Frack, stupid phone and stupid Sprint!

digitalwanderer

wandering
Legend
Long/short, my phone screen won't show me anything and I need something NOW. My plan to sweet talk Sprint in to an S9 failed, I can either go somewhere else or settle for one of these three phones. (I'm leaning towards the latter, I'm lazy)

Samsung A50, S8, or the Google Pixel 3a XL? I'm assuming they're all pretty much decent enough to get the job done and do what my S7 Edge did, I'm just not sure which one is best of the three and was looking for input.

The A50 is newer, but the S8 a bit more feature rich. The Pixel would be a total unknown for me, which almost makes it tempting right there! Two of the phones would be free, the S8 would cost me $0.87/mos for 18 mos so I tossed it in for consideration.

Any input appreciated, thanks!
 
S8 would be a no-brainer except for it's small battery and power hungriness. Leaning towards the Pixel just because of the "I don't know" factor...never had a pure android android phone.
 
Personally, I'd get a Tablet for the Android experience and then you can get any bargain basement (Free to $125 range) android phone to do phone calls and texting, aka the phone things.
 
Nah. If I'm at home I use Bubbles, I prefer working on a desktop than anything else. My phone is all I use for portable stuff right now.

Just read a ton of reviews and in spite of all the stats, common sense, and reason I think I'm gonna get the Pixel 3a XL. I gotta make some compromises, but I'd rather have good sound and a fantastic software experience over stats any day. The reviews say the Google team really outdid themselves with the software on this, I'd like to see that myself.

Besides, it's free and it's just for 18 months and i got a guarantee from Google for 2 years worth of updates. Unless someone comes up with a better idea/argument, I think I may get it tomorrow...but I will sleep on it at least.
 
Good news then, i ordered the Pixel. It'll be here day after tomorrow. Local stores only had it in white, and I have never had nor want a white phone.

It got too many awesome reviews, especially the software experience. I think it's time to give Google a try, and it is a weird bargain for me on Sprint right now to get the XL for that price.
 
An 18 month commitment to stay with Sprint and a $60 buyout option at the end of lease I believe, and I had to pay $26 I owed from the $60 payout of the S7 Edge I have that is green screened that I had gotten for the same deal.

It's a $10/mos lease for 18 mos technically, but they give us a $10/mos per line phone lease credit. That's why I gotta look for the $10/mos deals and jump on the good ones when it's upgrade time.

My kids are gonna stick with their S7s for a few more months, they apply the credit to the end-of-lease payout. My wife's phone is all paid off and she could just get a new one tomorrow with the same deal but zero charges. Plus for some reason the Pixel 3a XL also has a deal to waive the "$30 upgrade charge" or some such for having to transfer service, the A50 and S8 did not.

I just liked how the Pixel sounded like a phone for a person who just wants a phone with a good camera that can play videos/music well and for a long time with the bonus of a LOT more customization options than I'm used to. I don't play games much on my phone, but I like checking the net on it a lot. Plus while I can't say it's free it's a damned cheap deal that's sort of built in to our Sprint plan which is one of the reasons why I still like 'em. Not many places seem to offer good deals on cheap phone upgrades, but Sprint can surprise you if you time it right, get lucky, or both.

Gonna see what my wife thinks of my new phone, her M10's battery is going to shite and not worth replacing when she could just get a Pixel or A50 for nothing.

EDITED BITS: Oh, free overnight shipping too! It's just I ordered around 9pm local time so it's not gonna be tomorrow but the next business day.

Out of curiosity, what did you think I paid? Don't you remember I'm not allowed to spend monies on tech, wife's rule. Also if I had an actual budget I wouldn't have been waiting/stressing so long. :p
 
Congrats on getting a pixel.

You'll be pleasantly surprised by the camera versatility in various light condition including pitch black night

I use hacked Google camera on my redmi note 5, enable Night sight, and it's crazy. Photography on dimly lit Cafe become usable
 
Once you use Android without the bloatware, it's hard to ever touch a Samsung again.

Or you'll be like me and prefer android with bloats.

Samsung UI, MIUI, etc have tons of handy bloats. And also tons of annoying bloats...

MIUI users will be familiar with the utterly annoying "auto memory cleanup"

Btw pixel 3a use oled? Enable dark theme and you'll get battery boost
 
Pure android is so freaking awesome! I mean it's scary intimidating at first, but I've fallen in love hard and I don't think I wanna go back!

The only downsides I'd heard about the phone were the "retro bar bezels" at the top/bottom, but those don't bother me at all. I sort of like having a place I can hold on to it to without touching the screen.

Weird it has no sim card, but I can see my texts, calls, got some tunes on it, blujacked my headphones to it, and it's all sounding/running great! :D

Thanks for the recommends.
 
Pure android is so freaking awesome! I mean it's scary intimidating at first, but I've fallen in love hard and I don't think I wanna go back!

The only downsides I'd heard about the phone were the "retro bar bezels" at the top/bottom, but those don't bother me at all. I sort of like having a place I can hold on to it to without touching the screen.

Weird it has no sim card, but I can see my texts, calls, got some tunes on it, blujacked my headphones to it, and it's all sounding/running great! :D

Thanks for the recommends.

If you ordered from Sprint it likely already has a SIM installed.

Regards,
SB
 
Nope, no sim. I put my old phone's sim in it and that's why I couldn't get it to activate. Once I took it out and reran the activation procedures it worked perfect, pretty sure it has an onboard one that they programmed through the wifi.

Next up, how do I get my old texts off my old phone and on to my new one? I can't see my display, but I can access my drives hooking it up to my PC with a little work. Anyone know where they are? :|
 
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