WWTBAM Bored

I got the only informed person I've ever gotten at T-Mobile. They not only know about their "200 whatevers of data free after the 1st $30.00" chips working in Nexus tablets, they're selling the tablets. However, cheapest they've got currently that works with this is not the Nexus but an Alcatel Pop 7. Anyone had one of these fall apart (per Bob J re the Nexus)?


Turns out I've been averaging, this past year anyway, around $24.00/month for my unsmart pay-as-you-go phone. I could ante up another $25.00/month for one of T-Mobile's (or someone else's) data phones, plus buy the phone of course, or keep using my unsmart phone & buy this little tablet. Price would be the same for 1st year, back to minimal after that.


Dreams of wanting real tablet/laptop (Chromebook, Surface) die hard though. I don't want to have to worry about anti-virus stuff; wouldn't with Chromebook or the T-Mobile route. I don't want to worry about connecting with wifi or generating my own either; most of the FreedomPop (wifi hotspot generator) users rave about it, others say they've been charged a bundle they shouldn't have been. And I'd have to get that with either the Chromebook or Surface. Chromebook & Surface come with some semblance of keyboard; Alcatel has a tiny, therefore useless-to-me one for another $80.00. Or you can connect a real keyboard that roles up for whatever they cost. I have yet to demo one of those.


All the little Alcatel tablet will do if I don't want to exceed their 200-whatever is let me read e-mail wherever T-Mobile works. And maybe look up a map once or twice. But I've been claiming that's all I need in such a device.


Or I could still get the Kindle Fire, at about $200.00, that works wherever Amazon is (presumably as many places as T-Mobile is), & purportedly lets you have more than 1 login ID. I have 2, if you're checking. All the devices I am leaning toward have to have that. T-Mobile informed-salesperson specifically demoed that for me on the Acatel. For some reason the little tablet which costs as much as the Kindle thingie appeals to me more. (It appealed to me even more when it was a Nexus that only cost $99.00, but you can't get those new any more, & I just shy away from used devices that the last user could have made useless to me.)

I'd never heard of the POP 7 but from looking at the specs I'd not buy it.

It seems to be not upgradeable from Android 4.2.

You get 200MB of free 4G Data for Life. That's not very much. I have 1TB on Microsoft Live.

It has a Dual-core 1.3 GHz processor. That's not bad but others for the same proce have a quad-core.

Its camera is just 2 megapixel?! You may not care about taking photos with it but that's still ridiculous.

According to the T-Mobile person, you get 200MB/month for life. This concurs with what my acquaintance, who researched the now far more expensive Nexus for their romantic partner & their mother, told me. Since all I want to do is check e-mail, that should be enough. The system you have 1TB on is not available to me for $230.00 including 4G connectivity ($200.00 for the tablet, $30.00 for the sim card that gets me the 4G T-Mobile), I'd guess. If it is, tell me. The internet connectivity is the most important part of any device I buy, to me. Believe me, I don't care about taking photos. If I did, I would have bought a real camera years ago, & not a digital one either. Someone stole my last real camera. Which wasn't that high-end, to be honest, but I got good photos with it. I've been using those crappy one-roll film cameras ever since. The camera on my current cell phone is unbelievably crappy; One of these days I'll actually buy a real camera, but haven't yet.


(I fell in love with one of those one-rolls that could take panoramic photos even though it cost the earth to print them. Can't get another. I know you can get a digital camera that stitches shots together to make a panorama, & I'll probably get one eventually, but it isn't the same as film panoramic shot.)


The real question is "do others for the same price take the T-Mobile sim card". You'd think T-Mobile would have told me if they did, since they're selling devices that take their sim cards. Better than saying "duh", which is what they were saying when my acquaintance 1st checked this system out. The real fear, among people who already use this system, was that T-Mobile would pull the plug, the same way Verizon did with the 3G connection they were advertised as providing for the Chromebook. Which I almost bought a Chromebook (I'd still rather have one; its a real computer, albeit one that doesn't run Microsoft Office stuff) for. Instead, T-Mobile has gone with the flow & while they don't actively promote the free 200MB/month, as they'd rather sell you a more expensive plan, they aren't disabling it.