Back in April, Google Announced Project Fi, an innovative and inexpensive approach to new smart phone connectivity. At that time, only worked Fi woeful With the Nexus 6, but Now That access has-been expanded to better devices like the Nexus 6P and 5X, I Decided to give it a shot.
My testbed for the service will be Huawei-made Google Nexus 6P, Which I Purchased as part of the service. But before getting to That, let’s take a quick look at the promise Fi Project
According to Google, Fi Project seeks to Overcome some Limitations of the basic connectivity of mobile device today. That is, Because of technical issues and cost, users Often Find Themselves without connectivity. And Between transitioning network types-from cellular to Wi-Fi, for example-is non-seamless Either or, in the case of phone calls and text messaging, not possible.
So Google partnered With the smaller ( THUS and more aggressive) two of the biggest US-based wireless carriers, T-Mobile and Sprint, to create a new wireless service span That Can Both networks and Wi-Fi, and do so seamlessly, even for phone calls and text messaging.
The theory here is that you ‘Should Never Have to Worry About connectivity. When you’re out in the world, your phone will switch to whatever connectivity is best / strongest, on the fly, Including Both Sprint and T-Mobile-cellular-based connectivity and Wi-Fi, Which networks can be “known” to your phone (like at home or work) or Google-verified open, public hotspots. Your data is always encrypted, and your connectivity is optimized so that you ‘re always on the fastest / most reliable network.
As Important, Fi is less expensive than traditional wireless carrier access, and that’s true Whether you ‘re bringing your own phone or not. (That Said, Fi only works with a very limited set of Google Nexus-branded phones currently are.)
So how much does cost Fi? You pay $ 20 per month for Fi Basics, domestic Which includes unlimited talk and text, and the Ability to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Data is $ 10 per GB, so The Least You Could pay for Fi is $ 30 per month.
So far so good, right? Check these out but benefits. If you use less than you paid for the data in a month, you get the difference back in a refund. If you use more, you just pay for what you use.
Wait, there’s more. Internationally If you travel, you get unlimited international texts at no additional cost, phone calls are 20 cents per minute, and your data usage costs the same $ 10 per GB as it does in the US, though bandwidth is limited to 3G speeds, or About 256 kbps
What about phones
Currently, Project Fi is limited to just three phones.? Last year’s dreadful Nexus 6 and This Year’s incredible Nexus and Nexus 6P 5X. Already own a Nexus l 5X, but I wanted to test the Nexux 6P and, as Important, another neat benefit Fi. The Ability to fold a new payment into my monthly phone bill
” Neat benefit, “you ask? But wireless carriers Have Been doing this for years. Right?
Sure. But With WiFi, you can get a high-end Nexus handset for a very low monthly fee. Recall That in Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program is Brilliant, I Described Apple’s new installment plan for iPhones and Explained why the pricing was in fact reasonable. How Consider this.
On the iPhone Upgrade Program, I pay Apple $ 42.45 a month for a 64GB iPhone 6S Plus, a price That is based on two years of installments. On Fi, adding to 64GB Nexus 6P-which is absolutely the equivalent device from a quality perspective, see below-costs … wait for it … $ 20 per month. Put another way, for just $ 7 more than the cost of the iPhone each month, I get a Nexus 6P Fi Basics (domestic unlimited talk and text, the Ability to use the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot), and 1 GB of data, Which I can use to boot Internationally. Are you kidding me?
Best of all-I know, there Seems to be no end to the benefits-there are no spurious additional charges on your bill, and you can cancel (or change your plan) at any time: Fi is month-to-month. T-Mobile calls itself the anti-carrier. But Fi really is the anti-carrier … That Assuming of course this all works in real life.
So I’ll find out.
The Fi package-which included the SIM card , the phone, and a goofy set of LEGOs for making a cute docking station (yes, really) -arrived yesterday.
Because I chose to port over my Google Voice number, phone and text will not work for another couple of days, so I have not Been Able to test connectivity out in the world yet. Another limitation: Works with Gmail Fi only addresses right now, so if you’re using a custom domain on Google Apps, you will need to sign-in to the Fi app on the phone using a different Gmail account
<. p> That Fi app, by the way, super-easy looks, and Provides a live view of your current “cycle” (for me, January 2 to February 2 so there’s nothing to see yet), your plan, your payment method , and plan features like voicemail, call forwarding, alerts, and billing and service. Very nicely done
.
As for the phone … wow.
In the Android space, there’s a race of sorts to see Which handset maker can out-Apple the iPhone. Have Some come close: The Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Plus Apple approach all levels of craftsmanship and Have Represented Until Recently, Perhaps, the apex of esta goal. But the Nexus 6P outdoes them all.
It is a beautiful device Which comes in aluminum (gray), graphite (black) or frost (white), and i went for the graphite version with 64 GB of ( non-expandable) storage. The build quality is superb: The body is made of a wonderful, high-quality aluminum That virtually anyone would mistake for an iPhone, Especially from the front. In fact, the 6P even features the same little antenna gaps you see on the iPhone 6 / 6S series, accentuating the similarity.
If Were the Nexus 6P simply an iPhone clone, I’d be unimpressed. But Huawei-sometimes differs from Improves On-Apple’s design in a number of ways. Certainly the rear camera is unique, but it’s not as ugly as it Appeared or protruding When the device was first Introduced. Better, the Nexus 6P fingerprint reader-like that on the Nexus 5X-is Ideally Positioned on the back of the phone, so your finger on it falls naturally When you pick it up. . It is as good as the one on iPhone, meaning it is as fast and reliable
The Nexus 6P screen Also Improves on what Apple provides: It’s 5.7-inches in size, Compared to 5.5 for the iPhone 6S Plus, and yet the Nexus 6P is, overall, a bit smaller than the Apple device (and the exact same thickness). It’s Also of much higher resolution-WQHD 2560 x 1440, As opposed to 1080, or 1920 x 1080 on the 6S Plus-and is AMOLED, of it offers the darkest blacks and rich contrast.
The performance, so far, has-been superb, Thanks to its 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, Adreno 430 GPU, and 3 GB of RAM. . This is a flagship all the way
The 6P Nexus comes with a strange variety of cable. USB-C for charging, USB-C to USB 2.0, and a longer-C USB to USB 2.0
And I Should mention Android 6.0 Marshmallow, briefly. Over the past few releases Android, Google Android has really Dramatically improved, and while the back user experience-the “whack a mole” grid of icons I always complain about-is nothing special, Google’s whos material design is pretty special. With Android in June, we’re seeing the wonderful, flat material design everywhere THROUGHOUT the UI system, and it just works. . It’s weird to write esta, but almost Certainly Google has the best overall UX design in smart phones today
On That note, the Nexus 6P-like all Nexus devices-you eat with a” pure “
So I need to wait a few days before my Fi account is up and running with voice and text. And Then Actually I need to use this thing out in the world, and probably for some amount of time, treats including business trips, so I can ASSESS reliability and performance. As such, my account-Fi and the Nexus 6P-won’t be my daily driver, and I’ll be sticking with my Lumia 950-and AT &. T for AT LEAST the short term
And of course I understand That buying a Nexus phone-or even an Android phone-is not for everyone. I’d love to see expanded to more Fi phones, and even iPhone. But that’s for the future. For now, I’m just happy to test esta as it is. . That and I’m hopeful it will turn out to be the bargain I believe it to be
Tagged with Nexus 6P, Project Fi
No comments:
Post a Comment