Phone Indecision

I think Laura started disapproving of my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S3) the day I bought it about 3 years ago. Not the phone itself, mind you. Just Verizon's overpriced service.

Back then, I worked for a company that required me to have a regular working phone (which is the only reason I got one in the first place), and they paid for it. So it made some sense to get a big, extravagant, over-priced phone. At least to my mind. It also made sense when I bought the one before that, about 5 years earlier (that was one of the last of the Windows phones that might have been worth buying. It was before Android. Apple had just started taking over the market. My anti-Microsoft bias isn't because I don't try their products...I just generally don't like them).

Shortly after we finished moving, (so probably mid-July), Laura convinced me to switch. She'd found an awesome plan through Wal-Mart (*shudder*) that uses T-mobile. Somehow, it's cheaper than the basically identical plan offered by T-mobile. When Verizon called me about an overdue bill (I think we'd just canceled the credit card we were using for that bill after the number got stolen, or something along those lines), I just decided to bite the bullet and told them to go ahead and cancel my service when that billing cycle ended.

I figured there couldn't possibly be a better incentive to convince me to just pick one.

Our wires got crossed a bit during the conversation. She wound up cancelling my service in the middle of the call.

So I started researching frantically. The Wal-Mart plan's good, but I wanted to check out other possible options.

Google Fi sounds awesome. I'm tempted to sign up for a slot. But service was only available through the Nexus 7 when I was looking, and that didn't appeal to me at all. Khrys reminded me recently about my excitement about getting a gmail invite. This seems very similar.

Researching that led me to Republic Wireless. Which looks awesome. Except for the requirement to buy a phone that locks you to them. Actually, I'm still very tempted to try out whatever their bottom-end phone is these days.

I actually settled on them. I was all set to buy whichever model of Moto X was their top-end at the time. I had my phone all designed and customized (if you haven't played with the Moto X Builder, it's a very well-done web site). I just couldn't get it to accept my money.

I spent a week dealing with tech support, capturing things like network logs to show them that the problem really was on their end. The day I decided to give up, I finally talked (yes, on Laura's phone) someone who admitted that they were having problems with their Discover gateway.

Well, that was easy enough. I wonder why no one had thought of that before. "Try a different card" makes worlds more sense than "Our server's sending you a 404 error? Have you tried clearing the browser cache?" I'm not sure I would have believed that explanation at first (why would "Card declined" result in a 404?!), but I jumped at the opportunity.

And the phone I wanted was out of stock.

So I decided to dig deeper. I started looking at pure unlocked phones.

I'm surprised this has never really occurred to me before. I blame my youth. You buy your phone from the carrier you're going to use. I still think it's liberating that you can actually buy the phone rather than just renting it.

But, still. I'd really been thinking in terms of "Buy a t-mobile phone, then switch to Wal-Mart's network." Until I visited a t-mobile store and they told me how long I'd have stay on contract with them (no matter what) before they'd "allow" me to switch.

I think it's 45 days. It seems like it might have been 60 or 90. One would have been too many.

I drove home from that experience in a snit and started searching Amazon for unlocked phones.

I was thrilled at all the options available. And a little disgusted at all the choices I had to sift through.

Their best-sellers were appealing, but none really reached out and grabbed me.

I was very tempted by the Amazon phone, even though it was ancient. I know how much Khrys loves his Kindle. (He told me later, at this point in the story, that he'd have preferred an Amazon over his iPhone, if it had been offered on a carrier with better service in his area).

I think I was probably looking up reviews for that when I started finding ones about the OnePlus One. It had been out for over a year, and it was still considered one of the best phones on the market for the price.

Hmm.

I looked it up on Amazon. The only way to buy one seemed to be through shady resellers from China. This piqued my interest. (I'm not sure I like what this says about my personality).

So I did more research. And it turns out that the "real" way to buy one is through their website.

Oh, and the next generation model was about to be released soon. They'd just opened up the sign-up list so you could get in virtual line to get an invitation to buy one. With preferential treatment for people who already own a One, have been long-time supporters, or are active on the forums.

I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. I signed up around spot number 64000.

They also have a thing where you get to bump up in line if you convince other people to sign up through your affiliate link. I think, at one point, I was up to around spot number 61,000. I've been moving steadily back ever since.

They've done a few social media races. Things like "Be one of the first 1000 to like this post on Facebook and get an invite!" I think the last of those (something like the first 7000 shares on instagram) wrapped up in under 15 seconds. The people who own/want this phone are rabid about it. I've been meaning to blog about the brilliant marketing.

One of their head honchos recently posted a public apology on their forum about how badly they've botched this roll-out. They've been plagued by every problem that a little startup is going to face. Especially one that's dealing with hardware. I can't remember the last time I saw a corporate exec eating crow for over-promising and under-delivering. Not in terms of quality, but quantity. And the problems are because they are so dedicated to quality. (People with more insight than I have written much more about the nuances behind this particular marketing tactic...this guy probably knew exactly what was going on every step of the way).

Anyway. I haven't been moving back as fast as the line's been growing. They passed over 4 million reservation spots about a month ago. No one knows how many of those are legit, of course. I've read a lot of forum posts complaining that there wasn't any profit in getting an early phone because they have no resell value.

As I said, I've been watching my spot in line dwindle for quite a while now.

In the meantime, Motorola's released the next generation version of that phone I really wanted originally: the Pure.

The stats look pretty sweet. My boss strongly urged me to get one. He said he'd love to jump on it, but can't quite justify replacing his old Moto X quite yet. Reading a lot of reviews tonight, it seems to be a slightly better gadget (does anyone really care about the phone part these days?) than the One Plus 2. It's definitely the only thing comparable in that price range.

I'd given up waiting on the OPT. I went back through the Moto X Builder design page. But, honestly, the color combinations I want just don't mesh well (this is the price of offering too many options to your customers). And they were out of stock when I tried to order (to be fair, the phone had only been released a couple of days earlier, and most articles recommended just settling for the default ones available on Amazon...if even those were available).

At this point, I'd basically been without a phone for at least 2 months. (We did get a cheap little Go phone from Wal-Mart for emergencies...Mal thinks it's awesome. Somehow, he's managed to figure out how to unlock it and burn through lots of prepaid minutes browsing the web). Waiting a little longer wasn't that big a deal.

And the new Google Nexus phones were probably going to be announced on Sep 29 (spoiler alert: they were). Neither one wowed me, but they gave me a baseline for my next waiting period.

They're supposed to be available (with Marshmallow) on Oct 16. Motorola's widely expected to update soon after that.

So I figured I'd hold off and get a Pure sometime after they update. Maybe they'll offer a color combination that I'll appreciate more by then.

I have a daily reminder to check the OnePlus forums for random invites (since I just might luck out and do so in time to actually win one...maybe they'll have one on a social media forum I actually use, like github). And to check my place in line.

I started out the week around 100,000. I've been moving back by about 1000 a day since. This morning, I was around spot 104,500.

They've recently announced that on Monday, Oct 12, between 12-1 (time zone varies depending on source), they'll sell phones to everyone who wants one. It seems to involve going through the India version of Amazon. Which would probably work. But...maybe I'm turning into an old fogey.

This afternoon, Laura sent me an IM over gmail. I went ahead and checked it at work, since she knows to only send me important stuff. I noticed a weird email with the subject "You're Invited." "That's weird," I thought, "how did this get past Google's spam filter?"

I almost marked it as spam before I realized that it's the OnePlus Invite that I've been waiting on for so long.

It arrived 10.5 hours ago, so (at least in theory) I have another 13.5 hours to use it. Through an account that has a password I really hope I saved when I created it.

And I'm sitting here wondering "Is this *really* the phone that I want to be using for the next 3-5 years?"

When I told Laura about my indecision, she told me that I make her sad. Like a cat that thinks a cricket is interesting, but not interesting enough to actually do anything about.

I think my problem may be commitment issues. I'm reminded of playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. When I had a potion, I'd always save it for later. Actually, I pretty much still do that when I play Nethack. When I played a magic-user, at low levels, I'd always save my one or two wimpy little spells until it was too late for them to matter.

This may have something to do with the fact that I waited so long to get married.

I hope Laura will take this in a positive light: I'm serious about commitments, so I want to be sure before I make a choice. Since I really don't change my mind once I'm committed.

This is why I love colby jack cheese. It lets me enjoy both great tastes. I like sharp cheddar better, but I can't really go with that for everyday working cheese. It's more of a special occasion sort of thing. The same goes for, say, Brie, in the opposite direction.

And that doesn't even get into the really good cheese s. To quote Mal: "Yum!"

So now I'm down to about 13 hours. Honestly, it's time to fish or cut bait.

I just thought this story might be amusing enough to justify a little procrastination.

EDIT: I ordered the phone. It should ship within 5-10 business days