Short Story:
Moving from ATT to Verizon.
Will also be needing new (new to me, so used are OK) phones.

Questions for Which I Need Advice:

VERIZON

  1. What are the Pros/Cons with Verizon
    1. Coverage ?
    2. Customer Service ?
    3. Plans ? (Note: As of 2 weeks ago they now only offer no-contract plans and full price phones)

  2. Any recommended Verizon MVNO's that offer better plans ?
  3. Pros/Cons of getting a plan at a Verizon store vs a re-seller ?
  4. Any 'deals/promotions' that you know of ?

    PHONE
  5. Looking at Samsung S-series (4, 5 flavors) What are the Pros/Cons ?
  6. Recommended place to get a used phone ?
  7. Consideration with a used Phone
    1) I understand about making sure the IMEI is not blacklisted
    2) I understand about making sure the LTE data works on Verizon if using an unlocked phone from another carrier on Verizon
    3) I understand the battery may not hold a charge and may need to be replaced
    4) Make sure I see the phone work (text/Phone/LTE 4G) before purchase
  8. Can an S4/S5 be rooted to allow apps to run from the Flash Card (I did this with my Tab 7 2.0 and 4.0)
  9. I tend to keep my phone for a long time, so I'd like to get something reliable
  10. What else ?


Long Story:
I've been with ATT since BEFORE it went to Cingular (first phone was the old Moto PT550 era). All was good.
My wife has a new job and is unable to get an ATT signal at work. ATT gave us a new uCell, but since it needs to be
placed by a window for GPS Lock (FCC requires the registration of the location of the TX's, thus the uCell uses GPS to do this)
and no windows are anywhere near where she works (nor does it have an external GPS antenna), it is not an option. So we need to change carriers.
ATT verified that there were tons of uCells near her workplace (thus they confirm there is poor coverage) and the nearest tower is pointing away from her workplace.

She 'surveyed' her co-workers and found that other ATT users have the same issue.
T-Mobile and Sprint are better at work, but not stellar.
Thus Verizon seems to be the best, per the informal survey.

We will also need to upgrade phones. Both of us are thinking Samsung S-somethng. She's more inclined to the S5, I'm OK with something a bit lower/older, but prefer something small in size (S4-mini ?).
Would prefer NOT having to get brand new phones at Full price, so looking at used or refurbished.
Verizon recently (13AUG15) did away with their discounted phones w/ 2-year contract and only sells no-contract plans and full price (payments spread out over 24 mo) phones.
So, I'm thinking I can do better, dollar-wise, by getting a used phone somewhere.

Features I am interested in (not in any order):

  • Use the Phone as a Hotspot for a tablet (occasionally)
  • Can make WiFi calls (when at home/office)
  • GPS (for navigation)
  • Expandable Flash ( slot can be under the cover)
    NOTE: This is one of the reasons we don't want an iPhone
  • Decent Screen (do not need Top of the line; want to be able to see screen in sunlight)
  • Waterproof (afraid I may accidentally dump in in the toilet etc.)
  • Camera w/ Flash (For Snapshots; does not have to be Top of the Line)
  • Sync w/ Outlook
  • Android ( I am a developer, so another test platform would be handy)
  • BT LE (I think going fwd most BT accessories will be BT LE 4.x and up)



If you read through this lengthy post, congrats for making it through and thanks for taking time to do that.
If you take some time to offer advice... thank you again.