Smart phone advice?

[Benjamin Davis]

Hey folks,

I'm fed up with my crappy prepaid phone and ready to get a smart phone.  Since I'm contract free at the moment, I'm free to choose anything.  I was leaning towards an iPhone (yeah yeah, go on, give us some hate), but I'm open to other suggestions.  How are the networks/pricing for smartphones these days for the big three?  What are the 4g (for whatever value the term holds) networks like?  And does anyone officially allow tethering yet?

Thanks,
Ben

[Torsten Wagner]

As far as I know AU allow officially tethering.
As for which phone, I guess you have to be first clear about which
operator you want to use since you have to stick to what they offer.

Totti

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[Akiba]

To save money, I’d pick up a used iPhone 4 or 4S from JanPara in Akihabara. You won’t get locked into a two year contract although you will probably need to pay around 25000 to 30000 yen up front. After that, activation is just 3000 yen and you pay for monthly contract. An Android phone is even cheaper and you can get them used for around 10,000 yen. From there, 3000 yen activation + monthly contract. You can also pick up tethering devices like eMobile’s LTE devices for around 7000 yen. Same procedure. Activate + ~3500 yen/month for unlimited data.

 

My personal recommendation is an HTC smartphone. I got the HTC EVO for AU which has a crappy battery life but has built in wifi tethering. It comes with two batteries which still kind of sucks, but the wifi tethering  is always useful. Most international Android devices will probably come with tethering although I don’t see it on the Japanese brands.

 

Akiba

FreakLabs Open Source Wireless

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[Torsten Wagner]

Chosse an android phone which is supported by CyanogenMod
http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
and you get all stuff (like wifi tethering, root access, usb
tethering, ssh access, etc.) you need, frequent updates and bug-fixes
if you need them and enough tinker potential.
However, you really REALLY want to make sure to set-up the 3G/4G
access correctly in the phone. I heard horrible stories of people who
choose by chance the wrong settings and where charged with standard
fees instead of a flat rate option.
Check twice!!

Totti

[MRE]

RE pricing:
Umm hard to tell.. since my perspective is that I was with AU on a legacy phone, then switched to Docomo with smartphone and data..

But AU was def cheaper. I pay roughly 8000 to 11000 a month on Docomo, with a sliding flat rate for data (up to a certain level I pay packet rates, then hit the rate ceiling and can use as much as I want after that without additional charges... however, once I break the ceiling, it seems like the net becomes impossibly slow to use).

As for tethering, not on Docomo. But then its android, so there are always apps to give you some level of tethering... its dodgy and unreliable, but works in a pinch.

[Robert Gravina]

I've been really happy with my Android-based Huawei GS02 from
e-mobile. I use tethering on that (wireless tethering, so works fine
with my Mac) extensively and you can optionally add 300 free 10min
calls per month to that for 1400yen. I feel like I'm actually getting
a good deal. Wow, image that :)

All other carriers charged a premium for tethering, or plain didn't
support it when I checked. Some claim AU/Docomo etc. have better phone
network coverage but it's never been a problem for me.

The iPhone does have better usability (keyboard input, emoji etc.) but
reasonably-priced tethering makes up for everything else in my case.

Robert

[Torsten Wagner]

Hey,

> All other carriers charged a premium for tethering, or plain didn't
> support it when I checked. Some claim AU/Docomo etc. have better phone
> network coverage but it's never been a problem for me.

Living in Tokyo, I guess this is really not a problem,
However, move a bit more country side and you might face problems.
Here in Sendai, even a big city itself, Softbank is often very very
very slow and within basements connection is often lost
whereas my friends on docomo claim no negative effects.

Totti

[Taylan Ayken]

Hey, I live in Tokyo and from time to time cannot receive SMS or calls in my house because of connectivity! So I can imagine countryside.

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From: Torsten Wagner <torsten...@gmail.com>
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [THS:20286] Re: Smart phone advice?

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[AbH Belxjander Draconis Serechai]

Using an Aquos by Sharp on docomo myself
WIFI tethering is an option I also need to recheck my setup

But I have need of USB tethering my sam440 desktop and custom building a chassis if anyone else is interested

The ATX standard would be a compliance requirement easily met at this time

The reason I am looking at this is the infuriating blandness of all the existing chassis being all tower styled with overdone style extrusions

I have already thought about layout and also ruggedness without easily wiping USB devices off their ports

I have seen this done by a wheelchair on a pre-fabricated chassis

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[Pieter]

I just went through this procedure with Softbank when my wife switched to Softbank with my 'old' iPhone 4.

Bottom line is that there's no signup fee and you avoid having to pay for a full new iPhone (which you can pay once or in instalments over 2 years - in essence you're signing a instalment loan). The 25,000 is typically incurred when you cancel a previous contract with Docom, but in your case that should  not be the case.

Softbank is running a campaign for new contracts where you can get either a folding bike (!), 10,000 yen off of basic white plan fees (first year free for that), or a 10,000 shopping ticket. However this campaign has some restrictions. Electronic retailer may offer you upto 30,000 yen discount on a laptop/ipod touch/etc when signing up - so you may want to check that out if you;re in the market for that.

If you have a family or friends on Softbank calling before 9pm is free. Other carriers have similar plans though.

Softbank will try to sell you the unlimited iPhone data plan - however they have a variable data plan that is much cheaper if you don't use much data over 3G. So if you have a Wifi  at work and home, then you can save assuming you will not be doing data intensive stuff when on the train, etc. Also the iPhone contract comes with free Wifi access in many locations, so you can further avoid 3G charges. 

If you pay your monthly fees by credit card, you get some further discount (forgot what it was)

Good luck!

Pieter

[Torsten Wagner]

Since it was mentioned here several times,

be careful with this variable data plans. The graphs look nice but
check carefully they are not really scaled well. X-axis is given in
packages ?!?!?!
They mention something like for the first Y-thousand packages you pay
X Yen/package until you reached a limit where your costs are cut to a
fixed rate, sounds nice and fair.
The problem is the definition of packages. That could be as less as
128 BYTE!!! which means reaching several thousands of packages is
basically what you do by checking your emails just a few times.

So you might hit the max. value all the time. On the other side the
real fixed data flat rates are slightly cheaper compared to the
variable rates max value. Remember those pesty smartphones apps like
to exchange data in the background all the time.

Thus either go full flat if you know you are going to use it on-the-go
or make really sure you do not use 3G by accident (e.g. switch 3G off
and use it as an sort of emergency option).

Forget tethering if you want to save money by keeping yourself in the
variable zone...

Totti

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[Akiba]

Yeah, I'm flat rate all the way. I just don't want to deal with thresholds
and ceilings.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs

[MRE]

Chris Shannon mods extruded aluminum chasis cases (similar in shape and design to the Mac mini).
He does extensive aging, metal coating and textile coverings.
You should talk to him about ideas.