yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] lafester:
I had the evo and really didn't like it. Its heavy. The screen washes out at angles. Had a weak radio/poor signal. GPS barely worked. Huge dedicated camera button that rattles. Poor picture quality and of course the huge dual cam with red stripe on the back. Also has much less development then the et4g (my current phone). Didn't like how htc screwed everyone over with the locked bootloader situation either.

So my question about the gnex is where to buy one. Google has it for around $445 shipped, newegg has it for $429 shipped (2 day which is really next day for me) and expansys has it for $409 shipped.

Any reason to not to buy one from any of the above? I know Google is probably the only US version which is nice for warranty but I think any warranty service is going to be a pain dealing with samsung directly.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] harveydent:
Not always. There have been numerous cases where courts have ruled in favor of defendants who broke their ToS due to the fact that judges believed the Terms to be "characterizing them as contracts of adhesion, unconscionable, and/or unacceptable pursuant to the U.C.C."
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] spiderjerusalem:
If you are buying buy from google. I just picked a play version up locally and was googling around a little and found the ones being sold on amazon are not identical some even had the dotcomo logo and didnt have the factory samsung seal, new egg had similar reports thats about as far as i looked but why chance it get it from google.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mjs2011:
I just saw one going for 389 at Amazon. Hard to tell if it's actually new or not though.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Buy it from Google. Really is the only option imo unless you literally can't at all put together the $$ for it and need to buy used.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] lafrad:
Wisconsin is a TERRIBLE state for GSM coverage. (I have Straight Talk on AT&T and Tmobile $30 plans that I swap between)

Tmobile covers Milwaukee and *SOME* of the suburbs with HSPA+

I live right on the edge, and I only get 3G/4G about 50% of the time. If I visit my family, its Edge.

There is NO prepaid coverage outside of the metro areas, that INCLUDES VOICE!

However, if you live/work/play in Milwaukee or Madison exclusively, then its the best carrier you can get. Its easily faster than Sprint or AT&T, with better "In Metro" area coverage. it even kicks Verizon's 4G speeds to the curb in the downtown area of Milwaukee... (No Lie!)

Then, we get AT&T. They have a coverage footprint of HSPA+ of about the same as Tmobile has *TOTAL* coverage with edge. They have some edge coverage in the north woods, but most times stressed and unusable with customers when you want to be up there (vacation time...). Their HSPA+ coverage in the cities is "okay", but it seems they didn't set their towers up well, as there are dead zones all over the Milwaukee and Madison "downtown" areas.

THAT SAID. if you want a GNexus, there is no reason NOT to go with a Straight talk SIM and AT&T coverage... use Wifi when you can and just be responsible with it. If you don't travel much.. I would probably suggest you wait and see if sprint gets their "network vision" going. Sprints roaming onto some of the regional carriers in the northwoods gives very acceptable 3G speeds (2.0mbit or more, amazingly) and their "estimated" 4G LTE maps in the southern half of the state look quite nice.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mjs2011:
Thanks for that insight. I live in Green Bay and don't travel much except for work in Appleton, so I'm not sure if I would have much luck there or not.

I used to have AT&T post paid and coverage was pretty good. If I go with Straight Talk, if get the AT&T Sim.

Edit. Just checked their coverage map again for Android and Green Bay/Appleton shows great coverage. You're right though. Don't travel North or West, lol.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] scoobdude:
Hey guys found this site. Seems to have coverage maps and plenty of up to date info on plans and such. Seems unbiased from what I have read so far as well. OP might want to add the link to your post since it may have some other options listed.

http://www.prepaidreviews.com

Also for those on T-Mobile it seems they have an app to pay from your phone. Its not available for my device since its a sprint device I am assuming. But here is the link.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.TMobileTopup
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plmiller0905:
I'm not worried about the Straight Talk service. But one thing I am a little worried about is the warranty on the phone and insurance, like if anything goes wrong with it.

Do you have to be the original owner of the phone, to be covered under the warranty?

I was also thinking about getting squaretrade. But then I read somewhere that they don't cover Galaxy Nexus from the Google Play Store. But if they do, would they cover it considering I'm not the original buyer but I have the sales receipt....

Anyways, I'm gonna call around to a few more other places as well as check with Allstate to see if my renters insurance covers my phone too.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
It's actually incompatible with ICS. I don't understand why you'd want that app anyways. I looked at it/installed the day it came out (when it was so broken it hardly worked, hence the pulling of ICS compatibility). The T-Mobile MyAccount app shows you all of your usage and billing details, and also allows you to refill with a bank account, credit card, or refill card/PIN. No reason to have another app with duplicate functionality, IMO.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
For the manufacturers warranty I don't think it matters. As long as its a US phone with an IMEI they recognize and it's within the 1 year manufacturers warranty I'd assume they'd cover it. You could call and ask though.

I'm not a big fan of phone insurance in general considering it's pretty much a ripoff, but I've heard around here that a few of the 3rd party handset insurers were doing replacements for people's European Galaxy Nexii, so I don't see why they wouldn't offer it to the US models.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] CYoung234:
Thanks to all for this excellent discussion. I just ordered a Google Galaxy Nexus based on this forum and this particular thread particularly.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] darkfire2024:
Good choice. I'm going to order two as soon as I can convince the wife that dropping $900 for two(blasted sales tax! It's times like these I appreciate amazon even more) and in the long run saving 100$/month over sprint by going T-Mobile $30.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] lafester:
Try living in NY where they tax amazon. I am still leaning toward using expansys for 409 shipped. If it is not satisfactory I will just send it back.

I am looking at keeping my sprint (sero) line along with a tmobile $30 line.

So for $60 I will have 5gb 4g + 100 min on tmo and unlimited 3g + 500 min on sprint. Will be a nice way to ease into prepaid and see if I want to go all in or not.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
Hey guys, sorry for the extended absence, things have been very busy.

Providers have been updated. Some funny news about GameStop creating an AT&T MVNO .. but news of it came and went without coming true. Some weird changes in some of the other MVNOs with a strange 500MB then 2GB at slow speeds plan .. if anyone tries these, please post here.

I had to play some games with activations recently. I fly Search and Rescue and we do practice exercises all the time. Many of them require internet access to file proper paperwork (and I keep stacks of inactivated SIMs in my flight bag) .. and a few weeks ago I had to turn up an additional phone to help another aircrew. Of course it was last minute and the night before at like midnight, so I needed it to work right away. I had extra T-Mobile SIMs with activation codes .. so I was going to turn up a $30 5GB plan on my backup Nexus S. The activation codes (came in sealed bags with the cards) did not work. Calling a CSR resulted in a VERY long discussion and failed activation. After two calls back, and several on-hold times to managers, activation was promised "in 24 to 48 hours". There was a lot of discussion about order numbers and tracking numbers of the package for my SIMs. Another call reiterated this and the SIM did not activate right away. I had a live, but unfunded T-Mobile SIM, so I called to get that SIM changed to the $30 plan. Two CSRs refused to activate the plan on my SIM explaining that the $30 plan was for new activations only (I knew this, but I thought I might as well test their resolve.)

I've activated 4 T-Mobile Monthly4G SIMs in-store with immediate provisioning and left the store with the phones working, so I know their system works right away.

I activated the $60 Simple Mobile plan. It worked immediately. My Nexus S worked fine for tethering access. The SIM also works fine in my Galaxy Tab 7.

Straight Talk has been working fine for my daily driver Galaxy Nexus. I've been buying PIN codes tax free by adding a OR address to my WalMart account and using that address for the purchase. A friend of mine purchased a 3 month PIN and is quite satisfied.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
Also huge thanks to martonikaj for keeping up on things ... several people have put lots of time in on this thread and it looks like it's paying off for people.

One less contract at a time, one more person free to do what they want with their phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
No problem. This thread has absolutely exploded lately. Trying to keep up. I'm finishing up my 4th month on $30 T-Mo and couldn't be happier. Just glad we can spread the word here.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gadgetluva:
Does anyone know if I can purchase the $15 Straight Talk sim from the website and hold it until I'm ready to activate the $45 unlimited plan? Or do I need to purchase the full $60 SIM + Plan in order to activate?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Loki047:
You get the sim with a activation card. You can activate whenever you want
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gadgetluva:
Thanks Loki.

So to clarify, I buy the $15 SIM now to have it with me in case I need it, and I can then drop by my local Wal-Mart for the $45 plan card and activate it then?

I'm currently on the $30 T-Mobile plan and love it. However, I will be traveling around the US this year at different times, and want to ensure that I have adequate coverage and thus plan on activating the AT&T card if/when I do run into coverage issues with T-Mobile Prepaid.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jazzruby:
I purchased the SIM card (only) and when it arrived (~3 days) I then went to Walmart.com and purchased the (Email Delivery) Straight Talk Unlimited ...

The PIN was delivered in ~10 min

-JR-
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] SiL3nTKiLL:
straight talk ftw!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gadgetluva:
Thanks, Jazz! I'll likely order the SIM today to have on hand when I need it.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Goodfella80:
I would like to thank all of you that have contributed to this great thread with all of the info provided. The wealth of info in here has made jumping into the prepaid world such an easy process.

Got the Galaxy Nexus from the Google store delivered yesterday. Already had a T-Mo sim and activation code that I had bought last year but never used. Went to the T-Mo activation site, followed the instructions, loaded the pin I had bought from callingmart.com and picked the $30 dollar plan, put the sim card on the GNex and was all set :D. In less than 10 minutes I had everything up and running.

I'll give it a few days to make sure the service is up to the task before I get rid of my contract plan with AT&T since I can also try other carriers like ST, which should work fine since they run on AT&T towers but this 2GB cap that I've read about is not too pleasing. Will go ahead and port my number over to Google Voice if everything goes well.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Because there are a lot of Google Voice users in here, I'd like to know if you're having this issue as well:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=26519193

Chime in in that thread if you could.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Cabal_:
I had the same issue with mine, it took 2 days for T-Mobile reps to finally get it right. Their forum has a bunch of people with pre-paid activation kits and bad activation codes, I think they must have been shipping out a bad batch. Meh. :rolleyes:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I had heard here and there that some people were getting activation kits with bad codes, even when they try to use it the day they get it.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
That happened to me in December as well. They mailed me a new one
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plee3:
This happened to me when I tried to activate the SIM online on the day I received it. But I called T-Mobile and they just activated the SIM during the call and everything worked fine. Perhaps I was just lucky.

Thanks... plee3
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HemRoyd:
OK. First post.

Thanks primarily to this thread, I've got a pile of gear showing up tomorrow at my UPS Store:

Google Play GNex

DizTronic TPU

T Mobile Sim Card

StraightTalk Sim Card

OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter

Panasonic DECT 6.0 Plus Phones

Add to the mix:

I live in Maine (check out my coverage map boys!)

My Time Warner cable modem is 1000 ft away (900MHz antennas, NLOS blasting through pine trees as big around as a Prius) Still getting 22 Mbps and 30 ms pings.

Voip.ms DID's, Google Voice, etc. Got a long weekend ahead of me, but it's OK - my mom's gonna help ;)

Also, I work in Canada at least 10 weeks a year, so I need to figure out my Canada game - Rogers? Telus? :eek:

Anyhow, thanks to everyone for all of your blood, sweat and tears - very informative thread that has saved me a lot of dead ended Googling.

I'm gonna own this *****!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jimmyz:
Is it possible to disable straight talk T-Mobile voicemail? I ask because I like using GV voicemail exclusively. In the past when I used the tmobile $30 plan I called and canceled the native VM. With straightalk att sim conditional forwarding works so missed calls go to gv voicemail. I'm tempted to move to straight talk T-Mobile but am worried that conditional forwarding will not work. Any advice?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Well, if they support conditional call forwarding on ST then you don't have to worry about disabling it. I don't see why they'd support it on ST AT&T but not ST T-Mobile.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bfroehlich:
Just out of curiosity, what brand of NLOS antennas did you go with? Which APs?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HemRoyd:
I've got 2 Tranzeo model TR-902-11 units bridged into a Netgear WNDR3700.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
My cousin is is Maine working at Poland springs. Hope you have a generator and battery backup too, I doubt I have to tell you that lol.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
I did, but support was iffy about it. One person said the tool to do it was down, another told me just to not setup my VM. Whatever they did seems to work. I'm not getting vms on St VM anymore
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jimmyz:
I'm worried that its the underlying carrier that determines support for conditional forwarding and T-Mobile prepaid doesn't support it
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
can't hurt to contact ST and ask.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
Anyone able to log into their straight talk account right now?

Edit: Never mind, it works now.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rock7632:
This is unbelievable. I've tried 3 times in the past week to buy the sim card activation kit from T-mobile's website but the order doesn't go through even though the charge goes on my credit card and shows as pending. Really baffled by this. Has anyone else experienced this? Really not sure what to do here
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] harveydent:
If you really want a T-Mobile $30 sim and can't buy online, buy a crappy TMo phone from walmart ($20-30), take it's sim and use it in your GNex. Throw the cheap phone in a drawer to collect dust
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] scoobdude:
I was about to do this but my sim came in today. Have you tried calling them to see what is going on or if you can place the order over the phone? Plus if you get one of those other cheap phones its a good back up if yours breaks AND you can also use it (if you get another sim) for one of your kids, you hoes, your pimping side game etc. :p
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rock7632:
I tried to call them and they did offer to make the order over the phone but they were asking for all sorts of personal info (SS#, Drivers license #, etc.) as if it was a post-paid plan I was purchasing. I told them a couple of times that all I wanted to buy was a sim card to use on their pre-paid monthly 4g plan on an unlocked phone that I already own. Not sure why they would want all that info when their website doesn't ask you for it. I'm thinking of buying the sim from Amazon or Ebay. Has anyone done this?

---------- Post added at 07:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 AM ----------

Yeah I guess my only choices now are to either buy one of the crappy TMO phones from Walmart or buy the sim from ebay or Amazon
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] TAWoody:
Thanks for the info. I'll have to read this all later in depth.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] HemRoyd:
I went through this the other day and the order eventually went through. When it fails, the fail page offers a link to retry or open a chat window for assistance. Chat is useless in this situation and couldn't help - you might as well open a window and watch some porn.

I chose to resubmit the order and what happened after the first fail was after the processing ticker completed, a screen came up that asked you a bunch of multiple choice questions about vehicles you may have registered, places you may have lived in the past, your height listed on your drivers license, etc. Pretty much asked for everything but a stool sample...anyhow there is some kind of mini background check done on you and after completing the series of questions, my order eventually went through (It did take 3 or 4 attempts). Thoroughly retarded process for a $2 transaction.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] sk63:
@rock7632

You might be able to just go into T-Mobile and buy an activation kit. That's how I bought mine. They were also cool enough allow me to activate it using their in store broadband card demo laptops so that I could sign up for the $30 plan.

Even if they aren't cool like that you can probably just get a activation pack to take home with you.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
My local tmo store got me a sim and activated it for me. They had to look up the plan it was so new they didn't know anything about it. I told them to go online on their own website and they would see it!

I shouldn't have had to do that but they took care of me
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bdeitemeyer:
My local T-Mobile store wouldn't give me any assistance with the SIM card & signing up for the $30 plan (it took 3 orders from T-Mobile.com to finally receive the SIM card).

Anyways, I just wanted to suggest eBay. I found one still sealed in the packaging, and used it to activate my $30 plan. Total cost was about $5, and USPS first class shipping was included so it only took about 2 business days. Cheaper option than buying a $30 phone from Wal-Mart. Either way, good luck!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plmiller0905:
I currently have the straight talk/sim. I see a lot people here talking about the T-Mobile sim.

What's the advantages of the T-Mobile?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
Cheaper @ $30/mo but you only get 100minutes. They flat out tell you that you get 5gb at 4g speed then its throttled to edge.

St is a bit of a mystery with people getting mixed results on amount of data usage before getting various warnings about abusing the network
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] darkfire2024:
T-Mobile might have weaker coverage or slower speeds. You'll have to do your research on that though to confirm. :p
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plmiller0905:
I had a T-Mobile Branded Galaxy Tab 7.0 a couple months ago and I got good data speeds where I live. But I'm not so sure about the surrounding areas. Right now with ST, I get coverage everywhere I go.

I guess, I'll just ride ST out and if any issues arise as far as these data warnings etc, I'll look at making a move...that's the nice thing about having a great unlocked device and not being tied down by a contract.

Also have anyone at actually been booted off of ST because of excessive data issues or have anyone data speeds tremendously slowed because of data usage? I read everywhere about these warning and whatnot, but I haven't read anywhere where someone actually had this happen to them...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rock7632:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to try it 1 more time from their website and if it doesn't work I'll just get it from ebay
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] okayokayokay:
I got the identity questions when I gave them a different billing and shipping address. They are the same ones you get when you order a copy of your credit report. If you answer them right the order goes through.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] 1cewolf:
According to Howardforums, it's throttled to GPRS after you reach your limit: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1763109-I-ve-just-been-throttled!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
You don't actually get forced to use EDGE or GPRS. You stay on HSPA+ technically, but the tower limits your speeds. You get limited to 60kbps down / 150kbps up but keep the HSPA+ ping times of ~100ms.

You can actually switch to "EDGE only" ("2G only") and get about 200kbps down / 200kbps up if you want, but you'll get the EDGE high ping times (like 300ms).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rock7632:
I just got called T-Mobile and after spending over a half hour on the phone he determined that their verification department was denying the order to protect me from fraudulent charges (lol for $2) and said that I could not make the order either online or through them no matter how many times I tried and the only way to do it would be to go in a store and buy it from there. So I called the store closest to my house and they say that the sim card is $10 and the activation kit is $10 so $20 all together which is BS. Anyway do you have the name of the ebay seller that you bought it from? or a link?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] 1cewolf:
Technically correct, yes.

The guy who wrote that post tried to switch to EDGE only after being throttled and got the same crappy speeds with, as you said, the higher latency.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I've been throttled several times so I know how it is. It's slow but not unbearably so. It really depends on where you live. EDGE may or may not be faster than the throttled "HSPA+" speeds.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bdeitemeyer:
Same item & seller that I purchased from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-Mobile-Pr...t=SIM_Cards&hash=item46040c7465#ht_500wt_1156

Hope that helps, good luck.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Penguin Soldier:
If you have to have the sim card right now. You can check out Best Buy mobile they should sell the sim card activation for $20. That's how I did it. It has already been a month and so far it has been great.* I would mention do that I did have problems trying to get the $30 plan activated online during the weekend but when Monday came I tried to activate one more time before I would call T-MOBILE for support but it activated just fine and loving this plan so far.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plmiller0905:
Not trying to mess the thread up or anything. But for anyone on straight talk does your Google wallet show your balance when on hspa+?

Mine doesn't however on wifi it does...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
Remove the proxy in your APN settings.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Ricolando:
After reading this thread I decided to take the plunge and ordered a GNex and Straight Talk SIM. Sprint coverage is pretty unbearable in South Florida and in the two years I've had it I've never gone above 500 MB a month since there's wifi everywhere I go. The ETF is going to suck, but at this point in my contract I'm going to end up saving $500 despite buying the GNex and paying the ETF. Utterly crazy! Thanks to the OP and others for the vast amount of insight! I've been cutting all of the fat from my budget and my cell phone bill was the last thing bothering me!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] plmiller0905:
OK...ill give that a try..