Time to purchase a new smartphone? Is this an upgrade from an existing device? We want to help you out either way.
To save you money, we’ve gathered up all of the promotions we could find from Verizon. Regardless of where you’re thinking of going for service, or what phone you are looking to pick up, you owe it to yourself to check below.
What follows is a mix of phone, rate plan, and accessory promotions worth checking out. It might not be an exhaustive list, but it’s a good collection of what’s currently offered through Verizon.
Although we’ve listed known expiration dates, we have no idea how long some of these other deals will last.
Are you a current or prospective AT&T customer looking for a new phone? Do you know which model is the right one to get? Why not let us help you pick out the best handset based on your needs. Here’s a look at what we recommend at AT&T for various types of users.
Google’s Nexus line used to be the one, shining beacon of affordable flagships in the endless sea of $700+ smartphones. But Harvey Dent has lived long enough to see himself become the villain, and with the Pixel line and its $769 cost of entry, Google has become Two-Face.
Where, then do we turn in our efforts to find a product that plays a strong hardware game but doesn’t ask for our firstborn children in return?
OnePlus, perhaps. With its ridiculous naming conventions (OnePlus One? Really?) and rather odd decisions regarding pre-orders, OnePlus has certainly made waves sin
“Never Settle.” Damn, that’s poignant.
ce hitting the market in 2014. Its press hasn’t always been positive, but you’d be hardpressed to find a tech nerd that hasn’t heard of it. Despite its rather checkered past,
(Tangent: I literally just realized what that phrase means – checkered patterns are typically rows of alternating dark and light colored squares. As such, a “checkered” past does not necessarily mean a bad one – it means that there have been both light squares and dark squares, which almost perfectly describes OnePlus in a nutshell – or a parenthetical.)
…OnePlus has developed a reputation for selling unsubsidized, carrier unlocked flagship smartphones at subsidised prices. But can it fill the void left by Google’s beloved and storied Nexus line?
Let’s find out: OnePlus 3T vs Google Pixel, head to head.
Build
This is an interesting study in how two phones with similar sized screens vary widely in size. OnePlus 3T is a whole half an ounce (10g) lighter than the Pixel, as well as being 2mm shorter and a full millimeter thinner. Both phones sport an aluminum body with a fingerprint reader, though 3T gets you more screen for your frame size, thanks to the smaller body.
Screen
5.5″ AMOLED vs 5.5″ Super AMOLED
534ppi vs 401ppi
This is probably the biggest concession overall that 3T makes over Google’s Pixel XL – while both phones rock the beautiful AMOLED screen I love, Pixel’s has a much higher pixel density – more than 100ppi more – meaning the display will be much more crisp to the eye.
Internals
Snapdragon 821 (2.15GHz) vs Snapdragon 821 (2.35GHz)
4GB RAM vs 6GB RAM
128GB Internal Storage
When I compared these stats, I had to do a double-take to make sure I had read them right; not only do both phones run an identical processor, OnePlus took it a step further and overclocked 3T’s CPU at 200MHz faster than Pixel’s. Furthermore, it comes with half again as much RAM and matches Pixel punch for punch in terms of storage.
Internal Features
Just in case you forgot what a smartphone looks like – here’s the Pixel.
1 SIM Slot vs 2 SIM Slots
802.11AC WiFi
Bluetooth 4.2
Type-C USB (3.0) vs Type-C USB (2.0)
Pretty comparable – Pixel has an advantage with USB 3.0, but 3T strikes back with 2 SIM Slots (!), which might not be a huge feature for some people but is quite the big deal in my personal circumstance. Both phones sport Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11AC WiFi, so really it comes down to small personal preferences that may be large to some people.
Battery Life
3450mAh vs 3400mAh
Since PhoneArena doesn’t provide any battery statistics for 3T, you’ll have to forgive a little informed conjecture on my part; while both have similarly sized batteries (Pixel with the slight advantage) and both phones run the same CPU (3T’s is probably a little hungrier due to the overclock), 3T will likely get a much longer charge out of its battery due to the smaller pixel density of its screen. When you compare the two, Pixel has about 33% more pixels to display on-screen at any given moment, so given that all else is relatively equal, it’s safe to say 3T’s battery will last longer, even with the added RAM.
Cameras
I’m gonna be honest with you, I was ready for 3T’s cameras to be severely outclassed by Pixel’s. I figured that as well as OnePlus was doing in the other areas, surely it would have skimped on the camera to cut costs, right?
12.3mp vs 16mp
1.55 μm vs 1.12 μm
8mp vs 16mp (!) Selfie Camera
Boom. It competes – hard. As we all know, megapixels aren’t everything when it comes to cameras – sensor size matters, as does the size of each pixel, expressed in μm, or micrometers squared. In all of these areas, 3T matches or beats Pixel. Its pixels are smaller and it has more of them. In addition, its selfie camera, according to these specs, will let you see every single pore on your face.
…wait, that might not be so great. Anyway. Technically speaking, 3T’s camera more than competes.
Value
$869 vs $479
Just…wow. Damn near half the price for a phone that, if you’ve been reading, goes 12 rounds with Pixel and probably wins. I don’t think I need to say more.
Verdict
Did you not read the sentence above? Unless you’re an absolute Android purist and absolutely need to have updates right away (Pixel will always, always get new version fo Android faster than 3T, but it should be noted that 3T will receive Nougat in December – just a month after release), the 3T is a beast of a phone at a very affordable price.
If that doesn’t convince you, consider this; I’ve been a Nexus owner since the Galaxy Nexus – and unless OnePlus completely craps the bed next year, I’ll be buying its line from now on instead of Google’s. Take that to the bank.
EDIT: Thanks to a helpful email, I’ve been informed that the dock does include a 3.5mm jack on the dock itself – this definitely makes a difference. Noted within the article as well. In addition, we should be getting more details in the coming days – we’ll keep you updated.
Incipio’s new auto-dock mod for the Moto Z seems kinda interesting at first glance; it utilizes the magnetic connection integrated into the back of the Moto Z, rather than other similar docks that make you stick a magnetic pad to the back of your phone (or inside your case), and it touts the fact that it’s “fully compatible” with charging, Bluetooth and audio jacks.
But hey, at least it looks exactly like every other vent dock out there.
But when you actually look at the device, you’ll see that it’s little more than a standard vent-dock with a Moto Mod compatible cover attached via ball-joint. That being said, there is a 3.5mm jack on the dock itself, so cars without Bluetooth will have an easier time hooking up to audio using the dock.
At a whoppin’ $64.99, the Incipio Auto-Dock is probably not worth your money – but you can get to the Incipio store to buy it (when it comes out) by clicking that link, if you feel so compelled.
Time to purchase a new smartphone? Is this an upgrade from an existing device? We want to help you out either way.
To save you money, we’ve gathered up all of the promotions we could find from Sprint. Regardless of where you’re thinking of going for service, or what phone you are looking to pick up, you owe it to yourself to check below.
What follows is a mix of phone, rate plan, and accessory promotions worth checking out. It might not be an exhaustive list, but it’s a good collection of what’s currently offered through Sprint.
Although we’ve listed known expiration dates, we have no idea how long some of these other deals will last.
With the year winding down, now is a great time to make the switch to a new phone. But, given there are so many models on the market, it can be confusing. What kind of user are you? Let us help you figure out which devices are right for you. Here’s a look at what we recommend from Verizon.
Is it getting to be that time where you need to consider a new PC for the home or office? What are your needs? Do you spend a lot of time using a particular platform such as Windows or Android? What if you find that you need to work with both? Now what?
If you’re the type of user who doesn’t necessarily need to keep up with the latest in hardware and sofware, you might want to check out a Mini PC. This goes double if you’re hoping to avoid spending a ton of money on your next computer.
The Chuwi HiBox MiniPC, which goes on sale December 6, is a rather small, yet semi-powerful computer option. It runs both Windows 10 as well as Android 5.1, meaning it can blend work and play with the best of them.
In terms of hardware specifications, the HiBox MiniPC packs a 64-bit quad-core Intel X5 Z8350 processor with 4GB DDR3 RAM. Storage comes in at 64GB of eMMC capacity and the TF card slot allows for another 128GB of space.
As for ports and connectivity, you’ll find 802.11 ac 2.4Ghz/5Ghz dual band Wi-Fi, USB 2.0/3.0, HDMI, gigabit ethernet, 3.5m headphone jack, and Bluetooth. Indeed, you can pair a wireless keyboard and mouse to it and have a minimal home office computer setup. Or, put it in the living room and enjoy a lean-back experience by watching movies or playing games with a Bluetooth controller.
Details
Intel X5 Z8350 64-bit quad core CPU and Intel Gen8 HD Graphics.
4GB DDR3 RAM
64GB eMMC Flash
TF card up to 128GB (not included)
Windows 10 + Android 5.1 Dual OS
Supports 2.4Ghz/5Ghz dual band Wi-Fi, 1000M Ethernet jack, Bluetooth V4.0 Streaming and 2.4GHz air mouse remote controller (need to purchase separately)
You like video games, right? Of course you do. If you’re a fan of the classic games of the 8-bit era, then this look is for you. Turn your phone into the perfect representation of the golden age of gaming, or fill your home screen with your favorite characters. Whatever way you want to do it, here is what you need to make it happen.
Why pay for some of these apps?
You might put in a few bucks to get things rolling but you’ll be glad you did in the long run. The sheer level of configuration and customization behind a few of these titles means endless designs. If you’ve been doing the custom home screen stuff for a while, you may have already purchased some of these apps already.
Desktop grid is set to 5×5 with subgrid positioning enabled in Nova Launcher’s ‘Desktop’ settings
The Dock is set at 5 icons in Nova Launcher’s ‘Dock’ settings
The notification bar has been hidden in Nova Launcher’s ‘Look & feel’ settings
A custom app drawer icon is used, which is found in the respective icon pack’s list of alternative icons.
Wallpaper settings are set to “Scroll left” and all effects are on.
Of course, you are not limited to what is shown here, as the icon pack contains dozens of awesome retro-gaming and sprite art to use. Also, you can use whatever wallpaper suits your fancy if you don’t like the live wallpaper.
About Steal This Look
Here at Android Guys, we’re huge fans of changing the home screen around a bit and creating a new user experience for our Android device. In fact, we love it so much that we have an ongoing series of Steal This Look posts. In a nutshell we show you a new layout, app, widget, or icon set for your Android device and tell you which apps you’ll need to mimic the feel.
Some of these are a little easier to create than others and many of them can be tweaked to no end. The above details are but the ingredients to which you can create your own delicious Android dish; your results will vary. Which is awesome! If nothing else, this is a great way to discover new apps, widgets, icons, and more!
In a blog post by CEO Lior Tal, Cyanogen Inc. has announced that its Seattle office will relocate to Palo Alto, California – and in the process, leave Co-Founder Steve Kondik behind.
While I’m not one for lengthy goodbyes, I feel like this little one-line, dismissive tidbit – not even a thank you for bringing CM to the world, mind you – is a disservice to Kondik. I remember back when he ran a (more-or-less) one-man show building CyanogenMod from stock Android, up. In the early days of Cupcake and Donut, Kondik and his band of merry men integrated features that actually made Android usable. Many of these features eventually made their way to Google’s OS in an official capacity without a word of credit to Kondik or CyanogenMod.
Yeah. This guy. Remember that adorable li’l trackball?
Personal anecdote – back in the day, I had myself a T-Mobile MyTouch; not even the MyTouch 4G, mind you, but the old-school MyTouch 3G – you know, the successor to the G1. In short order, it was outdated. Before long, it couldn’t even open the keyboard without crashing. CyanogenMod changed that. Long after the MyTouch had overstayed its welcome, I changed it out for a T-Mobile G2 – with that sweet, sweet flip keyboard. I installed CyanogenMod on that, too. Without CyanogenMod, my G2 and MyTouch phones would have crapped out long before they did. CyanogenMod cut much of the fat from Android at the time and optimized memory usage, so such phones could get Gingerbread and even Froyo long after they’d been dropped from official support.
Lately, though Cyanogen has pivoted in a different direction – but it’s hard to fault Kondik for moving on. The Cyanogen of today is barely recognizable as the innovative, device saving CyanogenMod of yesteryear.
On a personal level this is a sad moment, but I hope Kondik gets back to his roots of pushing the limits of what Android is capable. So, let me take this opportunity to finally say goodbye to the old CM, as the departure of Kondik is the last remnant of what used to be a dominant third-party ROM.
Small screen or “mobile” devices have finally overtaken traditional laptops and desktops as the most popular way to browse the Internet.
This not only explains Google’s algorithm shifts to re-rank mobile-friendly websites higher in search engine results, but also reinforces why it is in every blogger’s, business owner’s and entrepreneur’s best interests to ensure the most mobile-friendly website.
In this article, learn 8 simple steps to follow for building a mobile-friendly website.
Step 1: Study current site analytics thoroughly
Any site design or redesign should build on the strengths of a previous site. Here, analysis of analytics will offer critical insight into the following:
What type of information users are seeking when they access the site.
What the most common tasks are (for example, signing up for an email list group, making a purchase, clipping coupons, reading blog posts, et al).
Which pages generate the most hits and in what order (this analytic speaks directly to site navigation).
Step 2: Emphasize simplicity of function
A mobile user doesn’t want to sift through a mountain of information to find what they are seeking. Mobile users typically have both less time and less patience when accessing the web from a small screen device.
This makes simplicity the win-win of the mobile marketing world. A mobile website that uses its own analytics to streamline and simplify mobile users’ experiences will move up ever higher in the search engine rankings.
Step 3: Focus on thematic consistency
A successful mobile-friendly website will not appear to be fundamentally different from its full site counterpart. This is often referred to as “responsive web design,” which basically translates to mean that the site template itself is smart enough to sense the screen size of the device it is being accessed from and adjust its display accordingly.
If a website doesn’t load on a small screen mobile device in two seconds or less, you will get at best one more second before 40 percent of site visitors will depart. Most will never return again.
Selection of a web host with generous bandwidth per client
Clean, clear, simple CSS
Nonresponsive Javascripts
Poor cache management
Too many 301 redirects
Step 5: Choose the right web host
If there is one fact that can be counted in the world of all things web, it is this: there will always be plenty of web hosting providers to choose from. However, it is important to know what to look for to choose a host that will provide maximum performance, uptime and loading speed.
Posted minimum/maximum traffic per hosting (shared, dedicated, et al) options
Generous bandwidth (20 MB or higher) per site options
Highly responsive technical and customer service support.
Also be sure to do independent research to read what other users with similar sites say about any given web host before selecting the host. This will offer insight into whether the testimonials and claims on a host’s own website are accurate.
Step 6: Be sure font and button sizes and styles are optimized for mobile viewing
Viewing a site on a smaller screen tablet or phone can make for an uncomfortable experience if font or button sizes are too small. And zoom screen options, while helpful to magnify small text, then reduce some of the functionality of the web page itself.
Ideally, each page of a mobile website should be simple enough to allow for highly viewable font and button sizes on each page. Pages that become too cluttered with images or text or interaction options are pages that are no longer mobile-friendly.
Testing should include users with a variety of finger sizes (to test button size) and users with vision impairment (to test for font size) as well as tests for overall small screen visibility and usability.
Step 7: Forego complicating factors like pop-ups and Flash animation
While these types of tools may be useful when installed on full-screen websites, they are reliably problematic when used for smaller screen site experiences.
Flash may not even work on some mobile device operating systems, and pop-ups can obscure the page on a small screen device to such an extent that the visitor just gives up and leaves.
As well, selecting the simplest and most concise page titles, meta-descriptions and URLs will all help to optimize the new mobile website for higher browser search engine rankings (regardless of the specific browser selected for use on that device).
Step 8: Be sure to run Google’s mobile-friendly web test and speed test
Google’s development team has made two essential tools available for free to website developers: a mobile-friendly test tool and a page speed test tool. Before signing off on a new mobile-friendly website, be sure to run both tools to determine if all objectives have been successfully met.
By following these eight steps to create a website, the end result will be a site that is faster, friendlier and more useful to mobile visitors and desktop/laptop visitors. While it will take more planning and preparation work on the front end, the actual design and implementation process will then proceed faster because the major design details have been worked out in advance.
Testing will also proceed more smoothly because most of the major mobile obstacles and bugs will have been identified and solved for in advance. The reward will be a lovely, responsive site visitors love.
Disclaimer: This article is a guest contributed or sponsored post; AndroidGuys does not claim any responsibility for it beyond the pre-approved links and content.
Switch to Sprint and Save $120 on the Samsung Galaxy S7! Plus Free Activation with Promo Code ACTWEB
If you’re the type of user who doesn’t necessarily need to keep up with the latest in hardware and sofware, you might want to check out a Mini PC. This goes double if you’re hoping to avoid spending a ton of money on your next computer.
