My wife needs a new cell phone. She's never had a smart phone, and normally wouldn't care for one, but she's gotten used to Android (CyanogenMod 9) on her HP Touchpad, and could benefit from having the cloud sync for calendar/contacts/etc. I wouldn't expect she'd be a heavy data user, so T-Mobile's limited data plans seem to be a more cost-effective option than Sprint's (my current carrier's) "unlimited data, but it'll cost you" option. Plus Sprint's family plan discount is really weak.

So, I'm looking for an Android phone that meets as many of the following requirements as possible:

1. Physical keyboard with landscape orientation (slider/flip)
2. Usable on T-Mobile
3. Can be loaded with CyanogenMod (prefer 9, will accept 7 if 9 isn't ready)
4. 4G would be nice, but isn't necessary

I don't see anything in T-Mobile's current lineup that's in CyanogenMod's official support list, so I think this means either buying an older T-Mobile phone or buying something unlocked. Any suggestions?

It seems like the better method might be to start with the supported Cyanogen devices and figure out which of those are sliders, because T-Mobile might not list the last generation of hardware on their site. Unfortunately that's kind of challenging, because not all the photos reveal whether the phone is a slider...

I'm not currently aware of any 4G sliders. It seems like that form factor is really tough to find these days...

The one I know of is the Epic 4G, but I think that's only available on Sprint. If their family plan discount didn't suck we'd just do that since I'm already a customer.

But like I said, 4G is squarely in "nice to have" territory for what I figure my wife will be doing with it. Having a usable physical keyboard is the most important thing to her, and being able to get rid of carrier/manufacturer crapware is the most important thing to me.

The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide, AKA the HTC Doubleshot, has a community CyanogenMod 9 port.

Excellent find! Early reports on the alpha seem positive.

The best part is it looks like T-Mobile is going to run a Father's Day special with all their 4G smartphones for free (with a 2-year contract, of course.)

The phone itself didn't get great reviews, but it'll certainly be an improvement over what she's using now. Main complaints were a sub-par display and keyboard. I'll make sure she at tries to type a bit on it first, but unless it's absolutely terrible, that's probably the right phone.

You should make sure whatever phone you get supports the Wifi Calling feature when using CyanogenMod. This is really cool feature, I used it when I was in Singapore last year.

According to this page it is supported, which is very cool.

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/finder.php?w=w

Put in your preferences. PhoneScoop will find both current and older phones.

Awesome link; thanks!

http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/347070/HTC_G2

That should fit the bill. I'm with T-Mobile. Latest stable CM at that time was likely CM7. I haven't turned the device on since that post so can't recall exactly which version it is.

Feel free to make me a reasonable offer.

Would have probably made you an offer if I hadn't ordered the MyTouch 4G Slide online last night (it was free with the 2 year agreement.) I'm starting her out on the paltry 200mb plan, figuring she'd be on wifi most of the time, and not really watching videos or anything. We'll see how sound that judgement is when I get the first bill. It's kind of a bummer they charge overages on that plan now, but I'll just keep a close eye on usage and upgrade if she's getting close.

Bummer.

I've been away for a week so I just saw your post today. Oh well.

I received the MyTouch 4G slide last night and loaded the latest CM9 alpha on it. Good lord, HTC Sense is even worse than I thought it would be! The rooting process was, as expected, more of a pain in the ass than it was for my Nexus. I had to do some "S-OFF" procedure first, which apparently used to require using a length of wire to bridge two contacts on the inside of the phone, but can now be done via some ridiculous brute-force exploit. After that, I was able to root the phone and load the ROM. I really don't get why these manufacturers think making it harder to keep their shitty skinware on the phone is going to help their bottom line, but at least their developers are shitty enough to allow exploits that let me get rid of it.

The phone's heavier than my Nexus, which I guess is to be expected with the slider form factor. I didn't really get to test the 4G speed last night, and since she only has 200MB to work with right now, I figured I'd hold off until she had a legit reason to use it.

The wifi calling seems to work well, but it's disappointing (though unsurprising) that it uses plan minutes, even though it's not using their cellular network. This probably won't be as much of an issue if we move to a family plan when my Sprint contract expires next year.

I don't use this so I can't directly vouch for it. A friend does, however, and he says it's great.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gvoip&hl=en

It uses Gmail voice chat, which, on wifi, will allow you to not use minutes for phone calls. And on data it will just use data, I guess.

I use GrooVe IP when traveling. Works great even over 3G connections.

Yeah, I've been meaning to give that a look. We already use Google Voice for our "land line" via an Obi110 adapter, so it shouldn't be much of a change, other than using a new app to dial out. I really like the integrated nature of T-Mo's wifi calling with the regular dialer, which is why it's disappointing that it seems to use minutes. So instead of something that could give them a competitive advantage at relatively little cost, it's just another carrier money grab.

It's a bit surprising that Google Voice doesn't do this natively. I can make VoIP calls directly through the Gmail web site, but not on my Android phone without third-party software? That's not right.

I don't think any of these manufacturers can improve their bottom line by offering the clean Android experience. If they don't differentiate they will die even quicker. There's only one huge reason Android handset makers are in trouble, and it's nothing to do with skinning their phones.

Not so surprising when Google would have to explain to the carriers why customers are dropping down to the bare minimum number of minutes on their plans because they can dial for free through Google Voice. I know the carriers make a lot on mobile data, but people still pay for extra minutes, and they'd lose that revenue. I reckon they're probably not thrilled about GrooveIP, either, but that's from a third party, so they don't really have the same kind of leverage they'd have with Google.

On a wifi network I get a fairly noticeable delay using GrooVe IP on my Samsung 5 wifi. I deal with it because I'm cheap but the delay is pretty annoying.

The carriers are starting to notice the reduced minute usage, and are slowly moving to get rid of the bottom tiered plans. This move is similar to what they did with text messaging, where they offer pretty much $0.20 per message rates, maybe one bundle around $15 or so, then unlimited for $20.

I noticed AT&T also recently bumped up their data plans a little bit. The old tiers were 200MB, 2GB and 4GB with tethering. Now it's 300/3/5, but with a slight price bump as well.

I'm pretty much sold on going to prepaid here soon. With T-Mobile realigning their towers to support the iPhone, and more AT&T MVNO options appearing, it's better then when I looked last year.

Speaking of pre-paind plans, have you seen what ting.com, a Sprint MVNO, offers? If the permitted BYOD it would be great for my needs.

It looks like you sorta can. Cool that they allow you to mix-and-match minute, text, and data plans to build your own. T-Mobile's $30 100min/unlimited/unlimited plan still works out better for me, though. And it's BYOD, if you want.

Thanks for that link Bitt.

That $30 T-Mobile plan is pretty decent. Particularly given the data plan it comes with. What do they charge if you exceed the 100 talk minutes?

Can you think of another move like this in history, where a carrier reconfigures their (whole) network solely to support a single product?

I have no idea. I probably use less than 15 minutes of that on average; I've never had to pay overage.

So lets say I have a family member who wants lots of texting and minutes, but not a lot of data. What's the best deal out there? Is there an advantage to pre-paid?

I looked at Ting for this person, and thought it was a really good service, but I was disappointed that they only have a single feature phone.

Define "lots".

Good question. I'm now being told that instead of "lots" it's more like 1K minutes and 200 texts.

Said it before.. Tracfone
For the USA.
My tracfone went thru the wash last week.

The replacement is an LG800. $49
Triple minuets for life. Prepaid $200 for 1500 mins. Which means a phone and 4500 mins cost $249. Texts are billed 3/min. That works out to 5.5¢/min for voice & 2¢/text.


The cheapest AT&T plan is what $39/mo for 450 mins. If you use them all they cost ¢8.6/min. So it will take 10 mo's to get 4500 mins and cost $390+taxes,fees + a $36 activation fee, plus it's on a 2yr contract... And there is no texting.

Edit: Oh, you get unlimited off peak,or mobile to mobile. That's a bit harder to quantify.

T-Mobile has 1500 combined texts and minutes (plus 30MB of data) for $30 a month. They have some feature phones, and you can BYOD with a SIM card.

Virgin has 1500/1500/30MB for $30 a month. Virgin is a Sprint MVNO and you have to use their devices.

So $200 per 4500 minutes. Assuming 1000 minutes per month (and no texts), that works out to about $45 a month. 200 texts adds about $3 a month.

So, for this usage rate, better plans are available elsewhere and are easier to manage.

BYOD – coming soon to Ting, but limited to Sprint only phones, not just any CDMA phone, and it excludes phones from Virgin Mobile, Boost even though they are Sprint MVNO, and it excludes the iPhone.

If anyone here is currently a Ting user, PM me your referral code, thanks!

Very interesting. This is essential for their service to thrive, IMO. They already had a paltry selection of feature phones (only two models, actually).

Sprint phones are a little limited, but the Galaxy Nexus would work I assume...