droid 3 or wait?

[nikkix]

ive been thinking about breaking down and buying a droid3 with my upgrade. i feel like it would be a mistake though. ive had both the droid og and droid 2 and love them. but..
i have been trying to stay away from it because of the lack of 4g .
- i want a 4g phone to lock in unlimited data, and the current price.
howwwever,my area doesnt have lte yet, but verizon said it should by the end of the year.
-i pretty much require a keyboard. i have been trying to see if i can type more than a few sentences comfortably on the virtual keyboard, and trying different keyboard apps. i dont think its gonna get much better for me though

so is anyone else in the same boat as me? i dont know what happened to the htc merge, but that wouldve been a compromise id be wiling to take. 4g/lower sepcs. the only other keyboarded phone ive heard coming for verizon is the "motorola jet" and theres very little info about it, and absolutely nothing for months now.

tl,dr;
good advice for someone who probably needs a keyboard and would like to lock in 4g unlimited data?

 

[Big D]

If you currently have 3g Unlimited, you're be grandfathered for 4g. No?

Anyway, this has been beaten to death for a while around here. To me, it comes down to the facxt that 4g is immature right now and glitchy. 4g radios are power hogs and we're a ways away from the second generation which will be better. Then there's the coverage issues.

Grab the D3 and live a little.

 

[DroidXDoes4G]

Well if your considering the D3 or Bionic, think what you want in the phone.

3G vs 4G
Keyboard vs no Keyboard
4.0inch screen vs 4.3 inch screen
Get it now vs wait another month

 

[mattbooty]

-i pretty much require a keyboard. i have been trying to see if i can type more than a few sentences comfortably on the virtual keyboard, and trying different keyboard apps. i dont think its gonna get much better for me though

This.

If you require a keyboard then the D3 is currently the best verizon phone for you (and in the foreseeable future).

leading up to the release of the D3 when people were starting to get a little down on it for the 512 ram I took my D1 and tried typing solely using swype and the virtual keyboard for a week to see if i could skip the D3 and hold off for a more powerful keyboard-less phone... couldn't do it.

I'm very happy with my D3, I'm sure there will be better phones out there, but not with a keyboard, and I have to have one.

Also, I'm not sure how much stock I'd put into verizon telling you they'd have 4G "by the end of the year", thats a little vague. I can't remember how many times a few years ago DirecTV told me my locals were coming in "the next few months" again and again as those months flew by... I know different companies, just an example of how those vague "oh yeah you'll have that soon, for sure" type comments have to be taken with a grain of salt. I'd hate to see someone compromise on a feature (keyboard) that they like and can use right now for 4G and have time fly by and 4G not even be available in your home town until you are almost up for upgrade again.

 

[rushmore]

If you currently have 3g Unlimited, you're be grandfathered for 4g. No?

Anyway, this has been beaten to death for a while around here. To me, it comes down to the facxt that 4g is immature right now and glitchy. 4g radios are power hogs and we're a ways away from the second generation which will be better. Then there's the coverage issues.

Grab the D3 and live a little.

I agree with Big D.... Actually, I agree with all the responses so far.

 

[nikkix]

well verizon did say that if you buy a 4g phone the unlimited plan would carry over. HOWEVER im not sure how long they will allow that,and im also not sure if buying a non 4g phone would void the offer

as far as 4g coming to my area, it is supposedly going to be one of the next cities they roll it out in. not that it really matters, i just want to lock in the price

and ive only seen maybe 2 threads talking about upcoming qwerty 4g phones, none of them having any pertinent info

has anyone heard any news/info/rumors on any verizon qwerty phones coming out in the next 6 months?

you know what would solve our problems? a case for the thunderbolt/charge that has a keyboard. they have a few of those for the iphone. someone should get on that

 

[Raptor007]

I can help with that. I Had the Droid Charge and called last night to make sure before I activated it that in fact my unlimited data would not be affected. The CSR confirmed that I would still be on unlimited data and that if I chose to upgrade to a 4G LTE phone later I would again still be unlimited data.

Verizon is going to keep these customers as long as they can. In time people into situations where they need to put a phone on hold (that will likely kill your unlimited), add a line for another family member (that account won't get unlimited) or leave for greener fields only to realize it wasn't so green (AT&T) and you lost your unlimited.

One thing to keep in mind is the tiered plans are the first half of the data changes, the second half is the family data plans. Once they see how much data accounts are using in general they can craft data packages for a family plan that will of course allow the heavy users to get more and (potentially) get hit with overages if your kid starts watching streaming video and stuff.

 

[nikkix]

I can help with that. I Had the Droid Charge and called last night to make sure before I activated it that in fact my unlimited data would not be affected. The CSR confirmed that I would still be on unlimited data and that if I chose to upgrade to a 4G LTE phone later I would again still be unlimited data.

Verizon is going to keep these customers as long as they can. In time people into situations where they need to put a phone on hold (that will likely kill your unlimited), add a line for another family member (that account won't get unlimited) or leave for greener fields only to realize it wasn't so green (AT&T) and you lost your unlimited.

One thing to keep in mind is the tiered plans are the first half of the data changes, the second half is the family data plans. Once they see how much data accounts are using in general they can craft data packages for a family plan that will of course allow the heavy users to get more and (potentially) get hit with overages if your kid starts watching streaming video and stuff.

Thanks for the reply.Let me make sure I understand you. You had a charge but then bought a droid3 and were assured you can keep the unlimited data if you switched back to a 4gphone?

That's what I'm hoping is the case. I'm assuming that means they can't tack on a premium 4g fee like sprint does? And if they did indeed do that sometime in the future, I wonder if that would be grounds to get out of your contract without an etf?

Thanks for any input

 

[Immolate]

I upgraded my Thunderbolt to a Droid 3 on Thursday and kept my unlimited data plan. My daughter upgraded her crappy 3g Android phone (super-cheap one) to my old Thunderbolt and kept her unlimited data plan.

 

[kparks]

ive been thinking about breaking down and buying a droid3 with my upgrade. i feel like it would be a mistake though. ive had both the droid og and droid 2 and love them. but..
i have been trying to stay away from it because of the lack of 4g .
- i want a 4g phone to lock in unlimited data, and the current price.
howwwever,my area doesnt have lte yet, but verizon said it should by the end of the year.
-i pretty much require a keyboard. i have been trying to see if i can type more than a few sentences comfortably on the virtual keyboard, and trying different keyboard apps. i dont think its gonna get much better for me though

so is anyone else in the same boat as me? i dont know what happened to the htc merge, but that wouldve been a compromise id be wiling to take. 4g/lower sepcs. the only other keyboarded phone ive heard coming for verizon is the "motorola jet" and theres very little info about it, and absolutely nothing for months now.

tl,dr;
good advice for someone who probably needs a keyboard and would like to lock in 4g unlimited data?

Before I bought my thunderbolt I only had phones with a keyboard and when I was in the store putting my gmail into my new keyboardless phone after about 10 min I finally got it in lol it was pretty funny but not having a keyboard is something you will have to get used to just like everything else in life.. but if I were u I would wait HTC will have there duelcore phone coming to Verizon and the bionic is looking well ok I guess. but I'm only a fan of HTC phones and will only buy HTC phones.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[skruid]

I am waiting I got news from a trusted source the bionic is gonna be released in early August, and I am gonna pick that beast of a phone up in September, b/c 4g will new activated in my area by the end of august

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[BenLand150]

As long as you have a smartphone unlimited plan, you can upgrade from 3G to 4G anytime and be grandfathered in.

I won't have 4G until 2012-2013 (so the VZW rep told me)here in Lincoln, NE so this was an easy upgrade choice for me. Not to mention I really wanted to keep a keyboard coming from the OG Droid. And I absolutely LOVE it. The qHD, even with pentile, is just great to me. Sure it's not super amoled but, oh well.