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E71x on at&t, what’s the real cost?

Posted by matthew bennett | Posted in Blogosphere, News, Nokia, Uncategorized | Posted on 09-04-2009

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This is a guest post by MobileDan.  Dan lives in NY, and does most of his computing on a mobile Nokia device.  This article is in responce to an earlier post of mine, E71x Comes to at&t, Nokia Fans Run Like Hell.

I would like to add my thoughts… If I may Matthew…

I would like to point out, as I gathered, and I may be missing something…

Howard Forums has a running thread, and all that I was able to get out of it was from a user “sr1329″ who stated

“The one thing FP2 brings is a whole new access point management system that can switch from 3G to a known Wi-FI access point if you get close to one. Where it fails is that when you leave the range of that access point it isn’t very good about switching you back to 3G. It will just say connection dropped or something like that. The next time you access data it will ask you again for the access point you want to use. “

Let’s do a comparison for $hits and giggles…

Mobile user “A” purchases a brand new E71x from AT&T with a 2 year contract for $99 for the actual unit and the required data plan of $30 per month your total cost(leaving voice out because we’re assuming that Mobile user “A” and “B” will be getting the same voice plan) would be $819.99 ($99.99 for the unit, PLUS the additional $720 for just data alone, )

Compared to

Mobile user “B” (the smart and savvy shopper who purchased their unit “unlocked” from, say… Dell.com for $340)

Mobile user “B” purchases the unit, unlocked for $340, at a much higher price then user “A” of $240.01 but aside from the FP 2 I can’t see why there is THAT much of a difference, when the ends justify the means… Let’s examine further… Shall we?

Mobile user “B” now has to purchase a rate plan (we’re assuming the same rate plan as user “A” here, so the difference is the data plan…) user “B” can purchase the $15 data plan, for the same unlimited data as user “A” above for a total cost over the 2 years of the contract of $700 ($340 for the unit, PLUS the additional $360 for just the data alone…)

Wait! Did user “A” pay $720 over the 2 years and user “B” only paid $360 FOR THE SAME DATA? another example of why it pays to be a smart shopper… they give it to you cheap in the front, but you take it in the rear!

AT&T DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THS!

Come on people, When will you wake up? Sure, What’s a little $119.99 over 2 years when you can get FP2 on your E71?

Well, what’s to say that Nokia can’t do an OTA (Over The Air) update?

plus, you won’t have the AT&T branding of, disabled Nokia keys, un-movable (or deletable) menu items…

The device was made in such a way for a reason…

If you want it cheap, and as a knock-off, (which is how I view branded devices)

Then please buy this unit

Sincerely yours…

MobileDan

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  • You make perfect sense, but I have a counterpoint:

    I'm a longtime S60 user, and had a unlocked E71 on and off for a while...but I went out and bought a E71x. In my case though, the plan was taken completely out of the equation. I manage the wireless accounts for my company and since others at work have been upgrading from feature phones to smartphones, we've gotten used to upping the data plans by $10, so I figured "what the hell" since every other AT&T phone like the BJII or Fuze (what the other boneheads got) use that data plan.

    Compared to other AT&T smartphones (which all require the same $30 data plan) I would rather buy the E71x than anything else they offer. Couple this with the fact that I have a N95-4 already, the combo of the two work out great...E71x for Twitter/EMail/SMS and grab the N95 for pictures or use it as an music player in the car. I can just switch the SIM and off I go if I want to use either for a certain reason or occasion. Simply, for my case...the E71x was a nice little device, at a nice price. If people don't know that they're being screwed on the data plan, as a Nokia fan, I'd rather they get the E71x all things being equal.

    I think that Nokia fans have to cut the E71x some slack...it's a branded (some would say crippled) device for sure, but there is almost zero Nokia/Symbian presence in the USA. The E71x for it's faults can help reverse this, and perhaps lead to more S60 devices on our shores quicker, better support and all around more options. I have already seen E71x billboards and TV ads.

    Frankly, I'm tired of seeing iPhones all over the place...aren't you?
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