project fi/Google fi

I thought there was a thread at one point, but even Google can't find it for me. 

Moxnix and his wife(?), combined with the trip to the rally cross grounds are pushing me towards project Fi because of the cord coverage of sprint, t mobile, and us cellular without waiting for the tentative merger to go through. 

I guess my questions are as follows: how are the pixels and moto one x4 as phones? Battery life, durability, camera?

It's the coverage really as good as it looks? 

And how much of a hassle was it to keep your current number? They claim on the show I could activate a line with them and port my number over later, true?

Oh, and does anyone have a referral code to use for when I sign up?

I've been using Project Fi for a year and a half now. It's literally cut my two line smart phone bill by 75%.

Coverage is as good as it looks, especially international which was the big draw for me as I was traveling internationally a lot at the time. The WiFi calling fills in the gaps and the automatic VPN for public networks is super sweet.

Migrating to the service was the easiest thing I've ever done involving a cell phone it's all web based and there isn't any BS.

The way the process works is you fill in your billing info and number you want to migrate. Pay for the phone and request the SIM. Google sends out the phone and sim. All you do then is get some WiFi, activate the phone, and sim then cancel your old plan. Your old number becomes active on the new phone about an hour after you activate the ProjectFi sim.

Here's my referral code: https://g.co/fi/r/YC031K It's good for an unlimited number of sign ups so I don't care who uses it. It's a 20 dollar credit after 30 days for both parties (just getting that out there.)

The phones: They're overall they're very good. Android is a great system when it's actually updated and not full of bloatware. The Nexus phones have a cult following for a reason and they've lived up to the hype for me.

That said: The Nexus 5X has an issue where it will randomly bootloop. Project Fi replaced my wifes for us free of charge so I didn't have to deal with LG over the issue. I'd still stay away from it as it's showing it's age and coming to end of life after the Oreo update minus security patches. Even with that problem it's been pretty good to me so I can't complain really at all. Great camera and generally good experience.

The 6P supposedly has a problem with the battery but I don't own one so I couldn't tell you how wide spread the issue is.

I don't know much about the new Pixel2 phones yet as they're due to be announced in a few days but the Pixel is generally pretty well regarded.

Other bonus items:

Everything (phone calls, SMS, messages, voicemail) ties pretty neatly together through Google Hangouts as well which is really convenient.

Billing is ultra transparent which was a nice change from Verizon. If you want to see what one looks like I can pull one of mine. The ProjectFi app has up to the minute official data usage so you're unlikely to ever be surprised by the bill if you check it from time to time and also provides a mechanism for technical support which requests that they call you.

Come to think of it I don't have any complaints at all really which is saying something since I despise every other phone company I've ever dealt with.

Oh and there's no charge for tethering which is useful for info you don't want transferred over a hotel or airport network. Verizon and AT&T can suck my butt hole over the fights I've had with them on that front.

^Echoes everything I've read about it. I'm just waiting for the Pixel 2 so I can order it, cancel my existing Sprint coverage and move to Project Fi.

I figure between WiFi at home, guest at WiFi at work, and many public spaces, I'll be able to cut my phone bill by 50% per month. Big plus is that I'll own the phone, so if I don't like it, I can always stop with no penalty and go to one of the big carriers.

We also have the Nexus 5 phones and my wife had the bootloop issue and had to get her phone replaced.

One thing to note is that if you currently use google voice for anything you will lose that number unless you transfer it to another account.  Voice and Fi are related technologies and only one can be used on a single google account.

The Moto X4 just came out a week or two ago for project Fi so I doubt anybody has much real world testing with it yet.  The pixel phones have been pretty well reviewed as well as the nexus phones.

We were with T-mobile before and the coverage since switching to Fi has been much better.  I do have a verizon phone for work and the coverage with verizon seems to be a little better than Fi.  Check your area coverage with the Fi coverage map

My referral. https://g.co/fi/r/1K60XM

I've been doing a good job avoiding using hangouts and Google voice and photos, pretty much anything other than gmail and the play store. Are those changes I'm going to be forced to make or can I continue with 3rd party not all one family apps?

I'm just not a big cloud fan, I like choosing what gets backed up where and having physical micro SD cards full of data instead of websites. 

I noticed the moto one x4 just got released, I might just have to try it on. Haven't had a Motorola since the days of the razor. 

Just got off the phone with sprint... Not happy. I've got 2 months left on my phone lease which is fine, but the $100 for the tablet "upgrade" I got recently  is annoying me. Damn thing is to slow for Swype let alone any actual use as is, but the buyout price is cheaper than keeping a line alive for 22 months.  But that's of top of my now $170/month bill. For a just tablet and smart phone. 

Once the little tyke goes to bed and I can use my laptop again I might sign up now, and get used to everything before porting my number when my payments are up.  

Now what did this is do to my keyboard that I can't long press anymore.....

You can still use other messaging apps if you wish. I really only use Hangouts since it's built into Gmail/Inbox to text my wife from work, but it's certainly not required and my wife refuses to use it.

Of course after a toddler killed a her old phone and a tablet we use a couple of Googles other services too. Not a huge fan of the cloud but I also don't like spending a couple hours with ADB decrypting old phones and pulling pictures off. It doesn't happen often but when it does it's a pain.

It's actually pretty amazing how fast the phones amortize themselves. I switched from Verizon after they jacked my bill up to 200 dollars a month for the grandfathered unlimited plan. I think I paid 350 for each of the 5X phones, and I pay about 56 dollars a month now for two lines (20 dollars for the primary line + 15 dollars for the secondary + data.) That worked out to a bit less than 5 months to break even. Everything after that was gravy.

Realistically I didn't need the unlimited data plan on Verizon but until they increased the lines by 40 dollars a piece it would have cost me the same to go to their bottom tier data plan with only two gigs so I held out until the end and changed. I'm a bit paranoid about public networks (I blame my previous career) so I either use my own VPN on them or Google's depending upon what I'm doing, but you'll find you use wifi a lot more than you'd think when you're playing the "How low can my bill go this month?" game.

All of the recent google phones (Nexus 5X, 6P, Pixel, Pixel XL) have come without an SD card slot so you are limited to whatever size you buy and the big push for cloud storage.  The Moto x4 does have an SD card. 

I have seen some USB-C adapters for external SD card readers but have not used them I just use cloud storage.

Welp, just signed up for FI. I used Moxnixs referral code because it was him that really got me thinking about it in the first place. 

I ordered the Moto One X4, which is not available until October 5, and won't ship until October 12, so I should be getting the phone mid October according to the free shipping estimate time. 

Including monthly payment for the phone, device protection, and 2GB data, I'm shaving $100 off my monthly phone bill as long as I remember to have money in the bank when the payment comes out. Maybe more, depending on actual data usage. So my first month of service savings will pay off that garbage Slate 8" tablet I got a couple months ago. 

I really like the data setup, pay for what you use without overages. I haven't been using massive amounts of data lately, but it is nice having the ability to do so. 

I've had it for about a year and a half.  My wife has been on the plan for about 4 months.  My experience is much like the0retical's.  Some notes:

• Hangouts integration of everything is awesome**.  I use real computers most of the day, so I just have a window open with hangouts.  I can send/receive texts there easily.  And photos.  And even draw on photos (handy when you are an engineer).  Also I receive phone calls through my headset.  Video chat is cool too.  I can join the same call from my pc and phone at the same time - handy when doing a remote conference call.  There is a permanent text history of every conversation regardless of what device I was using, when and where.
• See those ** above?  The downside:  typical SMS features sometimes don't work.  You can't receive a contact someone shares with you if Hangouts is your text system.
• Another **.  Hangouts texting is ending/transitioning to something else.  It almost looks like google will drop support for this which will make me angry because I love this feature so much.
• The only real issue I have had is delayed data usage.  About 2 months ago, the first day of the month our data usage showed like 200megs.  Then 300 the next day.  Then 400.  All from my wife's phone.  She even turned off cell service and it still climbed, finally leveling off at a couple gigs.  All of it in the history showed as "prior usage" or something.  It was weird and I still don't fully comprehend it.  We got a credit for it, but if it happened again I'd be raising a stink.

We both have the 5X and have not had issues with it.  My one complaint is just that the default camera app is garbage and has a 500ms-1 second delay after you hit the button where it refocuses/whitebalances or something.  This makes taking an indoor photo of a toddler impossible. 

Interesting that in the post preview window, this text is significantly bigger than the bulleted text above.

RevRico said:

I'm just not a big cloud fan, I like choosing what gets backed up where and having physical micro SD cards full of data instead of websites. 

You can still tell the phone what to back up to the cloud and not. 

But don't worry about it. If someone wanted it, they'd find it. I'd worry about something else personally.

Oh yeah, google photos backup is awesome too.  But that's not strictly a project fi thing.

z31maniac said:

RevRico said:

I'm just not a big cloud fan, I like choosing what gets backed up where and having physical micro SD cards full of data instead of websites. 

You can still tell the phone what to back up to the cloud and not. 

But don't worry about it. If someone wanted it, they'd find it. I'd worry about something else personally.

It's more for off network availability. With the motto x4 being able to handle up to a 2 tb SD card, I can pack a lot of movies and music on that and not need to worry about internet access. Or if I need to find something very specific like a program or an album, I can reach in my box of storage, find the proper card or hdd and have it.

I'm a sucker for physical backup. 

My only really issue is my Nexus 6p battery SUCKS. 

That said, when I get my next phone I will probably go back to Republic wireless. I used to have them, and I like them, and I think for me it would work out to be slightly cheaper.