other than HTC, he vast majority of phones with the right LTE bands to work on Verizon also have CDMA radios.

Also, Verizon supports VoLTE on most Verizon-compatible unlocked phones, but the only unlocked phones that can do wifi calling (where the call data is routed over a wifi network instead of the cellular network) on Verizon are iPhones and Pixels. This is a limit imposed by Verizon, as there are a bunch of unlocked Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc. phones that can do wifi calling on T-Mobile but not Verizon.

AT&T

AT&T uses GSM 2G, HSPA 3G and LTE networks. I don’t even know if the GSM network is still active. But people call AT&T GSM anyway, since HSPA is a GSM follow-on technology. AT&T’s network is the most similar network in terms of technology to the rest of the world, so you have the highest chance of finding an unlocked phone that’ll at least be compatible with AT&T’s network, i.e. it has the correct LTE bands.

You want to do VoLTE or wifi calling on AT&T with an unlocked phone? Sorry, not gonna happen. But at least AT&T’s HSPA network supports voice and data at the same time, and its voice quality is vastly superior to the shitbag awful Verizon CDMA network. It’s not the too-clear HD Voice, but it’s still pretty good.

You know what other way you can access AT&T’s network without VoLTE or wifi calling? With an AT&T prepaid plan! So unless you neeeeeeed unlimited data, with an unlocked phone on AT&T, you should rock an AT&T prepaid plan, which unlike Verizon, is not subject to congestion throttling. Hallelujah!

Side note: Verizon and AT&T have HD Voice interoperability. If you have a Verizon VoLTE phone and call any other Verizon or AT&T VoLTE phone, you will get an HD Voice call. But since AT&T doesn’t do VoLTE with unlocked phones, welp, no HD Voice for you.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile also uses GSM/HSPA/LTE network like AT&T, but some of its LTE network is on weird LTE bands that nobody else uses. The big downside of LTE in general is that unlike the earlier network technologies that only operated on a few frequencies worldwide, there’s wayyyyyyy more LTE frequencies, and T-Mobile as a comparative little guy ended up with licenses to the weird frequencies in the US. To get the best coverage on T-Mobile, you need a phone that supports LTE band 71. While every phone sold by T-Mobile for the past year or so supports band 71, it’s still rare among unlocked phones.

On the plus side, T-Mobile supports VoLTE and wifi calling on a huge swath of unlocked phones. Except T-Mobile HD Voice doesn’t work with Verizon or AT&T HD Voice, so you only get HD Voice if you call another T-Mobile VoLTE phone. That’s relatively rare so getting an HD Voice call is more startling. Still cool though.

One notable exception to T-Mobile wifi calling on unlocked phones is Huawei and Honor. They do VoLTE on T-Mobile, but not wifi calling.

Sprint

What? Somebody still uses Sprint? They have CDMA like Verizon, and weird, but different, LTE bands like T-Mobile. There’s no VoLTE, simultaneous voice & data, or wifi calling for unlocked phones. But some unlocked phones will work on Sprint, if you’re a masochist.

US Cellular

I assume you live in or near the boonies. Similar CDMA etc like Verizon, less wacky LTE bands than Sprint, and no VoLTE, simultaneous voice & data, or wifi calling for unlocked phones.

facw > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 13:17

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There’s no VoLTE or wifi calling at all.

This is inaccurate. I know I’ve had wifi calling on Sprint since I got my S7 in 2016 . Sprint also started turning on VoLTE, I think in October? I don’t know if they have any restrictions with using these features on unlocked phones, but I don’t see why they would.

In any event, yes, I do use Sprint, I’ve got a pretty good plan, and their coverage is fine everywhere I’ve been.

Textured Soy Protein > facw 12/06/2018 at 13:21

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Neither of those features is available on unlocked phones with Sprint. I will clarify.

Lokiparts > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 13:41

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I love this, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who obsesses over phones. Also, I have to agree 100%, unlocked is the way to go. Ever since I bought my first unlocked phone and signed up for service without a contract I can’t imagine going back to being locked into a 2 year contract for a phone ever again.

Also I am slowly converting all of the Sprint holdouts that I know over to T-Mobile. When I switched several years ago, T-mobile was just so much better than Sprint in every way I was genuinely mad at myself for waiting so long to jump ship from Sprint... and it still boggles my mind that people even still use them.

Textured Soy Protein > Lokiparts 12/06/2018 at 13:49

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I had been on T-Mobile when I moved from Madison, WI back to the DC suburbs where I grew up . But the T-Mobile network at my office was super congested and had trouble getting into the building, mediocre at my house, and nonexistent at my parents vacation house out on the eastern shore of Maryland.

I switched to Verizon prepaid not knowing about the congestion throttling. First I did it with an MVNO (Boom! Mobile) and then directly with Verizon. The congestion throttling   sucked balls where my office was, plus in busy parts of the city when I go in from the burbs. It was less terrible directly with Verizon, but still pretty terrible. Now I work from home and it’s usually fine around my house but sucks when I go into the city.

I keep meaning to switch over to AT&T prepaid. No HD voice but the quality on HSPA is fine, and no goddamn congestion throttling. There’s an AT&T store super close to my house. But I keep forgetting to set aside time with my wife for us to go over there at the end of a month . My Verizon account is on autopay and I keep so it’s like, “oh I should go to AT&T, ah crap the damn autopay hit again !”  

I should just order SIM cards directly so I have them ready to go and port the numbers over from home.

facw > Lokiparts 12/06/2018 at 13:55

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Trying to convert Sprint to T-M obile seems like wasted effort given that T-Mobile is buying Sprint.

In any event, I’ve been using Sprint for a decade and don’t have any major complaints.

Lokiparts > facw 12/06/2018 at 14:23

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I mean this sincerely, but I am happy for you. I signed up with Sprint in 2001 and stuck with it for about 13 years. But where I live Sprint got to the point where it was borderline completely unusable. Streaming Audio, forget it, Streaming video, HA! Loading websites was measured in minutes . The ping time when doing a speed test was measured in full seconds. Text messages would take several minutes to go through.. if they went through, calls dropped all the time if you could even get it to ring.

But t he crazy thing is, it isn’t like I live in the middle of nowhere either. I live in a metro area with over a million people. I would almost always have decent signal strength, but next to no bandwidth .

With T-mobile in the exact same location I could suddenly stream music all day long without issue, upload photos and videos in seconds, and generally just do anything I want almost as if I was just on WiFi... and the kicker is that it actually cost me less per month.

So I am genuinely glad that Sprint has been working out for you, but after my experiences I genuinely despise them and I don’t know how anyone living in my area still puts up with them. Probably because they have them locked into ridiculous contracts. And d on’t even get me started on the WiMax vs LTE wars, Sprint definitely backed the wrong horse in that race.

facw > Lokiparts 12/06/2018 at 14:36

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Yeah, everywhere I’ve been (which includes some out of the way places), coverage has been good (meanwhile I have friends in Long Island City who need a femtocell because T-mobile somehow doesn’t have signal in their high-rise apartment). The one exception is related to the WiMax, Sprint started replacing their WiMax gear with LTE before I had upgraded from my EVO 4G, which meant there were places where I used to get a good 4G signal that were once again limited to CDMA, which was a bit disappointing.

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 14:43

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It’s weird how price colors perception. W ifey got a Samsung S8 on Cyber Monday but since it was $240 (after account credits, before trade-in and taxes) she’s like ... meh. But it’s $600 bucks! Or not ... ?

Lokiparts > facw 12/06/2018 at 15:06

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I think general congestion had a lot to do with the issues I was having with Sprint in my area. It was probably because there were just so many people using Sprint MVNO prepaid services, that it completely overwhelmed their system. Meanwhile, T-Mobile was the smallest carrier and had relatively uncluttered bandwidth.

Also, like Textured Soy Protein mentioned one of their drawbacks is that T-Mobile does use a weird collection of network bands, most of which are very high frequency ones that are great for speed but don’t do well inside buildings or have very good range in more rural areas. That’s why it is such a big deal that they recently introduced band 71. W ith it, they have the potential to become a true competitor to the big two as this is a much lower frequency spectrum on p ar with what Verizon uses. Initially it is just going to be used to bolster rural coverage, but when fully developed could be a game changer for them.

The main thing that irked me with Sprint though, was that they continually promised improvements, something better was always just around the corner, but they never materialized. I also had an HTC EVO 4g but we only ever got one WiMax enabled tower in our entire area before they stopped rolling them out. Which was actually right between my home and work. Too far to actually reach from either, b ut I would bask in that WiMax goodness for about 5 minutes every day while driving home.

Monkey B > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 15:36

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I’d say stay away from LG, they are as bad as Samsung with their bloat and redundant apps that they force on you. When I text someone that also has an LG it defaults to it’s own text app (I use Google), I can’t get notifications from Gmail (turned on), the fingerprint sensor sucks and it’s also the power button so it creates issues, notifications on another app i use frequently are set to silent/vibrate yet it makes a sound and doesn’t vibrate. Bluetooth cuts out frequently and other annoyances. This was a $900 phone and it fucking sucks . It’s a V35. The sad part is the hardware is nice, and if these companies would stop trying to bastardize Android into their own versions they’d all sell more phones with less issues . When will they understand they aren’t going to convert Android users to their own software ? I don’t know how a single sole has a Samsung and loves it, yet they are the largest selling brand...it makes no sense as they are total shit. I’ve had 3 and every single one was shit...and they were the flagship models.

The only Android phones worth anything run basic Android. So the Essential, Pixel and maybe One+ since their software, in my experience, is really close to stock Android and operates smoothly. Motorola did a nice job with software, but I gave up on them when the hardware got shitty. Maybe Nokia is worth a shot next.

Textured Soy Protein > Monkey B 12/06/2018 at 16:25

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My last experience with LG was a V20 that I returned after a week because of software . I mainly highlighted the G7 because of price/performance ratio and because LG has supposedly gotten less bad.

But I have an Essential and my wife has a Moto G5+. Motorola doesn’t have a good proper flagship at the moment (the regular higher-end Z3 is a Verizon exclusive and the only difference between it and the Z3 Play is it has an SD835 and the camera from the Z2 Force) but their midrange stuff is good for its price. When the Z3 Play was announced at $500 it was a hard pass, but $370 for the Amazon version is a reasonable price. 

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 16:39

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I want to throw the Galaxy A series phones into the ring. Samsung doesn’t officially sell them in the US but  you can still get them on Amazon or eBay. They’re slotted below the S series and have most of the same features (AMOLED, NFC, fingerprint, etc.). My 2017 A5 cost $350 on Amazon and the only thing it doesn’t have is wireless charging. The A series are available u nlocked and there are D ual SIM versions.

Monkey B > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 16:46

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I’ve been considering an Essential...would you recommend it?

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2018 at 18:47

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Currently running a Moto G3 but I’m hampered by its lack of a compass. I really like it s naked approach to Android so would prefer something in that sort of space. ..got a suggestion for an alternative?

Textured Soy Protein > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/07/2018 at 09:15

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My experience with my Galaxy S7 Edge soured me on Samsung. Even with an SD820 it was jankity as fuck. But I didn’t want to go down the rabbit hole of international versions here. 

Textured Soy Protein > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 12/07/2018 at 09:18

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I’m also biased towards nice clean software. The majority of phones here skew in that direction. Nokia is all in on Android One so you get relatively quick updates. Motorola is still clean but their update track record is mediocre. Sony technically has their own launcher but it’s very close to stock and I run Nova Launcher on all my devices anyway. I’ve got an Essential and love it. 

Textured Soy Protein > Monkey B 12/07/2018 at 09:21

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I love my Essential. Full review here . Since then, Essential brought back their notch settings menu which was one of my knocks against it in that review. The main thing is the stock camera app kinda sucks but you can run the various ports of Google Camera from the Pixels and produce great results.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Textured Soy Protein 12/07/2018 at 10:33

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I hear a lot of complaints about Samsung’s flagship phones, like overheating and failure to charge. I think it’s because they rush to get new ones to market every year and they end up based around a gimmick and not fully developed. Their mid-range phones have always been rock solid for me though. Probably because they're  based on tech that was new the previous year. Prior to this I had an A3 and an S5 Mini and never experienced issues with them.

Textured Soy Protein > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 12/07/2018 at 11:22

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My S7E didn’t like it when I would use it on the wireless charging stand I had for it. After a while it would give an error message about the battery temperature being too high and it was pausing wireless charging. This was using a fast wireless charger, maybe it would’ve been less of an issue with a standard one, I dunno. But that was far from the only issue with it. The longer I had it the more I hated it.

Most of their unlocked midrange devices are international versions that at best will only work on AT&T and maybe T-Mobile. I’m not sure whether they’re capable of doing wifi calling on T-Mobile, which is one of the main benefits IMHO of using an unlocked phone on T-Mobile. 

Textured Soy Protein > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 12/11/2018 at 12:07

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Some more specific recommendations assuming you’re still looking, since there are some price drops. The Moto G6 and X4 Prime are both solid deals. The G6 is newer with a bigger screen, the X4 has faster guts and NFC. The Nokia 6.1 and Sony XA2 are similar to the X4 but only work on AT&T and T-Mobile.

If you want to bump up into a newer processor and somewhat better camera , the Nokia 7.1 and Moto Z3 Play are worth considering. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Textured Soy Protein 12/11/2018 at 12:50

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The most unfortunate part is that none of these phones are small enough to me. 5.0" is pretty much the biggest phone I want to deal with. For some reason better phone almost always equals larger phone so I’m just stuck with bargain basement junk. I’m mesmerized when I still see people rocking iPhone 4s since those are the perfect size. 

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Textured Soy Protein 12/11/2018 at 12:51

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Can confirm the 6T is the best phone on the market for the price, it fights in the 1k+ flagship market. The inscreen fingerprint takes more than the initial setup to learn your prints

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Textured Soy Protein 12/11/2018 at 13:02

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Any input on Metro PCS vs. T-Mobile One? Wife and I are on the latter and pay a monthly bill of $110 after one kickback due to low data usage, and I guess we get Netflix paid for through them.

From what I understand MetroPCS uses the exact same network – although T Mobile reserves the right to throttle data speeds during high traffic times? We don’t really need the unlimited data anymore, don’t travel enough to make the international coverage a meaningful difference, and a plan with 5GB or so a month per phone sounds like plenty for us and can be had for ~$70 total. Even if we pay for Netflix ourselves that’s still a pretty decent monthly saving.

I’ve never had a prepaid plan before – assuming that can still be automated, correct? I’ve read that customer support is worse…which I guess is OK? I’ve never experienced good customer support with any cell provider so the thought of it being even worse is scary, but realistically once you get the phone working it should mostly be a non-issue? Anything else I should be watching out for?

Textured Soy Protein > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 12/11/2018 at 13:44

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Metro is owned by T-Mobile. The big issue with Metro is the congestion throttling. I haven’t experienced it on T-Mobile but Verizon congestion throttling is so heavy-handed as to sometimes render data basically useless. Also their customer service isn’t as good.

If you don’t want/need unlimited data, then I’d look at T-Mobile’s Simply P repaid plans before flipping to Metro. T-Mobile Prepaid doesn’t have the congestion throttling like Metro, and you get full regular T-Mobile customer service. Which, in my experience, is definitely better than the shitty second-rate customer support Verizon sticks you with if you’re on prepaid with them. Wifi calling an VoLTE work the same as T-Mobile postpaid plans, as do automatic payments . By default, video throttling is turned on, which T-Mobile bills as a “feature” to help you save on your data. They call it Data Maximizer. But if you’re on a prepaid plan with a data cap and would rather avoid that throttling, you can disable Data Maximizer. 

Looks like T-Mobile is running a deal where you can get the Simply Prepaid 10 GB/month plan for $40/month right now. They don’t have full details on their site but you should be able to find out at a T-Mobile store.

Textured Soy Protein > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 12/11/2018 at 13:58

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I’m happy with my Essential, especially since I got it when Amazon dropped the price to $224. But if had I known at that time, that the 6T was going to work on Verizon, I may well have waited for it.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Textured Soy Protein 12/11/2018 at 15:19

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Thanks for the info, your concerns pretty much validate what I had thought about Metro PCS. Hadn’t thought about looking in to T-Mobile’s prepaid plan though - great advice, thank you! 

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Textured Soy Protein 12/11/2018 at 16:19

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I run Verizon in SIM lsot 2 and Google Fi in slot 1