Such a struggle - need help choosing new phones for me and my kids.

[PlutoPony]

[QUOTE="moopdog, post: 56836915, member: 80682" I think I'm going with Google Pixel for the photo quality!![/QUOTE]

I got a Pixel Thanksgiving weekend when they were $10/month and so far I"m happy with it. I'm used to Android and didn't have any real problems with it. The size is what I want, I'm not interested in something big that doesn't go in a pocket or purse easily.

 

[MomToOne]

If I were to buy a new phone today, I'd be looking at the Moto Z Play. It seems to be the best bang for the buck given my pretty standard needs.

 

[Ranger111]

I know this is a very minority opinion, but my family is pretty active and the smartphones are not exactly designed to be "teeny-tiny"

My kids want nothing to do with the IPhone 6 or 7 because of size.

They are getting the SE at Christmas, which has the internals of the 6, but the size of the 5s. It is ancient, of course, the SE was introduced in March of this year....

http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/iphone-se/

 

[ImDMous]

I've got a Galaxy 6 Edge and my mother has the Galaxy 6 (non-Edge, same phone otherwise). I LOVE it! The camera is awesome. My screen is still perfect, but I'm pretty careful with it. I do have a friend who dropped theirs and cracked it, but his case doesn't have any coverage on the sides and mine does. Anyway, my mother had several iPhones before this and moving her to an Android hasn't been too bad. She's not exactly technically savvy but she does ok with it.

 

[tinker&belle]

I personally love iPhone but my husband likes androids. We went through the whole Note 7 debacle and he decided to give the Pixel a try after that and likes it. The pictures are fantastic- I think there are better than my iPhone 6s. I would wait to buy until a day or 2 before Christmas so you have most of the return period if anyone wants to switch back to the iPhone. Chances are at least one of you will not like the switch. I tried to switch to an android from an iPhone and I hated it. It surprised me since I had only had one iPhone and always had androids prior to that.

 

[dreiwhit]

My wife's Samsung Galaxy 3 recently died. Since neither of us are "power users", I bought her a BLU Studio Touch (GSM) for out T-Mobile account (also would work on AT&T or any GSM carrier.) It was $99 off Amazon. She loves it and thinks its better than her Samsung.

FWIW, we've always tried to get the latest or close to latest phones, but now we can no longer afford it. When I replace my 6 year old Galaxy S, i'm going to look for a cheaper unlocked phone off Amazon.

 

[moopdog]

[QUOTE="moopdog, post: 56836915, member: 80682" I think I'm going with Google Pixel for the photo quality!!

I got a Pixel Thanksgiving weekend when they were $10/month and so far I"m happy with it. I'm used to Android and didn't have any real problems with it. The size is what I want, I'm not interested in something big that doesn't go in a pocket or purse easily.[/QUOTE]
Wow, that's a great deal, you got! I have 2 questions: have you owned Galaxy's in the past and do you like the Pixel better or the same as them? And.... do you happen to know what/if anything I can do with my hundreds of iTunes stored songs? Please tell me I can transfer them to any android phone I get! I didn't even think of this until now!

 

[wenrob]

I got a Pixel Thanksgiving weekend when they were $10/month and so far I"m happy with it. I'm used to Android and didn't have any real problems with it. The size is what I want, I'm not interested in something big that doesn't go in a pocket or purse easily.

Wow, that's a great deal, you got! I have 2 questions: have you owned Galaxy's in the past and do you like the Pixel better or the same as them? And.... do you happen to know what/if anything I can do with my hundreds of iTunes stored songs? Please tell me I can transfer them to any android phone I get! I didn't even think of this until now![/QUOTE]
You will have to download them all onto your computer and move them outside of iTunes to ge them on another device.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

You will have to download them all onto your computer and move them outside of iTunes to ge them on another device.

It depend if the files are DRM-free or not. If they are DRM free, then you can transfer them from your computer onto a new phone. If they are not DRM-free, most likely purchased before 2009, then you can only play them on iTunes or else pay to upgrade the music to a DRM-free version.

 

[scard192]

My wife's Samsung Galaxy 3 recently died. Since neither of us are "power users", I bought her a BLU Studio Touch (GSM) for out T-Mobile account (also would work on AT&T or any GSM carrier.) It was $99 off Amazon. She loves it and thinks its better than her Samsung.

FWIW, we've always tried to get the latest or close to latest phones, but now we can no longer afford it. When I replace my 6 year old Galaxy S, i'm going to look for a cheaper unlocked phone off Amazon.

Does the unlocked phone from Amazon work with wifi calling through T Mobile? we are on T Mobile, live in a brick townhous and use the wifi calling all the time as it's better than using the calling through T MOb. Salesperson I spoke to at TMob said wifi calling might not work on an unlocked phone, but could have been trying to con me into buying new phone from him.

 

[wenrob]

It depend if the files are DRM-free or not. If they are DRM free, then you can transfer them from your computer onto a new phone. If they are not DRM-free, most likely purchased before 2009, then you can only play them on iTunes or else pay to upgrade the music to a DRM-free version.

They are all DRM free now, you just need to re download them.
http://lifehacker.com/delete-old-drm-copies-of-itunes-music-and-download-drm-1546445214

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

They are all DRM free now, you just need to re download them.
http://lifehacker.com/delete-old-drm-copies-of-itunes-music-and-download-drm-1546445214

That is good to know, I guess I haven't really kept up. I should spend some time working through my collection at some point.

 

[dreiwhit]

Does the unlocked phone from Amazon work with wifi calling through T Mobile? we are on T Mobile, live in a brick townhous and use the wifi calling all the time as it's better than using the calling through T MOb. Salesperson I spoke to at TMob said wifi calling might not work on an unlocked phone, but could have been trying to con me into buying new phone from him.

Unfortunately, it won't work with WiFi calling. From what i've read, only T-Mobile branded phones (aka, the ones you buy from T-Mobile) will work with WiFi calling.

 

[scard192]

Unfortunately, it won't work with WiFi calling. From what i've read, only T-Mobile branded phones (aka, the ones you buy from T-Mobile) will work with WiFi calling.

thanks for the info

 

[kj2mom]

I know this is a very minority opinion, but my family is pretty active and the smartphones are not exactly designed to be "teeny-tiny"

My kids want nothing to do with the IPhone 6 or 7 because of size.

They are getting the SE at Christmas, which has the internals of the 6, but the size of the 5s. It is ancient, of course, the SE was introduced in March of this year....

http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/iphone-se/

My two 15 year olds are getting their first smartphone for Christmas and I got them both the SE. Cyber Monday/Black Friday Verizon offered them for $5 each a month for the 24 months. I had called a few months back to get pricing and it was going to be $16.66 each. I jumped at the $5. My daughter recently said (after I already have the SE) she would like a 6 or a 7 but SE it is. I have been saving some big shipping boxes so I am going to wrap the little box, put it in a big box stuffed with papers then wrap the big box for under the tree.

 

[MomToOne]

Unfortunately, it won't work with WiFi calling. From what i've read, only T-Mobile branded phones (aka, the ones you buy from T-Mobile) will work with WiFi calling.

I have T-mobile, use an unlocked device and can use wifi calling by going thru Google Voice+Hangouts: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-make-free-wi-fi-calls-google-hangouts-android; https://www.cnet.com/how-to/tips-for-google-voice-in-hangouts-on-android/

One thing to be sure to get these days if you are on T-Mobile is a phone that has band 12, esp. if your area has any band 12 rolled out (many now have). I can get LTE data in places that were dead spots before: http://www.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-700a-spectrum. There is a list at the bottom of this page that also shows what unlocked phones support Tmobile wifi calling if you just really want that. There are some.

 

[PlutoPony]

Sorry @moopdog don't know anything about iTunes transfer. Went from an Android Motorola phone to this one and didn't have music to port over

 

[scard192]

I have T-mobile, use an unlocked device and can use wifi calling by going thru Google Voice+Hangouts: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-make-free-wi-fi-calls-google-hangouts-android; https://www.cnet.com/how-to/tips-for-google-voice-in-hangouts-on-android/

One thing to be sure to get these days if you are on T-Mobile is a phone that has band 12, esp. if your area has any band 12 rolled out (many now have). I can get LTE data in places that were dead spots before: http://www.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-700a-spectrum. There is a list at the bottom of this page that also shows what unlocked phones support Tmobile wifi calling if you just really want that. There are some.

thanks! going to check this out

 

[MomToOne]

thanks! going to check this out

Sorry - I missed putting a link in my other post. The page that shows the Band 12/unlocked TMobile wifi phones is: http://www.spectrumgateway.com/compatible-phones