Would any carriers let you try a phone for a week on their network to see how the coverage is? I'm definitely interested in dropping vzw in a year but I'm nervous because I know my coverage is great currently.

I will never have another smartphone without a Mophie case if at all possible. They are just amazing. Gives you sick battery life and decent protection to boot. A little pricey, but I think it's totally worth it. Don't know how many times I forgot to charge my phone and I was out somewhere and needed my phone for something important and just flipped on the case and boom, more battery. Think you get around a total of 7 hours more battery life.

Just looked at Straight Talk website, they wouldn't show me available phones until I plugged in my LV zip code. They have 16 GB iPhone 5s, but no high-end Android phones. They had the LG Optima for $150, then everything else was in the $50-$100 range. My wife puts a ton of pics/vids on her phone and said she has to have the bigger 64GB phone next time, and I would want a better Android model. Does anyone know how Straight Talk determines which phones you can buy? Does it change frequently?

The 3-4 GB is shared between both phones, we can probably get by with that between the two of us for now. Hate to give up unlimited though because I'm sure our usage will be higher every year going forward. Of course, that's why VZW is making us give up unlimited.

Hmm just looked at Tmo's website, can do 2.5 GB each for $100 per month, but no subsidy on the phones. Unfortunately data isn't shared (I use 3GB+ while wife uses <0.5GB), but they don't charge you for overages they just throttle you so maybe I could live with that. Does anyone have experience with Tmobile throttling? Can you still effectively browse the web? Stream music (guessing video is a no)? Use GPS/Google Maps?

You can keep unlimited data on Verizon if you buy the phone at full price. Just don't use the upgrade. So Moto X or something like that would work well there.

Also if you're considering T-Mobile and you don't talk on the phone a lot, look into their $30 plan. Only available if you buy the phone yourself or through Walmart I think, but gets you unlimited text and data (first 5GB at 4g speed). Downside is only 100 voice minutes.
Yeah most carriers let you cancel within 2 weeks with no charge. The issue is losing your old plan - if you cancel Verizon to try another carrier, and then move back to Verizon, you would no longer have grandfather status.

The throttled speed is like when you have a poor connection out in the boonies or something and can only get EDGE instead of 3G or LTE. Maps and some browsing work. Not sure about streaming music, but I doubt it.

Did not know you could keep unlimited data if you don't take their subsidy, interesting.

So, they basically give you ~$425 per phone in subsidy, and my current unlimited plan is $10 more expensive than 6 GB. So for two phones I'd be paying $1100 more over two years to keep unlimited. Not cheap, but at least it's an option.

Thx for info on throttling. Maps not working when I need it would be the biggest concern, if that would generally work well then I think that could work.

Thx, appreciate the rec. Will look into it more, and a good chance I get it.

This plan really is the nuts. Switched to it last yr after 10yrs of VZ. How everyone in good coverage areas & doesn't use a lot of min's doesn't have it...
It is very weird how T-Mo sorta pretends it doesn't exist but hey, it does.

My wife and I both got unlocked nexus 5's @$350 each. Def don't get one of those cheap phones on ST's website. Your wife could always get a gently used iPhone of of eBay or somewhere

I put 2 phones onto this recently. Works just fine for me.

https://www.net10.com/

nova my favourite but hated not having numbers in text and email icons

Nova Prime supports that, uses a plug-in called Tesla Unread.

Republic Wireless has been awesome for me.

unlimited everything, ~$28/mo. no real phone choice but I like the moto x just fine.

What are people using for group texting? I currently have all these settings for handcent go sms pro that make it kind-of work. It "auto downloads" but I still need to download most messages and I think I miss some If I don't keep up sometimes. Is Android still useless for flawless group chatting?

I use the Verizon messenger app because it appears to do group texting correctly.

Textra.

Whatsapp

Going to try this one out. Seems like a promising app. Thanks

I've never had a problem with mms on the Samsung stock messaging, hangouts, textra, or Verizon messaging.

Made by the same company that makes Chomp sms.
(I mention this because some users report having problems with Textra while Chomp works fine, and vice versa).

MMS stock worked fine for me when I upgraded to 4.3 but textra is better anyway.

Anybody know of a way to make the stock Nexus 5 e-mail app (not gmail) not fetch emails during night time?

I use Tasker to turn off data and sound and stuff at night

do you happen to know what network you are running off of? buddy of mine has straight talk, and if he doesn't reup the plan in time, it goes to stock " this line is currently out of service" message followed by "Verizon wireless".
Just curious if th N5 will run on the Verizon network, ive heard that Verizon somehow blocks the N5