I'm kinda surprised that nobody posted anything about the Xbox One. Granted, it is rather underwhelming at the moment. Lot's of "might do this" type of thing. And rather ugly.

:: cross post with games ::

T-mobile has moved to a new system, at least for new customers, where the phone purchasing/financing are separate from the actual monthly bill, at least for new customers. Simplifies things: you know what portion of your phone is paid off and if you want a new one you can just finish paying off the old one whenever you want. If you are planning to switch to one of those plans (which I adore) and can afford to pay for a new phone upfront rather than spread over time, then you could just buy an unlocked used or new phone now and switch to the cheaper plan when your contract is up. The HTC One, for example, is $574.99 unlocked direct from HTC, which is basically the same price as you'll end up paying for it on T-Mobile over two years ($100 upfront plus $20/month for two years). If you go for an older phone (used), you could actually save money that way.

I just bought an unlocked used Galaxy Note II for $250 less than T-Mobile sells it new, and when my stupid AT&T contract is up and I don't owe an ETF on my last phone, will be switching to T-mobile plan.

I just got a Nexus 4 that way, Gris. I pay $50/month for unlimited calls/texts and 500MB data. Seems to be working, although I have to make sure the phone only updates its apps when I have wifi access at home.

Hm, the unlocked Galaxy S4 is still close to $700, same as on the T-Mobile site. We'll see what they can do for me.

Cool. I still strongly recommend switching to one of the new plans (rather than staying grandfathered on your old one), unless it's far more expensive for you. Contracts suck.

Also, make sure you play with a galaxy s4 before jumping in. Some people think they're too big. Not me, but some people. The HTC One has a lot of good buzz as a competitor for a reason.

Also, the Nexus 4 is $349 unlocked directly from Google, and is a pretty awesome phone too, though it has no LTE (if that's even available in your area.)

P-C, the S4 will be expensive because it's new. You're not going to find much of a deal on it. I actually prefer my S3.

Cool. I still strongly recommend switching to one of the new plans (rather than staying grandfathered on your old one), unless it's far more expensive for you. Contracts suck.

Oh, no, I agree that the new plan is great. It seemed counterintuitive at first, but once I understood the implications, I loved it.

Also, make sure you play with a galaxy s4 before jumping in. Some people think they're too big. Not me, but some people. The HTC One has a lot of good buzz as a competitor for a reason.

It's about the same size as the S3, isn't it? My brother and sister have that, and it's bigger than my current phone, but it looks like that's the trend, so not much I can do there. I tend to stick with the same brand for phones (all my non-smartphones were Motorola) since I know how to use them. The HTC One does look pretty good, though.

P-C, the S4 will be expensive because it's new. You're not going to find much of a deal on it. I actually prefer my S3.

How come? It looks like the S4 is a more powerful phone, and given how quickly my Exhibit became shitty in comparison to the rest of the market, I'd rather go with the new phone that will remain useful for longer. It doesn't look like there's a reason to upgrade from an S3 to an S4, but since either one would be a huge upgrade for me, I'd prefer the latter.

I'm not sure you'll find the S4 version of Touchwiz (Samsung's custom overlay on Android) to be that similar to the Exhibit version. It will probably be about equally foreign to you as the Sense interface on the HTC one. And neither of them will be particularly confusing - I've used about 20 different android interfaces, including several versions of both Touchwiz and Sense, and they all feel basically like Android. Mainly, the widgets are different.

I'd probably get the Nexus 4 if I were getting a non-super-gigantic phone, because it's so cheap for its awesomeness, but the HTC One is NICE and would definitely tempt me.

I'm ready to upgrade per my contract, and since I'm on the fourth iteration of this Droid 3, I'm ready to move off that train, too. Which makes me sad because basically the Droid 4 is the only remaining current smartphone that still has a tactile keyboard. So I guess I'm giving that up.

I'm looking at the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z. Anyone have any experience with the latter? It's supposed to be moisture and dust-proof, and given that I had so many failures with the earlier phone, I am thinking maybe my environmental conditions are just rougher than a normal phone can handle.

Or I could head to the Apple ecosystem, I suppose.

Hmm, looks like the HTC One is a "maybe later" for Verizon and the Z is a "no." I dunno.