Walmart Straight Talk

[MacLaren]

We had been with Sprint for many years.
But, recently T-Mobile bought Sprint out & service ain't what it used to be. Long story short my Note 10+ will not accept a charge from a cable as the teeth in the phone have just wore out. The only way I can charge it is via wireless. And that got old quick. Id I forgot to charge it the night before I would be taking a real chance in my phone dying. And, a few days ago, Tuesday to be exact, that's exactly what happened. And away from home too. I went about 60 miles from home to help my sister get her son's truck from the Dodge Dealership. Well, my phone died right after lunch. I thought to myself, enough! I'm getting a new phone now. And, I knew my Note 10+ is already paid off so why not give Straight Talk a chance. So off to Walmart we went. And, I got the Motorola Moto G Power.
And gang, I gotta tell ya, I am super impressed. It's awesome. I haven't missed my Note 10+ not one bit. I mean, I still have my Note 10+ and, I can still use it but, very happy with this Moto G Power and the best part is that where we live we would be very, lucky to get cell reception at our house - actually my wife & daughter have iphones and they have never been able to make calls with either Sprint or T-Mobile with or without wireless calling. Now, with my Note 10+ and thru Sprint I could make calls- but, I had to stand in the right place and reception call quality could be spotty. But, with this Straight Talk Moto G Power, heck it does better than my landline lol! I just put in on wireless calling and it's all good! Now, they say that Straight Talk uses the same towers as Verizon. But, my sister & brother in law have never been able to make calls from my house. She tried just the other day and it wouldn't work. But, just to be sure I'm gonna have her try again making sure that she is both on my internet connection & has her phone set for wireless calling. But, I think that it probably is anyways, because their phone will work at her house but, then again she is at 4,000 ft with an incredible view and I'm at 3,000 ft in a little valley right in front of a gorge ( a little gorge) - at any rate, I couldn't be happier with both this Moto G Power & Straight Talk - and getting everything changed over from my Note 10+ to Moto wás a breeze. Even getting all my pics & videos was easy with the Straight Talk Wizard App.
Anyways, just wanted to share this as it has the potential to save people A LOT OF MONEY lol, - hopefully this might be helpful to someone in the same situation as I was. Because, if I can get reception where I live then anyone else has no worries on that score. Thanks for letting me share gang.

[Manixguy@1994]

We have iPhones through Verizon and tower is just outside of town . Son-in-law is area repairman for Frontier. Our service is great but we are flatlanders too . Dan

[MacLaren]

We have iPhones through Verizon and tower is just outside of town . Son-in-law is area repairman for Frontier. Our service is great but we are flatlanders too . Dan

Thanks for posting Dan
I should also say, that for what I do and need a phone for, I love this Moto G.
I've really no need for anything other than communicating, bs'ing on forums and watching videos and movies. The camera on this phone is pretty darn good too.

[Manixguy@1994]

We have iPhones through Verizon and tower is just outside of town . Son-in-law is area repairman for Frontier. Our service is great but we are flatlanders too . Dan

Thanks for posting Dan
I should also say, that for what I do and need a phone for, I love this Moto G.
I've really no need for anything other than communicating, bs'ing on forums and watching videos and movies. The camera on this phone is pretty darn good too.

I’m never had a droid phone not that I dislike them at all . It’s one of those things you start with and continue to next generations .I have considered a Moto my other son-in-law has one and loves . I’m basically on your page of phone use .

[abbazaba]

My girl has been loving the Moto G Power for about a year now. All day battery... she was always charging her old Galaxy with all the battery sucking social media apps. Moto has some great features like the shake to turn on the flashlight, and swirl around to turn on the camera.

She's on Boost for no good reason. Work pays for my Verizon phone, which has been way better than Sprint where I live. Samsung Galaxy S10 for the win! Still can't convince myself that the S22 or Pixel6 would be better than the S10, which is still getting updates and has SD card, headphone jack, ultra wide, telephoto, wireless charging, small(ish) and light, all day battery... Can't say that about the new flagships. Dropped it dozens of times without a case and never cracked the screen (yet!).

[TomAiello]

I've used Google Fi (with an iPhone) for years and am very happy with it. It's especially useful if you travel internationally, because service is the same (same phone number, same dialing, same prices) everywhere on earth. When I switched to Google Fi from Verizon, it dropped my bill from over $100/month to about $40/month. And that's not including the roaming charges from Verizon when I travelled (which would often leave me with $300 or more bills in those months).

[Evil D]

We've been with T-Mobile for at least 10 years. I think their service depends very much on your location, despite their claims of having a giant network (what phone company doesn't make that claim). Around where I live is great but there are areas ~30 miles in either direction that get spotty.

[MacLaren]

Yall make good points!
Coverage/service really does have a lot do with where ya live.

[MacLaren]

My girl has been loving the Moto G Power for about a year now. All day battery... she was always charging her old Galaxy with all the battery sucking social media apps. Moto has some great features like the shake to turn on the flashlight, and swirl around to turn on the camera.

She's on Boost for no good reason. Work pays for my Verizon phone, which has been way better than Sprint where I live. Samsung Galaxy S10 for the win! Still can't convince myself that the S22 or Pixel6 would be better than the S10, which is still getting updates and has SD card, headphone jack, ultra wide, telephoto, wireless charging, small(ish) and light, all day battery... Can't say that about the new flagships. Dropped it dozens of times without a case and never cracked the screen (yet!).

Thanks for the 411 on the Moto G Power, Abbazaba! I've only had mine for a few day & am still checking out stuff it has when I have the time.
For $99 it's outstanding imo.

[MacLaren]

We've been with T-Mobile for at least 10 years. I think their service depends very much on your location, despite their claims of having a giant network (what phone company doesn't make that claim). Around where I live is great but there are areas ~30 miles in either direction that get spotty.

I'd say your spot on, David.
They prolly just need time to get things straightened out around here.

[Doc Dan]

We Americans get ripped off by phone companies. They have locked phones so we can't go anywhere else and they over charge for them. If you get an unlocked phone they charge more for phone service. It is a scam and worse. It should be illegal. In much of the world, you just buy the phone you want and the providers compete for your service business.

[James Y]

I only got my first smart phone a little over a year ago, a Samsung. And my service provider is Consumer Cellular. That's good enough for me. I really don't talk all that much in real life, including over the phone.

Prior to that, I had Sprint for 20 years, and only owned two flip phones in all that time, which I barely used. I mainly had it in case of emergency. But it was increasingly too expensive. Even when I started with Sprint back in 2001, it was more expensive than I'm paying now, with Consumer Cellular.

Jim

[apollo]

We Americans get ripped off by phone companies. They have locked phones so we can't go anywhere else and they over charge for them. If you get an unlocked phone they charge more for phone service. It is a scam and worse. It should be illegal. In much of the world, you just buy the phone you want and the providers compete for your service business.

Doc is wright.
Here in Belgium i can pick any phone i want and just pay the usual service without any supplemental costs. We are also free to go and change phone companies as much as we want without any problems.
Belgium is a very small country and even here we have 5 different companies.
One is cheaper then the other but it all depends what you’re use of a phone is and if you are a company or just normal citizen a data spender or just a caller or texting person they all are better or worse then the other depending on you’re needs in a phone and you pick the one that is best for you’re needs.

It is sad that the system in the US is so complex and limited of choice.
Not saying ours is perfect its far from but i would not want to trade with yours.

[TomAiello]

I just buy unlocked phones and then put whatever SIM card I want in them. I haven't had any issues being locked into a contract for a long time--even when I was on Verizon. You only get the 'lock in' contract period if you take their 'free' (not really) phone. The way they pay for the 'not really free' phone is by locking in the customer to a higher rate for a longer time.

[vivi]

We Americans get ripped off by phone companies. They have locked phones so we can't go anywhere else and they over charge for them. If you get an unlocked phone they charge more for phone service. It is a scam and worse. It should be illegal. In much of the world, you just buy the phone you want and the providers compete for your service business.

Man, I was using an LG V50 and loved that phone. Works with 4G and 5G. One day I wake up and have no service. Call ATT on my girlfriends phone and they say "You need to get a new phone yours won't work with our network anymore."

Big WTF moment. Didn't know it was possible for phone companies to just outright drop service for specific models like that.

Looking at the Motorola Edge series for my next phone. I'm tied to android for the flexibility. I can torrent Better Call Saul while emulating a PS2 game, use custom keyboards where I specify a larger than typical key size for my large thumbs, wipe the OS and install a custom ROM, etc.

Iphones have a lot going for them but it takes a lot more work to get the flexibility android offers, if it's even possible with modern iphones. Haven't jailbroken one since the 8.

I tend to buy unlocked phones and look for flagship models from 1-2 years ago. You can get really high quality devices for $300-500 that way, especially if you go with refurbs or open box.

[MacLaren]

We Americans get ripped off by phone companies. They have locked phones so we can't go anywhere else and they over charge for them. If you get an unlocked phone they charge more for phone service. It is a scam and worse. It should be illegal. In much of the world, you just buy the phone you want and the providers compete for your service business.

Man, I was using an LG V50 and loved that phone. Works with 4G and 5G. One day I wake up and have no service. Call ATT on my girlfriends phone and they say "You need to get a new phone yours won't work with our network anymore."

Big WTF moment. Didn't know it was possible for phone companies to just outright drop service for specific models like that.

Looking at the Motorola Edge series for my next phone. I'm tied to android for the flexibility. I can torrent Better Call Saul while emulating a PS2 game, use custom keyboards where I specify a larger than typical key size for my large thumbs, wipe the OS and install a custom ROM, etc.

Iphones have a lot going for them but it takes a lot more work to get the flexibility android offers, if it's even possible with modern iphones. Haven't jailbroken one since the 8.

I tend to buy unlocked phones and look for flagship models from 1-2 years ago. You can get really high quality devices for $300-500 that way, especially if you go with refurbs or open box.

Wow. Good idea. Thanks for posting that up Vivi!

[hereiamu1]

Google Fi has great coverage and customer service