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Background
Republic Wireless has been around a few years. They launched a very limited alpha release, with an initial Android phone that was made by LG and was weak-sauce. They later did a larger beta program with the Motorola Defy XT. This phone was a huge improvement and includes features like being dust, water, and scratch resistant. The reviews that follow are based on this plan with it’s $19/month for unlimited talk, text, and 3G data.
Currently the Moto X is shipping from Republic. It’s their first non-beta phone. Republic is selling it subsidized (but contract/obligation free) for $299, when it’s normal off-contract price is around $600. Besides being a top-of-the-line smartphone, with great features like always-on voice commands, it also has seamless WiFi-to-cellular handoff (meaning no interuption in calls), which the Defy XT does not do. Plus it comes with 4 plan options ranging from $5/month for WiFi only, to $40/month for unlimited everything including 4G data. We’ll provide a review of the Moto X & it’s plans, once people have had a little more time using it, to give a thorough review.
The Brief Version
Alison Southwick provided a brief version of her experience as a beta user with the Defy XT on Republic:
What I like:
The price. The company.
What I don’t like:
Random dropped calls or calls not going through in the first place. The phone isn’t able to hold more than a few good apps with it’s limited storage.
Overall:
I like it. I am thinking about updating to the newer phone and I think that would solve a lot of what I don’t like. But even as is, my phone works great for normal everyday use and I love the size of my monthly bill!
In-Depth Review + FreedomPop Comparison
Max Walker posted on Google+ about his experience with the Defy XT that he purchased recently for his son:
Having returned my FreedomPop phone within days of receiving it (see my review of that experience), I then took Republic Wireless up on its offer to try them out. I ordered their beta phone, $100, with $19/mo unlimited everything service.
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Now, remember: I’m a father of 5, so I need 6 phones. My phone is corporate, so I need phones for my wife and 5 children, of whom 2 are away at college. My driving force is to lower my absurd ~$250/mo Verizon Wireless phone bill, which they’ve not been too eager to help to reduce. Were I to move to Republic, with 5 beta phones (~$20/mo each) and 1 Moto X, on its $25/mo plan, then my Republic bill would be $125, exactly half of Verizon’s. Sure, there’s no 4G, but none of my family phones are 4G now. It would also upgrade my 3 feature phone users to Android smartphones, remove all usage barriers, and it would be friggin’ cheap.
DEVICE DELIVERY
FreedomPop did have free shipping, but it ended up taking almost a month to the day to get my phone delivered. Republic Wireless has you pay $10 for 2-day shipping. I ordered online at 11:00 P.M. on Tue 05 Nov. Obviously, it’s not going to ship until Wednesday, so I would have expected phone delivery on Friday. The tracking info said it did arrive in the valley early enough Friday morning to get on a truck, but was held back by Fedex with the note “not scheduled for delivery.” As a result, I didn’t get the phone until Monday, which is 6-day shipping (calendar days) or 4-day shipping (business days). I know, I know, it’s supposed to be 2-day shipping once it ships. But the order said 2-day, and I paid for 2-day, and I got 4-day. Regardless, 2-day would have been a Friday arrival — ship out Wednesday (as it did) and arrive Friday. Just sayin’. Still, it’s not 30 days, so I’ll back off for now.
The phone arrived neatly packaged, with simple activation instructions, and very community-oriented introductory communication. Read: friendly, cheerful, clear.
The phone was in in good shape, with about a 40% charge. I charged it to 90% before activating.
DEVICE ACTIVATION
Device activation was pretty smooth. It kept jumping from 3G to 1X for parts of it, and the first activation failed. I rebooted, and the 2nd activation succeeded. It then did a PRL update that, again, failed at first, but succeeded upon retry.
(The activation instructions were crystal clear about initiating an OTA update immediately after activation. The steps they gave didn’t seem to match the phone menus quite right, so right now, I’m assuming that the PRL update was the needed OTA update.)
CALL PERFORMANCE
Call performance so far seems to be very good over WiFi. Not at all the spotty performance of FreedomPop over WiFi. Republic showed no more delay on the phone than you get on a cellular network. Calls were clear. At one point, the call dropped as I walked into that dread dead zone in my kitchen, and RP dialed back and reconnected us, just as advertised.
TEXTING PERFORMANCE
Texting performance is equally as solid. I had my high schooler take it today, and we texted successfully all day. He’s struggling to text effectively on a touch screen device instead of his slide-out qwerty feature phone. Because I blocked the internet browser and such on the phone, the gain for him is only Facebook and Email access. As such, he’d really rather keep his feature phone, but I’m ultimately not going to give him the option, unless he wants to pay for his own VZN account. Lol!
We did not test MMS, because MMS is not supported on the beta phone. It’s a new feature for Moto X and the next-level phones from Republic. No big deal.
DATA PERFORMANCE
Data performance is just as one would expect on a 3G phone with the Sprint network. Data performance is also just as one would expect over WiFi.
BATTERY PERFORMANCE
While the battery did perform better than FreedomPop’s battery, the fully charged battery still failed during the afternoon at school. The only active use was a dozen or so text messages with me. He was on 3G; he doesn’t have WiFi at school.
He mentioned that once when he pulled it from his pocket, it felt quite warm. I’m thinking something was churning in the background and sucking battery life.
SUPPORT PERFORMANCE
This is yet to be seen. However, pre-sales activity by RP has been impressive here on Google+. I’ll see how they resolve the battery questions.
OTHER COMMENTS
- The phone is not rooted as was FreedomPop’s. Rooting would be a good thing.
- I installed Avast mobile security with no problem. Also Facebook, LDS Gospel Library, and an App Locking app. I moved what I could to the SD card. So far, so good. Memory is shy, so moving to SD is a core strategy on this kind of phone.
- Core calling and texting performance so far outshines FreedomPop, even wifi calling.
6-DAY UPDATE
My 13-year-old has been using it this week. He loves the phone, but remember he’s coming from a “feature phone.” Battery life has been OK, I think. Acceptable, not stunning. Certainly hasn’t been the 20-hour standby I read about on specs. But I changed the battery profile to “battery saving” mode instead of “Performance” mode, and that may help. More input on that later.
He was downloading the LDS Gospel Library content during church on Sunday, and said the phone got REALLY hot while doing that (over 3G). That’s concerning.
CONCLUSION
I remain optimistic that within a couple of months, I can buy the $800 worth of phones from RP, and cut my monthly bill in half. Just gotta solve this battery thing first.