cheap phone plans

[Melbosa]

My Nexus 6P has great battery life, lasts me almost 2 full days with regular use and game play.

[Thorin]

I currently have a S6 for testing at work and none of the above Android comments surprise me. I think we will stick to iPhones as our standard.

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My daughters have battery life problems with their iPhones (they've had 4S and 5S now) as well.  In fact, I was the only one in the house not to have had any problems over the last three years, until now.  I went so far as to ask the Easter Bunny to bring Mophie battery cases for their phones so that they could make it through a school day.  Both the 4S and 5S will just shut off at recess outside in the winter time, which was the only time they were supposed to be using them.

My Nexus 6P has great battery life, lasts me almost 2 full days with regular use and game play.

Yeah, at my lowest depths of despair, I was thinking of either going cheap and getting a Galaxy S5 Neo ($530 outright .. or $15/month x 24 months from Koodo with a $100 gift) or expensive and getting a Nexus 6P ($724 outright .. or $350 + $15/month x 24 months .. or $50 + $21/month x 24 months + have to get a more expensive plan).

[Lazybones]

The S6 I am testing hit like 50% before noon today. Multiple review rank it as mediocre.

Facebook is a battery hog on both platforms.

Also the iPhone should have a detailed report of battery use under system to indicate what is using it all up Android 5.1.1 seems to have one as well.

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[Thorin]

We've been through the battery usage reports, and have adjusted usage of the phones.  Nevertheless, at -15 C their phones had a habit of turning off at 50%+ battery life left. IPhones really don't like the cold, certainly not -15 or lower for 30 or more minutes.

All that said, the phones I wouldn't mind getting as a present are the Galaxy S7 (waterproof but it's too big), the iPhone SE (powerful in a nice small package), or the Nexus 6P (been reading/hearing nothing but good things about it).

In the end, though, getting this old phone working meant that my wife could spend the money on a margarita maker. She said something about it being good to make smoothies for the kids. Yeah right, it's for the kids.

[Tom]

Batteries hate the cold. Always have. You loose a significant fraction of output power.

[Melbosa]

Well I can say both my wife and I are impressed with our Phones.  She has a iPhone 6 and I have the Nexus 6P.  Both recommend the phones highly.

[Darren Dirt]

I'm betting those CAPs mean hard caps. Use it, and you lose it.

What it means is "you get charged nothing if you don't use this -- but the MAXIMUM you can get charged is "X" for [cap #]".

e.g. The 667MB is the maximum data you can get charged for, on this plan. Use 1667MB and you have the same data charge, not some mysterious unknown charge for the extra 1000MB.


AFAIK anyway (aka that's the reason it's such a great plan, i.e. one of the "benefits" of remaining at GoA)

[Darren Dirt]

My rates are NAIT are better (half the cost on data) but I'm on NAIT's corporate plan, and I think DD's is the personal phone plan through the GOA.  I don't get the Canada wide long distance either.

But as we joke at NAIT, these plans are basically pay as you go with a minimum monthly rate.  You still have to buy the phone out right (at least we do at NAIT).

It's probably what Mel is saying -- except I am quite sure there is no charge for items past the listed "cap". THAT'S THE REASON IT'S A DEAL.

Otherwise folks with typical usage would just grab Koodo. Or heck even basic Telus plans.

[Darren Dirt]

I'm waiting for Darren to come back and clarify the pricing.  But Mel, there's a base monthly cost of $7, and the way I read it, there's a pay-per-use charge up to a maximum charge.  And this RFD posting confirms it (check the last quote in post #21): http://forums.redflagdeals.com/telus-canada-wide-corporate-cell-plan-govt-employees-1435742/2/#post18196380.

Yes, THIS. (AFAIK, from what OTHERS have told me who have this plan.)

And Post #21 @ RFD clinches it:

This most important part of the contract is this term:
Caps do not prevent further usage for voice, data, text etc, with this offer and any additional usage above the caps is billed at no charge, $0.00. Tethering is included with this offer.
That means the cap is a price cap, not a usage cap

I guess GoA>NAIT in this case. #woot

[Darren Dirt]

I'm waiting for Darren to come back and clarify the pricing.  But Mel, there's a base monthly cost of $7, and the way I read it, there's a pay-per-use charge up to a maximum charge.  And this RFD posting confirms it (check the last quote in post #21): http://forums.redflagdeals.com/telus-canada-wide-corporate-cell-plan-govt-employees-1435742/2/#post18196380.

-----

On to something else - after the camping trip my phone was going weird, using lots and lots of battery, like, 5% an hour without being used at all.  Two nights ago it went from 100% to 1% in 9.5 hours sitting on my night table doing nothing.  At times it would lose 10% per hour while plugged in to the charger.

I traced this back to Google Play Services (the giant tarball of google services on any Android phone), it was keeping the phone awake for some reason.  I never did figure out why, I finally gave up and was looking to install a custom rom but I don't really like that idea.  Turns out that Samsung did once upon a time put out an Android update for my old Galaxy S2X phone.  Yeah baby, now I'm updated all the way to Jelly Bean!  Like, three versions behind?  Or is it four now?

My personal nemesis on my Android cell is "Google Play MUSIC" for some reason certain webpages or apps launch it and the damn thing drains my battery crazy fast (and warms up the phone usually) -- if I notice the warmth or fast drop in power I go to task manager and kill it and I'm fine and the webpage/app is fine. Just frustrating that it happens so often (like a few times per week -- usually when I'm not at home or near a power outlet #MurphysLaw )

Overall my phone battery last really long though, depending on how much screen viewing time. When indoors I reduce brightness to minimum and that helps too. OF COURSE I turned off all "Push Notifications" in any apps, along with any AUTOMATIC updates of apps, both of those will do a lot of "talking" to the web which adds to the drain. Also/especially #FacebookFreeFTW.

[Melbosa]

I'm waiting for Darren to come back and clarify the pricing.  But Mel, there's a base monthly cost of $7, and the way I read it, there's a pay-per-use charge up to a maximum charge.  And this RFD posting confirms it (check the last quote in post #21): http://forums.redflagdeals.com/telus-canada-wide-corporate-cell-plan-govt-employees-1435742/2/#post18196380.

Yes, THIS. (AFAIK, from what OTHERS have told me who have this plan.)

And Post #21 @ RFD clinches it:

This most important part of the contract is this term:
Caps do not prevent further usage for voice, data, text etc, with this offer and any additional usage above the caps is billed at no charge, $0.00. Tethering is included with this offer.
That means the cap is a price cap, not a usage cap

I guess GoA>NAIT in this case. #woot

Actually I went back to my Phone guys at NAIT today after this discussion.  And ours is as yours DD.  You can only be charged to a maximum of $20/month, and then no charge for data over that.  So we are the same in that regard (and I stand corrected).

[Thorin]

@%&# you both and your cheap phone plans!

Just kidding, but seriously those are good plans. Less than forty bucks for unlimited data and texting and a bunch of minutes...

[Tom]

Yeah, I'd kill for that. That's what I'm basically paying now, but with better coverage.

[Thorin]

Just think, on that GoA plan you could install a texting app for texting and Skype for calls and just use mega data. That would cost $7 for the base cost and $20 for the max data, plus $0.44 for E911 and $1.38 GST. $28.82 per month, unlimited data including tethering.

And still making money on that. Makes you wonder about those $70 3GB plans...