26
Mar
galaxysivtiny

T-Mobile is not playing around today at its "UNcarrier" event. In addition to formally announcing the new, simplified prices with optional equipment repayment plans, and a shiny new LTE network, the company also says that the Galaxy S 4 will be arriving on its airwaves on May 1st, packing the ability to hook into that lovely 4G.

The carrier did not, however, elect to mention the pricing of the device. It has said that the iPhone, HTC One, and Blackberry Z10 will all have a $99 up front price and a $20/month payment plan. Over the course of 24 months, this makes the final price about $580 for those devices.

03
Jan
vodafonetiny

It's easy for the tech world to forget that not everyone is looking to buy a new $200 phone on contract every six months. Vodafone UK hasn't forgotten, though. The British carrier is launching a new service to help put top-tier smartphones in the hands of pay-as-you-go customers by selling them lightly used hardware. More specifically, phones exchanged within the carrier's 7-day return window.

If you're buying a phone without a contract, the up-front cost would be slightly cheaper, as one would expect from a used device. For those concerned, stores do check to ensure the mobiles still work, wipe any data or settings, and package them up with any requisite accessories.

04
Sep
TMOBILE_samsunggalaxys2android4.0updateipv6126

It's not often we find ourselves excited about prepaid here in the US, but if any store can get people excited about saving money, it's Walmart. And what Walmart and T-Mobile just announced is actually pretty exciting if you're looking for a way to get on the smartphone bandwagon with low monthly overhead.

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For $300, Walmart will sell you a contract-free T-Mobile Galaxy S II. That in and of itself probably isn't very exciting. The Galaxy S II is definitely getting long in the tooth, but it's also not a bad phone by any stretch of the imagination. The really exciting part is that once you buy it, for $30 a month you can get a prepaid T-Mobile plan that gives you 5GB of 4G data, unlimited texting, and 100 minutes of voice (come on, who uses minutes?).

23
Aug
2012-08-23_13h22_37

Let's get the tough stuff out of the way up front. The T-Mobile Concord is manufactured by ZTE, runs Gingerbread, and packs a pretty meager 2MP camera. Don't worry, though. This phone shall not have been mortally wounded in vain. With a price of $99 off contract (with certain plans*) from T-Mobile or Wal-Mart, it doesn't look like too bad of a deal for smartphone users on a tight budget. If you're in the market, you can pick one of these up on August 26th.

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While most of our readers will be entirely uninterested in a Gingerbread phone made by ZTE, it's still very interesting to note that high-speed phones are becoming available for so little money.

21
Jul
kyorise

If you're not in the market for an über cheap, probably contract free phone, feel free to move along. Assuming you didn't already when you saw the name 'Kyocera'. Still here? Good. Because I've got great news for you! The Kyocera Rise (no relation to the Dark Knight of the same name) is rumored to be coming to Sprint and Virgin Mobile very soon.

kyocerarise

Twitter tipsters @evleaks, who has thus far tweeted nothing but leaked photos of devices with brief information on the devices depicted, has shared that Kyocera's contribution to the Justice League budget smartphone world will be headed to Virgin Mobile, one of the nation's leading prepaid carriers, as well as Sprint.

17
Jul
kyocera hydro

Okay, so Kyocera's not really known for producing the best smartphones. And Boost Mobile is perhaps best known for mildly entertaining ads and cheap plans, compared to the big dogs. If you're not interested in having the latest and greatest, if your primary concern for network carrier is price, and if you spend a lot of time making phone calls under water, then I've got some great news for you: the Kyocera Hail Hydro is coming to Boost Mobile for $129 (no contract) on August 3rd.

kyocera hydro

The phone, which we covered back at CTIA, boasts some pretty meager specs. A single-core Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and a 3.5" 480x320 IPS display.

02
Feb
MetroPCS-logo

We all love LTE. We also all love not being broke, if we can avoid it. Sometimes our two great loves conflict with each other. MetroPCS wants to try and make this love triangle work with $40 unlimited plans for all LTE devices in its portfolio. There's a catch, though: you're only allowed 100 MB of "multimedia streaming access."

2012-02-02 11h44_02

According to MetroPCS, "multimedia streaming access" is defined as "content that is programmed as streaming within a web site." Suffice to say, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, and any number of other services that you might want to use would fall into this category.

29
Nov
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The Black Friday is long gone, but another, potentially even bigger event, called Cyber Monday, is now upon us. Cyber Monday is what happens when the Black Friday goes online, and Virgin Mobile USA does not disappoint. The carrier, which uses Sprint's network, is offering its only Android handset, the Samsung Intercept, for a whopping $75 off. The deal is valid for the duration of Cyber Monday, so hurry up if you want this 800MHz Android QWERTY slider for $175, with free shipping. The beauty of Virgin Mobile USA, of course, is its plans starting at $25 a month, with NO contract to sign.