Looking at leaving AT&T for Sprint or VZW

[digiblur]

It all depends on your area. Verizon and Sprint have very good online coverage maps. Always check your coverage.

Sprint has data roaming contracts with everyone, I've never been anywhere where I was roaming and my Sprint phone would not pull data.

 

[SatinKzo]

Yep, gotta agree with digi. It depends on your area. For me, sprint vs vzw is a push as far as coverage does regarding voice and data coverage.
However at work, the contract is with Verizon. I had a verizon phone from work for about 6 months. Data coverage while it existed was total garbage as far as speeds go. Kind of made the phone useless for emails even.
I turned in my work phone, got a personal sprint phone, night and day difference for me. No difference in voice coverage or data coverage, but the sprint network for data near me is much faster. Top that off with a 1 to 1 comparison of features and prices and sprint wins easily for me. Even when I was out on the west coast in traveling through the rocky mountains this summer, I never once had any coverage issues with sprint and never failed to pull a reliable data connection while roaming.

There is not one carrier that can claim to be the best in all markets.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Now I've got a new dilemna... my fiancee is still under AT&T contract til february. I am not. But I dont know if I can live with AT&T for another 5-6 months! If I sign up with the employee referral now, then I am sorta screwed if I want to go with a family plan come February right (can I move over to an employee referral family plan at that time?)

Or maybe I should just get the family plan now, as its only about $12/month more than my AT&T bill.

 

[TheForce]

There is not one carrier that can claim to be the best in all markets.

AT&T does! :haha

 

[Kirby Baker]

AT&T does! :haha

Yup, and as I sat in NYC with full bars, I couldnt access the internet at all, not even forcing an edge connection! And in Ann Arbor, I again had full bars, 3G, and couldnt even make a call, send a text or access the network. But I had coverage!!!

 

[digiblur]

I do not think you can change into that referral plan at a later time. It is for new customers only.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Figured that was the case.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Can someone tell me how tall (long) the Sprint Touch Pro is? I've found 2 different numbers now, 4.0" from Sprint, and 4.17" from HTC's site. Not that 0.17" is a lot of difference, but if I'm going to start creeping over the 4" mark, maybe I would consider the Touch Pro 2.

 

[digiblur]

The CDMA version is below:

HTC Touch Pro (CDMA) Specs & Features (Phone Scoop)

 

[TheForce]

Kirby- The TP2 is longer as the keyboard has been redesigned to have larger rectangular keys with spaces between. Plus the screen is bigger.

The complete specs on the Verizon release is here

It is 4.57" long.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Yeah, and other than the screen being a bigger resolution, and the GSM capability (but only euro-3g?) I'm not sure its worth the extra size or cost. Decisions, decisions..

How often can you get upgrade deals on Sprint? And that SERO plans, does it matter I was once a Sprint customer (about 5 years ago)?

 

[TheForce]

I'm with Verizon and they are offering the TP2 for $199. That is much more interesting to me than the Sprint $350 price. My problem is my XV6800 is working fine so it's a tough decision as well.

There is also a TP3 is see posted here that uses the capacitive screen and is smaller. Looks to perform like a cheap iphone 1st generation imitation. Personally, I'm not that impressed with the iphone UI difference. I don't hope for WM to try to imitate iphone. With a pair of 2+ diopter reading glasses I can read my tiny text screen fine and the TP2 has that zoom bar.

 

[SatinKzo]

AT&T does! :haha

Laff, I should have stated that one better eh. Of course they all claim to be #1 everywhere.

 

[Kirby Baker]

So I did some more reading about the HTC phones, and I have a concern. With them being resistive vs. capacitive, do you need to use the stylus much, or does the TouchFlo stuff make it pretty comparable to a capacitive screen? Do the Touch Pro (or TP 2) screens scratch easily, do I need to use a protector?

 

[digiblur]

So I did some more reading about the HTC phones, and I have a concern. With them being resistive vs. capacitive, do you need to use the stylus much, or does the TouchFlo stuff make it pretty comparable to a capacitive screen? Do the Touch Pro (or TP 2) screens scratch easily, do I need to use a protector?

The screen protector that comes with the Touch Pro is very durable. With my finger nails I never scratched it. After a replacement phone I couldn't get it to stick anymore so I just used the regular ones you buy and cut out. But I did use it without the screen protector for a week or two and had no scratches, but it did make me nervous. I put screen protectors on everything I have that isn't even touch screen

I bet I only used my stylus once or twice last month. Especially after the WM 6.5 ROM's you can load, there is no need for a stylus. It's so easy to do with your fingers.

I always calibrate my touch screen with the stylus after I change the screen protector though.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Ok. Doesnt sound so bad. So if you didnt have a WinMo phone, and were getting into Sprint new right now, would you opt for the TP or TP2? Seems like they are only $50 difference right now.

 

[Symbol]

go with the extra 50!
TP2 has better hardware than the current touch pro,plus TP2 can be upgraded to windows mobile 6.5
also I do like the big spacey keyboard the TP2 has.
speaking of winmo 6.5, AT&T is the last carrier to get this phone,but that doesn't mean the company is behind, it comes with winmo 6.5 right out of the box I read,this phone should be available on October 18


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwvuwz7cuLg"]YouTube - Sprint HTC Touch Pro2 - Unboxing[/ame]

 

[digiblur]

Touch Pro 2 all the way.

And who cares if it comes with 6.5. No way would I run a stock ROM anyways.

 

[TheForce]

Kirby- From my experience, the only good Capacitive screen is the iphone. The way I see it the iphone is a bigger region area and must use larger icons and bigger on screen keys. But it is better sensitivity in sliding navigate on the screen. With resistive screen you get to cram more detail and smaller icons but then you either have to touch with a sharper than finger such as a stylus or finger nail and hit the spot with a bit more precision than the iphone. At first I thought the iphone capacitive screen was slick and speedy. But I soon realized that the more precise screen, the resistive one, was actually more efficient and to my liking.
Also, my phone has a small telescoping stylus that has a cap on one end and when pulled off is a ball point pen. Now I have a real pen when I need one to write stuff on a piece of paper. Now I don't know whether the iphone can do this but I can write notes with my stylus in cursive using the stylus and then save as a file. I use this feature often.

When doing some remodeling in the house, I made my shopping list for Home Depot on the phone using the hand written notes along with a couple of drawings of the floor plan with dimensions, quickly sketched out. I don't know whether the capacitive screens can do this.

With stuff like this I'm one who doesn't believe the capacitive screens are better, in fact I would not want to go with one.

 

[Kirby Baker]

I wish Sprint had a lower price on the Touch Pro2. But given that I can get into the plan I want for much less than on VZW (or my current AT&T bill), the savings should work out to about $40/month, so in less than 4 months the phone price difference is covered. Just wish they were more in line with VZW.