Letitride3c

Yulp, several household lines on T-Mo. Nope - on MRA58K (MM 6.0) stock ROM on my N5 (D820) - no WiFi calling on the firmware, look everywhere (used G.Voice/Hangouts **, Skype or Talkatone last month while in TPE & ICN with great results over WiFi, but those don't count) - going to clean install another 6.0 ROM tonight on Mrs. L's N5 and will check that one & advise/share if I find it

XDA geeks have been trying to port it (Project Fi) over without success, hardware issues involved from what I read ... hence, I'm tempted to goto N5x next.

As above, use the backup T-Mo line on iPhone 5s (on both iOS 8.4.1 and 9.0.x) to do WiFi calling - on the same mobile # - nice, free calling to the US from abroad, etc.

** Ran up 38 cents (USD) using Hangouts to mobile call from Taiwan to South Korea over WiFi, 19 minutes @ 2 cents/m, woohoo - dirt cheap as promised. Thanks to Google & hotel's ultra-fast wireless internet @ TPE & Taitung.

P.S. MM 6.0 is delivering excellent battery life over Lollipop, overnight - my N5 showed up to 6 days of remaining standby time as it was idle, definitely improved SOT with leakage fixed, IMHO.

KRSW

Need a little advice from the peanut gallery.

I'm switching to T-Mo from Verizon. I currently have a Verizon Note 4, girlfriend has a ~2 month old Verizon Galaxy S5.

I'm going to buy a T-mo Note 4. I'm a road dog and am talking on my phone constantly. WiFi Calling + Band 12 makes this an easy decision for me.

For my girlfriend's phone, the situation's a bit more murky. She likes her current S5 so a T-Mobile S5 would be the obvious choice, BUT from what I can tell the T-Mo S5 doesn't support Band 12. Also from my understanding, T-Mo uses LTE bands 2,4,12 and supports HSPA+42. I believe her Verizon S5 only supports LTE 4, doesn't support HSPA+42, won't support HD Calls on T-Mo, won't support WiFi Calling. (Can someone with better knowledge than me verify this?) She uses the phone primarily for 1) Pinterest, 2) Facebook, 3) talking on the phone 4)Camera, in that order.

I hate to buy her an S6 (limited storage, sealed battery, expensive) just to get Band 12. If the S6 didn't have the limited storage and sealed battery I think I'd overlook the cost. She thinks the Note 4 is too large, so that's not a great option. I'm thinking her experience on T-Mo will be less than ideal if she tries to use her existing S5 w/T-Mobile.

Any thoughts/ideas? We've got to make up our minds by Friday -- picking up the phones then and heading out of the country on Saturday.

pseudoswede

Unfortunately, the selection of higher-end TMO phones with (1) band 12 and (2) close in size to the S5 is limited to two phones: the S6 and HTC M9. The former hasn't had stellar reviews; the latter is incredibly expensive. If she's willing to go a bit bigger, the LG G4 is probably your next best bet.

SRQ Guy

I'd suggest taking a step back to decide how important removable battery and storage really are, objectively. I used to have the same concerns, but I took the plunge on a Nexus 6 last fall. I bought the 64GB variant because I was concerned about storage, but I have not come near to filling even 32 GB.

Battery is still fine (actually far better on Marshmallow than when the phone was brand new!), but get back to me in a year.

KRSW

Hmm... I think this sort of problem is going to be playing out quite a bit for all carriers over the next few years as more spectrum is allocated to mobile data and phones catching up.

LG G4 looks interesting, but not sure I can convince her of it. One of the major flaws I see is no LTE Band 1 (Thailand/Japan/S.Korea), no LTE Band 20 (Europe). This is a bit of a problem, esp. Band 1. Thailand ONLY has Band 1 for LTE coverage. It is cheaper than an S6 though.

As far as replaceable battery & external storage -- these are non-negotiable for me. I had a Motorola Maxx HD with sealed battery. Battery started to swell, goodbye phone. I also refuse to pay $100 for 32GB more of storage when I can get a 128GB SD card for $30. SD cards also make phone swaps painless, especially when the phone fails to power on. Yep, I've had this happen to me and the phone crapped out while I was on the road so I hadn't had the chance to back up the phone.

SRQ Guy

Fair enough. I did find that they're not the concern for me that I thought they'd be. I suspect you'll be choosing from a smaller and smaller pool of phones as time goes on.

KRSW

I fear you're probably right... I wish the manufacturers would understand, if I wanted an iPhone and all the limitations that come with it, I would have bought an iPhone.

For me, I don't care what the phone looks like nor how thin it is. Put a big-arse battery on there that'll get me through 72 hours, dual-SIM, external storage, and antennas/radios which work no matter what, make it durable, and I'll be a customer for life. I loved my Blackberries. Still nothing like them on the market, including current ones.

IsleOfMan

It's probably not up to snuff in terms of frequency support, but check out the Blu Energy X... Based on my recent experience with the Vivo Air LTE I wouldnt write any of their recent offerings off too quickly, especially when the risk of trying it is so low given the price and Amazon return policy.

pseudoswede

It appears that OnePlus is releasing another phone soon.

http://www.droid-life.com/2015/10/09...t-hit-the-fcc/

The 5" FHD display already has me intrigued.

IsleOfMan

I'm listening... I'm hoping for something decidedly mid-range but still packing NFC and maybe even quick-charge.

murtaza12

Hey everyone, been a bit inactive on FT...
Need your opinions on something

I've been using a Note Edge for the past month, great phone and all, but I simply can't live without CyanogenMod. Now, you might be asking, why did you get the Note Edge then? Well, my plan was actually to get a Note 4, but the Note Edge was lying there for an absolutely irresistible price, so I bought it.
A tad bored of stupid TouchWiz now, so I was wondering... what to do?
Keep living with this, or buy a Nexus 6 (yes, Nexus 6, not the hideous 6P)?

Nexus 6 is available at an excellent price in the US, $440 for the XT1100 (international) variant.
Would you recommend it? Or do I keep the Note Edge until I actually get sick of it?

Your opinions will be highly appreciated.

SRQ Guy

I love my nexus 6 and can't stand TouchWiz. Obviously it's solely up to you if you want to spend the money or not, though.

murtaza12

But would it still be worth it to buy one now?
Money isn't an issue since I'm getting an offer of 530 USD (53,000 PKR) for my Note Edge, and the Nexus 6 is 450 USD (45,000 PKR), so I'll be more than happy. :P

I don't mind TouchWiz, but since Samsung didn't bother to add the theme store like they have in the S6, the Note Edge tends to get a bit boring after a while.
Launchers don't help much either, since the overall UI of the phone (status bar / dialer / contacts) is still TouchWiz.

Aside from that, the Note Edge has a total of like 10 Custom ROMs. And most of them are just based on Stock and have been debloated, which I've already done.

SRQ Guy

At $300-$350 its definitely worh it. The 6 is still much better than the 5X and in some ways even better than the 6P.

murtaza12

Now it's just up to me to find someone who's selling the international variant (XT1100).

Since there's no official retailer/reseller for Motorola or Google in Pakistan, most of the smuggled phones are XT1103 US variants, it's quite hard to get your hands on an XT1100.

Even though the XT1103 supports Band 3 (1800MHz) for LTE, I still need Band 20 (800MHz), which isn't supported by the US variant, and only the international variant.