I just ordered a 64GB Nexus 6P and I'm leaving AT&T for @ProjectFi! #GAFE #edtech #YOLO

I remember when the iPhone came out. My husband and I were living in Georgia at the time and we went to an AT&T store to try it out. It was tethered to a huge iPhone display and I remember saying "HOLY COW! I'm browsing a website ON THE PHONE!" Shortly thereafter, we abandoned our beloved Blackberry devices and jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. We knew our mobile experiences were forever changed!

Then I fell in love with Google. Our district went Google and I became a Google Certified Trainer. I drank the Google kool-aid and I was Google smitten. I applied for the Google Teacher Academy three times and finally got to go to Chicago to become a Google Certified Teacher. I spent 2 days with Android loving folks and came home a changed mobile user. Shortly thereafter, I abandoned my beloved iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy S5 (after I spent 30 minutes hemming and hawing with the poor kid at AT&T). My mobile experience was again changed!

Here I am again at a sort of mobile crossroads. I currently have a Samsung Note 3 and have service through AT&T. I pay about $112/month, which includes my AT&T "Next" fee (dropped my shiny new S5 a while back and couldn't bring myself to fork over $500 all at once for another device). I am grandfathered in with an unlimited plan from a million years ago, which is actually really great. However, because of that, I rarely switch over to wifi. I don't have to worry about overages, so who cares?! I will admit that I regularly exceed 5GB per month.


So, why now? Why switch? Well, There are several reasons...
  • I am ready to move on to a new device and have been interested in the Nexus for some time.
  • I would REALLY like to reduce my bill - over $100/month is CRAZY.
  • Fi offers unlimited talk and text and some interesting international options, as well, which are attractive to me (we are going overseas in a few weeks).
  • I am also just kind of curious. I find the Fi project interesting and just kind of want to see what it's all about. 
In case you have never heard of Project Fi, here's the gist...
  • You pay $20/month flat rate for unlimited talk and text.
  • Data is $10/month per GB. So if you want 3GB per month, you would pay an additional $30/month. You choose what you want and can change at any time.
  • You only pay for what you use, so if you have designated a 3GB plan and you only use 2GB, they credit your account!
  • You MUST use a Fi-approved Nexus device to have the service. Apparently these devices are equipped with the software to switch between LTE and wifi.
  • Oh, yeah ... see the phone actually switches from LTE to wifi when it's available WITHOUT YOU DOING A THING! (this was a big selling feature for me)
This short video might help you understand a little better...


I did a lot of reading (this post was pretty useful, as was Reddit) and watched a lot of YouTube videos. After talking it out with my husband (who is still a die hard iPhone user), putting it out there on Twitter and Facebook and emailing a colleague who used to work for AT&T, I decided to pull the trigger!

Then I got hung up on which device to choose ... the 5X or the 6P. What to do?! Research, of course! I did comparisons of the 5X and 6P and even threw in the Note 3 to see what I might expect from my new device. I took into consideration the size, battery life, camera quality, available storage and price. Here's what I discovered (that mattered to me)...
  • The 5X is smaller than the 6P, which is roughly the same size as the Note 3 I have now.
  • The 5X is made of plastic and the 6P is aluminum.
  • The 6P has a better display.
  • The 6P reported better batter life.
  • Cameras are both about the same.
  • The 5X only offers up to 32GB, but the 6P goes up to 128GB.
Although the 5X was significantly cheaper ($249 for 32GB), I ultimately went with the 64GB 6P for $549 because the pretty blue 5X was sold out. :) Just kidding. I really wanted the increased storage capacity and battery life is a biggie for me. I am a little hesitant about the size of the 6P ... it's slightly larger than my Note 3, but I was able to adapt from the S5 to the Note 3 fairly easily and don't think I could go back to a smaller device now.

Soooo...now I wait! I wait as patiently as I can for my Project Fi kit and Nexus phone to arrive. I will post an update as soon as anything new develops. As my husband told me earlier this evening, YOLO! :) Why the heck not try it?! We have a saying in our family that nothing is permanent...if there's something that isn't working for us, we change it! So, if Project Fi isn't a good fit, I can hang my head and tuck my tail and go crawling back to AT&T.



Comments

  1. Your husband can still use his iPhone with your Fi plan. You can get another SIM card sent out to you and he can put it in his iPhone. Check out this post for more info on that: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/05/23/best-cell-phone-plan-international-travel/
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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