Smartphones

Planned obsolesce. They deserve the weak ass sales as people flock to competitors.

xadion_sl said:

But isn't it only using the LTE of Spring and TMO? Its not CDMA and GSM is it? all voice is VoLTE etc...so when looking at "coverage" don't look at Sprint or TMOs main map but only their LTE maps.

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Usually the biggest problems with sprint tend to be areas where they just don't have towers spaced close enough together, so you'll drop out of lte down into 3g or 1x and then immediately back into an lte area which sometimes will fuck up your phone for a few minutes or whatnot... Usually, these are also areas with poor voice coverage as well...

So yes, you can kinda tell where poor LTE coverage is by studying where poor voice coverage exists for sprint.

So it looks like sprint is entirely dropping the subsidized plans, claiming it will "save the consumer money". If by saving money they mean spending 20-30% more, then sure.

Still can't find out if that means that those of us who have an existing subsidized plan will have to change plans come upgrade time.

I just switched to a sprint lease, and with the discount they gave me it ended up cheaper. The real lease price is $25 month, but I'm only paying $10.

So far I'm enjoying the Note 5. Phones stopped being revolutionary a few years ago, but this is definitely a nicer version of what was already on the market. The slickness of the back is annoying but once a case gets here that'll be fixed.

Heylel_sl said:

I just switched to a sprint lease, and with the discount they gave me it ended up cheaper. The real lease price is $25 month, but I'm only paying $10.

So far I'm enjoying the Note 5. Phones stopped being revolutionary a few years ago, but this is definitely a nicer version of what was already on the market. The slickness of the back is annoying but once a case gets here that'll be fixed.

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I didn't think the Note 5 was even out yet.

Chanur_sl said:

I'm getting the Moto X Pure in a few weeks. While on vacation my power button started fucking up on my Nexus 5. If you push it sometimes it just starts chain rebooting. Fun times.

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If it can be rooted it will be my next phone.

I just read that Motorola engineers have been laid off due to a very bad quarter and are being replaced with Lenovo engineers.

I would seriously consider thinking about a different phone if Lenovo keeps the same track record they have with spyware and security vulnerabilities. This is coming from a man that loves his Moto X.

joeboo_sl said:

I didn't think the Note 5 was even out yet.

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I got one a couple days early through some work program. They mailed it, so I figured what the hell.

Noodlemod_sl said:

I just read that Motorola engineers have been laid off due to a very bad quarter and are being replaced with Lenovo engineers.

I would seriously consider thinking about a different phone if Lenovo keeps the same track record they have with spyware and security vulnerabilities. This is coming from a man that loves his Moto X.

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Yeah. I loved the turn Motorola took when Google took over, but felt the Lenovo acquisition would ultimately be bad. It was nice they let them continue as-is for a while (love my Moto X+1) and this next generation looks like an improvement, but this might be the end of the line for me.

I'm a little biased just due to the trouble I had with my last laptop (a Lenovo) and the terrible customer service experience I had with them, but the recent changes don't leave me feeling too confident about their future.

Their laptops are decent, and surprisingly in almost every office building.

The problem is they've done real shady shit. Awhile ago they had BIOS doing a call-home thing. The US Government has banned the use of Lenovo servers in any critical US infrastructure (financial, government, etc - which basically means no Lenovo's at all in the US). They had that whole superfish fiasco. Now finally they've got some strange shit installing from their firmware that you can't remove.

Just no reason to trust the company.

The pures are good right now for sure. I'd be worried about next-gen stuff, even the pure versions.

Chanur_sl said:

The pure is running pure Android is it not?

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Yes, but it does come pre-installed with some Motorola apps. Most of the apps get pretty good reviews and are considered pretty useful so reviewers don't seem to mind them being on there. I am unsure about whether you have the ability to remove them or not, or if they have evil-Lenovo-security-holes.

Chanur_sl said:

Well I need a phone so I guess I'll have to risk it.

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Depending on how long you can wait, the 2015 Nexus line (purportedly with Android M) will most likely be announced soon and out in October if Google sticks to their normal trends. Might be worth holding out for the announcement at the very least to see what they have to offer.

Noodlemod_sl said:

Their laptops are decent, and surprisingly in almost every office building.

The problem is they've done real shady shit. Awhile ago they had BIOS doing a call-home thing. The US Government has banned the use of Lenovo servers in any critical US infrastructure (financial, government, etc - which basically means no Lenovo's at all in the US). They had that whole superfish fiasco. Now finally they've got some strange shit installing from their firmware that you can't remove.

Just no reason to trust the company.

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Oh for sure when that leaked it was another major blow to consumer confidence in them. I think their laptop success is largely because of how well the Thinkpad line was setup for them. Kind of hard to mess that up, except for me at least they eventually found a way. Three or four years back I picked up a new Thinkpad, primarily for work trips. Used it maybe a dozen times until about 13 months in it took a shit, right after the warranty had expired. There were a few others online citing issues with some faulty EEPROM but Lenovo wouldn't cop to it and didn't do anything for me. Compared to the T42 I had in college that I beat to still managed to sell once I was done with school, it was a major disappointment.

That's a highly personal experience and pales in comparison to the shady shit they have been up to as a whole. Bottom line, one of many reasons I've been bummed ever since they took over Motorola and have had my eye on the exit. This'll likely be the last generation of the X I buy.

Double bummer as if they 86 the "flat tire" I'm all in on buying the next generation 360.