Going to T-Mobile, which phone to get?

[Pardus]

Been with Virgin Mobile for a year now, but there service is terrible around here. Most places I get 1 bar or no service at all, even if big cities. When I do get service, the call quality sucks.

At the end of July, I decided not to pay for another month of agony. T-Mobile looks promising, $50/mo for unlimited talk, text and 500Mb of data or $60/mo for unlimited talk, text and 2GB of data.

Data wise, I use gps a lot and the occasional checking of a website or two, no video or music playing when i'm not on wi-fi. If i bought a garmin, the $50 plan would suffice.

Looking at t-mobile's phones, the HTC One is $580 and the Samsung Galaxy S 4 is $630.

Does it make sense to buy the phone from t-mobile or ebay, craigslist, etc ?

Which phone is the better one to get overall?

I wish T-Mobile had there phones at a discounted rate with a contract, $600 for a phone is crazy.

AT&T and Verizon are too damn expensive, $100 a month for the same service.

 

[Germanic]

If it was the same situation 2 months ago, I would say 100% the Galaxy S4.

But now, I would wait for the Galaxy Note 3 to be honest.

Or the LG Optimus G2 although I'm not sure when it'll be coming to T-Mobile.

But to answer your question, between the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, I would get the Galaxy S4 hands down. I really like the extra features (Air view is REALLY useful, as well as palm swipe to capture screenshots and alternate between webpages while browsing). The camera is better on the Galaxy S4 despite what HTC fanboys say. The difference between 13MP and 4MP is huge and the Galaxy S4 just takes much better shots in daylight. If you're more of a night camera person, then the HTC One camera beats the Galaxy S4 here.

In terms of the UI, you either love Sense or you hate it. Same goes with TouchWiz. But then you can modify the UI's for both so I don't think this is the decisive factor.

The displays are not really comparable. The Galaxy S4 uses Super AMOLED which is newer technology than LCD. The Super AMOLED = deeper blacks, better contrast, better motion performance (higher refresh rate) and more saturated colors. The LCD of the HTC One is really good as well... basically better brightness and more natural colors, but at the expense of lower contrast, less black levels and worse motion performance (you would only notice a difference if compared side by side when playing videos).

However the biggest factor for me was removable battery and microSD. I really like that you can easily replace the battery on the Galaxy S4 if you're sitting in a long conference and you're making many phonecalls a day... it really is a useful bonus. And if you're the type who goes on long roadtrips, plane flights or are a businessman, then the Galaxy S4 will last you a lot longer because it has that removable battery. When one battery is dead, then just pop in a newly charged one and it's back at 100% again.

In terms of overall battery life, I heard they're about equal. Not 100% sure on this one, maybe those who own both can comment on this particular detail.

The design language is obviously different. HTC went for a more industrial and robust design with aluminium back and stylish metallic speaker grills at the front. Samsung opted for a more conservative glossy plastic design which you either love or hate. I don't particularly mind the plastic of Samsung phones because it's sturdy and durable. Also I dislike it when metal becomes cold, moist and sticky... It really depends on what type of person you are.

But to me the factors that matter the most are: removable battery, microSD, the tons of extra features like Air view, palm swipe and the array of sensors... in the end you're definitely getting your money's worth on the Galaxy S4.

So:

If you like new technology get the Galaxy S4.

If you don't like polycarbonate/plastic and prefer metal, get the HTC One.

Oh and the other big factor for me was screen size. Just be really careful when you decide between the Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Don't let their similar overall physical sizes fool you. There is actually quite a big difference in screen size... the Galaxy S4 has a 5 inch display, whereas the HTC One has a 4.7 inch display. This isn't immediately apparent but after using the HTC One, I really think the 4.7 inches was too small for me.

The Galaxy S4's display has an option to become a super-sensitive input device and will be especially beneficial for people living in colder climates. The display can be utilized even with gloves on if a setting called "High touch sensitivity" is enabled. You can't do that with the HTC One.

 

[imported_brandon]

You can get subsidised phones on T-Mobile. Also, I'd recommend the Nexus 4. It's still a damn good phone, and the cheapest one is $300.

Though, given what you listed, I'd go for the Gakaxy S4. Samsung is slightly better about its updates, and it has a microsd slot.

 

[foghorn67]

I'm not an HTC fanboy, and I prefer the camera on the HTC One. I owned an S4 as well.
For resolution, get the S4. For everything else, get the HTC.
The HTC has wide angle lens, which is more useful 99% of the time. Lots of back peddling for group shots with the S4.
The HTC gets better low light shots hands down.
It just does, you can't beat a faster lens.
I also found the S4 to be a little less reliable for autofocusing in close up shots.

 

[Bateluer]

I'm not an HTC fanboy, and I prefer the camera on the HTC One. I owned an S4 as well.
For resolution, get the S4. For everything else, get the HTC.
The HTC has wide angle lens, which is more useful 99% of the time. Lots of back peddling for group shots with the S4.
The HTC gets better low light shots hands down.
It just does, you can't beat a faster lens.
I also found the S4 to be a little less reliable for autofocusing in close up shots.

The One also has more internal storage than the GS4, don't think TMO's getting the 32B S4 model.

 

[Red Storm]

The HTC One.

 

[Chrono]

Get a current generation phone. Your choices for Android are HTC One, Samsung GS4, iPhone5, Nokia Lumia 925 (yes but it's the latest WP revised 920), Sony Xperia Z/ZE. All in all, just make sure it's LTE compatible, you'll regret it if you go with a non-LTE phone. LTE speeds make a big difference in bandwidth and latency.

 

[NightFox]

Galaxy S4.

 

[Thegonagle]

Personally, I'd go for the HTC One.

I frequently use my phone as a streaming radio for NPR, talk radio, and podcasts, so I'm certain I'd appreciate the volume and sound quality of the "boom sound" speakers. It's supposed to be as good as a smartphone gets without headphones or an external speaker.

Also, I don't like Samsung's plastic phones. Call me picky, but it is what it is.

 

[Red Storm]

Get a current generation phone. Your choices for Android are HTC One, Samsung GS4, iPhone5, Nokia Lumia 925 (yes but it's the latest WP revised 920), Sony Xperia Z/ZE. All in all, just make sure it's LTE compatible, you'll regret it if you go with a non-LTE phone. LTE speeds make a big difference in bandwidth and latency.

First thing I did with my HTC One is disable LTE. The speed increase from T-Mobile 4G to LTE is not worth the battery cost, compared to say Verizon 3G (pitifully slow) to LTE which is very worth it.

 

[Tom]

LTE is not necessary or even useful for your intended usage.

If what you want is something that's cool tech and fun, a Nexus 4 gets me close enough to the bleeding edge for half the cost of an s4 or HTC One.
actually I got a used one for $200 on Craigslist.

If the camera's a big deal to you, an iphone 4 or 4s have an almost magical ability to take great photos.

btw, do you know T-Mobile has a $30 prepaid plan with 1500 minutes and txts combined ?

But..if coverage were really important, I don't think any carrier competes with Verizon. Someone with a $20 flip phone who's on Pageplus probably has a more useful phone than a person with a $600 S4 on any other carrier, at least as far as making calls everywhere.

 

[AstroManLuca]

First thing I did with my HTC One is disable LTE. The speed increase from T-Mobile 4G to LTE is not worth the battery cost, compared to say Verizon 3G (pitifully slow) to LTE which is very worth it.

This. I understand LTE for CDMA networks that top out at around 1.5 Mbps on 3G, but on T-Mobile? You can get 20 Mbps without LTE. It's an unnecessary drain on your battery.

And I'm going to again recommend looking at a Nexus 4 or Lumia 521, available for $300 and $130, respectively. They might not be quite as powerful as the S4/One but they're pretty good, and think of what you can do with the extra $300/$470 you save by not buying into the bleeding edge.

 

[Tom]

after looking around a little bit this morning.. if I didn't have a prepaid balance to use up at T-Mobile I would probably go with Pageplus 1200 minute, 3000 txt, 500 mb date plan for $30, they just increased the data to 500mb.

And I guess you can use some Sprint phones with bad esn on Pageplus, like an S3 or an iphone; so that might be a good cheap option.

 

[Chrono]

Well, I live in SOCAL and LTE has been awesome. Low latency plus the fact that the radio doesn't change between the different bands makes it great. I also have the unlimited plan and have been using the tethering for my xbox. (Xbox wifi adapter is having trouble connecting to my wifi router at the moment).

 

[evident]

I would get the S4. I would also get a LTE capable device since TMO seems to be building out their LTE network more than improving their 3g/HSPA+. They are doing a decent job refarming their edge network into hspa+ though.

 

[Trombe]

Price fluctuates a lot for popular phones when buying direct from T-Mobile. Gs4 was 580 a week or two ago.

 

[pantsaregood]

Lumia 925 gets my vote.

 

[vshah]

i love my htc one, no storage issues with music streaming over unlimited data & 32gb for pics & videos. battery life is excellent as well, much better than my old nexus 4.

 

[Occ]

I would at least look at the Sony Xperia Z. https://explore.t-mobile.com/sony-xperia-z

It drops tomorrow and personally I find it's water resistance very appealing.