Mobile Phone Adventures in 2022 recap

Following last year I've decided to experience Google Fi. First step was to port the number from Google Voice and that's where things started to go wrong. After waiting for 5 days the port by Fi was not finished. I checked with Spectrum Mobile to see if they could port in the number. They said they could but... Fi never ported the number in. Spectrum has ported the number in but assigned it to a wrong person and I got a theirs number assigned to me! It took me 3 months to resolve the issue but at the end I got my original number back. I had to contact Spectrum VP offices and I got a special liaison assigned who was indispensable in making the process move forward. But it was quite a battle with countless hours wasted on the phone. I did try out Google Fi and it works great on my Sony Xperia mk3. I got 5G signal, WiFi calling and international accessibility. Then I decided to try it out on my iPhone 12 Mini. That's where Fi falls flat as LTE coverage is quite spotty. I would get interruptions in my streams, and voice call quality was on the borderline unusable. As I frequently switch between phones that was not acceptable for my main line. So for now I keep Fi line for international use. I have the line being "paused". I still have my main number on Spectrum Mobile but soon I will be moving on. Spectrum runs on Verizon network and although the voice quality is much better than T-Mobile it is still not as good as AT&T. So I have got $25 AT&T prepaid line and it has been working well besides being little low on data (8GB a month). I have signed up with Boost Infinite who provide 30GB of data a month for $25. I've been with them for past week and so far so good. I wonder how the prepaid AT&T and Boost will do when traveling to Mexico. Spectrum drops the connection to 3G (HSPDA) and it is barely useable. If I get 3G connections on AT&T and Boost then Fi is definite way to go. With Fi I was getting 4G (LTE) or even 5G connections (in Helsinki airport). And if I am traveling abroad and relying on mobile for anything more than couple days I will invest into local prepaid SIM card which is usually much much cheaper and has larger data allotment. I've looked into AT&T postpaid as I qualified for a "discount" through work and Fiber, but at the end Elite plan was still over $50 and was gonna go up after the credits expired - I did not feel it was worth it. To finish the year with a bang I've dropped my iPhone 12 Mini on concrete and put several fracture lines onto the screen. But even before that I've noticed that the screen was scratching very easily. Conclusion is that Apple's "ceramic shield" is not that hard in comparison to my Pixel phones. I've gotten a used Pixel 4 to check out and it compares very favorably against iPhone 12 mini. Pixel 4 face unlock works in vertical or horizontal vs only vertical on iPhone. Built in rubber bumper of Pixel 4 allows you to use it without the case as there is sufficient grip to hold it comfortably and firmly. iPhone needs the case just to be able to hold it without dropping, and even with the case (Spigen) it shattered on impact. I tried putting on the case on Pixel 4 (Otterbox Defender) but the buttons were too stiff to be able to operate camera comfortably and I could not use "squeeze" functionality so now I use the phone bare. If it broke I would just replace it as it would be still cheaper than replacing the screen on iPhone 12 Mini ($229 at Apple). I think I will just get a screen protector and that way prevent from cracks getting worse. I don't feel them with my finger anyways and screen/digitizer work 100%. At the end you have to be aware where and how you use your phone - if there are the deadzones and how much data you need. Based on that you can find a plan that fits without breaking the bank.

Android Adventures in 2022 - from Sony Xperia 1 mk3 to Google Pixel 6 and back

Little bit of background - it all has started when my iPhone 7 Plus started uploading gigabytes of data over cellular. If you were on an unlimited plan you probably won't even notice, but I wasn't and I did. I contacted Apple (the phone was still under warranty, I bought it refurbished from Apple) but after a month of data dumps and analysis nothing came out of it. I lost trust in iPhone for the first time after using them since iPhone 3G. I wanted the Android experience and narrowed down the choices to either Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel. I didn't want to buy a used phone with an exausted battery so I shopped manufacturers refurbished sites. I didn't find anything on Samsung, but ran across refurbished Pixel 3. Pixel 3 was a great phone. It came with Android 9 or 10 and I used 11 with it. Eventually I updated it to the last version - Android 12 which is the last update it will get. The phone also came with unlimited ORIGINAL Photo and Video storage, but later that got reduced to Storage Saver mode, while still unlimited. Pixel 3 had a good camera, but I was also shooting my Sony A7r mk3 and was able to transfer photos to Pixel to be uploaded to the cloud. It woked great as Pixel 3 provided GPS information for the photos as well AND the uploads did not count to my cloud usage as they came through Pixel 3 phone. I also found out that on Android it is possible to upload to the cloud services in the background - unlike iOS. On iPhone I had to keep Google Photos or Synology Memories in the forground for the uploads to take place - quite a hassle as Apple tried to herd you to use Apple Photos which does upload in the background. Eventually I got enamored with Android and decided to take a leap with a current "spec champ" Sony Xperia 1 mk3. This phone has it all - dual SIMs, expandable storage (at the cost of one SIM slot), triple lens camera system - the works. It looks pretty good too to me. So I took the plunge and picked one up. Honeymoon did not last too long. I found out that the shutter had a long delay and shots of my kids were quite chalenging. Also, I experienced regular lockups of camera app - just as you launch it it would not start and the only way to get it working again was a phone reboot. Eventually the microphone failed and I had it repaired by Sony. Lesson to be learned - even when specs are making you salivate the reality is what matters. I decided to go for Pixel experience as I had good luck with Pixel 3. I picked up a new and shiny Pixel 6. Pixel 6 was a good phone although I could not get eSIM to work on AT&T prepaid plan. Phone support tried and failed, at the store I was told that only on iPhone prepaid eSIM would work. Postpaid would work on Pixel 6, but it was not what I had. So back it went to Google. People complained a lot about the phone but I did not experience those issues - yes, the touch ID was little slow but it still worked and "Hey Google" response was immediate unlike on Sony where I had to call several times. But I was back where I started - Pixel 3 and iPhone 7+. I also did not want a large phone. Pixel 6 was pretty big - big enough for me to get uncomfortable holding phone while in bed. I wanted something small. So I got iPhone 12 Mini through Apple refurbished program. And that's where I am now. I am no longer craving "Pixel 7 Pro" or "iPhone 14 Pro" because they are not that better than my current one. iPhone 12 Mini is a fluid single handed user phone. It is not a phablet or a folder but it does what I want it too. If the phone does what you want it to comfortably then you don't need another phone.

Wireless Adventures Continue in 2022 - Moving from Google Voice

Sony has updated Xperia 1 mark 3 to Android 12 and that fixed the problem of SMS messages not being received. I also found out that 5G would not work on AT&T, but their LTE service is top notch in L.A. and worked well, although it is the most expensive option for me ($45 plus another $5 in taxes for unlimited MAX is the cheapest prepaid option; I could get postpaid Unlimited Extra is $46.25 after all the discounts for 2 years, then it goes up $10 after the "port-in" $10 credit ends). My other gripe is I could not get WiFi calling to work with the Sony and it is Sonys fault. So far only Google Fi would support it, but their plans are not that great price wise and I did not had great luck with T-Mobile Magenta while roadtripping so it became a non starter (although I did conteplate it for a while). At the end paying $50 for Unlimited (new rate in April of 2022) + Tax (another mystery charge) extinguished my interest in going with Google Fi. Spectrum was more transparent including taxes and disclosed them as $1.82 itemized charge. Why would I not stay with Google Voice? First reason is inferrior voice quality. I have tried multiple phones on local calls and got response that "I was sounding like coming from the barrel", also I had problems hearing the person I was talking too. I presume it is due to overzealous compression. And when I called internationally (I called Mexico) the sound quality was so poor that I could not communicate at all. The second reason was that I am using this phone number for 2 factor authentication and there are services that would not authenticate over "VOIP" numbers. The third reason was that Viber and Line would not authenicate over "VOIP" phone number. So although good in theory Google Voice is limited and becoming less and less useful for somebody who is on the lookout for a better service and would like avoid porting numbers around. My conclusion is that I need a service that would provide best price with good coverage in U.S. and worldwide if needed for reasonable price and Spectrum checks all the boxes so far. I did use Spectrum Mobile in Mexico and the charges were reasonable ($.01 per megabyte so Gig would cost you $10). We just used it for Google maps and Yelp so so the charges were like $.24. WiFi at the hotel was for all the heavier data use. Later today... Transfering number from Google Voice is a nightmare. Instead of couple minutes on regular carriers I was informed it is going to take 1-4 DAYS. So now I have a de-activated SIM on Spectrum and no number to route calls from.

What's the lowdown on 5G in the end of 2021?

Yosemite Winter

With all the promotion of latest generation of phones I wanted to know if it was anything substantial.

I was using Spectrum Mobile - MVNO on Verizon network with iPhone 7+. Then I started getting unexplained data leaks that Apple was not able to solve so I switched to Android. My first introduction was Google Pixel 3 which is an excellent phone with a short battery life. As Spectrum Mobile started supporting 5G I decided to check it out.

First I needed a phone that would support it - Qualcomm 888 Snapdragon is the latest chipset for 2021.

I do not like phones with notches or punches in the screen. I homed in on Sony Xperia 1 mark 3 as the phone that checked all the boxes.

After I started using it on Spectrum network I found out that it was not a "supported device". Basically everything worked except visual voice mail (not a big deal) and receiving SMS (big deal). Spectrum solution was for me to get another phone but I was already out of my $$$ so I decided to look for another solution with a different carrier.

First I needed to port out my phone number so I would not loose it.

Since I have been using Google Voice for years I decided to park my number there.

The process took couple days and $20.

Now I was free to check out any other carrier without going through the hassle of porting (and not having access to it while in limbo) my number.

After an extensive research I chose Mint.

They had an incredible promotion - buy 3 months and get 3 months free. I ended up spending around $50 for first 3 months of 4GB data per month and then got another 3 months on top of that. Not bad.

The bad part is that Mint runs on T-Mobiles network. Although I get a acceptable coverage at my home and office the coverage is spotty to say the least when I am on the road. I have ended up in a dead zone quite a few times which made me think about trying another network.

As I new about Verizon network from my Spectrum experience (coverage was good except the SMS issue) I decided to give AT&T a try.

AT&T PREPAID^SM Unlimited Plus for $50 a month ($75 without auto pay) plus tax ($55) had 5G access and would give me a good taste of the network.

After testing it out for a month I could not get 5G to work in my area although my area was covered on the maps. After 2 contacts with AT&T including a visit to a store for a SIM swap I was still not connecting to 5G. Lastly tech admitted that 5G was not "on" in my town and I gave up. The speeds were comparable to Verizon and so was the coverage.

I decided to give another go to T-Mobile on highest priority plan to see if I was missing anything from "deprioritized" Mint.

This time the choice was Los Mobile Magenta plan - $45 +tax = $50. Honestly, I ran SpeedTest many times and maybe I got slightly faster speed than Mint but it was not really noticeable. Upload speeds were still slow and not worth extra money.

At the end I am back on Mint until the plan runs out, then I am going back to Spectrum Mobile. As I got my SMS problem fixed I am just going to use Spectrum Mobile as a dumb pipe for Google Voice.